Results- what went wrong?

[Jennysara11]

Just finished a round of Whole30 with my husband. I did it because I have 30 pounds that I can't seem to lose, no matter what I do. My husband did it along with me, for support. We figured he could probably stand to lose about 10 lbs. Well, just finished and the results are in- he lost 21 pounds (what?! from where?!) and is definitely at his ideal weight now. I lost a whopping..... 4 pounds. I tracked NSVs along the way so I wouldn't miss them, and didn't see a ton of improvement there either- redness/eczema has maybe improved a tiny bit, allergies seem the same, still get puffiness/swelling in my hands and face. Energy levels are ok, and my sleep has gotten a little bit better. My clothes seem to fit exactly the same. My biggest NSV is seeing the cookies / desserts we always seem to have at work and not touching a single one! 

 

What went wrong? We ate according to the template. We both ate the same things (I obviously ate less than he did, adjusted for our size). Didn't eat a ton of fruit, maybe 1 serving a day if that, often a few strawberries. I do 4 hiit cardio / lifting workouts per week. 

 

My dr. just suggested I start a trial of Orlistat, a weightloss drug that blocks fat absorption. I told her no way and am now in the market for a new doctor. I had labs done and everything seems normal.

 

Any ideas? I'm very discouraged. Maybe I need to extend to a Whole60?

[JenX]

It's probably not what you want to hear, but 4 lbs is a pound per week which is a perfectly sustainable rate of loss. Did you take measurements? Do your clothes fit differently? If you do in HIIT and lifting you could be swapping lean mass for fat. You're not going to see large amounts of loss on the scale if that's the case, since lean muscle weighs more than fat.

Sadly, we women have so many more hormones to deal with we can never lose as much or as quickly as men do. It's just a fact of biology. So don't let your SO's loss make you question yours. Yours is still a great accomplishment!

[jmcbn]

Also, were you eating enough? Did you include pre & postWO meals on the days that you trained?

Did you have medical issues of any kind coming into this?

Are you under any amount of stress?

Are you sleeping well?

Many folk find that with a history of calorie restriction (if this happens to be your background), or medical issues it takes their body a lot longer than 30days to adjust, heal, and then settle into it's happy place....

If you'd like to post a few days worth of your typical food/liquid intake, indicating portion sizes, and also include sleep/stress/activity levels we can take a look and see if there are any tweaks you could make going forward...

[Tom Denham]

I came to the Whole30 because I was still chubby after 2 years of aggressive CrossFit training. I ate better than most people I knew, exercised hard, and held fat like a champion. When I lost 2 pounds my first month of doing the Whole30, I was ecstatic because I had not lost any weight for the past year. I kept going with perfect Whole30-eating for 4 months in a row. I lost 2 pounds every month. I relaxed a bit after 4 months and had a few bites of cheesecake (didn't enjoy it). I ate 97 percent Whole30 from then on and kept losing 2 pounds per month. After 15 months, I had lost 30 pounds and finally stopped losing weight. I started my Whole30 journey in May of 2010. I got down to 184 pounds after 15 months. I still weigh 184 pounds now (as of my last doctor's appointment). 

 

People who lose weight fast tend to gain it back fast too. What is great about the Whole30 is that you can lose weight and have it stay gone!

 

One note: I got a lot stronger as I started doing the Whole30. The weights I was lifting in the gym went up sharply. I was losing fat and gaining muscle, so I was actually losing more than 2 pounds of fat every month. I was probably losing 3 pounds of fat and gaining 1 pound of muscle.

[MeadowLily]

Because Tom Denham did it,  I do it.   I want what he's having.   Weight stability....waaayyy into the future.

I want the best life that I can have...that we all can have.   It takes dedication and everything else that leads to our own Happy Awareness.  

 

When Tom says gooooo slooooow, you'd better believe it.  Rebound weight gain is a nightmare for anyone who's found every single pound they've lost and then some.  Rebound weight gain can be a soul-crushing experience that knocks you right  off your horse....to the point that you don't care about getting back up on that horse.

 

Slow is the only way to go.  I will never diet again.  I've found my thrill on Whole 30 hill.   I will keep tooling along until I reach my optimum setpoint.   Almost 16 months under my belt and I've not rebounded with a single pound.   I've finally found my way. 

 

I tool along at a steady and approximate 3 lbs per month.    4 lbs a week would not be sustainable for me.  That's darned near starvation mode.

[Jennysara11]

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going to use this weekend to adjust my mindset, study up, make a plan, get some new recipe inspiration, and continue on my journey. I'm going to re-read the guidance on pre/post WO meals and make sure I have that dialed in. I do have a history of calorie restriction, so it may be that I'm having a hard time eating enough.

 

Thanks for the perspective Tom. If 4 lbs a month is what it's going to be, I'll take it and keep going until I'm down another 4 and another 4....