You have been faithfully keeping to the plan and stepping up the exercise.  Why is the scale not moving?

Yesterday we talked about how too many calories — even the right kind of calories — can stall out your weight loss.  Writing down what you eat can help you figure out if this is your problem.  You should also write down the times you eat — because that may help you discover another issue.Your problem may be when you eat.  If you eat too many calories at one time, particularly if you eat them late at night, your weight loss may come to a stand-still.

Try to keep your food spaced  evenly throughout the day. Many times I hear, “I’m too busy to eat during the day, so I just save all my calories to use up at supper time.”

Not a good idea.  Your body thinks it is starving and shuts down the metabolism into starvation mode.  Click on Does it help to skip a meal? to review that post.  Because you are too hungry, you use poor judgement and eat too much.  Then you don’t have time to burn off the extra fuel before you go to bed. As you are sleeping your autopilot busily instructs the team to turn everything into fat and store it on your backside in case the famine hits again tomorrow.

Ideally, you will have three moderately-sized meals and two to three snacks.  Try to make vegetables, preferable raw ones, a part of every meal.  The fiber in the veggies will help keep your blood sugar from spiking Remember that spiking blood sugar causes an insulin dump, which causes your body to get the message to store fat.  Besides, they fill you up and are nutrient-dense. I buy a pre-prepared tray of veggies for snacks, because I know that at weak moments I will pick up whatever is easiest. So I make raw vegetables easiest.

Plan to eat your final meal early rather than late, if at all possible, and don’t eat anything after supper.  Take a walk or a bike ride or do something that involves moving in the evening. It doesn’t have to be your main workout. For some people workouts late in the day cause insomnia.  If that’s the case for you, just do some mild exercise.  The point is to keep the glucagon (the spend-the-fat hormone) active throughout the evening and night time hours.

Trust me.  If you do the right, healthy things for your body, the extra fat will come off.  If you keep making those smart choices, it will stay off.  If it isn’t happening, then there is just some glitch that needs to be fixed.  So we’ll fix it!

How is the weight loss coming for you?  People who are on diets love to talk about it — and people who aren’t don’t want to hear it!  So let’s talk about it here where we are all interested. Feel free to post your success stories and ask your questions.   We want to hear from you.

Eating to live and living for Christ,
Susan Jordan Brown