I began my low carb journey on July 6, 2007. I lost 25 pounds in the first four months of low carb eating and posted about it in my personal blog, here. I had mentioned in that post that I would continue to eat in this manner even if I never lost another pound because it made me feel so good. I never would have guessed how prophetic those words of mine were...because I didn't lose another pound for about 12 months after that. I did feel great, but there was more excess baggage I was wanting to lose. I was not satisfied with the way I looked.

I frequented some Low Carb forums, attempting to come to a better understanding of why this stall was happening. Some of the reasons people gave were the following:

1. Thyroid Dysfunction
2. Not eating enough vegetables.
3. Eating too much dairy.
4. Eating too many vegetables.
5. Not taking the proper supplements.
6. Eating too many calories.
7. Eating too much fat.
8. Eating low carb "frankenfoods."

I'm sure I missed a few, but those were the most common.

I fiddled around with the composition of my diet for a while. I ate more veggies...no change. I cut out what little dairy I was eating...no difference. I wondered about the thyroid thing, but not having health coverage made it cost prohibitive for me to have any tests done. I took recommended supplements (CLA and another, I can't remember what it was now). Nada.

I resisted cutting fats down too much because I knew it was the fats that were helping to make me feel satisfied, and really made me feel all around good.

I had learned early on that the low carb frankenfoods stalled my weight loss, so I wasn't really indulging in those things at that point. I was, however, eating some other processed foods (albeit low carb ones), and still eating vegetable oils. Upon researching outside of the low carb forums I came to the conclusion that I just needed to eat non-processed, whole low carb foods, and completely eliminate vegetable oils from my diet.

That is where the turnaround came for me. I cut out eating pepperoni and cheesy metts. I stopped eating things like the burger patties out of a McD's double cheeseburger, and stopped eating the processed American cheese that I would allow myself on occasion. It made all the difference, just those few little changes.

I also started doing some Intermittent Fasting, sort of on accident at first. I just wasn't always hungry after I cut those things out of my diet. These changes allowed me to shed another 20 to 25 pounds. I still have a bit more adipose I would like to get rid of, and it is coming off slowly, but ever so surely.

Have you ever hit a plateau? What did you do to break through a stalled weight loss?