I apologise for not seeing Hayley's question re a "plateau" as I must have just missed it. I'm inclined not to notice this thread for some reason and have a look every now & then to see if I have missed something & I did. Sorry Hayley! I suggest trying to trick your body by switching around the order of your meals & by trying a change of protein but I would not cut down your fruit or your crackers. I think that would only frighten your body into hanging on to those last few kilos by slowing down your metabolism. Reduce your cheese maybe, drink a little extra water, go for a gentle walk each day. I wouldn't start re-feed yet if you are not gnawing on your knuckles as continuing on plan is much easier than going back on plan later. Hope the weight is coming off now & apologies once again, cheers, Cate.

Jodi- Hi! Be happy with 4kg in a month. It is much better than most programs. After my initial first month's loss I lost either 4 or 5 kgs each month & it took me 28 weeks to lose 36kgs. The longer you are on the program the more you will learn. Look at every kilo lost as one you will never see again & know that if you stick to Cohen's 100% you will get to goal weight. If you start playing with the program & deliberately deviating to try to trick your body somehow then you will not be following the program. I figure they know what they are doing with this program as it works & I would not risk it. I have seen what happens to those who toy with it & it's not pretty! You'll get there. "Slow & steady wins the race". Cheers, cate

Niyah and Cate - thanks so much for your replies.

Since it is a little while since I posted, I managed to drop another kilo. However, I am ONCE AGAIN at a plateau already??! Almost another week with no movement on the scales. If it was around TOM I wouldnt care as much, but it isnt. I really hope this is not what I am to expect from now on. I am still very un-hungry and do not at all feel the need to enter refeed.

You both offer sound advice but to be brutally honest, I am doing it all already! I drink no less then 3L of water a day, have been mixing up the order of my meals, the type of protein and I rarely eat the cheese anyway - maybe once or twice a week max?

I am very inactive at the moment. Since returning home to New Zealand from Australia, we have been affected greatly by the recession and I have been unable to find work here. It is doing my head in. I used to execise a lot before I started the program but haven't done anything while i've been on it excpet for maybe the occasional walk - and I do stress occasional. My consultant said a gentle walk is ok but don't do any other exercise in case my body goes into starvation mode, yada yada yada. Perhaps I've gone from one extreme to the other and am a little too inactive? Can anyone shed any light on losing the last few kilos - is it generally slow going? I have PCOS too which obviously wont be helping.

Thanks everyone.

xx

Hayley- apparently stress will slow things down & possibly is affecting the quality of your sleep which is also very important for weight-loss. PCOS does as well I believe. I'm the worst person in the world right now to give any advice about relaxing as I feel like a tightly wound up spring & am stressed to the max. It will happen -just keep doing what you're doing. A good friend of mine had long plateaus on the program but got there in the end & looks sensational. Sorry I can't offer any brilliant ideas. Take care, put the scales away for a while & use your tape measure instead & hopefully the cms will be disappearing. I used to find they alternated. The weeks I didn't lose any weight I lost cms, Cate.

I can't offer any brilliant ideas either, except that it does sound like perhaps your metabolism has slowed down to a snail's pace.

Therefore, although I wouldn't overdo the exercise, I probably WOULD try adding some in. Walking is free - an hour or so of moderate walking is completely free and relatively pleasant. If you can do that every day whilst you're looking for work, you may find the metabolism picks up a little, and the hunger builds up.

If you can afford it, go swimming once or twice a week. I'd be looking for a couple of things that build up aerobic fitness like the walking and swimming. You don't need to go for masses of laps, just set yourself a moderate number, and do them comfortably.

Stress is definitely a killer, though it's hard to say "don't stress" where there are things to worry about. From that point of view, exercise is actually good because it gives you something else to think about, a way to use the spare time you've got, and the endorphins released might help life you a little.

PCOS is something I have no experience with, and I know women with it do find it extra difficult, so all I can suggest is just that you persevere and try and get your metabolism kicked started again.

I think we have to look long-term beyond Cohens, and building into our lives some regular walking or other fitness regime is the way to go once we come in to land at the end of the program.

You're basically there - just waiting for the last bit before refeed, and so start thinking in terms of what you want to be doing aftewards to keep up health and fitness.

Caffeine also stimulates the appetite somewhat, so although we are supposed to only have the one caffeinated drink per day, perhaps you could add in one more and see what happens???

I was thinking after I wrote the above - you talked about eating more to kick start your metabolism, then returning to the diet. That's how some other diets do it (with variable success), however it does carry some risks - so many people don't complete refeed because once they start eating more, they don't see the point etc. It definitely does get the metabolism and the appetite going. I have bad memories of not completing refeed last time because of this kind of cycle. Although I had been happy on the diet, once I started eating more I couldn't believe how my appetite ramped up and became difficult to control again, and with all that was happening in our lives, I just gave in. Hence I'm back here a second time after a tremendous battle with my will power and feeling quite miserable for the last year or two about how large I'd got again.

HOWEVER, a bit of exercise also ramps up metabolism, so I was thinking that the safest option is probably to try the exercise increase and see what happens, if anything. Vitamin B6 also stimulates appetite, so you could try a multivitamin that has a lot more B6 in it. That way you're not stuffing the extra calories in. If nothing happens from any of the above, you've lost nothing and not upset the diet itself, and can always look for other options.

However, I'm no expert, so someone else may have some better ideas for you.

Thanks Cate and Niyah.

All great suggestions from you both and thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

Niyah, I am allowed 3 caffinated drinks per day?! I think these are the small things which make all our programs individual as I know some that are allowed as much black coffee as they like! I never usually have more then 2 black coffees a day anyway. I am going to try and do a bit of walking which shouldn't be too hard taking into consideration how much of a gym junkie I was before (with no success thanks to PCOS, of course). Its starting to get really cold here tho which is a little off-putting unfortunately!

Cate, I take a lot of comfort in knowing you had a friend that also came up against some lengthy plateaus. It's great to know that she got to her goal in the end and it gives me much hope. Sometimes I find that the biggest help, knowing that others have experienced the same sort of things but have come out on the other side. It makes me feel reassured. I am considering, maybe, going 1-2kg lower then goal calculated by Dr Cohen just depending on how I feel. If I'm ravenously hungry and knawing at my elbows then I wont, but if I continue to feel rather un-hungry like I do now, then I might see how I go.

Thanks so much to you both for your great advice.

xx

Hi Hayley, I used to feel so bad that I was losing comparatively fast(compared to my friend) but it's just the way it is. I think re the caffeine some people just read that into their program, because that is what they want to see. The drinks list is possibly the most confusing part. Quote (in part)-
"The drinks allowed on the Eating Plan are detailed in the list below:
Coffee (decaffeinated if more than 3 cups per day)
....etc."
Now that is not too clear, in my opinion. I limit my caffeine drinks to 1 or 2 a day, even in maintenance, as I figure it's best to keep it to less than 3 for my general health.
Is 56 the low end of your 3kg goal weight range? You are not far off & will get there. I wish I was able to give you better advice. I feel so pre-occupied with my son's travel woes that i am having trouble concentrating on anything else. Take care, xo Cate

Hi Cate,

Yes, 56kg is the lower end. I don't at all feel hungry just yet and my original aim was to get to the low end of my range as there is just no telling what my body will do during refeed and I wanted to have a couple of kg to play with during that time and on maintenance. I realise a lot of people continue to lose on refeed, however, I don't know just how my body will respond having PCOS etc. so I want to play it safe.

Another question you and others maybe able to help me with though...
I have been using the Delmaine Italian Balsamic Vinegar from Modena for my entire time on the program. I think its been ok but I just want to check the ingrediants as a couple have me feeling a little suspicious.

Wine vinegar
Grape must
Caramel colour (150D)
Antioxidant (224)

The caramel colour and antioxidant make me feel a little uneasy as I know the numbers indicate some sort of additive or preservative. I had a decent look in the supermarket at all the others a while ago and still decided to come out with this one. Since I am in New Zealand I am quite limited to the products I can get and I assume a lot of the ones you get in Australia are not available to me.

Any ideas?

Hayley, I have a little food additive book and it says-
150(d) sulphite ammonia caramel-prepared with ammonia & sulphite containing caramels-avoid. Safety level is suspect.
Avoid if hyper-active or hyper-sensitive, asthmatic or can cause adverse reactions.
Antioxidant 224-Potassium Metabisulphate.
Use- preservative
Origin potassium salt of sulphoris acid
Comments: reduces vitamin B1, nettle rash.
Avoid for adverse reactions, Asthma & kidney & liver problems.
I should avoid both & do try to as I'm asthmatic. I should also not have the second glass of red wine tonight for the same reason!
I don't know if these 2 will affect yr PCOS.
xo Cate.

Hi Everyone,

I`m new here, but I`m also thinking about to start this Cohen`s diet. (have to lose 28 kg) I have to tell you I`m not convinced, not yet. Is here anyone who did this diet a couple of years ago and still keeping those weights down? What`s happening after the Cohen`s diet and refeeding program? What you can eat? Or you have to avoid from carbs, bread, pasta, etc, for your whole life??

Ianina, although I personally did not keep the weight off, I DID NOT do the refeeding program and did not keep to the maintenance guidelines. That's why I'm doing it a second time around.

I do know some people who've kept it off for years after doing it.

I think that for people with chronic weight issues, it requires a whole change of mindset, no matter how you choose to lose the weight. Doing a "diet" doesn't just cure you. It helps get rid of the weight, but after that it is up to you and you must do what you need to do to maintain health long term. That involves sensible choices every day, at least some exercise on a regular basis and so on.

I chose Cohen's because I personally wanted to lose the weight rapidly and effectively. There are other methods of doing it, and everybody needs to find something that works for them. I'd seen some people who'd struggled for years get on top of big health issues, and decided to find out more about it and do what they'd done. I also know other people who've lost quite a bit of weight through other means. I'd suggest you do the research and convince yourself of what you think will work for you and your lifestyle.

In my case, I had to lose around 35kg first time around, which I did. (That's around 80 pounds). It was a huge and formidable mountain. I'd tried many diets over the years and never stuck to them. The reason Cohen's worked for me was (a) the rapid success, which is very motivating, (b) the diet's effect on hormones was very agreeable to me (high serotonin levels, lower insulin levels etc), and (c) I found it easy to do. Sensible food every day, in my fridge, just had to be very careful the first two weeks to make sure I understood what to do, and made sure I stayed away from temptations like the confectionary aisle of a supermarket.

My challenge is always to accept that I need to change my lifestyle FOR LIFE. A diet doesn't "cure" the obesity problem, which is partly in the mind, and I think partly in the genes or our body's disposition. My husband can eat whatever he wants, however much he wants, and doesn't put on weight. I just have to get over the fact that I will have to be careful for life.

I think many people who put on weight easily do react very strongly to overeating carbohydrates. Most of us don't do enough exercise to justify the enormous intake of carbohydrates that we feed ourselves, and my metabolism is fairly sluggish most of the time, and I have a sedentary job, plus little time to do much else.

Post diet, the opportunity to eat some carbohydrates is there, but they encourage you to be cautious and experiment with how much you can eat without bloating or putting on excessive weight. I think you just have to take responsibility for the long term choices. If you just go back to eating chocolate, heaps of fatty foods and pastries (like I did) you will just put the weight back on as easily as it came off.

I'd suggest you book in for a free info session and make up your own mind whether it's for you or not. They won't tell you specifically what you will have for a diet, but it's all normal food that you will have in your house - no special anything you have to take or do. Just very controlled whilst in the active weight loss phase. After that, it's refeed - introducing what's been taken away whilst losing weight, then maintenance - freedom for you to experiment further but maintain your goal weight, reduce if you run into problems again.

Good luck with whatever you choose - as long as you are committed to a long term solution, you will get there by one method or another.

Thank you for your advice, that was realy kind and helpfull. I`ve also read a lot here, and came to the decision: Tomorrow I gonna book my info session and there is a very good chance that I gonna stick to the program.

Ianina- All the best with the info session. I was convinced to do Cohen's as soon as I had it explained to me in detail & saw the results with my consultant. I have never looked back and will keep the maintenance guidelines as my long-term guidelines. I look forward to hearing more from you. Cheers, cate

Hope it goes well Ianina. Just stick with it and do exactly what they say - if you are committed, the weight will look after itself. Good luck.