You said it yourself...'stuck after ONLY three weeks'. A 10lb weight loss in that time is fantastic. Day to day and week to week your body weight fluctuates, it is not static. Your body is constantly storing and burning fat. If you had been eating Paleo for maybe seven or eight weeks with no results then I'd say something perhaps needed hacking, but three weeks is not enough time to gauge what is 'wrong', if indeed there IS anything wrong.

I would also echo Ben's answer and say, how are you sleeping? Have you taken measurements? I know you mentioned you still have cafeteria lady arms (LOL) and 'thunder thighs' but gosh, complaining about such things after only three weeks seems a bit ridiculous to me...I don't mean to sound rude but I think you're expecting results too quickly. This is not a fad crash diet, this is a lifestyle. A lot of people, and I used to include myself in this, value fat loss over health but really you should be eating this way to fix your health. Your body composition will follow naturally. If this takes three weeks or three months, what's the problem? Know that you are doing the best you can do for your body, and once your body adapts to this new healthful way of eating, results will come quickly.

Here's my top ten: this lost me 105lbs in just over 9 months, no real stalls unless I went off track.

Sleep and fasted training are huge

1. Eliminate Sugar- refined, artificial, or otherwise, it's in everything Limit yourself to 1 medium fruit or a small amount of berries/day if you must Resist Temptation, the sugar cravings will go away.

2. Avoid Refined Carbohydrates- Especially wheat and flours, not just for insulin and leptin effect but the multitude of anti nutrients, immune response, the list goes on, maybe this should be rule 1? Check Ingredient lists wheat/flour is in everything and its Bad. We will talk more about it later.

3. Eat more healthy fat- Saturated, Mono-unsaturated, Omega 3, animal fats. Avoid trans fat and polyunsaturated fats- low fat is a bad bad myth- check ingredients for veggie fats, canola, corn oil etc are Bad sources of omega 6's

4. Intermittently Fast - skip a meal or two and do not replace it/ binge at the following meal. The health benefits go far beyond simple calorie restriction

5. Train Fasted/Train High Intensity Interval Training - you have to adapt to it, but training fasted will MELT the Lbs and is healthier, HIIT will create a very beneficial hormone environment for weightloss and health 2-3 days a week. 10minutes. Huge difference. HI means High Intensity, its only 10min, push yourself.

6. Don't Binge- don't starve, but stop when your satiated, not when you're stuffed. Eat slower, drink more Water and let your food digest

7. Track/accountability- make a logbook, record your weight, ask a friend to help. Make sure you're clear why you want to be healthier for life.. Then use that motivation to keep yourself on track.

8. Don't drink Calories even Diet- your body doesn't recognize the calories the same, Drink Water, Tea(especially Green), Black Coffee Avoid Psuedowater, etc. Check all labels for sugar/calorie count/ingredients.

9. Move daily- 30min minimum anywhere, the mall, the grocery store, around the block. Just get your circulation going, every day. Doesn't have to be fast, just daily.

10. Sleep - 8 hours quality sleep The goal is to not need an alarm clock This means avoid stimulants late in the day as they disrupt sleep patterns. This will effect, hunger, mood, hormones, everything. Don't do the rest and skip Vital Rule #10.

Hi! its interesting to read your post because I was there a few months ago...and I get everything you are staying as well, been there!! So let me share my experience because I think they are very similar....I was starting to get panicky after 1 mo for the some reason, so i started reading all the sites and trying to find some sort of 'method' of understanding....Basically i figured out that i was stressing over something that i wanted to have more control over....and trust me, it doesn't help. you probably just need to wrap your mind around this way of eating and understand that the payoff comes slowly and you'll see the results when you least expect it. So be careful not to derail yourself, you are doing great!!

Here is what happened with me......

I also lost about 8 lbs the first week or two...then it was like nothing was happening. But I hung in there and slowly but surely weight started coming off....and I do mean slowly! it was even impossible to see it on the scale, so i just hung in there. But after about 1 - 2 months I was somehow down about 15 lbs. You can't weight yourself daily because the weight loss is so small you dont see it. Just take your measurements and track your food and about every 2 wks I weigh in and remeasure. I have seen 2+inch losses across all areas. (your weight will go up and down, this is normal....its when it goes up and doesn't stop you need to worry)

I also tinkered with calories and exercise, but it took a while to figure out what works for me. I also couldn't do the IF for several months, its just too hard when your doing something new. I'd suggest you wait until you are 'ready' ....you'll know--don't add more pressure to yourself, you aren't ready for it yet. And then, start small, IF from a late lunch one day to a late breakfast the next....push for those 18 hours....that was the easiest for me. But I also dont find that IF helps me, what helped me, after someone else suggested, is to one day eat very low calories, then the next eat more, so basically I'm tinkering with my metabolism. I recently dropped my carbs to less than 50g day...before i was between 50-80g per day, I was still loosing but at a turtles pace. Dropping it slightly helped a little bit and am shedding inches now.

I do think your calories are a bit high as well. I also started really high based on what the sites came up for me with BMI etc. then i stalled, so I reduced about another 3-500 from that number.....but remember, you should NEVER starve yourself. Because I also eat about 50% fat I literally dont feel hungry. And I'm eating less now as my stomach seems to be getting smaller over time. I love to eat, this has always been my problem, good food!! I still love to eat, I'm just more particular about what I consume, making it worth every bite!

I am now 3 months primal and all my clothes are falling off me, I feel clearer minded as well, and this just happened about 15-30 days ago. I didn't realize that I was so cloudy until recently feeling the difference.

I personally am not big into exercise because I tend to bulk up so I just keep moving all day long, i try to include sprints every 2 wks, but that doesn't always happen. perhaps Id loose more doing it weekly but i know how i am.

so the best advice is to remember to remove all the bad foods, take in the right kinds of fats and stick with it and dont worry so much about weight just yet. I promise you that it will drop off in inches, you will notice it more in another month. Its too early to give up, so hang in there and stick it out. I had to become very aware of every calorie i was consuming, use fitday.com, its awesome and shows you what you are consuming in calories/grams and %. I never counted calories before so i had no idea how easy it was to over consume, even of the good stuff!! I never deprive myself but I stay as far away from sugar, processed foods and make good choices, so when I want a glass of wine, i have it! (same with chocolate)

I'm only 5'2 and started in January at 145 (my highest ever!!), and now at 125. I still need to loose another 10lbs of fat to have that leaner look....this is the slowest I've ever lost weight but I'm starting to think that its probably the best way and healthiest. I think I look leaner even now and so the loose looks even greater because of it.

hope this helps! I know these people give awesome advice as well so hang in there!!! kelly

You haven't stopped losing weight. You've stopped losing water weight.

These results are consistent with just about everyone that I know that decides to go 20% carbs or less. You've stabilized your blood sugar, you've shed your excess water, here is where the real weight loss begins. You want to be amazed? Have that binge carb-heavy meal and see where the scale goes. Dependent on your fluid intake, chances are at least half of what you've "lost" in 3 weeks will come back in a weekend's time.

So, take it easy... stay the course. Your lapse (time where the scale isn't moving) will most likely last a week or so (although your waist may continue to get smaller), then you'll start seeing drastic reductions again (just not at the speed of introduction).

I know not everyone will agree with me here, but I feel like those calories may be too high. If your metabolism is shot from years of yo-yo dieting, sometimes you need to drop more to lose.

Also IF isn't always for beginners, it can cause too much stress and cortisol increase on your body which can cause stalling. I would probably go back to regularly spaced meals until you are in a better place metabolism/weight-wise.

I am pretty sure you are tracking your food each day, can you give us a link or cut/paste a couple of days so we can see what you've got going on?

Please don't give up yet. Sometimes your body just needs time to catch up also. If you are doing everything right, then just be patient and give it some time. These are major changes.

wow, 3 whole weeks... eat some protein to deal with your anxiety problems.

I wouldn't start IFing just yet as you are just starting, you still need to fine tune your nutrition and to be honest it takes months to understand how your body works.

It also sounds like you are stressing WAY too much about this. Stress will kill your ability to lose body fat BIG TIME! May i suggest focusing on eating this way to be overall healthy instead of focusing on weight loss.

Also toss out the damn scale. Measure your success by how you FEEL. How your clothes fit. Those scales can drive people nuts. Not to mention if you are gaining muscle then you have to account for that also.

I totally agree with @Sherpamelissa. To supplement her answer:

What about your sleep? How many hours are you getting?

Are you losing inches? The scale can be deceiving.

Also, supplementing with Vitamin C can help block cortisol, which sounds like it may be an issue.

I'd also like to add that patience is important. Not everyone sees results quickly. It's taken me a long time of eating well and healing to see serious progression. Your body has to adapt and heal.

You didn't lose ten pounds of fat in the first week. That would be 35,000 calories! On an ongoing basis, you should be happy to lose a pound per week. Sounds dysmal if you want to be skinny for summer, but it sounds pretty awesome if you want to be looking good for next summer!

When you want to lose weight, then every week seems like an eternity. On the other hand, if you decide to be paleo for your health, and for a lifetime, then you lose what you lose when you lose it. You plateau, you plummet, you gain and try to figure out why, you lose again, etc. But in general, you get healthier and, over the long-run, leaner. Without hunger and, once you've been at it for a few months, without cravings.

You can always starve yourself and lose weight, but then you'll get hungry and at some point eat your way back up to where you were. So it's probably best to just eat really cleanly, stay away from the legal but dangerous foods (nuts, fruit), eat to satiety but watch out for overeating (1800 cal is reasonable, but probably you don't want to go lower), be very patient, and you'll do fine. Your bloodwork and general health will improve before you reach your weight goals. But you will reach your goals if you stay clean.

Chronic dieting (1200 cals a day for prolonged periods on top of strenuous exercise) can destroy your metabolism and make any further attempts to lose weight, even with paleo, fail. Not being able to trust your hunger signals is a sure sign that your body is in starvation mode and is hanging on to the fat for dear life. You may want to consider a prolonged refeed to reset your hormones. Check out Matt Stone and 180DegreeHealth for more info.

The whole "30 lbs higher than I should EVER be" comment has me a bit concerned. Are you going off BMI for this? It's a terrible scale for healthy weight! I'm a 6ft tall woman with a very wide build. BMI says I should weigh 130-180 lbs. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY. I'm going for 200, personally, as I feel that's when my body looked right. That's still "obese" on the BMI scale, but I looked good, I felt good and I was happy.

Don't let some formula tell you how you feel, hon! It's been 3 weeks and you've lost plenty for a month of work. 1 lb a day is a lot of weight being lost, and will not stay at that level.

Don't get discouraged because of the progress of others (especially if they're men! much easier for men to lose weight), be proud of your progress!

My advice: chill. Just do what you can do and the weight loss will come eventually. I plateau for several weeks sometimes and then all of a sudden start losing weight again.

One caveat: how's your blood sugar? Excess blood sugar causes the body to produce insulin, and insulin controls how much your fat cells suck up, and also whether those fat cells release fat. Buy a home glucose monitor and check it several times per day - especially after meals - or at least have your a1c checked on your next doctor's visit. You want it less than 5.

Can I trade with you? I started at 228 and am down to 211. I'm NOT trying to lose weight and I eat everything in sight:(

as a woman, you should remember that you'll have hormonal fluctuations within the monthly cycle that may affect your weight. You may be retaining water, blah blah. Of course, you may need to adjust your carb/fat/protein intake, but give it more than 3 weeks to figure out which one of those things it is, and factor in how much hormonal weight fluctuation is normal for you.

Ill be frank...CHILL OUT! Ive been living a Paleo lifestyle for a tad bit longer than you, almost 5 weeks, and im stalling out all of a sudden as well. I started at 189 and im now at 176. And ive been at 176 for going on 2 weeks now.....BIG DEAL! Im making the choice NOT to freak out over it! Because stress keeps you fat! I dont care about anyone elses opinion on it or what this study or that study says...I believe stress keeps you fat, and you seem to be stressing out HARD about the number on the scale. Why not say to yourself, "The scale is a major source of stress in my life, so im going to just let it go for a while"? Focus on how you feel,and how your clothes fit and to hell with the rest! You shouldnt define yoursrlf by how much you weigh. SO, I guess my advice is to take a chill pill ;)

I'm in your shoes too, no weight loss at all...however I am seeing slight body composition changes and I think this change is due to eliminating cream in my coffee and eating something fermented everyday. My stomach is flatter since I have added in fermented sauerkraut (not the store bought kind). So my two cents if it is worth that is to ditch the heavy cream and coconut milk and eat some delicious soured food.

Everyone has given really good advice, lots of avenues to choose from. If you pick them all, it may be difficult to stick with and/or determine what helps/harms so above all:

Patience, young Padawan!

I listened to a Jimmy Moore podcast with Kurt Harris today that might be helpful. He was discussing how the response to carbs differs between people who begin paleo relatively skinny, like he did, or relatively overweight, like Moore did. People who begin overweight begin inflamed, insulin insensitive, and leptin insensitive. They will thus be be much more sensitive to carbs than their skinnier counterparts. Moore, who began at 400 lbs, said that he still has to stay below 30 grams/day to avoid gaining weight. Harris explained that Moore's damaged metabolism might never fully recover, though most people's do, albeit slowly.

The upshot is that you might be starting with greater metabolic or hormonal damage than your friends. That means your journey will require both a little extra patience and greater vigilance vis-a-vis carb consumption.

Also, I suggest you take a picture of your scantily clad self as soon as possible. The changes can occur too slowly to track on a day to day basis. For example, I just compared a picture of me taken today to one I took 2 months ago. Before the comparison, I didn't think that I had changed much despite strength training 3 times a week. However, my arms are noticeably thicker, my stomach is flatter, my back has less fat on it, my chest has raised and become more dense, and my torso has started to take on a V shape. All that, and I went in thinking that I was failing to make visual progress.

It really pays to just avoid obsessing over progress while making sure to eat and do the right stuff.

Finally, I'm going to post a Q about this, but I'm beginning to suspect that in general females have different protein/fat requirements than males. While I've heard lots of conflicting anecdotes, I can't ignore the trend of females reporting failure to lose weight and even reports of gaining weight in some cases. For now, I think its important for females to be even more self-experimental than males, if only because the views, findings, experiences, and advice on this forum are male-biased - i.e., to the extent that the male members or commentators outnumber the females. So make sure to find out the sorts of foods, macro-ratios, habits, strategies, and attitudes that work best for you.

And don't forget to take a picture of yourself. You'll be glad you did.

First of all, you need to relax and lower your stress/cortisol levels or you are just making it REALLY HARD to get the changes you are after.

It took me a entire year to lose 25lbs, it was not a strady progression At All... Most of the effect was from body-composition changes. I am much fitter and healthier than I was, slimmer too. I'm not sure why you think all Paleo-folk get steady losses each week. I did not.

You are training and changing with friends, and that is great, but unless you are quadruplets who live together, exercise together, and work together... then there is no logical reason to think that you would change at the same rate.

I think you might love Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment By George Leonard. This is the book that taught me how to approach plateaus with a good attitude. The very word plateau is suppose to imply that it is a temporary thing that you can work past IF YOU KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

You can read a quick overview here: http://www.asunam.com/mastery.htm

While these guidelines are focused on Mastery, they could be applied to any change in your life.

1. Be aware of the way homeostasis works.

2. Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change.

3. Develop a support system.

4. FOLLOW A REGULAR PRACTICE.

5. Dedicate your self to life-long learning.

Even if you are driven to switch, you should be changing what you are doing on no more than a monthly basis... otherwise you are switching too fast to see what is actually working for you.