[Wells11]

To give a little background I have always been medium build maybe a little smaller in college. In the 2012 and 2013 I was not happy with my job and in a long distance relationship. In that time frame I managed to gain 30 pounds...

Fast forward to summer 2013 I got my dream job and my boyfriend moved to be with me. My life was practically perfect except that I was no longer happy or comfortable with the way I looked. In the past few months I have managed to loose about 15 pounds but in the last month or two all progress came to a halt. No matter how healthy I eat or how much I exercise I can't seem to make any progress. I am just so frustrated.

Does anyone have any suggestions to get out of this rut?

[Chardonnay]

Originally Posted by Wells11

To give a little background I have always been medium build maybe a little smaller in college. In the 2012 and 2013 I was not happy with my job and in a long distance relationship. In that time frame I managed to gain 30 pounds...

Fast forward to summer 2013 I got my dream job and my boyfriend moved to be with me. My life was practically perfect except that I was no longer happy or comfortable with the way I looked. In the past few months I have managed to loose about 15 pounds but in the last month or two all progress came to a halt. No matter how healthy I eat or how much I exercise I can't seem to make any progress. I am just so frustrated.

Does anyone have any suggestions to get out of this rut?

I think that it's mostly your metabolism that seems to have stalled, either that or you're eating too much and moving too little? Do you count calories? One thing that I did was change up my exercise routine, more weight training and yoga, also changing cardio routines. I used to be elliptical-addicted, but I switched up to spinning and power walking on the treadmill. I also went from a 45 minute cardio workout to a 60 minute workout every day and I see a difference. I've also tried zigzagging my calories, i.e. one day I'd eat about 300 more than I "should" for weight loss, then the next day 300 less. I can't prove that this works, but with a healthy metabolism it's supposed to give you a little boost in calorie burning.

[Jaymie77]

Motivation has always been one of my biggest struggles. I'm reading 'The Beck Diet Solution' right now, and I finding it very helpful. It's really helping me identify the negative thoughts that I get that eat away my motivation and make me sabotage my own success.
Anyway, must've check the book out- you might find it helpful too. :-)

[Koshka]

Eating healthy is a good thing, but it doesn't guarantee weight loss. For weight loss, you need to eat less calories than you burn. As you lose weight (that 15 pounds!) you burn fewer calories. So the same intake of calories that would used to cause to lose weight, won't necessarily cause a weight loss when you are burning fewer calories.

There is likely an imbalance between the calories you are taking in versus those that you are burning. So, the best way to keep momentum going is usually to burn more calories and/or eat fewer. If you are already at the minimum you should be eating in order to be healthy, then increase burning. If not at your minimum, then eat healthy but recognize that you are burning fewer calories now that you have lost 15 pounds and see if you can lower the calories eaten.