[dawnsky]

Hi all. Since January 12th, my weight has been going UP and down. More UP and back down to 214. I haven't ever been able to make it past 214 lbs.

I have been eating 1200 calories per day. Get about 45 min. to 1 hour exercise a day. Here is my weigh-in's since I started this diet.

December 23rd, 2007 - 227 pounds

December 31st, 2007 - 225 pounds

January 1st, 2008 - 220 pounds

January 5th, 2008 - 222 pounds

January 8th, 2008 - 220 pounds

January 9th, 2008 - 218 pounds

January 12th, 2008 - 214 pounds

January 16th, 2008 - 214/215 pounds

January 17th, 2008 - 217 pounds

January 18th, 2008 - 219 pounds

January 19th, 2008 - 220 pounds

January 20th, 2008 - 216 pounds

January 21st, 2008 - 214 pounds

January 23rd, 2008 - 214 pounds


As you can see I started gaining weight from the 16th to the 19th of Jan, at that time I was only eating 600 calories a day, which my guess is why I gained. Since I have up'ed my calories to the 1100-1200 I am back down to 214. I was already at 214 lbs on January 12th, here it is January 23rd and I'm still stuck here! When will I ever break thru the 214 mark?

Should I try cutting out some calories and more exercise?

Thank you!

[DMNewman]

I'm glad you up'd your calories because 600 is not nearly enough! As far as being stuck for 2 weeks, it seems like your weight has been adjusting so your not actually "stuck" Stick to your daily calories (which should be at least 1200) and exercise, it will come off give it time!!! HTH

[aphil]

From your other thread, it sounds like you temporarily have sort of got your body out of whack.

1200 calories a day is on the very low end, and at your current weight, you shouldn't even be that low yet. When you took it to 500-800 calories a day for a while, and stopped losing weight, your body apparently wasn't wanting to cooperate.


You need to adjust your calorie intake back upward some, but realize that it is going to take you a few weeks to get it back on track and losing again. 500 a day really slowed things down for you, and stopped your weight loss. Eat 1200 a day this week, and next week I would even take it up to 1300-1400 a day. Give it a few weeks to get adjusted. Your body is basically going to have to recover from starving. (Which is what 500 calories a day is.)

Also, are you exercising? This will help you as well. Eating healthy foods for your calories, rather than junky things, will help as well.

[SunshineRunner]

Dawn - your calorie intake is still too low. I'm no expert, but you are going to get a ton of responses telling you this. You are also losing at a perfectly good rate. I'm going to include my weigh ins from my start to prove that to you...so here they are (I only check in officially once a week):
Sept. 23rd - 227.5
Sept. 30th - 222
Oct. 6th - 217.5
Oct. 13th - 214
Oct. 20th - 213
Oct. 27th - 213
Nov. 3rd - 208
Nov. 10th - 205.5
Nov. 17th - 204.5
Nov. 24th - 200.5
Dec. 1st - 199
Dec. 8th - 196.5
Dec. 15th - 192
Dec. 22nd - 192
Dec. 2th - 187
Jan. 5th - 186
Jan. 12th - 184
Jan. 19th - 182
Jan. 26th - still to be determined, but I have already hit 179 this week.

As you can see - some weeks I lost lots of weight, others none at all....but I have learned how my body fluctuates throughout the month in order to keep myself from "freaking out" over the lack of weight loss some weeks...but seriously...I have lost 48lbs in 4 months -that is fabulous!!! You have lost 13lbs in only 1 month - you are so far ahead of the game you don't even know it!!!

I eat about 1400 calories/day - somedays I only get 1200 in, but most days it is somewhere in the middle....considering that you and I were at similar start weights/heights, I would suggest you at least up your caloric intake to closer to 1400 calories. I always get at least 8 glasses of water in - and probably more like 10-12 since I work out for almost 2 hours 5 nights/week.

Of that calories you are taking in - what are you eating? Show us your diet so we can maybe have a bit more insight....

[baffled111]

Yes, you're not eating enough calories, particularly with the exercise, and you are confusing your body. Aphil gave very good advice: start adding calories back in, 100 extra (a day) per week until you get to a reasonable number, perhaps 1500. At your height and weight and exercise level, you should have no problems losing weight at 1500 calories a day. (Although it might take it a couple of weeks to recover from the period of very low calories and to start losing again.) There's no virtue in eating starvation level calories when you can lose weight with more.

Be kind to your body and it will be kind to you in return.

[lorilove]

Absolutely do not cut caloried. As eveyone mentioned here you calories are already on the low side. I find that the best way to break a plateau is to keep your calories at a healthy target (I often increase them) and to make you excercise consistently and eat as clean and healthy as possible.

Cutting calories only mucks with you metabolism creating more weightloss issues. It does nothing to help.

By the way, 2 weeks is nothing. You body can easily go through fluctuations like this. You still have a ways to go so don't panic each time you hit one. Personally for me you have to be stalled at least 4 weeks doing everthing according to plan before I start envoking plateau busting ideas.

Lori

[Tinky009]

Dawnsky- I will say that yes you are eating way too low of calories for your weight. Everyone here has given you great advice. A good way to look at it is, like this...your body is like a car. It needs Gasoline (food), Oil (healthy fats), and water...if you start to deprive your body, it would be like running on vapors. Hence why your body starts to break down. (like a real car would), and does funky things. For the amount of exercise and what your body needs for daily functions, I would reconsider.

[kimmieone]

Please don't cut your calories as the others has said. You need to eat, you are flirting with messing up your metabolism. I would suggest some patience.

[dawnsky]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I will stay at 1200 calories and just hope and pray that the pounds will soon start coming off.

This is what has me kinda worried... You can see in my weight loss that none of it seems right.. I mean... Let me try to explain to you what I mean and then maybe you can help me out with this.

December 23rd, 2007 - 227 pounds This weight was gotten on my doctors scale.

December 31st, 2007 - 225 poundsThis weight was the weight I got on my new scale. So not sure if I really went from 227 lbs. to 225 lbs or if it was just differant weights due to differant scales. So that 2 lbs lost may not even have been 2 lbs lost.

January 1st, 2008 - 220 poundsThis right here seems beyond ODD to me. How on earth could I have lost 5 pounds of body fat OVER night when I had just been dieting for 3 days??? Was that just alot of fluid weight? So now I am wondering if any of that was real body fat.

January 5th, 2008 - 222 pounds So by this date I should have lost my 2 lbs for the week. Instead I have managed to GAIN 2 pounds while sticking to my 1200 calories and exercising daily. Not sure what is up with this.

January 8th, 2008 - 220 poundsSo by this date I am wondering if this is just my "real" weight that I am back down to. The weight I am without all the fluid or whatever that first 5 lbs was that I lost.

January 9th, 2008 - 218 pounds This I believe to be real weight loss. But has taken 11 days to lose.

January 12th, 2008 - 214 pounds At this date I was SO excited that I was 214 lbs I got myself in a hurry and wanted to HURRY and see it get lower! So I start eating less calories.

January 16th, 2008 - 214/215 poundsI'm still excited at this point. Wanting the weight to come off quicker so I lower my calories and fast for a day or so.

January 17th, 2008 - 217 poundsI am now starting to worry and I can't believe that I am gaining weight after practically starving for so long.

January 18th, 2008 - 219 pounds Very depressed at this point.

January 19th, 2008 - 220 pounds This is when all of my worry and anxiety about whats going on kicks in. How am I back up to my "real" body weight (not counting the first 5 lbs that came off over night!" Had been dieting on 1200 and somedays LESS for 22 straight days by this date. I feel I am back where I started from.

January 20th, 2008 - 216 pounds Feeling a tiny better that the weight is coming off. I started eating 1200 calories by this point.

January 21st, 2008 - 214 pounds Excited that I am back down to 214 but worried that it will be back up tomorrow or next week.

January 23rd, 2008 - 214 pounds At this point I am feeling worried that I will either gain the weight back over night as I did before or that the weight has came to a hault. I am now even wondering if ANY of the weight I lost was real body weight since I am the type of person that can loss alot of weight like 10 pounds fast and then get stuck. Starting to wonder if this diet will even work. '


Okay so now I am wondering what I should do. I have been stuck at 214 lbs for so long now. Makes it seem even longer since I doubt every pound that I have lost in the first place. Will I ever see past 214 by 1200 calories and exercise? thats what I keep asking myself.

Also before I started this diet I was getting around 1800 to 2000 calories a day. Somedays I would not eat anything, yet I managed to get my weight up to 227 lbs! If I were only eating 1800 before then will 1200 be low enough to actually lose?

I see all of your tickers and they are coming down each week while mine stay the same! I'm trying to be patient but I would like to at least see 1 tiny pound leave. I'd be happy to see myself (stay) at 213 for a week or so.

GatorAmanda: Your weight loss list is awesome!! You are doing SO great!! I wish I could lose like that! You asked what I was eating.. Well here is a list of what I had yesterday. I have to go s-l-o-w with some whole foods and healthy foods because they make me sick.. I have actually worked myself up to being able to FINALLY eat oatmeal with splenda! Okay here is what I had yesterday.



Breakfast
1/2 Oatmeal with 3 splenda packets


Snack
Blue Raspbery Jell-O


Lunch

1 small saled with lettuce, onion, celery, tomato, brocolli & carrot.
4 tbsp. italian dressing (fat free)

(sandwich) 2 peices bread (60 grams each) 4 slices thin sliced deli turkey. 1 tbsp. reduced fat mayo (20 calories per tbsp)

2/4 serving tuna saled (tuna-reduced fat mayo-onion)

Dinner
Healthy Choice Meal ~ Chicken & Pasta = 210 calories.







I also had 1 can diet pepsi. aprox. 65-70 ounces water.
This is pretty much what I have been eating everyday now. (I was only eating green beans! like 200 calories worth for each meal if that!) Oh I also forced myself to actually like tuna. (something I have never liked or veggies much and ofcoarse it took me about 2 weeks to eat the oatmeal but I like it now!

So there's my diet. Maybe I am doing something wrong with the foods I am eating.

Also I exercise 45 - 1 hour at the gym. But, when I am home i find myself just doing laundry, dishes, dinner, sweep teh floors and sit on the sofa, So not ALOT of calories being burned at home at all.

I would like to share that I can now walk 1 mile in 20 minutes! When i first started out it took me nearly an HOUR to walk 1 mile!

Okay sorry for chatting everyone's ears off! If you have made it this far THANK YOU!

Thank you again for reading,

[FluffeyNutter]

Maybe it would help if you only weighed in once a month! I'm starting to think about doing that because I get impatient and depressed when I see the same weight after a whole week of being good...

[aphil]

I agree. Get off that scale. If you are having patience issues with weight loss, getting on the scale every single day isn't going to help you.

As I said before, 1200 is LOW for someone of your weight. You really, really need to be patient here. You stopped your weight loss when you went down to 500 calories a day for a while, and you need a few weeks to get your body used to the change in food intake. Going from 500 a day to 1200 and you might see a gain initially, but it will be TEMPORARY. The best thing you can do for your own sanity is to only weigh in once a week. ONCE.

Also, please note that I do not lose every single week. Lots of us don't. We might lose 1 pound this week, none the next week, and 2 pounds the week after that. Over the course of 3 weeks though, that is 3 pounds lost, which is good-but it can be too frustrating for many to get on the scale every day and deal with the fluctuations. Simply stay off of it for a while, and concentrate on other things. Stay on plan, eat at least 1200, and exercise. You really need to give it some time, and stop stressing about it so much.