It seems my first 45 lbs came off fairly smoothly. Then I hit rough waters...lol
I struggle for every pound now! I cut calories when my tracker said to and I hit a wall. Ive upped my calories--that moved the scale but only temporarily. Now Im back down to 1300 calories and nothing is happening.
In everything I have seen my calories for my age/weight/ height and activity should be between 1300 and 1500 cals. I DO stay in that range.
Now I see why I have seen so many lose 50 lbs and then give up. This is hard to figure out!
What was the weight that was the hardest for you? Or after how much weight loss did you see a stall?
I'm in the same place, nearly. I started out at 267, dropped 60 pounds in 6 months... it took me 5 months to lose another 10, and then I gained 15 back. I'm working my way back down and getting back on plan.
I found my motivation lagging after losing 60. I am still overweight, but look a lot more "normal" sized and can shop in the regular section, and I think that caused me to not be so intense about it. That, and all the good stuff around during the holiday, and some stress in my life, and I just had such a hard time staying on track.
I'm back on. I've been wavering back and forth for the last month, but I am finally back and ready to go... a year after I started.
I had a month-long stall at 192-193ish throughout late April and well into May. I didn't change a thing about what I was doing, still ate my 1500 calories a day, I just...stopped losing. I could feel myself getting more and more angry and frustrated, so I took the advice of a lot of folks here and took a one-week break from counting/scales/weighing my food. That week off meant eating sensibly--no "Yay, I'm off my diet so I can eat EVERYthing!"--but without regard to caloric consumption.
Since I took my break and got back on plan on June 5, I have lost another 5 pounds. Why my plan slowed to a crawl in the first place, I do not know. Sometimes our bodies just seem to decide, "Okay, I'm going to just hang out here on this plateau. Have fun working your *** off and eating nothing but skim milk, lettuce, and string, but I'm still not going to part with a single pound."
I can empathize with you about how rough the going gets after a while. I can SAY that I'm able to eat this way for the rest of my life and be happy, and that's true, but I don't want this to be my maintenance weight. I look and feel good, but I could look and feel better--just wish my body saw it that way too.
A lot of people have good success with switching their plan around for a week or a month--going from low-carb eating to calorie counting or vice-versa, for instance. You noted that your losses started again after you upped your calories, but only temporarily; well, maybe that's your solution. Maybe your body does well with 1300 a day on average for this month, then 1600 the next month--sort of a very long-range version of calorie cycling.
Every body is different--sometimes maddeningly so--but you have done an awesome job so far and deserve a major round of applause! It just feels tougher when you're 5'2" and every bite you take seems to make so much more difference, doesn't it? Argh.
I don't really have advice from experience, because the most I've ever lost before was about 40-ish pounds. Then I would gain it back because I stopped what I was doing. So don't do that! I really think that if you stick with what you are doing, the scale will move. Not as fast as you might want, but it will move. Are you keeping track of your measurements also? Have they gone down? Are you clothes still getting looser? If you are exercising, maybe concentrate on getting faster, or lifting heavier and getting stronger, just as something else that you see improving while the scale is stuck.
Right where I am now. In fact instead of taking off the last 20, I'm slowly gaining. My goal when I started was to lose 100 lbs, and as that approached I picked 145 to get me into normal BMI range. But it's almost like my fat cells heard that I'd be happy if I lost 100. I'm not down about it, but sheesh its frustrating.
Started out at 205. I honestly struggled with losing every step of the way. I would lose well, then stall in every weight category (ie: 190s, 180s,....). but, when the weight comes off it stays off! Thank goodness! What works for me is switching it up. Not just my exercise, but diet as well.
I've done reduced portion sizes, south beach diet (lost 12.5 lbs in 3 wks. with a starting weight of 178.5!), weight watchers, nutrisystem, and more recently calorie counting using my nutrisystem products (hate nutrisystem, but have a bit left over). I don't have money to just throw at all these weight loss plans, I found the weight watchers program on ebay and the nutrisystem on craigslist for CHEAP. Now I'm giving Intermittent Fasting a shot.
My weight loss has slowed alot and it doesnt help that my husband thinks I dont need to lose more. Very sweet, but makes me want to bake cookies and eat ice cream! Just keep trucking and trying new things, it's actually fun to radically change my routine every 3-4 weeks. You can always go back to your normal routine every other wk if you like it that much. Good job losing the weight that you have lost! that's awesome!
This morning I came to the conclusion--its okay and Im not doing anything wrong or harmful to my body and maybe my body needs a break or a shake up!
Every year my goal is to lose 50 lbs by my birthday (mid august) and I never have. Here it is the end of June and I have lost 54 lbs! Its just going to be a process. Im learning to live a new life--there's no going back and it may take longer than planned.
I am losing inches. Im currently down to an 18/20 (which I know seems large but it was a huge milestone for me!)
With the kids being out of school and we are in the middle of remodeling I think everything jumbled my routine. I need to learn to roll with it Ill keep fighting for every stinkin pound....lol
I have had a couple of long term stalls myself. I think it takes time for our bodies and minds to catch up with the big changes we are making. I have changed plans several times and did more/less exercise also. Just switch things up until something works again! And be patient
Yeah, I got down to 214 really quick. Now I am still in the 190's, and I've been there since late March. I feel like I am in a death battle for every pound. But I'd rather stay in the 190's than gain anything back.
I had problems around the 100 mark. I had the "oh I've got this ALL figured out" mentality, thought I was untouchable LOL bahahahahha not so much! It's hard work, slogging on when it's not fun, when there's no reward, just because we must. It sucks. In the end it's worth it but don't let anyone kid you - it's WORK, it's CHOICE after good CHOICE, DECISION after DECISION, and CONSTANT vigilance - this is never 'over'
I found that shaking up my diet and exercise - just a little - every several weeks or so has helped a lot. I think your body just gets so used to a routine that it settles in. Here are a couple thing that seemed to work for me when everything slows down:
I change the way I drink water. Instead of sipping it all day, I drink at least 20 oz in a hurry at least 3 times a day, sipping in between if I'm thirsty and when I'm exercising. this really seems to flush you out! Try for morning, noon, early evening for the big drinks.
I add a little carbs back in for a day or 2 and increase the number of calories for a day. I don't eat much bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. I add in a small potato or a little rice every so often. One day of 500 extra calories fools your body but doesn't screw up your program.
I change the intensity of my workout. I try to get to the gym every day. I switched to more cardio a month or so ago. When my body slows in the weight loss process, I push as hard as I can for as long as I can in every class for a while. (I know - this is what I should do EVERY class . . )
Don't get into the psychological rut of feeling satisfied with the weight you've reached. That's easy to do once people start telling you how good you look since you lost the weight. Try to think of how FABULOUS you'll look if you keep it up, and don't let past success ruin future success.
And, as everyone else said, just keep going. If you are on program, it will start to work again. Good work so far - just keep it up!
I lost the first 50 pounds easily, in about six months. I've been stalled between 250 and 260 since last September. This is the point where I've always given up before. Now I realize why!
This time, though, I'm trying up a few new things to shake it up and begin losing again. Fewer calories, lower carbs, more carbs once in a while, intermittent fasting (a short eating window each day), higher fat, more exercise, resistance training...
So long as I'm not regaining, I'm still succeeding!
Hardest part to get through
Ill keep fighting for every stinkin pound....lol
