Ok...it's been 3 weeks and I haven't gone down from 146. I have had months in the past where I have only lost a pound, but for the last 4 months I've consistently lost 4 - 5 lbs/mo. I am doing cardio and strength training. I'm even doing push-ups and ab work which I wasn't before. Could that be causing me to stand still? My diet hasn't changed at all. Still eating between 1200 and 1500 calories as I've been doing for almost a year.

Any guesses?

My suggestions would be:

1. Intensify your cardio by either going faster or doing hills or interval training
2. Increase your weights in weight training
3. Make sure your food is squeaky clean, no processed stuff
4. Omit the starchy carb, rice, potatoe, pasta in your 2 last meals of the day...

My 2 cents

If your exercise activity has increased profoundly, you may want to sloooowly try to raise your calorie intake. I found that I can eat more the more active I am. BUT keep it clean and as close to natural as possible. This doesn't give you excuse for fatty, sweet and processed junk!

Thanks ladies. I eat extremely clean. I am a label reader. Ingredients mostly. I hate HFCS and partially hygrogenated anything. I also avoid artificial colors and flavors of any kind. MSG is EVIL!!! I eat mostly whole grains when it comes to grains and I eat my 9 a day of fruits and veggies. I eat the rainbow so to speak. I also get my drv of meats, beans, fish, nuts, etc... I do my 3 a day of dairy.

There are a couple of things I forgot to mention. I recently changed my work out times a little. Now that school has started and my hubby is back to work (he's a teacher), to better accommodate his schedule and needs to get grading and test preparations done at home, I now work out before the birds wake up. I average about 6 - 7 hours of sleep a night. But I'm up at 3:30/4:00 AM doing my cardio. (after I eat breakfast of course) I still do strength training at night, 3 times a week, since that is a half hour 45 mins tops!. My cardio is usually between an hour to an hour and a half. I do a stationary recumbent bike and I go from 1 - 10 resistence and between 50 and 100 RPMs. I usually clock 100 calories and 5 - 9 miles on the bike a day. The treadmill I start at 10 incline and walk 3 mph for 5 mins then 9 for 5, 8 for 5, then 7 and take myself down to 6 and stay there for the remaining. I usually do 20 - 30 mins on the treadmill. Clocking between 100 and 150 cal and usually a mile to a mile and a half. On the elliptical I set it at 4 resistence and so as many steps that will fit into a 20 - 30 minute stretch at 65 rpm. Burning 200 calories on the average and usually getting a mile out of that machine too! As far as strength training goes, I usually do 10 - 15 mins on upper, then core, then lower 3 times a week. Usually 1 45 min session and 2 30 mins per week. I do 30 push-ups a day and I do 200 crunches in various ways per day. I average about 400 - 600 calories burned per day from exercise alone.

Another different thing that I'm doing is taking 500 mg of niacin per day at night with an asparin and a 50 cal snack before bedtime. I have low HDL and my doc thinks this might do the trick, since extra omega 3 and exercise is not.

So that's my week in a nut shell.

I think you're doing really well... You could maybe try zig-zagging your calories, by this I mean if you are usually eating 1400 cals/day all the time try eating 1200 one day then 1600 another day and so on trying to average your week to about 1400/day.

Just hang in there eventually it'll come off you're doing everything right

Hi Libby,

What your doing looks great. I agree with Ilene that you might want to zig-zag the calories. One thing I didn't see a reference to was WATER. Some people claim that this doesn't have much of an impact for weightloss but it really does for me.

Your stats are really impressive! You have just worked so hard.

By the way, 30 pushups?! Are those all at once. If so, you are my hero. I can only squeak out about 18 and then I'm done!

re: Water

I drink about a gallon a day between the 120 0z I drink at work and the 32 oz at home and then I drink at least 32 oz when I work out. Don't worry, I fully understand the benefits of keeping hydrated! I also throw fresh lemon in my water quite frequently. That has added benefits as well.


re: Push-ups

I had to work my way up from 6, then 10, then 12, then 15, then 20, then 25 and finally 30. It's been a long time coming about a month... Thanks though.



UPDATE:

I switched my workouts back to night time for 2 days, just for kicks. I lost a pound. What up with that???? I'm going to zig-zag my work out times as well as calories.

Thanks for all the tips ladies! You rock!!

UPDATE.......

I have lost 2 lbs since I originally posted. I seem to be over whatever slump I was in. I have been taking a little bit of a break from working out in the last week. Wasn't able to do a lot because of commitments every day. But next week I'm back on track. My eating hasn't changed. It's just that the only thing I've been able to do exercise-wise is push-ups, crunches, resistence band and massive cleaning. Next week it's back to cardio and weight-training!

Yeahhhhhhh!!!!! Libby!!!!!!

Sometimes you just have to wait it out. Your plan just looked so good I couldn't imagine that you would be at this plateau indefinetely.

You might also find that your clothes fit a little looser than what a two pound loss might represent. I find that the scale will hold steady for a long time but all the while my shorts just get baggier and baggier. Suddenly the scale will show a two or three pound loss. You probably already have experienced this yourself too.

By the way, I'm working real hard on my pushups. I'm thinking about how you can do thirty (probably more now) and I'm just..... squeeking...... out..... 20. (on a good day) It's coming..... I'm shooting for one extra a week. Boy they are really hard though. I keep going until my face falls flat on the floor. I know I look like a dork but oh well....

Good for you Lydia!!! It took me the better part of a month to be able to do 30. I started out with much less. Don't push yourself too hard. My face falls flat on the floor too. EVERYTIME!!!

Thanks for the adda girl!

WTG Libby on those two hard earned pounds removed. I'm with Lydia your plan looked too good to stay stalled forever.

You and Lydia are encouraging me to really make pushups an added goal to my w/t program. I can do two sets of seven before I konk. My kids can do 20+, but they were trained at an early age. Backtalk got them 20 automatically; now they do it for fun just to see how far they can go. And I drool over my 12yo DD upper arms.

Softballmom: Well drool no more. Grab a towel and hit the floor! Give me 10. Just kidding.

I like the idea of giving the kids 20 pushups for backtalk. I really like that. Hmmmm. I'm sure that I will have an opportunity to use it real soon too.

That's a great idea. Plus it keeps them fit too. Depending on how lippy they are!

I have since lost 3 more lbs since my update. I guess my body was just trying to catch up to my routine. I have started to incorporate some soy protein into my diet as well. Bought some tofu for the first time and cooked a little bit today and ate it with some beans. Not bad. I marinated it in rice vinegar, garlic powder and ginger. It tasted decent. Not my favorite. I think I'll seek other ways to enjoy soy. Perhaps the milk on occasion..

Anyway, I have 16 lbs to go and I'm only 14 lbs over weight according to the CDC. That's a far cry from 77 lbs over weight when I started. It took me losing over 55 lbs to go from "obese" to "over weight". "NORMAL" here I come!

Thanks for all the encouragement ladies.

I am glad you kept going and broke thru that plateau. Congrats on becoming overweight! I have 40 lbs to go till I get there! Can't wait, lol.