[chickadee315]

here's the situation, I lost 20 pounds last summer (by cutting portions and picking better choices, I was watching calories but was never really strict about it)and was still losing until the holidays, where i then gained 10 back, and in January I had lost 6 of the 10 gained back, making my total lost 16 pounds, but over the last month I have gained back and lost the same 5 pounds over and over. And I am not sure why.....I have been keeping an eye on my calories but over the the past 2 weeks I have been extremely strict eating 1500 calories (most of the time they are from healthy foods) but the scale isnt moving. I don't know what to do, I am about ready to cry.

I was thinking that maybe I haven't been eating enough calories and my body is now holding onto everything I eat.....Any advice would be appreciated.

[astrophe]

I think the rule of thumb is 10%. If you started at 225, -10% is -22 lbs.

-16 lbs is pretty close to that. In fact, almost 3/4 of the way there! So you might be slowing down with weight loss because it is time to reevaluate where you are.

Go ahead and cycle the calories. Do a simple step up to 1800 for a few days and then come back to 1500 and see what happens.

Or do a zig-zag like other calorie counters do it.

But don't get discouraged and beat yourself up over it. This is a process, and at different steps in the process you have to stop to reassess. This doesn't imply failure -- to me it implies baby steps to success! You are DOING this! You got to the next baby step. Now you have to figure how to hop over to the next one.

GL!

A.