[ChangingSkies]

Hey guys. A little backstory. In January of 2010 I weighed 303 lbs. By watching what I ate, doing a low carb-ish diet and lots of cardio I dropped to 150 lbs by July of 2011. Cue a breakup that sent me into a downward spiral. I stopped watching what I ate and working out and went back up to about 180 by January of this year.

I've been back on the wagon since January and have been vigilantly watching what I put in my mouth and working out like crazy but my scale isn't going anywhere. I'm at 170 right now but I would really love to get back to 150, maybe even 140. I was eating about 1200 cals a day but I've recently bumped that up to 1400 because I've really increased the exercise and thought maybe that's why I wasn't losing. Changing that has actually made me gain 3 lbs. I've been doing crossfit bootcamps with weights in the morning 3-4 days a week and running and light weights in the evening for 45 mins to an hour 4-5 days a week but I am seeing nothing on the scale. I've noticed a bit of a change in my body since I've started the crossfit stuff but still, at 5'6 170 lbs I'm pretty overweight and with still doing cardio and light weights, that scale should be moving.

Has anyone ever dealt with something like this before? It seems like this plateau is unbreakable! I've really been busting my *** for at least 3 months and I'm getting little to nothing. I've been doing a lot of research on set points and leptin and cortisol levels. I am at a pretty stressful time in my life (money and job issues mostly) but nothing major. It's not the soul crushing kind of stress. I've been taking tips on how to lower my leptin and cortisol levels but it seems like nothing is doing. Please please please guys. Any advice is appreciated.