I have been trying to lose weigh since January. I started at 195 got down to 191 and am back up to 195. Why I am frustrated is because for the first two months I did calorie counting and working out and my weight didn't budge. I was eating between 1400-1600 and working out 45 minutes a day. Nothing happened there so I decided to go back to my standby of WW. I do an old plan and eat 22-29pts with 45 minutes of exercise a day. I know that my portions are correct because I measure and eat mainly frozen meals (this isn't the best but I am by myself, poor college student, and time crunched college student). I got down to 190 or so with that and then went on a weeks vacation that was crazy, but I monitored my eating. I know that its impossible to gain 6 lbs in a week especially when you are eating well, but I just don't know why the heck I am having such a hard time getting out of the 190's. I also drink at least 64 oz of water a day and take multi vitamins for active women. GRRR Any advice would be great. I've thought about maybe switching over to WW Flex points instead, but I just don't want to go to something that might not work again. I also mix up my exercise. I wish I knew what was going on. I know that some of the new weight is definately salt because the last 3 days I was in a hospital with my bf b/c his gpa was sick so we were barely eating and drinking a lot of diet dew to stay awake. (we were there round the clock until he passed so the last 4 days or so we didn't eat much of anything) Am I doing something wrong? Should I switch to flex? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Well here's my 2 cents. First i wonder if you weren't eating enough. I know it sound weird...but i started just a bit lower than you and i started at around 1700 calories and lost great. If you were only doing 1400-1600 and working out..your body may have not had enough nutrition to "let go" of the fat. I definately recommend doing a combo of aerobic with weight training. Your body will burn more if it has more muscles (you will not bulk up...trust me...i'm not and i'm doing pretty seroius lifting). Give it a few weeks..not just a few days. Some body's do things differently. If after a few weeks to months of eating well..and making sure you are journaling everything...and you still have no weight loss..you may want to check to make sure don't have an underlying issue like a thyroid problem. But it really sounds like your body may need more nutrition. Also, try to eat more whole foods, whole grains etc and less processed. I think that really does hlep some people. Good luck!

I actually do combine weight training and cardio currently, I do two days of weight training and cardio and then the rest cardio. I even mix it up and do dancing and WATP and the Firm. Drives me nuts. The main reason I switched from calories back over to WW too was because I had someone else told me I was eating too much and then another person said eating too little so I got completely confused. I know that once I get out of the 190's I will feel better and I know before my vacation I was either there or nearly, but starting TOM and craziness of vacation made that change. Maybe I should just be patient because my dbf did say that he could tell differences, I guess I am just frustrated though.

Well, try sticking with something for a few weeks, see if it works. If it doesn't, try something else. I know with weight loss the last thing we want is to wait for it, but that's how it goes unfortunately. If you have the energy and time, you might wanna go for 60 mins of cardio a couple days a week too. I know for me, over time, I've had to increase my calories instead of decrease them to lose weight...something that took me a lil while to figure out. It's frustrating and it sucks, but if you stick with it long enough you'll figure out what works and what doesn't. Good Luck to you!

BECKY ~ it takes time, but I agree about this one thing; TRY NOT TO SKIP MEALS. Have fruit or something in between, but don't miss them or your body will hold back, ESP if you are doing lots of exercise. When did you start your new plan? Usually the first 5-10 lbs comes off quickly, but that is mostly water, then after that you could look for a 1-2 lb per week loss. Do you do much walking? I know that helped me a lot ...

Remember, that you can have NON-SCALE VICTORIES too, like losing inches and sizes; these are all good too. Did you measure yourself yet? And do you write down everything you eat as well?

Once you've settled on the plan that's best for you; give it a while (at least a couple of months). But if you still don't lose anything, I would go see your doctor about this, like GATORGAL suggests.

GRIFFO ~ WOW, you've lost a lot of weight; good for you! And your profile pic looks so happy about it too!


ROSEBUD

I can relate with my struggle too..For around 6 months whatever i did my scale didnt move..Finally I figured out why..I was not very strict in the weekends and slipped many days which put my body into maintenance mode instead of weight loss..For the past 1 month I started monitoring my intake during weekend also..My scale finally started to move and now i steadily lose 1 pound every week..Hope this might help u some way..Please keep on brainstorming where u slip

I'm in the same boat. I am new to the forum, but my question is the same as yours. I started WW 5 weeks ago and I have hit the wall already. I initially lost 7 lbs. so far. I tried to shoot around 15 points per day and I'm too paranoid to increase to 20 pts. But I exercise 4 times per week and weightlift 2 times per week. I also take an appetite suppressant to ensure that I don't exceed my points in a day. (I'm a night-time snacker) I think I may be consuming too little calories, but I'm hitting the points and I'm not sure how to adjust without exceeding my WW points. Any suggestions?

lawdog - nobody should eat below 20 points a day, ever! That is less than 800 calories per day (roughly 50 calories per point). That's probably why you are stuck.
Eat all 20 points per day, and try eating some flex. I know it sounds counter intuitive to eat more to lose, but your body will rebel if you don't feed it enough!

Oh wow lawdog, it says to never go below 18 points at the very lowest. You should definately increase

yep, yep, yep to everybody's advice. Believe me I know, it is soooooo hard to get past that "eat less and lose" mentality but the peeps here at 3FC are very smart. You might also want to take a look at where your calories are coming from. I'm a firm believer that some people just can't process some kinds of food. Try not only logging what you eat but then how you feel about half an hour later. My Doc got me started doing that and I learned a lot. Then there's my favorite .... Try doing away with the diet dew for a couple of weeks. Now, I'm quite a bit older than you so this could be totally irrelevant, and plenty of people here have no problems at all with them, but nothing was working for me either - until I pitched the diet drinks. Got me rolling right along Couldn't hurt to try right?

Hey there You might want to jump on over the WW area!

First things first. No one, no matter how little they weigh, goes below 18 points a day. (Kinda like that, "at least 1200 calories" thing.) Work on getting in at least that. Next, you're working out a lot! Our bodies need more energy when we work out. Those 18 points are base points remember, it's what our body needs to funtion even when we aren't exercising. And don't forget your Flex Points. You've got 35 points there for a reason. They're your points to use. Do not be afraid of the Flex Points! You could try to use "full fat" versions of things like Milk & Cheese if you're having trouble. Make sure you're getting in your oils for the day, too.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think the reason why I went so low was because I wasn't seeing results fast enough when I would do 20-25 points. I worked out today (45 minutes of aerobics) and the scale was exactly the same as Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So I will increase my points to 20. I'm not real good with math, so I've been hesitant to try the flex or core methods. It just seemed simpler to just count points. I will try going up in calories for this next week and see what happens. Thank you all!!!