I started taking Phentermine on weekdays around 6/22 when I weighed 250 after losing 8 lbs. on my own. I went off of it 1/9 weighing around 213, making a 37 lb. loss. I went off of it because it was keeping me up at night, it was still working fine.

Since then, my weight has stayed stable (208-212 range) for 6 weeks. I am thrilled that I have not gained. But I'm not done yet.

My workouts have been great (weight training and cardio intervals for 60 min. 3x a week plus additional cardio intervals on 1-2 other days) and I have been eating low fat/low carb foods with portion control, but not calorie counting.

I have no idea how many calories I eat and find the idea very challenging because my husband cooks a lot and I don't know how to break down his made-up recipes for calorie counts. Basically, it sounds like a lot of work to me. Not impossible, but a pain.

I am very happy because I have gone from a tight size 24 to a comfortable size 18, but I would ideally like to be a 14, a size I have maintained in the past for many years.

I can't decide if I should keep doing what I'm doing and see if I start to lose on my own or go back on the drug.

I would really appreciate some advice about the length of the stall. If I could keep losing without going back on the drug, I think that would be ideal, but I don't know how long I should give myself to start losing again.

Any advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated, and I will be talking to my family doctor who prescribed the Phentermine about this too.

I'm 40 years old, if that helps in the analysis.

I would take the time to figure out the calories and count them. You are going to need that tool at some point. Think of it like a class - learning about nutrition, getting in touch with what is going in your body, maybe tweaking the recipes here and there as you figure out what is best for you.

The best part? It doesn't have any possible bad side effects!

The FDA only advises taking Phentermine for 3 months. You shouldn't go back on it now. If you want intervention through medication your should try another drug.

Perhaps your metabolism is slowing from the low cal intake. If that is the case you should try doing some interval training exercise... 2 minutes slow and easy 2 minutes ALL OUT HARD. My trainer has me on the elliptical with a crossramp of 4 and resistance of about 4 for easy(strides per minutes at 115-125) and then I go to crossramp 15 and resistance 8. At that point I keep my strides per minutes over 160. You can also try changing around the content of what you are eating to get your body to start guessing about the intake. Also, ask your dr. you - might have a medical advisement for boosting metabolism while on a low cal diet.

Definately go onto livestrong.com. This is what I use to count my calories. It is NOT alot of work and virtually everything I put in my mounth is already in there. Very easy to use to track calories. It also tells you carbs, fat and protein. When I had a plateau a couple of weeks ago my trainer had me changing the amount of each I took in each day. One day really low carbs and high fat and protein, the high carbs, low fat and mid protein. Low carbs for 2-3 days, then twice a week high carbs. Anyway try livestrong.com... I tried three different websites until I settled on this easy to use one.

OH- you could also try increasing your calorie intake for 5-7 days. Then going low-cal again. Your body would be used to the higher calories and work harder then it will continue working hard once you lower again.

ALL and ALL you really have to track your calories.

Thank you seagirl and stacygee. I set up an account on Livestrong.com. I suspect that it will be pretty eye opening.

Morning Everyone! Any kind of "diet pill" scares the heck out of me. Is what you are talking about also known as "phen-phen?" If so, they are very very dangerous! So if you are on those PLEASE OH PLEASE STOP!! I haven't seen this other website mentioned & I'm going to check it out. I love 3FC as everyone is so supportive & has advice that we can pick & chose from & use. Myself, I've been going to WW - I'm a life member. My slipping/plunging back is my own doing not WW. I love their new Points Plus program. I too hate those plateaus! They seem to hang on but they WILL go away & the losses will start again. Keep in touch, eh?

Hi Laffalot,

Phentermine is the half of Fen-phen that was not taken off the market. I took it under a doctor's supervision after having an echocardiogram to make sure my heart was healthy. I do appreciate the concern.

So, now that I am not taking Phentermine anymore, I'm looking for ways to kick start losing again. I have definitely considered Weight Watchers and have never been. I think I am going to try calorie counting first, and see how that goes, but it's nice to have the option of WW in my back pocket if calorie counting isn't enough.

Laffalot, thank you for your advice and for caring about my health, I truly do appreciate it.

Could you post a sample day's meals? You may be able to kick-start a diet again by limiting the amount of sugar and white flour foods you eat (like bread, pasta). It can be very difficult to do at first, though.

Hi Athenacapella! Thanks to stacygee I started tracking my food & exercise in MyPlate yesterday.

Breakfast
Scrambled egg x 2
Turkey bacon x 3
Whole Wheat Sandwich thin
Polander just fruit (sugar free jam)
Coffee

Lunch
Progresso Light Vegetable Soup (whole can)

Afternoon Snack
2 Tbs. Hummus
15 baby carrots

Dinner
5 Shrimp
Cocktail sauce
Brown Rice
Scallops (with Whole Wheat Bread Crumbs & Light Margarine)
Squash

Snack
Fage Fat Free Yogurt
Flax
Raisins
Blueberries

8 glasses of water
1 Vodka tonic (subtract 2 glasses of water)

So that is a whopping 1,902 calories. But I went to the gym and did weight training and running on the Treadmill and burned 641 calories.

So that would mean that my total consumption minus my exercise was 1,261, and I am shooting for 1,200 to lose 1 lb. a week starting at 211 lbs.

Am I doing this right?

Ok, I'm not very good at picking apart menus. But...

I would suggest making your meals and snacks more balanced. You have heavy "meals" and light snacks. Try making them all equal, bringing down the calories in your meals and increasing the calories in your snacks to about equal. I had great success with this.

Perhaps fewer carbs, though I commend you on the complex carbs you are getting. Right now, much of your diet should come from protein and veggies. You have a good bunch of carbs in the sandwich thin, carrots (yes, carrots), squash, yogurt, rice, bread crumbs and berries.

Other than that, I think you're doing fine. I think your body just needs to readjust itself.

Thanks, Eliana!

I think my biggest surprise was how many carbs I am eating. It's not white flour and rice, but I am definitely not on the low carb diet I thought that I was! I think I am going to keep tracking for two weeks and see where I am.

I really appreciate your suggestions and will see how I can work them in.

Jessless- when I first started tracking my biggest surprise was how many carbs too! It really gives you more power to see it all analyzed on that program, don't you think?

I don't eat back the calories I burn from exercise. I know livestrong suggests that but I don't do it... but give it a week how you are doing and see if you get your 1 pound then we will know if it works for you. Are you jessless on livestrong? I'll friend you there if you are.

JessLess,

My $.02 (which is usually not worth even that much! ) - Count me as another who has never eaten back her exercise calories. I just don't think I can ever accurately know how many calories I've burned. My calorie deficit comes from food, while my increased CV fitness and strength/muscle come from exercise. That being said, I do make sure I'm eating enough to fuel my workouts. I've recently upped my workout intensity by quite a bit, so I'm experimenting with upping my calories, but not in a direct "eat back" relationship.

Also, in a different perspective from Eliana, I do much better with 3 large-ish meals and 1.5 snacks. My "half-snack" is in the morning, just 50 cals worth of raw veggies or so, while my afternoon snack is about 150-200 cals of protein/fat/carb to get me through my afternoon workout to dinner. Dinner is, by far, the largest meal for me, which I like because it means I'm absolutely not tempted to snack and I feel satisfied until bedtime. I've tried the "6 mini-meal" thing several times in the past, and it just doesn't work for me - I end up never truly hungry and never truly full. I don't like it for me, but obviously we're all different!

I use Livestrong as well, and one of the things I pay attention to is the macronutrient ratio pie chart on the right side. I like to keep my ratio at about 30/30/40 P/F/C (which happens to be the Zone diet ratio, but I do it because it works for me). In any case, I like to get around 100g protein a day, and 35-45g fiber. This really helps me stay fuller longer, evens out my blood sugar, and helps me make good choices.

For all of the above, keep in mind that I'm much shorter than you, working to get the last few pounds off, so you get to eat more than me. I'm jealous.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

stacygee, thanks! I used a different name, but I should have used this one. I'm tempted to start over with JessLess.

JenMusic, thanks for all the info, that's really helpful.