I am so disappointed. I've been working at this thing and have been pretty careful, yet I'm not losing anything right now. I've even upped my workouts and nothing. This is ticking me off. I already exercise about 20 hours a week. Where is more exercise going to come from? Something must be off with nutrition. Has to be. It just sucks because I'm working hard and yet, still size 10. I know this isn't a natural size because its overweight and a 10 isn't all thast small but still. Perhaps plateau? I just don't know. Its been a couple of weeks and the scale hasn't moved from between 186 to 188. Balls..lol..how do you guys deal with being stuck?

37 pound is significant loss. How did you lose that amount ? Try using the same method.

When you say something must be "off" with your nutrition, what do you mean? What exactly are you doing, food-wise?

I've heard some other gals say that upping your calories helps to jump-start your metabolism. If you're working out more, your body may be exhausted and hanging on to every last fat cell it can.

Are you eating enough protein or fruits/veggies? That seems to be my problem when I stall out, I don't eat enough protein. I don't think exercising would be the problem. Maybe your body is just used to what you have been doing, and you need to switch it up a little.

P.S. 37 pounds is awesome! I can't wait til I lose that much!

In regards to the scale, exercise can become a bit of a hinderance sometimes. Not that you should stop exercising (after all, eating to lose makes you look good in clothes, working out makes you look good naked), but the losing weight part for me has always come from diet adjustment. Are you eating enough for as much as you were working out? Are you eating back what you're working out?

First, I whine. A lot. See the weekly chat threads. I'm a whiner.

Secondly, I re-evaluate. What am I doing right and what am I doing wrong? You're exercising a lot, so I'd say you have that part down. As Junebug said, maybe you need diet adjustment.

Up your fruits/veggies - maybe even up your calories a little bit, and see what happens. Maybe even up your water intake.

hey dont give up. BUt i get discouraged so easily even by one pound. SO my advise is to weigh yourself one a month. Honestly its the best thing that i have done. and sometimes youc an even 2wice a month but every week i find is a lot, especially if you do want to do this for ever.

so you are working out 2-3 hours a day, how much are you eating? You may be eating too little and working out too much for what you are currently eating. Also are you drinking enough water?

I agree with everyone- 20 hours a week is a lot, how much are you eating and what? I beat a 9 month plateau with changing my diet to wholefoods, increasing the intensity of my work outs, and eating a little more on average. I was eating around 1200 and i increased to 1350 on average (now im trying calorie cycling, its working pretty good, touch wood). I have a couple of 1600 cal days, around 3 1200 days and a couple of 1350 days. Or however it averages out lol. Mentally, I coped with the plateau by whining here like stella , whining to my personal trainer, and just not giving up

I am currently working out three hours a day in one 2 hour segment and one 1 hour segment. I can't change up the workouts because this is a college sport we're dealing with here and they don't pay me to switch things lol. I guess I've been very lax with my water intake. I think I just really need to cut my calories and carbs. I think I may be eating more than I think. I guess I'm just going to focus on exact accurate calorie counting. I really like the idea of weighing once a month. I think I'd go crazy if I did this but it may be worth a try. I'm just worried I'd end up gaining or something if I didn;t see things coming. Idk....my fitness is good. I ran my last mile trial in 6:47, which is pretty good and I've always been in top boat. I just wish I wasn't so fat.lol. oh well....I'll just have to keep track. Thanks for dealing with my whining, everyone.lol

Frankly, if you are a student athlete I wouldn't be cutting calories. You need fuel in order to perform well. With such an intense regime, if you cut calories your times will suffer. There's just no other way to power workouts like that other than getting enough calories :/

Just my 2 cents.

What sport are you doing? Just out of curiosity.

You might not be seeing a drop in actual pounds because you're most likely increasing in lean muscle mass, which is a great thing. Muscle sits there and burns calories while you do nothing.

Another way to kick start over a plateau is to increase the intensity of your cardio. If your 1 hour segment is your own workout (and not for the team), instead of running one straight mile, do a one minute segment at 90% intensity (so really fast until you feel like your legs won't move and you can barely breathe) then do a 2 minute recovery at warm-up pace, and keep that up for 30 minutes.

A lot of times, when your workouts become routine, your body becomes extremely adapted and doesn't need to work as hard any more to keep up. That's when you have to throw in new things.

As far as calories go, I used this BMR equation with your high exercise level and you can roughly eat around 2800 calories a day to maintain your weight. But, I don't know your exact composition, like lean muscle, or how intense the training is. I would say a healthy weight loss caloric intake for you would be around 1800-2000 a day with your activity level. You can look up the Harris Benedict formula. It's pretty helpful.

I've seen your pics and you are not fat--I've seen your 6-pack! Being almost 5'11" and a size 10 sounds totally normal/thin to me. You carry a lot of muscle (crew, right?) and being "overweight" by BMI standards doesn't mean anything for athletes. Have you talked your goals over with your coach or a nutritionist? I think you should take another look at your goal, maybe get a second opinion from someone who really knows you and can be objective about it, and if you still come to the conclusion that you need to lose more, then I'd say yeah try calorie shifting or something. But don't get down on yourself! You are a gorgeous girl who is really talented (sub-7 minute mile?!) whatever you decide is best for you

Sorry this is off topic, but Jen do you think we should eat back the calories we burn? 'cause that would be awesome