I don't know how this has happened but I am stuck already and my weight won't budge. I swim everynight for a half hour to-1 hour, I eat between 1300-1500 calories daily..and have had a day or two in the mix that was around 1700-2000. I won't budge at all! I'm staying active (stairs instead of elevator) walking at lunch, eating healthy snacks, lots of veggies and lean protein. I don't understand. I'm just in the beginning stages. I haven't been dieting enough to have a stall....right??

How long has it been since you've seen a change in your weight? Have you thought of changing your routine? They say it's good to change it every 6 weeks to avoid stalls.

I went two weeks once without losing, it was random, but it started up again later on. Overall I am still losing though.

Shelly, I saw your post from the front page otherwise I wouldn't be here in the 20 something forum since I'm more than twice 20 sumthin. But reading your blog sure brought back memories - not about being overweight because I wasn't really back then but about disappointing mom. I don't know about your mom but I can assure you with mine there would have always been something to disappoint her no matter what I did, how high I climbed, what stars I reached. Letting go of trying to have a healthy happy relationship with her was one of the hardest and wisest things I ever did. I still loved her, I still stayed in touch, and was there when she got older and frail but I built a wall so she could no longer hurt me.... As sad as that is it might be something you need to think about...

When you aren't thinking about weight....

I think you'd get some very good advice if you posted in the general support or the 100 pound club but maybe you'd get too much rah! rah! rah you can do it stuff too.

Reading your blog it sounds like you've done a lot of small diets and some bigger ones. All the research says that makes it harder to lose every time you start again. So I think you've got the old past yo-yo thing working against you.

I also question your calories. Both the 1000 a day limit your doctor recently put you on - that's hard hard hard on a body and the more recent higher numbers. How accurately are you counting those calories. Are you recording everything and being as accurate as possible? A meal of pasta and meat and sauce can add up super quick. Are you really certain you're staying under whatever limits you've set?

We started at about the same weight. I was never a yo-yo-er so I've got that going for me but I'm also 52 and age does not help in this journey so we're probably about equal in our disadvanatges. I'm not on metaformin but I will be if I can't get things under control by diet.

I don't get a lot of exercise (i meander in the woods while the dogs run around and I break out the Wii Fit a few times a week - so nothing heavy duty that's for sure. I envy you your swim time that's for sure!).

I have been losing weight since February - first just by giving up sweet snacks (totally - cold turkey!) and then by starting to pay attention to what I was eating and how much. It wasn't a lot of weight but 10, 15 pounds over a few months. Around the end of April I started recording everything I ate on myplate. I don't have a food scale so some are estimates but if I'm not sure I over estimate and round up. I'm aiming for 1500 a day and since then there have only been 2 or 3 days I've gone over (and none where I had more than 2000) and many many I've been more in the 1300 range. I lost 16 pounds in May and I'll on target to lose 10 this month.

I do a lot of things wrong: I don't get enough exercise, I really really don't get enough sleep, I still eat things like bacon cheeseburgers a couple times a month. But mostly I'm eating lean protein, fresh veggies, whole grains (I totally have gone cold turkey on regular flour and white rice too - it's either whole grain goodness or it's off the menu), and fruit. I'm very aware of the glycemic index of the foods I'm eating and am trying to make choices to stay with low GI foods as much as possible. Every day, day in and day out. And I'm recording everything to keep myself honest and on track.

No matter what option you pick - calorie counting, Weight Watchers, South Beach, Paleo, whatever - being totally honest about your choices all day every day is really essential.

You can do this! And yeah, you won't be thin when you see your mom in October but you'll be thinner and more confident and proud of what you've accomplished. And the *next* time you see her you will be thinner still. And even if she finds something new to be disappointed about you'll still have your hard work to be proud of.

Sorry for the overly long post. Good luck!

Vladadog- I definitely appreciate your response and your advice. I have posted several times in the 100+ forums and many times I have been met with judgemental responses and overly redundant advice about many things that I just dont agree with. My mother and I do have a rocky relationship and I know she will be fine with whatever I do. She is also supportive of my weightloss efforts, and has been ever since I was a young teenager. I don't think it is to the point where building a wall to keep myself from being hurt is necessary but I thank you for sharing that with me. That is very dificult to deal with I can imagine.

I understand there are many women and men that have lost weight before-and a lot of it- and I welcome their advice but I will not tolerate being talked down to and that is my major issue with that forum-as well as people not paying attention to what I have said. The majority of the time people only see the 1000 calories that I said my doctor wanted me on however no one pays attention to my decision to throw that advice out the window and stick to what I think my body needs-1300-1500.

StephanieM- I'm almost too scared to change my routine and then end up not seeing results. I have to stay on my goal deadlines but I will definitely look in to it. I truely appreciate your input.

Ugh. Been there. It's incredibly frustrating, I know. I don't want to overload you with information, but here's how I would go about getting over this (and if you're already doing some of these more power to ya):

1. Count everything. Every morsel of food that passes your lips, count. Measure it and count it exactly. I know it's annoying, but you won't have to for too long. Just do it for a few weeks to get the hang of it.

2. Stay consistent. It's really easy to slip into the "well I'm not losing anyway, wha'ts a bite of chocolate?" mentality. Keep doing what you're doing and treat it like part of your every day routine. Have the chocolate if you want chocolate, but count it in your calories. It's not the be all and end all; you have to be able to do this for the rest of your life, not only when you're trying to lose. You're getting healthy anyway, the weight's just not coming off like it should. It will happen eventually. It has to if you're restricting your calories. It might just take some tweaking.

3. Continue to exercise. It's great for you and it helps to balance hormones like insulin that can affect pretty much everything in the body, including your fat cells (which secrete estrogen). Change up your routine when you're getting bored or it's getting too easy. And I definitely advocate cardio and bodyweight training if you can manage both .

4. Eat as close to natural foods as possible. Don't worry if they're slightly higher calories. Just cut out the artificial stuff. Seriously, this was life changing for me. I had major hormone problems and as soon as I started eating whole foods (and got off artificial stuff *cough* sweeteners *cough*) the weight started to come off slowly. Eat whole, natural foods whenever you can. Read labels and stay away from high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, MSG, and anything "hydrogenated". Start with that and see what happens.

5. If after a month you're still not losing anything get your hormones checked. Sometimes it takes your body a while to adjust to a new program (you've shocked your system and it could take a little longer for it to sort itself out), but sometimes something is actually wrong. Get your hormones checked. You might learn something new and if not at least you can cross a medical "issue" off the list.

6. Breathe. Relax. It'll happen. It took me 6 years to figure it out but it happened. I gained weight while i was trying to lose and I ended up gaining in the process. Stress and binge eating/drinking all contributed to the gaining, but it took me ages to understand why I couldn't lose. Take it one step at a time. It's frustrating, but it'll work itself out in the end if you're consistent and committed.

Good luck And hang in there. *hugs*

Hey Shelly!

Just some questions so we can maybe troubleshoot this thing-

1. How long have you been at it?
2. Have you had a work up from your doc that includes a thyroid check?
3. Are you on metformin for diabetes or PCOS?
4. Can you post a menu?

I agree with changing things up. I would change my workout every couple weeks. I kept eating the same amount but instead of jogging at 5 mph, I would increase it to 6. Or instead of constant jogging I would do sprints and walks. Some weeks I would do the elliptical and the bike, the switch is to the treadmill and the elliptical etc. Maybe you should swim for a little less time and pick up a new thing, jogging, lifting weights, jump rope, elliptical, bike. I think it will definitely help!

Change up the workout. Your body could very well be adapting