[chudge]

Basically I've been at the same weight now well fluctuating between 172 and 174 and I've upped the exercise and am doing a friggin bike ride and 35-40 min run every day plus weights and 60 crunches!!! And I've realized that the only way to get to where i want within the next 2 week an a half is to have to just live off fruit an veg for 3 days. I know this is extreme but i did it a couple of weeks ago an lost 2 pounds in the 3 days. I'm not suggesting any one else does this but it seems like its the only way for me, i've actually put on 3 pounds the other day from nowhere i was very angry/upset and i'm not doing that again. I don't think i can incorporate any more exercise or i may burst so that's why I'm going to do it, suppose it's like a detox. Not really sure why i posted this sorry just needed to explain i think some kind of outlet/plan

[Lynn160]

I understand how you feel. This past week has been a nightmare. I have done everything I can and I have gained weight. I know some is water retention but I am so close to getting under 200 and it's like my body just wants to be cruel to me and refuse to go with me to onderland. I have increased my exercise to 6 miles jogging. Was at 5 a day. It is frustrating but I just keep hanging on to hope that in a few weeks my body will catch up to what I am doing and the weight loss will show up on the scale.

Good luck and hang in there!

[PinkyPie]

why do you "have" to be at a certain point within 2½ weeks?

[Rosinante]

I want to respond with a question that might sound offensive but truly, truly, truly I don't mean it to. Chudge, do you want to post what you eat as well as all that fantastic exercise that you do?

The thing is, we can sometime try with 100% of our being but if what we're trying isn't the right thing to do, then it will never work, however hard we try - weightloss isn't the reward of effort alone, it's effort in the right direction.

Before you take out a cyber-hit on me, I am Absolutely NOT saying you are wrong, I am just saying, maybe some of the experienced people here can spot something in your plan that you could tweak.

I only started losing really consistently when I eventually listened to wiser people here and upped my calories. Before that, after the initial pounds in the first couple of weeks, I really struggled. For long enough, I didn't believe them, I was trying so hard!

Hope that doesn't offend.

And Lyn - I'm convinced there is an invisible force-field around 200 - it took me weeks to break through!

[chudge]

Hey lyn160 i know it's killing me i'm getting depressed an everything hate hate hate it why does our body not want to work with us grrrrrrrr!

Hey Velveteen I have a week holiday that i want to get to 169lbs for

And Ailidh please don't worry your advice is pleasantly received and i have a question how many calories should i be consuming daily?? I'm quite new to this and i think i eat about 1,500 a day but on other posts where i've written what i eat each day does seem to make people tell me i'm not eating enough. However i have big portions of what i do eat and possibly thats what's slowing me down???? Thank you for the help Also i too have a celtic name, it's Roisin just thought i'd add that Ailidh

[Rosinante]

Hey, sister Celt!

I've got a holiday target too - 179 by 14th June. Doing my best!

Do you use a tracker for what you eat? I SWEAR by dietpower (not free) and sparkpeople (free), and others recommend the daily plate and fitday and others.
Some people find it a bit time-consuming but it has really concentrated my mind on what I eat and the quality of it - plus when I first started using one (dp) I discovered that I was way low on all sorts of nutrients.

When I re-started this time, I did a whole week of part intuitive eating and part thinking I remembered the calories in what I was eating. I lost diddly, and when I put in one day's food to dp, I discovered I was way over 2500 calories! I'm currently losing on 1500, I was stalling on 1200.

[Tiffanyrae6]

Stay strong and you will get there. Just have faith in yourself

[Mollz]

Chudge

You need to up your calories. Seriously. Check your Basal Metabolic Rate (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/) and you may find that you're not eating enough. They're usually pretty accurate within about 100 calories.

You can go to 1000 calories a day for no more than 3 days just to kick start yourself again. But honestly, you're doing a lot of exercise; a run, a bike ride, weights and crunches and 1000 calories a day may make you gain or maintain. I went to 1200 a day and did the same thing; stalled for 2 weeks. Went up to 1600, came off. I worked out that for every hour of exercise I did, I needed to up my calories by 100-150. Your mileage may vary; you may need 200 per hour since your body is becoming more efficient at burning them off.

If you don't want to up your calories, look at two thing:

1- what you're eating. Depending on what your diet is based on, you could be eating too much of one thing and sacrificing another. No/low carb diets sacrifice body fuel (carbs) at the expense of eating more protein, which doesn't have enough "oomph" as carbs does. Smart-carb/low GI diets are ideal because they use "smart carbs"- wholegrains, lentils- to help fill you up.

2- how many times a day you're eating: eat 5-6 small meals a day (I'm talking snack-sized meals) instead of 3 big ones. For whatever reason, your body is holding on to the calories because it thinks that it's in famine mode.

Hope this helps.

[caigtp]

Something that has helped me is to hang a magnetic dry erase board on my fridge and write down everything I eat in a day. Then at the end of the night I put it into dailyplate.com. You could always use a plain piece of paper and a magnet and do the same thing as the dry erase board. Anyway, hope this helps and I found it helps to put my weight loss on the board in big numbers. It gives me motivation to keep going.