[Vilandra485]

Hi Everyone - I've found that, not including water weight, I'm stalling alot lately....I eat under 2000 calories a day, and since Aug. 1st I have been walking for an hour a day, everyday, and doing upper body strength training for about 20 minutes every other day. My stats are: 21, 5'5", and my activity level is said above. I'm looking to lose 2lbs a week like I used to. The first 2 months were fine, but the last 4-5 weeks I lost nothing for 2 weeks, the 3rd week I made up for it and lost 6lbs, then after that, nothing the next week, and now here we are....what tweaks should I make to help me? I just realized that considering I take in 2000 but burn off about 500 calories walking each day I'm only really "keeping" 1500 a day. Does that matter, or is that okay? How can I get back to losing *regularly*? Thanks in advance everyone!

Melissa

[srmb60]

Hi Melissa, we were talking about this kind of thing in a thread just lately
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91634

Aphil makes some good points about getting into a diet and exercise rut.

[TiffRidesAHarley]

My advice, and I'm not an expert, is to lower your calories by about 200-300 per day, see if that works. Also, try not to eat the same amount of calories everyday. Your metabolism burns based on a what you ate in the previous two days. By fluxuating the amount of calories you are taking in, you keep your body working harder to lose weight.

[aphil]

You seem to actually be at a decent calorie level for your current weight...if you didn't lose for two weeks, lost 6 pounds the next week, and then didn't lose anything the third week-when you average that out, you actually have lost an average of 1 1/2 pounds per week during that time.

What seems to be happening to you, is what happens to ME. I don't lose 1-2 pounds a week, every single week, like clockwork. It just doesn't happen. I may not lose for 2 weeks...then I can drop 3-4 pounds...then I don't lose for a week, then I drop a pound...and so on and so forth. The human body doesn't lose weight in an exact amount-even if we are counting calories, and counting the calories in our workouts like clockwork.

If you want quicker results-then intensify your workouts a little...maybe a slight drop in calorie level-say, 1900 a day rather than 2000. (You don't want to drop 200-300 a day at one time-it will make it harder to lose later on when you are smaller, and don't really have as much room to drop it in.)

I would not say that you are in any sort of a plateau at all, though-because over the past 4 weeks you have lost 6 pounds-it just hasn't been "evenly" 1 1/2 pounds per week over that period of time.

You are doing great. Keep it up.

Aphil