Am I doing this right???

  • I started eating healthier on 8 January. I eat 400 cal w/ breakfast, 400 cal w/ lunch, and 800 calories for dinner / afternoon snack. I am currently at 149 - lost ten pounds ... and seemingly stuck. I run a minimum of 3 miles daily and a maximum of seven miles. I do strength training 3-4x weekly. The scale has not budged in two weeks. Granted, before I started this program I was running only 3 times / week and doing strength training 2x a week. Is it all the increased exercise? I'm figuring I should be consuming 2050 calories per day based on my activity level, but if I'm consuming only 1600 and definitely burning 400-500 calories per day doing exercise ... what gives??

    P.S. It is definitely not portion control issues as I weigh everything out and consume only the portion serving I intend to consume (ie - if a soup is 110 calories per serving and I eat the container I realize I am consuming 220 calories).
  • http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightl...htplateaus.htm
    The above article might help.
  • It is actually quite common for your weight to stabilize a bit after a large drop. My weight does the same thing-I might lose 2 pounds one week, 3 the next, 1 the next...and then go for a couple of weeks with no loss. The scale then starts dropping again.

    First-weigh only once or twice a week. Give it another week at 1600 calories a day. See what happens. Try to take a look at the QUALITY of food that you are eating. You will get better results the better you eat-because 1600 calories of healthy food is utilized by your body better than 1600 calories of fast food or sweets. Make sense? Think of food as fuel.

    Give it another week, and see if there is any loss. If you go another week or two without a loss, drop the calories SLIGHTLY to 1500 a day-and improve the quality of foods that you are eating. Let me know how it is going.
  • Thanks ... just trying to stay motivated!!