grrr... really struggling today
 

Having a really hard time today for some reason!

I think it's lack of progress on the scale. I've had a cold. I've been on plan, but I've been stuck between 241.0 and 241.6 for the past six days (I get a reward once I get below 240). I'm starting to get angry at the scale...

And all I can think about is food! I'm on plan for the day (barely)... but I want a treat, and I am too stuffed up to exercise (never mind exercise any extra to work off a splurge). And the thing is, I just had dinner- I'm not even hungry! And yet, after a whole month of disciplined effort, I am barely restraining myself from opening a sleeve of girl scout cookies and chowing down.

BLAH!

I think I'll go change the batteries in my scale... just in case.

Quick question....what is your calorie intake?

calories
 

1200 calories per day. My scale has np excuse not to move (ok, actually, I was stuck last week for nearly a week, and then it dropped a lot at once... and now is stuck at the new weight. So I can't be too surprised it's stuck again. But you know, psychologically.. it would be nice to see it move a bit more).

So between that and the cold, I think I just want comfort food. And the girl scout cookies were sitting right there, taunting me with their crispy chocolate-minty and gooey chocolate-caramel-coconut cookieness...

I did not eat any. but I really wanted to!

Don't worry. Alot of things can affect weight loss. Sometimes TOM or just natural body fluctuations can affect this. Just focus on what you've already lost. I'm sure you'll see a huge drop soon!

Darn girlscout cookies! They are not allowed in the house. DH has other treats, that do not tempt me, that he can eat.

Regarding your scale….I read on this forum that the best way to find out if your scale is accurate is to weight dumbbells on your scale. I actually checked mine with two 10lb dumbbells and it is accurate.

Are you taking vitamins? I lost 9 lb in the month and got very sick, and I don’t get sick usually. Maybe ones in 2 years after some crazy stress…so I guess 9 lb in month was too much for my body , I had terrible cold, was very weak and miserable over all. Make sure you take some vitamin C to help your immune system during the stress of loosing weight.

When I was sick for 4 days, I eat a lot of comfort food and was up to 1,600 cal / day and gained 4 lb ( have no idea how girls up there calories to loose more weight, doesn’t work for me that way. If I up my calories, my scale go up as well).

As soon as you feel better, go back on truck with calories and you will shed those pounds, so don’t be too upset. If you got sick you need to help your body to get better even if it’s means gaining few lb .

First, :hug: , you'll get through this!

Now, don't freak out on me, but I think you should actually up your calories. 1200 is the bare minimum imo. When I was your weight I was eating too low (1300) and the scale was not moving. Even though it made me VERY nervous I took the advice to up my calories to 1500-1600. The weight started falling off again!

Try it for a couple of weeks. If you notice the scale going up you can adjust, but I bet your body is just a little freaked out and giving it some more calories will help it get back into loss mode.

For the first few weeks of my journey I was also eating 1200 calories. I figured the lower the calories the quicker I'd lose! Well I would be lucky if I lost 0.1 or 0.2 lbs a week. So I upped my calories and now I'm losing 2 - 2.5 lbs a week. I consume between 1500 and 1800 calories a day.

Yea I agree up your calories a bit. I moved mine up for 1300 to 1600-1800 and am seeing results.

I only weigh a little more than you and I am eating between 1700-1900 cals a day. Lost 9.2# the first month. I am saving the lower calories for when I get to a lower weight. Also, I have a Go Wear Fit and know that even eating 1900 cals a day I have at least a 1000 calorie deficit a day, which equals 2 # loss a week.

Someone on the Bodybugg thread was stuck and increased her cals and finally broke through her plateau.
Hope this helps!

Thanks you for your kind words everyone, and all the advice!

I don't my scale is stuck because I'm not making any progress, I think it's really an issue that I am frustrated because my brain is stuck on wanting the satisfaction of seeing that in the numbers. And since I'm not getting that satisfaction, I'm starting to look for it in other places.

I finally did succumb to giving myself a "cheat" day yesterday... justified by telling myself that maybe I needed a calorie kick to get rid of this cold. I'd been a whole month without any cheat days, and I think psychologically I just needed a reward.

I didn't cheat a whole lot- I ate a few servings of cookies, but not a whole sleeve. They were tasty, but I really wasn't hungry, and they made me a little bit too full. Went to bed, and I woke up neither any heavier nor any lighter- according to the scale.

onthedietagain- I do take a daily multivitamin with C in the morning, and also a calcium supplement at night. Probably why I didn't get sicker- I caught this one from the husband, who is not on a diet and hits the gym every morning before work and was hit even harder than I was. I've felt better, but I haven't run myself into the ground... I'm just sneezing and blowing my nose a whole lot.

Moto/Baby/Firecracker/Mulder: I may increase my calories once I've started working out more... starting slowly on that, because hard workouts make me ravenous. Right now, my energy level is fine, I don't think it's an issue of needing to increase. My history tells me I need to get comfortable at a lower calorie level with a low activity level until my appetite adjusts (which is about now), then ramp up the activity slowly to keep losing, and then maybe increase my calories once my activity level justifies the difference. I'm about at the point I need to start reintroducing aerobic exercise- but the cold is holding me up (on account of not being able to breathe through all these boogers).

I don't think the cheat day really helped me (or overly hurt me), but it did get the cravings it out of my system.

I also, as of this morning, started taking my measurements. I've checked them sporadically, but I am going to start recording them every the morning, when I check my weight.

I've also started noting my bfp. Until now, I've been losing enough that I didn't need any reassurance to back up what I believed I was seeing in the mirror- but if my scale is going to be stuck on one number for an entire week or more, seeing my bfp or the # of inches around my hips continue to shrink would be an acceptable psychological substitute for #'s falling on the scale.

One thing that did help me... my scale gives me and estimated BFP when I weigh in. I'd set my goal weight at 160, but I had it in mind I was going to get down to my lowest-ever adult weight, which is 131, as a secondary goal.

Well, I did the math- and if my scale is even close and I manage to make it to 160 without losing any lean body mass, I'm done. Because the math says my lean body mass is 120-125 lbs, which means 160 lbs is really right about where I want to be.

(If anyone is wondering- I am short, but I am stocky... even at my smallest, I still wore a 14 in pants because of my hips- although my waist was pretty tiny in comparison. I'm fairly muscular for someone who doesn't really work out- but I'm not claiming my lean body mass is all muscle, far from it. I just come from a long line of eastern-european peasants, and have really heavy bones).