Cycle calories or stop weighing?!
 

Hello all!
Well, I was a bit frustrated this week because I didn't lose any weight. I have been following my average of 1300 a day and 500 calories burned a day from exercise and didn't lose any. It's hard when this happens because I feel like I did everything "right" and I "should" have lost. So, I'm trying to decide if I should just not weigh for a month so I don't get discouraged, or if I should up my calories to 1400/1500 average for the week and see if that helps me lose. I'm really trying to lose 2lbs a week so I can reach my goal weight of 145 before I go home (I have 6 more weeks of deployment!) so I don't want to gain, stay the same, or slow my losses. What do you all think? Thanks!!
Oriana

Are you at or near TOM? If you are, I might weigh in again next week (or even in a few days) and see- sometimes you get nothing for a week and then you're down a lot by the next week.

i vote foe no scale...the scale is evil...keep doing what u are doing...u are doing everything right...no matter what the # says on there.. wait a good month to weigh in.. good luck! :)

try cycling the cals - it always works for me when i'm at a plateau!

Agreed. I calorie cycle (kind of) and avoided a plateau when I rigidly followed it. The weight melted off at 2.5lbs a week consistently until I was about 5 lbs shy of goal.

Have you taken measurements? This would give you another way to see some progress. There have been weeks I don't lose pounds but I lose a bunch of inches.
I also personally keep my calories between 1300-1450 most days. But, once a week I eat 1800-2000. Maybe doing that will help.
Play around, but as mentioned, and I completely agree with, this shouldn't just be about weight loss. It's also about making good choices to make ourselves healthier! My reasons for losing weight isn't to just lose weight. It's because I know I feel better, I'm getting toned because I exercise and it's making me healthier.

One week does not equal a plateau. Keep doing what you're doing. If it has been working so far, your body should catch up with all your work. There are so many reasons why you may not post a loss one week. Now, if you stall out for 3 or 4 weeks then you're looking a plateau and should change something up.

People react to the scale so differently, but personally, I don't like weighing myself. What I see on the scale affects my mood either way. So, I just have in my mind that I'm doing all the right things, so eventually the weight will come off. However, I don't have a specific goal date in mind as you do, so I can see why you're anxious. I would try calorie cycling and waiting for a couple of weeks before you weigh yourself. Our body weight can fluctuate daily based on how much water we're retaining, for example.

Thanks everyone! I'm trying the calorie cycling and put my scale up so I don't weigh every day, but just once a week. I averaged out my losses for the past couple of weeks (thank goodness I track everything!) and realized I average out to about 1.5lb loss for the past 5 weeks or so, and that is really good! It was nice to be able to go back and see that CC does work, and I have to be grateful for the healthy way I eat now, and the fact that I'm losing and not gaining. I'm interested to see how the cycling goes. Thanks again everyone!!

I was at your exact calorie allowance and I plateaued after the first 5 lbs. I increased my exercise a tad (to 500 cals) and still was plateaued. I decided to eat back half of my exercise calories (bringing me to 1500 calories on exercise days) and I started losing again!

Hmm, that's a great suggestion. I often have "extra" calories during the week because I don't eat all my exercise calories. I'll try eating them all and see how the scale does on Monday! Thanks!

I cycle my calories and it's great it keeps the matabolism guessing. Don't worry about a week without a loss I've had a month with no loss then all of a sudden my body just started dropping again.