nina- you may try calorie cycling. Eating a higher amount of cals one day lower amount the next, etc. to trick your body a little bit. You could also be eating too few calories....adding exercise always helps give an extra weight loss boost! Hang in there, slow and steady wins the race :)

Thanks Linds. I will try calorie cycling. Should I switch around my calories everyday or once in 2 days?

My husband & I went to this Chinese buffet last night for dinner. I mostly stuck to the boiled shrimp and soft-shelled crabs. I guess all the sodium in the seafood and MSG has made me retain water today. I am up to 146 :(

Nina: I hear you on the water retention. I had hoped to have a happy weigh in today, since the prior one was 4 days ago during TOM and I have been on plan and exercising lots. But nope, up 1.5 lbs. Sigh. I am also blaming my salty dinner last night for causing this, since the alternative (actual weight gain) is too confusing and depressing to accept.

I have been measuring my hips/waist and oddly have not really lost any inches even though I've lost about 10 lbs (maybe 2 inches off my waist right away, or my stomach just went down a little because it wasn't so full of food - hah! It happened pretty quickly and then stalled so maybe the original measurement was not accurate). People have commented on my weight loss though...I think I am losing weight from the area above my waist, and my face maybe - which I didn't measure.

I'm teetering between 142 - 144 as well. Well to be fair, I went up for a few weeks around the holidays to 147 so maybe coming back down to an average of 143 is progress.

(There was one day after a night of drinking my scale said "140" but after the next day of normal eating it was gone.)

Here is what I'm doing:

1) Got a new scale. I thought the old one was broken and therefore stuck at 143. It probably wasn't broken, but the new one looks cooler.

2) Committed to eating vegetarian a minimum of 5 days/week. I only eat poultry, lamb, and seafood to begin with, but that gives me lots of options to make bad choices if I keep those in my diet 7 days/week, like sneaking in some Wendy's Spicy chicken nuggets. :o

3) Moving my butt for at least 4 - 5 miles a day on the treadmill, 5 days/week. I also wear a pedometer so my goal is to hit 15K+ a day. I can usually do it with a combination of walking around town and the gym, but it has been so frigid outside I've had to up my time on the treadmill.

Hi othodiva,

It looks like we have the almost same stats. I am almost 5'6" and I weighed 154lbs at my heaviest. For the past 4 years, I would come close to 140 but have never been able to go past it. I am really determined to get to the 130's this time around.

Losing from the face is the best! :)

Yeah, I have those full cheek bones...someone at my office told my my chin looked pointier. Ha.

Despite my hips not going down, I managed to drop a size in pants sort of...I am perhaps in between, but a lot of my pants feel too big now and some of the ones that were too tight fit ok.

Hey ladies. I'm still fighting to get below the 145 mark. its the lowest number that i've seen so far this month. TOM just came, so im hoping that after a couple days my weight will drop a little, which is usually what happens, but i was at 148 this morning. I'm definitly not going to make my goal to be out of the 140's by the end of january, but im still going to shoot for my 137 by february.
Im getting super frustrated with this. But i know i can do it cuz i did it a year ago, gained it back, and now ill do it again (and not gain it back lol)

I am still bouncing around...140.0 this morning.

I really hope to be 138 within the next week and a half. While I have seen many 139 days, I am not sure I am truly out of the 140's yet as I keep bouncing back up to 140/141/even 142 one day during TOM.

I've was totally off plan last week due to a business trip...so this week I am restarting and have done really well keeping my calories low. I am hoping my "off plan" weeks raised my metabolism and now that I've restrarted I will lose more easily. I lost so easily the first month I was dieting and then the weight loss really started to slow...then I sort of gave up and ate whatever I wanted. Luckily (very luckily) I didn't gain during this "time off plan" but I've been bouncing around 139/140/141 since Christmas!!! Jeez, I need to stop this already and start losing again!!!

I've been reading up on body building and the idea of a "refeed week" or "refeed day" each week. It seems as reducing calories slows your metabolism and causes your body to adjust that you should take a break from eating so low calorie once a week or some even advocate one week a month. It's not a "cheat" and it doesn't mean you can binge all day on whatever. It means you should eat at a higher calorie level than normal.

If I can ever get back on plan for a significant amount of time I'll be able to tell you if this theory works! Given that I was at a plateau / very slowed weight loss for such a long time, I am hoping taking this break will kick start things for me.

Fingers crossed...can't wait to be out of the 140's for EVER.

I'd KILL to be out of the 140's. I haven't been in the 130's since I was 16 years old, eesh.

144 today. I'm hoping I'll be 140 by Valentine's Day, at least. Hopefully sooner.

So... I just hit my goal yesterday morning. Did a post about it... and came in at 141 today.
Ahhhhhhhh!!!
I've been contemplating trying to lose another 5 or 10 lbs but at this rate? I mean, seriously???

I was down to 136, but yesterday at the doc's I weighed 142. Now granted, it was at the end of the day, clothes, TOM, post vacation-pig outs and lots of sodium..... So, I'm thinking I'm probably right around 140. Grrrrr..... I'm not weighing myself at home until next weekend. My doctor called me petite. I said to her "I don't really think you can call someone who's 5'7" and 142 lbs petite." She said "Ok, maybe not petite, but you're skinny." If she was a guy, I would have professed my love. Lol! Anyway, I've undone 2/3rds of what I've done in the last 3 months. I feel like it's going to take me until the end of the summer to get under 135. So frustrating.

WE have to push each other below 145!! This is a tough set-point. The body seems to fight for every pound in the 140's! Sheesh!

But we will win! :carrot:

You sound like me! I dont know what I will do when I see 13X.. but I definitely think it deserves a National Holiday! It just seems such a HUGE accomplishment for me that its hard to even think that I coud get there!

What have you been doing to get yourself down to 144? Calorie counting and exercise?