I need some advice please. I’ve been calorie counting since January and I’ve lost about 8 pounds and 11 inches. This is good I know but I’m a little disappointed. Everything has moved at a snail’s pace and for the last month hardly any movement at all on the scale or measurements. I hesitate to even call it a plateau since it’s been so slow overall.
I started running about 2 months ago, about 3 miles six times a week. (It didn’t give me the change I wanted yet but I’ll stick with it)
I started Jillian Michaels 30 day shred about 3 weeks ago. (Definitely see more definition in my arms and abs)
I increased my calories from about 1200 per day to 1400-1500 per day.
I started eating more vegetables and fish and chicken.
I eat: a bagel with reduced fat cream cheese almost every morning, lean pocket, 100 cal pack, grapes for lunch almost every day, then for dinner salad, chicken or fish, asparagus, potato, spaghetti – it varies. Random snacks here and there.
I plan to drink more water. I don’t drink enough now. I drink a lot of diet Dr. Pepper.
I sleep about 6 hours a night. It’d be hard to change that.
Any ideas please? It’s been 3 months and I’m not even safely in the 120s. I can’t imagine I’ll ever get to my goal like this. I'm going to stick with it but I need a plan.

I think most people will respond with what you expect to hear but don't want to, that you are actually losing very on-pace . That's where I am right now. I've also lost 8 lbs since January and get very frustrated that it's not coming off more quickly. But as people keep reminding me here, that's a very steady appropriate place for a feather. If you're doing 8 lbs in three months, then by summer you'll be in the low 120s, which is awesome. Only a few more months after that you may be at goal! I know it seems like forever but it seems like that tends to be par for the course for those last few stubborn pounds. And being at or very close to goal within six months should be a pretty exciting prospect, no?

A few things you could do: reduce carbs/increase protein (maybe replace that bagel with eggs, or a gluten-free bran muffin or something), cut out the lean pocket and 100 cal packet and replace them with whole foods (I'm really biased against food as processed as these so take my opinion with a grain of salt- pun intended!), cut down/out the Dr. Pepper (it's just empty calories! You'll have so many more calories to spend on nutritious proteins and such). EDIT: overlooked the "Diet" part- still, I've heard a lot of reasons why cutting out diet sodas help with weight loss. I need to work on this myself actually.

I don't think I'm telling you anything you don't know already, but sometimes they are helpful reminders

I think you are doing well. The fact of life is that the less we have to lose the slower it goes. I thought I would never lose that last 10 pounds, but I stubbornly persisted and it finally came off . I think your calorie limit is just about right. Do not give up. It will happen.

indiblue is really on target with her recs for you. I'll just also echo the diet soda thing. This is a thing I struggle with as well, but when you're as close to your goal as you are, sodium will cling to your body and make you hang on to every last iota of water. To actually retain less water, you need to drink more water, flush your system out, and drink much less of your fluids in the form of carbonated, high-sodium beverages (even calorie-free ones).

Water is deadly boring to drink, I know. I allow myself "treat waters" sometimes, and fortunately the tap water in my city is actually pretty tasty. If you don't drink enough water because your area's tastes bland or funky, try fruit flavor additives or even plop a lemon wedge in or something. I wil occasionally get Dasani or flavored Aquafina for something different, and I also allow myself a few diet SoBe Lifewater drinks a week (they do contain sodium, but far less than soda, and they have vitamins and electrolytes). When I do these things but then cave and have some diet soda, I notice an almost immediate bloating effect. It's uncanny.

Eventually, you'll be able to treat diet soda as a very, very occasional treat, once you're maintaining your goal weight, but until then, just be aware that regular consumption of it will cause you retain water. If you want to register as lean and "real" a weight as possible (and see lots of good muscle definition, which it sounds like you do based on the kinds of workouts you're doing), then kick that Dr. P to the curb!

Despite my love of Cherry Coke Zero, I'm not a diet soda apologist - it's basically tasty chemicals and I personally feel it should be enjoyed in small amounts. I'm working on it.

That being said, I see the whole "sodium in diet soda" thing often, but it's just not true. Most diet soda has a very, very small amount of sodium - maybe 35-45 milligrams. In contrast, a slice of whole wheat bread may have 150 mls, and a Lean Pocket has about 400-500. The (recently lowered) USDA guidelines on sodium have gone to 1500 mls for most people. At 35 milligrams per can, the OP would have to have over 20 Diet Dr. Peppers a day to reach that.

There are lots of reasons to stop drinking diet soda, but sodium isn't really one of them.

I would definitely cut out all the sodas and replace with a lot of water. Then maybe switch from grapes to blueberries. After you start losing on a consistent basis I would switch from eating the bagel to something with less carbs or a healthy whole grain like oatmeal or you could eat low fat cottage cheese with fruit and an egg. I've also learned from these boards to try and eat my lightest meal for dinner. Could you swap your lunch and dinner?

Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate every bit of advice you can give. Today is my weigh in day and basically I've lost 1 pound in 1 month, even with all that running and 30 Day shredding. I can remember doing this a few years ago and I steadily lost with less exercise. Unfortunately I stopped journaling halfway through so I dont know what my secrets were.

I'm definitely going to drink more water. I dont hate it. I just love caffeine and I dont drink coffee so that's where all my soft drinks come in. Today I bought just a 2 liter instead of the 24 pack I usually get. I was pretty out of control with those anyway.

Will try to cut out the bagel after I get back from vacation. I do like cottage cheese and hard boiled eggs. Right now that bagel helps me get out of bed in the morning.

I didn't buy any lean pockets. I bought some hummus and pitas.

No blueberries. They are so expensive here now. But I did get some pears and apples for a change.

Thanks again. I'm very grateful for this forum!

I stand corrected. There's something, though, about diet soda that has a bloating effect. Maybe it's from the soda itself or maybe it's what else we tend to eat or drink when we're consuming a lot of diet soda. Either way, my experience this year has been that when I've tended to have more diet soda, I get more bloated. When I have more water in lieu of the diet soda, I get less bloated. Coffee, tea, and other non- and low-calorie beverages do not have the apparent same effect on my body. Not that chronology=causality here, but perhaps there's some other effect going on if it's not the sodium. Is it the carbonation or maybe even some other chemical effect? Is it simply that it's a non-nutritious entity going into the system? Because even though some of the foods the OP is eating are higher in sodium, they still also have vitamins, minerals, carbs, fats, proteins, etc., and therefore have a nutrition effect, whereas diet soda is, as you say, "tasty chemicals."

I've read that the artificial sweeteners in soda makes some people hold onto water weight, and I've seen it suggested to switch to something with a different sweetener (aspartame vs. saccharin vs. Splenda) if you suspect you're bloating. I've never tried it.

As for your pace, while 1 pound a month seems slow, 8 in 3 seems ok for your weight. I struggle to lose 2.5/week, and I'm two of you!

Did you consider that that weight might just be your natural stopping point? You're solidly within the healthy range, so maybe your body is ready to stop losing and just tone.

I definitely AGREE with this! I don't know what it is, either - maybe even the carbonation? - but I'm more bloated and, ahem, gassy when I drink diet soda. Artificial sweeteners never used to bother me, but now I'm wondering if they have started to (or at least the sweetener in Coke Zero, which isn't aspartame, IIRC).

Sorry to thread-jack!

OP, I would agree with others that your rate of loss actually seems pretty on target for a feather. While I don't like the image of me "fighting" to lose weight, my weight loss has slowed substantially as I approach goal and the pattern of loss has become much less predictable. Whereas in the first part of my weight loss I could count on losing 1-2 pounds consistently every week (with the occasional variance for TOM), now I'm pretty delighted with every half pound loss.

In some ways, it's frustrating because I've been doing this for so stinkin' long! In other ways, it's a reminder for me that my weight loss is a reflection of a changed lifestyle. I already know that maintenance for me is going to look pretty much exactly like weight loss, so I'm not concerned about how long it takes to lose these last few pounds. Very little is going to change when I get there, so I can be patient about it.