Aren't things like Splenda and Pam zero calories? Please forgive my ignorance but I thought there was no limit on these things. Can anyone shed some light?

I think of weight loss as a series of long flights of stairs, rather than a ramp. Every now and then, there's a landing to rest on. This gives your body time to adjust to the changes you're putting it through, and gives you a chance to "practice maintenance", until you're both ready to continue the climb. I know it doesn't seem so to you, but four weeks isn't that long, as plateaus go. And if you are indeed working your plan, then the weight WILL begin coming off again.

I've been experiencing the same problem that you are. I have been stuck around 202lbs - 210lbs for about a month now. I work out 5 days a week at a fitness boot camp [an intense workout where they are always changing what we do daily], and have just started counting my calories.

I'm planning on making some small dietary changes as well, working my BUTT off for two weeks and not weighing myself until two weeks from today. I'm hoping that if I work hard enough, make a few more changes and just stick to it I'll see some results and get out of this plateau.

Perhaps after a months stall, provided of course one is RELIGIOUSLY STICKING TO THE PLAN, it's time to adjust the plan. It could be that this plan is no longer providing you with a calorie deficit and this is what you need to do to MAINTAIN, for now. Perhaps. I personally would either lower my calories or increase the intensity or duration of my exercise or a combination of all of them. And if you're not already doing so, I would stick to whole foods, whole foods and more whole foods.

As far as Splenda and Pam having zero calories. Nope. That's a fallacy. The government is allows these companies to get away with saying that they are zero calories PER SERVING if they are under either 5 or 3 calories per serving (I forget which). The thing is their serving sizes are minuscule. For instance the Pam is like a 1 second spray per serving and most of us use way more than that.

Just a bit on Pam, this is from their site, it shows a 1 second spray actually has 7 calories http://www.pam4you.com/pages/product...inal/index.jsp

Interesting about the Pam... I didn't know that.

I will take a look this weekend for a digital scale, it should be about the same price in canada I hope.

It's not that I eat packaged foods (I used to, but I try to stay faaar away now). I am speaking more about let's say... if I have a slice of bread it tells you cals per slice or if I have some smoked ham, it tells me the amount of calories per slice, things like that.
Any whole foods like veggies and sliced fruit I measure out and then look up the cals online.

I know it is hard to get accurate calorie estimates, especially as I hear the calories shown are more than we think and I tend to Google a lot of items. A lot of us are probably eating less or more than we think when we jott down in our food journals. Is there any way to get around that?

There IS no way to 1000% accurately track calories. There just isn't.

Let's say a 6 ounce fuji apple has 80 calories, but if this PARTICULAR 6 oz apple is a sweeter one than the last one, well it may have a few more calories. So if your weights and measures are on target, there will still be some variables which we can not know about. For me, variables such as what I described has never been an issue and something tells me it isn't for you either. Again, as long as your measurements are accurate, I don't think this is why you are plateauing.

Have you considered taking your calories down to 1400 per day for two weeks?

This is part of the reason why I always eat the same things. Even if my calorie estimates are off, they are the same from week to week, so if I am losing weight, I have a deficit. If I stop, I don't have a deficit anymore. If I am too hungry to think straight, I have too much of a deficit.

I'd try lowering your calories and limiting starches and see how that goes.

I've been given that suggestion. That suggestion and also I should give it another bit and it should start moving on what I'm doing now.

If nothing budges by next week I will start lowering it to 1400. I'm on vacation that week though, so hopefully I can stick to it instead of zigg-zagging. If I can't then I will do it the week after when I am back to work and more on my usual schedule. I'm planning on traveling out of town and eating some awesome seafood, so I hope I don't splurge!!

What it should do is one thing, what it actually does is another. So if it shows that it's NOT doing it any longer, then how can one assume that it will or should?

I had plateaued through May, then this past month I started having higher calorie zig zag days on the weekends (I like my wine during the summer) very near maintenance calories for me (up to about 2800) and the weight is slowly coming off again. My normal weekday intake is around 1600-1800. The higher calorie weekend days are the only change I have made. I'm not saying it will work for everyone, but it's working for me at the moment.

I just broke through a three week "mini" plateau today So I wanted to share what I did. By no means, am I saying this will work for you as everyone is different.
For the three weeks I stuck to my plan of 1400-1500 calories and saw no change. This past weekend I took two days "off" and ate around maintenance levels (2000 - 2200). I allowed myself what ever I wanted within reason, then I made a regretful post about it on 3fc, LOL Starting Monday, I cut my calories down to 1300- 1400 and increased my exercise, doing a DVD at a higher intensity than usual. After two days, I broke through and I am down a pound and a bit today..finally.

I would say, stick with your plan a bit longer and if you don't see results, change it up a bit to get things moving.. Good luck, I know it can be frustrating .