Ive been doing my thing at the gym & trying to eat right for the last 3 weeks. there was some fluctuation in the beginning of a few lbs but mostly i haven't lost a thing. I kinda gave up on monday, my clothes dont fit (so the inches aren't coming off either) and im not losing anything. I stuck to another program months ago for 6 weeks, and i lost nothing.

Today, I hop on the scale (to torture myself?) and i lost a few lbs. havent been to the gym since sunday and i haven't eaten well. What gives? Why is my body so darn stubborn that it wont lose anything when i am trying and when i give up thats when it decides to lose something? And I know in a few days ill gave that back too.

I dont want to be fat anymore. I am so tired of it, and no matter what I do, and no matter how hard i try (i could stay at the gym for two hours and it doesn't make a difference) i cant break into the 60's. This sucks. And honestly its cruel.

It's likely that you weren't eating enough calories, that's why you had a loss after being off plan. What kind of plan are you following?

Oh I have to add, going to the gym makes a huuge difference! Your fitness level will just keep getting better, whether or not you lose any weight.

Are you following a real plan? Counting calories?

Going to the gym is great but you need to watch what you eat closely in order to lose weight consistently. Also weight loss is never linear as the scale is not a perfect measure of weight loss but it is useful for the overall trend.

I have been counting cals online. Most days i hover around 1500 i never went drastically over that.

Well 1500 is good and may be a bit on the low side for you. Did you count calories every day? Careful in your food measurements?

As I said, weight isn't linear and really I've had periods of a couple months where I didn't lose anything and then whoosh the weight started dropping.

I think if you're consistently staying at 1500, you're probably good for now, calorie wise.

Consider this - weight loss is NOT a line. It's a bunch of bumpy fluctuations all over the place which, if you do everything right, trends downward. We have a great "why the scale fluctuates" thread here: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115826

Sometimes when you start a new exercise regimen, you hold onto water while losing fat. In this case, you stopping exercise would cause that water-weight to drop as the swelling in your muscles went down. This is normal and a necessary part of your muscles getting stronger.

Hormones are another option...depending where you are in your cycle, your weight can go up and down. It doesn't have to be bloating due to TOM or PMS. My personal trend is that I bloat up 2 weeks before my period, drop some the week before, bloat up again during, drop the week after. It's one week on, one week off. Since I'm aware of it, I don't worry too much about it.

I can guarantee that the reason you dropped weight is because of the work you did for the three weeks, not the off-plan nature of the last few days. Our work doesn't always immediately show on the scale, but if you keep working, it will come off eventually.