Hi everyone!

for me it has been a long journey of being obese but quite a short time for losing it. one day i decided that im done with being fat and at age 19 i started a life style change. i started counting fat grams and doing exersice and ibe been able to lose close to 65 pounds for july 2008- about 8 months...

for the past 2 months i havent been loosing anything althoght i keep doing everything as usual and its become frustrating! my goal is to lose another 36 pounds and get to 100 pounds lost exactly! i want to give up but i owe myself to try and keep going!

any words of wisdom?

Look at how far you've come already....why on earth would you turn back now?? And what would happen if you gave up? I'll tell you, because I've been there many times--you will not only be back where you started, but even worse off.

STAY THE COURSE!!

You are young--be glad you are doing it NOW as opposed to when you are in your 40's (like me).

exactly - be grateful you've gotten a handle on it at a young age! it's a total drag to waste 20++ years of your life for no reason!!! Maybe just maintain for a while - don't think about losing, just focus on NOT GAINING, and then slowly see what you can introduce, as in - a bit more exercise? a few less treats? etc., but whatever you do, don't give up and don't go back -- in my mind, even maintaining a bigger weight is a VICTORY -- anything that's not going UP is good!

I am almost exactly at the same point as you - lost 70, want to lose 30 more, but am stalled for a while here.
But try to look at it this way - first of all you have lost 65 lbs - woo-hoo!! That's quite an accomplishment, and if you look back at where you started I'm sure you feel very different. Be proud of yourself.
You are still on your journey. A lifestyle change isn't an overnight thing. You are going to have challenges. Of course you are not going to give up on yourself, why would you? Even if you never lost another pound, wouldn't you rather be where you are now, than where you were when you started?
So, the things that worked when you started, aren't necessarily working now. You'll need to do some tweaking to your plan, keeping in mind that any changes you make should be things you can keep doing for the long term. Try to take the focus off the pounds for now, and focus on establishing healthy lifetime habits. Keep in mind that while you are trying to lose, you are also learning how to maintain weight loss and that is very important too! It's too easy to lose sight of the big picture and just focus on that scale. You have done really well, and if you keep at it, those pounds WILL come off eventually.

THere is your problem. You are doing a great job. But...you need to add some variety to what you are doing. Your body is just becoming accustomed to what you have been doing. Time to change up the work up (intensity/activities) About every 4-6 weeks you should shake up your work out plan to really see improvements. The same thing goes with your meal plan....re-evaluate what you are eating and adjust slightly.

Good luck!!!

I agree, change things up a little. Try a new workout routine. The weather is getting warmer, try getting outside for a hike on some nature trails around you, or take up a spinning class or something. Go check out a cookbook at the library and try a couple of new recipes, (if you offer to cook it for your parents, they might buy all the food...lol) or you can fine tons of great recipes online. I'd recommend staying away from the scale for a little bit too. Maybe not weigh for 2 weeks, and just concentrate on how much better you feel and all the changes you have made overall. Plateaus are normal, but they have this bad habit of popping up after you've become accustomed to seeing the numbers move consistently. You'll get there!

I've been listening to the Jillian Michaels weekly podcasts . . . if you're interested, you can find them here.

She often answers questions relating to plateaus, and her answers often go something like this:

(1) Are you weighing/measuring/tracking EVERYTHING you are eating? What does your calorie consumption look like?

(2) How does your consumption compare to your BMR (you can find this online) and to your BMR adjusted for your activity level?

Based on the answers to the above questions, she sometimes recommends dropping the calories (if the caller has lost a lot of weight and hasn't reduced their calorie intake to reflect their lower BMR) . . . and sometimes recommends increasing the calories (if the caller is eating below their BMR, which she says can result in metabolic slowdown).

Like other posters have suggested, she also often recommends varying the type of exercise and increasing the intensity . . . although she also says that failure to take adequate rest days and/or eat enough on days that you work out can slow down or stall weightloss.

Congratulations on your loss thus far. How marvelous!

But I agree with the others, it sounds as if it might be time to change things up a bit.

You're not as heavy as you used to be, therefore it's going to be harder to create a calorie deficit, which is needed in order to keep on losing weight. Your body is smaller now and it requires less calories to live. In fact as you keep on decreasing in size, you'll have to keep on changing things a bit to accomodate it.

So you're most likely going to have to reduce your calories or increase your intensity or duration of your exercise, or a combination.

Giving up is not an option! You've come too far and have more things you want to accomplish. How I wish that I would have taken care of my weight when I was your age. Keep forgeing ahead. You deserve to live the very best life that you can.

Echoing what others have said... don't give up and go back, you'll just undo all your hard work. This is something you have to stick to for life or you will gain it back plus some. I'm another 40-something that encourages you to keep going with the healthy lifestyle so you can enjoy a strong body while you are young. I really regret all the years I spent heavy and unable to enjoy life like I should have. Be patient, hang in there! I can't tell you how many times I've gotten frustrated and the next week I would see a loss.

You have been given some great advice so I won't repeat them. I will repeat, You are doing great! Don't give up! Keep going! What will happen if you don't keep going? If you are like me, that means you will start gaining. You have worked too hard to let that happen. Try some of the advice above and keep going. You can do this!