Today is my 3-week mark, and I'm feeling discouraged. My first week I lost 6 pounds, then nothing the last two weeks! A month ago I was eating junkfood every day and not exercising. Now I exercise every day, drink at least 64oz of water every day, and I'm counting points. With all these changes, I thought the pounds would be dropping off. What am I missing? Maybe more water???

Are you eating all of your points? If you are....are you eating at least a little of your activity points?

If you can post your typical day we might be able to help you a bit more

This would be a pretty typical day for me:

25-minute tae-bo video (I do this 3 days/wk, walk 2 days/wk)

24oz water on the drive to work

2 cups coffee with fat-free creamer

Breakfast: Kashi GoLean Cereal w/skim milk

20oz water

Lunch: chicken salad sandwich (low-fat mayo, lite bread)
1 serving baked potato chips
diet soda

snack: 1 serving fruit

snack: low-fat popcorn

24oz water on the drive home from work

Dinner: 3oz chicken or pork
vegetables
beans
8oz water/tea/diet soda

snack: frozen yogurt w/fat-free whipped topping

...My point range is 24-29, so I have been aiming for 26. Sometimes I will have a couple left over, which I will bank for the weekend.

Take a step back. From here it looks like you're averaging two pounds a week ... and that's excellent! I think it's Heather who says weight loss is not linear. It fluctuates. Hover, wobble, drop ...

You keep doing what you're doing and it'll drop again soon. Really it will.

On a personal level ... I don't think I could eat those baked chips, too salty for me. The water thing ya know?

Here's an amazing thread with tips on why you may not be losing weight..

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show....php?p=2618415

It does look like you are on track. Hang in there and keep doing what you are doing! Maybe try to substitute the baked chips for some kind of fresh veggies? If I tend to eat too much sodium (the chips and popcorn pop out in the same day) I hang onto my water for the next few days.

Have you taken measurements yet? If not I'd suggest doing so. I take them every month & even the months where I don't lose as much on the scale I'm still losing a good bit in inches

It will come off! Like Susan has said...weight loss is not linear. If it was that would be awesome! It would not discourage so many women....we are very much into instant gratification A 2 pound a week loss for 3 weeks is fantastic!

It is very frustrating to go thru what you are going thru. My first week I lost 4 pounds. Second week I gained 1 pound and the third week I lost one or two. So all in all I think you are doing better then I did.

One thing to remember is you may be building muscle tone with your exercise. So the fat may be shrinking and the muscle gaining.

Just keep going! You will see and feel your body changing. You will feel better about yourself and you will be healthier all together. The scale and measurements are just part of the puzzle. Look around at the other pieces too when things get hard! You can do it!!!

I'm glad I came across this thread. I'm feeling the same way. I've been working out 5 days a week for 1 1/2 hours/day, eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry and drinking lots of water. Still the scale isn't moving fast enough for me. I'm guestimating that I weighed 200lbs when I started 16 days ago. Now I weigh 194lbs. I really want to get to 150lbs by June 21st, but with approx 11 weeks to go, that will be approx. 4lbs/week! Maybe I'll change my goal to whatever weight gets me a 'normal' BMI (169lbs?). Anyway, I really feel your pain. I just keep telling myself to keep at it and you should too!

Folks, let's keep this in perspective. First off, weight loss is NOT linear...some weeks you'll lose more, some weeks you won't lose or will even pick up a pound or two. It is unrealistic to expect that weight will drop in a consistent amount, day after day, week after week.

Second, a healthy rate of loss is somewhere from .5-2 lbs a week, depending on a whole lot of factors including your start weight, your unique metabolism, whatever. Right now, you're AVERAGING 2 lbs a week (6 lbs over 3 weeks). That's a high-healthy rate.

Give it a couple weeks and give yourself a break.

Thanks everyone for your words of wisdom an encouragement; I have some things to mull over now. I don't have chips every day, but a few times a week, so I'll try to be more aware of having variety in my meal combinations. I'll keep on truckin and keep you posted!!!!

I read recently that diet soft drinks are linked to weight GAIN. The studies are pretty conclusive; however, the researchers weren't sure about the cause for the weight gain. One of the concerns was that diet soft drinks may have a slowing effect on the metabolism. You may want to research it.

I just checked out a couple sites, one being WebMD, which confirmed the link between diet soda and weight gain. I'm so bummed because I love Diet Mountain Dew!!!! Well, maybe I will just save it for the weekends and stick to H2O during the week. Thanks for the info!