I worked out daily, at least 45 min of cardio daily, 30 min weights every other day, I ate mostly clean, a few cheat meals as I was on vacation, my tummy felt slimmer BUT I got home, got on the scale and I lost maybe .5 lbs from all of the effort... I've been "off" plan for months, regained, and sadly am losing the same weight all over again. I finished a rough year, rough divorce and am looking forward to losing for life this round, no more emotional eating... it's just I wanted to see progress.

We all have those weeks. Usually, it'll come off later. Sometimes it takes the scale a while to catch up.

But, we need a little more info to even possibly answer you question.
1) How much weight have you lost so far, this time around?
2) Define "a few cheat meals."
3) What plan are you following? (cals, carbs, how much per day, etc.)
4) Define "mostly clean."
5) Do you measure along with weighing?

I'm sure the maintainers can throw in some more clarification questions.

Be sure to read the sticky at the top of the page about scale fluctuations.

This question is asked constantly on this board (almost daily), and you are often looking at 3 things.

1. Water weight playing a role (due to working out more, girl stuff, sodium over the last couple of days, etc.)

2. Overestimating what you should have lost if you are working mostly on exercise and not diet (especially if you are not counting calories, it is easy for them to sneak up).

From reading your post I'm going to take a guess and say it's some of both 1 and 2. Don't stress about it, don't think in time horizons of a week.

Focus on good behaviours daily and the results will come when they come, not according to any made-up timetable we all tend to create in our heads.

I agree it is frustrating, but I suck at the empathy part, others can fill that gap for me

I think that there underlined statement could be the reason, no? It doesn't take much overeating to wipe out any calorie deficit created by exercise, really it doesn't. Having a single solitary cheat meal every now and then is a maintenance strategy that some people use. But as far as a weight loss strategy, much more consistency is needed. But than again, you did lose 1/2 a lb. In order to see the more progress you are looking for, that will require more diligence.

If you plan to "cheat", which to me isn't cheating but living your daily life by making adjustments, then a few meals won't make much difference - unless your meals were a few many calories at a whack.

Planning is everything. I didn't go off plan at all this week and still didn't lose on the scale - I know it will show up as a rapid weight loss soon, but it's still very frustrating. My ongoing reward has to be that I am eating and exercising and sticking with my plan of living a healthy life FOR LIFE.

It will come off, just keep doing what you're doing. I'm on one of those, lasted all this week. Today I weighed myself and I went down by .8 (almost a pound). So, that tells me it's going to, but it's very slow for some reason (sodium, could be ToM, whatever else). Pretty much anything can cause the scale to not budge or go up and down.

Myself, I am eager to get off of 230 and get to 229. It's a weird goal. Once I get to 228 then it's 10lbs loss!!

Use this to motivate yourself to work harder. For me this was trying two new machines at the gym, one of them makes me sweat insanely and works my muscles to death. If this hadn't happened then I wouldn't have found any motivation to try something different.

Yes the "cheat" meals were more then I likely thought... french fries, carb rolls, some wine. I'll have to do a major clean up to lose weight I'm sure. I signed up for a 12 week Body for Life Challenge starting today, well actually kinda starting last week but since it wasn't a "clean" week I'll call that my "pre" challenge week. I did this challenge before and it worked, it's hard and makes you focus. But I then went through a horrid divorce, had depression issues and simply let myself go to heck. Upward onward we go

You called this thread "Why didn't I lose weight this week."

Then you told a story, the upshot of which is that you lost half a pound this week.

Sorry, what's the problem here? That half a pound is progress. It's not just half a pound lost - it's a pound or whatever that you didn't gain had you not been mindful of your eating this week. Remember that a healthy rate of weight loss is 0.5-2 pounds a week - some people work and struggle and never slip up and still don't lose more than 0.5 pounds in a typical week.

You went on vacation, had a few cheat meals, and still lost half a pound - you've got no reason to feel discouraged.

Someone suggested you read the sticky thread on fluctuations - please do so. Many people's fluid retention swings alone are large enough to mask an entire month's worth of fat loss.

And for that reason also, learn to take a longer-term and more realistic view. You didn't get fat in a week and you're not going to lose it in a week either. You can "gain" half a pound by drinking a glass of water - whether you gained or lost half a pound over some short time scale tells you absolutely nothing about whether your plan is working in the long term.

And for heaven's sake, celebrate when you're showing some loss on the scale - don't be discouraged by it!

Hey Horsey! I thought your divorce was awhile ago...? Anyway, you lost half a pound. Keep on going.

Jay

Jay it drug on and on and was finished in Aug, I flipped out and ATE, that's the hard cold truth. My ex stole from me, falsified documents, lied, you name it... what a way to end it huh. I don't know why I chose self destruction but I guess you might call it a combination of grieving and hurt and shock and... at least when I was eating, not caring, destroying I knew it and realized one day I'd be "back." The jewish people have a tradition of grieving I think 3 months, maybe 4 so I gave myself that I guess, 3-4 months to not care. There was better ways to deal with it all and obviously food was my addiction, comfort. Anyways I balooned up to 200 lbs, bought a scale because I didn't believe mine. I'm tall so I guess until that I was able to cover up the increase in weight mostly. But at THAT horrid weight, weight of after having my boy five years ago I realized it's time to wake up. So I'm down 4 lbs anyways from THAT mess. I'm going to be down 10 lbs by the end of this month and 30 lbs by the end of my challenge - ok at least 20 lbs in three months. I know how this works now at least.

You did lose .5 lbs and thats awesome. Keep doing what you are doing and it will add up in the long run

If I have a few cheat meals in a week I'm just hoping I don't gain 2 lbs! And honestly, I usually do!

0.5 lb loss is great if you weren't completely on plan. Drink up your water, watch your calories (or whatever your plan is) and continue the exercise.

Like rockinrobin said, a few cheat meals can easily wipe out the extra calories you burned with exercise. When I do 30 mins cardio and 30 mins strength in one workout session I generally burn between 300-500 calories. Let's say it's an intense workout and you burn 600. Well, a burger and fries dinner is probably around 1000-1500 so there goes your effort.

Just food for thought.

Don't let this discourage you. You might lose double what you expected next week. That's how it works sometimes!

Keep up the great work!