I've been dieting and exercising for about 3 weeks now, trying to lose 40ish pounds. I keep my calories between 1200-1400, and I'm certain that I'm counting right. I've done this numerous times before! For the past 2 weeks, I'm tracking every single bite I eat or sip I drink; exercising with pilates 3 times a week, cardio 3 times a week. I was feeling good about myself, but I realized my pants were not fitting any looser. I tried to justify this as my imagination, but yesterday, we had a health assessment at work. I'm still the exact same weight I was when I began - even a couple pounds higher!

What on earth could I be doing wrong?

If it matters, the weight I put on was during a failed pregnancy. I've heard pregnancy weight is harder to lose.. Is that the issue?

Or maybe my age just caught up to me, and I can't lose as easily as I could as a teenager

It could just be that your body is still adjusting to the changes you've made...always takes me a couple weeks to start seeing any losses after making changes to my program. But then, maybe you aren't working out as hard as you could...do you have a HRM? I highly recommend that you get one, one that can track calories burned, so you know exactly how many calories you are burning. Can you give us some more information? Height, weight? Maybe you are eating too few calories?

If you're eating that little and gaining weight, the first thing I would do is see a doctor for some blood tests. You've probably heard of conditions that can lead to weight gain, like hypothyroidism, and it doesn't hurt to make sure.

You've probably also heard this before, but the fact that you've "done this numerous times before" does not bode well. It's a lot harder to lose weight after you've regained it a few times, because your muscle mass decreases each time you diet and the pounds that replace them are fat. Maybe try some resistance training in addition to Pilates to recover that muscle?

MonteCristo, I'm 5'4 and I weigh about 170. My typical weight is around 130, and I try to not let it get above 140. :-) Usually I maintain successfully in that area without trying to watch what I eat terribly closely.

I will say, up until I began to change my eating habits, I was not eating well. Depression over the circumstances kind of left me in a slump for a few months, and I actually think I probably gained about 10 pounds after losing the baby. The diet could be as little as half what I had been eating, but it's enough that I do not feel hungry typically.

tkm256, I had my blood taken yesterday for the assessment, so that should give me at least a few statistics to look at. I know my thyroid was slightly off last time it was checked, but subsequent tests showed that it was only slightly slower than normal.

By numerous times, I really just mean 10 pounds or so. I did weigh a fair bit more in high school, and I lost a lot of weight. Since then, I've never gained nearly as much as I have this time with the pregnancy. Usually I maintain my weight at 130, and whenever it gets up to 140 because of vacations or holidays or whatever (which might happen once every year or two), I diet for a few weeks and I get back down to normal.

If anyone has any other questions, please ask away. I'm dying to figure out what's causing my weight to stay stable this high... I don't feel comfortable in my skin right now, and that's a terrible way to feel.

I think your calorie consumption is pretty low. I'm 5 inches shorter than you, weigh 130, and most calorie calculators are telling me to be in the same range of calories you're consuming to lose weight even though I'm doing less exercise than you. If you're not eating enough, your body will often slow the rate at which fat is burned to protect you from what it perceives as starvation.

I know it seems counter intuitive to eat more than you normally do on a diet even though you're trying to lose more weight than ever before, but you need to up the calories. As you lose weight, then you reduce the amount of calories you eat. You might want to try sites like Fit Day or Livestrong to enter your age, height, weight, goal weight, exercise habits, etc, to get a good estimate of what you should be eating.

Also, women will naturally fluctuate up or down a few pounds depending on what time of the month it is because of water retention. Keep track of your period on a calender along with your weight to see if you can spot any patterns.

Make sure you're not eating a lot of prepackaged diet foods (protein bars, Lean Cuisine, canned soups, etc.) as all that sodium may be causing you to retain water.

I put your stats in my livestrong.com calculator. I put your activity level at "moderately active" and it came up saying you should consume around 1,600 calories to lose 2lbs per week. I don't know the intensity of your workouts, but when I change it to "very active" it comes up saying you should consume around 2,000 calories to lose 2lbs per week. So I would try upping your calories. Try 1,600 and see how that works for ya...then tweak from there. Hope it helps!! Good luck to ya!!

Thanks guys :-) I'll try upping the calories a little and see if it helps. I actually do eat some pre-packaged diet foods. I work for ConAgra, so I eat Healthy Choice meals for lunch almost every day at work. I also eat a lot of 100 calorie popcorn and granola bars as my snacks - when you buy everything for $1 or less a pack, it's hard to say no! Especially if it's pre-portioned and "diet." I think I'll bump my calories up a couple hundred and buy a scale to see if I can better track my fluctuations. If I don't see at least a couple pounds down in the next few weeks though, I'm going to go crazy!

I did get weighed during my time of the month, but it was towards the end of it, so I'm not sure if I'd be retaining water then. Most likely, I'll head out to Target tomorrow after work (TGIF), buy a scale, and see if I can see any real differences using the same weighing device. Maybe just the fact that I was fully clothed (for winter in MN!) and a little bloated from TOM and salt made me go up those couple pounds. We'll see :-)