Hi everyone!!

I'm new so I thought I would introduce myself and my dieting difficulties. I'm 26 years old, just finished law school and am preparing myself for the Bar Exam at the end of July...

In the mean time I am finding myself at my heaviest weight ever, and struggling to bring it back down. I've never had this much problem trying to lose weight!! I normally eat decently healthy and work out on occasion ...but recently I find myself counting EVERY calorie, eating a very healthy well balanced low calorie diet, drinking a bunch of water, and working out religiously....and not a pound... NOT ONE!!!

I have a friend who is a nutritionist and even she is a bit stumped .... so I thought I would join a blog, track my daily eating and work out habits so i can really see them on "paper" and possibly get some suggestions.

I took the bar too. WHile studying for the exam, I continued to work out and eat right. My friend did the same. I lost weight, she gained. She went to the doctor, who told her that stress will affect your hormones, which affects weight loss/gain. Maybe it is the stress....

Welcome, SkinnyGirl! And congrats on finishing law school!

So I've seen other people on 3FC post similar questions, and one of the logical follow-ups is, how accurately do you track your calories? Do you use a food scale? Do you make most of your own food at home or do you eat out a lot and guesstimate the calories? Do you count every bite or taste that goes in your mouth (I tend to sneak tastes of peanut butter and jelly when I make lunch for my kids -- diet killers for sure!). Just food for thought as to whether or not you are actually hitting your calorie target.

Secondly, how many calories are you eating?

If you are counting accurately, and your calorie intake is reasonable (of course, what is "reasonable" is a constant topic of discussion on 3FC), then a visit to the MD certainly wouldn't hurt. Just to rule out thyroid issues, PCOS, etc.

I have found that recording everything I eat (I use fitday.com, which I like; there are several others, including sparkpeople.com and dailyplate.com) really helps. I can't imagine how many calories I was eating every day before I started recording.

Good luck with all that studying!

I am wih Califiona on this, I think stress could be a big part of your problem Skinnygirl. I know it can get very frustrating especially if you feel that you are doing things right. Please hang in there, I would recommend to try staying at your current weight until you take your exam, perhaps then it would be easier to concentrate on your weight loss.
Good luck with taking the Bar Exam!!

Best wishes,

Caribbean Girl