Ok, I think it's official. It's been 16 days on plan at 1500 calories or less (only 2 days did I go over slightly) and my weight has stayed basically the same. I started at 143, dipped to 142 and have gone back and forth for the past 2 weeks. The last week I've been pretty steady at 142, so I suppose I could count a 1lb or 1/2 lb loss, but for the most part, I think my weight loss has officially stalled. I should mention I got to 143 around October 19th, but I took little break at the end of the month while I was on vacation. I restarted at 143 still on Nov 1.

What should I do? Should I cut my calories down even more? I am already trying to up my exercise the best I can, but I have a pretty busy week with lunch meetings this week AND the gym by my work is closed, so I think I will have to stick with yoga classes and try to get a run in on Friday only.

I did so well my first month, losing 9 lbs without much exercise...so this is pretty discouraging to me and I also hate staring at my goal of being 125 by New Years as there is no way I am going to make that now...that was if I was continuing to lose 2 lbs per week. I think I am going to delete it as it's just discouraging me. Now I'll be happy to be down to 135 by New Years.

Advice? All my food is logged in the calorie counting thread and I can paste some of it over here if you guys want to see what I am eating.

I don't exercise as much as I should (although last week I made it to yoga 4 days in a row) as I have a busy corporate type job and I go to graduate school at night. I get home so late I can barely get 7 hours of sleep, so I am sorry, getting up early to go to the gym is NOT feasible for me. When I do not have lunch meetings, I can go at lunch time though. I tried to go yesterday and the gym was closed due to flooding, so now I will have to walk to a furthur gym. But, the plus side is, even though I don't get a crazy amount of exercise, I walk everywhere as I live in a large city. I take a train and then walk to work and anywhere else I want to go during the work day (lunch, shopping, school, conferences) is a walking.

OK, I was in the middle of trying to capatilize that L in the thread title and something I hit on the keyboard caused this to post. Not sure if it can be fixed.

dont worry so much about the exercise---- you walk ALOT and that is prob plenty of activity... have you ever worn a pedometer to track exactly how mUCH you walk a day? They are very inexpensive and might be worth your while/money. At this point i would really just focis on the diet (of courswe, getting in exercise when you CAN). The diet is the key anyway. Maybe its time to drop your cals a little-- only you know the answer to that. Also, i dont know if you weigh your food or not, or if you DID in the beginning, but if you arent currently weighing your portions, i would DEFINITELY do that BEFORE you start dropping your calories. Get a digital scale, if you dont have one, and weigh EVERYTHING you put in your mouth, for a week or so-- including veggies!! Make sure you account for splenda, PAM, I cant believe its not butter spray, SF gum... all those add up, suprisingly fast, especiallyif you use all those products ( I do!)
Give being obssessive and meticualte about counting for a week..... you might find you are eating more than you think (due to portions creeping up in size, or whatever)

Ok this may sound crazy and dont hate me if it doesnt work. BUT from the 20938423984 posts on 3fc about being "stuck" I have read that so many people got out of it from a big calorie day. If you have enough guts to (I am not even sure if I would) up your calories to say, 1800 tomorrow. Then weigh yourself the next day and see how the scale responds. It sounds crazy but it gets your body out of the norm. It gets used to a set amount of calories after awhile. I have seen so many people get out of their ruts this way! Just a thought. But its up to you

You are less than 20 lbs away from goal, if you say you don't exercise much I'd bring down your calories to around 1300 and see how that works for you.

Thank you all! I realize now how truly whiney my post sounds, jeez...I think I have some PMS playing into all this as I've felt super anxious/lousy the past few days.

Mykroyer: I don't have a pedometer but I sometimes put my routes into Google. I know I get at least 2 miles of walking a day, sometimes a lot more. I've never added up short distances like walking to starbucks, lunch, etc. but if I go shopping far away or for a walk, or to the gym I add that. Yesterday I walked an extra mile to the gym and back. I don't own a food scale, and actually think I might be underestimating my calories. You are right and it's probably time for me to buy one and see for sure.

Dianne - I've seen that around here too...I know I definatly went over my calories Sat though. I was at 1300 and then went out for drinks and nibbled on appetizers. I probably did got up to 1800 that day with a glass of sangria and some potato wedges. Sunday the scale was the same. I was hoping it would have kickstarted my metabolism! I also was hoping that break I had in there at the end of October would have done the same...but apparently not. Maybe I will try the calorie cycling again. I do think my metabolism is adjusting...I'm certainly not as hungry as I was when I started all this at the end of September.

beerab - I know I am close to goal but it's just very hard for me to eat at 1200-1300 for several days in a row. I agree with you that this is probably where I need to be to see more of a loss. But then I worry I am going to have to maintain at 1500 for the rest of my life and I don't think I can do that.

I don't exercise a ton - I do pretty hard yoga twice a week for 90 minute classes. Last week I had off work so I was able to make 2 bikram yoga classes too. The yoga i do is hard - we do things like stand on our heads for 5 minutes and it takes a lot of strength. I know i don't burn a ton of calories, but I am hoping it does something. I was running but it made me unable to keep my calories at 1500 and I wasn't losing weight so I stopping in August. I was so hungry when I was running, I could eat a big plate of food and I would just burn through it and my stomach would be growling an hour or two later. I want to give it another try though and see if it can help kick start my metablism again.

I think maybe I will look at my plan...this week and next week are a bit off due to meetings this week and the holiday next, but I think I will redesign my plan and see if I can add consistent running on 1500 days and stick at 1200-1300 on other days.

Thanks everyone.

I'm a fairly new feather and don't quite claim the status yet, BUT I stall a lot. A two week stall is nothing for me. My pattern is to lose big one week and stall three weeks. I hate it, but it's gotten me pretty far. Just as I start to lose my mind I drop again.

Your calories MAY be too high. I hate that. I can tell you at 5'4" I maintain at 1200. It seems I'm pretty rare, but I have to eat 1000 at this point to see any results. But I'm not convinced I'm right about that for you because two weeks after such a great month's loss really doesn't indicate high calories to me. It sounds like your body is just trying to figure itself out.

In the past when I have stalled, I had to change my workouts. Either try something completly different, run, faster, longer, lift weights, etc. Anything to change up your body and confuse your muscles more. If you stick with the same workout, you can only go so far, especially if you have your eating in check.

Eliana do you exercise when you eat at 1000?

I am wondering if adding exercise will help me...I know diet is the main factor in weight loss, so sometimes I think what's the point in exercising when all it does is make me hungrier?

oh Mitza, i didn't see your post until after my previous one. The exercise component does make sense to me, so this works for you?

Yes, I do. But trust me, my body simply doesn't require that many calories. Most do. I recommend eating a calorie deficit your body will lose with. You were at 1500, so maybe try 1400.

If I work out too much (26 mile bike ride, double spin classes) then I have to eat more. My body lets me know. But on 1000 calories I do just fine doing one spin class M/W/F and lifting an hour T/TH. I also sometimes throw in a run in the evenings without increasing my calories. Again though, I can't emphasize enough that I listen to my body. I know what low blood sugar feels like and I don't like it.

Wildflower - Yes...perfect example. When I was younger in college, I lost a lot of weight from working out all the time and eating healthy. But I got to a point for weeks where I would work out for over an hour a day, 6 days a week and nothing would change. I started adding in more weight lifting and the cardio I would do would be different. So if you only run or do yoga, why don't you try swiming, kickboxing, etc. After a week or two of doing something different, you should notice a difference.

You body gets accustomed to what you are doing and after awhile, it becomes less effective unless you continue to challenge yourself. Try that and see if that works. Also if you are really hungry after a work out and you don't want to add a bunch of calories, drink a glass of milk. This helps curb any cravings for me and I dont have to chow down right away

I wouldn't lower your calories just yet. Of that 9 pounds you lost, a few were probably water weight -- that initial whoosh. So you may be losing "actual" weight, but it's being hidden by a levelling out of your fluid level (if that makes sense). Give it a couple more weeks -- I bet you'll be losing again. (caveat: that your 1500 calories are accurate).

Do you know your balance of carbs/fat/protein? I don't go low-carb, it's just not my nature , but if I want to see the scale move, I try to eat more protein (30%+).

hey Wildflower,

I'm in a similar boat as you. My weight doesn't budge. My personal trainer says I have to be patient and wait, because for a while I was eating too much (whatever I did to cause the weight gain) and so even though I'm eating much less now, my body is holding on to it because it thinks I'm starving (or something like that...). He says to hold out for a while and soon my body will adjust, and I'll see a loss.

But it's so frustrating. I've gone super low-carb, to see if that speeds things up a bit. only fruits and veggies for carbs. And I try to eat lots of protein.

I would also love to be in the 120s by New Year's, but I don't know if that's going to happen... but I know that once I'm comfortably in the 130's, I'll start to feel a lot better about everything. Once we've lost a bit of weight, we'll be motivated by it, and everything will get easier. Our stomachs will shrink a bit, and eating less will become easier. This is all something I tell myself, so that I don't give up!

Anyway, no real advice here, just letting you know I know how you feel.

You guys are the best, thank you so much for the feedback and help!!!

Same 7 lbs - Can you explain to me this concept of initial weightloss being water weight? I've heard so many here say that but I just don't get it. Unless you are not eating a lot or drinking a lot, what would cause your body to suddenly (and apparently permanently) lose water? And why does this even out? Doesn't water weight always come into play, if you don't stay hydrated or on the other hand eat a lot of salt? I would think it would always impact your weight, not just at the beginning of starting a diet?

I don't know my mix of carbs/protien. I would guess I am fairly high on the carbs. I eat vegetarian, so I find low carb dieting hard to achieve without loading up on veggie burgers and other soy products. Which tastes ok and is filling, but I worry about all that soy being bad for me.

Thanks Chicken Nugget...getting really frusterated with this all. My scale has been the same to the ounce (or tenth of a pound I suppose is what that really is) for a week now. 142.8. Even 142.5 would make me happy, I just want to see the scale change. How can it stay EXACTLY the same!!!

I was so sure it would be down this morning as after about 3-4 days of my ring being uncomfortably tight, last night all the water I am drinking kicked in and it finally went back to it's normal loose state. But still no change on the scale!!! That makes me worry I might be gaining....I mean, if I drink ton of water and flush all that out I would think it would have to be lower? Maybe all that water is still somewhat in my body...No idea.