I started my newest weight loss journey January 1st of this year and was losing 1 lb every two days....its now been a whole week and I havent lost even 1 lb!! Its just sooo frustrating, I eat 1300-1600 calories everyday and try to work out atleast 30 minutes everyday. Its a lot of work, as you all well know, to write down all my meals everyday and workout. So its depressing to not see a change on the scale for a whole week. When I told my boyfriend about my frustrations he told me to go get a personal trainer bc he doesnt know what to tell me...being that he can drop weight like its his job. (stupid boys and their weight loss abilities haha) Any advice?? OR better yet, have any of you had this happen but then suddenly starting losing quickly again?? (that would be very good to hear )

Dont worry, be consistant and the pounds will drop, since last week my weight was at 136 not budging this morning it dropped to 134. Dont let those number discourage you

Hey,

I have not been a calorie counter, but one thing I do know about exercise is you need to make sure you are exercising at a heart rate that encourages your body to burn fat. Maybe see about getting a decent - but less expensive heart rate monitor. They make ones that look like a wrist watch - so you know you are reaching the level of 'fat burning' that you want to see. There is a formula to determine that heart rate online - the american heart association has one on their site. That way you know you are getting as much as you can from that 30 minutes! As for personal trainers, they help, but they are much more expensive and sometimes are too salesman-y to feel comfortable. Hope that helps!

1lb every 2 days is alot to loose, it could have just been water weight you were losing so quickly, just keep at it, it can be discouraging but don't give up. Maybe try upping your calories for a few days and see if that helps, 1300-1600 seems a little on the low side to me, try maybe 1600-1800 for a week and see what happens?

ManticCherry- Thanks for the advice, I might have to look into a heart rate monitor. As for a personal trainer...I def. dont have the time or money for one. That and I dont think I would feel comfortable even having one as of yet.

Trixie- I saw a thread about upping calories, and I guess it wouldnt hurt to atleast try it. Thanks!

My guess is that you were losing a lot of water weight over your first couple of weeks on plan, and if you were weighing every day you got a lot of positive feedback from the scale. But it's natural for weight loss to slow down, to more reasonable levels (what that will be for you will take some time, ON PLAN, to figure out). Now that positive feedback isn't there, but don't freak out! If you're on plan, eating within your calories and exercising, your body will eventually let go of the weight.

The public hears a lot about "1-2 pounds weekly," but many people find it doesn't work that way for them personally. Some people lose pound one week, then gain a pound the next week, then have no loss or gain the next, then lose three or four pounds all in one week. Other people are steady at pound a week. Still others have different weight loss patterns. A lot of this for women is influnced by our cycle, so that's always something to consider.

The point is, we are not in charge of the scale. We ARE in charge of what, and how much, we put in our bodies. We're in charge of exercise. If you're on plan, and being honest with yourself, don't worry about the scale for a while.

Personally, I weight every morning but only count and record my weight once a week. MyPlate puts it into a nice little line graph for me. This has really helped me not to get too overwhelmed or obsessed with numbers, but over a lot of weeks (and I've been doing this for a while! ) I have enough data to see a clear downward trend over time. Some weeks I've bounced up, some weeks I've whooshed down, but over the last year I see a clear downward line.

You're doing great, staying on plan! Don't get discouraged because of a piece of electronic equipment. You can do this!

I hope this doesn't sound discouraging, and just to clarify my previous post . . . a 1 pound loss every 2 days is not realistic or sustainable for anyone not on a reality show. An average of 4-8 pounds a month IS realistic and sustainable.

Again, this isn't to discourage you, but to make you think about your own weight loss goals. A lot of us have found that motivation (feelings) comes and goes, but commitment to making good choices - no matter what the scale says - gets us through the hard times.

I already feel better by just getting feed back from you girls... thank you very much. Im really glad I found this site... because in the past, a day like today would involve making terrible food decisions and I would just feel bad for myself. Instead, I read your comments, tweaked my calorie intake and now Im off to go work out . again, Thank you!!

Weight loss will vary , even when we are consistant. Generally we lose fastest at the beginning. Just hang in there, do not get discouraged, it will happen.

It is nice to see a drop on the scale every day - this is why I have a scale that measures in 0.1 increments

But even with those, I saw no loss over the last 5 days - it had been 143.8 on Monday, then went back up to 144 and stayed there. But this morning it was 143.4.

Some people might tell you not to weigh every day. Weighing every day is fine provided you understand that some days you won't see a loss, and some days you might even see a gain.

Whilst I weigh every day, I log my weights on Mondays, and for me that is the important weight - so long as it goes down every week, even a little bit, I am happy. My goal at the moment is 1 lb a week - anything more than that is a bonus.

Stick with it and you WILL see a loss - I promise you.

Get depressed, and cheat, and you probably won't.

Yep. Weight loss is not linear, even if you're on plan. My body has shown me over the past 7 months that I will stall for 2-3 weeks and the have huge whoosh during the fourth week, even though I've changed nothing. Don't give up, hang in there, and it will start to move again!

So glad I came here and read this today. I too was getting every discouraged because I knew I was sticking to my diet. I started my diet 01-01-11. I lost 5 lbs really fast. Then I lost another two lbs slower. I have been losing and gaining the same pound for the past week. I was thinking about going lower in my calorie intake but was told it might low me down even more. I do know I have to step up my exercise but am happy to know I am not alone and this does happen even when you do everything right. I need to make it a point of coming on here at least once a day. Thank you guys. I feel very encouraged.

A no-loss or even an occasional gain week isn't at all unusual. Every month I gain 6-10 lbs during TOM week (and it's gone the next week). I also tend to lose in "whooshes." No weight loss for a few weeks and then a drop of a couple pounds.

Frustration is a result of reality not meeting your expectations. Change your expectations, and you can remove the frustartion.

Every diet I ever abandoned it was because of frustration. I felt like I was constantly failing, when I was actually succeeding, (just at a slower speed than I felt I was entitiled to for the effort I was putting in). When I wasn't getting the results I wanted (and yet was working as hard as I could) I felt cheated and unable to succeed. I had to change my expectations.

Slow progress is progress and one week without a loss is perfectly normal, and is not failure.

Keep going. It seems like a lot of peeps on here (especially the ones who weigh every day, like me) can pinpoint patterns on their loss, but mine is totally random. I guess my body is freaky. I can lose 1lb a week, 4lbs in a week, nothing for two to three weeks then a whoosh, and I have gained 1 then lost it the next day, then back up .5lb or so.

Aww. You are doing great dont get discouraged. I'm not sure if this will help you any but we are of similar height and weight. I'm not sure how sedentary you are. I am extremely sedentary both in my job and my volunteerisms. Its truly a treat for me when I can break away from obligations to do my excercise. Anyways, I started in the same caloric range at 30 minutes of excercise per day and I stopped losing very soon after. Bringing my calories down to under 1400 and upping my walk time to an hour each time has helped.