Okay I started my journey in Oct,2010. (I been lurking for a long time).
5'5 and 255.

About 2 wks ago I hit 229 and have been stuck ever since.

MY loseit app told me 1550 calories a day. I eat that I dont lose. I dropped to 1450 and started loosing. But for the past 2 wks nothing. Should I drop it even lower to 1400??

I do go to the gym. I try 6 days a week but most of the time make it there 3-4 times. Each time I do cardio and burn about 200 calories.

I can stick to something if I see results every week even if its small ones but when I dont see results is when I start panicking.
And for the love of God dont tell me I am building muscle. I am not..lol
Please help.

Thank you

Congratulations on all your weight loss so far!

I am completely new to this, and so don't have enough experience to offer any advice. I am positive though that others here will be able to give you some very useful suggestions for getting your weight loss back on track, and I wish you even more success soon.

Great job on the weight loss! Hang in there, your body may still be adjusting, or perhaps you've just hit a small temporary plateau. Have you noticed any non-scale based changes, such as your clothes fitting better? When I started changing my habits back on Feb '10 at 239lbs, I realized the scale wasn't always the best way of gauging my success - so I would take my measurements as well on my weigh-in days, because more often than not my measurements would show a difference when the scale did not, or even showed an increase. Yeah it sucks seeing the same weight week after week, but if you're being true to your eating plan and working out, trust that you're making progress in some way or another

How do I work through a plateu?? Its so frustrating because everywhere else tells me I need to eat 1800+, Loseit put me at 1550 and I have to eat less than that to lose weight. Why cant I have a normal metabolism??

I am so depressed about this whole thing. No matter how much I try this is one thing I cant conquer

Can you post a typical days menu? It's hard to offer advice without knowing what you are eating. Diet is 80% of fat loss.

You're not stuck, two weeks is not stuck. Many people can go two or even three or four weeks without losing and then experience a large loss. Some people call this "losing in whooshes."

Even though I still weigh more than 300 lbs, I don't lose every week. I can easily go one, two, or even 3 or 4 without a loss). Also, I gain 8-10 lbs with my period every month. I suspect I'd gain at least 5 even if I ate nothing at all (as long as I was drinking water, because you can't retain what you haven't taken in).




This is impossible. You have to drop 3500 calories to lose a pound. That's 500 calories per week. You cannot drop only 100 calories and yield more than 2 ounces more weight loss. If you lost more than 2 ounces at 1450 calories, then you would have lost on 1500 calories too, if you'd given yourself a longer chance to.

What you eat might help some. Some people burn more calories on lower carb, but there's no way for dropping 100 calories to result in more than a few ounces difference.

You're jumping to conclusions because you expect weight loss to be steady and consistent. It isn't. You can do everything right and only see weight loss every three or four weeks. It's just the way it works. You can't say anything is or isn't working without at least a two month experiment.

Unless you're cutting your calories to ridiculously low levels (and sometimes even then), you may go one, two, or even three or four weeks without a weight loss. It can happen, and you've got to be prepared for it to happen.


You're going to have to learn not to be panic, because no diet (even eating nothing at all) can guarantee you results every week. Sorry. It's just the way it is. Your body doesn't function on a weekly schedule, and you can't force it to.

The weight of the food itself, and the amount of water your body is holding on to in order to function can stall weight loss and can even cause temporary weight gain.

There are som many factors that you can't decide something "isn't working" until you've tried it for at least two months (ideally even longer).

^^^ What Kaplods said! 2 weeks definitely isn't stuck. I was at the same weight for 2 months and now am losing again. Even that's not really much of a plateau. As much as we'd love it if it were, weight loss isn't as linear as "they" would have us believe. Yes, it's calories in/calories out, but there's a WHOLE LOT that takes place in between there. Our bodies aren't machines, they are living, changing, evolving, adapting organisms.

If you stay on plan, you will see a drop. Just keep on keeping on!

Hi there...Congratulations on what you have lost!...I also just wanted to add that when I first started losing weight back in January 2010 it took 6 weeks for me to even drop my first pound ( I was running every day) but once it started to come off it melted off pretty quickly...I know its dissapointing but this is part of the battle (the mental game with the scale)...you can beat it though!

Thank you guys. You are right, it is just so depressing because if the scale is not moving I feel like I am never going to get to my destination.

Okay breakfast :

Before it was a starbucks 100 calorie coffee, 2 kashi waffles with light strawberry cream cheese : 200 total 300
(Now my friend told me to drink 1 whey protein shake and 1 egg)

After gym: low fat fiber bar : 130

Lunch : salad (spinach chicken ranch) or one of the lean cuisine meals : 250 or so.
Sometimes 2 turkey sandwiches with ranch rice cakes : 200 or so.
Some dessert like low frozen yogurt or one of those 100 calories temptations.

Snack: Maybe another 100 cal coffee, pack 100 calorie cookies or fruit. Depends on how many calories I got left.

2nd snack: Peanut butter scoop 90 calories give or take.

Dinner: If I eat what I made the kids lot less quantity. If not salad again, or lean cusine meal or meat and veggies.

If I have anything left some low fat frozen yogurt.

That is pretty much it day in day out.

In addition to what has already been said, I have to say I see a lot of sodium in your typical day (Lean Cuisine meal, I'm assuming turkey luncheon meat, ranch rice cakes, etc). Maybe try cutting that back to see what happens.

Don't get discouraged by a couple of weeks without moving the scale! Keep at it, eat right, exercise and that scale will soon get moving again.

Are you super-busy, Bella? I'm guessing you are since you mentioned kids, but I also notice a pretty big number of pre-fab foods on your menu. Some people thrive on those, but others find that pre-packaged convenience foods aren't valuable weight-loss options. I know that on a 1500-calorie budget, I don't feel I have room for calorie-dense, nutrient-poor stuff very often; if I do have too many of such things, I notice a slow-down on the scale even if my calories stay the same.

If I could make one suggestion, it'd be to up the fruit and vegetable content of your daily plan. A rule of thumb I learned here and try to stick to is that no meal is complete without a vegetable or fruit, including snacks. And "vegetable" doesn't just mean salad, I finally learned--good thing, because I don't much like salads.

One other thing jumped out at me: you describe your second snack as a 90-calorie scoop of peanut butter, "give or take." If you're not measuring or weighing, you could be above your perceived intake of 1550 calories. If so, then an on-paper calorie reduction may not help much because you're still unsure of just what you're taking in.

If you track every morsel--and make sure that those morsels are as small as you think they are--you might find that you're actually well above your perceived intake. If you find that's been happening, be happy--that's a good thing, because it means that you might well be able to lose effectively on more than 1550 calories daily. Instead of cutting back, you might actually wind up increasing your calories and still losing weight--and that has to be one of the best things ever.

As others noted, two weeks isn't a stall. It FEELS like one, but it isn't. I understand the desire to cut, cut, cut away at your calories to get started again, but it's counterproductive. Instead, look at ways to increase--increase exercise, increase nutritive value, increase volume, increase flavor. You'll not notice "stalls" so much if you focus on other aspects of being healthier.

Yeahh 2 kids husband deployed, going to school blah blah blah. I can barerly take a shower in peace. But that is not even it. I enjoy cooking and am a really big hypocrite. I wont give anything packaged or preserved to my kids.
My issue is I have no self control. If I want to eat pasta, I will cook and eat pretty much the whole thing, so I buy these prepackaged meals because it is portioned, and since it doesnt taste that wonderful it kills the craving for whatever I am having but I wont be able to eat more than a sensible portion. I know it makes no sense and I have tried making a big pot and diving in containers and freezing it but it still doesnt work. I will eat more than I should. Its insanity but the truth..lol

And yes I need to buy a scale to be 100% sure.

And I despise fruit. I am not a big fan of it at all. I try and try to eat them but pretty much the only fruit I eat is frozen and thrown on a smoothie. I could eat spinach and lettuce all day long but I dont usually snack on veggies. I guess I need to try to work on that.

I also started in Oct, about halfway through.

One thing that has been said here, and I found to be extremely important but also extremely difficult is the whole not freaking out thing. I have a terrible time not getting discouraged when I don't see a loss. I read a lot of blogs and stuff and I feel so sad when I read about everyone else losing and here I am at the same weight. That is what sends so many people into self destruct mode. And for me I'm talking about just one week of no loss. Yes, I am a wimp!

I have had to learn not to freak out. Even when it scale goes up or weigh in day comes and it's not a loss...I just have to have faith. You have to keep at it. Stay off the scale if you have to and tell yourself it's going down if that helps you stay the course. You have not failed until you throw up your hands and quit. If you are staying with it, the number will come down. Just make that your mantra. Tell yourself a hundred times a day "I have not failed until I quit." I have had to do that. I have spent days forcing myself to stay on plan even when it seems futile and the scale isn't showing me any love...and eventually it comes down again.

I also agree with some things that have been said about the pre packaged foods...I am busy too so I know how it is, and I have lean cuisines in my freezer, too. 3 little kids don't leave me a lot of time, but I try to make cooking a priority. My health is important so I make it a priority.

Way to go on your weightloss thus far! This may not apply at all, but I use the LoseIt app too so I thought I'd throw it out there: The calorie count on a lot of the foods listed in LoseIt is WAY off. Even the restaurant foods. Some are much higher, some are much lower. Just something to keep an eye on.

I'm right there with you I started in October 2010 and have lost 68 pounds but gained 3 back for no reason this week and luckily have started losing it again. My weight loss is based off diet alone and no work put plans though. Good job so far. It'll happen.