So April 17 I weighed in, and weighed 269.8. On April 21 my mother in law took us out for chinese food. It was a planned day off plan. I enjoyed the day, enjoyed the supper, and was right back on track the next morning. I weighed in on April 24 and was UP 2lbs. I figured that I must have had too much sodium, or something like that, so I drank lots of water. As a matter of fact, I have had lots of water every day since, and been trying to watch my sodium. I'm certainly not eating anything with a crazy amount of sodium in it (like beef jerky, or salty popcorn). The worst I had yesterday was spaghetti sauce, which never would have been a problem for me before.

Those 2lbs aren't budging. Not even a tiny bit. I would think that if I was going to stall, that my weight loss would have decreased before it just stopped. I had been losing a consistent 3-3.5lbs per week up until this. I am currently 6lbs from my first goal, and I am SO SO upset.

I am not doing anything that would build muscle, I am watching my sodium, I am drinking tons of water (5 liters yesterday), but still this weight isn't moving, even a tiny bit. I eat 1600-1800 calories a day, and aside from that 1 thursday I have been on plan. I had my husband measure me to see if maybe inches were coming off, and the scale wasn't showing them, but nope, that's the same too.

To top it off, I have an ear infection that's taking a few days for the pain to stop, and is making me very irritable.

I am ANGRY. I am doing everything the same, but I am not getting the same results. Why the heck not?

It makes me wonder if any of this is worth while. I have SO much weight to lose still, and while I expected to deal with stalls, and plateaus, and whatnot, I didn't expect to have to deal with it while I was still so fat, I thought those would come after I'd lost 50 or 60 or 75lbs. Between the stupid scale, and my ear I am on the verge of tears.

Time to go change my ticker, and put it up 2lbs, apparently those pounds are here to stay.

Could be the ear pain, combined with high sodium. It takes a while for that darned sodium to leave, and pain anywhere makes us retain water.
Please don't give up- weight loss is not an exact science, and there have been many times throughout my journey where I have felt fed up, but it goes with the territory. It took a long time to get fat, and it will take a long time to get slim. You have done really well- you are over a sixth of the way to goal!!
Keep at it- trust me it's worth it

Could be anything. I've been in maintenance for a couple of years now, at 138 to 140 religiously. Then all of a sudden, about four months ago, my weight "shot up" to 142-143, literally overnight, and it's not going down, no matter what.

Please hang in there! I really believe that the battle is a long-term, lifestyle strategy and that the weight will take care of itself as we go. I know that is not a very satifying answer and it is really frustrating.

I, personally, have given up on the constant weighing and I only weigh one time per month. I also measure every month and keep it in a chart. I was never able to keep myself motivated when I saw "unexplained" changes on the scale and I would get really discouraged.

Hugs to you

Maybe you are drinking too much water, 5 litres sounds like a lot. Don't worry about it, i'm sure it's just a particularly stubborn but temporary gain, you are doing so well!

Don't give up! You can get past this!

How often do you have planned cheat days? Chinese food is killer with tons of sodium and calories. Did you calculate your total calories for the cheat day? Your body doesn't know it's just a cheat day, it sees extra calories and does what it's always done and stores them.

Instead of having a total cheat DAY next time, maybe you can limit it to just one cheat meal? Because you're doing this as a lifestyle change, not as a quick fix diet, there are going to be times where you have meals that are off plan. On that same note, if you're going to have cheat meals then you need to make sure you can handle emotionally how that is going to hinder your weight loss.

Your body could also be holding onto water from being sick, so stick it out until you're feeling better and I bet you'll see a drop! Just don't let this derail you. If you go off plan now, how are you going to feel in two days? In a week? In a month? I bet you're going to wish you stuck with it. We're all here for you and almost all of us have been there! You can do this!

Whatever you do, do not give up. There will be plateaus and stalls. They are going to be aggravating and test you. You have to hold your head up high and believe in yourself. You can do this, this will pass.

Are you sure you are eating enough calories? How are you tracking?

If you have an ear infection I 100% bet that's the problem, your body is all off. Just keep at it it WILL go down

Hang in there, hon. We all go through these trials, and it just sucks. It's ok to feel angry and frustrated. Just don't let it derail you.

Have you been tracking your intake religiously since then? Are you taking any meds for your ear infection that might hinder your loss? How often are your cheat days?

I'd say keep tracking and just don't step on the scale until you aren't sick anymore.

I don't know what it is, but I NEVER lose when I'm sick. My hubby can catch a cold and lose 10 pounds. I can have the flu and not eat a thing for days and not lose a single ounce.

If you've been losing 3 pounds a week consistently then you were obviously doing something right, so I would just keep that up. In the future I'd be wary of taking too many cheat days, not just because they can stall you but because-for me, anyway-they can get easier to justify and cause even more cravings that get harder to resist.

Thank you so much everyone. I am just bummed and frustrated and hurting, and it's a bad combination for me!!

Typically I don't weigh daily like I have been the last little bit. Honestly I have just been watching and waiting for these 2lbs to dissapear. I will be leaving the scale be for a while, and I will go so far as to take out the battery, and have my husband hide it, to be sure I stay off the scale.

I don't tend to drink this much water typically. Usually I drink 3-4 liters a day. The extra yesterday was an attempt to flush out any sodium I may be holding on to.


I actually don't have a planned cheat day/meal very often, and while originally I had just planned on having a cheat meal, as opposed to a cheat day, we were doing a lot of driving that day (picking my mother in law up from the airport, which is 1.5 hours each way), and had to stop for snacks, etc. I had INTENDED to stay on plan, up until supper, but ended up caving and having a sausage roll and a danish! lol I have been tossing around how often I should plan a cheat meal, and was thinking of once a month, but hadn't settled on anything. There's NO WAY I was going to try and calculate my calories from the Chinese food, 1) because it would have been so hard without my scale, etc, and 2) because frankly I didn't want to know! I didn't go insane or anything, but I had some of everything I wanted. I have, in the past, gone on a couple day "binge", where I went off plan for 3 days, and my weight loss was cut way down (1.5lbs rather than the usual 3.5lbs), and I am totally ok with that. I did bad, and I paid for it in the weight loss department. I just can't see how 1 day could add 2lbs. I can guarantee that I didn't eat my BMR PLUS 7000 calories.

When I first started this journey, I was eating 1200 calories a day. I lost 6lbs in the first week, then went to 1lb per week. It was suggested that I was likely not eating enough, and that I should up to 1800 calories or so a day. I went off plan for a month, and when I came back, I started eating 1600-1800 calories a day. I have consistently lost 3-3.5lbs per week for over a month now. If I wasn't eating enough calories, wouldn't I have stalled out before now? I know that 3.5lbs per week isn't likely going to continue, but trust me, I am happy to take it while I am getting it. I track on SparkPeople, I weigh and measure everything, and I enter it before I eat it, every single meal. I am a stay at home mom, so I have the ability to do that, thankfully.

Thank you all so much for the kind words. I tend to get very emotionally fragile when I am sick, and this has been eating at me (pun intended) for a bit now...bad combination.

I have indeed been very religious about tracking my calories. Typically I am anyway, I mean, if I am going to do it, I may as well do it right! For the ear infection I am taking Advil, and Metronidazole (Flagyl), which is the only antibiotic I can take (allergic to all the others). I have no clue if it could impact my weight loss, I guess I should look into that, but then I have only been on it since Monday evening.

You might not be eating enough calories. Sounds odd, doesn't it? We're always trained to eat the most minimal amount of calories to lose weight. I used this calculator to help guide me as to how many calories I need to eat to lose weight http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm and it seems that for your weight and height you can easily be eating 2000 calories.

Hang in there! I am having a tough time right now too. I went off plan on Sunday (one day!!) and I am 4 lbs up and it isn't budging either. I just keep doing what I am doing.
I also think that 5 liters is too much though. I read somewhere that you can flush the body too much and it actually isn't good for you. I think 2-3 liters is a good amount. I am still struggling to get to 2 liters but I am almost there.
Any sickness I think can affect the weight loss. Also, not losing on the scale doesn't mean you aren't losing inches. Did you measure recently?
Anyways, please stick with us !!!

Hang in there!

Weight loss isn't steady, even when everything else is. Also a 3 day stall is pretty inconsequential. Turn the picture on it's head. Instead of thinking you gained 2 lbs and you're at an artificial high, consider the possibility that the weigh in before the chinese was an artificial low. Then what? It means you'd lost 10 lbs instead of 12 lbs (or whatever the numbers are) in the past 4 weeks. Still quite an accomplishment.

I've currently been stuck at the same weight for about 3 weeks, and I'm getting discouraged. I've considered not weighing my self for a little while.

Here's what I think happens: you can lose really quickly for a while, but then your body just needs a break to catch up. I'm a big numbers geek, and this time around I've been logging everything in a spreadsheet: calories burned (by fitday calcs), calories eaten (fitday again), weight, body fat percentage (according to scale). (I know the data I'm working with has all kinds of faults, but it's all I got.) And there are formulas telling me all kinds of things, but one of the most interesting to me is the fact that when I lost those 10 lbs in my first 3 weeks, I hadn't earned them yet, based on my calorie deficit. I don't know if it was water weight that I dropped so quickly, or what, but I do know that while I've waited, SO frustrated, these last 3 weeks, I'm catching up to my calorie deficit and sooner or later the scale will have to move again. And that body fat percentage calculator on my scale is actually backing me up on that. Even though my weight hasn't budge, my body fat percentage has. And like you, I'm sure it's not because I've added a lot of muscle instantaneously. But it tells me that something is going on.

Perhaps it is just a huge plateau. If you keep on you should lose sooner or later, just don't get frustrated and give up. That won't help for sure.