I weighed my heaviest of 193 in May...that's when i made the concious effort that I needed to lose weight but I didn't really start getting serious until September (tracking weight loss, before pics, excercising, etc) In 4 months I've only lost 11 pounds. This is frustrating. I excercise (zumba) at least 45 minutes a day 5 times a week. Plus, at my job, I walk for 7 hours non-stop. I stick between 1400-1600 calories a day. I dont drink anything but water (maybe a beer a week, if even). I dont eat fast food. I feel like i'm doing EVERYTHING right and it's just not happening.

In 2007 I lost 30 pounds in 4 months...thats three times as fast as now. And then...I wasn't as dedicated to excercise like now. So I feel like this time around I'm doing more and getting worse results.

I am trying to be patient. I want to lose weight fairly slowly so it stays off this time. I was shooting to lost a pound a week. A while back, I maintained for EIGHT WEEKS! I guess I should be thankful i'm not gaining.

Any tips?

Maybe for a week, just to shake things up, you should drop your calories to 1200 daily? Or, cycle your calories so they aren't consistent daily.

Oh man, it's so frustrating when it's just not happening!! Do you mind sharing what a typical day of eating is like, a good day, and a bad day? It sounds like your exercise is MORE than up to par...

It'd be good to see all facets of your plan!

i had a similar kind of problem before... i was exercising and counting calories and the scale was barely moving down... it was so frustrating.

i'd suggest seeing a doctor, if you haven't already, and then if not, maybe changing something in your diet... i know that for me, just counting calories wasn't enough, it mattered what kind of calories i was putting in my body. now i'm on a slow-carb diet and the weight is coming off much more normally (like 2lbs a week or a bit less) and i'm not even exercising at all.

i also dieted in the past with much better success, and then after doing the same thing was just not working. i think, for yo-yo dieters, your body just gets used to it and starts to think "oh i know what you're doing! you can't trick me anymore!!" and just tries to hold on to the weight even when you are doing everything right. (this isn't a fact, just my opinion here...) so yeah, if what you're doing isn't working, change something! that's always a good motto.

good luck!

I know exactly how you feel. At the beginning I also lost weight quite fairly and fast but the last 3 months I have only lost like 10 pounds. It is rather frustrating. But you know what, eventually the weight will drop.

I also did Zumba x5 a week in the beginning but eventually I began to plateau. Why not try another form of excercise? Just to get your body out of it's comfort zone a bit?

I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of it but to be honest try HOT YOGA!
I was going to probably going to just have a tie this week up against someone in my "biggest loser challenge" I created for some friends because I was only down three pounds...but then I did hot yoga (bikram yoga) for 1.5 hours which completely dropped me and extra two pounds that night. So I figured for my weigh in the next day I may have been up again just because but I wasn't. Today I'm still a 165! so definitely try something completely different and out of your every day norm!

Also remember you maybe gaining muscle which will slow down weight loss extremely but in the long run help you burn more fat and calories when you're not doing anything! But definitely try hot yoga and if you hate it...like I do, do it anyways LOL it's worth it.

I have to disagree with everyone else... you're losing at a rate of 2.75lbs/month, that's AWESOME! Do you know how much the average person loses per month, NOTHING! If anything the average for our society as a whole is probably a small gain.

FWIW, I lose on average of 2-4lbs/month with some months not losing anything at all. Whatever you're doing is working and getting you closer to your goal over time, what's the rush? Why mess with something that's working???????

Another thing too... are you tracking your measurements? Because sometimes the scale might be slow but you'll see pretty drastic changes in your inches lost. Especially since you're excising so much. BTW, since you're on your feet so much and getting that much movement in, why not decrease your zumba time and work on lifting? You'll see an even bigger difference in your inches lost.

I think it's pretty huge overkill to suggest seeing a doctor about slow weight loss. Remember that the idea of 1-2lbs loss/week is an AVERAGE. Besides, most doctors are pretty clueless about weight loss and will just tell you to eat less (ask me how I know!). That means some people lose more than that some people lose a lot less(myself included!!!). There's even a thread on here for slow losers (Slowly dancing with a stranger... I think it's in the Support Groups, maybe someone has a link?).

I completely agree with runningwithfat. Yeah, it's frustrating to lose so slowly, but that's 30+ pounds a year, and it'll stay off more easily and save you from loose skin, looking gaunt, and all the other problems of super-fast loss. I lose at about the same rate as you - 2-3 pounds a month, if I'm lucky. It's annoying, but we're still losing, and if we stick with it, the weight WILL eventually all come off. Just be patient.

I highly recommend taking progress pictures and measurements every month or two as well - seeing your improvements can be really motivating, especially when you don't have the 'instant gratification' of losing ten pounds a month.

It's a possibility that your body is just really efficient at using the calories that it's given. People often plateau while losing weight, even though in theory they are still eating less than their BMR. This is because the body has learned how to run on low calories and stops burning fat. The solution for a plateau is usually to eat higher calories for a few days to make the body think that it's getting more food permanently and cause the metabolism to change.

Another solution to a plateau is to change up your exercise routine. If you're doing the same thing everytime, the body gets used to it, stops building new muscle (in the case of weight training), and generally just become efficient at what it's doing. Doing something new challenges your body and can help you build new muscle and burn more fat.

So... you could try changing up your calories. You could "zig zag" if you don't feel comfortable increasing your calories. Eat more one day, eat less another, but keep the average calories for the week at your goal. The same can be done for your exercise routine. Instead of zumba each time (which I believe is supposed to be fairly intense), try going for a long (1.5 hour) walk twice a week instead. Interval training is supposed to increase weight loss. Try adding some strength training, too, because building muscle is also important to weight loss.

I read in a book that this is true. Yo-yo dieting causes the body to learn what dieting is and conditions it to resist losing weight. After all, storing fat is the body's way of making sure it has enough fuel if famine happens, and it doesn't want to lose its stores! However, the book suggested that this takes a while to happen and requires lots of yo-yoing. But who knows?

I agree with this! Just because your weight isn't chaning, you may be gaining muscle almost at the same rate that you are losing fat, which would make it look like you've hardly lost anything. Years ago, I started swimming four days a week for about an hour and a half each time, and lost 10 pounds in two months. Right now, losing 10 pounds doesn't even bring me down to a smaller pants size. Then, however, I dropped three pants sizes. This is because I increased my muscle mass from all that swimming! So if your clothes don't fit the same anymore, you may have built muscle as well as lost fat.

This totally makes sense! I think my body is use to eating lower calories (sometimes I only eat 800 or less because i'm literally too busy and forget to eat) and I have been doing the same kind of work (on my feet 7 hours walking) since I was 18 years old..and am now 26.

I'm definitely going to try to stagger the calories, high one day and low the next and see what happens.

Also tomorrow, i'm having surgery for a mass found in my uterus, the doctor said this could possible be causing me to GAIN weight. So, if I was doing nothing to better myself (eating good and excercising) I would probably be gaining weight fast due to thyroid issues. But since I am doing all those things maybe i'm cancelling it out.

Who knows. But I am THANKFUL that I am losing. My clothes do fit better. I have been measuring my waist and it hasnt changed but I do fit into a pair of pants (comfortably) that I couldnt even button in October...so something must me happing

Thanks guys, you're all gems!

Well, Newmala, with the added information, no wonder. A. Thyroid issue. B. Mass growing inside you (and good luck with the surgery sweetie...I hope everything is ok during and after). C. 800 calories b/c you forgot to eat?

C--that's adding more trouble to A and B. Certainly, just b/c of the surgery and recovery you're going to lose weight for lack of eating and your body trying to get you over it and healed. I have a feeling that everything (even future weight loss) is going to be just fine.

Again, good luck with the surgery. I do hope it is nothing serious. Hugs, D

As someone who's had surgery for a tumor before. Umm. YEAH that could definitely be the problem! Good luck with your surgery, take care of yourself and please make sure to eat more than 800 calories!