So I started my weight loss about 3 weeks ago. I exercise 6 to 7 days a week, stopped drinking cokes, no more candy bars, watching calories, watching sodium intake, making sure I'm getting enough protein so I'm not hungry and have Not gone over calorie limit since I started tracking them and still have NOT LOST but 3 lbs and that was the first week! I keep going up to 220 then 218 and back up and down again. I stopped weighing for a few days to see if it was just me being too obsessed with the scale but today I weighed and guess what..219! I just don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if I have some kind of health problem I didn't know about. I feel more energized in the mornings, which I've never been a morning person, and I'm not out of breath a lot of times when I used to be. So I know the work I am doing is helping that but I'm tired of not seeing results. I've never been so serious about losing weight, other times in the past I've done it for a couple of weeks, lost about 5 lbs and then quit. It's even more frustating that I really want it this time and I'm not getting it. Sorry about the rant but I'm just so frustrated with myself. I have all the tools to lose weight and know how to do it, just not seeing the results!

You didn't put the weight on overnight, you won't take it off overnight. Give it some time and patience with consistent effort (at least three months!) before getting frustrated. There's nothing wrong with scheduling an appointment, but losing a pound or so a week doesn't indicate there is anything metabolically wrong with you, sorry! Your weight loss has been healthy and typical.

It is always good to get a weight and blood panel baseline, but nothing about your post indicates a reason to suspect underlying issues. Do you have other symptoms that are making you think something might be wrong? Because other than prescriptions, mot doctors are crap for weight loss and nutrition. They are less informed than your average weight loss forum member, as far as I have ascertained!

Give your body time to adjust to the new routine and be sure you are logging each bite, lick, and taste religiously. It is amazing how we can mismeasure food if not using a scale for everything! And other things contribute to less-than-linear weight loss in women - hormones are a BIG one. That is why giving it a few monthly cycles-worth of time before getting frustrated can be helpful, oftentimes we lose in fits and starts and that is a lot MORE typical than a straight downward trend.

And you started a big exercise routine with your weight loss efforts, that will skew the scale like nobody's business! If you feel muscle soreness, you are retaining water. It is that simple. This is another reason that giving it some time is so helpful, because oftentimes exercise can mask real fat loss with the water retention it causes. If you have lost a few pounds, feel more energized, and have switched to a healthier diet, that doesn't sound like bad progress - it sounds like absolute success to me! Those non-scale markers are so much more important, anyway. The scale just measures weight, and health is far more complex than one simple and very malleable (fickle) factor.

You can do this, just stick with it!

Artic Mama Thanks for the support! The reason for the doctor appt is to do some blood work and just see if there is something I'm missing. I've got major thyroid problems with my family so I don't know if thats it or not. I'm not too soar as far as the exercise goes. I just want to keep my body moving and I'm fearful that if I miss one day, just one of working out I'll stop because that's what has happened in the past. I have a 3 yr old almost 4 so I know sometimes after babies its harder to lose weight but I've always been over weight. Ehh...

It sure doesn't hurt to get a checkup in my opinion.. because you're right, if you have an underlying thyroid condition - it'll be next to impossible to lose weight until it's dealt with.

And if you get a clean bill of health, at least you can put your mind at ease. Yes, it sucks to have such incredibly slow weight loss (as I can certainly attest!), but like you, I am feeling so much better and am so much more activie than I used to be. So celebrate your successes whatever they are, and trust that the rest will come in time.

GL and keep us posted on what the doc says!

Thanks! The dr appt is set for next Thursday, that's when they could see me the earliest so the wait begins. Hopefully I'll have some loss between now and then

Interestingly I haven't had any issues getting weight off after my kids so far, and I've had three of them over the past few years! Beyond the hormone swing with breastfeeding it's more a matter of not picking up bad habits like grazing off their plates or justifying junk when I'm stressed and tired, than any metabolic shift.

Thyroid issues may be a concern, but you didn't list any symptoms related to hyper or hypothyroid conditions, so I would be surprised if you were significantly off in your panels. That said, it is certainly an excellent idea to get a baseline and rule it out. Do be careful of not over exercising, though. Unless you are doing nothing but walking I'd recommend taking two or three days off a week so you don't burn out. Activity is best amped slowly, not begun intensely and then petering to nothing when we exhaust ourselves

Good luck!

I can totally relate, I have been bouncing between the same 2-3 pounds since I started 3 weeks ago. I just keep telling myself that I have made positive change and if I stick with it, I'm bound to see a change eventually. I'm in the exact same boat in that I feel like I'm finally serious about my weight loss, and it is frustrating to feel like I'm working so hard and not seeing results, but I've incorporated lifting weights into the routine, so maybe I'm gaining muscle? I know I have started things in the past and given up because I didn't see results fast enough, and a month or two down the road I always regret giving up, so this time I'm giving myself a real chance. We can do this together!

Be sure to check for PCOS with your doctor.

What are some of the symptoms of pcos? My friend has it but i dont think i do. I've always been regular, actually heavy flow. And I got pregnant with my daughter pretty easily.

Not ALL ladies with PCOS will have irregular periods. Weight gain, acne, facial hair can all be symptoms but those aren't the only ones.

And you can have all those symptoms and NOT have PCOS, too, it's tricky to diagnose. When I had estrogen dominance with my higher weights I had a lot of PCOS-like symptoms and yet did not have the condition. Go figure, right?

How do they test for pcos?

Here's a pretty thorough overview of possible tests they might do, it really depends on how/if it is presenting.

Here's the PCOS faq.

http://www.inciid.org/faq.php?cat=infertility101&id=2

PCOS patients present in at least 5 ways and not all of them are annovulatory.

HTH!
A.

just so you know, the first time i was put on VLCD, it was 1500cal and i gained 5lbs in 2wks.

the dr dropped it to 1200cals and i gained 2lbs in two weeks.

so he said "all right, that's it" and put me on 750cals.

i lost *nothing* the first three weeks and he said that was okay, just be patient and then on wk 4, i lost 15lbs. the dr told me that wasn't actually "weight" loss - what was happening was i was retaining water like stink and basically lost all that water retention so the scale was registering the "flush" plus the results of three wks' worth of dieting.

that's my usual cycle now: lose a crapload, lose some, lose a wee bit, lose nothing or even gain, then lose a crapload again.