For 40 days I've been at a plateau. Never below 184, up a pound for a few days, then down to 184. Up a pound again. Down to 184.

I've been tracking carefully, keeping my levels within what my RD recommends, exercising, getting my water, sleeping well, etc. And still 40 days later my weight is exactly the same.

So, today I redid my sparkpeople tracker. It had been set to lose 1.5 pounds a week (isn't that hysterical?!) so I revamped to a pound a week, lowered my expected exercise calories and got a new range to eat that is about 200 calories higher per day. I'm going to try that for a while.

I don't know what I want from this post. Not advice, that's for sure, since it would all contradict itself and cancel itself out. Maybe just a "there there" a "keep at it" and a "Ugh, I've been there too."

I'm with you, although not quite as long! I'm just going on about 21 days. I do SO wish there was an answer out there, but I know there's not. Just gotta keep at it, which sucks when the scale isn't moving. It's a little more difficult to turn down a donut when I know I won't be rewarded for it on the scale. I'm seriously considering upping my calories, even though my trainer advised me to lower them to 1200. I love her, I really do, but she's no dietitian. At my current calorie level I'm tired, mildly moody, and can barely fuel my workouts. Idk. I do hate this though!

I'm lucky that my RD is a trainer too, and does triathlons. She'd never ask me to go that low! She basically said "you probably won't lose while you are training."

The only positive is that my running is getting longer in length and faster, and I'm getting faster on the bike. So, those numbers are going in the right direction!

That's a really wonderful person to have access too! Rarely does a person truly understand both the workout aspect AND the nutrition aspect.

You may have mentioned this on a previous thread, but how many days a week do you weight train? How many days a week do you run?

I've run into some issue with running! I'm kind of upset about it because I wanted to do a marathon, or at least a half, in January. But I'm having some major ankle and shin splint trouble, and that's with my new shoes, specially fitted for me. Such a bummer!

weight training is 2 days a week, supposed to be 3 and is sometimes 1. That needs to be stepped up and consistent.

Running is 3 days. 1 is where I work on distance, 1 is speed intervals and one is a brick workout for my Sprint Tri. "Distance" means getting up to 3 miles consistently.

I have to take running slow because I have shin problems and I don't want to wreck my leg. I have traced it back to wearing flip flops or bare feet too much so I've started wearing supportive shoes around the house and that seems to help.

I ice it and take Ibuprofen before running. I ran too much when I first started and had a pulled quad and massive shin splints and had to take a couple weeks off. I'm trying to prevent that this time, but you might need a couple week break. I found that I came back stronger and faster after a break.

Forty days and you still have not thrown in the towel. That in itself is an accomplishment.

How do you figure your total calories per day? Do you subtract what you think you are burning from exercising from your food intake? Sometimes that is difficult to get an accurate number.

I wonder if that's why I have shin problems too!? ALL I wear is flip flops and bare feet. Like since forever! That's really interesting! I did the same thing taking it too fast at the beginning and got an ankle sprain (which I still am convinced was a stress fracture). The shin splints are unbearable. I will take your advice!

I track my calorie intake on sparkpeople using the range they give me. I also track my exercise, but that is unrelated to my intake. I don't adjust my intake based on exercise. They give me a report about "calorie differential over time" which shows the differences from week to week, which is what my RD said to focus on. Not "you burned 400 calories today and ate 1500 there fore you only ate 1100" or anything.

Stephanie - Do you stretch, if so how often? If I do not do shin / calf stretches multiple times a day I get shin splints while jogging.

When I was training for a 1/2 marathon last Sept, my weight loss stalled, the week after the 1/2 I dropped 2lbs.

This happened to me while training. I upped my cals range from 1300 - 1800 to 1600 - 2100 and felt so much better!

I am just getting back into ccing and exercising, and can not decide if my current lack of energy is just my body adapting to the increase exercise, or if I need to up my cals., I have been eating at the low end of my 1300- 1800 cal range. I also need to remember to take my vitamins!

Ugh. Had the "Nothing I do is working what it the point of tracking" pity party this morning. With tears.
Heading out for a bike/run workout.

I have nothing to add other than my admiration for continuing the journey even without the rewards along the way. I have spent way more time than I should this week reading about the impact of exercise on fat loss, and it's almost as bad as the "what should I eat?" debate. Every exercise is good. Every exercise is bad. Just as every food is good. And every food is bad. Depending, of course, on your source.

Glad you have professionals on your team. Really admire your determination to keep moving forward. And I can't wait to hear how you finally defeated the 184 demon.

The next time I hear a person pontificate that "Weight loss is simple. It's just a matter of calories in versus calories out. Eat less. Move more." I will mentally perform some hideous act of violence against her in your name.

Thank you. I want to do the same. I just keep trudging forward with ZERO positive feed back from my body. It is so so frustrating.

But I did my bike ride and run today. And tracked breakfast and lunch. And will keep on keeping on. When I defeat 184, I'll be sure to let people know how!

I just recently started stretching regularly. I hope it helps!

I also am hoping my calorie level change will help me.

I'm a mess today thinking of all of this.

This is my plan for this week. To stop tracking in Sparkpeople. I'm going to write down what I'm eating on a piece of paper, without looking up the calories. I'm going to see what my body wants, and how much of it it wants and when.

At the end of the week, I'll put it all in Sparkpeople and see what my body does when I listen to it, rather than when I tell it what to do.

I'm also hiding the scale for a while. I've been letting it dictate my moods. I'm not hiding it with the thought that when I pull it out it will say I've magically lost weight on this new plan. Actually that's probably a lie. But I'm still going to put it away, and ask my nutritionist not to weigh me at our next visit.

So, we'll see if it at least stops making me hyper-focused on weight and food and calories.