Hi ladies. Like most of you i have found the calculators to all be different from eachother. I just used freediet and took both the calorie alotments and divided their total in half. I have 1817. to be honest my scale hasn't budged, it went up as much as 2 pounds. i was staying under 1500 cals and to be fair i know i lost 3 possibly more inches. could a 42 yo who is 5'7 @ 210/212 lose weight at that calorie intaske? i'm just frustrated. i workout moderately 5-6 days per week. my scale was moving down and november happened, i don,t know but i might have too much mental stuff in my way. I don't want to give up but it is difficult getting this right. i commend all of you who came out the other side of the tunnel i'm stuck in.

It is so frustrating when something is working, then suddenly....doesn't! I would think you would be able to lose weight steadily at 1800 calories/day. I'm interested to see what others think.

If you have been doing the same amount of calories and similar workouts for a few months, do you think it's possible that your body has just adjusted to it? I hear people talk about calorie cycling helping. I also hear a lot of things about changing up work-outs to get the metabolism kicking again - even working out slightly less frequently but with greater intensity. Sometimes stalls happen, then for whatever reason, they go away. Don't give up! It sounds like you've been doing great and no doubt, you are improving your health regardless of what the hateful scale says!

Calorie cycling didn't work for me when I tried it. I would get too messed up in my counts and finally discovered that just using my fitness pal was best for me. I plan my days and then I follow through.

That being said, I'm upping my calories to what my maintnance would be, which is 1580. Plus some for exercise.

And as people tell me and I quite believe them, weight loss isn't linear. It'll speed up and slow and that's ok! And inches are what's important right? But your mental well being is so much more important than a number on a machine.

I discovered what I was eating, just left me in a fog of hangry (hunger + anger) and stupid (I sat at a stop sign waiting for it to turn green. For a LONG time.).

So I say up your calories, do some different exercises. Maybe try pilates and yoga! Dance while you vaccuum your living room or while doing dishes. Just relax and breathe

Thanks Flippychick. Well, i eat less because i was under the impression not to eat to my ceiling. I am not as excercise intense as many. I get 45 minute half the week and just over 100 the rest of it, modeate. no- i haven't given it a chance too long -as the scale went up so something felt wrong. (I ate anywhere from 1100-1700 this week). i read somewhere you have 3500 calories to burn a pound. with that principle in mind i might be getting too little fitness. but again my measurements (in my core alone are lower by 3+, my most stuborn OF areas) I must be doing something right for that result. maybe it's like you said and i should 'stick to the set calories.I have done well w/ weightloss 'before' by watching my eating and not excercising about a week with a return of new energy and increased weightloss once i started over.

Thanks for the reply owlsteazombies. I saw you were having trouble with this area I'm sure a lot of ppl have. I'am' overwhelmed with excitment my inches are melting .. the scale is not being nice is my beef. lol As far as yoga goes, thanks, I have a few on hold at the library. I do think that will help in conditioning and getting to that long+lean look I desire. Maybe if I take a mini vacation and come back to the fitness (that usually works) -I'll get some decent resullts. My real problem is that my doctor won't use my measurement to get me off the meds, they only care what the scale says-even then they have a scale that makes me about 3pounds heavier. ugh to think of all this gives me a headache. lol

Just my two cents on the doctors and the meds.... If you are losing inches then you are getting results, regardless of what the persnickety scale says. What do scales really know anyway? My boyfriend is considered "overweight" by medical standards and he doesn't have an ounce of fat on him - he's got eight-pack abs and is all muscle. (I guess opposites do attract - ha ha!) If you are weighing more, and taking up less space, there's a good chance it's muscle. The scale will budge eventually - it's that darn watched-pot-never-boils thing!

Finding the right calorie intake is pretty frustrating since it can be different for different people with the same age/height/weight/activity levels. For instance, at 60 yrs, 5'7", 340 lbs., 90 min. aerobic + 60 min. pool my intake has to be about 1450 kcal. per day to lose an average of 1.5 lbs. per week. As my weight drops, daily calories need to also drop. It took awhile to figure out where that balance is: mostly trial & error. I also never "eat my exercise calories."

I'm sure that you also realize that your weight can vary based on fluid balance. If I get an increase in my weekly weigh-in when I'm expecting a decrease, I weigh myself 2 more mornings and average the 3. Sometimes it just is what it is... You're right that weight loss isn't linear. The fact that your measurements are improving may mean that your body is converting to more muscle. I agree that changing things up for awhile helps move the scale in the right direction.

It appears that you've been at this awhile and have done so well so far. You must have done something right.

Thank you Sistah Phat. I haven't thought of the fluids. I might be holding sodium for longer than I thought possibel. I suppose anything could be the reason. I use to lurk here and was losing and then joined and no scale changes (except my yoyo 2 pounds) since joining. lol. Maybe all this is psycholgical.