For some reason, I have not lost any weight for the past 3 weeks. In fact, I have gained a few pounds and then teeter-totter between 2-3 pounds over the course of the week (which I know is normal)

I am averaging 1450 calories per day for the past month. I'm eating whole foods with some processed foods as well. I have cut back on all the alcohol. BUT the scale still won't budge.

I don't get it. Things were going so well. I had lost about 10 lbs but now I am up 4-5 lbs and it won't go back down again. I'm getting VERY discouraged and I'm trying my best not to give up. I log every single thing I eat into FitDay every single day.

I do know that I just had my TOM for the past 3 days, but that doesn't explain why there has been no loss whatsoever for 3 weeks.

Do I need to be eating less calories? I'm really frustrated and un-motivated since I am not seeing results whatsoever.

3 weeks isn't a huge plateau. I randomly looked at several days in your Fitday. Some days, your calorie count is okay, but it's junk food and booze. Really try to clean up your diet with a goal of long term health. Cut back on booze (or eliminate altogether while actively losing weight, it's completely empty calories), avoid processed foods, keep exercising!

Most importantly, don't give up. This is the hard part of weight loss, when the scale won't cooperate and it seems like all your hard work isn't doing anything. A lot of people can't stick to it and quit. DO NOT QUIT.

Make some goals that aren't related to the scale, and then reward yourself. Trying a new recipe, eating 5 servings of vegetables everyday for a week, trying some new exotic fruit you'd never even heard of. You can do it!

Going several weeks without losing any weight, even when you're doing everything exactly right is COMMON. Don't let the scale drag you down.

Here are my thoughts:

How much are you exercising? Are you hungry throughout the day at 1450 calories or do you feel pretty satisfied? Have you taken your measurements and are you still losing inches?

I think there are several things you could do:

1. Wait it out. 3 weeks isn't really that long for a plateau. I know it is frustrating, but I'm not sure I would get worried until you hit the 2 or 3 month mark.

If you are still losing inches, I would seriously consider this. Losing inches means you probably aren't really at a plateau, you're just retaining water. I read an article (there's a link to it somewhere on this site but of course I can't find it now) that your fat holds water and that when you lose a lot of fat, you don't always lose the water with it. It can take longer for your body to release the water. When you are in a plateau, your body is just catching up with the amount of fat you've lost.

Also, we are in the heat of summer in a lot of places, which would also cause you to retain water. You could try reducing your sodium intake or increasing the amount of water you consume to get your body to release water.

2. Depending on how much you exercise and how long you've been doing it, you could step up your exercise routine or just change it up, do something different. This has helped me break some of the stalls I've been in.

3. Change your calorie intake. Without knowing more about your exercise routine and lifestyle, it's hard to know which way you should go. It could be that you need more calories or it could be that you need less. My starting weight was 150 and, at that weight, 1450 calories per day would have been too many for me to lose weight, especially given that I didn't exercise that much when I first started (just one hour, three days a week and not a lot of cardio). You could drop 100 calories per day and see if that helps (try it for at least a week). If you are too hungry or if it doesn't help, you can always add them back.

If you are exercising a lot and you are feeling hungry throughout the day, then maybe you aren't eating enough calories. In this case, try adding 100 calories to your diet (again, try it for at least a week). Again, if it doesn't work, you can always go the other direction.

Looking at your fitday records for the past couple of weeks, it looks like you are over 1450 calories more often than you are under this level. Your average for the past 8 days is 1507 calories per day. If your calories have been slowly creeping up over the past month, that might explain why you have stopped losing weight. I also don't see much exercise logged, but maybe you aren't tracking it in fitday. But if you really aren't exercising much, then my guess (and lord knows it is just a guess and I'm am certainly not an any way qualified to give nutrition or diet advice) is that your calories might be a little high.

4. Change what you eat, not how many calories you eat. I'm not sure what your diet is, but if you are eating a lot of pre-packaged and processed foods, or a lot of foods that are high in fat or sugar, it may be that you just need to start focusing on eating healthier without changing the amount of calories you eat. Just looking at your Fitday records, what stands out to me is that the white bread, whole milk yogurt, salty snacks, crackers, lunch meat, etc. in your diet are not helping you. Consider non-fat yogurt, wheat bread, and more fruit/veggies instead of crackers and salty snacks. The salty snacks and lunch meat could also be causing you to retain water because they are high in salt.

I gotta say that alcohol can also be a problem. Those are just empty calories that go straight to fat (and, even worse, I've read that fat from alcohol is typically stored in your stomach), your body can't turn them into energy. I know you say you've cut back, but you don't really say how much you are still drinking. If you are going over your calorie limit for the day with alcohol, you're closing the deficit between calories consumed/burned that you need to lose weight. If you fit the alcohol into your calorie limit, you may not be getting enough of the nutrients your body needs, which can also stall your weight loss. I'm not saying you can't have any alcohol at all, but this might be another area to look at. It's a trade-off; you have to decide whether the alcohol is worth the slow down in weight loss progress that you are going see as a result.

- Barbara

Are you actually journaling your food intake or is this a mental journal? Are you measuring/weighing your food or eyeballing it?

I've found that if I am not weighing my food, my own eyeball measurements are WAY off. WAY OFF. I also have food amnesia. If I don't write it down, I don't remember that I ate it.

If you aren't journaling or measuring, maybe try doing this for a week and then see what the scale says.

Kimberly

Quit the booze,clean up your diet,and get some exercise.The same advice you were given last time.

Yup.

Hi, I have to agree. Just looking at the food portion of your program, alcohol and caesar (sp?) salad dressing are seen there a couple of times in the days I looked at.

I don't drink, but I think I have to agree there, you're adding a lot of cals just from a week's worth of alcohol, and your body wants FOOD. Alcohol is like sending down bad stuff and your body says 'pfff what is that!' and moves on. No nutrients, no energy.. bye bye to you calories.. stay over there. You might really want to think hard about changing how often you drink. It's your choice, of course.

At the very least.. you might want to consider lessening the fat intake. Your salad dressings for one.. that's so easy to substitute with the low fat/low cal versions. And the taste diff is nil, in my opinion.

~ Angie

I agree. You came and asked this same advice just about a week or so ago...so you if you have been cleaning up your eating, and cutting down on booze-you haven't been doing it for THAT long.

You are not going to magically lose 4-5 pounds simply by cutting back on the processed food and booze for a week. It takes a while.

I think you really need to "get serious" and start thinking HEALTH. Eat healthy, stop drinking regularly...and EXERCISE. REGULARLY.

I, for one, when not pregnant-only have a drink maybe once a month MAX-and if I do-it is usually one drink...and usually wine-which does have some health benefits. There are actually times where I go months without a drink. It is definitely not a weekly or daily thing...but healthy diet and exercise IS.

Your yesterdays's FitDay included 3 beers and 3 cups of tortilla chips. THAT is the problem...it's the same advice we gave you in the last thread. If having 3 cups of tortilla chips and 3 beers in a single day were helpful to weight loss...than we would ALL be thin.

You are not "plateaued". A true plateau is when someone loses weight, and then doesn't see a loss for a long period of time. Not a couple weeks...a longer period of time. This is also when they are doing EVERYTHING possible to break it-exercising regularly-even increasing the intensity of their workouts to try to bust through it...CLEAN eating within their calorie range EVERY DAY for weeks...if you were doing these things for a month or two and seeing no loss-I might say you were hitting a plateau. This isn't really the case. You just need to get more serious about the weight loss, and your health, than what you currently are.

If you ARE "determined to succeed", you will cut the booze and processed foods and eat clean. 'Nuff said!

I agree... you need to seriously clean up your diet! THREE sandwiches on bread in one day, along with vodka, french fries, cream cheese, chip mixture... no fruit and veggies to speak of... another day vodka, martini and beer all in one day with very little food and that not nutritious... sorry but this isn't going to cut it.

I also saw that there was only one day of exercise recorded in the past week to week and a half. Is this accurate? If so, that is another thing that needs to change drastically.

determined2succeed:

I should add on the end here just a note to let you know that we're not trying to be cruel by saying what we've said here. We are or have all been in the same boat - trying to lose weight. It takes constant work, and to do that, you have to try harder, even if you don't WANT to. ****, I'd LOVE to eat pizza, chips, bars, etc. but years of that have done nothing but bad things to me.

You asked for the opinion and hopefully you wanted to hear it, even if it's not sugar coated. We DO care about everyone and how they are doing here, and if you DO take the advice, I promise you will see results, good results. But you have to stick to it daily, and give it time to work.

I wish only the best for you hun!

Yes! We do NOT mean to be cruel! Please don't be discouraged; we ALL have had to make a lot changes and are still having to make them!!!

Hey I should talk... I AM eating healthful foods, and exercising to an average of way over 60 minutes a day... and my weight loss has suddenly stopped too! I keep hoping it is temporary!!! Hang in there!!!!

It definitely is temporary, Misti. I had several little 1-2 week spells without weight loss. This is the point when some people get discouraged and quit, just keep doing what you're doing! This is the toughest part, staying motivated when the scale gets all stupid. You look so good with your new hair cut

Hi Ladies,

I know you're right when you say that I need to eat cleaner and cut out the darn drinks. I guess I was kidding myself when I thought that I could switch back to having some "tortilla chips + salsa" and several cocktails and still be losing. So, it's only been a few days, but I have cut out the white bread, the alcohol, and the chips and have lost a pound - so it surely was not a real plateau.

I'm going to keep this up and hopefully start to lose again. I will keep you all posted on the progress! I'm now known as the girl who has 4 cocktails in one night with chips + guacamole and wonders why she isn't losing weight

Also, I don't excercise. (there - I said it) I'm HORRIBLE with that. BUT... I will start to... slowly, but surely. The only reason I had excercise listed in my FitDay last week was because I was on a business trip and decided to take advantage of the nice little gym the hotel had.

I'm ready to be DETERMINED again and get rid of the last 15 pounds once and for all!!!!!

Thanks for all of your honest feedback and non-sugarcoated responses

maybe in a few weeks I will get to enter in 155 lbs on FitDay! How awesome would that be. We shall see!