I keep pushing at this, and know I'm off track in terms of diet, but not THAT bad! Today we went to Pizza Hut for lunch and I had a garden salad, so I could be doing WAY worse! I've also started running, and thats going good. But my stupid scale is stuck between 233 and 235! I was just a little sick the last 2 days, ate 2-3 small meals each day and I get on the scale this morning and it's STILL at 234!! Not that I was expecting to lose, but it seemed kinda like it HAD to happen considering. With the colder weather here, all I think about is food, all I want to do is eat. I have been resisting SO well.. grrr! It's just frustrating to know that all this resisting is getting me nowhere!

I don't know how to kick my own butt into gear, I have a now huge christmas goal of getting to 206, my halfway point and I really want to make it. We are having TONS of family coming into town who I haven't seen in a while and I want to look good. How do I get myself motivated to do this?? Exercise is going great (running 3 times a week), but food just escapes me..

Thats my rant...

-Aimee

It sounds like food isn't escaping you - if you can go to pizza and have a salad, you're doing better than me!

I don't have much advice - but I wanted to try to give you a perspective on it!

I'm in the same situation.....I realized that I have been 'maintaining' for the past year. Oh...lose 5, gain 2, gain 2 more, lose 3....that sort of thing the whole year!!! I know maintaining is good, but when you've set your sights on losing, it is frustrating. Its a wonder I haven't given up!! I think setting goals are great, but you have to make them realistic. If food is your problem, then set yourself up for success.....(again set goals) no eating after 8pm, no snacking unless veggie sticks or yogurt, ww/lean cuisine for frozen dinners rather than huge portion and full fat. You get the idea. I keep reminding myself of "baby steps". With the colder weather maybe make up some homemade soups and freeze portions. Do what you need to do to be successful. Good luck!

I know it might sound weird and counter intuitive, but not eating enough can hinder weight loss (at least, it did for me). A body doesn't understand dieting. A body wants to hoard excess food as fat in case of hard times. You just gave your body a hard time (2-3 small meals a day? that's not enough!), it reacted like you would want it to react if you were really not getting enough to eat.

Accepting my body's implacable desire for me to live, embracing it, marveling at it - very important personal step for me for long term weight loss success.

This time, I decided not to fight my body's natural ability to fight off famine. I decided to work with it. I gave my body healthy, whole foods, more food than I had ever eaten before while "dieting." I ate around 1400-1600 calories a day. This worked great for awhile, I lost around 55 lbs in 7 months. Then, I plateaued. For months. I finally thought "well heck, I must be done losing weight" and increased my calories to 1700-2000 to maintain my weight loss. I lost 15 more lbs.

So, I know my case is unusual, but it really happened to me. I lost weight on low calories, eventually plateaued and didn't start losing again until I started eating more. I'm a firm believer in the "starvation theory." If I were really in a plane crash in the Andes and had to hike my way to freedom, I would want my body to keep me alive, I would want it to slow down my metabolism, conserve fat reserves and cannabalize muscle. Since the body can't tell a plane crash from a fad diet, I had to stop being surprised by my body's response to restriction.

First of all, go easier on yourself. Stress is just as much a factor in being overweight than eating and exercise habits. Find ways of reducing stress that also incorporate movement; i.e. yoga, pilates, kickboxing, dancing, running, etc. Then, make sure you are consuming at least 1200 calories a day. Go to ahealthyme.com and use some of their "Cool Tools" to figure out calorie needs for your own body and fitness level. Going under 1200 calories a day will make you lose muscle not fat and send signals to your brain telling it that you are starving so your body will adjust to not burn as many calories. Last, never eliminate food groups from your diet or forbid yourself the occasional treat. Moderation is the key and depriving yourself generally only leads to overindulgence.
Stay confident,
Mel

for me I had to up my exercise. I do 30 mins of cardio a day and most days 30 mins of situps, push ups, legs and arms (just simple exercises). I also have to mix my calories up higher one day and lower the next until I start to lose again. Now that I am down to under the last 15 it is getting harder and harder.

I am stuck too, and I am eating less and exercising more. I just have to realize that my body will let go of fat when it is ready. I am just going to keep on counting calories and exercising. I know how you are feeling.

I agree with Glory.

It may be counterintuitive, but it also works for me. When the loss started to slow down, I decided to add more food. Mind you, that was whole, unprocessed foods and that seemed to reenergize my body.

The whole starvation mode idea makes perfect sense to me. I eat small meals but more frequently, usually every 2-3 hours a day. Once the body is sure it's not going into a famine period it can "feel comfortable" to let the extra padding go. I actually stopped tracking in Fiday because it was making me crazy. I kept wanting to lower the calories.

Why not just try it? It's not going to ruin what you've done. Do it slowly, one food at a time. I added one new food a week. Your body may not like certain things, meaning it may cause gas, bloating or water retention.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for all the replies, I have this funny thing that when I get sick I get REALLY hard on myself. The past 2 days the meals I've been eating were definitely TOO small, I normally don't eat so little. I was having an upset tummy, and a little throwing up. I know the starving thing definitely doesn't work, I wasn't eating so little on purpose.

I get SO frustrated at how slow this happens for me, eating bread makes me gain, same with pasta, too much sugar, anything processed, coffee, just so much seems to get in my way of doing this. Mostly myself I suppose. I guess the feeling like I can't diet when I'm sick, I also can't really exercise with how I'm feeling.. I feel helpless and like I want to do it NOW. I can't explain myself really well. I want it now, and I want to do the work now.. but I have to wait for my body to heal. Plus it would be nice to eat a normal meal without getting ill!

I just don't want to be fat anymore!!

-Aimee

Hey girl, don't be so hard on urself. I am in the same situation. My daughter is a nurse and she informed me that exercising causes muscle and unfortunately muscle makes the scales go up. I have decided to back off on some of the exercises until I get closer to my weight loss goal and see what happens. Good luck to you and keep up the good work. Pizza Hut and u ordered salad..........lol. I don't know if I could have done that one or not.

Muscle is a good thing, no matter what it does to the scale. Muscle is metabolically active - it takes calories every day to maintain muscle mass. So, if you gain muscle, you are actually INCREASING your metabolism and HELPING your fat loss. Don't get so wrapped up in what the scale says that you ignore what is best long term for your health. If the scale is bugging you, try going by measurements instead. If you lose 1 lb of fat and gain 1 lb of muscle, the scale will stay the same but your clothes will fit the same since muscle is more dense (takes up less room in the body) than fat. Muscle is like a dense pencil eraser, fat is like a puffy marshmallow. Picture 10 pencil erasers vs. 10 marshmallows.

The scale is not the entire story!!!!