I quit smoking last summer and gained about 15 pounds. I started this year around 169 pounds, occasionally fluctuating to 170. I've been sticking to my diet since the year started, eating 1300-1600 calories daily and drinking 64-72 ounces of water. For the entire month of January I hovered back and forth between 168 and 169, finally dropping down to 166 after my period that month. Now for the whole month of February so far I've weighed 166 with an occasional fluctuation of 167 or even 168. With the fluctuations it's hard to say for sure, but it seems like at most I've lost 3 pounds in six weeks. I do weigh myself daily, for which I'm glad - weekly would show almost no weight loss depending on the days I did it!
I've never had this much trouble losing weight before. The weight I was at before I quit smoking was after losing about 75 pounds. I've had my weeks where I struggled with a plateau, but not for this length of time and never at the start of weight loss.
I'm wondering if my metabolism has just severely slowed because I quit smoking and if anyone else has any experience with that. I'm even starting to wonder if I have a thyroid issue because if I go over my calories at all I gain weight. I don't think it's water weight, either, because it can take me as much as a week to lose it. (I've cheated twice since starting - both times to have a piece of cake on birthdays, but otherwise sticking to my diet all day.)
Anyone have any experience like this?