....and what finally broke it?

Struggling to understand if I am under-eating, or over-eating. I upped my calories over the weekend to over 2,000 to see if that would snap me out of my 6 week stall but the scale has just gone up. I do feel thinner than what I did 6 weeks ago, however, at some point the scale has got to start moving, right!?
Just curious what has helped people break a long streak of not losing.

Have you been weight training? I stalled between 170-174 for at least 3-4 months because I was lifting really heavy weights. I finally dropped down to the 160's but like you said I kept feeling smaller and smaller even when I wasn't actually losing weight. I cycle my calories usually, have you tried that? It helped give me the push out of the 170's and I never felt deprived or like I was eating too much.

A year. Not even exaggerating. After buying a bodymedia recently I discovered that I burn a lot less than most calorie calculators say I do, which is (I'm guessing) the reason for the plateau, since I would count my calories to the T, and add in my calories for exercising (which were a lot more than bodymedia says I burn).

But about a month ago I started lifting weights and have "gained" five pounds, despite eating great and healthy. I was expecting that gain, but what I wasn't expecting is that I've already lost a few inches. It'll work itself out, eventually. Hoping to break out of this plateau by the end of the year.

At one point I was going to the gym at least 3 times a week (running) and was on 1000 cals a day and losing only 1 lb a month. I lost 15 lbs that whole year, I consider that a platau given how hard I worked on a dialy basis.

I used to cry. Because I felt like there was nothing else in my power I could do in my power.

Then after that year I quit and gained 100 lbs over next 2 years.

Makes no sense right? It is better to be at a platau then be the weight you started at, at least your doing SOMETHING.

I have learned to embrace plataus as your body is confused on only knows to be obese, so that is why it is fighting.

Staying the same is better than gaining.

18 months... but it was a mental health break.

I hit "healthy" weight and decided to take some time off for my sanity, and to ensure I could maintain and not gain it all back right away.

Back at it... coming off slow, but losing inches a lot faster .

My longest plateau- when I was actually on plan- was just under a month. In reality, I think my weight loss slowed because I was having more and more higher calorie days, and was averaging eating more than I needed to be.

I just recently got off my first plateau. It lasted about 8 weeks. the first month of my plateau I still lost lots of inches, but second month, not so much. I switched my workouts, I changed my eating (upped cals, upped protein, etc), but I kinda agree with kelly315, I think it was the same issue for me, more high calorie days. I've just read a lot about being patient during your plateau. I know patience isn't the key for everyone though Good luck!

I did something similar. I stayed in a plateau for about 3 months. I figured my body was telling me something so I decided to just focus on maintaining for the next 12 months and now my head and body seem back in the game. I have lost 7 pounds over the last couple of weeks.

For new years I started trying to lose weight, got down to 275 relatively quickly, and was stuck there until May. 4 months the scale would go up and down but always returned to 275. So I cut calories drastically. It probably wasn't healthy but it gave me a needed push. Now I hover around 1200 cals min 1500 max. It varies from day to day exercise etc. But I have an extremely slow metabolism.

About 4-5 years. I got down to around 200 just by exercising but I wasn't watching what I ate. When I started watching what I ate the weight came off.

I learned a lot in those 4-5 years of maintenance though; exercise became a habit so it was much easier to just start watching what and how much I ate. I wasn't changing so much at once.

This has always been the case for me as well. I have never had a real plateau - a time where I was really strictly on plan without seeing losses on the scale - that lasted longer than 3 weeks or so.

I have had on-plan, 3-week periods in which my body sort of rearranged itself and my measurements changed, without change on the scale. And, as I've gotten closer to a healthy weight, I've had on-plan 3-week periods with no change at all in measurements or weight. At this point I'm losing slowly enough that a couple of days of bad fluid retention can easily mask a full month's worth of fat loss. That's just how it is.

But if I am truly honest with myself, I have to acknowledge that any time I have gone longer than 3 weeks with no change at all, it's because I've become lax about following my plan.

I've never had a plateau when I was on plan, and I've done A LOT of yo-yoing in my life. With me it seems to be pretty simple: I get results in direct proportion to my effort.

F.

Ditto

Gosh... I freaking WISH my body worked like this. I'm disciplined to a fault. I drive everyone crazy. But it doesn't always translate to the results I want. *sigh*

7 months was my longest, but in all honesty, after the first 2 months I decided to just take a "break" and maintain.

Once I got back into it, I dropped 15 the following month. Ha! who knew?