Saltwater
I'm sorry that you're having a tough time of it. It wasn't long ago when I was experiencing a bit of despair about lack of progress myself. I'm glad that you recognize that extreme "solutions" such as laxatives aren't the way to go.
This is a very supportive forum, and you'll find that there are several people out there who are dealing with major stumbling blocks as they attempt to lose weight. You aren't alone!
I have two recommendations: 1) consider posting a thread in the "weight loss support" subforum - it'll get more views and you can get better advice from more members and 2) I swear by this very good common sense book by Tom Venuto called
Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. You can get a used copy very inexpensively on half.com. He explains all the nitty gritty about calorie expenditure and calculating how much you'll need per day in order to lose.
I hope that helps!