[Sidonie]

Hi! I joined here a few weeks ago and have been enjoying reading your posts. I thought it was about time I jumped in and posted. I need some motivation, big time. I feel like this little guy.

I'm 6ft tall, a size 16(UK) and am getting married in 5 months in Jamaica. My starting weight was 210lbs, I'm now down to 193lbs, and my goal is around 176lbs. My partner is dieting with me, we eat between 1200-1400 calories a day, and exercise every night. I usually have meusli for breakfast(I never ate breakfast before), salad and a low cal soup for lunch, and various dinners sitting around the 500 calorie mark. I do 20 minutes cycling a night, on a hard setting, burning about 170 calories. Then I do 60 situps. I also walk briskly for 40 minutes a day pushing a 200lb double pushchair with two toddlers in it. This makes me feel the burn like no other exercise I've tried, so it must be doing some good!

The truth is I love my food, and doing this day in, day out and seeing no real visible rewards is killing me. I've been dieting and exercising since boxing day, and the 17lbs I have lost all came off in one huge chuck around the three week mark, and since then I haven't shifted a pound. What am I doing wrong? I'm desperate for it to start to show visibly from the outside.

[marbleflys]

Get out your tape measure and avoid the scale for a week or two....please don't give up.....think of how different you'll look and feel in photos of your wedding, AHEM, YOUR WEDDING PICTURES!!!

you might want to change up the diet too...how about egg white omlette with low fat cheese for breakfast? 1/2 sandwich (tuna, lean meat, light mayo or mustard) and soup and some fruit for lunch....sounds like you need more protein? do you have some snacks like yogurt built into the day?

dinner is the hardest part for me, I won't try that one.

[Sidonie]

Thanks Marbleflys.

I don't eat meat, only fish, so I do tend to have prawn or tuna with my salad everyday, so get quite a lot of protein there. I obviously tend to have fish with my dinner too, or a soya based meal. I do have snacks, I eat lots of apples, and love plain yoghurt with grapes.

I wish we'd never bought scales to weigh ourselves, as they make it worse.

[greeneggsandtam]

Sidonie! I think what you're doing sounds great! I know it seems to take forever, but marbleflys is right - don't give up. If you're feeling the burn and eating healthfully, you're definitely on the right track.

[JayEll]

You might want to lower the carbohydrate calories and raise the fat calories slightly. I know that's contrary, but the body does need some fats (SMALL amounts). If that doesn't seem like a good idea, I'd ask how it is that you estimate your calories eaten. You want to make sure you're really eating what you think you are. Are you usually closer to 1200 or to 1400? How many calories do you burn in a day--any idea? Do you use a tracking program?

Also, maybe have not so many calories at the evening meal, but spread calories out more throughout the day. That is, have a mid-morning snack and a mid-afternoon snack.

It might also be good to try different exercises if you can, just to allow your cycling muscles to rest now and then.

These are just some things I would try if I found myself stuck. Good luck!

Jay