So Frustrated!
 

I am so frustrated. The last 3 weeks, I have only lost 1 lb per week... :( At least I"m losing, but my trend was way more then 1 lb. I weigh myself once a week & record my results. This are my results so far:
week 1 - 231
week 2 - 220 lbs
week 3 - 218
week 4 - 214
week 5 - 210
week 6 - 210
week 7 - 205
week 8 - 204
week 9 - 203

What could be causing it to slow down so much!? I haven't been cheating, more then anyone else. I allow one meal a week that I don't count. I don't get it... What can I do to kick start this process again? I can not keep losing only 1 lb a week, it will take me over a year to get to my goal?

Hey! Sorry you are feeling frustrated!

Originally Posted by :
I haven't been cheating, more then anyone else.

Originally Posted by :
I allow one meal a week that I don't count.

These are a couple of things you might want to look at.

Also, you haven't said what your plan is--are you a calorie counter? Are you doing Weight Watchers? Tell us more. What do you eat in a day? What kind of exercise are you doing?

A pound a week is good! :cheer2: You'll need to be more patient, I think! Our bodies don't lose weight in a straight line...

Just keep going--there's nothing wrong!

Jay

Would you rather lose 1 lb per week or nothing? :)

There is nothing wrong with a 1 lb per week loss. You have to realize that sometimes it's going to happen that way. You simply can't count on 2 lb or more per week all the time. You have to learn to not get frustrated as long as you're continuing to lose.

It's taken me 18 months to get this far and I'm still 30 lbs out from my goal. But you know what? That's 70 lbs less than I used to weigh. So it's all good.

Just relax and let it happen

.

I count calories. I was eating 500-750 a day but recently, the past week or so, have been making an effort to eat more around 1,200. Though, I do find that hard & some days I'm lucky if I get down 1000. But I'm puting in the effort to up my calories as I was told by everyone here....

try biking

You need to bike for at least 30 mins per session before your body starts to burn off the calories, from the stored fat.

Same for walking.

Sit ups are strength exercises that help you build and strengthen your muscles. When muscle's strengthened, it helps to elevate your metabolism while you're at rest, hence you burn off calories.

And just a side note, at one point, between "official" weigh ins I was down to 201 and when I recently started eating more, it brought me back up to 204.... URGH!

One pound per week is great. I had several weeks where I was perfectly on plan (no cheat meals, no cheating!) and I didn't lose anything - zip, zilch, zippo. Try to tie your motivation into things you can control (drinking water, eating right, exercising) rather than things you can not control (the scale). The scale can make you crazy!

I think your weight loss looks great. Don't get sucked into "biggest loser" numbers - a lb per week is perfectly normal.

Extasee, I think maybe your body is trying to recover from the 500-700 cals a day you put it through.

Stay with your higher calorie level. Your loss may slow or even stop and reverse for a week, but that's OK. Just stick with it... you'll see... it will be better.

Many folks do take over a year to lose as much weight as you've got to lose. It's not a race. Slower is generally better if what you want is to lose fat and keep it off. :)

Jay

Lets see...your starting weight was 231, your weight now is 203, and you have been going for 9 weeks. 231-203 = 28/9= 3.11 pounds per week! Seriously, that is way better than the average Jane. Hang in there...& keep your calories above 1200. Your hair will start to fall out and skin will look terrible if you go back to 500-750 calories a day. Nothing prettier than a skinny girl with no hair and dry wrinkled skin...

I would also say a pound a week is good. Your body may also be a bit resistant because of your relatively low calorie level.

A pound a week is excellent and nothing to be worried about. There are many weeks I lose less than 1 lb per week, and you just have to look at it as a loss (even if it's small). Some weeks will be better than others. Keep it up!

It sounds like you are expecting weight to just drop off like crazy. The body doesn't work like that and we shouldn't force it to do that either. Weight loss takes time. It takes us time to gain it and it takes us time to lose it. Losing 1lb per week is great. What you were doing before was unrealistic and unhealthy. Be happy with your 1lb and know you'll reach your goal and stay there!! :carrot:

It's frustrating cause it came off so QUICK the first few weeks. And then it slowed down & then I listened to everyone when they told me to eat more, and now it's basicly slowed to a stop! Do you guys average 1 lb a week or more? How often do you think you don't lose a single pound in a week?:?:

Originally Posted by Extasee58865:
It's frustrating cause it came off so QUICK the first few weeks.

Because you were starving yourself.

Originally Posted by :
Do you guys average 1 lb a week or more? How often do you think you don't lose a single pound in a week?:?:

Ha. For me, all the time!! But I'm slow at this. It took me 6 years to get this fat so I figure it's going to take a while to get thin again too. I know it's hard to be patient. Oh boy do I know, but if we aren't patience we'll most likely end up sabotaging ourselves and we'll be right back where we started. Since you've mixed up your calories your body needs some time to adjust. You were barely eating anything now it needs to adjust to eating again. Make sense?

Ya I guess it makes sense, which is why I REALLY, REALLY didn't want to up my calorie intake! I knew this was going to happen. At this rate, it will take me over 1 year to lose the weight, that just seems so far away! :-( Oh well, what can you do. I guess like you guys said, 1 lb is better then no pounds!

You don't want to starve yourself because eventually you will get very frustrated from being so strict with yourself that eventually you will binge. Strict diets also cause metabolism to crash. The body knows it is being starved so it will do what it can to protect itself and one way is by slowly down its metabolism.

Also, as Lori pointed out, hair and skin really take a beating with crash diets.

Hang in there.:)

Originally Posted by Extasee58865:
I count calories. I was eating 500-750 a day but recently, the past week or so, have been making an effort to eat more around 1,200. Though, I do find that hard & some days I'm lucky if I get down 1000. But I'm puting in the effort to up my calories as I was told by everyone here....

You know, it's really unhealthy to get so low in calories. Your body will lose water weight quickly, but go into starvestarvestarve mode and you'll retain more than lose. Keep up with the 1200. I eat 1600 a day (and one day I up it a bit so I can splurge) and I lose. I'm not some kind of gladiator either, I walk but thats most of it. Lose weight on the safe side, and a pound a week really adds up. Hang in there!!!

I'm slow at weight loss only because of my own sabotaging but I'm 4 years into this. Whenever I lost weight fast though, I have to say it was when I was fueling my body rather than starving it.

I lost 9 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Average caloric intake is around 1700/day with one 'i didn't count you' meal. And also dealing with PMS as well.

I've gone months 'doing everything right' but not losing any weight. But my body can be very stubborn at times and so can my head.

Successful long term weight loss requires that you eat. You can lose weight starving yourself, most of the weight won't be fat though. It'll be muscle.

Also, the scale is only one measure of weight loss. My clothes fit a lot looser today than they fit a couple weeks ago.

Originally Posted by Extasee58865:
Ya I guess it makes sense, which is why I REALLY, REALLY didn't want to up my calorie intake! I knew this was going to happen. At this rate, it will take me over 1 year to lose the weight, that just seems so far away! :-( Oh well, what can you do. I guess like you guys said, 1 lb is better then no pounds!

A year seems like a long time, but it's going to pass anyway. Might as well be slim after a year with good eating habits built to last the rest of your life. Losing weight is just the first part - the shortest part. Keeping that weight off for a lifetime is the real challenge. Focus on your long term goal - slim, healthy, energetic for a lifetime.

I don't mean to scare you at all, but the biology student in me keeps wanting to speak up. Have you ever heard of ketosis?

When you eat too little food, or too little carbs for that matter, after a while your body will go into this mode. You're turning on your own muscle (protein). Your body catabolizes this (oh, what the heck.. "eats it"). This does a lot of damage to you. It's reversible of course, but to continue this way is really under anorexic behavior. It is the reason that heart failure affects long term anorexics. Your heart is made of muscle, and if you hang out in ketosis, it'll affect the heart, as well as the rest of your muscles.

You said you've been trying to reach for higher calories and I really do applaud you. Please caution any other women/men/losers you might know to not strive for low-low calories. It really does hurt the body.

Please, just hang in there. You will reach your goal, and it won't take that long. Seriously, you messed up your metabolism when you ate so little. That is why crash diets are so unhealthy and why doctors and nutritionist only put super morbidly obese people on such restricted calories. (And usually that is to get the patient ready for weight loss surgery.) Do you have something special you are trying to lose weight for? A wedding, or reunion or something? What is your hurry? I always try to look at the bright side when I'm at a slow loss stage in my diet...as long as I'm losing, I'm not gaining....

Nope no hurry... Just hate being fat! I have all these cute little clothes still from when I was 140 and i want to wear them again. I want to regain the "caring" about how I look. Right now I don't. I figure, why bother, even if I dress nice & do my make up, I'm still fat.... I'm just sick of it. I reached that point where I finally realized how fat I actually was and now I want to hurry up and get away from that as fast as I can! And generally, I'm an impatient person anyways. :-)

I totally understand being impatient. There are days that I'm there myself. Today is one of them! ;)

Just keep being healthy and it will come off ... even if it is slowly! :)

.

Oh honey, I hear you on hating the fat! LOL You've come along way, and I bet in a week or so when you are in the 100's you'll have a whole new lease on life. Maybe you are just bummin because you are almost ready to see that magical #1 and the scale is playing a mind game with you!

Exercise will also help "speed it up." Diet and exercise go hand in hand when it comes to weight loss. Are you exercising?

No, I'm horrible, I'm not. I work 45 hours a week, go to school for 15 and have a husband & a 3 year old. Time to exercise unfortunately is pretty much non existant. I want to buy aDVD to keep at home for when I have 20 minutes here or there to exercise, any suggestions?

I hear ya, I work full time and go to school full time too, but no kiddos (thankfully). Keep in mind: If you dont have your health, you dont have much. You have to make time for things like that. It's very important to keep healthy.
Take a walk during lunch.
A video would be good, especially if you can get up before everyone else and not be bothered.

I think maybe stop thinking of the end as the magic number. It may take a year to get the weight off, but that would mean in 6 months (by spring), you'll be half-way there!!!!

I have also stopped trying to look at the scale as my magical success measurer. How are you FEELING? 231 to 204 must make a difference! Try picking up something that weighs 27 lbs and enjoy the fact you used to carry that around!!

Also, 500-700 calories sounds like starvation mode. I think your body probably started living off muscle and is trying to store that fat because it thinks of this as an emergency situation!!! Keep the calories up, and make sure to get your exercise, and you will be fine!!!! ;)