I've been changing my approach to food and life for about a month and a half. My husband was on board with me and for the first month, it went pretty well. I went from 289 to 278....when i saw that 278 I was so happy!

I started my final year of graduate school (well, at least classes) but kept counting calories and working out. I had a lot of medical problems start to pile up as well as stress, but always managed to recoup. If I felt I wanted something sweet and NOT healthy, I worked it into my calorie budget.

I haven't done anything differently...but the scale started moving up. Last week it hit 286 and today it's 284. It fluctuates between those numbers regardless of what I do. I don't eat after 9pm and I weight myself first thing in the morning.

I so wanted to be in the low 270s by now...wanted to celebrate another 10lb loss. It feels like I took one step forward and two step backs...

Thanks for listening to all my whining and moping...you guys rock.

I had someone tell me a few months ago that stress can cause unexplained weight gain, often in the form of water retention. I think they were right. If you just started back to school I imagine your habits and patterns have changed, once those settle back down I bet you will see the weight level back off. Particularly if you know that you are doing everything else right.

Hey there,
Wanted to offer you lots of encouragement to keep the faith and keep tweaking things. Sounds like you've had a lot on your plate. If you feel like you'd like some suggestions, I would encourage you to tell us a bit more about what you are trying and we can see if there are some suggestions. The good news is you are doing the right thing in looking at calories and thinking carefully about how to make things fit in calorie budget. That's a big piece of the puzzle. Now it probably needs some tweaking and we can probably offer some ideas.

Don't throw in the towel! You can do this!

Peg

Hi there-
You and I are in the same boat. We are about at the same starting weights and current weights and we have been at this about the same amount of time. I know u feel discouraged so do I but just hang in there! We can be weightloss buddies!!!! Lets both hang in there!!! We can do it!!!
Jamie

I must tell you to hang in there. A little over a week ago, I had stalled for 10 days. I was bouncing between 2 lbs and was SOOOOO discouraged as I was trying SO HARD!

Well, this week, I''ve had one of those "whooshs" I've heard folks talk about The scale jumped down 4 pounds in a matter of days. That tells me that the scale definitely does always reflect the fat loss we are experiencing. I must have been retaining water due to sodium or exercise.

If you're sticking on plan, odds are you ARE losing fat. I really just may take a few days for it to register on the scale. Celebrate your EFFORTS, not the results. The results WILL follow if your efforts are on target.

Hang in there!!!!!!!

Like others have said...hang in there!

As you are just beginning your journey, there's probably no point in suggesting that you try not be a slave to the scale, so I won't

My point is that if you are on plan (whatever that plan may be), you will lose...maybe not as fast as you would like (everyone is different), but you WILL lose.

Chin up!

Yep, hang in there.

It took me 2 months of self torture to figure out that a recent upward scale trend was due to a medication my doc put me on. It took 4 months of careful, daily scale watching to figure out how much I gained each and every month at TOM. And it took the smart women at 3FC to teach me that changing your exercise regime can lead to scale flucuations too. So can the increased sodium that comes with eating more processed/prepared foods. I can't have a whit of genuine sugar without gaining a pound the next day, calorie allowance nonwithstanding. It takes some time to get to know your body.

If you're OP, keep going and pay attention to your patterns. You don't have to worry about it being a "plateau" and trying to change things up for at least a few weeks, at which point you can try tweaking sodium, sugar, etc. Most likely, your body is adjusting to your new routine and will settle in soon enough.