I’ve been on the cookie diet (basically a low calorie, meal replacement diet) for a month now, and still have not been able to reach my first mini goal! I feel like I’ve hit a wall at 218, like my scale won’t go below that. I know working out at the gym and dieting takes time to lose the weight, but I’ve never been a patient woman. I want to see results, I’m getting very frustrated, and even angry that nothing is happening. I’m not eating poorly, maybe I’m still eating too much. How long has it taken you to lose your weight? Naturally without surgery? I know everyone keeps telling me not to step on the scale everyday but I can’t help it. It’s almost like an obsession now. I guess in a way it’s a good obsession, obsessing about losing weight but still I’m terrified all this hard work won’t pay off. I spent almost two hours in the gym on Sunday alone and 65 of those minutes were spent on cardio, and still the scale didn’t go below 218.2! This morning after another 40 minutes in the gym last night and 60 minutes on Saturday I GAINED .4 lbs!! When will I catch a break, when will my body give up its resistance to being thin. How do I tell my fat to just “LET GO”?! I drink plenty of water and go to the bathroom a lot haven’t eaten ANY fast food or soda for over a month. Drank alcohol only once and it was Vodka not beer. I just don’t know how much longer I can continue to do this without seeing results. I don’t see them on myself but a co-worker says he can see, but that’s not good enough for me.

Sorry I kind of rambled I'm just .. so.. stuck!

With your cookies, how many calories do you eat a day?

ETA: 14 pounds in one month is just about as good as it gets for MOST people. Anymore than that is not really doctor recommended unless you are under strict medical supervision.

I eat a little under and sometimes over 1000 calories a day. But like I said I don't weigh anything so it's all guessing and measureing what I can.

At your current size, you really should be eating more, not less, to lose. It sounds wrong, but it has some basis. I'd say you should try eating around 1600 to start, maybe more--but I'm not a specialist or expert. There are tools on the internet that can give you information on how much to eat.

Maybe you should try something like simple calorie counting and give up on the "cookies"...?

Jay

ETA: I agree with Lori Bell that 14 pounds in a month is a rapid drop. You can't expect that to go on forever.

I mean in a whole day is that how much you take in only 1000 calories? If so then your body is thinking its starving itself and its holding on to whatever your eating and not letting go!
and plus your working out so your burning calories and really your only eating under a 1000 calories and that's not good.

I would say eat more!

and 14 pounds!! wow when I lose 14 pounds in one month I'm throwing myself a party! lol. that's amazing,

EAT MORE!! I was you about three years ago. I lost 30 lbs killing myself at the gym and eating like a bird. EAT MORE. I gave up and put it all back on and didn't try again for three whole years. So sad.

You can't exercise and eat like a bird too. Think of dieting for the weight loss and exercise for your health. And the diet has to match what you are burning. People who start exercising are encouraged to eat more.

I would never recommend NOT exercising. But this time around I decided to diet first and then add exercise when/if I hit a plateau. I haven't hit it yet and I've lost the same 30 lbs I lost the first time around. It's been so easy this time and it was so incredibly hard the last time.

I dancing around the basic advise to just eat more, but that in a nutshell may just be the problem. That and 14 lbs in a month is amazing.

I would agree with the above posts...eat more. I haven't tried the cookie diet myself, but 1000 is really very low and that's before working out, so you're really pushing it...

Try cycling, too. It's good to keep your body guessing as much as you can.

But whatever you do, DON'T give up! You can do it!

Thank you all so much for your advice! This is in fact the first time I've seriously considered and tried dieting. I'm new to all of this and need as much help as I can get. I'm doing this alone. I'm afraid to eat more, cause that's what got me to my highest weigth wich was around 246. In three months I'd gained 18lbs, my docotor flat out said "been eating a lot lately". I want so badly to be thin!!

Tami, you can do this. Don't ever tell yourself you can't. Try to research different things about weight loss and how the body works.

I've tried so many things and what works for one may not work for another. It sounds like the cookie diet has worked for you so far. When people say "eat more", maybe that's too general a phrase. Try adding a small apple to your breakfast. Do that for a week and see what the scale does. If it doesn't move, try adding an extra serving a vegetables to your dinner PLUS the apple at breakfast. Do that for a week and see what happens.

1200 is the lowest recommendation for most people. I'm eating 1200 calories because I'm NOT exercising and have caught flack for being that low. And my energy is really poor. I really should be taking my own advise. But because it's still working, I don't want to stop. When it does stop working, my fist line of defense is going to be to eat more in the method I described above. I just did your BMR and came up with 1763. This is how many calories you burn just keeping your organs running every day. So as you can see, if you slept all day and ate 1000 calories in a day you'd have a deficit of 763 calories. But you're exercising too. You should probably consume at least 1400-1600 calories idea to support the exercise.

I agree with the above. I would try cycling and up your calories gradually to avoid a weight gain. Women should never, unless under doctors careful watch, drop their calories below 1200 and even at that low number you need to be very careful that you're eating nutritionally rich foods. Fourteen pounds in one month is fast! Focus on that and just know that in time it will come off! Good Luck!

14 lbs in a month is great! I wish I was losing that fast... wow.

As for the calories... 1000 calories is definately not enough!

Tami 14 lbs is WONDERFUL! And didn't I read that Aunt Flo came recently too? Keeping posting...u will get lots of good insights!

Make sure you weigh yourself at the same time everyday. I am also prone to impatience when it comes to weight loss, but in the past couple of weeks, I have done a moderate workout so that I can get one in each day. Since then, I have noticed more changes in my body composition than the scale. Don't rely on the scale to tell you everything. For example, you could be at the same weight and eating fast food and drinking soda, but your not!!! Give yourself credit for what you are doing right. We all need to do more of that!!! Hope this helps!





one carrot for each pound lost in 2010 (so far):
:c arrot:

Yeah that Aunt Flow is in town, but shouldn't GAIN right?

I'm always up 1-3lbs the week prior AND the week of AF...then I spend the next 2 weeks trying to get it off before I comes back again, hehe! I would agree with others about more eating, and maybe consider counting & measuring your foods, at least for a short time, since estimates can really be off...sometimes by several hundred calories. Good luck!