Discouraged :(
 

I have been working out (cardio & strength training) every day, normally I do cardio for 20-30 mins in the early morning and then cardio again for 15-20 mins in the afternoon or evening on some days, other days I do 15 mins strength and 20-30 cardio in the AM and one or the other in the afternoon or evening. Some days I only workout once, but I do try and get in 45-60 mins/day.
Ive been doing this since jan 10th, and ive stopped losing weight. :( I know, most will say that my body is getting used to my routine. BUT i change it up all the time so that wont happen. I do various routines, inclines/speeds on the treadmill, i work dif parts during weight lifting, switch between weights and resistance bands etc etc. I also do Turbo Jam a few times a week as well as dance/aerobics.
This past week wasnt my best food wise, but for the majority of the past month Ive been doing really well, daily intake around 1200 somedays higher, I eat a lot of veggies, fruit, whole grains etc.

Im getting to the point where i want to just say "f-it" and plop in front of the tv with a huge pizza some cake and a big *** bottle of pepsi.
(oh thats the other thing, i havent had any soda in over a month and I've had 5 (tops) coffees during that time) So ive cut out A TON of the sugar I used to have (i would only drink pepsi and coffee with lots of creamand sugar) so I thought that with all my excersize and drastically reducing my sugar..that would be enough to really kick some butt and lose some weight!

But now, nothing..infact in the past 2 weeks i keep gaining and losing the same fricken 4 lbs...

I hate this.

Calmly now ... don't be discouraged, you're in very good company. I'd venture to say that a pretty large percentage of posts here are about "nothing happening lately" and how frustrating that can be.

Breathe deeply and step back. You are so "in the middle" of this that you can't see clear picture of it. I can see that you have lost 10 lbs in a month and a half. That's really very good! Very good!

I don't think it has anything to do with your exercise. I'm impressed actually. I wish everyone did something each day.

The only thing I would suggest you try is to carefully track your foods for a few days. Not only could it very well be sneaky calories ... bits, bites, inaccurate measurements ... it could be the quality of your foods.
Salty foods do me in! I suck up water like a sponge. Four pounds of water isn't really very much. And if it's evenly distributed all over my puffy body ... face, hands, belly, legs ... I do 2 or 3 pounds easy.

I think it's Tom Venuto who talks about two weeks. If you are tracking carefully and doing your thing consistently and nothing happens for two weeks, at least you have an exact record of what you're doing. From this exact record, you can make changes.

I agree with Susan.

Well even one *off day* can wipe out any deficit you've created the rest of the week, so an entire week can really wreak havoc with your weight.

But this past week aside - Is there any way that you're underestimating your calories? Could your measurements be wrong? For instance you think you're eating a 1/2 cup of brown rice and it's really a cup. Or that piece of salmon is 7 ozs, not 4, etc. Are you recording each and every bite, lick, taste, crumb and sip? Have you had any *cheat* meals or days?

Oh and I tried that little experiment - multiple times, I can tell you that surely won't get the scale headed in the right direction. ;)

I would suggest that you really, really, REALLY accurately measure/record everything that you put in your mouth for a couple of weeks to get a crystal clear picture of what you're ingesting. Then you'll know where you can adjust if need be.

Hang tough. Take the time to figure this out. Trust me, it is so incredibly worth it. It does take time to get things down pat, but when you do, hold on, because it's a thrilling, exciting wonderful time. :)

I actually have found that having a day or two in my week where I'm not so strict really helps keep my metabolism going. Try changing up your workout routine. Can you get your cardio from another source? Swimming, for example.

I'm of the opinion that sometimes, instead of tightening down and being 'more accurate', you should lighten up a bit and give your body a break.

I guess it's all perspective - because to me, giving my body a break means to not overfeed and over fuel it. To give it what it requires, but we are all different.

I don't know, but for me, and again we are all different, but not being mindful of my food intake for a day or two during the week, does nothing but cause weight gain. :shrug:

I didn't say don't be mindful, I said loosen up the restrictions a bit for a day or two.
There is research that suggests that altering and varying your caloric intake can keep your body guessing which in turn boosts the metabolism, resulting in weight loss.

Of course we all have to find what works for ourselves. I pretty much adhered to the same calorie allotment, so for me the varying thing, *tricking ones metabolism*, keeping it "guessing", never came much into play and I found success. I have found out through my own personal research (;)), that going over my calories only caused weight gain.

We are all experiments of one though. Different things work for different people. Luckily through trial and error we all figure it out - at some point anyway. :)

This stands out to me as the "Light Bulb factor". Sadly, I can be totally 100% faithful and perfectly on plan for 6 days and on the 7th day of the week over indulge, (Even by say 2000 calories, not an all out mega-binge) and totally undo all my hard work for the week. Mixing things up by adding more food, only results in my weight going up...or staying the same. Consistency is what got me results.... day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out... consistently. Hang in there. And as Susan and Robin recommend...watch things closely and tweak as necessary. Calories IN are the key factor.

This. If you want this to work, you have to commit to being scientific about it: it's like like we all learned in high school: create a hypothesis, experiment, collect data, interpret results. Create a new hypothesis based on the new conclusions. It may take three months to find a combination of exercise + food plan that works to take weight off you and is sustainable, but when you find the plan, everything is so much easier--because a good plan isn't a hardship, it doesn't feel like total deprivation.

Basically, you have to figure out two things--one, is the medical side--how many calories and in what combinations work to keep you full while taking the weight off. The second thing is the emotional--what things do you really need to have emotional stability? What is not that important? It is, again, a process of trial and error.

Hang in there! :hug:

I've had weeks before where I've struggled with gaining and loosing the same three pounds. I think stress factors play a really key role in our weight loss. Once I calmed down and felt comfortable in the routine again instead of grinding it out and stressing over not seeing the numbers I wanted, things started clicking again. When I cut out soda and coffee back in November I also saw absolutely no weight loss from it. It sounds like you're doing the right things, minus the guilty pizza nights.

Just keep assuring yourself, even if you're not immediately seeing the numbers, you're SO much healthier with this lifestyle change. The numbers will fall in place soon enough.

Ok I can totally relate (check out my post "I want to hit something")

But the FIRST thing I saw is that you are eating very little for how much you are burning. I'm on another forum for the bodybugg/gwf stuff and someone new just joined and said they finally figured out why they hadn't been loosing.

They said they had been eating 1300 calorie a day and working out 60 min a day. And NOTHING. Then they got the bodybogg and found out that they are burning 3500 calories a day on average. That means their deficit was WAY to high. She raised her calories to 2000 a day and ....tada.....weight loss :)

Anyway.......:) I'm here for you!

In response to the bold print...When I read stories like this is aways remind me of when I would have a no loss week. There were just some weeks I didn't lose any weight. I'd stay on track, be dilligent, and come Friday morning weigh day I would be exactly the same weight. (Oh course I was bummed a little) BUT, I would keep doing exactly what I was doing, (same 1200-1500 calories day & same excercise) and then the next week Whoosh...6 pounds GONE. That happened a couple times to me during the weight loss stage of my "diet". When I hear these stories, in my mind, it's not raising the calorie intake that makes the person lose weight, it's just that it's probably that persons "time" for the glorious "Whoosh". IDK, I'm certainly no expert, but to me, eating more when a person already has an ample amount of the worlds most perfect energy storage system attached to their body seems very counter productive.

sorry

i know this isn't going to be the most popular response, but sometimes your body just stalls. i was at 180 lbs for 6 weeks over the summer and i almost quit soooooo many times. like everyone else said, try reassessing your plan or maybe calorie cycling. for me it basically ended up just starting again after i waited it out long enough. its like your body finds a point where it just wants to stick and you really have to keep at it before that scale will move.

Well just think its too extreme. One of my favorite podcasts is "fat2fit radio" and they talk alot about slow, healthy weightloss. The idea is if you eat as if you already were that skinny person they you will eventually be that skinny person. And a 170 lb person eats way more than 1200 calories to maintain that weight.