I have not been diagnosed or seen a doctor about PCOS, but I do know that I have menstrual trouble (as in, no cycles at all unless I take medication for it). I currently take provera for 10 days every 3-4 months to induce a cycle.

If PCOS is what I have, it might explain some things. Thanks for this.

So what do you think the problem is?
--Quality of food?
--Carb/Fat/Protein ratio off?
--Too much exercise?
--Different exercises needed?
--Up your calories by 100 or 200?
--Lower them by 100 or 200?
--Go to a Doc and get this possible PCOS investigated?

What is your plan of action? I'm glad your feeling less emotional. I turn into an ungodly Bi--otch when I don't have food!

***As for the personal reasons your weight must be this low, I hope it doesn't have to do with some guy.***

Also, you might need some circuit training, toning exercises, and the like. My arms and legs look awesome thanks to Jillian Michaels. Her videos have literally reshaped my body. Certain parts look better now than when I was in high school

1. Try eating 5 days a day to keep your blood sugar stable.
2. Lower your calorie intake to 1450
3. Walking isn't working out. I know a lot of people disagree with my view that walking isn't a sufficient work out. A work out needs to embody high intensity cardio and strength training. Walking doesn't cut it. Jillian Michaels 'ripped in 30' is what you need.

Hello I am going to solve all your problems in a single post! Unless you have PCOS which I cannot solve. All kidding aside I have some suggestions.

1) Your weight has been stalled for only 40 days. Yes - I said it. ONLY 40 days. In the scheme of your lift this isn't a big deal. Most likely you have lost some weight but you're retaining water. Who knows how much weight. So don't hang your head. Stay focused and keep your head in the game. :)

2) Walking is a great exercise if done properly. Properly walking means brisk walking. This means you're pushing it. Getting your heart rate elevated is critical. You mention you get out of breath - if you've been doing 5 days a week of brisk walking this would be impossible thus I must assume you're not walking briskly. No big deal. Just fix it. :D

3) You could be deficient in enzymes that helps oxidize fat and process carbs efficiently to ATP stores. Many fat people are. Brisk walking will eventually correct this but you can correct it in a couple weeks by weight training or HIIT type of exercises. (WARNING - THE FIRST EFFECT THIS WILL HAVE IS STALLING THE SCALE BUT YOUR FAT LOSS WILL BE ACCELLERATING)

4) TRACK EVERYTHING. WEIGH EVERYTHING. Measuing or eyeballing it don't cut it.

5) Don't use the scale as your measure of progress. Measure yourself in a couple areas. Take photos.

6) Try to relax. Stress is bad for everything including fat loss. Chill out when possible. :D

P.S. - I have stretch marks too and while I have kids they didn't come out of me. :D

Look after yourself and take care ... :hug:

When I felt a bit down about my weight I would always think well I have to be 90 kg before I can be 80 kg ... and I have to be 76kg before I am 70 etc etc ... and when I have a plateau well I try and think well at least it is not where I was ...

I also think that maybe you could mix up your exercise a bit ...

I had a weigh in today, 3 weeks since my last. I was up 5 lbs!! But you know what, I lost inches in areas and the areas I didn't, stayed exactly the same. I am good with that. My upper arm relaxed was 12inches and my flex was 12.75. Not only was it a 1/2 inch gain, it shows how much my body is changing.

I am with everyone else, maybe tweak a couple of things, and DO NOT starve yourself.

I noticed that when I don't eat enough, I don't lose ANYTHING!

I agree with the suggestion to see your doctor and rule out things like PCOS or other potential metabolic problems. Then if you've got the *all clear* it makes sense to dig in and try some adjusting with your food choices and exercise regimen, but all that effort could be wasted if you've got a medical issue that needs to be addressed before your body can let go of the weight.

Since I see from the rest of the replies to your original post that you have been lectured plenty as it is, I will throw in a quick thumbs up to the ideas of switching up your exercise and calorie routines (your body does get used to things after a while and will start thinking of those activities as the new normal).

In my opinion, absolutely the hardest thing about weight loss is the mental side of it, especially if you are suffering from PCOS, which takes losing weight from difficult to hair-pulling-exasperating. Some of the others brought up PCOS and I agree that it sounds like you may want to talk to your doctor about that possibility. The thing you mentioned about facial hair and menstrual issues is a classic sign of that.

Trust me, the vast majority of us get sick of the constant struggle for little or no progress. In time, after a series of small successes eventually add up to something worth mentioning, you will come to realize that the fight is worth it. I used to sob uncontrollably at dressing room mirrors. Somehow even the plus-size circus tent clothing that I had resigned myself to managed to be tight on me, and I mentally snapped every time I had to buy new clothes.

Now, I still get down on myself about my own marshmallow flab issues, but I can recognize that, slowly, it is getting better. I might still look like a packed sausage when I try to squeeze into normal sized clothes, but I know that I'm inching forward now instead of backward, and that makes everything worth it. Try not to let your disappointment in yourself hold you back from working hard and going after what you really want, because you will never get there if you let that part of you win.

Another thing that might just be my overactive protective instincts for fellow fat girls like myself, is that I am concerned that you are drinking "SO MUCH" water. Unless you are forcing yourself to drink that much in hopes that it will help with the weight loss, that's a possible sign of diabetes, which tends to sneak up on you when you have undiagnosed PCOS.

Please, try not to beat yourself up anymore over this. I know how frustrating it can be. We all do. We've all been there, and still many of us struggle to loose. We work through our weight flux's. I see a lot of myself in your rant. I look in the mirror and still see the 340lb woman staring back at me. Some day's I bring myself to tears just because I don't see what other people see.

We are our own worst critics. A lot of us are programmed to nit pick every little imperfection. Whether it be from the media, or our peers. But, we have to stop. I like this board because, you can also learn to love yourself more and appreciate the hard work it takes to change your life. Reading about other peoples struggles too makes it easier.

Take a day to write down everything. Maybe a day you don't have to work. Write down when you work out, take your measurements too (or have someone else assist). Weigh yourself that morning, and then have someone, if you live with others hide your scale until next week. Write down everything you eat, including the calories, fat and sugar / carbs. Look over it and see what you can tweak. Then also consider adding in some form of weight training so that you can build some muscle mass. There's an article No fat chicks or something like that posted in the fitness section, if you have a moment go take a look at it. I found it to be a pretty interesting read.

:hug::hug:


Edit - Wow, I make no sense when I am distracted by the raging thunderstorm coming, and my niece trying to get into everything, lol.... and I'm about to fall asleep too... =x

Hugs!!

Everyone has given awesome advice, please try out some of the recommendations of WEIGHING your food and journaling it precisely. It's so, so easy to intake 500+ more calories than you think per day and have no weight loss. Vary your exercise. Walking is great, cross-training with different activities and strength training is better. Yoga, swmming, playing tag football, anything!

Even though I am at a healthy BMI and I have flab under my arms and lots of weight in my thighs. It is not going away. It's how I am built and I'm not going to dwell on it. My slender 5'11 155 lb boyfriend has stretch marks. We all have imperfections and the more you can encourage yourself to LOVE that you have a healthy, functioning body that can run, jump, swim, dart, leap, and do INCREDIBLE things, the less time you have about getting annoyed at its aesthetic quirks... and the happier you'll be.

:hug:

I think you should go through the testing to determine if you have pcos. Even if you do nothing with it now, you'll want to know for when you start trying to have kids one day. Pcos hinders weight loss (theres a great subforum here for support) and for some reason women with pco tend to have addictions to carbs, chemically. Lower carb diets work really well for those people. Personally I have zero interest in eliminating all carbs even though I know it would work miracles on my body so I instead opt to try to get lots of protein and try to get most of my carbs to come from resistant sources.

If you don't have pcos I think that you could do two things: kick it up, a huge "notch." You've built a decent walking base, can you incorporate jogging? You need to be doing resistance exercises a couple times per week minimum. And if and when you do this, make sure your NET calories are 1500-1600. Account formand eat your exercise cals.

My bet is on pcos, call your doc and just get a physical anyway. Why not know what you're working with and avoid any surprises right?

I'm not going to give any technical diet advice, mine is more mental/emotional. These things are KEY and they WORK. Might sound sappy, but please give it a try.

#1 - LOVE YOURSELF. You are totally worth it. You are wonderful, beautiful and loveable whether you weigh 100 lbs or 1,000 lbs. Seriously. You are a fantastic person. You are you. That makes you the most special person in the universe.

#2 - reread #1. If it makes you feel at all uncomfortable, there's some work to do. You have to love yourself and believe in yourself in order to be happy. And weight loss is a LOT easier when you are positive about it.

#3 - keep a positive attitude at all times. If you don't naturally have one, then create it. Thinking negative thoughts about weight loss and health derail weight loss and health. Thinking positive thoughts helps just as much as any diet/exercise plan you can ever be on.

#4 - read that last line again. Your mental attitude is EVERY BIT AS IMPORTANT as the plan you are on. It's what's there to bolster you when you hit a plateau, or are faced with a choice about staying on plan or going off plan. We all go off plan sometimes - that's the nature of life. No one is 100% perfect all the time. If they were, they wouldn't be human. It's what you do and say to yourself when things aren't going the way you'd like to see them go that's the most important.

#5 - program yourself for success. Choose a plan. Incorporate it into your life. And, all the while, BE POSITIVE ABOUT IT. Tell yourself 500 times a day that you are wonderful, you deserve to be fit and healthy, you are beautiful now, and be grateful and happy that you are going to succeed. Because you are. You are wonderful and beautiful now. You will be wonderful, beautiful, fit and healthy in a few short months.

I wouldn't have written this long post if it weren't true. I started out at 370 lbs (too fat to shop at Lane Bryant) and I lost 99 lbs in 6 months, then well over 120 lbs in a year and a half. I did it because I had a plan and I stuck to it (mostly), but the real driving factor was, I did it because I loved myself and I deserved to look and feel as good on the outside as I felt on the inside. At first I was just pretending. But then it clicked, it was real, I felt it, and I looked amazing! Well, then I forgot to do it, gained some back, and now I'm here again. But I PROMISE YOU THIS WORKS FOR EVERYONE - positive mental attitude. :)

what a nice post, DC; I'm glad you're back on the forums, you're such a positive force.

JohnP, thanks for your posts, I don't make comments often, but have used your tips and find them helpful.

OP, you might want to try getting help to start off with, whether it's a nutritionist or Weight Watchers, or somesuch, so you can get an overall good idea of nutrition and portion size. It's a lot to know, and important. And I think it can be very helpful to start off on a good foot with both those things. And to go for even a couple of sessions at a gym to get an idea of what a good exercise routine for you might be would be worth the investment. Doing both those things could help you keep your head from spinning (the ups and downs you'll experience as well as staying focused) as you move through this process.

Hang in there, and good luck.