Hey everyone, I'm new on this forum! Before I joined, I sifted through many posts and realized it would probably help me to be able to talk to other people who are struggling with losing weight as well.

I guess I'll start with my story. I turned 23 in September and I am 40 pounds overweight. It snuck up on me. I'm a senior in college, and my freshman year I gained the typical "Freshman 15", but that quickly turned into 20, 25, then 30. I started doing jazzercise my junior year and lost quite a bit of it, then I stopped for some reason and quickly gained it all back and plus some. Now, I have gained 20-30 pounds since last June. Once I got to 160, I realized I needed to stop this in its tracks. So, I started eating healthier/less and started going to jazzercise again (which is a combination of cardio and weight training). Just to clarify, I started eating healthier first, then joined jazzercise, and this all started about a month ago. Since then, I've cut my portions in half, and I've been going to jazzercise 3-4 times a week, which is an hour long workout that typically burns from 400-600 calories depending on how much effort you put into it. I also feel like I'm thirsty a lot more than usual.

So here's my reason I'm losing hope. I've been doing this for a month now, and I come home for Christmas break from college, and it says 168. How can that be possible?? It's so disheartening and I feel like I'm going nowhere!

Can anyone help me? Does anyone have any advice or a life altering revelation of something I could possibly doing wrong?

Could you be building muscle?

You might be gaining muscle if you are doing weight training. The scale reflects weight, but it does not differentiate between fat, water and muscle. Can you take your measurements and see if your clothes are fitting better? My measurements have been improving, even while my weight has been fluctuating all over the place since I started my diet.

Other ideas: are you snacking? what are you drinking when you are thirsty?

Everyone's body is different, so if you really want to find out what works for you, you might consider keeping a food journal that also has weight and measurements in it. That way you can notice trends. For example, right now my food journal has helped me to see that I can eat MORE than I thought and still lose weight. I could probably lose faster, but I am happy with my pound-a-week average right now.

Everyone else is probably going to tell you the same thing -- but do you measure out your portion sizes or count calories? It's very easy to under estimate the amount you're eating and you could be eating more than you think you are! Try using an online calorie counter like MyFitnessPal or the one on Spark People, and just track whatever you eat throughout the day. It can be a real eye opener and can be a way for you to see what you need to change to get the best results.

Are you weighing on the same scale every time? Any scale can be off, so downward (or upward) progress is most accurately measured on one scale. Then you know pounds lost, although you might not know an absolutely accurate weight.

My opinion is that you don't have to weigh and measure every bite that goes in your mouth. I don't think it's practical to do that. I think it's a better idea to learn what size portions work for you, remembering that everything we think about portion size has been "super sized" by our society. But cutting portions in half is cutting calories in half. If you were gaining before, maybe cutting what you eat in half isn't enough. I also feel it's risky to figure calories burned into your plan. If you are checking daily caloric needs, the charts and formulas have already figured in your activity level. counting the calories burned might be assuming a deficit that doesn't really exist.

Limit sugar, salt, carbs. Eat enough lean protein. Eat plenty of veggies. Drink lots of water. Stay within a range of calories that allows you to have energy but still lose weight. Continue to exercise. The weight will come off.

Lin

A combination of muscle gain and water weight. Exercise causes both. Don't rely completely on your scale.

Life long revelation - Vitamin D3? Are you taking it? Are you taking it in sufficient amounts? Before I got my blood level up... couldn't lose weight no matter what... now.. made goal in 6 months (60 lbs).

Could have been an inaccurate scale.

Could be that even with your healthier choices and portion cutting you still aren't eating in a deficit. I would ask what Lauren asked, are you actually counting calories? They can be tricky and add up a little quicker than you think unless you're very familiar with the calorie content of the foods you eat and what a portion actually is. If you weren't the one preparing the food you were eating you may have no idea the actual content, I don't know!

All I can say is, you're WAY too young to lose hope! Weight loss takes patience and persistence. You just gotta tweak things as you go and keep at it. You WILL get there if you keep going.

Life altering? In college I was 230 and got upwards of 260 shortly thereafter. By the time I was 23 I had dropped down my first twenty pounds and now, with baby number four at 26 years old, I'm down almost 100 pounds total! That's a pretty big weight swing and I managed it while not going to a gym and having many kids in short succession. You have NO reason to lose hope, this is entirely controllable if you put in the work and educate yourself on proper nutrition for your particular body.

For me, that has been calorie counting combined with Atkins, that's the most comfortable iteration with my tastes and specific body. For you, it may be just whole foods, or an exchange plan. But calorie counting/food logging on some of the sites already mentioned is an excellent place to start regardless of your plan, so you can see exactly what you're eating and where the calories are going. That is going to give you a baseline to tweak from.

Your weight is SO malleable and manageable, moreso than almost any other physical characteristic. You CAN do this, you need only convince YOURSELF that it is possible. If you don't believe you can succeed you've been defeated before even beginning.

I wish you the best!

Lauren nailed it - if your eating really is in line, it might be the scale. But it is amazing how fast calories can get away from us if we'e not weighing out our food precisely or logging every little bite/lick/taste.

You can do this! And I agree with those who say it is NOT necessary long term to weigh and measure everything you eat... I sure don't do that. However, I have educated myself well as to what foods contain what calories, etc., so I pretty much know what I can eat a lot of and what to watch. For you, to start out with (and until you really have a pretty good idea of this) you may need to do so. As others have pointed out, it is very easy to underestimate how much we are eating.

BUT you very well might be gaining muscle from working out... it weighs quite a bit more than fat, so overall you could be losing fat and getting in shape even though the scale does not show it.

Keep it up - you can do it. Never ever lose hope!! Especially not at your young age!

Average muscle gain is only about five pounds a year, accompanied with water gain.

I think the OP is either taking in more calories that she thinks she is, or she's gained a lot of water. As others have said, calorie-tracking during this period of determination will help to isolate the problem.

So if you've been tracking your food and drinking your H2O & you're still stumped as to what's going on with your body, then I highly suggest you see your doctor and get some labs done too if you haven't had any in the past year.