First off I have no health or thyroid problems. In fact I'm healthy as a Thoroughbread.

I came here with only 15p to lose, and I am merely 3p away from that goal. Don't get me wrong; I'm very happy to be where I am but tomorrow is one year to the day since I started to lose this weight while other people have lost 30+ and even 100 pounds in that time frame or less. What the?? I try hard to stay within my caloric allowance, yes I sometimes cheat by 300 cals or so (who doesn't at times??) but I spend 5-6 days a week at the gym doing hard cardio for at least 45-60 minutes at a time. I also started to incorporate weights but nothing major as of yet.

This is frustrating. I could be 125p by now but I'm just trying to get to 140p, nothing unreasonable. I don't have the patience to lose another 15-20 after this that's for sure.

The only thing I can think is that maybe my anti-anxiety medication is slowing things down or I'm eating too little, or too much. My boyfriend who lives with me can't wrap his brain around it because he sees how hard I work for this.

I eat on average 1,500-1,700 cals and burn approx 450-670 cals at the gym depending on what I am doing. According to MFP I'm in the clear and should be losing. MFP lies. It tells me all the time, "If everyday were like today you'll be 137p in 5 weeks!" Yeah ok, MFP...been hearing that forever and I'm still 140+. I rarely ever went into the red.

Forgive me as I am sick, have raging PMS and so so tired of counting calories. A few days prior to today (I ate reasonable today) I have been self-sabotaging and over eating by several hundred cals on purpose because I figured "screw it" I work my @ss off and lose next to nothing a month so I may as well live it up for a few days while the gym is closed for maintenance.

I know nobody said this would be easy. I'm not looking for easy and don't mind pushing myself to blood, sweat and tears (I look forward to it!) so you'd think I would be Sheera by now. Not so much. The scale shows no mercy. I should not still be fighting for goal a year later, 6 months tops.


/pity party

It gets very hard at this range.

Things that might have to be done- weighing each and every morsel. ZERO calorie "cheats" (if you want a treat, work it in to the calories), and no more estimating gym calorie burns. Those can be notoriously accurate and when you are fighting the last few pounds at a low featherweight, miscalculations WILL add up.

Ok, I will try my hardest to stop the cheats and underestimate cals burned.

You're the same height as me, sacha. How many cals do you eat a day?

You simply cannot compare yourself to someone who has 100 pounds to lose to someone who has 15 pounds to lose. You can't. Even those who have 100 pounds to lose will see their losses slow and slow and slow.

When I was getting down to my end pounds, I was KILLING myself at the gym - going every single day - strength and cardio and eating about 1450 calories a day and the weight would just trickle off whereas in the beginning I would lose so much at a time. Sigh.

But also, really look at your caloric intake and calorie burn. Are you REALLY eating what you think you are? And are you burning what you think you are?

I go to the gym in class. I'll pick on Zumba. There will be some people jumping and throwing themselves around and really moving, while others wiggle a bit, but that's it. One is burning a ton of calories, the other, not many. Do you have a heart rate monitor? Does your heart really get pumping? Or not? You may not be burning as much as you think you are too.

Or, it could just be that you lose slowly... but you ARE losing - don't lose sight of that! Even slowly is still getting there! It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

Don't get caught up in the "Same height, same weight". They are not the same. Are you built the same? Same age? Same fitness level? Etc.

(((HUG)))

The journey is hard, we're here with you!

You're right...if I'm losing I'm losing.

I guess nobody can be exactly sure of cals in and out, I try to log as honest as possible. I do have a heart monitor and double check with the ones on the treadmills/ellipticals to make sure mine is accurate. They both jive. I hold my heart rate at 154-168bpm for a minimum of 45 minutes up to 60 minutes. I'm assuming that's burning a good amount of calories. I log what the machine says over MFP but I will start underestimating.

Seems that you truly are working out hard. It just bites that sometimes it's just hard.

Just remember too that this is more than pounds on the scale - think how happy your body and heart is too that you work them!!! Weight says not a heck of a lot about health - fitness does.

2000, but I'm nursing a 3 month old I would stick to a solid 1500 (1450-1600) if I wasn't!

That's about where I usually wind up at the end of the day but I will try to watch closer and not invest so much into cals burned.

Thanks everyone, I hate to be a whiner.

((((novangel))))

No real help that I can offer you. Just stick it. Lower your calories a bit. It's all an experiment of one (your body) anyway.

But I understand where you are.

Hugs

I don't understand your struggle but I understand your frustrations.

Well ... what you CAN say is that you've held off 12 pounds for a year without gaining! That's the first year of the rest of your life. If you're (mostly) happy where you're at but still want to chase those last 3 - declare where you are now a "redline" that you won't go above, and come join us in the Maintainers! After all, you will be maintaining that loss for many, many more years than you will be actively losing, and honestly, maintaining is basically just weight loss without the thrill of seeing the scale go down. It sounds like you're there! There are several of us that never truly reached what we thought would be our goal weight, myself included, but we keep at it. Join us - we're a friendly bunch!

{{hugs}}

I know that you bust your butt in the gym, be proud of that! I'd be frustrated too. Maybe change up your routine?