Misti, stay off the scale! Go by how your clothes fit. Remember that once a month all bets are off. That is the hardest time for me because even my face bloats up. WHen you see that everything is tight and you feel like crap, it is certainly hard to stay on your program.
Oh no, not a chance I will stay off the scale LOL. And yesterday I did wear a blouse to work that had been tight before and now is really big... I just kept pulling it out all day to see the "extra" LOL. I can't stand to stay off the scale... tried that, gotta KNOW!! Anyway I am fine... was just a moment of frustration LOL
Hmmmm, that's a long time. Perhaps you were eating too many calories?
Nope...I was around 1200 calories a day. I had been losing steadily at that amount previously, but I think my body settled into my routine. I increased to nearly 1600 a day and lost 10 pounds within a month
I been working out watching my food,,,,stay away from pop and as much as I can from sweets.....and YET I still cant make it below 166!! Been there for 3 weeks!!!!!
Nope...I was around 1200 calories a day. I had been losing steadily at that amount previously, but I think my body settled into my routine. I increased to nearly 1600 a day and lost 10 pounds within a month
Yep, that's what I've been trying to do, increase my calories a little bit. But I was 140 this morning. So I'm stuck again, bouncing up and down between 138 and 140.
Pooey!
I don't know whether to continue with the increased calories or go ahead and drop myself below 1200.
I wish that someone would print up bumper stickers that read “Plateaus Happen!” Why? Because they do happen! Plateaus are as natural to weight loss as baby teeth are to humans…they are just a part of the process and you can’t circumvent them and expect to get the same results.
To best bust through the plateaus of our dieting lives, we must first understand what they are. A plateau is a period of time during which the scale isn’t moving. Well, if you look at it that way, from the moment you reach your goal weight and maintain that weight loss; you would be “plateau-ing”, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing in that context, would it? I don’t think it would be terribly upsetting to most people.
However, the dreaded plateau is actually when a person is “dieting” and the scale isn’t budging. I find this a very interesting phenomenon and one that isn’t usually as it appears.
Most often when a reader complains to me that they have hit a plateau, what I find out in conversation with them is that they haven’t been sticking to their healthy resolves 100%. I think that we must be honest with ourselves before declaring that we are stuck at a plateau—if you aren’t doing it all 100% healthfully, you aren’t at a plateau!
However, if you are following your chosen healthful eating plan, you are busting your worst vices and you are drinking water, getting in your recommended exercise AND you aren’t realizing any changes on the scale, then you may indeed be in a plateau! If that is your situation there is hope!
What is going on is that your body is stabilizing or adjusting to your current regime and is comfortable at the weight you are. It may be that the weight you are at is what your body will be able to easily maintain given your current regime. Take a look and analyze your condition; do you like your shape, do you like the size you are wearing, the foods you are eating…if so, you may just want to keep doing what you are doing and make this your permanent level of fitness and your healthy lifestyle—for the rest of and best of your life.
On the other hand, if you would still like to realize a bit more weight loss then what is required is to hit it up a notch and kick it into higher gear! It may mean shaving off a few more carbs, adding another raw fruit or veggie to your diet or increasing the intensity and or duration of your workouts—both cardio and weight training.
Think of it this way, if you are driving a car up hill and you aren’t really moving; you can either keep things moving along as they are, or you can give it some gas and rev up your engine and move more quickly. With weight loss, that is all a plateau really is, your body needing a bit more gas (not that kind of gas!) and power.
Gas=healthy foods
Power=muscle
It’s that simple! Now, get moving and bust that plateau or congrats, you are “there”…enjoy your healthy new life. Either way, YOU win!
hahaha, simple is the LAST word I would use to describe weight loss or plateaus It all sounds good in theory, but then again, so did Communism, and we see how well that worked out
If I was freaking out there would not have been a smiley face in the message. 
And I'll get it off if I have to BEAT it off!! 
