I started NROLFW last May and carried on until I finished it around Thanksgiving. I decided to give it a rest for the month of December and started New Rules of Lifting For Abs early/mid-January. I really love it and I want to continue doing it but my body still hasn't shed the extra it put on when I started, which I assumed was water weight. It can't possibly be fat as I've been averaging 1450 calories per day. What gives??

Will the scale ever start going down again? In desperation, I've cut all exercise the last four days (lifting and cardio) and reduced my calories to about 1250. Still my scale went up.

I have thought on the idea that at this point it might be more about bodyfat percentage than weight, but it's not like a 5'6" woman at 135 is absurb or extreme. I haven't got a large frame; I'm usually right in the divider between small and medium.

For 5lbs. I would try something like a PSMF in "The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook"... that would probably get you to where you want to be on the scale... but as far as staying there... well, that might be a bit more tricky... for me losing these last 5lbs. was a whole lot harder it seemed than losing all of the weight up to this point... Eating less and working out more only works up until a point... and unfortunately for me that point wasn't where I thought I should be on the scale considering all of the effort I was putting into it...

Now even though I still haven't completely let go of the idea of a lower "goal" weight than I'm at now... I'm trying to focus more on getting really fit again and I think it will be much more satisfying when I look in the mirror at my body and think to myself "Wow" this is the goal that I've really been after, rather than looking down at the scale and seeing a number... no matter how low it is...

I feel kind of silly right about now.

As is typical, as soon as I post something around here along comes more info that makes sense of everything. Seems I've caught a cold of some kind. Slight fever, sore throat, runny nose. I had put my general wearyness and acheyness down to being TTOM but apparently not so. And I never ever lose any weight when I'm ill. So there you go.
I had just finished a course of antibiotics, jumped into weight lifting again, gained more water weight during ovulation and have been fighting this cold for the last half week but didn't realize.

In the larger scheme of things, I think I will check out The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook. I've heard good things about it.

I really do want to focus on how I feel and how I look rather than on the number. I just don't feel like I'll have done this properly until I've seen it. There are so many things that I have been unable to finish and I didn't want my weight loss to be one of them. It's entirely mental. And clearly I'm not content to be patient as I profess or I wouldn't be posting in frustration... I don't know what to do about that. Work in progress.

I see your follow up post and am glad it was something else, but I'll address your first question anyway- for me, I can hold water weight after a hard resistance trainging workout for about 3 days. However, if you know it's water, you shouldn't let it bother you.

Hope you feel better soon!