Why am I stuck?!

lingdi

I work out almost every day (35 mins cardio, 10 mins abs, typically) and I am VERY careful with what I eat, almost to a fault, but I haven't lost weight for the last two weeks! What'sa goin' on?!

Deadcherries

Start measuring yourself. At some points you won't lose weight but your body will change. It sounds like you have a higher amount of muscle than others. When we lose weight it's bloat, fluid/ sometimes fat. The tool for this program on my android allows us to measure arms, waist and neck to see if we're still making progress even when the scale doesn't.

cupcakelover103

I'm in the same boat! I haven't lost weight the past week and a half, even though i've been under or close to my calories and working out

NoAdditives

Are you under your calorie goal? Do you eat your exercise calories? If you're under and don't eat the exercise calories (or just one of those) your metabolism may be slowing down. Make sure you meet your calorie goal and those exercise cals!

lingdi

I am significantly under my calorie goals and I don't tend to eat my exercise calories either, so maybe it is my metabolism but I'm scared to start eating more because it doesn't feel like that makes sense for weightloss.

MamaMcGreevy

Whenever I'm stuck, I shake things up. If you are doing "low carb", add more carbs for a few days. Are you on a low fat diet? Add a few high-fat indulgences. Just a few! Maybe take a weekend to just eat what your cravings dictate and get back to business Monday morning. I have found that it really helps get my metabolism out of its rut when I change what I'm doing. Occasionally, the benefit is only psychological, a break from the feeling of deprivation dieting can cause, but even a psychological boost is beneficial!
Best of luck!

trinityj1

You need to eat enough fuel that your body is comfortable and confident it doesn't need to store fat. If you starve yourself, your body will take every possible step to STOP FAT LOSS and increase storage of everything you DO eat. You will lose muscle tissue and hang on to fat.

It is (obviously) possible to lose weight by starving, but you will do irreparable damage to your body and you will regain all the weight the instant you begin eating normally. And it will be much harder to lose it again.

There are a number of in depth sticky threads about this if you want to get into the details.

ETA: Also I clicked your profile and it looks like you've lost a lot of weight already. The closer you are to a healthy weight range, the more difficult it is to lose fat. The body doesn't want to give up its fat stores and the denser, smaller stores left over after most of the fat is gone takes longer for the body to break down than other forms of fuel (like muscles). That's why strength training is important. Also, the less weight you have to lose, the smaller your caloric deficit should be. It'll take longer, but it will be lasting.

rileysowner

I would measure yourself before blaming your metabolism. It takes a lot to really slow down your metabolism, especially if you are exercising. This is one of the reasons I use a scale that measures body fat % as well. It cost a little bit more, but gives a much better picture of what is going on. I don't have the numbers handy, but I have lost total weight of about 64 pounds, but when I do the math to figure out fat and lean mass it turns out I have lost more than 64 pounds of fat and put on quite a few pounds of lean mass. If I did not have the body fat % to work from, I would have had times where I thought I was not doing anything worthwhile.

oddyogi

Have you tried adding more strength training to your routine? Or changing up your routine entirely?

The legs are the biggest muscles in your body; therefore, they burn the most calories. Performing different types of squats, lunges, and other leg exercises will build your leg muscles and boost your metabolism. You can add other strength training exercises for the rest of your body too. The more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn!

Also, try some interval training to get loads of fat burning!