plateau - already?

Amryfal

so i have a significant amount to lose, and i know i'm in this for the long haul, but should it be this hard? not the eating and counting calories - that is working really well for me. i feel healthier. it's the crazy results.

the first month, i shed ten pounds fast (probably water weight) and fit into last summer's jeans. yay! the next ten were much slower - took another month and a half. then MFP asked if i wanted to recalculate my calories to account for the lower weight, and i said "sure..." and it knocked my calories down to 1390. ugh. i did it for a week, and *felt* fine, actually. but the weight loss stopped dead. after some research, i feared i'd sent my body into starvation mode. i knocked the calories back up to about 1600, and lost another 2 pounds, and then stalled again. thinking maybe i'd overcompensated, i cut the calories down to 1500, and lost another 2 pounds...and now i'm stalled AGAIN. a plateau at 24 pounds lost? is that right?

i've tried changing up the workout; i eat my exercise calories so i don't go down too far. i don't snack or overdo the calories - i count EVERYTHING and i haven't gone over, ever. i calculate all my recipes and measure portion sizes. maybe it's stress - i'm a grad student; i eat stress for breakfast. heh. i might try changing up my calorie intake - more one day, less the next - but i'm hesitant to try that because A) the days with more calories sap my willpower and the days with lower calories leave me feeling hungry (as when i decrease my calorie intake). maybe that's a good thing - maybe my body is adjusting to the calorie intake, and when i stop feeling hungry, it means i'm doing something wrong? THAT would be really, really depressing.

advice? comments? i can handle eating better and being aware of my calorie intake - it's the lack of consistent results and the constant tinkering that are driving me mad...

JipsyJudy

You probably answered your own question when you said that first ten pounds was probably "water weight". I suspect you are actually losing fat steadily all along, but some weeks you are in a state of low water retention and low "sewage" retention, while at other times you have weighed yourself when your water retentition and "sewage" retention is a little higher. Keep in mind that the human body contains something like 33 feet of intestine. That can be a lot of pounds of stuff in your system. When you start a new diet, the change in food can cause you to drop a lot of water and sewage at first. Then as your body begins to adjust, it starts to carry a higher level of water and sewage again, so you stop seeing weight loss on the scale for a while. My suggestion is that you not stress over what the scales say for a while. Focus instead on keeping within your calorie and exercise goals, and have faith! If you are eating less than you are burning day after day, you WILL lose fat, and slow and steady WILL win this race!

Amryfal

thanks for the support

i don't have a measuring tape (cats will not allow me to own one lol - they manage to find them and chew them up) but i think i'm going to go with the gaining muscle explanation...

a month and a half ago i bought myself a pair of pants that were just a teeny bit too small (they didn't have the size that fit and i thought it would give me something to aim for) and i tried them on today and whoo-hoo they fit!

guess i'll stave off the depression for a while longer...and keep buying smaller clothes... *grin*

JipsyJudy

Congrats to you on the loose pants! I have the opposite problem. I lost 18 pounds this tear (before joining myfitnesspal), but my pants aren't getting any looser at all yet.