So confused

Bmontgomery613

Ok, so I'm going to start off by saying that I like food and that I'm willing to workout so that I can eat more food. And this was working so well for me for 6 months. I was losing steadily with 1920 base calories plus exercise calories. I'm 5'9 and 269lbs. I work out about 30 min to an hour 3-5 days a week. In 2007, my thyroid was removed and I've been on a combination of synthroid and cytomel for the past year (before that it was synthroid only). What I don't understand is that following the plan I've been on, I was doing very well until my birthday on June 13th. I was at 266.8 and was all set to lose the 1.8lbs to get to a 40lb loss when BAM, I hit a huge plateau! Over that week and the week following, I fell off the wagon a little. TOM visited and we took a trip for my daughter's baton competition. But, I've struggled since then and I'm not losing at all. I can't figure it out and it's stressing me out. I doubt I could do a 1200 calorie a day plan and I know that if I don't make this workable, I won't stick with it.

So, what do you all do? We eat a lot of fresh foods here now that it's summer. I will open my diary, but I have not been so great about tracking. I'm fighting the frustration and the depression over not losing. The inches are staying the same, so I'm not even losing inches. Help, please!

Bmontgomery613

Also should add that I just went in and set my calories at tdee-20% to see if that method works for me.

Raemama

I think there's a real correlation between faithfully logging and losing versus logging when you know you're going to do well and plateauing - know what I mean? Logging more intently, even on "off" days and upping my activity level has helped me get past my plateau. Similar to you, when I hit 44 lbs lost - i stayed there for about four weeks. bleck! However, when I look back at those four weeks, they include several vacations (several out of town weekends and a week-long trip); a birthday party and some really bad choices. I realized also that my once a week indulgence day I allowed myself had really turned into a weekend. I would start on Friday night having whatever I felt like and then not really start back diligently until Monday morning. So, in reality I was only staying at my determined deficit four out of seven days! I'm doing better now and have lost a few more pounds.