What am I doing wrong????

Yeah, and I have to disagree with the anti-carb folks. My carbs are 50% of my diet and I haven't stalled yet. I'm also seven weeks in. Thirty pounds gone and six inches off my waistline.

If it's food intake, it is more likely that the number of calories logged are inaccurate or exercise burns are over-estimated. Otherwise, it's simply water retention from repairing muscles used during the workout.

What I have found is that it's very important to find other ways to track your goals than just using a scale. Many people have suggested taking your measurements, that's a good way to start. Also find one piece of clothing (jeans work best) that you can try on periodically to see if they fit better or worse. Keep in mind though that when you work out hard you build muscle and that will change the way clothing fits you in general. IE: i have a pair of jeans that i have not been able to button in some time, the waist now fits but the thighs and calf are are very tight. I have been training for a 5K run, my legs are very firm, so those same jeans don't fit quite right for my new body with muscle. Another way to track is to have your body fat % calculated. This will tell you if you are trading fat for muscle even if you haven't lost any weight. Many gyms have the device to do this, and some fancy bathroom scales can do it to. And lastly as women our bodies are very tempermental when it comes to water weight. If I don't lose any weight, I up my water and weight again in a day or so. You may find that the pound you think you gained is not a real pound of fat but rather of water (which is way easier to get rid of!).

Unfortunately it's not just about the number of calories we eat. We also need to think about the types of foods we are eating. Looking at your diary you are often over your sugar goals, and not just from eating lots of fruit, like with some people. You have waffles, cookies, ranch dressing, 4-cheese pizza, fudge brownie and so on. Cut these out and you'll see a bigger difference.

Are you drinking enough water? You seem to get around 6 glasses a day- try upping it to 8 glasses, and more on the days you're working out.

Stick with it- and try not to analyse things too much. Essentially all you need to do is eat healthily, get regular exercise, get plenty of sleep and drink lots of water. You're ticking off the exercise with the 30-day shred, tweak the diet a bit as above to tick off the eating healthily, add a couple of glasses to tick off lots of water, and get at least 8 hours sleep to tick that off too! You can do it

I agree with this 100%, even though my diet is not good either. So, I know that if I've eaten junk, I'll be retaining water. I have to lay off the junk, straighten out my diet and increase my water and that weight (water) comes right back off. Try it for about 3 days in a row to see if there's an improvement in the fit of your clothes AND the scale.

This is a great thread. I'm going through something similar. I joined a 5am boot camp 3 times a week back about 5 weeks ago. I did 4 weeks of it, lost 4.5lbs - but almost 4 of it was week 1. I was doing boot camp MWF and Bikram Yoga TR. I noticed my upper body is more toned just a couple weeks in, but my middle is still horrendously flabby (4 kids....).

Week 5, I decided to drop the yoga and do boot camp 5 days this week to see if that made a difference. I got on the scale this morning and haven't lost an ounce. OK fine it's only been 4 days.

I'm a little frustrated, but I know it takes time... I need to figure out a good balance with my workouts. I can do something 5 days a week in the morning (except on work travel days) but I don't know what the right mix is.

1250 calories is doable, but I'm typically just a little over. I have realized through these 5 weeks that I really need to watch the sodium and that I (still) don't drink NEARLY enough water.

Anyway! Just my own rant here - wanted to let you know that you're not alone and that I am not giving up either!

I was the same way.. Try just eating 1200 calories a day. Thats what I had to do. I still work out and just eat 1200....ok you will hear this "blah, blah, blah starvation mode..." but this is what works for me. I tried a YEAR of eating back exercise calories and lost nothing..

I had a very similar problem, although I am suggnificantly shorter and weigh more than you.....after 90 days, 6 days a week working out, and a strickt 1200 calorie a day diebetic diet, I lost a whopping 14 lbs! couldnt figure out why others doing the same were down 25lbs.... you might not like this, but I researched my medications and my diet, watched a documentary called "Forks over Knives", and decided to cut animal fat out of my diet. Radical....maybe. what does it mean? I have been eating a Plant Based Diet, thats right vegetarian! My plan was to try if for 3 months and compare to the first 3 months, I weigh in on Friday for my first month, but so far I am down this month alone 10lbs. We all react differently to food, and carbs, meat may have no carbs, but it is loaded with fat. so I cut all beef and pork from my diet. I will eat free-range chicken if I can find it, I eat limited dairy, yogert, eggs. switched to almond milk or soy milk, I do eat seafood, but try to stay away from farm raised fish.

Radical, maybe, is it working for me....so far better than I expected. Nutrutionist is a great way to go, but some health insurance plans dont cover it, like mine, so i was on my own to figure out what works for me.

Good Luck, dont get discouraged.

We all feel your pain! It's so frustrating when you're doing all of the right things and nothing changes!

I've had a tough time and had to make several adjustments before I started to lose. First of all, don't worry if the tape measure doesn't indicate any change. Everyone says it should but sometimes the change is hard to measure.

You might also try doing longer periods of exercise which are less aerobic such as speed walking to 60 minutes instead of running for 30. You might also consider getting an HRM or easting back only half of the calories from exercise.

You should also make sure the calorie counts are accurate-many of the MFP calorie and portion listings are incorrect and if you're trying to lose a pound a week then accuracy is essential. I double check everything and use an external site like http://www.calobonga.com. Invest in a gram scale.

If these fail then you might consider reduction in sodium (worked for me!) and a reduction in carbs as some people are really sensitive to isulin fluctuations.

Good luck! and do not give up!

Be patient! If you just started working out intensely your new muscles are holding on to fluid. Everyone is different and it takes longer if you don't have much to lose. You don't mention if you notice a difference in your clothes. Maybe it is time to take the focus off the scale.

It's just not as simple as burn more calories than you eat. Because lots of us should have far better results! Track your sodium for a bit to see if you might be retaining water. Try focusing on your diet. I mean tweaking the macros. I find that more protein and fewer processed foods helps me.

I also think you aren't doing anything wrong. You are losing about 0.5 pounds a week.

I'm the same height as you are, a year younger than you, and am now at 130 lbs, but started out at 146 lbs. I currently eat about the same as what you eat (1550 base calories + exercise calories, burning 300-400 per day) and am also losing 0.5 pounds per week.

When I started out, I was losing a pound a week, but I was eating around 1400 base calories + some exercise calories, burning 400-500 per day. In other words, I was eating a little less and burning a little more. It can be a tough balance because your BMR is fairly low when you don't have a lot to lose. I never ate below my BMR, which was in the low 1400s.

The way I determined how much to eat was using the Scooby calculator, set at 20% calorie reduction, sedentary. Because that number was less than my BMR, I simply upped my baseline goal calories to my BMR (this ended up being around a 15% calorie reduction) and then ate back whatever exercise calories I wanted to eat back. (I like logging my exercise.) Once I hit close enough to goal, I upped my calories to slow down the weight loss.

I would be careful about increasing your calories too much if you intend to log and eat back your exercise calories. If you intend to log and eat back your exercise calories, I would definitely recommend using the sedentary calculation on whatever calculator you are using. If you play around with the numbers on the Scooby site at various calorie reductions and activity levels, you can figure out how much to eat -- just make sure you aren't double dipping.

Just my two cents.

So many people on here say carbs don't matter - it's calories in vs calories out. For most people that is probably accurate, but many of us don't fit that mold. After years of struggling I finally went to a doctor and a nutritionist and found I am sensitive to wheat and many starches. I can eat 1400 calories of lean meats, fruits, and veggies and lose weight. I can eat 1400 calories including starches and will gain. Try cutting out all processed foods/starches for a week and see how you feel.