What am I doing wrong?

Nice tip, LabRat529.

First of all, stop being so hard on yourself! Be proud of your weight loss so far - 10 pounds in a few week is fantastic!

It could be that your body is just stabilizing from the initial loss. I went through this when I first started losing and still do on occassion. I just get to the point where I'm starting to get frustrated and bam, there goes another pound or two. This whole process is a real lesson in patience and determination!

Also I noticed your sodium was a bit high yesterday so that could be it. I don't think it has anything at all to do with your calories because your goal is still fairly low.

Keep on keepin' on!

I really do appreciate the bluntness...I'm just new to this and needed some feedback. For a few weeks I wasn't getting to my 1200 cal min and then included exercise. I was losing, but then I started researching about min calls and was told I was eating too little cal each day. So I increased. I guess I need to give it more time.

Make sure you always eat at least 1200 calories. I would also say trust the program. IF you selected a reasonable goal - say one pound per week - then eat the calories it tells you to eat. Personally, the only way I ever can lose weight consistently is to eat 1200 pre-exercise calories. For me, 1400 or 1500 is too much.

Tena

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale though: water retention, digestion, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose weight when they eat more because of these fluctuations.

If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for women over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I am a living breathing example of that. I went from obese to now under 12% BF and I've maintained for one year and built muscle the whole time. You don't BUILD muscle in starvation mode, so I proved everyone wrong.

It sound like you are close to your goal so you walk a thin line like I do. If you eat to much you lose ground, it you eat too little its bad for your health. You might have to experiment with calories. I'm lucky because I was willing to invest in myself with the Venus Index program which has something called the Reverse Taper Diet which has a calculator which helps me.

You are probably at a point where you need to ditch the scale!

I appreciate the feed back and I know .8 is nothing...but to see the scale move in the wrong direction everyday is getting hard mentally. What can I tell you about my plan to help you help me?

I think that is his point: your mental approach. it's ok that you're going up .8, it's normal. the body can fluctuate up to 5 lbs DAILY. you answered your own question, I think, in saying it's hard mentally. that's where you need to change, not in your plan just yet.

1) .8 lbs. POINT EIGHT. I can probably fart this. This is trivial.
2) One week is also relatively meaningless.

Not everyone is your size, so .8 pounds might be significant for some. I agree that a week isn't long enough to make a judgement.

Please don't let 0.8 scare you. An amount that small can soooo easily be water retention from salty food. If I have a high-sodium meal (like sushi or pizza, for example), I can put on 3 lbs of water weight overnight. But it comes off in a couple days just by making sure I drink lots of water to flush out the sodium.


Don't give up - you can do this!

1) .8 lbs. POINT EIGHT. I can probably fart this. This is trivial.
2) One week is also relatively meaningless.

Not everyone is your size, so .8 pounds might be significant for some. I agree that a week isn't long enough to make a judgement.

I would argue that .8 is insignificant for everyone that is old enough to use this site, including people with no limbs and people with dwarfism that may only weigh 50 lbs. It is THAT insignificant.

If anyone has time to look at my diary and help, I'd appreciate it. I lost pretty well for the first few weeks (I know that's expected) but now I'm gaining. I'm up .8 in the last week. I was told I was eating too few calories..so I upped them yesterday. Felt like too much food for me and I was up again this morning. I am doing the 30 day shred 6 days a week and c25 k 3 days a week. Please help. I'm getting discouraged
Thanks

I'm being blunt here but this is not a personal attack:

1) .8 lbs. POINT EIGHT. I can probably fart this. This is trivial.
2) One week is also relatively meaningless.

I don't know your entire plan so I can't comment on how intelligent it is, but generally speaking, the criteria by which you have decided to change your plan, is not good.

If you keep making changes based on trivial things you are never going to settle in on meaningful data.

My suggestion would be to do nothing for at least 3 more weeks.

Agree. And this is just my opinion and it helps me to not get disouraged...but I don't weigh myself anymore. And if I do it is becuase my pants feel loose or tight. I used to weigh myself everyday and get really discouraged if I saw the scale go up and i thought whats the point I should just go eat some cake...so I don't do that anymore. I stick to my calories and go to the gym and judge myself based on how I feel. Good luck.

First thing: weigh once a week, same day, and at the same time every day. Morning before you've eaten anything and after you've gone to the bathroom is best.

Also, keep in mind 1 20oz bottle of water = 1lb. Seriously, when we have to increase weight at the end of one of our horse races (some of them require you weigh XXXlbs with tack, and there are some real lightweights out there), people start chugging water if they're close to the limit. So don't be worried about the little fluctuations.

From looking at your diary, I am seeing some mayo and salad dressings in there, keep an eye on those because they can really add up (even the "fat free" ones). Make sure you're measuring your serving sizes. Your protein is also really high; I think the MFP standard there is a little low but you're going 20+ over every day. If you like having your protein spread out throughout the day, try just cutting back on the serving size (2 egg whites instead of 3, for example, and if you're still hungry increase the veggies).