Thinking of taking a break

I'm with ya orso99! It's been NOT happening for me too! The one thing is that as long as I'm feeling good and exercise and feeling healthy I'm doing something great for me. Do you have the weight to lose? How much are you trying to lose? Experts say that when you get real close to goal it gets harder and you're losing...slowly but you are!

I feel great physically, my clothes fit a little better, but without seeing the scale moving IN ONE DIRECTION, or inches on the tape measure, I am losing motivation. I know I should be happy, and I am a tad, its just hard to not fixate on the scale and numbers.

Your stressing yourself out too much. (Stress does not help according to Biggest Loser shows).

Stop weighing yourself twice a day - Your weight will go up and down throughout the day depending on how much food you eat and hwo much water you drank. Every 2 cups of water is approx 1lb.

As Gym_rat asked, what's your sodium? and the rest of your Numbers.
Daily Caloric intake, Exercise calories burned?
Some people just need some tweaking, perhaps remove foods that have hidden sodium etc.

EDIT: I just noticed - You only have 5lbs left to lose - Those last 10 lbs can come off at 1/4lb per week as your noticing - You will not lose 1lb per week if you only have 5lbs to lose - Search - losing last 10 lbs on here, lots of people have been in the same situation.

I agree with what everyone is saying here, check your sodium, check all your numbers. And also look at your overall number of what you need to lose in total.

If you can tell a difference in your clothes then you are making progress. I've been on a plateau for 3 years it seems but in reality, I've lost 41 lbs and put back on 8 of those, but I'm down 33 lbs total an average of 11 lbs lost per year...not too shabby, still have a lot to go, but there have been times I wanted to quit, but I didn't I just tweaked my numbers...really watched what I ate to jumpstart my loss again, and it worked.

Sometimes a break is ok, but only for a few days.

You definitely should take a break!

But not of counting calories, you should take a break from weighing yourself. You're doing what you should be in terms of exercise and eating.

Weighing in once a day may hold some people accountable, but for others it really just becomes discouraging. Weigh once a week and don't change a thing.

And as for your sodium, you're doing well. It's exactly where it should be at.

If you need a break, take a break. Give yourself a week, and see how you feel at the end of it....

I do think you need a break from weighing yourself. If you are planning on staying healthy, do you plan on weighing yourself on a daily basis? Or just living your life, making great choices and exercising to keep healthy, knowing when you slip up, to get back on track....
It's all perspective.
I hope you can give yourself a break, and stay on track.
Best of luck honey!

Take a break if you are really really stressed out by all of this, but I don't think a break will really help. You just need to keep a positive attitude. You have lost 10lbs, I have never in my life lost 10lbs and can't wait to see that, even if it is just water weight. A loss is a loss. You seem to be making great choices and this is a lifestyle change so you can't expect everything to fall in place overnight. I weighed this morning and have gained weight and I've worked harder this week to lose weight than ever before in my whole life. I'm not letting that get me down. I feel great and my husband keeps telling me I look different. So I don't care what the scale says, my measure of success is not defined by it. I really hope you don't give up. Friend me if you want, I will be your cheerleader!

I FEEL YOU THATS THE WAY I FEEL RIGHT NOW SO I AM NOT GONNA WEIGHT MYSELF FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS/ I AM CURRRENTLY DOING INSANITY. AND THE FUNNY THING IS THAT THE WARM-UP ALONE COULDN'T DO THE WHOLE THING AND NOW I CAN ACTUALLY TAKE ONE MAY TWO BREAKS TO I MAY NOT BE LOSING RIGHT NOW BUT I AM GETTING HEALTHIER. IM STRESSING ALSO AND WELL ITS NOT GOOD THATS HOW I GAIN WEIGHT BUT TAKE ONE IF YOU NEED ONE/

I feel exactly as you do. I bought Oreo's yesterday because I am just tired of trying and feeling that the scale is not moving. I am doing at least 2 hours a night at the gym and am feeling that in my back. I have improved the intensity of the workouts and see a difference in how I feel, but I am not seeing the scale move. I am hungry and tired. ( I brouyght the Oreo's to work, and put in the kitchen so i did not eat them all, but...)

PUT THE SCALE AWAY!:noway:

that's where you're stressing yourself, our bodies fluxuate daily, 2,3 even 4 pounds based on what we've been eating and drinking! yes I weigh daily but it doesn't stress me like it seems to do you. and WHY would you weigh at the end of your day? OF COURSE you are going to weigh more after eating and drinking all day,

do yourself a favour and use a tape measure every few weeks or once a month, and only weigh 1 ever week or even every 2. if you feel the need to

It takes a good 6 to 8 weeks for your body to adjust to working out and eating right. That's why most people quit after a month because they're not seeing any changes. I know it's frustrating but you just have to keep at it. Know that you are making a healthier you and that is what is MOST important. Who gives a *kitten* what the scale says.

The scale can be our enemy sometimes. I get so wrapped up in whether it went down enough, or if it went up a bit, and then I don't try as hard because I'm bummed about my lack of success. I finally figured out that this was hurting my quest to be healthy, so I am really spacing out the weighing, while still tracking calories and working out religiously. I can tell my clothes fit better, my belly looks smaller. This is a very long term weight loss and maintenance plan, so I know that 6 weeks from now, I will weigh much less than today. That's good enough for me. By summer, I should look fabulous! So Friday's weight isn't going to stop me from making progress. I'm going to weigh every 2-4 weeks and I will see knockout results! Can't wait to shop for a bathing suit this summer!!

From counting cals that is. I am stressing myself out. I have been doing great staying in my limits since Jan 7, exercising almost everyday, eating most exercise cals, cut out alcohol, and I I lose 1/2 lb one day, up 1 lb the next. My inches aren't moving either.

I know it says I lost 10 lbs, but really it is more like 4. Six pounds was water weight and lost in the first week of Jan. Its so frustrating. I have been monitoring my macro's, weighing both morn and night to see if certain foods are causing weight gain or weight loss, I wear a HRM when I exercise, try to hit 60-70 % MHR, and exercise 5-6 times a week either doing intervals on the treadmill, or recumbant bike and weight lifting. Heck, I ran 2 miles for the fist time ever last week! I am running now, when before when Iost weight yrs ago all I did was walk and lost lbs.

And MFP says I should be losing 1 lb per week, and I am doing what it says, but its not happening!! I am more like 1/4 lb a week, if that.

I feel great physically, my clothes fit a little better, but without seeing the scale moving IN ONE DIRECTION, or inches on the tape measure, I am losing motivation. I know I should be happy, and I am a tad, its just hard to not fixate on the scale and numbers.

I have to say I've been feeling the same way. I also suffer from moderate depression, so that makes the whole cycle of eating worse. (Eating unhealthy makes the depression worse, depression causes bingeing, bingeing makes me fat, I'm depressed because I'm fat and tired, I feel like a failure, hence depressed and bingeing, blah, blah, blah). I started out in Oct. losing weight pretty consistently (about 1.5 lbs/week average) and just felt better all over. I even thought the depression was better. But then life's stresses have hit me hard since Jan. 1st, and that scale hasn't budged much. I also haven't been feeling as much of the "healthy" impacts I'd initially seen, my migraines, body aches, and fatigue have returned with a vengeance. I had a minor breakdown on Thurs. after weighing myself everyday all week and continuing to GAIN despite staying well under my cal goals, eating clean, exercising vigorously, staying under 1500/day sodium and drinking all my water. I literally broke down and cried, and finally said I'm taking a break. My husband dutifully locked away the scale and I forced myself to stay off here for a couple of days. That being said, I am working out still about an hour a day, just don't know my cal burn. I also returned to waking up an hour early to get my workout in (as I'd been doing it later in the day when my daughter napped, and everyday felt so EXHAUSTED) I am eating healthy, watching portions and going with lots of fresh foods. Even Valentine's Day, I ate small breakfast and lunch with fruit in between, and come time for my pasta dinner, I only ate half and dutifully put the leftovers in a lunch box for hubby to take to work. I just haven't logged any cals eaten or burned. I am not going to weigh in until the end of the month, may start a once a month weigh-in from here on out even. Will probably go back to calorie counting next week, but I do just need a week off. My whole day was hinging on all the numbers. I just started this Fri. so I don't know what my body's doing yet, but I already have more energy and a renewed zest for this healthy lifestyle. We'll see how it goes.

I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do. Think of it as a little experiment?

If you've recently started an exercise routine, your muscles could still be 'in shock'. What basically happens is that they 'freak out' because they're not used to being worked so hard, so they protect themselves by retaining water. There's more to it than that, of course. But at the end of the day new exercise routine = shocked muscles = water retention. Once your body adapts to the exercise, the muscles will 'release' the fluid.

Also, don't be surprised if you find your weight drops a bit when you take a break from working out. I always weigh myself the day after a rest day because rest days are really when my body lets go of the ick and drops pounds.

It's unlikely you're actually just building muscle MASS this early on, but water retention is definitely a possibility. Like others said, I'd also keep an eye on your sodium intake. While MFP recommends about 2500, I usually try to aim for closer to 1500 (2000 is pretty much my max). Also, how's your fibre/water looking? You want to be sure to drink LOTS of water to flush out all that extra sodium. Also, the more fibre you're eating the more water you want to be drinking.

Fibre's good because it helps cleanse your body. Might sound gross, but if you're not 'regular', you can be carrying quite a bit of weight in poop. This will also cause your tummy to be less flat than it normally would. If you're eating fibre, drinking lots of water, you might find yourself pooping one to three times a day! Takes some getting used to, but your digestive system will feel a lot better.

Stress can also = weight gain. As can hormones.

I also agree with previous posters... don't weigh yourself every day. Personally, I DO weigh myself every day. This is how I learned about how my body works, how sodium affects it, how my period causes water retention, etc. However, I also don't get upset when I see small gains because I know they're normal. If you're the kind of person that gets bummed out over these little gains, hide your scale and only weigh in once a week (or even less frequently than that).

Also, the less you have to lose, the slower it will come off!

You're probably at the point where you're building muscle. You're not seeing a difference on the scale because MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT! Stay off your scale for a good while. When you go back, you'll finally see a change. What a nice surprise that'll be!
:drinker: