That's what I'm eating everyday, (I'm 5'3 and 166 right now), and sometimes more, and I am seeing steady losses. I suggest you slowly up it to your TDEE minus cut, and maybe even take a break at TDEE around the holidays. That's my plan, just so my body doesn't get used to what I am doing.

also, have you talked to your ironwoman friend to see what her training is like? if anything she could give you the best insight to what you can change to get her body.

Heres my thoughts.. You are 140-144 pound, correct? So you are probably working on that last 5-10 pounds to get to the goal you have in your head, right? Once you get closer to your goal, the weight becomes harder to get off, but not impossible. You actually need to eat more. Most of the gals in here who are working on those last few pounds, have only taken a 10% cut from their tdee, rather than a 15-20%. The closer to the end you are, the more you want to burn the fat off by building the muscle, which requires more food to do it.

I know you are scared about gaining back any weight you "might" put on by upping your cals.. Is it a guarantee? No. Some people gain a few pounds, some people dont. But you arent losing anything at 1500 cals anymore, so your body is stuck. The best way to get "unstuck" is to eat more. You can do it one of two ways.. slowly increase your cals by 50-100 until you start to see some losses happening, or just jump right to your 10-15% cut of TDEE. As for feeling fully satisfied at 1500... of course you are. Your body and metabolism have adjusted to that amount. You will likely feel hungry for a few days when you start to jump cals, but your body will even out again and you will wonder how you ever ate less:)

Weight training is a big part of changing your body shape. Cardio is great for the heart, but cardio wont change your shape the way weights can.. and for far less exertion. You should be doing about 3 days a week weight training, and 2 days a week cardio for best results. Its drilled into women's heads that the only way we can lose weight and look better is by slaving over the damn treadmill or stairmaster for hours on end.
I started lifting weights with "New rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Schuler. great starter book to get a taste of how weight training can work for you. And for the record, I use the free weights, and I have no spotter.. don't let that be your reason for not lifting. You are not a body builder and you are not lifting weights to that point. Most of the weight exercises in the book can be done with dumbells if you wont have access to a barbell..

I would suggest you puruse the videos Kiki and Lucia posted here: http://www.youtube.com/user/EatMore2WeighLess/videos?view=0
These will help to see that you do need to eat more, you should be giving weights a try, and that eating too little calories can do more harm to your body than you think.

As an aside... I was eating about 1400 cals when I first joined this group.. I am now at 2500 cals for my 15% cut, and the scale is dropping weight here, where I had NO losses at 1400.. It does work. There are many of us in here to prove it. Take the leap.. try something new.. you arent seeing results doing what your doing now, so why not try it?:)

Hope this helps

If you are focused on weight training, then you will need to stop focusing on your weight, other than what you can lift at the gym. The scale is a terrible indicator of success at this point. Eat more so you can lift heavier. Track your BF%, your strength, your endurance, and how your clothes are fitting. Those will be much more exciting than the number on the scale.

If you are focused on weight training, then you will need to stop focusing on your weight, other than what you can lift at the gym. The scale is a terrible indicator of success at this point. Eat more so you can lift heavier. Track your BF%, your strength, your endurance, and how your clothes are fitting. Those will be much more exciting than the number on the scale.

This.

Okay, I was obsessed about what the scale was telling me at the beginning of this year. I had those dreaded last 10 to lose. I started lifting, changed things up, etc. Eight months later, i'm actually up 4 pounds. Does my body look better? Yes. Do I feel better? Yes. Does the scale still matter? Yes and it shouldn't have that power over me (but since I used to weight over 200 lbs, it does because i'm paranoid like that)!

I know your friend does Ironman but don't compare yourself to her. You are who you are. Embrace all that you have accomplished. Maybe you need to evaluate and change your goal. Instead of thinking that you are going to lose those last 10, think of other goals you can hit. Do you want to lift a certian weight (definately check into a program, it sounds like you are not sure what to do there), do you want to run a certian distance, do you want to eat a certian amount? You get the picture

Dieting = scale
Healthy = eating right, exercise

Being healthy and dieting are two different things. Focus on being healthy, and your body shape will follow

Have you checked out the eat more to weigh less group on here? They have a lot of info, about uping calories, and resets.

? you prob have cheked em out..eh? :-)

:laugh: Ive is a friend of mine, so it just popped up that she posted the topic, and I clicked on it. I just saw it when I was going through the group posts. Derp. MFP should tell you what it's posted under, so people like me look less stupid. :grumble:

...hahaha! well at least ou can probably spell the work 'checked' correctly...

I think you need to be clearer about your goals.
You say you want to be 'fit and thin' and look like you work out but on the other hand you want to be more like your shredded triathlete friend. It doesn't sound like these are the same thing.
I think you would LOOK better with some more shapely muscle and not necessarily less scale weight so your focus should now be on losing body fat not scale weight.
Are you prepared to try something completely different?

I just glanced at your diary, you might try playing with the macos a bit. Eating 200 gms of carbs for 1500 calories seems like a lot, what ratios are you using? If you are working out a good bit, try upping your calories to 1900 like scooby said. If you find you can't stop gaining, then back off but I think you will find if you lower your carbs, eat more fats and protein and raise your calories to 1900 you might even see your weight drop. These are just my own observations

I also wanted to add that watching what you eat for 2 weeks most likely won't make a huge difference when you don't have tons of weight to lose. I know you want to look like you work out (I mean, I TOTALLY feel that way too!) but you need to think of things in the long term. Reshaping your body takes time, more time than just losing weight and if you are starting weights now, you might see improvement in 6 months