6 months and no weight loss!

I am 5'2 142lbs and have lost about 3 lbs in 6 months. It's frustrating because I am trying to tone up for my wedding (In May!) and no matter how hard I work at the gym, the scale isn't moving. I have also taken my measurements and they are pretty much the same. The good news is that between 2010 and 2012 I lost 15lbs and have kept it off successfully, but I feel like the closer I get to my goal weight (125lbs) the harder it is. I lift weights 4 times a week, and take Pilates 1-2 times a week. MFP was telling me to eat 1320cal/day and then I would not eat back my calories burned.
I have decided to try something new as of yesterday. I am increasing my caloric intake to 1600 cals (This is how much I was eating when I lost the 15lbs before) and I am adding 20-30 min HIIT workouts before my weight training. It's too soon to tell anything yet, but I am hoping that these last 17lbs will start to come off. I can tell that I have been gaining muscle but now I have to lose the fat to reveal my fit body underneath. I wish you the best of luck in your journey, and PS don't listen to your husband, you won't always be fat. It's all about trial and error, everyone's body is different.

Hi honey,I have not looked at your diary forgive,but when I hit a plateaux last year for 8 darn months straight :noway: I tried everything but I actually figured out in the end what it was after the event!!!!!
I really was not eating enough! I know it sounds totally mad but map settings are not to far off and. Try to eat some of your exercise cals back too,try to add muscle to your body also more muscle means you burn fat faster!
Good luck x

I am by no means an expert, but I would suggest dropping your calories to 1500... wait a month... and see if you see any movement.

Two things: 1) Reduce your daily calorie intake to around 1400-1600, and see if it budges. At your height & weight, you want to stick close to your BMR. 2) EAT REAL FOOD. Avoiding fruit because it has carbs, but eating a Special K breakfast sandwich, is ridiculous. Greek yogurt? If you don't want the sugar, get the plain - the only ingredients are milk and cultures - and add fruit. Focus your diet on fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, whole grains, nuts, butter, cheese -- anything with less than 5 ingredients. Those are REAL foods to concentrate on eating. Ones that you can identify what is in them. The processed, packaged, convenient, "healthy" ("low fat", "sugar free", etc) are just loaded with preservatives, sodium, and filler. Try those changes, and you WILL see results.

I am 5'3 and when I was 185 lbs, I was eating around 1500 calories a day AND working out. I saw quick results.

I am not exactly sure my weight now, as I am just starting up again after having a baby (well a year ago lol) and I am trying to eat around 1300 a day since I am sitting all day at a desk and have not started working out in my off time. In my non professional opinion, you are eating too many calories.

" step 1: de-complicate things. forget all that baloney about what you can and cannot eat.
step 2: get a medical checkup and make absolutely certain that there is no medical condition complicating all of this for you.
step 3: are you 100% certain you are logging all of your calories accurately? this is very important. log everything. make sure you are correct.
step 4: verify your BMR/TDEE. did you ever yo-yo diet in the past with VLCD diets? this can affect your BMR.

i compute 1873 as your TDEE without exercise (i.e. sedentary/office worker). you're not going to burn alot of exercise calories doing strength training or short duration cardio. my initial reaction is that you are not losing weight because you are eating at your maintenance level. you are likely burning fewer calories with exercise than you think you are and this is frustrating you. add some easy cardio and perhaps eat at 1650 or 1700 calories for a few weeks and see what happens. an example of easy cardio is a 1 hour walk each day. that should add up to 300-350 of burned calories every time you do it. don't eat those calories back. do this for a few weeks and see if your weight loss starts again at a rate of about 1lb per week.
Edited by WinnerVictorious on Sat 02/09/13 12:30 AM "

^^^^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^^^^

My initial thought were regarding 'step 3:' For myself, I check the calories I find in MFP against another source such as Calorie King for accuracy. There are quite a few calorie measures in the MFP database that are totally useless. e.g. "*Generic - Potato Roasted (Lower Salt)" = "1 potato" = "320 calories". How useless is that!! "One potato" could weigh anything from 25 g to over 500 g. However, judging from your post, I think you were smart enough to have figured that out.

Alright, here's the thing. I've been in your same position for a long time. About 6 years now and I am 24.

I would definitely NOT eat less than you are right now unless you plan to stop exercising. Your BMR is likely 1400-1600 based on the little that I know (I am 170lbs and my BMR is 1560)

Check out your hormones like people have mentioned, everything, even excess androgens or estrogen can mess with you. However...

In my experience, under eating will signal your body (especially at a 175 pound weight) to hold on to fat if you take away from it. If your body is the type to gain fat easily like mine is, it is pretty much comparable to a toddler. It will get upset if you don't feed it enough. It will hoard.

I did this thing CONSISTENTLY where I would restrict carbs, workout, and see no progress. Because I wasn't eating enough to satisfy my "toddler" body. the "endomorph" type.

But! I was logging my activity for a couple of months on this app I have. I noticed that I lost the weight when I ate 2000 calories and burned off 800, never NETTING below 1200. Not even this is sustainable for consistent weight loss for me.

So, I am now upping the NET to 1500-1600 and have had progress. I have a Polar heart rate monitor (with a chest strap) that I wear only when I'm working out (no matter what I'm doing, weight training? intervals? cardio? I have it on). I suggest the same.

I always net 1500-1600. That means if burn 500 cals I will physically eat 2000-2100 to keep the energy balance. It is way better to feed your body and allow the workouts to burn off the fat. Trust me.

You can also drop cardio and eat low carb at your BMR calories. Heavy weight training is key there. This is a good approach if you get too exhausted doing anything else.

Add in black beans or another bean to bring up the calories if they are too low. I was losing weight last year eating a diet of black beans and part skim cheese for my entire intake (and I typically gain weight eating bread).

Hope this helps!

I would go to your Dr and have your thyroid checked.

YES. GET IT CHECKED OUT!

I would go to your Dr and have your thyroid checked.

YES. GET IT CHECKED OUT!

She already has if you read the first page.