Should I go to a doctor?

It can be really frustrating to work really hard to lose weight and not see results My mom's been trying to lose 40 lbs for like 5 years now and she's starting to feel like nothing will work- she's tried atkins, jenny craig, weight watchers, everything.

A raw diet might be worth a try. I lost like 20 lbs in a month last summer doing it (in retrospect that's like scary unhealthy but I took it to the extreme, might be healthier to ease into it.) Doing a raw diet would help you avoid any foods you might potentially have allergies to, like gluten and lactose and all that, and it also makes your poops better and your skin clearer and your sleep better. If you lost a ton of weight on raw, it might be an indicator that you do, in fact, have an allergy to one of the foods you were avoiding, and you could get tested and figure out what it was. A raw diet is different from a "fad diet" in that it is sustainable- if you ate raw your entire life, you wouldn't die or get horribly sick, unlike the cabbage-soup diet or the honey and pepper and lemon juice diet.

To ease into it you might try incorporating one raw meal a day (my favorite is a buckwheat/banana/strawberry smoothie and a field green salad with 6 assorted veggies & flaxseed & balsamic vinagrette on top) and see how you feel, and then bump it up to more meals and snacks. The nice thing about the raw diet is that your food has so few calories that you could spend all day eating and not go over, but that's also the tricky part- you need to eat a LOT of veggies and beans and such! It helps if you "drink your calories" by making a smoothie every day with lots of nice seeds and things in it.

Just an idea. Ever since I went raw last summer I've been eating at least 1 raw meal every day and it makes me feel awesome, not just because I know it's good for me but because I actually physically feel better than when I restrict calories but still eat packaged foods. It's also inspired me to begin a small vegetable garden, which is a little difficult because I live in an apartment but it gives me a peaceful activity to do and also the freshest possible spinach and broccoli! It also feels really good to know that you grew what's on your plate all by yourself- the feeling of accomplishment is probably good for the soul.

Sorry if this sounds like an infomercial lol I swear I'm not getting paid by the "raw diet people," whoever they are, I just honestly loved doing it and want to share my joy with everyone

Have you had your thyroid checked?

make sure you don't have calorie creep in your diet...i.e. weigh and measure your foods/ingredients...log everything...log consistently.

Also, if you eat out a lot or eat a lot of prepackaged stuff...like sandwiches in the deli, etc...a lot of the nutritional info provided on their sites and packaging isn't all that accurate...can be off by quite a bit. People are just throwing ingredients together and not really weighing and measuring...same thing can happen at home if you don't weigh and measure.

There was a video circulating recently showing this...basically if the guy would have eaten everything he had tested, he would have over consumed by 500 + calories due to errors in using nutrition information from the restaurant.

Also, you seem to do a lot of cardio and no resistance work...I recommend adding some resistance training; you'll burn less calories, but more fat...i guarantee.

Aside from talking to the Dr about possible things that may be slowing your weight loss, perhaps ask your Dr to refer you to a dietician with whom you can work on a food plan.

Try having a rest day from exercise once a week

i've been having issues with losing anything for a month or so & I figured out my TDEE info & it turns out I needed to up my calories as I was going in the dreaded 'starvation mode' for my size at 1200 calories a day.

I upped it to 1550 on monday and have lost 4 pounds.

Maybe you need to up your calories!

A half a cup of cashews is around 300 calories That should help you increase without eating a lot more

In reply to the TDEE query...I'm not sure if I did put in the right level of activity...I have a desk job but at the moment I'm doing 25 mins exercise a day (shred) and then two lots of 35-min runs. Would you call that moderate, very active? I couldn't decide!

Go with "slightly active" and eat back half your exercise cals. As long as you eat between your BMR and TDEE, you will lose weight steadily and healthfully.