HELP!! why am I not losing weight faster?

Hi everyone,

I had a baby 5 months ago and recently decided to get into better shape. My old diet didn't include breakfast...snacking most of the day on high fat, sugar snacks...big supper including potatoes or rice usually after 8pm. Lots of snacking after supper on high fat salty snacks like potato chips..usually accompanied by some sort of chocolate and all washed down with milk or a gingerale.

My new diet is completely clean not including any processed or high carb foods. I am always under 1500 calories and my daily goal is 2100. I'm eating oatmeal for breakfast, meat/veggies for lunch, snacks are healthy, then supper no carbs...no snacking before bed. I work out 30 minutes a day on Wii Just Dance, Just Sweat option and break a sweat everytime. I'm burning at least 200 calories doing that work out and then added with my daily activities as a busy stay at home mom of 2 I burn more through the day. I lost 4 pounds a couple weeks ago and now I've been stuck at the same number on the scale for over a week. I'm getting very discouraged because I'm working so hard and not getting the results on the scale. I'm losing inches all over though.

If anyone has any tips I'd greatly appreciate them.

Well done on the inch loss.

The inches are far more important that the scale - everyone can see your inches shrinking, only you can see the number on the scale.

My husband has also been losing weight with me and the pounds are dropping off him! He does not even go to the gym ((

Still a big help though with the moral support. I guess he's just got more to lose and it's easier for men because they have more muscle and less fat.

Are you nursing?

If you are, you're really not eating enough. Even if you aren't nursing, you may not be eating enough.

Especially if you're nursing, your body is going to use every hormone it has to defend its current weight. I was never as aware of my ultimate setpoint as I was when nursing my second baby - she was big and hungry and refused solids, so I was her sole means of nourishment for most of a year. I got down to a certain weight (my lowest adult weight), and then every time my weight dropped below that, I would find myself in front of the fridge eating meat and eggs and cheese. My body did NOT want to let go of anything past that amount, and did everything it could to keep that from happening.

It seems logical that if you cut some calories you lose weight that cutting more would make you lose faster. In reality, our bodies are not as simple as that. Yes, "calories in vs. calories out" is the ultimate action at play -- but our bodies have ways to adjust both sides of that equation. Our bodies can shift priorities to use fewer calories in daily maintenance, altering the "calories out," and they can alter hunger and appetite and satiation hormones to spur us to eat more, or more highly caloric, food for the "calories in." There's even some evidence that on the 'calories in' side of the equation, some people actually extract more calories from the same amount of food than others do.

You may be building a small amount of muscle from your exercise. A very small amount of muscle weighs the same as a much larger amount of fat. Don't get discouraged. As long as you are losing inches or body fat %, the weight is irrelevant.