"If every day were like today, you'd weigh..."

I just perused your diary a bit. Are you logging all your water, because if not, I would suggest drinking more of that. Also, my unprofessional and unqualified opinion is that you could try reducing the carbs you eat and increasing protein. The biggest thing is not to give up. Keep at it and the results will come...eventually!

Her protein isn't bad ... It's already over 1g per pound of lean mass.

For many people it's reducing CHO (carbohydrate) intake while simultaneously upping healthy fats that gets their weight-loss started. Especially anyone with metabolic syndrome.

OP may want to look into LCHF diets - they work well for many overweight people and are quite healthy IF done properly.

It is just an educated guess at best. It is saying if every day were like today, that is what you would weigh. Now, you aren't going to eat exactly the same foods, drink exactly the same amount of fluids, excercise exactly the same way to get exactly the same heart rate and calories burned. No one can or will do that. Just do your best every day, and try something new if what you are doing isn't working. I know it's frustrating, but a pound at a time is still better than nothing. Btw...I was 185 lbs and wore a size 8. I am only 5'4.

Ignore that number completely - it is meant as 'motivation' but is useless.

Everyones body is different and will react short term in varying degrees when you change your diet and exercise. You have been at a plateau for a while so you are right in that it might be time to 'tweak' some things, but it sounds like you did that recently by upping your calories so be sure to be patient to see if that is working.

Have you taken pictures and/or measurements? The number on the scale is nothing more than a measure of the gravitational pull the earth is putting on your body. It is a horrible indicator, especially 'day to day' of how our body is doing.

Another thing is to make sure you are being really accurate on your logging. It's real easy to mis judge a couple hundred calories and not be at the deficiet you thought you were. Same goes for execise, MFP tends to be a little high on how much credit it gives you for calories burned. If you are using the system where you eat your calories back, you might want to only eat about 75% of them. You could see how easy it would be to be misjudging how many calories you eat by 200 a day and then thinking you are burning 400 calories and eating them back when actually you are only burning 300 - all of a sudden you are eating 300 more calories a day then you think and aren't at the deficiet needed to lose a pound a week.

If you aren't exercising, it may be time to start. If you are, it may be time to change things up. Our body gets efficient at doing any exercise we repeat over and over and we don't burn as many calories doing it. If you walk or run or do an elliptical etc, try interval training (where you 'sprint' for a few seconds every few minutes) - it increases your heart rate and ups the intensity of the workout without the workout really feeling that much 'harder'.

And even if you haven't seen a big difference in pictures/measurements - you are improving your health so don't be discouraged. There is so much more to a healthy life then our weight. You've done great so far, even if it is slower then you hoped. Keep it up, make little tweaks to see what works for you, and be proud of this new healthy you!

I have found that statement to be a load of crap - marketing by MFP. Everyone is an individual with their weight loss. I don't lose according to MFP - I lose according to my body and how it functions and what I do. Its a guideline, not the bible

I just checked my diary for 5 weeks ago and it said "If every day were like today, you'd weigh 197.3 lbs in 5 weeks" - which would be a 14 lb loss in 5 weeks. Well, THAT didn't happen and I don't expect it to (I'm actually 6 lbs down from 5 weeks ago). I usually ignore that number. It's just a meaningless calculator that subtracts that day's caloric deficit based on your estimated TDEE, and divides it by 3500 calories. Weight loss just isn't that linear and predictable.

If your TDEE as input/calculated by MFP exactly correct and...
If the amount of calories you consumed was exactly correct and...
If your metabolism is exacly as efficient as the MFP calculator uses and
If you consumed and burned exactly the same amounts for 5 weeks, then...
That is exactly what you would weigh.

That is too many "if's" and "exactly's" for me. I just use it as motivation, because while I can't control everything to the level to make it real, I can control enough to get to that number if I can average out my good days and bad days enough and it's a good visual when I do have a really good day.

Weird-- mine said:

"If every day were like today, you'd probably kill yourself in a month."

HOW U NOE THESE THINGS, MFP???

It makes sense to me. I wonder if you were very careful for a few weeks to measure and weigh everything if that would make a difference. It is very easy to add a few hundred calories without realizing it.