What am I doing wrong?!

Being at a plateau for 3 weeks is nothing. I've had spells where my weight didn't change for a couple of months. And it's been as I got closer to my goal weight, so that made it more frustrating. I agree with some of the other posts I read (I didn't read all of them by any means, however), you need to eat enough so your body doesn't think you are starving it, because then it goes into conservation mode and really won't let go of what you have. Also, you mentioned your exercise routine. Not sure how long you've been doing that but I just invested in some new workout videos just yesterday to "mix up" what I am doing. Your body gets used to the routine, too, and then it simply doesn't respond like it did. I usually rotate through Billy Blanks, Jillian Michaels, Zumba, and Leslie Sansone (different levels of intensity mainly) but I injured my knee a couple months ago and I am kind of limited still on what I can do. So I got some new workouts in hopes of loosing these last 8-10 pounds that just won't budge right now. So I understand where you're at. Don't give up! Oddly, I've been stressed out for over a month trying to find another job, debating whether I want to move, etc. and don't feel like I have been eating "well" like usual. While I haven't lost any more weight, I certainly haven't gained any back, so make sure you keep exercising no matter what! Good luck to you! I hope this helps!

I'll say right away, I've been going over my calories a lot more than I should. BUT even when I was being better, I'd have the same issue. For me, it was a cycle. I'd plateau for a couple weeks, GAIN for a week or so of PMS, then lose a pound or 2 the following week. Maybe you're not doing ANYTHING wrong. Maybe it's hormones.

I will tell you how I did it.

I (was at the time 43) years old. 5'3.5 and was working on my last 8 lbs. I came to MFP, signed up and did the whole 1200 calorie a day thing. I lost a couple of pounds then I stalled at 5 lbs left to go. I started seeing all these post about eating more to lose weight and refused to wrap my head around it. So I continued on, eating 1200 calories a day, being miserable and not losing any more weight. SO, one day I decided, what the heck, let me just try this upping my calories thing for a few weeks and see what happens.


HOLY COW I LOST ALL THE WEIGHT! Not only that, I felt so much better. I was sleeping better and I was waking up feeling rested instead of still so tired. My attitude got way better as did my exercise endurance. I upped them to 1400 at first (plus most of my exercise calories) then to 1500 before hitting goal.

That is what worked for me, a woman over 40. The hardest thing about the whole eating more thing was wrapping my head around it. After I was able to do that and believe that I needed to eat more to fuel my body, my life became better in so many ways. It is so easy to fall into the trap of not eating enough thinking that we will lose the weight, I am living proof that it works, please feel free to look at my pictures to see what I look like now, closing in on 45 years old. I stopped logging because it was stressing me out (switched to clean eating) but I do have a healthy cooking page on facebook that shows many of the meals and snacks I eat during the day. The address is on my profile page if you are interested in checking it out.

Good luck. My mission in life is to help change the world, one fork at a time. I promise you that I would not tell you something that is going to hurt you or make you gain weight. Just give eating more a try, even if it is an extra sweet potato or cup of quinoa, some nuts or an extra filling smoothie.

Calculate your TDEE and minus 20% from it.

You may initially gain a couple of lbs but they should drop off within a few weeks. You don't have a lot of weight to lose for your height, I suggest you focus more on fitness goals and hitting your macronutrient goals than stressing over 1200 calories. As much as some people on this thread want to convince you it's okay to undereat, it gives you nowhere to GO.

1: start on 1200 cals
2: plateau
3: cut calories to 1000
4: plateau
5: cut calories to 800
Rinse/repeat, be miserable.

Calculate your calorie goal using something like

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

And think of some fitness goals you'd like to hit rather than a scale weight. Do you want to complete a workout programme like p90x or 30 Day Shred? Do you want to run a 5k? 10k? For charity maybe? I wanted to run a 5k in less than 40 minutes as one of my first goals when I was starting out. I went from not being able to jog for thirty seconds to a 33 minute 5k Race for Life. I also happened to lose over 40lbs in the process. Fuel your body, fuel your goals.

Perform a search on this topic and read some of the 12,000 other posts.

Because she is a young woman who is 5'5 and she is not extremely overweight. She shouldn't be eating so little and exercising so hard. By doing that, she is creating too much cortisol and upsetting other hormonal balances. She needs to be taking a smaller calorie deficit and giving it time.

The reason I disagree with you is not because I'm not a cat person, your profile picture is that of an obese cat, or because you said she's "eating so little and exercising so hard" as though we were living on another planet where that was a bad thing. It's because 1200 calories is sufficient, she's not starving (obviously or she'd be losing weight) and whatever negative effects there are from heightened levels of cortisol are outweighed by the benefits of being in great shape.

Have you looked at her diary? She's not even eating 1200 calories, don't tell her to eat less!!!

I always plateau around 160. Im 5ft 5in as well. When I plateau, I kick my exercise routine into high gear with some kickboxing or high intensity cardio.....or i dramatically alter my diet by increased protein (no red meat) for a few days per week then dropping carbs dramatically for the remaining days of the week. It definitely seems like you need muscle confusion in your work outs too.