WHY does it take forever to lose one pound?

Well, based on the fact that you have 18 lb left to lose on your ticker, I'm assuming you are normal weight or only a few pounds overweight. I'm only 10 pounds overweight and I've reached that point in my weight loss. I don't lose anything for up to two weeks, then suddenly drop a little. If you weigh daily, try using weightgrapher.com, which uses a moving average to plot your weight. As long as you are under your daily average, you are losing, even if your scale doesn't say so. It's been a sanity saver for me lately. If you use it, be sure to put in your past weigh-ins to get a proper average.

I lost my first 37 pounds very quickly, and it was encouraging. But the scales haven't moved much the last couple of weeks. When I weighed myself recently I lost 3 pounds and was ready to celebrate losing 40. I forgot to log it and went to weigh myself 2 days later, and put the 3 pounds back on :-/ I know weights fluctuate depending on many different factors, but I've been consistent on when I weigh myself and doing it before I eat any big meals. I'm afraid a plateau is coming and it'll take forever to lose the next pound too. All I can say is that we can't give up! Even if the scales don't move as much, eating better and exercising have many other benefits to reap as well.