I'm confused and on the verge of giving up!

What is your current height & weight, and what is your goal weight? Is a 2 pound per week loss realistic for you?

You had success before - have you changed something in your routine?

What calorie range do you eat per day? How often do you weigh your food on a digital scale? How much do you guestimate or not log at all?

It could be a # of things. Perhaps you just need to revamp things a bit. Change up your cardio, increase your strength training. Or you may be no longer eating at a deficit in which case you need to re-evaluate your goals and consistently log, measure.

Firstly, re-adjust your goals. Losing 2lbs PER DAY should not be the goal of anyone. If this was a typo and you actually meanty 2lb per week, this is still too high for most people.

Depending on how much you have to lose, a rate of 0.5 lb to 1.0 lb per week is healthy and sustainable.

If you are eating according to your MFP weightloss goal and you are not losing weight, then you are probably eating more than you think you are. Weigh, measure and log everything you eat.

Hi

I have played around with different goal calories etc 1200 was far too low and 1700 was far too high now im in the middle and its working, whenever you lose around 7-10lbs good to re set goals

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

I'm in the same situation- been hanging out at 157 for over a week now after about 3 weeks of losing pretty steadily. My goal is 140 & it seems farther away than when I started at 178! I have been logging Everything I eat & working out almost every day (5 x's/wk). It is so frustrating!! I'm not giving up though. We can do this if we just stick with it! Good luck

Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Nutrition Facts For Foods

with 40 lbs to lose 1lb/week should be your goal... on top of that you should eat back the cals burned from exercise, just keep in mind that many machines and MFP tend to over estimate, so aim for 50-75% of them.

That said, most people have the inaccuracies on the intake side of things as well. To be accurate you should be weighing all solid foods and measuring all liquids.

Try cutting back your carb intake, and increase your healthy fats and lean proteins, and change up and intensify your workouts. This should get the scale moving again. Also try using the tape measure. Sometimes we're not losing weight, we are losing inches. I think the tape measure is a better tool than the scale is. In losing weight, quitting is never an option. You just have to push a little harder, go a little longer, or run a little farther. You should be challenging yourself. If you stay at the same things, your body get used to it. Try measuring out your food portions using measuring cups and spoons, and a food scale. Read the labels on food packages to see what one serving is. You'd be surprised at how much we over eat! Most importantly drink lots of plain water! I aim for 100 ounces per day. I sure hope this helps! Keep going and don't quit! You can do this!

Giving up should NEVER even be in your vocabulary!!!

What she said. You results may be less than what they were when you started, but giving up will put you back to where you were BEFORE you started.

Do a little tweaking on your diet and exercise and you'll get there.

Well done on your weight loss so far.

I feel your pain, after losing about 30 pounds I got stuck yo yoing between the same 7 pounds for about 6 months!

My advice to you would be some simplistic points:

1. Keep calm! Trust the process. You've lost your mojo for a while but there is a tried and tested way to lost weight that you will get back on to (eat a bit less, move a bit more, calories in, calories out etc). Don't drive yourself mad worrying, otherwise this won't be the exciting, enjoyable journey it can be.

2. Get consistent. You must have an idea of what works for you. For me, it's eating 1200-1400 cals a day and exercising for 30-60 mins most days or at least five days. Remember cals in is the crucial thing for weight loss. (I exercised like a loon last year but lost little weight because I just wasn't consistent in my diet!).

3. Plan your exercise timetable and do it - no excuses, do it don't think about it! What works best for you - gym? Home DVDs? Train for a 10K? Swimming or team sports like netball? Mix it up when you get bored.

4. Get organised. Plan the meals you're going to eat mainly and where you buy the ingredients. Focus on protein and lower carb to fill you up and keep blood sugar stable, I bake myself stuff like veggie burgers, felafels, healthy pizza bases, peanut butter and flaxseed flapjacks to have to hand for the weekend ahead (freezing most stuff).

5. Set motivational goals e.g. Buy a new smaller dress to wear for a future social event/holiday and visual it. Be realistic though.

6. Have the occasional break. My former trainer suggested having a 'refeed' (sometimes called cheat) days once a fortnight after strictly eating clean to reset your metabolism. I think this is really important physiologically. It's not an excuse to binge, eat at maintenance.

Then just DO IT. Don't wait till you 'feel' motivated. By the time you get going and see progress of a few pounds off, that motivation will kick back in.

Oh and NEVER EVER give up. It's so worth it, so go get it!!

I would love if you could help me with the tdee method. I'm 5'4 171.

Using this calculator set on "lightly active" the TDEE-20% method sets you at about 1650 calories every day. Now, if you use this method, you wouldn't add back in any exercise calories (but if you're "moderately active" you'll need to change the settings I used on the calculator).

Good luck! Don't give up! You're doing great, and I know you can continue to do well if you don't give up!