Eat, walk, hike, lose zero???

i have a fitbit, but it's definitely not accurate when it comes to calorie burn unless your body fat is exactly the average BMI - i'm not even close to the bodyfat for my BMI, so my calorie burn count is way off.

the right heart rate monitor will be a help, but mostly they, too, use generalizations. you can either get a higher end HRM or experiment and see what results are as you add or lower your calories. this will be much more effective if you weigh all food; fruits have plenty of calories from sugar, and medium to one person might be large or small to another, where an ounce is always an ounce if your scale is halfway decent.

you could have a thyroid problem, but most of the people i know who thought they did were simply eating more than they thought or burning less. still, good to be sure!

All of the advice here has been great but this is what i think: whenever I tried to lose weight I obsessed. True, gaining 3 pounds after I thought I had sufficiently changed enough of my bad habits for my body to notice would infuriate me, but it wouldn't stop there for me. I'd go into "what's the point" mode and before you knew it, I was packing on the pounds. This time I'm letting my body adjust to the changes at its own pace. I don't "yell" at it if it doesn't give me the results I want on the scale. I also stopped weighing in every day because a little number in the morning was becoming the difference between a great day and an awful day. Those numbers shouldn't have THAT much power. You may need to adjust your eating (too much or too little depends on how honest or accurate you are when you count daily intake). I found out I have been eating way too little myself. My paranoia about gaining a pound or two had me eating fewer times in the day and far less to overcompensate and, frankly, punish myself a little for needing to be on a protocol. The scale can be less of the reward/punishment Great Determinator. If you had a good day or a good week, reward yourself with a nice long hot bath, or something like this. I've been doing it this way and weighing in once a week (rather than everyday, which it sounds like you're already doing), but now I am not devastated if my body doesn't say I lost 3 pounds this week, In fact, I've been losing 1.5 a week. This is great but in the past this would lead me right to the Haagen Daz line because I'd think I've worked out for an hour a day 6 days that week and dramatically changed my eating habits. I want the scale to reflect my drama. Now I routinely reevaluate how i worked out and whether a walk was really a super slow stroll or a moderate pace. I'd relax into reflection and not panic about it. Those three pounds are not enough to convince me that your body is "betraying" you. It's a long term relationship; give your lover a moment to adjust to your new demands.