Not Losing weight.

Wow, I am in the exact situation. I have been seeing a professional and on a clean eating plan, about six weeks. I lost 10.5 lbs. the first three weeks, now I am stuck. My clothes are starting to fit better, but my weight on the scale is being stubborn. I have recorded every bite for six weeks and have stayed on the plan 100%. Exercise off & on (mostly walking). I could use some ideas.

If you open up your diary you would get a lot more helpful advice.

If you're not losing, and you have ruled out any medical issues, then you are probably eating more than you think. Do you weigh your food? Or just estimate? If you're just guessing at portions part of the time then that's your problem right there.

Do you log your food consistently and as accurately as possible everyday? How many calories are you consuming?


TBH, if you aren't losing weight, barring medical issues, you're not in a calorie deficit. If you're not logging your food, you won't know how much of a deficit you have, if any. If you aren't already, start by logging your intake, everyday. And throw out the cleanses. They don't work and they're a waste of money.

This +1

If you are going to the hassle and tedium of being on a diet then make sure you are doing it properly and that includes creating a calorie deficit. If you arent logging or arent logging accurately then you will have problems.

weigh all solids and measure all liquids (except for things with zero calories like water)

be sure to use accurate entries from the database. When I am finding a new food I check and double-check it against several other sites and/or the package information to make sure I am selecting an accurate entry. After that I just use the entry in my history or favorites as I know it has been checked for accuracy. It takes a while at first but then goes faster as you go along and have to search less foods.

use raw weight on meats, and if you can't be sure to use cooked weight entries from the database. When you are a smallish person 100 calories a day makes a HUGE difference and you can easily mis-track this badly with one wrong database entry and 1 piece of meat.

Do not use listed calorie info for food you don't prepare yourself (restaurant/fast food/potlucks etc) and expect them to be accurate! If you absolutely cannot stand to stall out at times and don't have a lot to lose (therefore your calorie goals are relatively low) then you really need to track more accurately than food out is going to let you, unless you are going to carry around a food scale or take everything home, take it apart and weigh it before you eat it. And even then it won't be 100% accurate due to prep method variations.

The short answer is it's a lot easier to do this with a lot of patience and allowing yourself some experimentation over time to identify what works for you as an individual. Every single person will lose weight if they use up more calories than they ingest, but what keeps us able to eat less than what our body uses is different for everyone.

For example, I can easily (though slowly) lose weight steadily on 2,200 calories a day. If my target calories is 1900 and I mis-track by 200 calories that's not such huge proportional error, and doesn't even take me above "maintenance" calories for the day. It will slow my weight loss but not stop it. Of course I am fat, so I burn a lot of calories. If you are really short and don't have a lot to lose you may need to net 1400 calories a day to lose weight, thus a 200 calories mis-track can set you back twice as long as for me!

The point is accuracy and tracking trends over time (a month or more) is going to be the best way to assess your plan. If you track accurately and after 5 weeks haven't lost anything that likely means you are eating too much and need to eat less to be in a deficit (barring medical issue as others have mentioned).

Also don't over-estimate your exercise calories.