scale is stuck....

It may be water retention. Are you eating your exercise calories?

I feel the same way. I lost over 3lbs the first week and then gained it all back. Then I lost .6 the next week. But I am also staying in my calorie goal. I did realize I was eating too much sodium so I am trying to cut that back this week and ensure that I drink all of my water. I am trying to make a goal of staying within calorie goal on only healthy or at least mostly healthy food. Its hard for me though because I don't have a lot of money and healthy/fresh food is not the cheapest. So maybe try eating more fruits and veggies and drinking all of your water.

I was also told that sometimes a new workout can make you retain water because your muscles are retaining the water to heal. Not sure how true that is but was sharing information that I was told. Good luck.

Some cheaper options that are healthy - buy rice/barley in bulk - great comlex carbs. Don't get the packaged mixes. Frozen vegetables and fruit can be cheaper than fresh, and provide you a greater variety, also, make sure to take advantage of local farmer's markets where seasonal foods can be much cheaper than in stores.

ok- I recently joined MFP coming from WW. I have lost 32 lbs. with WW then stuck. Now I have been doing MFP for 2 weeks and lost 2lbs. the first week, this week the scale says I have gained 4lbs. I have also increase my exercise and doing a circuit training program similar to curves. Staying within my calorie range... daily, except with 1 sllight overage on Sunday. FRUSTRATED... suggestions please.

increasing your exercise could possibly have caused some water retained in your muscles. I doubt you are building enough muscle to cause an increase on the scale. It's all you can to preserve your lean muscle mass when on a calorie restriction. Make sure you are eating back most if not all of your exercise calories (very important as you get closer to your weigh goal. With an increase in exercise you might need to increase your calories a bit. Or maybe recalculate your goals. Switch from 2lb to 1lb. Or 1lb to .5lb. This will also increase your calories a little. The weight gets harder to lose as you get closer to healthy weights.

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html

Working With Your Body - The Basic Strategy
By John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
All rights reserved and actively enforced.


The law of unintended consequences
Your body is an amazing feedback system aimed at balance and survival. Humans are at the top of the food chain because they are able to adapt to their environment. Every action produces a reaction. Every change in its environment triggers a survival response. It's important to keep that in mind when you plan your fitness program. If you treat your body as an enemy to be conquered, you'll produce unintended results.

For example, if you severely cut off the supply of food to your body, it will defend itself by slowing down its metabolism to survive starvation. The body will shed muscle mass the same way that you would throw cargo from a plane that was low on fuel, and it will reduce its thyroid activity to conserve energy. The body will also actually defend its fat stores. In anorexia, muscle loss can be so profound that fat as a percentage of body weight actually rises. Extreme carbohydrate restriction also causes muscle loss, dehydration, and slower metabolism, which is why even successful Atkins dieters can have a significant rebound in weight after they stop the diet (don't worry – the advice on this site will prevent that from happening).

As another example, if you put your body under stress through overexertion and lack of sleep, it will respond by slowing down, reducing muscle growth, and increasing your appetite for junk food, carbohydrates and fat. If you feed your body excessive amounts of sugar and quickly digested carbohydrates, and it will shut off its ability to burn fat until those sugars are taken out of the bloodstream.

This website will show you how to work with your body to quickly produce the changes you want. In order to do that, you need to take actions that push your body to adapt – to build strength, burn fat, and increase fitness. You need a training program, not an exercise routine. You need a nutrition plan, not a diet. You need a challenge, not a few good habits you usually try to follow except when you don't.

Setting the right goal
John Dewey once said that a problem well-stated is half-solved. If you want to reach your goal, you have to define it correctly. See, a lot of people say “I want to lose weight.” Well, if losing weight is your goal, go on a no-carb diet. You'll lose a lot of weight – some of it will be fat, a lot of it will be water, and a dangerous amount will be muscle tissue. You'll lose weight quickly, but you'll slow your metabolism and gain fat more quickly once you go off the diet. Trust me on this. I've been there, done that.

The problem is that you've set the wrong goal. If you want to look better, have more energy and enjoy better health, the goal is not simply to “lose weight.” The goal is to improve your fitness level and body composition. That means losing fat, improving your aerobic capacity, training your strength and defending your muscle tissue. You can't do that with a no-carb diet. You will do it using the approach you'll learn on this website. Trust me on this one too. I know what it's like to feel fat, tired and helplessly out of shape. The whole point of this site is to help others avoid that, by sharing lessons that I had to learn the hard way.
By John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
All rights reserved and actively enforced.