Please help! Dont know what to do here!

how many calories are you taking in a day? are you eating every 3 - 4 hours? doesn't look like you are doing any weights or strength training. I would add weights/strength training , it's proven that when yo work out the large muscle groups ie: legs; it will start to speed up your metabolism. whats your protein intake? hope this helps.

I always try to stay under my calories, before the addition from exercise. I count those calories as a surplus and only use them if I really need to.

Cardio is a great way to burn calories.

I am 5'10" and 184. My goal (right now) is 175 before I re-evaluate, so I am 9 pounds away and STUCK!

History: I was set at 1.5 lbs per week and usually losing more than that per week. I admit, I had an awful week two weeks ago-kids were sick, didnt get to the gym, was over calories on 3 days and gained 2 lbs (also started my TOM the day after weigh in and I always carry a lot of water weight then). I was immediately back on track and did very well this week-always under calories and have worked out 2 hours every day this week with 3 more hours expected. My weigh in day is Sat, but I did a practice today and was the SAME!

Exercise: I do group cardio classes-Advanced Step on an 8 inch bench, Zumba 3-4 times a week, Interval (Advanced Step with free weight intervals), Pilates, and other alternating cardio classes like Blood & Guts (Advanced Step/running/Advanced Step), 20/20/20, etc. I take classes 6 days a week and really push it hard in every class. One morning a week, I am starting a Hour of Power class which is a weights class for women with 1 minute stations.

I requested a print out from my Dr with my weights from 05-09 (isnt is sad I dont know?) because I was in great shape then and maybe my goal is off for me. I am picking it up today. I based my goal on Happy Weight chart from Self magazine that said 168.5 for a large frame and added a few lbs to give myself some "wiggle room" knowing I could re-evaluate when I got there.

Here are some ideas that have been running thru my swirling mind:
Less cardioo, more weights,
More treadmill
Less calories per day

Any suggestions? Please....

you might need to eat more with all that exercise. You are over-exerting yourself.

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html (I just love the way he explains things).

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


The goal of this site is to help you to transform your physique by walking you step-by-step through everything you need to know about exercise physiology and nutrition. I know that a lot of you have “tried everything,” and because there are so many approaches that have failed you, there's a real risk that you'll quit again and again if you don't see results immediately, or if you don't fully understand why your fitness program should work. Worse, there may be some missing pieces in your program, which could lead to slow progress even though you're hard at work. My hope is that this information will help you to stay on track - to turn effort into results - and to reach your goal.

Want to change your physique? Start by realizing that whatever shape you're in right now is your body's way of adapting to the lifestyle you're living. It's your body's attempt to survive. So the strategy is simple. We're going to give your body a very specific “environment” – a particular mix of activities, nutrition, and recovery – and your body is going to adapt by becoming leaner, stronger, and healthier.

Every change you throw at your body triggers a response. The problem with many diet and exercise programs is that they can accidentally encourage your body to defend fat, shed muscle, increase appetite and even lower its metabolism. The key to fast results is to know exactly which actions will cause your body to adapt by becoming fitter.

Maybe you've tried before to get in shape. But for some reason, you didn't get the results you wanted. If you're like I used to be, you've repeated that cycle year after year to no avail. Maybe you've failed so many times that you think of yourself as a “special case.” You've started to believe your entire metabolism consists of a little turtle on a treadmill. You wonder whether you've got the fat gene. You're convinced that no matter how hard you diet, your cells can still be seen eating Twinkies when viewed under a microscope.

Look. You're not a special case. Even if you had the fat gene (common among Pima Indians but rare otherwise), you'd only be burning 50-60 calories a day less than anybody else. Even if you've been diagnosed with a metabolic difficulty such as diabetes or hypothyroidism, you can still be successful with proper medical support. Most probably, other approaches failed you either because they were missing important pieces, focused on the wrong things, or produced results so slowly that you just gave up. What you need most is good information. You're in the right place.
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.
Ready to change?

Right this minute, your body is the way it is because it has adapted to the lifestyle you've thrown at it, in an attempt to survive. Ever seen the directory at the mall with the little red arrow that says “you are here”? Well, fitness is the same way. You are here. You can't start anywhere else. So be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up. Don't worry about how much there is to do. Change your self-talk from “My body is my enemy” to “My body is my partner.” Accept where you are right now as the starting point, and start moving.

Changing your body requires more than just “going on a diet” for a few weeks. If you want to change your body, you have to make some changes to your lifestyle (which requires some discipline, but isn't as hard as it sounds). If you create the right environment, your body will adapt to it by becoming leaner, stronger, and more energetic. You can do this.

I took a very quick look at your diary and my suggestion is that perhaps you aren't eating enough calories. There seems to be a big deficit on many days. But I also know that sometimes diarys can be deceving. I know that when my weight loss stalled I actually upped my net and then things got moving again.
Another question is are you taking any rest days from workouts? Your body needs time to recover, so if you work out for several days in a row you really should take a day off.
Hope this helps.....good luck!!

I see a lot of processed foods. And while I acknowledge that a calorie is a calorie, I suspect that you might do much better if you clean your diet up. If you're up for an "experiment" to test this theory, consider trying ONE week of clean eating. Something like this. And then let me know how it goes and if it makes a difference. But if you do this, you have to promise to report back!!

Meal #1
1 Egg PLUS 3 Egg Whites
2 cups mixed Bell Peppers (raw, steamed or grilled)

Meal #2
2 cups Celery
1 tablespoon Almond Butter

Meal #3
4 oz. grilled Chicken Breast or Fish
1 cup steamed or grilled Zucchini or Broccoli
1 cup grilled or steamed Asparagus
3 cups Salad Greens (w/Tomatoes & Cucumbers)
1 tablespoon low-calorie Salad Dressing

Meal #4
2 cups Celery
1 tablespoon Almond Butter

Meal #5
2 ounces water-packed Tuna
1 cup mixed Bell Peppers (raw, steamed or grilled)

Meal #6
6 ounces grilled Fish or Chicken Breast
1 cup steamed Zucchini or Broccoli
1 cup steamed Tomatoes
3 cups Salad Greens (w/tomatoes & cucumbers) & Lemon Juice (or a splash of balsamic vinegar)

PLUS Maximum of ONE (1) Snack from the Below List [but only if NECESSARY -- meaning you are hungry for "anything" not a specific craving (aka "emotional" hunger)]:
12 Almonds (85 calories)
1 tablespoon Almond Butter (100 calories)
1 Hard-Boiled Egg (70 calories) or Three egg Whites
1 piece of Fruit (60 – 100 calories)
¼ Avocado (64 calories)
2 ounces water packed Tuna (66 calories)
½ cup unsweetened Applesauce plus a touch of fiber cereal (about 90 calories)

(Estimated Nutrients per Day: 1490 calories, Fat: 50 g, Sat Fat: 8 g, Trans Fat: 0 g, Sodium 1740 mg, Carbs: 80 g, Fiber: 28 g, Sugars: 42 g, Protein: 185 g)

Good luck!!!

Maybe check out how much sodium you're taking in. It seems like you have a decent amount of processed food, which tends to be loaded with sodium. Too much sodium can really sabotage you, especially if you're not drinking enough water.

You do a lot of exercise, so my guess is that you need more calories instead of less. (I'm a starvation mode believer.)

The closer to goal you get, the harder it is to make the weight come off. :grumble: Try not to get too discouraged - keep at it and it WILL come off!

You're doing great! Stick with it!

First, congratulations on your progress so far. Forty-six pounds is a huge accomplishment and you should be proud of how far you have come.

You are down to your last ten pounds and that can often mean re-evaluating your expectations. A 1-1/2 pound per week loss may no longer be possible because of how lean you have become. And continuing to operate with large deficits in a desire to attain that goal, may not only result in no change in the scale, it could cause metabolic damage that makes it even harder to continue to lose or even maintain your weight. If you have not read this thread about expectations, you might find some useful information:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

Assuming you’re tracking everything, I think you may have some unlearning to do when it comes to exercise and nutrition. Every magazine and diet product for the past 50 years has led us to believe that if some exercise is good, more is better. And that high calorie burns through non-stop cardio exercise is great. It is great, but only at getting us to be on diets for life because we never achieve the bodies we’re after.

What you eat becomes so important as you near your goal, and following TrainerRobin’s advice on modifying your diet to eat significantly less processed foods is key. The great thing is you no longer have the fat reserves to support poor eating, but not having that fat means you may have to finally leave your comfort zone in terms of food preparation and the kinds of foods you routinely eat. On most days, your net calories are quite low. I scrolled through all of April and did not see a single day where your net reached over 1300, even though you are regularly burning more than 700 calories. This can be quite disastrous in terms of body composition, but is better explained by experts (which I am not). A few threads that helped me wrap my head around the importance of the cardio and diet balance are:
http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2011/04/cardio-and-metabolism.php
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/198598-interesting-article-diet-vs-exercise
http://members.rachelcosgrove.com/public/505print.cfm

I know it’s a lot of info. But Just trust that you will find your way through this and see the result you’re looking for. It may a take a few weeks of adjusting your diet and exercise routine, but the breakthrough WILL come. Good luck!

I agree I need to be better about my NET calories too. (To the comments about not eating back exercise and using it as a surplus-I have to eat them back bc I am so close to my goal.) I also do need to be more aware of my processed foods--is there a way to track your sodium intake on MFP? And keep up with the water intake, I have been lower on that lately.

To add sodium to the food diary go to FOODS >> SETTINGS >> Nutrients Tracked. You actually have five items you can track - not all of them are particularly helpful.

Any other suggestions? What weight (free or machine) reps should I do? My gym has a Nautilus room (16-18 weight machines) I used to use a lot...should I do that again 3-4 times a week?

I'm not sure what would be best, but you can probably speak to any trainer at your gym and they should be able to give you a basic overview for free. My guess is that you can also replicate a good number of exercises that you do in the Hour of Power class you mentioned. Lastly, there are a bunch of free fitness sites online that can also illustrate workouts for you. Make sure you go to a reputable one - you don't want to get hurt.

Hope this helps.