So I randomly have stopped losing...

Is there any chance that your daily activity has decreased? I'm not talking about workouts. I'm talking about things like are you walking less during the day, sitting more than standing, etc.?

I have had a few times when my weight loss has seemed to stop, or at least be painfully slow (I'm looking at my log and see that from 6/29 to 8/3 I lost .7 pounds for instance.) During those times I have usually found that my daily activity non-exercise activity has decreased, even if my workouts have remained the same. For example, I stopped taking a lunchtime walk a couple of times a week or have started driving instead of walking to meetings.

Not sure if you've seen this table, or what your goal loss per week is, but I see this float around the forums from time to time as a general rule of thumb-

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15-25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

Watch the sodium if you aren't already. And you may have hit some kind of plateau. If you have stopped losing for 3+ weeks and you are doing all of the same things, it's time to change it up and push past the plateau. This may require changing your workout routine, and yes, eating less. Weight loss is not linear. Maybe try a heart rate monitor to get an accurate check on how many calories you are truly burning. The fitter you become and the smaller you are, the less calories you will burn and the slower you will lose.

Both of the above are good points. In the winter, my activity increases because it's not sweltering outside, so I add in walking to work and things like that, but that's opposite of a lot of other people who don't live in a swamp; it's too cold and small things get cut from their daily habits. That can add up and lead to less energy expended.

Are you accurate in your logging? Some entries are horribly inaccurate in the database, so be sure that calorie counts are accurate according to the packaging or you can double check with the USDA for whole foods (http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods). There are a ton of things that could be happening like not measuring foods and eyeballing servings that could lead to inaccuracies. It doesn't always matter when you have more to lose, but those become more problematic the more you lose (your deficit is smaller than you think and you end up at maintenance when you think you should be at a deficit). You can get really strict in weighing/measuring/etc, or you can just reduce calories to compensate for possible overages.

I'd agree that you're just eating too much for how much you are expending. TDEE calculators are estimates based on average populations. If you have lost weight by dieting down to where you are currently, it's likely that your expenditure is lower than the expected TDEE (see more at http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/another-look-at-metabolic-damage.html/, but basically, people who diet have lower TDEE than people their same height/weight/activity level who have never dieted). And, it could just be overestimating. Try reducing your calories by 1-200 calories a day and see if the loss restarts.

Or, if you have a lot of stress in your life or have changed your workout routines at all, your cortisol could be up masking losses. You could try being patient and waiting out the stall, but my guess is that you will need to reduce calories.

This content has been removed.

This content has been removed.

If your workouts have remained basically the same, your body has become more efficient at them, decreasing the amount of effort it takes to do what you are doing. I would try two things - one is to shake up your workouts & general level of activity. If you are doing steady state cardio, do intervals instead, for example. If you are weight training, ditch your current routine altogether (unless you are doing full body workouts routinely) and look into full body workouts. Increase your general daily activity - i.e., if your day finds you mainly sitting, move more (an hour or 2 of killer workouts do not make up for 23 hours of being sedentary). With food intake, continue to weight and measure, and watch your macros. It may be that you need to decrease # of calories but I would attempt upping general activity and being vigilant about food quality first. I know calories in/calories out is important, but your body has to work a lot harder to extract/convert glucose from whole, natural foods than it does from refined, processed foods.

BFDeal wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

BFDeal wrote: »

Are you accurate in your logging?

I'm a pretty boring eater and for the most part I think I have logging down. I've lost more than my ticker indicates (used to be 365lbs) so I'm no rookie. I've taken breaks along the way (years of dieting is tiring) but this go around logging and using the TDEE numbers has gotten me from 250 to here. Now nothing. And again, seriously, lower my calories more? 5'11"...229...being told to eat 2100 calories a day. What happened to "you don't have to starve yourself?"

Clearly you are right. JSF.

I don't know if I'm right I'm just flat out baffled why the advice for me would be completely different than someone else. Every thread for every chick trying to lose 5lbs. "Eat more eat more!" There are women here losing eating more than I am. I guess I'm looking for advice on what I need to do to do that.

I don't see tons of threads that say to eat more. And many of the people recommending to eat more have not always lost a lot of weight. Far more often when people aren't losing they are told to be sure they are logging accurately. Many people who have a severe deficit (1000 calories a day and are trying to lose 10lbs) are told that they can eat more and still lose. There is a difference.

BFDeal wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

BFDeal wrote: »

Are you accurate in your logging?

I'm a pretty boring eater and for the most part I think I have logging down. I've lost more than my ticker indicates (used to be 365lbs) so I'm no rookie. I've taken breaks along the way (years of dieting is tiring) but this go around logging and using the TDEE numbers has gotten me from 250 to here. Now nothing. And again, seriously, lower my calories more? 5'11"...229...being told to eat 2100 calories a day. What happened to "you don't have to starve yourself?"

Clearly you are right. JSF.

I don't know if I'm right I'm just flat out baffled why the advice for me would be completely different than someone else. Every thread for every chick trying to lose 5lbs. "Eat more eat more!" There are women here losing eating more than I am. I guess I'm looking for advice on what I need to do to do that.

Because most of those chicks are already starving themselves by eating 1200 calories or less. That's why they get the advice to eat more. Do you want us to tell you eat more? Are you doing TDEE- 20%? Then do TDEE- 15%.

This content has been removed.

... or even spend a couple weeks doing minimal exercise at all. Go for walks. I really think that people need a break every few months to just let your body repair and rebuild. If your numbers are down it seems to me that your body is saying it needs a little time off.

BFDeal wrote: »

maxit wrote: »

If your workouts have remained basically the same, your body has become more efficient at them, decreasing the amount of effort it takes to do what you are doing.

I get what you're saying but my body seems to have gotten WORSE at everything. My numbers on every single lift is down. Running has gotten easier obviously but I don't really want to be a "runner" (I do it periodically for general fitness).

The fact that your lifts are down makes me want to tell you to eat a bit more--at least for a week or so. How long have you been working on losing weight? Have you taken any diet breaks? I'm a big fan of the diet break. I do it as a week of eating at maintenance, doing my regular workouts. I have found that it really re-energizes me when I get to the point where I'm feeling completely over the weight loss thing. Most recently (as in three weeks ago) I moved my calories up to a range between maintenance and a 100 calorie deficit (based on the IIFYM calculator) because I was feeling weak while lifting. I'm planning to stay here through the holidays and January before considering increasing my deficit. You might not want to take such a long maintenance break but even just a one week break may help. Here's a couple of posts about diet breaks:

Strength Unbound - When to take a diet break

Lyle McDonald - The full diet break

BFDeal wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

BFDeal wrote: »

Are you accurate in your logging?

I'm a pretty boring eater and for the most part I think I have logging down. I've lost more than my ticker indicates (used to be 365lbs) so I'm no rookie. I've taken breaks along the way (years of dieting is tiring) but this go around logging and using the TDEE numbers has gotten me from 250 to here. Now nothing. And again, seriously, lower my calories more? 5'11"...229...being told to eat 2100 calories a day. What happened to "you don't have to starve yourself?"

Clearly you are right. JSF.

I don't know if I'm right I'm just flat out baffled why the advice for me would be completely different than someone else. Every thread for every chick trying to lose 5lbs. "Eat more eat more!" There are women here losing eating more than I am. I guess I'm looking for advice on what I need to do to do that.

There's a difference between trying to lose weight when you're already lean (low-healthy %BF) vs when you are not. When you're already close to an athletic %BF you want to have a really small deficit. So you eat really close to your TDEE. And wait. This is where I am right now, losing about a pound per month. Your calories would be about maintenance calories for me, but then, I'm running 35+ miles per week and doing Stronglifts.

Honestly, given your stats, you should be able to eat a bit more. Have you revisited your logging just to make sure you haven't gotten lax over the last couple of months? If not, and your activity has not changed, there are two other possibilities: 1) you have a health issue, or 2) you're a statistical outlier and your TDEE is lower than the calculated estimates.

ETA: Sorry, thought you'd been stuck for 2 months, but since it's really less than a month: 3rd possibility - you're storing water because you've been dieting a while and the stress has built up. Happens to a lot of people. They lose steadily, then for 2-6 weeks nothing, followed by a sudden drop of about the same number of pounds they'd been expecting to lose while they were stalled. Some go back to losing steadily, some continue losing in fits and starts.

jemhh wrote: »

BFDeal wrote: »

maxit wrote: »

If your workouts have remained basically the same, your body has become more efficient at them, decreasing the amount of effort it takes to do what you are doing.

I get what you're saying but my body seems to have gotten WORSE at everything. My numbers on every single lift is down. Running has gotten easier obviously but I don't really want to be a "runner" (I do it periodically for general fitness).

The fact that your lifts are down makes me want to tell you to eat a bit more--at least for a week or so. How long have you been working on losing weight? Have you taken any diet breaks? I'm a big fan of the diet break. I do it as a week of eating at maintenance, doing my regular workouts. I have found that it really re-energizes me when I get to the point where I'm feeling completely over the weight loss thing. Most recently (as in three weeks ago) I moved my calories up to a range between maintenance and a 100 calorie deficit (based on the IIFYM calculator) because I was feeling weak while lifting. I'm planning to stay here through the holidays and January before considering increasing my deficit. You might not want to take such a long maintenance break but even just a one week break may help. Here's a couple of posts about diet breaks:

Strength Unbound - When to take a diet break

Lyle McDonald - The full diet break

^Good advice. In addition, have you been incorporating deloads into your training program?

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/get_bigger_by_doing_less

This content has been removed.

BFDeal wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

BFDeal wrote: »

maxit wrote: »

If your workouts have remained basically the same, your body has become more efficient at them, decreasing the amount of effort it takes to do what you are doing.

I get what you're saying but my body seems to have gotten WORSE at everything. My numbers on every single lift is down. Running has gotten easier obviously but I don't really want to be a "runner" (I do it periodically for general fitness).

The fact that your lifts are down makes me want to tell you to eat a bit more--at least for a week or so. How long have you been working on losing weight? Have you taken any diet breaks? I'm a big fan of the diet break. I do it as a week of eating at maintenance, doing my regular workouts. I have found that it really re-energizes me when I get to the point where I'm feeling completely over the weight loss thing. Most recently (as in three weeks ago) I moved my calories up to a range between maintenance and a 100 calorie deficit (based on the IIFYM calculator) because I was feeling weak while lifting. I'm planning to stay here through the holidays and January before considering increasing my deficit. You might not want to take such a long maintenance break but even just a one week break may help. Here's a couple of posts about diet breaks:

Strength Unbound - When to take a diet break

Lyle McDonald - The full diet break

^Good advice. In addition, have you been incorporating deloads into your training program?

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/get_bigger_by_doing_less

I did for a while because I followed the 5/3/1 program. It worked well but I ran in to pretty much the same issues only at a slower pace since I didn't increase the weight as fast as 5x5 (as in I would climb up, hit a wall, scale back).

If no one has mentioned it before, you may really benefit from asking about your intake in the Eat, Train, Progress group. Sara and Patrick both lift and have been advising on intake and programming for a long time now, and a lot of people have had success.

They have a post here for all the specific information they need, and you just create a thread in their group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/910257/the-new-and-improved-asking-questions-about-your-intake