Feeling Discouraged

Agree with above. Definitely try to always eat your exercise calories, or get as close to it as possible. Are you giving yourself rest days? Those are very important too. Keep up your good work!!

Do what MFP says, and eat back the exercise cals. Use measurements and see if they are changing. If you really feel you've reached a plateau you might want to consider calorie zig-zagging or adjusting the settings/goals. You may also want to look at the sugar and salt levels in your diet xx

Try to take a scale "vacation" for 2 weeks, continue eating well, drinking water, and working out. You do eat back most of your exercise calories right? I think that eating my exercise calories has been key to my weight loss. The weight will come off, stay focused

I am going to disagree with the pp's a little bit. Stick with what you are doing. DON'T change how you are eating ... yet. That is, assuming you don't feel weak, tired, or flu-ish achy (NOT the same as exercise achy by the way).

I had a similar experience. Lost about 3-4% body weight right away, then gained and lost the same 2 lbs for several weeks straight. But I stuck to my plan, and then about four weeks into this mini plateau, I dropped about 5 lbs in 2 days. And now the scale continues to go down. Not that quickly, but down it goes. HTH.

Why is it that 95% of MFPers only depend on the scale to measure their success?! I remember that for 2 weeks, the scale didn't move, yet, I had to tighten my belt, literally, and my clothes where saggy. If you don't excercise, then yes, you will not lose much more. Replace discouragement with drive, and take your anger out on the pavement by stomping it at 12 miles per hour. You'll see how fast that scale drops.

Try to take a scale "vacation" for 2 weeks, continue eating well, drinking water, and working out. You do eat back most of your exercise calories right? I think that eating my exercise calories has been key to my weight loss. The weight will come off, stay focused

I like this...Scale vacation...I should do this soon!:)

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)

This is where I'm frustrated. I have a BMI of 27 and I have 31 pounds to lose to get to my goal. I'm just not seeing a lot of progress. Originally I was eating 1200 calories a day and I lost 5 pounds the first month...exercising 5 days a week at least 30 min a day. Then someone suggested I adjust my calories up since I was working out so much. So I had my calories at 1600 (a 500 calorie deficit) but actually gained 2 pounds within just a few days of increasing my calories. So just today I decided to drop it back down to 1450 (a 650 cal deficit). I'm so confused!!!

First, good job on losing the 11 lbs. in about 5 weeks. That is over 2 lbs per week average!

It gets frustrating to see the same number every week, I know. I always feel that my body is just resetting itself. It doesn't really believe I am going to keep this up, so hangs on to the pounds for a few weeks hopeing I will give up and go back to eating the way I used to. (Too bad, I am not going to do that this time!)

The other tips offered are good. Also make sure you are drinking enough water and measure your food. I find that eyeballing 1 cup or 4 oz. doesn't work too well, especially in the beginning!

Good luck on your journey!!

I have been using MFP since May 25th. I have logged my meals faithfully every day, and I usually end the day 200-400 calories under my goal. I always eat at least 1200 calories a day. I have gone over a couple of days, but only by about 100 or 200 calories. I exercise every day for 30-90 minutes.

I have a goal to lose 105 pounds in a year. I have lost 11 pounds since May 25th. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the scale go down at all for two weeks now. I told myself that the number doesn't really matter because I know that I'm eating right and exercising every day. But for some reason, when I weighed myself this morning, it really ticked me off to see the same number on that stupid scale.

Is anyone else in the same boat? Or does anyone have any advice about how I can deal with this?

I think you are looking at this the wrong way. to have a safe and healthy way of losing weight it's recommend to lose 1-2 lbs. a week. going by your 11 lbs. lost since May 25th to now it's 5 weeks and a few days

11 lbs/ 5 weeks = 2.2 lbs. avg. lost a week.
I don't see a reason to be discouraged. just keep up what you are doing and above all PATIENCE!

Remember 3500 calories = 1 pound, so a cutback of 500 calories/day means a pound in a week. I joined about the same time as you and I've only lost 7, but I'm not cutting back as much (trying for 1450 per day). So hang in there and know that you're doing the right thing. It will happen!

May I suggest you measure your success in ways other than the scale, at least for now? For example:

My fanny pack which was tight when I first started is now two inches loose
Walking outside in the heat for an hour used to put me into heatstroke. I was walking in the heat for 4 hours yesterday with no signs of over heating.
Before I started, I couldn't walk 50 feet without getting winded. Now I walk a total of 4 miles each day with my dogs.
Before I started, I couldn't walk with a dog without being dragged along ten feet. (Even the dogs were stronger than me, and one weighs only 10 pounds!) Now I can walk two dogs at a time with no issues. Two out of four of those dogs is over 50 pounds!
Before I started, I couldn't carry two jugs of water or even a ten pound bag of cat food. Now, I can carry a twenty pound bag of dog food in each arm at the same time!

I've had a lot more successes also. Take a look at your successes. No matter how minor they may be, they are actually pretty HUGE. Seriously. I can WALK again! I can lift the dog food. I can walk the dogs and stay in control of them! What can you do now that you couldn't do before?

Glad you are feeling better. First I want to say WAY TO GO! 11lbs in five weeks is pretty awesome! Little ups and downs will happen and as your body adjusts so will your nutritional needs need to adjust. I would suggest looking at sodium levels and how clean your eating is. By that I mean natural fresh foods versus processed foods. 1200 calories of processed is going to be laden with sodium and other gunk. Also how is your water intake. We need lots of water to clean out the toxins our bodies have been carrying in all that excess baggage and as we lose it we release a lot into our systems that need to be flushed out or we will see inflamation (water weight gain) as our bodies try to figure out how to deal with it. Good luck! Keep an open mind and that scale vacation is the best idea. I only weigh once per week now as when I did it constanly it became obsessive and a monster. Like one of th posters said I like my belt, my clothes and my mirror more than the scale, cause some days the proofs in the pudding (bad pun on a healthy site), not in the label. Keep GITTIN-R-DONE! great job!

I have been dieting and I exercise 3x a week to include Zumba. I have been working my butt off. It seems like I should have lost more than 9 pounds in a months time. My clothes are still tight on me. When will I start to see the fruits of my labor? Im really discouraged now. Any advice/suggestions?