Why am I not losing weight?

you're already really small.. those pounds are not gonna come off that easy.. it's gonna be much harder for you to lose weight.. and i dont think you'll lose 2 lbs a week. you need to change it to like .5 a week and up your calories and then you will probably start losing again.

Looking at your posted pic, it doesn't seem like you need to lose much weight and you have lost 6 lbs. so maybe your body is adjusting right now and trying to tell you all it's gonna give up is those 6 lbs for now. Anyway, don't panic. Eventually it will kick in. Just keep eating well.

Also don't take the "if you ate like this everyday you'd weigh ___________ in 5 weeks".. I've found from reading on here it is not accurate for a lot of people. I like seeing that low number but know it is not always realistic.

i know this is right.. mine has never been right.. not even once!

Hi. There could be a few contributing factors to your not losing weight. I am no expert, I just love to read :-) like the other ladies are saying, if you don't have that much weight to lose you won't see 2lb-a-week-results, more realistically. 1/2 pound or less a week seems more on target. Why? The larger you are the more weight your body will release in a short period of time.

For example, my husband was 245 and is only 5'7". He dropped his calories and did no exercise and I literally watched 20lbs fall of of him in a matter of a few weeks. Me, on the other hand, I have had to work my butt off! I have to actually focus on the cardio and make sure I am actually burning fat by staying within my tarhet heart range.

Just the other day I received an email from Jillian Michaels, a fitness newsletter. It was actually talking about the stress hormone, cortisol. She says that when you exercise for 2 hours or more in one session your body releases cortisol and your body decides that it is going to hold on to some of that fat you are trying hard to lose. I believe this to be true because there was a period of time where I watched every single thing that went into my mouth, worked out for long period of times, but did not see any drop on the scale.

Another bit of information I read is to stagger your calories. Say for instance you are consuming 1200 calories a day. Well if you multiply that by 7 days in a week you are going to get 8400 calories consumed over time. To keep your body from becoming accustomed to the 1200 calorie days, which can slow down weight loss, you should consume your calories for the week over an uneven caloric consumption throughout the week. For instance, Monday you may want to eat 800 calories. Tuesday you could make it a hig calorie day and eat 1200 for the day plus the remainder 400 from the previous and consume 1200 on wednesday... Does that make sense?

I just recently tried this, and I have read a few testimonials of others trying this and it has worked for them, as well as for me. You could also eat more calories for a week and then drop back down and that also tricks your body.

My son, to get his last few pounds off, and he is already slim and trim, but he is a body builder, his body doesn't get rid of pounds easily so on order to force off those last five or ten pounds he sprints in a weighted vest. I also read (me and my reading) that adding a few pounds a day will increase your calorie burn because the heavier you are the more you burn.

Like I said, I am no expert, just like to read. :-)

Just last week I wasn't seeing the scale move and I had a high calorie day where I consumed 2600 cals over the course of a period of time from 1 pm - 11 pm, and the next morning I was down 8 oz. Oddly, I have still been dropping weight after that eat-everything-day. I really believe that switching it up really helps keep our body guessing. I did continue to exercise, as well as trying new dvd's so my body wouldn't get used to any one particular set of exercises because that could hinder your ability to burn the maximum amount of calories your body burns.

Also, for me, Shred doesn't keep my heart rate up. So, I always do cardio even on those days that I do the 30 Day Shred.

:-)

Cardio should burn more calories so adding that will probably help. If that is a current pic of you, you are probably going to need to do a lot of cardio and/or not eat much to lose 2 lbs a week. I'm sure you could do it but I'm also pretty sure you couldn't do it in a healthy manner.

Considering how you look, you need to change your goal to .5 lbs per week. You aren't eating enough. I hate to tell you, but the more you eat, the more you will lose. Also, if you don't eat enough, your body will take the protein from your muscle which in turns strinks your muscle and reduce the calories you burn. I have increased my caloric intake by 600 calories over a month and a half and each time I increase my intake, the more weight I lose. Also, keep in mind your body might be at it's low weight. You might be at a point where you can only change your body composition. Weight is kind of meaningless because there is such a thing as skinny fat (people who appear skinny have have high body fat. It's simple, Food is Fuel. If you don't fuel the machine, it shuts down.

That girl has her bones sticking out in some of those pictures! And every person is different..... just because she lost 2 lbs a week eating those calories and doing an hour of cardio everyday doesn't mean the same will be said for anyone. Everyone is different...

Yeah, I understand that losing 2 lbs a week is unrealistic sometimes but look at this girl:
http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/beforeandafter
She ate between 1000-1200 calories a day, and did an hour of cardio every day and that's the results she got. I'm eating around 1200 and doing the 30 day shred, and I'm not losing weight at all.

from your picture you're already smaller than this girl.. and she had about 50 lbs to lose.. and she worked hard and did it, i'm sure the last few lbs didn't come off of her easily either. please atleast try upping your calories and changing you weight loss to .5 lbs a week for like 2 weeks and see how you do.. you should always NET atleast 1200 calories. For example if you eat 1200 calories then exercise and burn 400, you're only gonna NET 800, doing this all the time can make your body slip into starvation mode and you wont lose weight, you might even gain, your body is gonna take whatever you have and hold on to it b'c it's not getting what it needs. So.. if you eat 1200 calories burn 400 calories eat those 400 calories back. It'll do ya some good in the lnog run..

YES

I know you've heard it from me before, so I'm just gonna repeat what's been said already by me & others. You do need to give your body the fuel it needs so it doesn't hang on to that last stubborn fat. I definitely think you should change your goal to .5 loss per week and eat those extra calories.

I also really think you should re-consider what your goal is. Is it really the number on a scale? or a certain look? I guess I mean when people are really close to the goal, weight becomes so arbitrary; we need to become more concerned with body composition (how much body fat vs lean muscle we have). I'd switch to those kind of goals. Lifting weights then becomes much more important in order to get you the added muscle which will burn fat. And, contrary to popular belief, it will NOT cause bulking up on a woman.

I highly recommend reading through (& replying to) this thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/211420-relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner?page=10#posts-3665213 This guy really knows his stuff and works with people a lot in your circumstance.

Good luck.

I had my goal weight set to 130, but now I switched it to 135, because I realized that I do want to be more toned. My only "problem area" is my stomach, really, so I just need to lose the fat around my mid-section.

If you want abs, you need to strengthen your core and eat up! When you do eat, make sure you are eating enough calories (especially protein) to build muscle. You will probably gain weight but it shouldn't matter as you are buidling muscle. More muscle means more tone. I would suggest doing a custom setup (40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat). You to decrease your overall body fat and increase muscle mass. At this point, stop worrying about weight. Body composition is more important.

ps: I think her body looks sortta unhealthy. I can't quite pinpoint it, but there is something odd looking to her arms and shoulders. You look rather thin from your avatar pic (although I can't see your entire body)...maybe you are at your healthy weight already, but just need to do more exercises to get toned Good luck!!!

It's because she has almost zero muscle. She is what you would call skinny fat. I bet if you ran her bf%, you will notice it's really high. that is what happens when all you do is control your eating and not adding weight lifting. It's why many people on weight watchers lose a lot of weight but have stuff like excess skin or look like twigs. I think it's a good program (hell my friends dad lost 65 lbs) but he looks like he could use some weight lifting.

So how does one become skinny fat? Maybe my perceptions are warped, but I'd rather look like that girl than Jillian Michaels.

By losing lots of lean mass (muscle), and being thin but having a high percentage of body fat (not healthy, as it places lots of stress on heart/circulation and bones).

That's going from one extreme to another. You don't have to get "big" muscles like JM, or be too thin/flabby - there is a middle ground. Eat healthy, do some exercise and you'll find the middle ground.

So how does one become skinny fat? Maybe my perceptions are warped, but I'd rather look like that girl than Jillian Michaels.

By losing lots of lean mass (muscle), and being thin but having a high percentage of body fat (not healthy, as it places lots of stress on heart/circulation and bones).

That's going from one extreme to another. You don't have to get "big" muscles like JM, or be too thin/flabby - there is a middle ground. Eat healthy, do some exercise and you'll find the middle ground.

I want to be in the "middle". I want to have muscle definition but I don't want to look ripped like Jillian. I don't want to lose all my lean muscle and look flabby and saggy either though.

So how does one become skinny fat? Maybe my perceptions are warped, but I'd rather look like that girl than Jillian Michaels.

By losing lots of lean mass (muscle), and being thin but having a high percentage of body fat (not healthy, as it places lots of stress on heart/circulation and bones).

That's going from one extreme to another. You don't have to get "big" muscles like JM, or be too thin/flabby - there is a middle ground. Eat healthy, do some exercise and you'll find the middle ground.

Personally, I want to look like me, a me I'd like to be. When I first reached goal weight I had underarms like caves, and when I started the 30DS my own arms looked so bony that I grossed myself out every time I did a push up :laugh:

After the 30DS that was no longer the case. I was heavier but liked the way I looked more, and then lost that little weight again without going back to having skeletal arms.

We all have our own preferences and our own body types. I lost too easily on 1200 and just my normal everyday routine (over 2 lb a week) but have since discovered that my maintenance calories are way off mfp's scale (around 2250, I think).

So aim to be you. That girl on tumblr