Frustrated needing help

You've basically been losing 1lb a week overall, so that's good.
Losing weight is all about taking in less calories than we burn. Could your cheat meal on Saturdays undo all your calorie deficit from during the week?
Look at how you track your calories - use a food scale, choose the most accurate entries in the database and you will lose.
While exercise does help increase our calorie deficit and its good for our heart health, its not always necessary to just work out more to lose.
Because you have increased your workouts you are likely retaining some water as your muscles hold on to that water for repair.

It sounds like water weight fluctuations, both in the big drop and the small gains. If you are weighing/measuring correctly your food intake and not over estimating your burns you will be losing fat but the increased exercise and subsequent water retention for muscle repair is masking it in both directions. By the sounds of it you've lost a pound a week on average which is a brilliant rate of loss, the scale is just one of many measuring tools, get a tape measure out as well. The cheat meal shouldn't matter as long as you are in negative calories divided up over the week. So for example if you are eating 3500 less cals than you burn on average over a week it sounds like you're on target.

Whats your stats and goals? You could open your diary too to see if anyone can spot any problems.

torirandall79 wrote: »

I don't over-do it on my cheat meal. I set my Dairy to public if anyone wants to look. (I made a mistake last night with soft pretzels because I was discouraged) if somebody could take a look through my diary that sold be awesome. How important is drinking 8 glasses of water? That's one thing I know I can improve on. I just hate being in the bathroom 14 times a day when I drink that much.

I couldn't access your diary.

Ref your diary, there's a lot of cup entries, measuring by cups can be way off - there is a great video on that topic if someone would be so good as to post it please?

Measurements aren't painful. Use a measuring tape:-/ am I not getting something?
Keep plodding along. Seems as though you're doing the right things, but like many above have said, tighten up your food weighing. Good luck:-)

torirandall79 wrote: »

So you could see my diary RunRutheeRun, that's good. I do use a measuring cup a lot. So I should be using a good scale?

Just a cheap one would do. I brought one off eBay for $6 (Australian) with free shipping. Cheap as:-)
I can't see your diary btw. Still on private

torirandall79 wrote: »

I do weigh and measure my food. I have never taken measurements, as that can be painful. I have noticed a difference in the way my jeans fit, especially this last weekend. My husband also says he notices a slight difference.

You weigh all solid and semi solid foods? What do you use the cups for?

You increased or added exercise and stalled. It happens.

Looking at your diary it looks about right for the amount you have lost, as in 1 pound a week on average and you seem to bank enough calories for those Saturday blow outs (however restaurant guesses can be all over the place). I think whats happened is you had a quick drop of water weight (you've thought fantastic that came of quickly!) and your body is just averaging out instead of keeping up that rate of loss, but it doesn't mean you've stopped losing fat, you will have steadily lost fat whilst your water weight has bounced up and down depending on diet change, exercise, salt intake and ToM. The scales are annoying and it's hard to get used to water fluctuations, but please don't be disheartened by the recent increase or when it doesn't move.

Keep going and it will go down again you may still get some big drops followed by gains or staying the same but just persevere as long as the trend is going down over an extended period of time that's all that matters.

torirandall79 wrote: »

The measurements aren't painful. I'm just a size 20 and don't like it. But I'm going to do it now, so I know.

Briefly uncomfortable the first time you measure....but it's great in a few weeks or a month when you see real progress!

It sounds like you are doing things right and are trending down in weight. You've got this! Every time I got discouraged that I wasn't loosing fast enough, I went back to the "replay" and went over my weight loss graphs. My weight loss history showed that I never plateaued for more than 3 weeks at a time. Using simple clues such as how your clothes fit are good indicators that your body is still changing, even if your weight is not. I averaged about 1.5-2lb a week for awhile. Keep in mind that this is an average over a year's time.

This is why it's so important to track your weight. Whether you wish to track the fluctuations (daily entries) is up to you, but the longer you do it, the more data you will have to show that you are, indeed, on the right track. It just takes time and patience

FWIW - I only tracked my all-time-low numbers, so my data points only showed downward trends, and also showed how long I was in plateaus. If you notice that literally (and I mean literally) nothing has changed in around 3 week's time, it might be time to review your workout routine and food habits. Only make changes when you stop changing.

losing weight is not linear, you have lost a good amount of weight thus far, looking at your diary the only thing that caught my eye was the fact that you take in a large amount of sodium each day, maybe that is causing water retention? I am certainly no expert on the science of everything weight loss by any means so I am just expressing an opinion based on what I saw in your diary. I know that the whole 8 glasses of water was debunked long ago. However, I drink approximately a gallon of water a day, not only does it keep me full and hydrated, my skin looks amazing, I no longer get headaches, I have more energy and I have been losing weight each week religiously since November when I started this journey. Now lets be clear, I don't think that is all because I drink water, I have also changed my eating habits, eat within my calories and exercise where as before I was a lazy junk food couch potato so obviously that has a lot to do with the weight loss. I started this journey 121 days ago and have lost 45lbs since then. What I have learned from the community is to be patient. To measure my success by taking my measurements and taking mortifying transformation pics monthly. The scale eventually catches up to your efforts, but the other tools are much more satisfying than any number on the scale... at least it is for me. Don't look for instant gratification, this lifestyle change is a marathon not a sprint. I have been a yo yo dieter most of my adult life and I would lose the weight quickly just to gain it back every single time because I did not change my relationship with food, I always went back to my old habit. Slow and stead wins the race. You got this!!!

torirandall79 wrote: »

You and everybody on here have no idea how much this has helped and changed my attitude today.

well we do now !!