Plateau

You've been losing 2 lbs per week - that's rather aggressive for most people. You may want to recalculate your calorie goal, setting it to lose 1lb per week instead. I say this not to break your plateau (because as DancingMoosie said, you haven't plateaued), but because you're likely to burn out if you keep trying to lose at this rate. If you're able to exercise that often and do anything to cause "muscle confusion" (which is also not a thing but you didn't ask about that), you aren't heavy enough to lose this fast for very much longer.

Brossja wrote: »

I haven't recalculated my calorie needs because I want to see from the beginning where I started. If I recalculate, don't I have to add my current weight as my 'starting weight'?

No, there's a spot for "current weight" as distinct from starting weight. MFP will remember your progress so far.

There is nothing 'only' about losing 25lbs in 83 days: 2lbs per week is very fast.

You need to be more patient, weight loss is not linear. A plateau is 6 weeks of no progress, you are nowhere near a plateau 😉

Brossja wrote: »

I'm also only consuming 1200 calories per day. I always thought you should never go below that amount.

Unless someone is remarkably petite, very inactive, and probably non-young besides, 1200 is the lowest healthful goal for a woman, in order to get reasonable nutrition. That doesn't mean you can't go *above* 1200, and MFP intends you to eat your goal calories *plus* the additional calories from intentional exercise (because the activity level in your MFP profile should be based on pre-exercise activity, as MFP is designed).

At age 59-60 and at 5'5" tall, I lost most of 50+ pounds on 1400-1600 calories plus all exercise calories, so more like 1800-2000 eaten most days.

A wise MFP-er once said: She who loses weight on the most calories, wins. 😉

Brossja wrote: »

I'm also only consuming 1200 calories per day. I always thought you should never go below that amount.

How tall are you?
I ask because I’m extremely sedentary due to disability. And I’m 5’8”
And even I have a goal of 1300 calories a day. And I’m losing weight at the fastest rate my doctor is comfortable with (averaging 1.75 pounds a week)

Brossja wrote: »

Hello Margaret. I am 5' 6" tall. I have lost and gained this weight back, this is now the 3rd attempt to keep it off. The mistakes I made in the past was after losing the weight, I quit using my food and exercise journal. This time I plan to continue using it for maintenance. The past 2 times I went through this, I averaged a loss of 2 pounds per week and 1200 calories per day and 4 days per week with exercise. I'm older now, so it is harder. I have a doctor appt. next week and plan to ask her what she thinks.

One thing to be aware of is that cumulative stress increases the possibility of water retention, which can gradually add a surprising bit of weight to the scale, hiding ongoing fat loss. Fast weight loss (big calorie deficit) is a physical stressor. New/increased exercise, or exercise resumed after a hiatus, is a physical stressor. Physical stresses from these diet-related factors are cumulative with any other sources of physical/psychological stress in our lives.

Your two-week stall could possibly be related to the cumulative stresses in your life, including diet, increasing water retention.

I don't know about others, but one of the things I notice as I age (I'm 65) is that my body is gradually less resilient to things like cumulative stress, that I see effects sooner, that it takes longer to bounce back once I recognize and correct an issue. It's not a huge difference so far as I've aged, but it's an observable difference.

I accidentally lost weight too fast (in the 2 pounds a week realm +/-) at age 59, eating at 1200 plus all exercise calories, got weak and fatigued, then it took some weeks to fully recover back to feeling normal. (I was lucky that nothing worse happened, other than maybe a little temporary hair thinning a few weeks later.)

I'm not saying that's a probability for you, because it turned out that I mysteriously have somewhat higher calorie requirements than my demographics would suggest. But considering whether your chosen weight loss rate is right for you, at this stage of life, is worth thinking through.

Something in the 0.5%-1% of current body weight per week range can be reasonable, with the lower side of that probably better if other parts of life are higher stress or resilience is a consideration, or if within 25-50 pounds of a reasonable goal weight. (Below 0.5% may even be better, for the last 10 pounds or so.) Maximizing health can require weight loss, but that's just one part of the balancing act.

Best wishes!