Getting frustrated

I'm with ya! Just don't give up. I would definitely start going by how your clothes feel especially since you are doing strength training as well.

I don't know what your calorie intake is, but you might need to increase it to see weight loss. If your body isn't getting enough, it's going to hold on to what it has.

If you're concerned it could be a thyroid issue or something, take your food and exercise diary to your doctor and see what he recommends.

Also, be brutally honest with yourself. I had a couple of friends who werent' totally honest on their logs. They wrote that they walked for 20 minutes, when they had actually spent 10 minutes of that chit-chatting or stopping and looking at the flowers or the stores as we walked past.

Make sure your portions are what you're logging them to be. Don't eyeball it. What "seems" like a 1/2 cup could actually be a full cup.

Finally, it's not bad to go under your calorie goal, so long as it isn't below the minimum required amount. If I'm below 1200, even if I'm full, I'll have a light snack to bring me up to where I need to be. I want to make sure I can burn in an optimal fashion, as well as making sure I am filling my body with the fuel it needs to operate in top condition.

I had something similar happen recently. I was shooting for 1410 calories per day, but when I reviewed 2 weeks worth of entries, I was averaging 1820. Now, some of that I had "earned" back through exercise, so it wasn't all bad news. Here are the questions I asked myself to turn it around, and the things I'm doing now. I went from 270 to start, down to 267, then gained EIGHT pounds in a weekend, and now have netted out at 8.4 lbs lost in about 45 days.

(1) Are you being COMPLETELY honest about the calories you log? I noticed that if I grabbed a Twix mini from the bowl at work (50+ calories), that it was so mindless and I'd forget to record it.
(2) Are you sticking to your calorie max, or are you allowing yourself extra calories because of your workouts? I ask, because I'm not 100% confident that myfitnesspal is accurate in telling you how many calories you burned (seems like it over-estimates).
(3) Are you completely honest about your "lifestyle" in the settings? I initially had it one notch above "sedentary" and have now bumped it down, thus lowering my calorie goals.

Bottom line, calories in, calories out. If you're logging, and under your calorie goal, you should lose. I had this mentality that "maybe I'm different." I thought that my body is so unique that eating fewer calories maybe doesn't work on me. I thought I was immune to the different rules. Then, my mom sent me an article (which is no longer up, but referenced here: http://one-twenty-five.tumblr.com/post/10466126688/this-day) from a blogger trying to reach 125 pounds. She wrote about how she was training for a marathon because she was told that running would just "melt" the pounds off. It didn't. Once she finally gripped the reality that weight loss rules applied to her, it changed her.

I'm not saying you're lying, or that you think these things. But, I certainly did, and here's how I turned it around:

(1) Five 300-calorie meals per day (7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm). It's been so simple for me to follow. If I'm 10 over at 7am, then I make sure to get back on track at 10am by eating 290 calories. I can't say for sure, but I think this is helping with my metabolism.
(2) Track everything that goes into your mouth - even zero-calorie diet soda and added salt.
(3) Take pictures of yourself in a bikini or bra and panties. Even if the scale doesn't say you've lost weight, it's nice to see toning and changes in the mirror.
(4) Do your hair every day. Silly, I know. But there's something about feeling great above the neck that makes me want to perpetuate those good feelings throughout the rest of my body.
(5) When you feel tempted to eat something "bad" or too much, ask yourself "will this make me feel empowered?"
(6) Build habits of monitoring everything by monitoring your finances through a site like mint.com. There's something about tracking in general (calories, money, etc. ) that is a habit you just have to get into.

Hope something in here is helpful to you or others!

I am consistently under my calorie goal (I know...bad!)

There you go. You probably need to eat more. Without seeing your diary, we can't be sure if this is the cause but if you are significantly under your net goal then it's likely. Also, not all calories are created equal. If you open your diary and let people see what your calories consist of, we might be able to offer you better advice. Usually when you're having trouble losing, it is because of the amount you're eating (too much or too little) or the types of calories you're consuming.

I totally know how you feel although I always tend to plateau right at the beginning - I think my body is bucking the system. It will take me a month to loose 1 lb - SO frustrating.

Some of the things I've found to work are:

1. Reduce alcohol intake. It not only adds calories but it makes you sluggish and less likely to do the things that help you burn.
2. Stay away from the idea of a "cheat day". Even if you only cheat on the weekends, that's still 1/4 of your week. I prefer the "cheat moment". If I have a piece of candy twice a week or so, that's not nearly as bad as a full on weekend binge.
3. Try a protien-heavy-after-workout snack like greek yogurt and avoid powerbar type snacks. I only recently noticed that Clif bars (sooo delicious) have over 40 carbs in one bar! Guess I won't be buying those again.
4. A little workout is better than no workout. The honest truth is sometimes I just don't feel like taking 2 hours out of my day to do a full workout (40 min of cardio, 20 min of strength and the back and forth to the gym) so I will go in and do 30 min of cardio and call it good.
5. Workout Retail therapy - If I buy a new pair of workout pants or some new iTunes to sweat to, I'm much more likely to hit the gym.

Good luck!

Looking at your diary, you're eating WAY too little calories!

You need to eat a MINIMUM of 1200. Going under is only going to slow your metabolism. Eat back those calories!

@carolyn - If you are logging absolutely everything then the weight should come off. Ive been dieting for 6 weeks at 1200 calories per day and have lost 20 lbs.. Down to 172 from 192. While a lot of this came off quickly and easily, the last 10 pounds were really hard.

If you are exercising a lot (which it seems as though you are) its possible that the added muscle is counteracting your idea of weight loss = good. In fact, toning = good and weight is really just a number. If you were 200 pounds but looked like a slender supermodel, the number wouldnt really mean anything..

That being said, I knwo that the number is a goal, all Im saying is dont put so much stock in it if you are starting to change your body.

Also, if you are eating back the calories you are burning via exercise, the weight loss will be slower.

At 1200 calories I was kickboxing 3 days a week and if we had a really taxing workout I might eat 200-300 more calories.

It takes burning 3600 calories to lose a pound and this is cumulative weekly/monthly..

Hope that helps and good luck!

-Mike