Help I am barley losing...

How accurate is your caloric burn? Burning 800-1100 a day as your diary shows means you are doing like 2 hours of cardio for example correct? Does this come from a HRM or a machine at the gym?

Perhaps you are actually eating too much. If you are logging cleaning and small individual walks on top of being set as anything other than sedentary you'll end up overeating.

Do you have a hrm to get the most accurate calorie burn? I would watch sodium and try to keep it below 2000 a day.

Well, here's how I see it. If you have several days of bad eating, but then you exercise, it's not really going to help you lose more. it may just balance you out. I really recommend that you start counting your calories. EIther journal or use the calorie counter on this site, and that will greatly help you to not indulge or overeat.

When it comes to the sweet tooth, try to replace that sometimes with raisins or grapes, or any other fruit that is sweet. Plus, there are bars like Special K that are low in fat, plus have a little sweetness to them. It's not bad to have that chocolate every once in a while, but you will end up healthier if you can find fruits and things that are sweet and better for you. Nothing is worse than having guilt after eating something you know you shouldn't have.

Good luck with your weight loss! I'm sure you'll be able to figure out a good balance that works for. Just don't forget to count your calories!

I went through that, and everyone told me to eat more calories...and at first it worked, but then I gained back almost everything that I had lost. So I cut my calories back, (1100) and started losing again. I work out 6 days a week doing the Insanity program. I think that for a lot of people, eating more may work, but I think that with my age (37) and having the Mirena IUD, I have to eat less. That is what worked for me. I'm not an expert, and I can't say what will work for you. It's a struggle for sure! Just know you are not alone!

I took a look at your diary and it looks pretty good. Pretty well balanced. The only thing that needs improving is your water intake. It's probably a bit low.

Also, I'd change one of your tracking items -- change your cholesterol tracking to sodium tracking. You're eating a bit of food that's high sodium, and you don't realize it. Excess sodium without enough water to flush it out, can really slow down your weight loss.

Two things stand out to me immediately. As I think others have commented on, you appear to be eating quite a bit of sodium, which can contribute heavily to water retention. The even bigger culprit, however, may be an overestimation of calories burned during exercise. I have no idea how much you are exercising, but when I do one hour of intense cardio, I only burn in the ballpark of 400-450 calories. With weight training, I burn even fewer; an hour of resistance training or yoga might only get me 200-300 burned. I saw one day in your diary where you had logged over 1100 calories burned from exercise - are you working out for 2-3 hours a day? Do you have your HRM programmed with your height, weight and gender? That can make a huge difference in the numbers it reports.

Also, I drink about 75-100 oz of water a day, but I do not drink coffee, which is a diuretic and can dehydrate you. If I was drinking coffee, I'd probably shoot for at least 100 oz of water a day as a minimum.

How many ounces of water is everyone drinking. I drink on a average of 72 ounces a day. Is this enough? Plus 2 cups of coffee and 2-3 cups of Diet tea or other non-caloric drinks.

72 oz of water a day is only 9 cups -- with your sodium intake, DEFINITELY NOT enough. Keep in mind, your coffee and diet tea are diuretics, which take away some of the water of the water you're drinking. Also, the "non-caloric" drinks still need to be digested... they don't really count as water. Water is water... that's all there is to it.

I saw you changed your diary to add sodium tracking. I bet you just smacked yourself in the forehead and went "DOH!!!". Now you can get on track easily.

"I just wanted to post something about what to expect during the phases of weight loss.

Overview (why I'm posting this)
Over the course of about 7 months on here, I have seen many people suceed, I have also seen some drop off the map. I expect this is because some succumb to the demon that is temptation, and some to the devil that is dissapointment. I wanted to give a few "heads up"s to both new commers and vetrans to the site. Some may know already, some may not. But either way, if this helps anyone to set more realistic goals in their own head, I feel like it has done it's job.

Phase 1. The start of a brand new day! (or week, or month, or year)
Expectations are sky high, usually so is motivation and intentions. This is where most people lose the most weight. At the start it's not uncommon to see 4 to 8 lb losses per week. The reasons for this are mostly (sorry to disappoint) water weight. You drop excess water quickly, and you can have up to 5 lbs of water weight. The next biggest reason is the fat that is right next to the blood vessels, the stuff that you put on in the last month or three, it will melt like butter usually.

Phase 2. Reality setting in.
At about week 3 to a month or so, people suddenly realize that they are no longer dropping 8, 6, or even 4 lbs a week. This is a crutial phase in your journey. Expect this, it is natural. You have shocked your body by changing both eating habits and exercise routine. Now it has had a little while to become used to the new lifestyle, it's going to compensate. Your body still doesn't believe it's permenant yet, so it will still try to store some fat, so now that it knows how to regulate it's new metabolic levels, it tryies to store fat in earnest. It's not uncommon for people to hit a wall here, no loss for weeks. Expect this as well.

Phase 3. The routine.
At about 2 months or so, your routine is pretty much set, your body is beginning to believe that you really want to STAY the way you are going now. You will start to see more consistant (but lower, usually 1 to 2 lbs a week) loss, also, you should start seeing some muscle tone (depending on how much you had to lose in the first place). If you stop to think, you should realize that you have improved dramatically in your exercise levels. If you do cardio, you should notice how much longer and harder you can work. This is important to realize as it is just as big of an indicator as weight loss. Also, by now you may notice that your clothes no longer fit right. This is also very important. The weight may not be falling off anymore, but you are becomming a smaller person. Weight is arbitrary, if you are building muscle (which your body is doing at a furious pace by now) you won't notice huge losses, but you will notice wholesale changes in the mirror!

Phase 4. Really digging in.
This is where the second wall can happen. You're probably at between 3 and 4 months by now, and if you have gone this far, you feel like you have already suceeded. This is where many people stumble. they are tired of the routine, tired of eating different things from all their friends, limiting their alcohol intake. Basically the shine has worn off. this is when your really need to plant your feet. Maybe change up your exercise routine, make a concentrated effort to find different, but still nutritional food. Talk to people. And examine how far you have come. At this point, no matter how much external motivation you receive, it's all about believing in yourself!

Phase 5. End game.
5 or 6 months in you are probably working on that "last 10 pounds". This can be discouraging for many as it is a slow burn. Remember, your body probably feels like it is where it needs to be, your brain might think you need to lose 10 more, but your body is quite proud of itself now, it feels like it has "Done enough" and it wants to stay RIGHT HERE. The body LIKES to have a little fat around just in case, especially for the ladies (sorry girls, it's just human physiology). If you feel like you still need to lose it, prepare yourself for some guerrila warfare against your body. Design an exercise regimen that is very dynamic, forget the "same thing every day". Make a plan that challenges you both physically and mentally. Make sure you give yourself a day off here and there to just veg. And by all means, remember, muscle burns fat at rest. So get some weight or resistance training involved.
The last 10 may take 3 to 6 months to lose. I know nobody wants to hear that, but it's true. And forget the idea of increasing your calorie deficite, healthy bodies need good nutrition, your body no longer has the fat reserves to handle the large deficites you could when you were 30 40 or 50 pounds overweight. Better to make it a 3 or 400 calorie deficite (NET, please count your exercise calories too!). It may take a bit longer, but your body will like you for it. Plus it feeds those new muscles and keeps them burning fat, keeps your skin healthy (elasticity is important when you want those places that were stretched out to "snap back") and keeps you from getting head aches and depressed.

Conclusion:

this is what I have learned, not just from my journey, but from others as well on here. It saddens me sometimes to see people hit one of these stages and not recognize it for what it is, a part of the process. If we all can have realistic expectations, then we are more prone to win the fight and stay healthy in the long run. Note that some people will hit these stages harder then others, some may take longer, but for the most part, this is the rule that the exceptions will come from.
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