Frustrated!....need advice & support

Are you drinking enough water ? xx

First and foremost, I would not let the scale rule your judgement of your fitness. There are other ways to tell, body fat for one, but the scale will fluctuate. Also, you need to remember that working out, may add muscle, but that is something that should be desired and does not mean you aren't loosing the inches and getting closer to your fitness goals. Another thing to note, your caloric intake should not be too low or else you can throw your body into starvation mode. Here your metabolism will slow and start to store more fat and eat away at your muscle instead. You can start to plan out your meals and workouts more. If you know you are going to workout, eat a little more that day, but stay close to your recommended nutrition plan. You body needs the fuel. 1 last thing I would like to add is make sure you are eating at least 4 times a day, preferably 6. This is what has worked for me. It sped up my metabolism because my body knew it was safe to use the calories I was giving it. It knew they would be replaced soon.

Open up your diary so we can see what you are eating. With sodium, the thing to remember is that potassium cancels out the effects of sodium. Even if your sodium levels are good, you could still retain water if your potassium is defecient. I ran into this problem after I lost the first 30 lbs. I had edema really bad. My feet swelled like water balloons. I watched the sodium and was doing well but the swelling went away. Then, thanks to MFP, I learned about the relationship between sodium and potassium. I went into the reports feature and sure enough I was deficient. So I started tracking potassium too (and eating more bananas ) and the swelling started going down and I started losing again.

Other than that, I would have to see your diary to comment further.

Hi there,

Firstly, you should be proud of yourself for putting yourself on high priority. Losing weight and changing your lifestyle take time. and learning what works for you takes even more time and energy. Women also have the additional challenge of hormonal changes that can cause your body to function differently at times, and we often react more dramatically physically to stressors etc.

Some of my go to behaviours are as follows:

-Drink LOTS of water especially if you are plateauing. I drink about 2 litres per day or more.
-Avoid sugar subsitutes and sugar free pops and drinks. These will not only cause you to retain water, but increase your desire for carb's because the sweetners trigger you to produce insullin and there is no actual sugar to burn.
-Try adding small amounts of fruit juices or lemon lime to water if you don't like plain water, and try a pepermint or herbal tea in the afternoon instead of a coffee
-Caffeine can also cause you to retain ( but I own that and still have probably too much! no coffee in my system is not fun for anyone)
-Lastly, try and stick to clean eating as often as possible. Meaning, whole foods and cut back on processed ones, also minimizing carb's will allow you to eat more proteins and fruits and vegetables. this will not only help you feel more satisfied but it will also give your body what it needs.
-encorporating a good quality ideally food based multi-vitamine also ensures that your body is nourished!

One other thing I noted from your comment is that you seem to be tracking exercise. I have opted to slightly increase my food and not track the exercise. We all burn calories differently and it is far to subjective. So I eat 1550 calories a day and do not subtract any of my exercise. I lose about 1-1.5 lbs per week ( sometimes more and sometimes less) But it has been very stable. I have had my metabolism tested and do have a high metabolism overall apparently despite my ongoing battles with weight. But my friends have all settled in a range of 1200-1400 for the most part. you may want to try this it is so easy to want to just starve yourself to lose, but it really is the most important to ensure you are nourishing your body. It is easy for your body to go into starvation mode and this will casue you to hold onto everything!

Best of luck and please don't get discouraged your body needs to trust that it is going to get what it needs! it You can do it and we are here to help you!

Okay. I took a look. Everything looks pretty good. I would make one suggestion. Try increasing your fiber. I don't watch mine in my diary but I do watch it on my phone app. I try to get 30 to 35 mg of fiber every day. Fiber helps the removal of fat. However, you have to be careful with it because you can get too much. If you overdo it, then you could deplete your body of some valuable nutrients, and you can suffer from IBS-like symptoms. You can get a lot of fiber from fresh fruits and veggies or whole grains. I love cereal so I eat high-fiber cereals very often. Also, I will eat Fiber One bars for snacks. I eat at least one a day.