the scale isn't moving

mabye try excercsing more like 6 days a week. and adjust ur goals.

I am in the same "boat"....scales haven't moved in forever...but I am faithfully logging and eating right...and exercising. I am just hoping somewhere along the way, I will get up and a few pounds will be gone! I am not gaining..so for me that is a plus. Let me know if you find something that works...I really need it! Good luck:flowerforyou:

It could be a few things, what does MFP say your caloric intake should be? and is that losing 1 pound a week? A lot of people actually low ball their calories, not on purpose, but it happens.. It could be a variety of things..

You will see a weight gain the first couple weeks of exercise, because muscle weighs more than fat. That is what I have been dealing with the last week. and yes, stress does contribute to a lot in our lives. we never realize just how much. I too have been dealing with the lack of loss, but the only thing I can tell you is to stay encouraged. Don't weigh yourself so often, that is where we can get discouraged. 1-2 times a week is plenty. Just remember that weight fluctuates so that could be why there might be
yo-yo-ing.

When I wasn't losing ANY weight at all, even with trial and effort, I decided to talk to my Dr about it. He gave me a prescription and it really helped. It has been very slow, but I am finally seeing progress. You might want to seek medical advice.

It's definitely frustrating, but you really just have to figure out your own body & not compare to anyone else. If you haven't lost the weight yet, no matter how 'fair or not' it seems, it just means you still need to drop more calories & exercise more (and harder). Don't let yourself get caught up in how easy it seems for others, because that won't help you at all. I did that for a long time, and then found out I have an abnormally low metabolism. I can only eat about 1300 calories a day & work out 5 days a week to lose a pound a week (and I'm 5'9", 165lbs). Other shorter friends can still eat 1500, 1800 calories a day and be losing weight; but I can't get caught up in that!

ANYWAY- if you haven't yet, you HAVE to keep a food diary. You just have to. At LEAST for 2-3 weeks straight, so you're more perfectly understanding exactly what calories you're putting in your body. I noticed after just a couple weeks of it, you get the hang of it a lot more & can track it in your head much better. Guessing now is probably WAY OFF, even if you think you're good. Even if you forgot about the mayo you put on your sandwich, you just forgot about 100 calories.

Also if you've been working out for a few months already, you have to make sure you're pushing your body when you work out. You should NOT be doing the same workouts as when you started in July. It should be much harder & longer by now. Your body will seriously only change when you push it. You've gotta be soaked with sweat, at least down your neck/back, by the end of a workout for it to count. Otherwise you're just practically wasting your time (unless you just want to maintain a healthy heart, of course- but YOU'RE wanting to LOSE WEIGHT).

Only weigh yourself once a week. If you didn't lose a pound, then you'll have to cut your calories even more the next week, and push your workouts harder. Weigh yourself the next week. If you lost your pound, then you know you're on the right track. If not, you'll have to lower your calories even MORE, and work out even MORE. You'll get in tune with YOUR body & it'll feel great to know what's really going on in there & take away the mystery. That makes it much easier to stay motivated, when you KNOW how to get results! GOOD LUCK!!!!! And don't compare yourself to anyone else, and what 'they can eat', etc. That just adds STRESS, and STRESS makes you HOLD ONTO weight (think about when you watch "biggest loser")!

Have you checked your sodium and water?
Do you complete your food journal every day with everything you eat?
Did you add a new exercise? (that made me gain 2 pounds but then I lost it.)

That's all I can think of...

Hope that someone is able to help you with their idea!

Good luck and be patient....you can do this!!! : )

I looked at your diary for the past couple weeks. I noticed one some of the days, you had a TON of sodium. Too much sodium can make you retain water making it seem like you have not lost any weight. I was eating a lot of sodium for the first month I started this and i always found myself gaining and losing weight every week. I started eating a lot less sodium and My weight keeps dropping without any gains at all. I would watch your sodium intake and eat a lot of potassium because potassium helps flush out sodium. I TRY to not eat anything with over 250 mg of sodium in it...Also drink a lot of water, it will help flush out extra water weight your body may be holding onto.

Did you try changing your goals on MFP? Is your caloric intake set right? Figure out your BMR (there's a tool on here for that) then take 500 away from that and that's how many calories you should be eating per day.

What kind of exercise are you doing? Cardio is best. I do 60 min of cardio per week. You have to get your heart rate up there too. I try to keep mine between 160 and 170 or above. But the heart rate all depends on your age. Best of luck to you!

1200 calories seems awfully low. If you starve your body, I assure you that the weight will never come off. Is that what was recommended by fitnesspal?

1200 is recommended for 1.5 weight loss per week. I have been eating 1340 for the last several months... we'll see if this helps. I also try to watch my sodium but need to do better. I do drink a lot of water but forget to log it on here. I drink water all day long.

I looked even further back into your diary and I noticed that you have been eating a lot of fast food and going out to dinner a lot. That is probably the reason the scale isn't moving. Going out to eat once in a while is fine, but not as much as I saw it on your diary. There is so much sodium in fast food. It's really not good for you no matter how much they try to say something is healthy. There's over 1000 grams of sodium in a wendy's salad. I know this because I love them. Even subway has TONS of sodium! Cut back on the fast food and the restaurant food. Try to stay under your calorie goal too, some days you went over by a lot. Losing weight is not just about counting your calories, that's what I thought when I first joined this. It's everything else too...You gotta pay attention to the other things besides calories. Im telling you, if you dramatically cut back on your sodium, i can almost guarantee you will drop some weight. Try to not eat over 1500mg of sodium for the next week as a test and see what happens.

Hi - I've been on MFP since July and I have been watching my calories and trying to work out at least three times per week. I slip some days, but for the most part I've been good. The problem is that I haven't seen the scale move except in the wrong direction. I know that early on I was gaining because I wasn't eating back my exercise calories, but I fixed that problem. I have seen an increase in my stress level lately with school and work challenges and have started working a different shift (which will change again in two weeks), but I'm not sure if this should be playing such a large role in my weight loss - or lack thereof.

Has anyone else experienced a non-moving scale for this long? Any suggestions? I really do want to lose weight but can't seem to get even 2 lbs to come off.

Stress can play a BIG role in your weight loss.

You may also want to change up your workout routine. My trainer said that if I don't change it up periodically, my body will get accustomed to what I'm doing and not burn like it did before. Only two weeks in, I stopped losing, too, but then this morning, two pounds gone, out of the blue.

Keep at it, but as I said, you may want to try something different with your exercise and eating to kind of "shock" your body.

Good luck!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/243279-calculating-tdee-based-on-daily-activity