Why is this not working...

The only thing I can see on your diary is that your not eating back your exercise calories - perhaps try giving your body more fuel - the Body, in its self-defensive mode, tends to hang onto everything if it doesn't get enough fuel.

I'm a very active person and trying to survive on 1200 calories a day was the worse thing I could have ever done. After some advice I now eat between 1500 and 2000 depening on my exercise levels and not only am I loosing a little, but i just generally feel better - alot more energy etc, So may be worth giving it a go also!

^^^ Oh yeah, hun...I just looked at your food diary too and you are just not eating enough at all. If you have your calories set to 1200 (which I do not recommend to ANYONE), you absolutely HAVE to eat back your exercise calories. But I think you should even be NETTING about 1600 to start out, meaning that if you exercised off 400 one day, you should be eating 2000 that day!

Plus, the past couple of days, you haven't eaten much of anything with substance. I bet you're STARVING, aren't you?? (I ask people this a lot.) I liked what I saw a few days ago, on Tuesday. You had some eggs and bacon for breakfast and a good lunch. You had some PROTEIN that day! Some real meals. You need to make sure you get protein and MUFAs in. MUFAs are healthy fats that are in things like nuts, seeds, olive oil, olives, avocados, and dark chocolate. Not only do these foods target belly fat, they help you feel good!

Losing weight should not feel uncomfortable and miserable. It's not about depriving yourself; it's just about replacing the things you eat with better things that help your body be its best. I still eat LOTS of snacks just about every day; I just watch my portions better and I eat lots more protein and MUFAs and lots less bread and packaged food.

Also, you don't really have to exercise so much. A lot of people think so, but actually, the more you exercise, the more you need to eat and if it's difficult to eat that much protein and healthy fats, then why exercise more? The amount of food you're eating, you shouldn't be exercising at ALL. So lighten up on the workouts and eat MORE. I know it doesn't make sense or go along with everything you hear, but you've taken things to the extreme in the other direction from what got you here in the first place, and really, no extreme is ever good.

Good luck!

Hi Ashley, congrats on losing 32 lbs already! My weight gets stuck too, very frustrating to be good and still not have the scale budge. I've gotten some great information from people on here and am happy to try to pass some ideas onto you. Not sure if you take a Vitamin D supplement but I take 1000 mgs of D3 every day, its been helping with my energy levels and I believe helping me lose weight. In looking at your food log, see if you can take in less carbs each day and perhaps up your protein (I don't agree with the amounts set up by myfitnessplan). I have eggs for breakfast everyday (one full egg and two egg whites) to start the day off with protein and it seems to get me going and keep me full longer than a high carb breakfast.

I am 5' 9" and weighed 262 - see my fat pic on my profile...
I have lost over 60lbs and am still losing with little effort, eating between 2500 and 3000 calories daily.
Starving yourself shuts down your metabolism. Our physiology has not evolved much in 20,000 years; however, the human race has. Our bodies still function as they did when we were swinging by our tails in the wild, hunting and gathering.

We are built to hold onto fat during times of famine. The key is tricking your body into burning fat while holding muscle, and that's accomplished by eating the right foods - lean protein, whole grains and raw fruits and veggies.

You need to try something different. Maybe we can help you and vice versa.

People keep saying to eat my exercise calories back.. but most of the time I am within like 200 cals..

Go back and look at your diary. That is not true. You are more like 400 calories under every day.

I have been were you are now and I was on a plateau. To break the plateau I had to make a change. Well, my choices were to eat more, eat less, exercise more...or do nothing and wait it out. I ended up getting really angry at a dietician that I spoke to. I told her I was eating healthy foods and taking in about 1200 calories a day, and sometimes less. I was drinking protein shakes which took up about 500 of those calories. Frustrated in about a two week span my weight didn't move. Well, after talking to the dietician I got super mad because she told me that I was ....are you ready for this? EATING TOO MUCH and that I should drop my calories down to 900 a day. I was furious. So furious in fact it made me binge that entire weekend!!! Okay, it was the wrong thing to do (emotional eating) but on Monday I didn't have the guts to weigh in...but by the time Wedn. rolled by I decided to take my punishment and see how much I gained. It ended up being a "Thank You Jesus" moment LOL when I lost 4 pounds!!!! So, I guess that was how I broke the plateau! I am still mad she told me to drop back my food to only 900 a day...OMG!! I have lost almost 40 pounds in 2 months doing it my way at 1200 (which I don't think is very many calories a day anyhow!).

I too have PCOS. It does make it harder to lose weight. The good news is that after you lose the weight, it helps reduce the symptoms.

Hello There!

I recently got off a plateau from doing something a trainer at my gym recommended me to do. She told me to continue eating healthy, but cut my workouts down to no more than half the intensity they were for a week. I was terrified becuase I am used to going all out at the gym and I was afraid that I would go back to my old habits, but I was consistent with the moderate exercise for a week and when i started up on my usual schedule the following week, I got through my plateau and lost 5 lbs in that week.

Don't give up! You should be SOOO proud of yourself for working so hard and the weight loss you have had. It gets much harder after 30 pounds are off (trust me, I've lost 100 this year by diet and exercise), but you are worth the hard work and dedication to a healthy lifestyle. Just be patient.

-HealthyJenn0712

Looking at your diary it looks as if you are not eating enough. I would suggest less off the little snacks you have listed (even though they are healthy) and MORE complete well balanced meals. You may not feel hungry because you're eating little snacks here and there.

Also....have you invested in a food scale to assure that you are measuring everything and I mean everything done to a tic tac correctly. I lot of people (including myself when I first started MFP) have a tendency to under estimate calorie intake and over estimate calories burned.

Also, as you have said, invest in a HRM so you know exactly what you are burning.

Start tracking your sodium if you haven't already done so.

And, as always check with your doctor to see if there is an underlying medical condition causing your plateau.

But you have already lost 32 pounds and that is awesome! Plateaus do happen....trying changing up diet and the exercises you do too.

But you are MALE and she is FEMALE, and losing weight for men isn't the same as losing weight for women. Men and women can encourage each other, but advice from a man isn't going to work for a woman.

Based on looking at your diary, I would suggest lowering your carbs and upping the protein and healthy fats. Several people have listed good sources of healthy fats already, so I won't go in-depth, but switching to full-fat dairy and cutting out processed carbs would give you more energy and also lead to weight-loss as your body holds onto fat reserves when there's not enough (healthy) fats coming in.

I follow the Primal/Paleo lifestyle, and have lost over 30 lbs in a month, plus I have dramatically increased energy and have cut my prescription meds in half. I rarely eat more than 1,000 calories a day, but I have boundless energy! I don't want to sound like an advertisement, but I feel so great, that I just want to share with everyone else so they can feel great, too My daily food intake includes eggs, unprocessed meat, tons of veggies, some fruit, and yummy full-fat dairy like butter and cream. The pounds are just falling off!

Anyway, if you interested in learning more about Primal/Paleo, check out www.marksdailyapple.com and feel free to friend/message me.

You are doing great work, so don't give up on yourself!

Jill

Hi Ashley,

Wow you are busy with the little ones! Congratulations on losing the 32 pounds! You have lost a lot of weight so you are certainly doing something right. Your body has likely hit a plateau. As for the heart rate monitor save yourself the money and periodically check your pulse while timing it against the second hand on your watch.
I took a look at your food diary and it looks like you are eating well but it looks like you snack a lot. Even though it is healthy food the habit of snacking is a hard one to break. One thing I noticed is you are always under your calories. This in fact could be working against you. Your body needs a minimum amount of calories to function properly. When your body is not getting enough energy (calories) it goes into survival mode and actually burns muscle before it burns fat. It thinks you are starving; this is how the human body is programmed. So you may think you are doing great by being under your goal by as much as 500 calories you are actually hurting yourself. You are burning a lot of calories according to your exercise journal so under eating and the high exertion could be doing more harm than good. The more muscle you have the more calories you will burn even sitting still. One pound of muscle take up the same amount of space as 5 pounds of fat so don’t just look at the scale but also how your clothes are fitting.
Secondly is water. It doesn't look like you are drinking the 8 glasses per day. What are you drinking? I didn't see any beverages recorded. Many people don't think about this. I knew of a woman who was having the same problem, upon talking with her nutritionist it turned out she was drinking 8 mountain dews a day! That’s about 1000 calories per day. If you are drinking diet soda or diet anything stop. Diet drinks actually make you MORE thirsty and hungry. Generally speaking soda is bad for you. I get sick of drinking water too, I purchase sparkling water my favorite is Pellegrino. To change things up get some drink mixes to add flavor. There are many out there that actually have some nutrition to them. If you have trouble drinking the 64 ounces of water a day here's my trick - I keep a 1 liter bottle of water with me all the time and refill it. Drinking 2 a day is the water you need. By always having the water at hand you will sip it all day. This also helps with hunger and cutting back on snacking.
I also noticed you eat a lot of pre-packed, processed, or prepared meals as opposed to home made. I cannot imagine how hard it is to take care of your kids and make healthy meals. The problem with pre-packaged food is the sodium is usually super high. This retains water and added to not drinking enough water will result in no reduction in your waistline. It’s hard to cook and take care of a family. There are many quick, less than 30 minutes to prep, and easy, no more than 5 ingredients, recipes out there. Get in the habit of making your own food. It’s cheaper and healthier. Then you also have leftovers – I bring mine to work for lunch. Cooking Light is great, they have recipes for special occasions too.
Lastly, the weight didn’t come on over night so it’s not going to go away over night. Slow, steady weight loss will last a life time, it’s also better for your body overall. Shows like the Biggest Loser are a bad representation of weight loss, it is an extreme. More than half of the contestants gain the weight back within 1 year. Remember, slow and steady wins the race 
If you don’t subscribe to magazines I suggest Woman’s Health and Shape. They are filled with great advice, information, questions, and diet and exercise suggestions.
Dr. Oz is a big fad right now but it is only because he is preaching what has been known by the medical and nutrition communities for years. Oprah just brought it to pop culture, which is great. He had an article in Time about a month ago, it was the cover story and covered food. You can likely find it on their website.
And my last piece of advice, limit dairy to 3 servings per day, for example, 1 yogurt, one serving of milk, and one serving of cheese. If you put milk in your pb smoothie that counts, the cheese on your sub is another and the cottage cheese is the third. I highly recommend coconut water, such as Vita Coco or Zico, they taste the best. Coconut water is low in calories but has more potassium than a banana AND is a great way to get the needed liquid you need for a smoothie without the calories of juice.
Amy

Just to throw this out there, it could not be tied to food at all (which was the case with me). My body was not absorbing enough oxygen and my metabolic threshold was a little lower than most on account of allergies. I have to do specific HRM workouts gears to my threshold to lose weight. I had watched my calories, ate back what I worked off, and only lost 2lbs in a matter of 3 months. I was doing intense cardio and felt in shape, but no weight/size change.

I did metabolic and VO2 testing and that's when they saw what was going on. I had to drop down to just like walks instead of intense cardio (BOOORING), but, I dropped 15lbs in a month and a half and knew it was working. Might be a possibility for you to look at also.