What am I doing wrong?

Try snacking more and more often. Snacking helps!

Sia Bevis

Maybe this should go on the support board, but I just need help. I am so frustrated I don't know what to do.


I have been stuck at 165 pounds for MONTHS!!!!!! I would love just once to see 164 on my scale to feel like I am not working my butt off for nothing. I just don't get what I am doing wrong. I work out 5 days a week for 40-50 minutes its a mix of strength training and cardio. I eat 1000-1200 calories a day I drink 72 ounces of water and I take a multivitamin. So what else can I do? My goal is to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight (145) by my birthday April 14th.

My eating looks like this
Breakfast
Oat meal, or toast w/pb, and usually a cup of coffee a glass of water and a fruit ( apples, blue berries, strawberries)

Lunch,
Ham and cheese, chicken salad, or tuna salad on whole grain bread, glass of water and a salad

Dinner
Protein ( chicken, pork, beef)
Veggie
carb ( bread or roll)

for snacks I eat
Sting cheese, lunch meat, salad or fruit


So what am I doing wrong?! please some one any advice is welcome!!

I am 54, 5' 5 1/2" tall and weigh 138.6 today. Before the Holiday eating hit I was well on my way to rapidly meeting my goal of 135 and seemed to be breezing through the last 5 - 10 pounds! I am "lightly active" and add 30 minutes of walking 2x per day at 3.5 speed. Since October I have changed my diet to add as many fresh and raw veggies as possible. Shooting for 1 pound of mostly raw veggies and one pound of cooked veggies. I decided to have only a serving of regular oatmeal with fresh berries for breakfast daily. I can eat a cup of cooked beans or lentils, and have an ounce of nuts or seeds per day. Up to 1 TBSP of oil, per day. No sugar or salt added to my food and cook the majority of the food myself meaning no cans or cured meats. In fact I limit any animal protein serving to 2 oz and have that only at dinner IF I am eating any animal protein that day. I don't eat cheese or milk. I switched to soy. I cut out bread and crackers and most other whole grains even.

I can't believe I am losing the last few pounds so easily (until Christmas eating parties!) and I can't tell you how much energy I have and how good I feel. I was following Dr. Oz's program for a few years to get me started and am now trying to follow Dr. Fuhrman's EAT TO LIVE program. It is more work, but I am LOVING how I feel!! I am also aiming to do this as a lifestyle permanently. Sure, I'll have something off the plan here and there but I usually feel like crap when I do. It isn't something you just one day do. It takes a certain amount of effort and understanding and I am not completely there yet. But I'll bet if you decide to limit your processed foods and just add in as many veggies like salads, and cooked veggies for dinner, etc. you'll be surprised with how well you feel and your plateau might break, too. The health benefits of adding veggies are really worth looking into and you can literally eat a TON of them for very few calories!

Best of luck to you whatever you decide to do!

Bump. I have been stuck myself and would like to read the rest of this at home. Thinking I should up my calories.

Keep carb below 30 works for me and my calories are between 500 and 800

Ee, sorry this is so long. Hopefully something from it helps you Good luck!

A lot of people are saying eat more -so maybe that helps?

Here's my two cents worth..


My understanding is that high levels of sodium in the body lead to increased levels of water retention. It seems you drink a fair bit of water every day -the weight could potentially be water weight? There is often quite a bit of sodium in the processed food (esp. meat, like the ham), and string cheeses, so if possible try to minimise them from your daily eating.

I'm not sure what you do for a living, but is it possible for you to split up your eating into four or five meals over the day, as opposed to three mains +snacking? I've heard (am not a nutritionist/dietician, so I could be wrong..) that eating the same amount, but spread out over the day can be beneficial when it comes to weight loss.
For example:

* Have your morning fruit an hour or two after breakfast (toast/oats)
* Split lunch into two, smaller meals (e.g. ham &cheese = 1 meal, salad = 1 meal)

Also, it might be beneficial for you to increase the amount of good fats in your diet (like the fats provided by nuts, seeds and avocado). Try to avoid the sugar coated peanuts, and flavoured varieties (these have a lot of sodium). A handful of nuts 3-4 times a week is supposed to be really good for your body. I've heard that nuts like almonds and walnuts are more beneficial than some others (although, I wouldn't be able to name any 'bad' nuts -except for the candied kind! haha).
If you're going to include something like avocado in your diet, you've got to be careful to remember that one serve of avocado is approximately three slices of the fruit. Too much, and you will more likely start to notice weight gain wherever you put it on easy. I'm a bit guilty of overindulging when it comes to avocado -because I love it so!

By the way, if you find that you are struggling to eat nuts and seeds plain/whole, you can always do what I started off doing and crush them up and mix them with a few spoons of plain yoghurt and half a spoon of honey. As time goes on, try to reduce the amount of honey, followed by the amount of yoghurt and fineness of the nuts. Pretty soon, you should be able to eat them easy peasy! Unless you have a nut allergy -then I wouldn't recommend it..
If you're one of those people who dislikes the texture of avocados, try adding it to your sandwich spread instead of sliced (not an avocado spread, just spread a tablespoon of avocado straight onto your sandwich)!


Hope something in all that helps!

S