Stuck @ 170

10lbs is good for 6 weeks. Perfectly reasonable.

Yes. TOM will affect your weight. The good news is that it's just water. Not fat. So you will lose that quite quickly in a week or so.

Now, the bad news.

You are eating too much processed foods and not enough food in general. Your calories, from what I looked at, have been too low. 1000 calories under your goal is way way WAY too low.

Add some fruit and veggies to your diet. And some lean protein.

I'd also suggest some strength training as well.

But you are doing great. Keep it up.

You're right. I'm going to work on eating more fresh foods, like fruits & veggies. I'm also going to make sure I eat at least 1200 calories per day, even if I have to eat a handful of nuts or something just to hit that mark. Sometimes I'm afraid to eat my exercise calories back because I'm afraid MFP has overestimated the amount of calories I've burned & I'll go over, so I'm going to try to stick with 1200 per day regardless of exercise. I usually don't burn more than 200 or so anyway. As for strength training, I am doing the 30 Day Shred, which incorporates strength, cardio & abs, so I'm going to stick with that - although I'm taking today off to let my body recover because my legs are SUPER sore from the first two days. Thanks for the advice!

Here's the thing though. If you consume 1200 cals and burn 200, your body is only netting a thousand cals per day. That's too low.

ETA: I'm only a few pounds less than you, and I eat a lot more than you most days and i'm still losing. It hasn't caused me to gain anything in the long run.

I'm starting the 30DS tomorrow. I read that you should burn through the pain. Soon your body will learn how to manage it, or something.

increase your intake. you're sometimes leaving hundreds of calories on the table.

Every time I try to lose weight, I get stuck at 170lbs. And then I lose all motivation - so I totally feel your pain! I just bought 30 Day Shred (about to go do Day 1, Level 1!) so I'm hoping that maybe this gets my *kitten* in gear and I can move past it this time!

Good luck to you!

Well, is your diary completed for today? If so, did you not eat lunch? Only consuming 700 calories or so is going to put you into starvation mode.

You are eating too many processed foods. Multigrain cheerios, while good, contain more sugar than regular cheerios. Try oatmeal or eggs in the morning. Try to limit your intake of deli meats.

I haven't hit a plateau myself yet, but I'm not discounting it from ever happening. As it stands right now, I have lost 13 pounds in 5 weeks, and (not proud ot admit it but) it's been done without exercising. I am trying to eat as clean as possible, with some exceptions - I do have breads - but make them whole grains for the most part. Rice - I limit portions, increase the veggies, include healthy fats.

Friend me if you need - and you can take a look at my diary.

Oh yes - I would also change to goal to 1 pound a week. I think that's a better goal - sure, I'd love to lose 2 pounds a week, but I set it at one, and lo and behold, I've lost 2 pounds a week.

Agree with the above that you need more calories. Your body is probably conserving all it can because you are not getting enough in. Try increasing protein since you are working out, you want to support your muscle mass because if you lose muscle, you will lose metabolic rate and 1200 cal per day isn't sustainable long term. If you lose muscle, when you go back up in calories, you will gain back more than you lost to begin with, and it will be fat. Get a whey protein powder and mix a scoop a day into a cup and a half of skim milk.
- Pineapple8, M.D.

The advice your getting to up your calories is right on - try it at about 200 at a time over minimum of a week better for about 2 weeks and see what happens.

When you start the 30DS your muscles are going to hold on to a lot of water for a bit as you break them down and rebuild so don't get discouraged and don't confuse this with weight gain if you do up your calories. If you can, consider taking measurements so you will know you're losing inches regardless what the scale says.

An option pepper2185 said to change your goal to lose 1lb/week and eat every last exercise calorie back is very very smart. Make sure you're drinking water too, many people don't drink enough and it is very difficult to lose fat when the body is dehydrated even though you may not feel thirsty.

My husband and I decided to get rid of nearly all our processed and packaged food for this round of weight loss (since Jan 9th) and it is working much much better. It can be challenging tho until you get use to planning and preparing meals. I was cooking everything from scratch and had to begin batch cooking, cook once and then have 2 or 3 meals (especially dinners) ready or I was about to give up as it was taking so much time. It can be done but it's a whole new way of planning, shopping and preparing food. The results tho are amazing.

A great comparison is to use a site called http://nutritiondata.self.com, similar in that you track food but it provides a great deal more about the nutritional content. Just use it for a meal or two and see what you're really eating and/or missing. When we looked at a few of our meals that were fast food or processed we were shocked at the nutritional content. It's not like we didn't know it wasn't as healthy but it was stunning to see the difference even though we were eating the right number of calories.

Hope some of this helps...good luck and keep trying.

First of all, thank you all VERY much! I really appreciate all the advice & from what I had read here on other threads, I was thinking I needed to up my calorie intake, but was confused as to how that would help me lose weight. It makes more sense now! I'm going to set my goal to lose 1 lb/wk & try to eat back my exercise calories. I'm also going to pick up more fruits, veggies & nuts at the store, as well as lean protein, which I'm thinking means chicken & fish.

You don't have to stick with just chicken and fish constantly, there are lean cuts of beef/steaks, lean ground beef, turkey meat, etc. Switch it up a bit for some variety. Just make sure to eat it all in proper portions. You can even have bacon, sausage pork chops and stuff like that on occasion. I had sausage one day with breakfast and bacon another day this week. Make sure to enjoy some stuff you like so it isn't miserable and you can stick with it. :flowerforyou: