Advice Please: Stuck at last 8 pounds!!

So I know other people have asked similar questions and I have been using calorie count successfully for the first six months I was on here.  However, for some reason, the last three months I must be doing something wrong!

I am 5'6" and I started post pregnancy at 180.  I am now down to 143 and I would like to reach 135.  I am so close!  I have been at 143 for the past three months.  I exercise for about 1 hour per day 5 times per week.  I walk a lot (I live in the New York area) and I have a 10 month old that I am constantly picking up and cleaning up after.  My exercise is a mix between running, spin class, weight training and yoga. 

So after all that info, I have been trying to eat around 1600 calories per day to lose about a pound per week.  At night after dinner I always feel super hungry and want to eat.  Do I need to eat more during the day? Should I stay around 1600 in order to lose the weight? I just don't know what to do differently so any advice is majorly appreciated!

ahhhhhh bump.

because im in the exact same position as you

Frustrating isn't it?!?

Id like to hear some advice myself im stuck on the last 10 pounds .Im at 125 and I wanna be about 115 Iam short.I was stuck at 128 last month took some advice from my Dr I lost 3 pounds.Now all of October im stuck at 125 im not gaining or losing its been since the beggining of October not to long yet but a few weeks.But Ive lost 85 pounds all together I heard those last ones come off slower.

kfirth, have you tried having a few days where you eat more? Not all out, but up to maintenance level?

I've thought about it but I think I was afraid of eating too much.  It's such a balancing act!

Did you notice today's blog post on the log-in page for CC? I think it could answer your question better than I could.

Original Post by kfirth1:

I've thought about it but I think I was afraid of eating too much.  It's such a balancing act!

If you eat as much as you burn, you certainly won't be "eating too much".

Maybe it was good luck to post on your board yesterday I lost 2 pounds .I did my weigh in this morning I was 123 finally from 125.I just ate a little more all healthy foods like everyone else says to do thats the advice my Dr gave me last time  I got stuck eat a little more change exercise and its worked for me twice now ,I seem to stay at a weight for 2 or 3 weeks then drop 3 to 4 punds then repeat since Ive gotten down to the last few pounds when I was heavier it came off faster.Hopefully youll break yours to Good luck.

Original Post by danaofdoom:

Did you notice today's blog post on the log-in page for CC? I think it could answer your question better than I could.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. In particular, pay attention to this point: "Have you reached your Set Point?"

I have the recommended book, "Breaking Through Yout Set Point...", and I would put this a little differently. It's not that you've reached your set point, but that you've gotten far enough away from your old set point that your body is resisting. Think of your set point as the weight that your body wants to be at. When you started it was probably 180. When you lose weight, it's like pulling on a spring. The further you pull, the stronger the force is trying to pull you back to your old set point. The trick is to reset your set point to a lower weight. The way you do that is to lose weight gradually, and to not lose more than 10% of your body weight in a 6 month period. What the book recommends, then, is to lose only 10% of your weight at a time, and then hang out at that weight for six months. The way I look at this is that you've still got tension in the spring, but that as long as you maintain your 10% loss, the tension is relieved by your set point moving down to your new weight. Once that happens, you can then go another 10%.

Now, you've actually lost just over 20% of your original body weight, in what I would guess is about a year, given your sign up date. So you are just about right at the limit, and the fact that you get hungry is possibly your body telling you that there's a lot of tension in the spring. What I would do in your situation (following the advice of the book) is not worry about losing more right now, but concentrate on maintaining my current weight. Give the tension in the spring a chance to release by pulling your set point down to your current weight.

Cheers,

Kent

I found this, which seems to be an online adjunct of the "Breaking through..." book:

http://www.bidmc.org/YourHealth/BreakThroughY ourSetPoint/WeekOneTheScienceofSetPoint.aspx