discouraged :-(

Ok, I was sooo excited about this diet.

I have been exercising.

I cut out like 500 calories (or more) a day.

I cut out ALL fast food, and ALL junk food.

I just got on the scale and lost LESS than half a pound. (In over 2 weeks since I started dieting)

How can this be??

I was SO proud of the fact I have been eating so healthy and exercising.

:-(

This can be TOTALLY normal. Some reasons:

bloat from hormones or sodium
body is recovering from "starvation mode"
gained muscle weight

Give yourself more time! It'll happen! I'd just stay off the scale myself and go by how the clothes fit.

How much exercise are you doing? Your heart rate needs to be between 60%-80% of your heart rate max in order to burn fat. To calculate: 220-(your agre)=maximum Heart rate  then

.60 X maximum heart rate= target heart rate

.80 X maximun heart rate = target heart rate

This calculation will give you your range of where you should be as you workout.

Are you eating pre-packaged processed foods? Are you nibbling on sugary starchy foods? Are you eating consistantly? Are you eating enough? You should be eating a minimum of 1500 calories or your body will jump into starvation mode.

Keep going! Weight management and good health is journey, not a destination.

I hope you'll consider that what you're doing is taking good care of yourself, which you may want to do all the time, to maintain good health, from now on... 

instead of something you will only do temporarily to lose pounds.

Let it be a part of your life, of who you are, and you will have more patience for when the results aren't what you expect.

*hug*

Hang in there.  Just keep being good to yourself, like you have been!

You can't go wrong doing all the right things...Just be certain you are eating the right amount of calories.

All good responses to this thread. One thing I want to add is I notice you have given up all fast food/junk food. While that is admirable, you don't have to. Just remember - "everything in moderation". Go to the websites of your favorite fast food places and restaurants, chances are they have a Nutrition Guide. If they don't, email them a nice note asking if they plan to offer one soon. If enough people ask, maybe they will. Then plan ahead what you can eat. For instance, I can have a hamburger with mustard and catsup, a small fry, and a diet coke at McD's - it won't mess me up. The only thing, is I try to limit myself to no more than once a week - because of the higher sodium content in fast dood.

Just like Nomore says, it's a lifestyle - so look on down the road - do you really want to feel like you are denying yourself the rest of your life? Not me!!! I can eat anything I want as long as I plan ahead and allow for it.

One thing you might do is write down everything you eat on notebook paper. When you feel you had a bad week, look at what you ate the previous week. Whatever you did wrong will stick out, just figure out what you could have substituted to make that into a good week and bring it forward.

Good luck!!!

Another possibility is if you aren't monitoring your sodium intake and making sure you drink enough water, along with not weighing yourself every day at the same time with the same routine, is that your weigh-in is inaccurate.

I weigh myself every day first thing in the morning after I pee. I also make sure that I try to eat under 2500mg of sodium every day and drink the same amount of water (110oz) ever day. This way I can accurately see if I'm losing weight and on the days when I go over on sodium or under on my water, I can see it immediately afterwards and I know that it is just water weight and not actual fat.

So basically, are you keeping an eye on your sodium and water levels? Also, what is your weigh-in routine?

When I started this diet (30 Oct) I didn't lose more than .5 lbs in the first two weeks either.  Then the weight started coming off relatively fast.

Weight can vary according to TotM as well.  Keep your chin up, and see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

If you're still not losing, you might try recalculating your necessary caloric intake.  I had to refigure mine -- turns out I was eating too few during the day, causing me to binge at night.

Have you used the tools to determine your optimal caloric needs and the deficit you need to lose weight?  If you have, then just keep on because sooner or later it will start dropping.  If you haven't do so.

Try not to think of this as a diet, but rather changes you are making to be healthier (not just thinner, although that will come).  You should make permanent changes to your eating and exercise habits, that you can live with forever.

You can do this!  Good Luck! 

Thanks for all the input guys. It helps.. a lot.

I feel better today.

I've only been weighing myself once a week or so.... so I'm just going to stay off the scale for a couple weeks until I'm in a reall routine with working out and what foods I'm eating.

for now I will concentrate on picking the right foods, and learning more about how to properly exercise to lose fat.

And, I don't feel deprived at all. I've never been a big fan of fast food.... but sometimes I would grab it before class if I was starving. Now I grab a slim fast and don't feel yucky during class. And I do miss junk food now and then... but I'm not going crazy about it. My boss made brownies yesterday and i had ONE bite.... it was enough to satisfy the craving for the brownie, but not enough to mess up my food for the day.

I think my body may have been going into starvation mode.... first of because I didn't eat for 8 days (boyfriend and I broke up, I couldn't even keep water down). After that I started on CC and was WAY under my needed calories every day. I'm figuring out ways to get my calories out of healthy food now, so hopefully everything will work itself out now.

I'm trying to get into the mindset that this is for life.... not until I drop 40 pounds and go back to my old ways.

missmuse,

About 2 years ago I went on a weight-loss plan -- the only two things I concentrated on were eating healthier and exercising daily.  I devised a reward for myself independent of what the scale said (in fact, I didn't even have a scale).

For every day that I followed my plan, I earned $1.  But the rewards were cumulative. 

Example, on the 1st day, I earned $1.  On the second day, I earned $2, because it was two consecutive days.  On the third day, I earned $3 because it was 3 consecutive days.  So the total earned was $1 + $2 + $3 = $6.

I went a very long time for consecutive days and bought myself some really nice things that I would have never bought for myself otherwise -- and I did lose about 20 lbs as a bonus.

Only problem was, I ran out of money -- I could no longer afford to give myself the rewards.  shucks!!!!

The same thing happened to me! It took me a whole month before I started to lose weight. I found out in a big hurry that I was never eating enough and my body was in starvation mode. Now I'm 25 pounds lighter, eating what is good for me and loving it!

You might want to start to keep track of your inches. I found that when I was not losing weight according to the scale, I was losing inches! Big time!! Good luck!

I'm afraid of inches!!

Maybe I'll tackle that next weekend

Missy- keep up the excercise and dieting you're doing, you appear to be doing nothing wrong. The scale is evil stay off of it until you notice a difference in the way your clothes fit. You can always tell by if your clothes are getting looser, even if the scale isn't moving or God forbid going up. take it easy, you're doing just fine!

~kina