Doing all the right things... but losing SOOOO slowly!

Greetings all! Need to express some frustration. I've been at this since July 1, (8 weeks) counting EVERYTHING I eat, zig-zagging calories, exercising 3-4 times per week, and yet, I've barely lost 5 pounds. I have this nifty spreadsheet I put together to track my calories, expendatures, deficits, averages, etc.

In theory, between the exercise and the calorie deficits, I should have lost around 8lbs or a bit more. Instead, I'm barely at 5lbs lost. This is very frustrating.

I eat between 1200-1500 per day (zig-zag) and once in a while I'll bump it to 1800 if I'm really active on a weekend (90 minute bike ride at 16mph average on Sat, round of golf on Sunday). I've been taking spin classes two days per week, and I've recently added some weight training.

It's been like pulling teeth to get the scale to budge! Let me add that I'm 49 and already POST meno, so I know it's going to be more difficult, but PUHLEASE! Does it have to be this hard?!

Here's the stats: 5'2" 155.2 lbs this AM (Started at 160.2 on July 1) Large frame - I'm short, but not petite Goal - 135lbs - I have been VERY comfortable at this weight before

Any suggestions on how to get this to go just a tad faster??!

I hear you sister... 
I'm 56, postmenopausal for 4 years.
I went on the South Beach Diet in October of 2003 and lost 10lbs in 8 months. I was able to mantain my weight loss pretty consistently until this spring. I had gain back 6 lbs without noticing because my clothes fit, until my favorite jeans would not close around my hips.
I began phase 1 of the SBD again on August 6 and so far have lost only 4lbs. Phase 1 is supposed to be the fast, water loss, jumpstart phase. People normally loose anywhere from 8 to 13 lbs on phase 1. And that was 2 weeks ago. I'm beguinning phase 2 today.
The only thing I can tell you is, be patient. It will happen. Slower but safer. Keep doing what you are doing, obviously you are doing the right things, otherwise you would not have lost those 5 lbs.
Good luck

Just a thought - are you drinking enough water?

If its any consolation I am at the same stage.  Started out at 178lbs about six weeks ago, down to 168lb about three weeks ago and have been the same ever since.  I am probably eating around 1200-1400 cals a day, and exercising about three or four nights a week at home.  Still the weight stays the same.  However, on the plus side is that my arms, legs and thighs are toning up nicely, my skirts fit no problem at all, in fact some are too big now........but the scales still stay the same. 

I guess all we can do is plod on and one day the scales will shift.  I am going to start walking more and maybe that will help.

Thanks for the encouragement, artiparte!  Sounds like you're struggling, too.  Seems like most of the folks on this site are a younger crowd and I've found things I used to do to control my weight just DON'T work now that I'm older.  It's been trial and error (seems like more error than successes) trying to find a new way to do this.

I do drink a lot of water, anishak.  At least I feel as if it's a lot.  I have a 2 liter bottle of water which I try to go through every day, plus other liquids like coffee (2 cups per day), milk, and a rare diet coke, beer, or glass of wine.  If I work out, I drink more.  Is that enough water on a daily basis?

generally speaking, to find out how many ounces of water you should drink a day, you want to divide your weight by 2.  so at 155, you should drink 77.5 oz or 9.7 glasses a day, which is more like 2.5 liters.

i'm 27, but definitely in the slow losing camp.  i'm also 5'2" with a goal of 135, but my current weight is a bit higher at 180 (8 pound lost in 2 months).  it's frustrating, no doubt...and i wish i would lose faster, but as long as i'm losing regularly, i'm happy...it could be worse!

im a slow loser too i drink a ton of water, eat enough, exercise 4x a week. and i've got nothing!!!! im 5'6, 150 and have been very comf at 140 before and 135 is my goal. sometimes bodies just dont wanna. i know that sounds childish but it is what it is. keep at it- at the very least youre getting healthier. (side note- im only 25!!!)

Thanks for all the great responses.  I guess there are more than few 'slow losers' out there. Sometimes it helps just to know others are fighting the same battles.  Discouragement is the REAL enemy.

I never knew there was an actual calculation for water requirements!  Thanks for the tip, aasil.  I will try to increase my water intake and see if that helps and repost my results. I'm hoping for a little more progress this week.

Hang in, everyone.  I need to get back to work!  :)

finally someone is talking about it

im am 44 and weigh 190 have been seriously dieting for four weeks now i normally eat between 1300 and 1500 cals a day a couple of days i fell to 1050 i drink 100oz of water a day and also a protein shake a day to make sure im getting my protein (just started this on saturday) have not lost anything i work out every day walking briskly, on my elliptical ,abb workouts and free weights (i do these through out the week i dont do them all everyday i switch them up) any ideas on what to do i havnt even lost any inches nothing still fits

How do your clothes fit? Are you gaining muscle andtherfor the scale isnt moving? Yet you rclothes feel loser? This happened to me as I was not very active before my journey.. I didnt lose alot.. .but lost inches big time.... This would reflect on your nifty sheet **PA I made one too for me :-)** but its worth considering!

I will probably end up in the struggling category.  I started at 191 on 8/3 and dropped six pounds the 1st week but have remained nearly the same for the last 10 days.  :(

Yesterday I "pigged out" and ate 3005 calories and woke up this AM showing 1 pound lighter on the scale.  Go figure.  I'm back on track today with the food though.  Maybe the 3000 calories shocked my body (I've been keeping around 1200) or maybe I'll wke up tomorrow 5 pounds heavier!  We'll see.

I agree with artiparte.  Im on Southbeach too but when a plateau is reached, a return to phase one can kickstart the weightloss.  Granted phase 1 doesnt include carbs so the heavy focus on protein and vegetables is enough to push the weight off.  Im in phase 2 now and still doing fine but it sounds like you've hit an undeserved plateau. 

Even if you dont stick with it, southbeach phase 1 could be the push your body needs AND its very healthy too.

losingthepounds

i have lost nothing and my clothes still dont fit, go figure i measure myself once a week

Is it possible that you've gained 3lbs of muscle? Weight training, spinning, bike riding... all these things can add muscle mass. If you have increased your activity at the same time as cutting calories this could explain the "slow loss" effect. Lose 8lbs of fat, gain 3 of muscle makes it look like slow loss. If this is the case, the muscle gain should taper off soon as long as you don't up your activity any more and the scale should start moving in the right direction more quickly.

kathy~~ Is it possible your not getting enough everyday thats why when you ate more you lost? How many are you eating a day?

thankyou nikidust, you actually listened to what i was saying aganin thankyou and i hope that is the case, because it gets so frustrating when i am tring so hard

I agree with nikidust, it's very likely you've gained muscle.

So are your pants getting looser? If yes, then you're definately on the right track. Our goal is to look better not to weigh less right?

Just keep trucking, do not get discouraged. We are all in this with you. This turle crawling pace will make your path to success more sweet.

no i have to say nothing is looser but im not giving up i just finished my abb exerciser they work every muscle in the abs they are a killer and i did my weights tonight i will do my ellipticl

losingthepounds, I'm only eating about 1200 calories per day so it could be that I'm not getting enough to keep my metabolism fired.

When I turned 50 I decided to lose 15 pounds... was the 148. I dieted no higher than 1200, exercised 5 to 6 times a week, and I did not "eat back" calories for exercise. It took about four months weeks to hit my target weight.  Over the past 18 months, I am down another 5 pounds, to 128.  I'm maintaining on about 1600. Clearly if I am maintaining at this level, I woudn't have lost weight eating 1600...  1400-1500 would have resulted in an excrutiatingly slow loss.

I realize this is a radical concept in this forum, but sometimes you can lose weight eating LESS.  (Don't shoot me.) The problem is that you are now dieting close to your maintenance level, so the  deficit is quite small. You really can't go by the tools for expenditure, because those are based on averages, and you could have a slower metabolism than average. So it's possible you have just a few hundred calories deficit per day,  so may lose less than a pound a week.  I also don't bother trying to calculate how many calories I burn through exercise, because that is also a guess. Also, on days I work out, I tend to be less active overall as compared to days I don't exercise. I just figure the number of times, or hours, I work out a week.

I would also suggest you chart your progress, because your perception might be different than reality. It might feel like you're not losing, but you may be just losing very slowly... ups and downs, but the downward trend is much easier to see with a chart. Be super-sure you are not undercounting, because your margin of error is very small.

Also give green tea a whirl.  I am a huge skeptic about this stuff, but started taking capsules for cholesterol... and started to drop weight. I couldn't figure out why... a couple months later someone  told me they are supposed to speed metabolism. I went back in my records and could see I started to drop weight the week I started taking them.  I had long maintained 128 on 1500... now I need more than 1600.