Need advice from the more experienced!

I'm hoping for a little advice from people that are better versed in this stuff, because it's all new to me! My mom's favorite recipe was take out :) and I never saw her workout, so understandably the idea of healthy eating and plenty of activity always seemed like a puff dream rather than a necessity.

Anyways, I'm not large by any means, but I got to the point where I just felt blah about myself - out of shape, eating crap..and I wanted better habits both for the long run and to help me feel better about myself now.

So, I've been calorie counting and exercising regularly for a month now. I cut out sodas, fast food, most sweets (these were all regulars in my diet before)…etc etc etc. I average about 12-1400 cals a day. I go to the gym 3-4x a week (this is usually 35 minutes of cardio followed up by some weights or some 1 on 1 basketball with the boy). I also play volleyball 1-2x a week.

I started out putting my activity level as sedentary and adding my exercises, and then I read that wasn't best for consistency/ease sake, so I moved it to light exercise. Then I read more on the forums and thought I might be closer to moderate, so I put it there. On sedentary my burn meter is around 1760, on moderate it's 2260.

I'm 5'9, 22, 143 pounds (started at 148). I don't want to lose much - my goal is 135. Mostly I just to be fitter, healthier. 

I'm coming here because I started off losing pretty reasonably - the first two weeks I lost 4.5 pounds (to 142.5). But the third week I gained a half pound, and this week I'm still at 143. I know the average for the month is still reasonable considering..but I didn't want to keep going if I'm doing something wrong?

My only thought is that perhaps I'm not eating enough? It seems so counter-productive to me to eat more to lose more, but from what I've been reading it's a common phenomenon. Do I fall into that? Or am I just overreacting to a normal occurrence of weight loss, especially for those already at a healthy weight? Should I just ride it out?

Appreciate any insight (and for reading through this lengthy thread!).

I think you are on the right track, you need to eat more.  You're tall and need more than 12-1400 calories, especially on workout days.  I know it does seem a bit counter-productive, but the extra calories aren't from junk, it's healthy food to help fuel your metabolism and help your body recover from a good workout.  I would try upping your calories.  Be sure to give your body time to adjust to the new calorie range.  You may gain a little at first, but it will come back off. 

Good luck and good for you for choosing to be healthier

Eating 1337 cal is for someone our height aiming to LOSE weight at 129lbs. You eat wayyyyyyy too little. You need to up your calories appropriate to your desired goal of 135 and appropriate to your exercise level.

According to your stats, you're also right in the middle of a healthy BMI range (21.5), so it's possible that you might find it hard to loose weight as your body could be plenty happy right where you're at. Perhaps a goal of firming up is a the way to go...rather than loosing weight.  Think inches instead of pounds.  Just my thoughts.

I learned this from the low-carb boards elsewhere: water retention masks fat loss.

ANY diet you go on is going to cause you to drop water in the first couple of weeks, since your body isn't holding on to massive amounts of glycogen anymore. Then, in weeks 3-4, yor body releases water-storage hormones since it goes "uh-oh, we're losing water like a leaky bucket!" You should reach equilibrium soon and this stops, but it's common after a couple weeks of rapid weight loss to stall or even slightly gain. It's most pronounced on a low-carb diet but even a so-called balanced or higher-carb diet often causes that phenomenon. You're probably gaining back a little of the water you lost - you're not gaining body fat.

The other possibility is that you're massively undercounting your calorie intake, but it would be difficult to make that large of an error. You are not going to reduce your metabolism enough to gain weight on 1300-1400 calories in three weeks.

Original Post by ryanms:

I learned this from the low-carb boards elsewhere: water retention masks fat loss.

Well I hope you're right! :) In the meantime I've up'd my calories to 1600 - hope next week's weigh in is better, whatever the cause!

On the days you do weights switch it up.  Do 5-8 minutes cardio warm-up, hit the weights and then as much cardio as you want or your body can handle. 

On the days you do weights switch it up.  Do 5-8 minutes cardio warm-up, hit the weights and then as much cardio as you want or your body can handle.