Plateau VS. Doing something wrong......

Hi, I am 27 years old, 5'5" and currently fluctuating between 128-130 lbs. My goal is 120. I started counting calories April 15th. I exercise about 5 times a week for at least 60 minutes (usually more like 90) at the gym. My usual routine goes 30 minutes of vigorous (I'm talking sweat dripping from everywhere) cardio, usually the elliptacal trainer, 30 minutes of either arms or legs (I alternate daily), and 15-30 of abs (crunches, sit-ups, etc.) After calculating my BMI, I gathered that I could lose weight at a fairly slow but steady rate by eating 1850 calories a day without exercise. I decided that I would drop down to 1600 with exercise to speed up the process and I feel that 1600 is a healthy amount of calories for me. I'm not starving at all. I spread my calories out over five or so meals per day and feel perfectly fine most of the time. I have had a few hunger spells here and there but if I don't have calories to spare, I just drink water and busy myself so that I'm not thinking of food.  

The first two weeks, I saw myself drop three pounds to 127 and I was completely stoked. I am now in week four and have gone back up to 129-130 and that's been pretty consistent for the last two weeks. 

Am I doing something wrong? Have I already hit a plateau? Should I lower my caloric intake? Or should I just give it more time to see if my metabolism adjusts? I'm really dedicated and NEVER cheat. I'm borderline obsessive about eating no more and no less than 1600 calories per day. Since I feel like I'm eating plenty at 1600, my initial reaction is to lower my caloric intake but I don't want to go too low since I am exercising so much and I know too low may result in no results...

If anybody has advice, I'd love to hear it! Thanks!

Wow.. that's a tough situation. Through personal experience, I learned that lowering your caloric intake too much will GUARANTEE a plateau. But I'm surprised that you hit yours so early in the game! I hope your metabolism isn't too messed up already.

What types of foods are you eating? I know a lot of people say that calories are just calories, but they're definitely not created equal. You should increase your fiber and lower your fat intake. Make sure to eat less simple/ starch carbohydrates and more lean protein, veggies, and fruit. Stay away from processed foods. If you eat this way, then you can up your caloric intake to about 1700-1800. Trust me on this.

Good luck

Try this for a week and tell me how it goes :)

Thanks. I like to think that I eat well, mostly vegetarian (I just recently started eating meat, poultry and fish again) but I'll try to take extra special notice of my daily diet for the next week and see if anything changes. Thank you again for the advice!

We're in almost exactly the same situation. I'm 5'6", 127 with a goal of 120, and work out like you do. I also eat about 1600-1700 calories a day.

To be honest, the only time I lose weight is when I drop to about 1450-1500 calories a day. But I have a hard time sustaining that for more than five days or so because I'm hungry and constantly think about food.  I think it's difficult for us to lose, because we're probably at the weight that our bodies like.

I realize this isn't very helpful, but just wanted to commiserate (plus, I'm hoping you'll figure it out and tell ME!)

good luck!

Sounds like you might be too obsessed about it.

Try upping your calories for a day every now and then.  Or add a cheat meal every two weeks or something.  You don't want to do the same thing every day, or your body gets used to it, and adjusts to maintain at the level you're at.

Also, you said you were eating 1850/day without exercise and you switched to 1600 with exercise.  Are you including eating back any of the calories from the exercise?

Since I posted, I've upped my calories to 1700-1800/day and I'm still keeping up the same work out routine. I'll let you all know if anything changes. I've read a ton of posts about people dealing with no results after they've been working their asses off and I found a common answer: I may actually not be feeding my body enough and it thinks it needs to store the food that I am feeding it therefore not losing any of my weight. This makes sense to me so I decided it wouldn't hurt to try eating more. I mean if I'm eating 1600 calories and burning an additional 600-650 per day because of my workouts, I'm really only eating about 1000-1050 a day and that is definitely not good. The idea of eating more doesn't necessarily scare me since I'm working out so much but I'm finding it really hard to fit that much food into my body. I've had to spread my meals out from the moment I wake to pretty much about an hour or two before I sleep. I eat about 7 small meals per day. That's a lot of food. But I'm willing to give anything a try so I'll post again in about a week or two and update on my results. Thank you for your responses, I hope I figure something out.

by the way, if you're currently having your period, the sudden increase in weight might be due to water retention, and you'll lose it soon after. good luck nonetheless!