The rantings of a mad fat lady!

OK...I will not bore you with my usual "i cant break this plateau" story BUT....I will ask for some opinions cuz I am getting so freakin mad I am cant take it anymore! I am busting my ass and still no movement. Seriously..according to my weight loss plan I have scheduled out from now till xmas I should lose 2 pounds a week to reach my goal. I was up ahead 8 pounds according to my schedule now every week I get farther & farther BEHIND! GRRRRRRRRRRRR... SO here are my questions...

1. I get up in the morning about 7ish, get ready and go to work. I would eat breakfast at work around 10-10:30. I am thinking (and I started this today) Maybe I should eat breakfast at home in the morning to jump start my metabolism? Ya think this will help, eating right away and not waiting 3 hours?

2. I have 8 pound weights that i have been using to get rid of the flabby ass things attached to me called arms. Should I lose more weight before I start using this little weights to help my arms or are they so light it is just helping to burn some cals?

3. Can everyone tell me 1 thing they have done to break their plateau? I ate more, i drank more water, i exercise...what the heck is left to do?

My goal date isnt that far off and here is me.....sitting on 194.....is this number in love with me or something? It doesnt want to leave me! I have set my short term goal to 190. that is 4 stinkin pounds....how can i make them go away? I am not even close to my goal weight so why it is stalling!!!!!!!!

1.  Yes, eat earlier.  It doesn't count as breakfast if you're eating at ten and you get up at seven.  You should be eating breakfast within 45 minutes of getting up.  This will set a good foundation for your day.

2.  The weights will help, but do whatever is easiest for you.  I also suffer from the flab arm.  And do you know what helps the most?  Yoga.  Get yourself to a beginning yoga class - I do vinyasa - and you'll feel a difference in your arms right away.  They'll be sore as hell. 

3.  The one thing that broke my plateau was time.  I just kept doing what I was doing.  Try measuring yourself.  You might not be losing pounds, but you could still be slimming down.

And relax.

Don't Worry! I know how you feel, I was 2 lbs away from my goal weight, I plateaued (for a long time, but was ok with that - it was only 2 lbs), ate more, then started gaining, gained 3 lbs, despaired of ever being at my goal weight, and then decided to kick these last lbs in the butt and give it one last go, then trying to lose the 5 lbs I plateaued once more and finally just got the scale to move again these last two weeks and dropped 4 lbs all at once. I suppose the plateau could be because I was so close to my goal though, I hear the last few pounds are really hard to shift. However, to break the plateau, I:
1) changed my exercise routine, and began working out in the morning;
2) didn't count any calories for 3 days straight. I ate whenever I felt like it, at strange times of day, at night, and overall just deviated from my normal "schedule" of eating;
3) I started eating more of my calories in the beginning of the day, rather then at the end.

I was just like you: tried eating more, exercising, drinking water etc...none of it worked. I think it just took a change in my routine to smarten my body up! Our bodies are great at adapting, perhaps yours has simply gotten a little too much "into the groove" and its time for a change. Have you tried varying your schedule a bit for a week or so, tried not being so rigid? Don't stress too much about it, even that could be preventing you from losing as well (I think it did for me as well). Stress freaks your body out, maybe it is off balance. Just try relaxing a few weeks, it is not the end of the world if you don't meet your exact goal date. If anything, you can just meet it a few weeks later. This is a life-long change, not a rush to meet some scheduled deadline! The human body is a complex thing, it doesn't conform to our concept of "deadlines". If you try and push your body too hard to meet it, then it will push back. 

Does this mean the coffee didn't work? I was just thinking about you this morning reading an O Magazine article about speeding metabolism at the dentist's office.

Here were theire suggestions: exercise more -- especially strength training, add caffeine in moderation and green tea (for ECGC).

Personally, I think that eating breakfast within 45 minutes of walking up will do more for you! And I wouldn't worry about using 8 pound weights. I think they are small enough that you don't have to worry about "bulking up."

Good luck!

I don't know how much help I can be, but my nutritionist did say it is very important to eat within 1 hour of getting up to start your metabolism for the day.

She also told me to make sure I get a protein snack after I exercise within 30 minutes to help minimize muscle loss. 

I hope that helps some...keep up the hard work.

I have been drinking only a half cup of coffee a day so I dont think that is enough to give me the boost I need so I dont know if it will help or not. I have 60 pounds to go and although I dont have to be at my goal weight by xmas I was hoping to be close....I feel like I am never going to get anywhere. I guess I will just have to be patient (not one of my strong points) and wait it out. I will try this eating first thing in the morning to see if that helps. I am not usually hungry right away but maybe that is a good thing cuz then i wont over eat for breakfast. we will see! I am changing my eating schedule around!

no one has anymore idears for me???

    It took me months of exercising and weightlifting, as well as learning to eat healthy, before I saw the scale at all. What I did do though was to measure myself. During that time I lost 6 inches off of my waist! Believe me it made a huge difference. Also I noticed my body getting more and more firm. My bum and breasts lifted a noticeable 2 or 3 inches! So don't discourage over the scale. It will come if you are in this for the long haul. I have about the same amount of weight you have to lose so I understand feeling anxious about getting it off. Stick with it and focus on healthy whole foods (not the processed rubbish we see all over the grocery store!). The weights will help you speed up your metabolism and help the inches come down.  I agree with the previous posts about eating sooner in the morning. Also try to eat every couple of hours to keep your metabolism going. No big gaps between meals. If you are starving then you waited too long. Hope this helps. 

KC, I added more fiber to my diet (i love the fiber one powder), upped my water to 110 oz a day and zigzaged my calories. It certainly helped. 

Good luck!!

Have you switched up what your eating the the exercise you're doing?

To break my first plateau - I ate less carbs, more protein (just until I saw the scale moving down again).   I also changed my exercise.  Not necessarily harder, just different. SO instead of biking, I was doing heavy yard work through a long weekend.  Mix things up!!  Oh yes, GREEN TEA!!! I have that every morning. I swear it is helping me continue to lose. I hate green tea, but if I let it cool off, I can gulp it down quickly!  It curbs my appetite, and with my light breakfast, it gets my metabolism moving :)  Hope that helps!

hi,
i had a 45 day plateau.  I didn't worry durring the entire time.
I knew I was doing good.  I'm not in a hurry but looking at this as a new life style one I can actually live with.  After 25 years of yo yo dieting I just can't return to it.  So, I eat healthy.  I eat plenty.
I'd say I eat 1400-2000 a day depending on the day.  I've lost
8-9 pounds in 3months.  That's 3 pounds a month.  If I did that steadily for a year I'd be 36 pounds lighter in one year.  Well
if I did this two years in a row I'd be at goal!  So, I am that casual about it.  I know what it's like to lose 40 pounds in 40 days only to regain it 40 days later.  did it all the time.  No fun.  

I made two big changes.  No 4 big changes since comging here 3mths ago. 

1.) I made my breakfast smaller.  I was eating a home-made egg sandwich with cheese and fluffy eggs made with cream on toast. 
That was about  700 calories!  Now I eat oatmeal everyday with almonds and I love it.  About 300 calories for both.

2.) I drink a lot of water.  I mean a lot.  I love it now.  Took me a while to get use to it.  My hip was hurting prior and the water fixed that.  I think my body was crying out for water. 

3.) exercise.  I didn't exercise.  I do now and I love it.  I walk or do my elliptical machine.  I look forward to it and I feel good from it.
makes me stronger.

4.) No deserts or very little.  I was having a desert every day sometimes twice a day.  Now none or very little.  If I want ice-cream I have it but only 1/2 cup and I don't do it everyday.

I have always eaten healthy but my big breakfast and my deserts were not healthy.  I got rid of those.  That alone saved me 700-900 calories. 

I was eating 2200-2600 and gaining 2 pounds faithfully every month for 2 years.  I said enough!

Now I eat 1400-2000 calories it varies.  I exercise about 400 calories or so or more a day. 

I'm loosing slowly but surely.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope that helps you see the mind set I have. 

Hello kcnae3:

Can I suggest one more thing? when you make your weight loss plan, make sure to be flexible. you should not expect to follow your plan smoothly. I think it is a good idea to have your breakfast early. a cereal with milk and fruit will be great. You will love it:)

good luck.

I'm probably going to get razzed for this... but, are you eating back the calories you're burning in exercise?

The reason I ask is that when I tried doing that, eating back what I burned in exercise, I found that I wouldn't lose, I would just maintain or even gain.  I felt like I was giving myself permission to eat more that way.

I just stay at 1500 cals/day and was able to break my plateu and lose 7lbs since...  Total of 22lbs gone - 48 left to go...

So - that was just a suggestion.

cjeka I am not gonna raz you for that comment at all. Honestly I dont understand that concept. I eat between 1200-1300 a day and work out. I dont say ok I burned 250 cals so now I am gonna eat 250 cals. Seems to kinda defeat the purpose although others will say different. If I do eat like 1400 I will workout extra hard to make sure I get to 1200 or so. But I am gonna keep trying.

8lbs weights are probably just not heavy enough anymore.  Get some heavier weights to challenge your body out your stall.  Don't worry I doubt you will get bulky.  I am working on getting up to 25lbs biceps curls (can do a few reps with 20lbs right now!!!!) and I have no bulk to my arms, there getting really sexy though.

KC-most importantly..don't get discouraged and stay the course, if you are eating right, getting physical activity like you should, there is no way you will continually stay in the plateau!

My suggestion is to kick up your cardio, lower carb intake, increase fiber & protein intake as these help with hunger control greatly.

Evaluate your actual intake carefully..if you are not keeping track of cal., carb., fat, etc. it is possible you are taking in more than you think too.

Hope this helps for you, we're all here pullin' for 'ya!

I think one of the best things you can do is eat breakfast pretty much right away in the morning.  Don't wait until you're "Starving" to eat anything, because that's when your metabolism has slowed down.  Try it, I bet it'll make a difference.

I agree with what everyone has said above RE: eating breakfast and zig-zagging.  But in your original post you don't mention whether or not you do any cardio?  If you do cardio, you will lose weight.  The trick is: you gotta commit to doing it every day, even if it's just 30 minutes.