just a women's thing

hey,

Ok, since April I have been eating 1200-1600 calories a day and exercising and lost about 45 pounds steadily.

But now that I am close to my goal weight (I need to lose 10-15 pound), something weird has happened.

I only lose weight in the two weeks right after TOM. After those 14 days I gain like 2 pound overnight and then the scale doesn?t move until after my period. I don?t seem to lose any inches.

In periods where I am not losing weight, I still don?t eat more than 1600 calories a day

Anybody else have similar experiences? Or any tips to speed my weight loss

Well this site actually says that women should not take any less than 1200 calories a day SO by you taking 1600, it's going to help you gain. During your TOM you can go ahead an make sure to ONLY eat 1200 a day and see how that goes. If you're really wanting to loose weight though, try less than 1200.

Aishiteru - i think you have the wrong idea. How much weight you lose depends upon the deficit between calories expended and calories eaten. The defecit should be somewhere aroud 500 calories per day. Someone whose body uses 1700 calories a day would suit a 1200 calorie per day diet. This is the absolute minimum recommended calorie intake for anyone.

If futte is eating 1600 calories a day, I'm assuming her body normally uses 2100 calories or so per day (500 cal defecit), which is pretty normal i think.

I'm no expert, but i wouldn't suggest trying to stick to only 1200 cals if you're body needs significantly more.

The sudden weight gain is just water, not fat.  Try visiting the Maintenance forum for advice.  That last 10 pounds is really the hardest to lose. 

Congratulations on getting rid of those 45 pounds!  You deserve a lot of credit for that.

Futte, your TOM plateau lasts longer than mine, but yes, I experience something similar every month.  And I agree that 1600 sounds just fine, especially if you are exercising.  Do bear in mind that the less you weigh the less you burn naturally, but slow and steady is still the way to go.  :)  Hang in there, we'll get through the last 10!

Sounds like you're doing everything right to me.  As long as your burning more calories than you're taking in, it will all come off in the end.  Try not to get discouraged. 

I know a lot of people that plateau and many of them for longer than you, so I wouldn't worry.  Just keep it up! 

Good luck.  45 lbs is AWESOME!  You're doing great!

:o  That's me.

Don't listen to aishiteru_sunshine, never go below 1200 calories a day.  if you "really" need to lose weight.   You're body will start to slow down it's metabolism even further

Try to exercise a bit more and increase your caloric intake at the same time,  then drop it again to below 1600 it may give your metabolism the shakeup it needs to start losing again.

You cut out carbs from your last meal of the day and replace the calories with a protien. That will speed up weightloss.

You can do double cardio every other week(once during the day, and once in the evening).

You can have 2 consecutive days in a row during the week where you lower your overall calories for the day by 15%, and the other days keep them up where you've had them.

You can cut out any cheat meals you have during the week.

Those are 4 ways you can kickstart more fat burning.

Futte - My experience is similar: I gain during the week before my period (about 2 pounds, sometimes 3).  Those pounds come off during the period and then a couple days after my period ends I'll see a dramatic loss overnight (3-4 pounds). 

Do you log your weight loss?  If so, I would take a log entry from about two weeks after your period, and compare it to the same time the previous month.  If your weight loss is normal overall, I wouldn't worry about how your cycle affects the speed of loss.

I have exactly the same problem. I think it is water weight cancelling out your own naturally slower, low-level weight loss in the last stages - agreeing with the last post.

Screws with my trend line though :(

Sounds like a plateau.  I've had the same thing happen.

I read in "the Glycemic Index" Diet that once you lose 10% of your body weight to maintain that for 3 months then go for the additional losses.  Our metabolisms sometimes need to ajust to the new rate and if you let your body get used to its new weight and rate it will respond again to losses when you try again.  I know its hard to want to lose the weight and it just stops. 

I understood from the description that she *is* still losing, but slowly and interrupted by regular monthly peaks?

I'm fairly resigned to it, to be honest.