Last year I lost 35 lbs in about 4 and 1/2 months. Since then, however, I haven't been able to lose hardly anything! I am 5'5 and weigh 148 at the moment. I just want to lose 15 more lbs but everything I've tried doesn't work! I cut my calorie intake recently with little result. A typical day of meals would be Total cereal w/Fat free skim milk & 1/2 a banana cut into it; tuna sandwich made with mustard on whole wheat & lettuce with carrots & and apple; Large vegetable soup w/ yogurt and berries for dessert; snacks of an apple or berries. I also exercise pretty regularly (using The Firm about 5x a week). My job is a fairly active job so I keep moving (not high intensity) for at least 5 hours a day!

I am at a loss! I could really use some help. I made a bet with other members of my family on January 1st that I could lose the weight by April 30th. I thought it was pretty reasonable but now I am not so sure. So far I have lost less than 1/2 a pound week. I admit I'm very discouraged and confused. A few words of comfort/help/support will be wonderful!

How do you track your calories?

How do you weigh your food?

What is your caloric intake?

How consistent is said intake?

When is the last time you took a break from exercise and/or dieting?

Your protein looks low. Your fats most likely are too.

I write my daily calories in a journal every night before bed. I calculate the calories I've eaten by the Nutrition guide on most products or by using an online calorie counter for things like fruit, etc.

Hmm, well I don't weigh my food. If I'm trying to find out how many oz of meat I'm eating for instance, I divide the packaged amount to equal whatever I want/need to eat.

My calorie intake lately has been about 1600 calories a day. I was told I should go lower but after reading some of the posts on here, I'm not sure if I should? When I lost weight last year I think I might have been eating closer to 1200 calories a day. In the months that followed I was more lax about what I ate since I didn't seem to be losing weight anyway. I think my usual calorie intake was around 2200-1800 calories a day.

Hmm. Fairly? On occasion (about 2x a week maybe-weekends) I will go over by about 200 plus calories.

Before January 1st I exercised about 3 times a week or less. I haven't done any really hard core dieting since last...July maybe. Since then I've only been watching what I eat in a general sort of way. Trying not to binge on desserts, etc. On occasion...like two weeks out of November and December...I have been very strict about what I eat.

I'm sure they are! I got into the habit of eating fat free food items. Should I stop that? I also don't eat a lot of meat or beans, although I like them. I just find they take longer to cook.

First thing first.

.5 lbs per week is about right for a female who doesn't have all that much weight to lose. That's very consistent with what I've seen in my experience.

That could be a problem.

Might not be, but certainly seen it be a problem in the past.

Many things don't come so neatly packaged. Think peanut butter, pasta, yogurt (big jars of it), etc. There's a video around here that a fellow trainer made that does a great job of showing how small deviations can lead to big numbers, especially when you're a relatively light female.

Here's the vid:

YouTube - Fat Loss Tips! Shocking!

Hard to say really.

If it's not some sort of depression of metabolism causing your problems (assuming you really have a proble, considering my intro to this post), cutting calories might be a solution for now.

You're currently close to 11 calories per pound, if I'm remembering correctly. I'd shoot for 10 for now. I've seen people have to go lower.

Tying this into what I said above, the lower you go in calories, the more important it becomes what those calories are comprised of.

Protein is critical for overall health and muscle maintenance. Dietary fat isn't bad for you like many lead you to believe.

In general for a relatively healthy person, once calories are accounted for, I assure adequate protein then fats then fill in the gaps.

Adequate protein = roughly 1 gram per pound of goal weight
Adequate fat = 20-30ish % of total cals

Rest of calories can come from either from carbs, more fat, or a combo of the both.

wow... that video was soooo INSIGHTFUL!
hmmm... i need to rethink what ive been doing...
and buy a digital scale! i just use measure cups
and although i dont fill it over the top... it can be
inaccurate. thanks steve!

Check your fat intake aswell.If u lower your fats it makes your body to hold on to the body fats and u hit plateau try to eat good fats like almonds or olives too.
HTH

Show me data supporting this claim in relation to hypocaloric eating.