Congrats on the loss so far. I had two pretty long stalls where I was pretty sure my body was done. There were a few factors involved.
Log your food. Do it, and do it religiously. Set goals and meet them. When I stalled out and maintained at close to the same weight for several months, I wasn't logging my food. And guess what? I was back to old habits and totally in denial about how much I was eating. I was up to 1200-1500 calories a day, and DUH the scale was hardly moving. I was grabbing a handful (or three) of jelly belly Beans throughout the day, eating almost no Protein, enjoying a soda and popcorn late night snack...just bad habits that I can't allow if I still want to lose weight.
I started logging, dropped those calories right back down to where I was when I was losing and BAM! I'm finally closing in on my goal. I also had to retrain myself and lock the carb monster away again, which was tough for about three days but now I'm fine.
So log that food.
Here's where a lot of folks will disagree with me, though, because nobody can deny that exercise is great for us and helps us to stay fit and fight off cravings and reshape our formerly flabby bodies. But exercise alone isn't going to just jumpstart your weight loss. Look to what you're actually putting in your body first because that's usually where you can find the solution.
Do exercise. You want a nice, toned body when you get to goal and you want a healthy heart so you can live a long life and enjoy your goal weight! But don't think that throwing yourself into the gym for an extra hour each day is going to miraculously get you to goal all by itself.
Look into the external factors. Got stress? I mean, more than usual. :smile1: Did you change any medications or so something different? Make sure you eliminate the possibility that something else is impacting your slow down.
Finally, stop comparing! We inevitably get stressed and frustrated because our scales move slower than someone else's. Well, I had surgery a year ago July. I admit, I haven't been as great about tracking my calories the whole time and I hate exercise. But I've been a slow loser the entire time, no matter what I tweaked or changed or cut out. Sometimes, our bodies just need time to adjust. Sometimes, we're just different than other people and lose at a different rate. I was so happy for my friend that got sleeved at the same time as me when she hit goal after only 9 months - and she had more to lose! But I was also jealous and frustrated because I wasn't there. But I'm almost there now, and that's what matters.
Honestly - take a break for a second and put your expectations and impatience aside. If you got to goal and it took two years instead of nine months would you really care once you got there? I was in such a rush to hit goal by 10 months out, but you know what? Victory is JUST as sweet at 16 months out.
So keep plugging away. Log that food and see if you have a problem. But don't fall into bad habits or give up because you feel like you're not going to lose anything else. If you keep doing the right things you WILL reach your goal.
Good luck!
~Cheri
