theoriginalcurvygirl's Journal, 29 May 14

Remember, you want to lose fat, not weight. The scales are not budging because either: a) you're calorie intake is the same as your calorie expenditure. Ways to go into a calorie defecit are either to try cutting your calories about about 500 more per day, and/or increasing your exercise (walk to places, cycle, don't take the elevator, join a class, etc). Of these two the best is exercise (preferably some strength training) as this stimulates your fat burning processes and builds a little muscle. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns just sitting at rest. 1kg of muscle can increase your daily calorie expenditure by up to 300 calories just lying in bed! b) perhaps they're not budging because you are losing fat and putting on muscle (hopefully already doing (a) above). That's why weight isn't good indicator. Don't get disheartened. c) Things take time. We live in a fast-paced world where we are used to almost instantaneous results. Your body takes time to adjust. Just do the simple things well, (i) eat healthily (meat, fish, olive oil, water, vegetables, brown carbs - stay away from sugary things like soda, ketchup, cereal, white carbs), (ii) count calories here on fatsecret and reduce by about 400-500 per day from what you're doing now (iii) try to exercise more - preferably strength exercises (press-ups, squats etc); (iv) sleep 7-8 hrs per night and breathe during the day (this reduces your cortisol levels which inhibits weight loss), (v) smile and be patient. Do those 5 things and all will be well. 

Thank you Discofunk, that is very helpful. You are the second person who has mentioned weight training, so I'm going to start doing some of that. I am also going to start taking my measurements, rather than relying on the scales only. Thanks for the helpful advice and support!  

I had the same problem. Starting over again now, since vacation is done. Wish you wellness! 

You need body fat calipers. You can get the calipers I use for $15 or less online. They are plastic and with a little practice, are very easy to use. Multiply your weight by body fat % to see how much fat you are carrying. Then track that number each week, instead of weight only. I've lost 16 lbs. total, but 17.5 lbs. of fat. Because the program I'm on has what I believe is the right way to compute your RDI for macros (carbs, fat, protein), I have dropped 17.5 lbs. of fat, am 10% lower in body fat than when I started, and gained 5.2 lbs. of muscle.