What am I doing wrong?

[antoniojones1968]

I was dangerously obese when I first started dieting. I have been losing weight for more than two years now. You can barely recognize me today from who I was back at that time, which is great and I’m very proud of that.

In the middle of the summer, I stopped losing weight. I still have 20 pounds to go before I reach my goal and I can’t seem to get the fat to come off anymore. What am I doing wrong?

I have not stopped counting calories and I am still exercising 5 days per week, but every Saturday when I get on the scale I’m the exact same weight. It hasn’t gone up or down a single time for more than two months. What do I do?

[Mike]

Maybe you have been following the same program too long. Talk to your doctor. You might need to make your exercises more challenging because you're in better shape than you used to be, or you might need to lower your daily calories because you're not as big as you were.

[char]

That's what it sounds like to me. You seem to have maxed out the current level of your diet in terms of the benefits that it can bring you. You might need to drop your calories a little bit to reflect your new and smaller body. You might need to squeak in another workout at the start or end of the day. Give one or both of those a try and see if it can kick your body back into weight loss mode again.

[ffviifan]

You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re keeping it up and that’s very important. It could just be that you have reached a plateau and your body is changing its balance of muscle and fat. That can make it seem like nothing is happening when really it is. If you really don’t think things are working, talk to your doctor. There could be another factor at play.