Expert: Joanne - 1/11/2008

Question
Hi! I was wondering if there is something I am doing wrong in my daily life that could cause me to stop loosing weight. I am 5'8 and about 118 lbs. I want to loose a few more, and i have been on a diet for over a year. So far I have lost about 20 lbs but I cant seem to loose any more as hard as i try. I eat healthy, about 5-6 small meals a day, complex carbs, fruits, veggies and meat! I eat it all in good portions! I try to eat about 1000 calories a day then i work out and do cardio for 1.5 hours burning off about 600 calories, yet I can't loose any weight! How can i shed the last few pounds?

Answer
Andrea

To me it sounds as though your weight loss may have reached a plateau - most likely due to you taking in too few calories to compensate for your exercise.

By burning as much as you are, eating as little as you are, it sounds as though you may have completely slowed down your metabolism.  Now, your body will be burning as few calories as possible and storing almost everything it can in order to ensure that it has enough fuel.

In order to raise your metabolism, you need to eat more.  Even when dieting, it is unwise to go below 1200 calories.  I think that you need to increase your calories intake.  This may cause some initial weight gain, but hopefully not too much, but once your metabolism recovers, you can decrease your intake down to no less than 1200 and hopefully continue to lose weight.

It may be worth going to your Dr just to have some bloods done to make sure that there is no medical reason for this such as thyroid problems, etc, just for your own piece of mind.

All the best
Holly