Why am I not losing?

OK, here's my situation...I"m 16 months post-op, and I want to lose about 20 more lbs..I weigh  150ish (been as low as 148, high as 155) for the last month. I eat no more than 1500 cals a day, I track EVERYTHING on Sparkpeople or Fitday...I exercise 6 days per week, 4 days I do 60mins of cardio, 2 days I do 40 mins of cardio, and 3 days per week I do some resistance training...just started that a little while ago. According to my BMR, etc etc I should be losing at least 1lb per week...but I'm not, as a matter of fact...I stayed steady at 150 for a few days, and then one morning I woke up at 153...overnight!!  What am I doing wrong?  Why isn't the math adding up? I am soooo upset, discouraged, disappointed, and scared....any ideas as to whats going on? Could I not be eating enough? Help

Yes, yes, all that BMR stuff does not apply when we are on a plateau.  IMHO, stick to what you are doing, and be more stubborn than your body.  I've been there. My bod gets very stubborn for weeks.  I hear tell that try eating 1800 calories for a couple days, then drop to 1200-1400 for a week and see what happens can shake it up!

Well, a couple of things could be in play.   First, forget about the overnight increase to 153.  That is purely normal.  I find my weight fluctuates 3-5 pounds over the course of a month, depending on what I eat, how regular my bowels are, and whether my period is due.  You are not going to stay at the exact same weight day after day. A 3 pound increase overnight is certainly water retention. Second, you may be replacing fat with muscle, which is heavier than fat.  How are your clothes fitting?  Any change?   Third, your resting metabolism may be closer to 1500 calories than you think.  If it's 1700, you are going to lose only 200 calories a day, which means it would take 17-18 days to lose a pound.  And you may be replacing that pound with muscle. I know it's frustrating.  Let me tell you what happened to me. At the beginning of the summer I couldn't fit into size 16 pants.  I really upped my exercise, and ate right, but the weight just inched off.  By August I was wearing the pants comfortably.  I think I lost about 15 pounds over four months - down from about 198 to 185 or so.  I then got down to about 182 and the scale wouldn't budge.  But by November the size 16 pants were big on me.  I had a tummy tuck in January.  Now I am fitting into size 12/14 pants.  I am at 173 or so.  But people say I look better than people who weigh 160.  I think what happened was that I was replacing fat with muscle all those months, but it didn't show because of all the extra skin I had.  Go figure!  Now I look terrific, even though I weigh more than others.  So the change has been very dramatic -- but in reality it occurred very, very slowly over 8 months or so.   I'm saying all this to say that you are probably doing great -- it's just that the scale doesn't necessarily tell the whole story.  Don't judge your success by one piece of the puzzle.  You will be surprised by what you have accomplished....

Hi, I am very similar in  workout situation. I am 2+yrs post-op. I have reached goal weight and am incredibly lean--very muscular at 5'4" and about 138lbs. I do about 4-5 hours hard cardio per week and lift heavy about 5-6 hrs a week. The difference is I eat ALOT more than you. Amazingly if you don't eat enough calories-clean calories- Your body will hold on to the fat and decrease your metabolism-there is nothing you can do about it. For your level of exercise you are eating too little. You need only a small 200-500cal deficit off your total calorie needs(including exercise) to lose weight. Close to goal it comes off more slowly. I eat about 2500 cal/day-a lot to be sure but the exercise level demands it.  I have spent a lot of time ready on t-nation.com-check into it and good luck.