I want to set my scale on fire!!!

I just want to burn my scale and hide in my bed forever!!! I've been literally killing myself since April 23rd (the start of my diet/exercising - started at 270) and since last week, that damn scale has wavered between 248 and 255!!!  Yesterday, I weighed in the morning and was 248. Today, I weighed in and was at 253!!! WTF?!?!? Maybe I'm over doing it, but yesterday, I did go over my calories by 150 because I thought I had to have some chocolate mini quakes - to 1350 and I only burned off 900 at the gym before I thought I was going to hurl. Most days though, I stay at 1200 calories and burn 1000 at the gym at least 4 days a week.  I don't know what is wrong with me, but this is really driving me crazy! My personal goal was to be at 247 this week!!

If you're eating 1200 and burning 1000, unless I'm missing something, it sounds like you're seriously operating at a fuel deficit!  Any chance you're kicking yourself into a starvation motif and your body's just shutting down the processes and holding everything it's got left? If you're 248 pounds and average height, at 29 years old AND exercising heavily, the calculator I saw says that your body needs over 3000 just to run your basic metabolic bodily functions! Do you feel okay, healthwise?

Other than getting horrible sinus headaches, I think I feel ok. It's been hard for me to actually get moving in the morning, but I'm usually up and out of bed by 6:15 to get my boys off to the bus for school.

As we all know, this is a process.  Every single day brings a new challenge, a new goal, a new leap that we take.  Don't let the scale determine your health or body image.  It's just a measure of pounds, not a measure of success. I found this pretty concise answer on a website: "The answer to your question is, when you exercise, you need to eat the number of calories you burned in order to keep your body from going into starvation mode. Your daily intake calories shouldn't go under 1200 unless directed by a doctor. Your calories burned in exercise should be added to the amount of calories burned just to survive. Take the number of calories needed just to survive and add the number of calories burned. Now take the number of calories burned (to survive and during exercise) subtract the number of calories you have taken in throughout the day. The number should be between 500-1000. If you are close to your goal stay within 500-700 from you calories burned." LOL now that being said, I have no idea how to figure it out for myself.  I never went above 1500 calories when I was on my plan (disclaimer: that doesn't count the days when I went off plan or became a big heifer).  Anyhow.  My caloric intake never went above 1500 calories, and at the beginning it was around 900 calories per day.  I work out 4-5 times a week, burn sometimes 700 calories (just from what the elliptical tells me) not counting what I burn lifting and doing pilates (no guage for that).  I have been successful in maintaining a loss 140 pounds (all done within one year).   Yes I am struggling with a 15 pound rebound weight gain at this point.  (two plastic surgeries and christmas cookies. LOL)   Also, understand that at times the guages on those machines at the gym aren't really true!  My son used to play with them and say he weighed 999 pounds and he was 45 (he is 200 and 14), and when he changed it the calories burned meter would increase 10 fold.  He'd change it back to his numbers and it would change again.  So the machine is not a wonderful determining factor in truly how much we burn.  So don't use those numbers as gospel. I think sometimes we bog ourselves down with information that we try to incorporate without a true understanding of what we are reading.  I think that if we eat well, meaning whole foods, and add exercise into our day, we can't go wrong.  A fairly simplistic approach I imagine, but it has worked for me. Be gentle with the scale and yourself!!!!! Donna

Donna said, "Also, understand that at times the guages on those machines at the gym aren't really true!  My son used to play with them and say he weighed 999 pounds and he was 45 (he is 200 and 14), and when he changed it the calories burned meter would increase 10 fold.  He'd change it back to his numbers and it would change again.  So the machine is not a wonderful determining factor in truly how much we burn.  So don't use those numbers as gospel." No, it's not the gospel-- but a 999 pound man WOULD be burning a lot more calories while doing identical exercise, so the machine might actually have been correct in that case. That's why those numbers change- they slide based on your size, age and weight. (I'm lousy with math myself, but I think I have a handle on THAT one!) It's also why FitDay is a crock of **** when it calculates my calories spent. It uses an average person as the standard-- and I am not even close, so I burn a LOT more calories than it reflects-- I just use it as a journal, really.

Hi Shari, Yes you are right, a 999 pound man would burn more.  However, the machine had NO idea how big the person was on it, only what they put in the machine.  So if you wanted to burn more and psyche yourself out, you could skew the numbers.  Who would do that I don't know. LOL  And what about the people who get on and don't set the machine and just hit manual.  That's the point I was trying to make, other than not to rely on the numbers!!, exactly like you said about FitDay. I use Self.com, same as FitDay, and I barely pay attention to the exercise tracking part.  I also get nervous about the calories part, but then I just become a paranoid person!! haha

these counters are notoriously unrealiable. they don't account for many factors including muscle mass and other important elements of metabolism. see article http://diet.ivillage.com/gear/0,,r383,00.html

the only real way to know what you as an individual are burning is by wearing a heart rate monitor where you plug in all your personal info and it will give you reliable calories burned based on your actual heart rate, weight, distance etc etc. they are actually very interesting to try - you usually aren't burning nearly as much as you think you are (like not even close!). you wear a band around your chest and a watch that reads that info out. polars are good  http://www.polarusa.com/consumer/weightmgt/products.asp

You can also reliably calculate your actual amount burned using some statistical analysis and weighing in daily.

You can also probably harness some of your psychic energy and power a small space station or launch the next shuttle--- if you are Bert. Or you can be like Shari and sit around doing deep analysis of your navel lint.

Okay Miss Smartie pants!!! I wanted to believe that I burned 850 calores doing 45 minutes on the elliptical.  Can't a girl have her fantasies???? Although realistically, if I am burning 850 on the ellip, then doing weights, burning another 300, and then just burning for the hell of it as I moved, and ate only 1400 calories, I'd be at a caloric deficit!!! I did something right losing 140 pounds. I figure I'll stick with it! LOL That heart rate monitor sounds interesting.  They used to have something like that attached to our machines at the gym but suddenly they all disappeared?