Forever Plateau

Question
Hello, I'm a college female student and I'm trying to lose weight. I started off this summer being 5'6 and weighing 180lbs (I know...wow, right?) And then I started gym-ing everyday and eating a lot less and healthier and lost 17lbs with the help of CLA too! I think I lost around 2 dress sizes so that made me very happy to know that I only had to lose 26 more pounds to reach my goal weight. BUTTT even if I work out and eat less and healthy, it stays the same. THE SAME. But the weird thing is, yesterday when I didn't work out and pigged out at Applebee's I lost 2 pounds. What? It doesn't make sense! I did zumba today and ate less, which means that I will probably gain that weight back and maybe some more. I feel like I'm under a curse. How do I break off from it? I'm desperate for answers and some progress that I failed to make for 2 weeks!

Answer
Plateaus happen to all of us. The important thing is to keep up with your routine and not get discouraged. After that initial blast of weight loss, most people hit a plateau, get discouraged, and quit.

What I find works best is to take a little bit of a break from calorie restriction. Give yourself a thousand extra calories for a day or two so your body doesn't think it's starving. Then, go back and resume your diet. It works wonders. No, that doesn't mean you can binge on chocolate and chicken wings (well, maybe a LITTLE of each).

Remember, your day-to-day weight might fluctuate up and down a few pounds here and there. That's mostly due to fluid levels... ESPECIALLY in women. You're made up of more water than we are, plus your monthly cycle dramatically affects your water levels. So weigh yourself every day or two, but remember it's going to go up and down a little bit. You want that nice, long-term, slow steady decline.

And remember... A POUND A WEEK is a perfectly healthy, reasonable amount of weight loss.

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