unable to shift the scale

[Gsowa]

Hello everyone! I am 5'4, 18 year old female. I have been steadily losing weight since the beginning of January, (from 140 to 127). Unfortunately, for the past two weeks, I have been unable to change the scale. I walk for at least 7 miles a day and then do a cardio workout for about 45 minutes. I am currently only eating one meal a day, so I do not understand how I am no longer losing weight. Please help me!  I am at a loss. 

[wtksk8r]

It could be one of several things (or combination of things) that might be happening.

When you lose a lot of weight, your body can pause to consolidate. You could be at a plateau and you won't lose weight until your body adjusts to your new weight.

With exercise you are shifting from fat to muscle. Muscle is denser and you might still be losing fat and inches but the switch to more muscle means your overall weight loss will stall.

Finally, if your are only eating one meal a day - what is your calorie deficit? If you are on a starvation diet your body can rebel and put you on starvation mode which reduces calorie usage and you end up matching your output to the starvation input.

[Gsowa]

Thank you for your response! For my meal at night, I usually eat about a cup of rice, 4-5 oz of some kind of meat, and about 3/4 cup of a vegetable (squash, kale, cucumbers, etc). I'm consistently at a high calorie deficit. 

[Dominique]

So you’ve lost 13 lbs (9.2% of your starting weight) in 10 weeks (i.e. about 1.3 lbs per week, or about 1% of your body weight), which is pretty much on the high end of recommendations, especially since you didn’t start from an overweight situation (BMI at start of weight loss: 24.0).You should now switch to maintenance, so as to rebuild your metabolism, which was reduced (as expected) by the weight loss you just underwent. Your current BMI is now 21.8, which is a pretty good place to be IMO. If/when you want to lose even more, you can resume your weight loss in 3-4 months. By then, you will be in a better position, metabolically speaking.