Does This Make Sense To Anyone?

One pound about two weeks ago.

If you truly are eating the smallest amount you can without starving yourself (which you don't want to do), then, of course, the other avenue is to tweak your exercise routine. There are four areas where you can "shake things up" in that regard, and "shock" your body past this plateau that is actually quite common in athletes, and not just dieters.

Frequency, Intensity, Type, and Time (duration).

From what it sounds like, perhaps changing the Type is the solution, from your "exercising to the max" statement.

But try the others too. Add 10-20 minutes here and there. Raise the intensity a notch, add another couple of sets, etc. Tweaking any of those a bit may be all that you need to get those extra 100 calories out, and your eventual last pound or so.

Some suggestions to try with diet too, if you haven't already...

Just for the time being, shave or replace all the fat calories everywhere you can, and replace it with carb if needed, as fat is 9 cal/g, carb is 5 cal/g. Use zero dressing, cooking oils, etc.

Use smaller cups and plates.

Start measuring everything exact again, as it is easy to get away from that. Same with adding exact calories.

Remember, calories can be heavy in drinks.

You can go back to your normal eating/exercise routine once those last few pounds are shaved off. You are just in overdrive now. That last "two-minute drive", where things are intensified.

I think I may have an idea of what she's thinking of. Whether or not she's right is another matter though.

Often anorexics will actually initially lose weight when they get admitted to the hospital and are forced to increase their calories. The reason for this is that when they are eating so few calories their body's metabolism slows down a lot in order to counter the strict calories intake. They are in "starvation mode". When they start eating more calories, their metabolism shifts out of starvation mode and starts burning calories at a more normal rate. Subsequently they lose weight before they start gaining it.

I think your friend is suggesting something along those lines.

Yeah, definitely don't starve yourself. I'd just wait a bit longer, and try changing the type of exercise if you still are not losing. That should do it, but if it doesn't, try some of those other things I mentioned.

I agree. I've heard something similar. And it makes sense too.

It does make sense for people who are anorexic but if you're already eating your proper amount of calories for your activity level and other factors, adding junk food to your diet would only make one gain the weight.

She thinks my body is too used to my healthy food so the junk food would be new food and it would be a shock to my body and be broken down faster becauase my body will see it as a new food.

I think that's what she's thinking too. It sounds similar to the concept of switching shampoos because your hair became accustomed to your old shampoo and it was losing its effectiveness. I have no idea if that works for shampoo or not (might be urban legend or something), but I don't think it works for weight loss at all.

I have switched shampoos before for that reason, not sure if its a urban legend or not, but to me some shampoos that were good stopped working. The same is true for tanning lotions, you might get a rally good one and it works but then you need a different one to break the plateau.

But my thought is that the human body breaks down foods a certain way and even if I eat a salad every day, its still going to break down the salad. Some foods are easier broken down than others and I do not see how my body will break down a candy bar better than a salad and cause me to lose weight by eating junk food on a regular basis.