My Diet Isn't Working: What Can I Try Now??

I am a 55 year old woman who has struggled with my weight most of my life.   Most recently I spent 2 1/2 years on Nutrisystem and I successfully lost a total of 40 pounds.  Now I have gained back 8 since I went off of it in January. I went back to Weight Watchers but have lost nothing -- not even the 8 pounds I gained back. It's been an "up 2, down 1; down 2 up one" kind of thing for months now. I also got a Wii Fit and exercise 30-40 minutes a day - have been doing that now for over 3 months, but no effect on weight. My MD tested my thyroid and she also ran some other blood tests and says that my metabolism is normal.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!  Barbara B.

Dear Barbara,
I can certainly appreciate your frustration with sticking to an exercise and diet regimen and not seeing the weight coming off.  It sounds like Weight Watchers has worked for you in the past, but it's just not working now.  Since Nutrisystem was what worked best for you more recently, what do you think about going back to that program again?  Sometimes the simplest answer is the one that works!

Just one other suggestion I have....I usually find that people are not sticking very strictly to their program when they are not seeing the scale move.  I always recommend keeping a diet and exercise diary.  Since we notice how restricted we feel most of the day and most days per week, we tend to let the diet slide a bit to reward ourselves.  Same with exercise: "since I do it almost every day, I'm going to take a few days off because I'm a little under the weather, I'm busy, the weather is bad" you name it!
If you are totally honest with yourself, have you been exercising literally every single day for three months?  Have you never gone over your points with weight watchers?

Every once in  a while we follow the plan to the letter without good results.  But much of the time it's when we follow it "most of the time" that the weight just isn't coming off.

Good luck!