Not losing at all - getting discouraged

asullivan6

Hi all,
I am 5'2" and 162 pounds. I exercise 3-5x/week (1 hour walk or 30 minute high intensity boot camp) and eat very healthy. I am not losing any weight! I mean not one single pound in 3 weeks.
I have two young children and work full-time so wake up at 5:30AM to exercise. I plan meals out and make healthy choices daily.
Because of a past eating disorder, I choose not to count calories as it tends to make me neurotic and anxious.
A typical day for me would be 2 egg whites with one slice of cheese for breakfast, nuts or a piece of fruit for snack, a salad with chicken, tons of veggies and balsamic vinegar or tuna with dijon and a few Mary's Gone Crackers crackers for lunch and protein and veggies for dinner.
I rarely indulge beyond this typical day although sometimes have a turkey sandwich with mustard for lunch.
I am getting really frustrated and discouraged. I have successfully lost weight in the past but just feel like since having my second child my metabolism has completely stalled.
Any tips, feedback, etc would be SO appreciated!

kd_mazur

Are you still in touch with your eating disorder medical team? Perhaps they can give some direction. Honestly, if you don't know how many calories your body needs and how many you are actually taking in, you will struggle.

H_Ock12

Maybe you could incorporate some body weight exercises or weight lifting into your routine?

Having a ballpark estimate of the amount of calories your body needs and the amount you're consuming will help, also. If you meal plan, you could do this by going to an online calorie calculator, calculating your calorie needs and meal planning once a week accordingly (if your meals are prepared ahead of time, it may cause you less stress). You want to make sure you're getting the correct amount of protein, carbs, and fats in your diet, also. And you want to make sure you're eating enough calories.

You could also try a nutritionist or weight loss coach (depending on if you want to put money into it) who could design a meal plan for you, based on your calorie needs.

cee134

cathipa

Make sure you are weighing your food and not using cups/spoons/guestimates/eyeballing.

Check out this: Weight loss

mwopm3

Love, love that graphic! Thanks cee134!

That certainly explains some of my plateaus.

mwopm3

Good point and video. Thanks for sharing.

SueInAz

asullivan6 wrote: »

Hi all,
I am 5'2" and 162 pounds. I exercise 3-5x/week (1 hour walk or 30 minute high intensity boot camp) and eat very healthy. I am not losing any weight! I mean not one single pound in 3 weeks.
I have two young children and work full-time so wake up at 5:30AM to exercise. I plan meals out and make healthy choices daily.
Because of a past eating disorder, I choose not to count calories as it tends to make me neurotic and anxious.
A typical day for me would be 2 egg whites with one slice of cheese for breakfast, nuts or a piece of fruit for snack, a salad with chicken, tons of veggies and balsamic vinegar or tuna with dijon and a few Mary's Gone Crackers crackers for lunch and protein and veggies for dinner.
I rarely indulge beyond this typical day although sometimes have a turkey sandwich with mustard for lunch.
I am getting really frustrated and discouraged. I have successfully lost weight in the past but just feel like since having my second child my metabolism has completely stalled.
Any tips, feedback, etc would be SO appreciated!

The very first thing you're going to want to understand to be successful is that eating quote/unquote "healthy" means absolutely nothing for weight loss. It's not what you eat, it's how much you're eating that makes the difference. It's very easy to gain weight eating only "healthy" foods if you eat too much of them.

While I understand that you feel calorie counting would be counter-productive because you're worried you'll obsess over it all you still need to understand how many calories you're eating each day vs. how many you are burning to be successful. If you aren't eating less than you're burning you won't lose weight and that appears to be what's going on for your right now.

Perhaps you need to figure out the calorie counts of what you're eating on typical days. You'd need to still be exact with your portion sizes, which means using a kitchen scale to weigh portions, but you could set up a few "meals" that are the same every time you eat them and enter them that way into MFP. That way, you'll always know how many calories you're getting for each meal without having to mess with the numbers after you get everything set up. It would allow you some variety without requiring a lot of fuss and chances to obsess.

asullivan6

Thanks for the suggestions all! I'm going to start logging MFP because as some of you said, I really am eating the same things most of the time. Yesterday I was right around 1300 calories, which is where I need to be to be losing. So that tells me I mostly am doing things right. My workouts do have weight lifting so maybe I am also gaining muscle mass. I'm going to keep being patient and hopefully something will happen - I do FEEL much better, which ultimately is the goal.