It's just not working!

elrosenberg

Hi everyone.
I'm a 33 year old female who has been overweight my whole life. In 5th grade and 130 pounds, my mom started taking me to weight watchers. I hit my heaviest during my freshman year of college (215 lbs) but lost about 25 pounds that summer - mostly by drastically under eating while still drinking a LOT.
After college, I moved overseas and got control of my weight in a way I never had before. I was gymming regularly, eating well and felt confident about my looks for the first time in my life. I hovered between 175 and 180 for the 4 years I lived there (2004-2008) and slowly crept up to 192 in the first 4 years I was back in Philadelphia (2008-2012). I did South Beach starting in 2012 and loved it. Until last year, I was comfortably between 180 and 183 without trying very hard. I exercised consistently but not enough and ate mostly what I wanted. I love to cook and tend to prefer foods on the healthier end of the spectrum (think fish, chicken, lots of veggies and whole grains).
Last year, I started struggling to stay in that range. In November 2016, I weighed in at 189. I was eating out significantly more and drinking almost every night. I set a goal to lose 10% of my body weight by my 34th birthday (March 2017). During the first few weeks of my "challenge", I was drastically under eating and doing at least an hour of cardio every day. I took off a few pounds but not what I expected. I started seeing a dietitian in December as I was frustrated and wanted a better plan for success. She suggested that I needed to eat 1800 calories per day to restart my metabolism. I have since been getting in somewhere between 1000 and 1400 calories but really don't feel hungry for anymore. I am still exercising every day - at least 30 minutes of cardio and have recently added hot Bikram yoga and spinning. I dropped down to 175 for a day or two but then went right back up to 180. I am still stuck at 180 despite my best efforts.

As an example of a somewhat typical day, today I had:
B: 1 Tbsp PB on a cracker + banana + coffee
Snack: 1/2 pint Halo Top ice cream (140 cal)
Lunch: Tofu, Zucchini, Kale and Spaghetti Squash
Snack 2: Honeycrisp Apple
Dinner: 4.5 ounces baked salmon with greek yogurt/dijon/dill sauce, kale and quinoa

I have only eaten out a handful of times since I started and am barely drinking (i.e. maybe once per week but not more).

What am I doing wrong? I need some help to start making some progress.

Nikion901

Take a look at what you are eating ... I know what you posted all looks good, but you did say you are drinking ... just how many drinks, and what kind did you have? Also, what portion sizes and how do you measure them? ...

Reason I ask is cause I only know from how different foods affect me ... and I know that if I eat peanut butter, crackers and a banana, then follow it up with 1 cup of ice cream, and have a honecrisp apple (which tend to be big apples), and have a grain like quinoa that I'll be holding onto water weight. ... but when I have a couple of eggs with a russet potato for breakfast and a piece of chicken with a veggie medley of bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and tomato for dinner, that I won't have that issue even if I have a bowl of unbuttered popcorn as a late snack and a whole grapefruit during the day.

CafeRacer808

How accurate is your food logging? Are you using a food scale to weigh everything you eat, or do you sometimes rely on volumetric measurements (ie - 1 TBSP of peanut butter from your example)?

serindipte

It would be easier to get good advice with an open diary. Privacy settings: Public

This is also helpful:

helloyukihayashi

serindipte wrote: »

It would be easier to get good advice with an open diary. Privacy settings: Public

This is also helpful:

That chart helped me considerably too. I'm two weeks in and my weight fluctuates up to 4 lbs day by day.

Evamutt

good advise on food from above, what I want to add is that when I started, I didn't loose anything for 2 weeks. I loose one week then have to wait another 1-2 + weeks to loose, also i found my wt fluctuates throughout the day so i go by the wt in the morning. Give it more time

lorrpb

helloyukihayashi wrote: »

serindipte wrote: »

It would be easier to get good advice with an open diary. Privacy settings: Public

This is also helpful:

That chart helped me considerably too. I'm two weeks in and my weight fluctuates up to 4 lbs day by day.

It's perfectly normal to fluctuate a few pounds from day to day. When you are losing, you still fluctuate, but the overall trend of the "lows" is down. I tend to weigh daily, log in Happy Scale trending app to monitor the fluctuations, then log each new low in MFP.

DietPrada

You're exercising every day, you're barely eating (1000 calories a day when you work out is not healthy) and what you are eating is not what I'd call good wholesome food. Plus you've disregarded your dietician's advice. Plus you've been up and down and all over the place with diets and weight your whole life. Reading your post I'm not surprised you're not getting anywhere. Starvation mode is not a thing, but damage to your metabolism is. Weight loss should NOT be your first goal. Your first goal should be to increase your calories to a sensible amount, eat good healthy food (including enough protein, and limiting simple carbs) and do exactly as your dietician suggested. Give it time, allow your body to become healthy again, and maybe then you will be able to lose weight in a healthy way.

Chilli7777

Eat more. Its that simple. Oh and lay off sodium.

dngallimore

Undereating will always come back to haunt you. I'd reexamine the quality of the calories you are consuming at snack time ... try a protein bar or half an avocado and take a vacation from ice cream and carbs that turn into sugar in your body. If you drink as much as I do ... and it sounds like you do ... understand that you are already getting a whole lot of sugar from the wine. No need to supplement with ice cream, fresh fruit, etc. Also, consider a bigger breakfast to give you a good start to your day -- a couple of eggs, turkey bacon, some sliced tomatoes or avocados.

animatorswearbras

Also if you're doing everything correctly get the tape measure out if you've drastically increased your exercise your torn muscles will be retaining water to heal even though you're burning fat. The scale is not always accurate if used as the only measure of fat loss.

mgmalek

Don't weigh yourself too much. I'm most successful when I forget the scales and just focus on enjoying good food and exercising regularly

elrosenberg

Thanks, everyone.
Just as a point of clarification, I'm barely drinking (maybe 2 glasses of wine a week) at this point (and for the last few weeks). I am working on getting more calories and have been making progress.
Seeing the dietician on Thursday for a check-in and measurements.
I SO appreciate everyone's time!!