Why can't I loose weight

Tawny1727

I have gained 25 lbs in last 2 years. I am active working two jobs and home chores. I've started back to gym as well. I do Herbalife shakes 2 times a day along with colorful dinner & healthy snacks. All my friends doing Herbalife have all lost weight while I'm either the same or I gain. I'm in peri menopause.

diannethegeek

Are you logging your food? Are you sure that you're in a calorie deficit?

1. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

2. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

3. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

4. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

5. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

6. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

7. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs. You might also be sure your scale is working and doesn't need new batteries or anything.

8. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

naomi8888

Are you weighing, measuring and tracking all your foods? Regardless of how healthy they are you could be consuming a lot of calories. Just go back to basics and weigh and log EVERYTHING for a week and see how much you're actually eating.

MichelleSilverleaf

Because Herbalife isn't a magic pill (and a colossal waste of money to boot). If you're not losing but not gaining, then you're maintaining. You need a deficit to lose weight and unless you're tracking your calories accurately you have no way of knowing how much you're eating. I'd say ditch the money pit shakes, put your stats into MFP for a daily number of calories based on how much you want to lose, buy a food scale and start accurately tracking your food. You'll have far more success and a better chance of long term success, because while Herbalife might work it teaches you absolutely nothing about long term maintenance. Your friends will likely regain all that weight once they're done.

AnvilHead

You're not losing weight because you're taking in more calories than you're expending, simple as that.

Herbalife shakes won't cause weight loss. Actually, they won't cause anything except wasting your money.

pogiguy05

I think you taking in more calories then you think. just cause you have a colorful dinner means nothing. You need to start logging all your food and buy a food scale. Read labels and be honest with your logging. If you start doing this I bet you come back surprised at how many calories you are eating.

How many calories in your herballife shake?

Nery_Tay

Herbalife is just a pyramid scheme. Don't support those sorts of business models. I think you need to see the overall picture of what you are eating. The first post has really great information.

cenafan

Wouldn't real food, healthy yummy food be more fulfilling than Herbalife shakes? Replace those calories with food. And see what happens.

callsitlikeiseeit

ummmm eat real food please. youll spend less, have better nutrition, feel fuller longer, and learn how to weigh and portion your food servings. and not contribute to pyramid schemes.

tess5036

You may feel like you are dieting as you are depriving youirdelf and using herbalife, but this does not mean you will loose weight. As everyine has said, the issue is not whter or not you are uisng herbalife, but if you are eating ore calories than you are expending. If your friends are loosing weight, it means that whatever they are using (herbalife or otherwise) thier diet has a calorie deficit.

You can diet without using herbalife, or any other tools, and eat whatever type of food you like, as long as ypoui count the caloiries and make sure you eat less calories than you use.

Lean59man

Why are you gaining weight?

That's an easy one.

You are eating too many calories.

25lbs. over 2 years equals just over 1lb. per month.

That's approximately 1/4 lb. per week which is 900 calories/week too much or just under 130 calories too much per day.

lowil44

Perimenopause is the key word here. If you google perimenopause and weight loss, you'll find info that indicates that low calorie doesn't work and suggests switching to low carb or Mediterranean. I myself (post meno) have a difficult time losing weight; took me about a year to lose 15 lbs on moderate low carb. Will now be trying to lower carbs even more to hopefully accelerate that process.

callsitlikeiseeit

lowil44 wrote: »

Perimenopause is the key word here. If you google perimenopause and weight loss, you'll find info that indicates that low calorie doesn't work and suggests switching to low carb or Mediterranean. I myself (post meno) have a difficult time losing weight; took me about a year to lose 15 lbs on moderate low carb. Will now be trying to lower carbs even more to hopefully accelerate that process.

no. just no. low carb and Mediterranean are ways to achieve a calorie deficit. but so would simply cutting portion sizes.

MaddMaestro

You're probably eating more, or burning less, calories than you think. How many calories are those shakes? Are you snacking in between? Some 'healthy' snacks can be loaded with calories. Not that it makes them unhealthy, just keep in mind how much you're eating.

lucerorojo

I'm 52 and I lost 35 lbs. since I started logging on MFP the last week of June 2017. I still have a lot more to go, and I haven't maintained the loss yet obviously. So I can't speak to maintaining--I'm hoping I will be able to by tracking--I don't have a problem with logging for the rest of my life. I find it empowering to know how much I need to eat.

But I too believed (because of my PREVIOUS doctor) that I would not be able to lose weight after age 40. My doctor told me that I needed to lose any weight before then because I wouldn't be able to afterwards. That is nonsense but I believed it. (My previous doctor was chubby herself so maybe she was basing it on her own experience). I wish I had NOT listened because from 45-51 I gained 70 lbs. with that defeatist attitude. I didn't even weigh myself and had no clue about calories because I thought it didn't matter. I've had a new doctor for the last 6 years, but didn't bother to listen to what she told me about weight loss (she happens to be thin) until this summer when she told me to start writing down what I ate at least, since my weight just kept going up and my stats were not looking good. I had a thyroid test too and there was nothing wrong with me. When I started logging I saw that I was eating over 3000 calories a day and THAT was what caused the weight gain. There are hormonal factors, lack of sleep, stress, etc. that can come into play, but for me none of that mattered as much as EATING TOO MUCH.

Everybody is different but I really don't think it helps to believe that you "can't lose weight" because of age and peri-menopause or menopause. Most doctors don't have a clue about nutrition and there are women who aren't fat in the 40s. I have some friends in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who look the same (slim) as they did at 22 and others who have ballooned. It's not universal that you can't lose weight after a certain age.

JDixon852019

You need a food scale not MLM BS

Sharon_C

lowil44 wrote: »

Perimenopause is the key word here. If you google perimenopause and weight loss, you'll find info that indicates that low calorie doesn't work and suggests switching to low carb or Mediterranean. I myself (post meno) have a difficult time losing weight; took me about a year to lose 15 lbs on moderate low carb. Will now be trying to lower carbs even more to hopefully accelerate that process.

This is just another way to put yourself in a caloric deficit. How you do it and how you maintain that caloric deficit without crashing and burning is totally a personal choice.

And I would not recommend low carb if you are working out or weight lifting. You need those carbs for fuel.

ladyhusker39

Lean59man wrote: »

Why are you gaining weight?

That's an easy one.

You are eating too many calories.

25lbs. over 2 years equals just over 1lb. per month.

That's approximately 1/4 lb. per week which is 900 calories/week too much or just under 130 calories too much per day.

I love simple, clear math when explaining weight gain/loss. Awesome! It illustrates how people (me included) are shocked and appalled how quickly we can put on 25 lbs and then equally shocked and appalled when we can lose the very same 25 lbs so slowly.

Oh the irony.

OP, by the above numbers, if you just cut a small snack (130ish calories) from your day and eat like you did before, you'd be back to your original weight in the same 2 years. Cut out 2 small items (260ish calories) and it will only take you 1 year.

Your biggest issue IMO is that you're going crazy overboard trying to take the weight off super fast which clearly isn't working.

gabriellejayde

I'm 50 and have lost 86lbs in 8 months. very little exercise (and no herbalife! lol).
you're eating too many calories - simple as that. menopause has nothing to do with it.