long time, no lose

bittyl41

At 77, I admit I've been watching my weight since my teen years. I've never been a blimp, although BMI says I'm obese, and I look awful next to my sisters, who eat normally. I'm not sedentary; I prefer moving around. For years I have existed on 1200-1400 calories/day, eschewing carbs, especially after lunch. But ..here I am..

Doc says, after looking at my lab reports, since I feel good I shouldn't worry. Hah. My food diary says I should be losing 2 lbs a week on a 1200 calorie regimen. Not happening. At my age I'm not about to spend time sweating in a gym for hours at a time (spending a lot of $$, which I don't have). But why am I not losing weight? I'd just give up, but I don't want to buy larger clothes--although smaller would be welcome. Suggestions, please.

Sumintra2018

First off, I don't think your focus should be in cutting down calories drastically and or pushing your limits at the gym...
At 77, it's normal for the body to slow down a bit especially the metabolism.

In my personal opinion you should focus more on being healthy... Now what is healthy? 😅

Well eating the right amount of food, getting your recommended nutrition needed and doing appropriate amount of exercise.

With this alone you can slowly (sad to say this but yes slowly) loose weight. Nothing wrong in the weight slowly shedding off... However I would find it to be a problem to cut away all that is good and healthy for you just to loose weight quickly, your body still needs it's nutrients and a certain amount of carbs and fats just balance what you take in.

Now if you doc says everything is fine then I wouldn't worry too much your lab results would show everything needed to give a clear indication of your health and for your age most people would have lab results coming back with high LDL HDL cholesterol levels or sodium levels out of what and need to be in low fat diet or low sodium and popping pills like crazy.

Secondly, I'm 26 and I don't believe in frustrating my body to get to my ideal BMI... (That's depressing) I focus more on healthy eating and exercise. I prefer to look at life in a way which you should enjoy it not stress over every little thing.

Recap: Healthy lifestyle, eat the appropriate amount of calories with the recommended amount of nutrients needed for your age and gender and get some physical activities in. And no healthy lifestyle doesn't need to be boring or depressing. Healthy food can be tasty and exercise can be fun.

Sorry for the rant

kommodevaran

Your sisters who eat normally, are thinner than you? What does that tell you? It should tell you that cutting out food groups and bizarre eating patterns is not only not necessary, it's counterproductive.

If you've been overweight since you were a teenager, you can be sure that what you're doing, isn't working. You can be sure you've not been eating 1200-1400 calories per day, consistently, for real, and/or for any length of time.

To lose any discernible weight, you have to be in a true calorie deficit for weeks. Using MFP correctly, which at the very least includes a food scale, logging everything in your food diary, and hitting your calorie goal every day, ensures you're in a calorie deficit. MFP tells you how much to eat to lose weight, you decide what, when and whether to stick to your allowance. That's what we mean by "simple, but not easy".

You don't have to go to the gym, but being active is good for you.