PLEASE, I'm so upset and I have tried everything and I can't seem to lose weight

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  • dsc84
    dsc84 Posts: 208 Member
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    You have to accurately measure and your best bet is to weigh. Even prepackaged is off. (See examples above).

    Another example is my breakfast this morning. 4 eggs. Said 1 egg = 70 Cal ( 50 Grams) so it should have been a total of 280 Cal (200 Grams). Total was 224 Grams for 314 Cal. It's only 30 Calories difference, but add that up over the span of a week/month/year is a lot of extra calories. Not only that but if I do this with other things, I'm eating calories I'm not tracking and then I ask why am I not losing.

    Weight loss is all about the Calories. Just got to make sure the input is what it needs to be.
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
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    xxzenabxx wrote: »
    I would 100% recommend weighing your food and if your insulin is high then it doesn’t process carbs efficiently so I would lower them. Aim for a lower carb diet but don’t be keto unless you want to do that. But yeah, you’re basically eating at maintenance. You need to weigh your food. I guarantee you’re eating more than you think. Infact you’re probably eating an extra 500-700 calories without even realising. Some people can lose weight without a food scale- I’ve seen it with my own eyes, but some can’t. Use a food scale consistently for 4-6 weeks and I guarantee you’re going to see your weight drop. I’m F, 27 yrs old, 5’ 4” and I have PCOS and I’m losing weight on 1900-2000 calories a day. I only have 12-15 lbs left so it’s slow... about 0.5 lb a week. But I’ve tried the fast method and it didn’t work. I’ve been yo-yo dieting since I was 16! So yeah, in the beginning I didn’t want to weigh my food either but the people on MFP convinced me and here I am! I have gone from my highest weight last year of 168 lbs to 151 lbs. Basically start weighing your food!

    I will forsure, a lot of my friends are telling me I might have PCOS judging by my symptoms. So how much calories should I be eating, what MFP sets out? On my settings I put sedentary (my job is a desk job) and I try to work out at least 3 times a week but now I am aiming for 5. It then asks how much pounds a week to lose I put 1 and so it gave me a 1300 calories.
    How much grams of carbs should I eat? I was advised 100 grams by my doctor
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
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    Agreed, you need to weigh everything, and log everything. Unless you know exactly what you're consuming, you don't know if you're eating 1,300 calories or 900 calories or 2,000 calories. It's really easy to get it wrong by estimating. For many us, estimating is how we ended up overweight in the first place.

    When you say you're aiming for 1,300 calories per day, is that net?

    I'm a little taller and heavier than you and on 1,200 calories, but my activity level is nothing. You do workouts, so 1,300 calories is only going to sound right if you're eating back some of your exercise calories on top of that.

    Oh, and you have my sympathy. Something isn't right (I suspect it's the estimating food), but you've clearly been trying, and I'm sorry that your efforts haven't been rewarded. Figuring out what works for you is always hard.

    1300 is the goal MFP set out for me, On my settings I put sedentary (my job is a desk job) and I try to work out at least 3 times a week but now I am aiming for 5. It then asks how much pounds a week to lose I put 1 and so it gave me a 1300 calories.
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
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    Talan79 wrote: »
    I also say weigh everything. Weigh all solids by the gram. Measuring cups are ok for liquids. Like others mentioned, even prepackaged items should be weighed. I’ll give you an example.
    I use Ezekiel bread, it says one slice is 34 grams. I’ve had slices that were up to 44 grams. Try to be as accurate as possible. I’m also 5”2, so I understand the struggle.

    Did you select 1300 calories? Or MFP set that for you? That seems a bit low for your stats as your BMR is probably around 1500’s.

    MFP, On my settings I put sedentary (my job is a desk job) and I try to work out at least 3 times a week but now I am aiming for 5. It then asks how much pounds a week to lose I put 1 and so it gave me a 1300 calories.
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
    edited August 2020
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    xxzenabxx wrote: »
    I would 100% recommend weighing your food and if your insulin is high then it doesn’t process carbs efficiently so I would lower them. Aim for a lower carb diet but don’t be keto unless you want to do that. But yeah, you’re basically eating at maintenance. You need to weigh your food. I guarantee you’re eating more than you think. Infact you’re probably eating an extra 500-700 calories without even realising. Some people can lose weight without a food scale- I’ve seen it with my own eyes, but some can’t. Use a food scale consistently for 4-6 weeks and I guarantee you’re going to see your weight drop. I’m F, 27 yrs old, 5’ 4” and I have PCOS and I’m losing weight on 1900-2000 calories a day. I only have 12-15 lbs left so it’s slow... about 0.5 lb a week. But I’ve tried the fast method and it didn’t work. I’ve been yo-yo dieting since I was 16! So yeah, in the beginning I didn’t want to weigh my food either but the people on MFP convinced me and here I am! I have gone from my highest weight last year of 168 lbs to 151 lbs. Basically start weighing your food!

    Also, do you take any supplements to help with PCOS and weight loss?
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
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    cherys wrote: »
    @Oilers846507
    Hi Hannah,

    I'm replying because I have exactly the same amount as you to lose, not because I am perfect and know all the answers. But reading your post a couple of things jumped out.

    If you work out at home, you are far less likely to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. If you get a trainer or join a bootcamp or some circuits classes, you might find you should be exercising way beyond your current levels. It should feel hard - almost too hard - at some point in every session. If you're not cursing inside, it's not pushing you enough to burn the fat.

    I also agree with everyone here: Measure your food! A portion of muesli looks like a sprinkle topping. A bowlful of muesli is about 5-8 portions! Peanut butter is incredibly high in calories. A teaspoonful of it scraped over wholewheat toast is very different from a generous smear of it. As in, about 300 calories difference. Your description of your food intake doesn't describe many veg. Why not try basing each meal around three unprocessed veg or low-sugar fruits (berries, melon).

    Are you drinking loads of water? Water retention can keep you carrying an excess of 5lbs or more.

    I should include more veggies. My workouts can't be to intense because I also have really low iron and can't take supplements for it.
    I am starting to drink more water mainly because of Spironolactone
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
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    Definitely weigh!

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    Wow, omg this whole time I'm thinking the labels are accurate.
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Because you are petite, your tracking has to be accurate, since you don’t need as many calories as a taller person.

    There are some foods you can safely estimate because they are low in calories and a difference won’t matter much. Peanut butter is not one of those foods. An official “serving” of peanut butter is tiny compared to what a normal person puts on a sandwich, and a “tablespoon” of peanut butter measured using a measuring spoon is about twice as much as a proper tablespoon by weight. If you are eating peanut butter every day and not weighing it, you are probably getting two or three hundred extra calories right there, not even accounting for your other food! Weigh it, every time, until you see the results you would like.

    Also don’t forget to count extras, such as whatever butter or sauce you have to cook and put on your rice and meat. Calorie dense foods such as butter and cooking oil are easy to forget about, and can easily have more calories than the rest of your meal combined.

    It was a sad, sad day when I first weighed peanut butter on a food scale and realized just how small 2 T was.

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    That was the face I made when I got my new food scale. I dutifully weighed out the same 10 gm of crackers I'd had as a snack a few days before, and it was ... a much much smaller amount. Same with the cheese I put on them.

    I had a big sad.

    (On the upside, it then also explained the random AF blood sugar spikes I was getting that neither me nor my doctor could figure out. Turns out when you're not entering the right amount of carbs in your insulin pump, you're gonna spike.)

    Wow I didn't know this at all.
  • Oilers846507
    Oilers846507 Posts: 15 Member
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    Here's what jumped out at me:
    • I'm not sure whether you're eating too many calories, or not getting enough. When we don't eat enough, our bodies go into conservation mode and hang onto whatever they can instead of letting us lose weight. Either way, I agree with everyone else that you should get a food scale and weigh your food. Use actual measuring spoons and cups so you know what you're really working with.
    • It doesn't look like you're getting a ton of fiber. Fiber cleans us out, so if you want to drop some weight, making sure you have plenty of fiber in your diet is helpful. It looks like you have virtually no vegetables in your diet. I'd try to up those.
    • While exercise is important, I have really come to believe that a lot more can be done just by changing diet than you think, and that's really the place to start.
    • If you're an emotional eater (like I am), see if you can make any progress dealing with the issues that caused you to gain the weight in the first place.

    Best of luck!

    I am definitely an emotional eater and I can't seem to stop, I also crave sugar all the time even more when I get emotional
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 980 Member
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    [/quote]

    MFP, On my settings I put sedentary (my job is a desk job) and I try to work out at least 3 times a week but now I am aiming for 5. It then asks how much pounds a week to lose I put 1 and so it gave me a 1300 calories.[/quote]

    So you have a starting figure to aim for. But you need to weigh everything to ensure you're eating 1300 cals a day.

    Also, make sure you then log your exercise on those 3 / 5 days and eat the additional calories given. Depending on your exercise, it's feasible that MFP will over-estimate the number of calories burned. As you definitely won't burn 0%, choose a percentage (most people suggest 50-75%) and stick to that for 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, see how your weight compares to your weight now. That will enable you to gauge whether you're losing at the expected rate or not. If you're losing too fast / too slow, eat more / less exercise calories.

  • ALZ14
    ALZ14 Posts: 202 Member
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    xxzenabxx wrote: »
    xxzenabxx wrote: »

    <snip> ... I personally feel that if I balance my lifestyle then I can balance PCOS. First you need to get a diagnosis. <snip>.

    I’m not sure what “balance my lifestyle” means, but that isn’t how PCOS works. It is a hormone imbalance that presents differently in different women. There is no cure, but you can attempt to manage symptoms. Sometime birth control helps, sometimes losing weight, sometimes it is vitamin D supplements, but it takes a lot of trial and error and sometimes it never works.