How do you stay motivate?!

laurencasillo

I have used MyFitnessPal for years. I love it. In the past I was able to drop baby weight semi-easy. Currently, I am almost 3 years past my forth pregnancy and I. CANT. LOSE. THE. WEIGHT. I tried for 6 months myself. I started with a nutritionist 5 weeks ago. I am religious about logging and getting within my macros, hitting 8-10,000 steps a day, working out 4 strength days for 40 minutes and some extra cardio and stretching. Getting old sucks and I am losing motivation. I haven’t even lost a single pound. Actually the first two weeks with my nutritionist put me up two pounds. 😣

AnnPT77

Has your exercise volume increased significantly in the recent weeks? I'd expect that to add some water retention that could mask fat loss on the scale for a small number of weeks. Are you still having monthly cycles? A few women here have reported only seeing a new low weight once a month, at a particular point in their cycle, although that's not the most common pattern.

Recent research suggests metabolic slowdown doesn't much kick in until we hit around 60. Even then, it's quite gradual at first.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8370708/

However, multiple repeated rounds of loss and regain can cause some reduction of calorie needs (adaptive thermogenesis), if that applies.

Has your doctor run tests for thyroid conditions or other relevant factors?

I'm not a blithe 20-something saying this: I'm 68, F, menopausal, severely hypothyroid (medicated), lost substantial weight at age 59-60.

I don't much rely on motivation, myself. As a hedonistic aging hippie flake, it's frankly not my strongest suit. I don't handle deprivation or difficulty productively, in general. To lose, I tried to work out the easiest possible set of new habits that would lead to weight loss and then (more importantly, to me) long term weight maintenance. While I won't claim it was psychologically easy every second, that general approach worked well for me. YMMV.

What calorie level are you at, for what current age/weight/height and non-exercise activity level?
Do you eat back exercise calories, and if so how do you estimate them?

I'm sorry to say it, but if you have been on the same routine - calorie level and activity load - for a couple of menstrual cycles with literally no weight change, then it may be necessary to cut calories a bit further, realistically. If you haven't been on a stable routine that long, I'd suggest hanging in there for that long on your current routine, to see what the average impact is over a time period. Switching things up every couple/three weeks just muddies up the personal experience data, making it hard to define how to go forward productively.

There are some people who cut calories so far that they drag through the day, and cause cortisol-related water weight to creep on. Those things can cause slower scale drop than a person expects. It's not super common, and I wouldn't speculate without knowing more about your current details.

Best wishes!