I have never been able to lose weight and feel like I am just missing one piece of information

desall

Hello,

I am 47 years old and currently weigh 204lbs at 5'-7" tall. I workout 4 hours a week lifting weights with some HITT cardio. I do yoga 3 x a week and walk my dog regularly for 20-30 min a day.

I have been tracking for a LONG time. Calories are set at a 500 calorie deficit. I don't add back any calories no matter how much I burn at the gym.

I take supplements (magnesium, multivitamin, iron, probiotics, omega 3s) , drink water regularly, only eat after 10 am and shut things down around 7pm. I sleep well (7-8 a night).

My macros are set to 30/30/35 (fat). I am usually under on my carbs and get at least 100 grams of protein a day.

I don't eat processed foods or much sugar (MFP is set to 25 grams a day).

I do have a desk job but work from home so I move around the house a bit during the day.

I have worked with two nutritionists in the past with little movement.

Recently, I have been using a body scan machine to track muscle percentage, fat percentage etc.

I feel good but have about 40 lbs of fat to lose. I weighed around 150 when I was in my 20's and then its just crept up over time with life and babies but has never gone down no matter my efforts.

What in the world am I missing?

AnnPT77

I was very active, training and even competing as an athlete (not always unsuccessfully), and eating quite nutritiously, but staying class 1 obese.

When I counted calories with fair accuracy, and hit my goals consistently (on average), I lost weight. (I was 59, menopausal, severely hypothyroid.)

A thing to know about calorie goals (from MFP, another calculator, or even fitness trackers): They're a starting point, and that's all. They're based on the average calorie needs for someone who's similar to us with respect to the few data points the app knows. Each of us is an individual, and can vary from those averages. Most of us will be close to average, but a few can be surprisingly far off, either high or low. (MFP's calorie estimate for me is off by around 25-30%, as compared with nearly 9 years of logging experience. That's rare, but it can happen.)

If someone follows such a calorie goal consistently for 4-6 weeks or more, and doesn't lose weight, they've found their maintenance calories. (Shorter than that, water retention and digestive contents shifts can mask fat loss.) If weight loss isn't happening longer term, the answer is probably to lower calorie goal (or add activity, if it wouldn't be exhausting or logistically unmanageable).

If weight loss is the goal, calories are the key, IME. Nutrition is a good thing, so is exercise, if we need supplements we should take some . . . sure. But weight loss is only indirectly affected by things like that, via fatigue or appetite.

Best wishes!

desall

And this is not a brag about all the stuff I am doing, its more a why in the world isn't any of this moving the needle.

Lietchi

You have mentioned many things, except:
- how many calories are you actually consuming? And for how long? (Zero movement on the scale in that time?)
- how accurate is your logging? Weighing everything? Checking that the food database entries you are using are correct? Using the recipe builder or meals functionality for home-cooked meals?

desall

All good info and questions!!

I used this calculator for my deficit…

https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=46&csex=f&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=7&cpound=204&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cmop=0&coutunit=c&cformula=m&cfatpct=20&x=Calculate

Per this, my BMR is 1598

I consider myself lightly active so I went with the TDEE of 2197.

Subtracting 500, I get 1697. In the last 4 weeks I have be under that without much effort by 100-200 cal.

I have been at this 1700 for years.

I do scan, measure and/or weigh my food. I track everything no matter how small. I don’t feel crazy hungry with this amount of calories.

I like suggestion that maybe I am at my maintenance calories. This could be very true however going down to my BMR feels a bit harsh if I am going to the gym 3-4 times a week. However, anything is worth a try!

desall

Also, my macro make up is 30/30/40. Wrote it wrong above.

Lietchi

If you are truly maintaining at 1700 calories, then 1598 is not your true BMR. Those calculators just give you population averages and you could simply fall outside of the average. Calculators are just starting points, real personal data (your intake compared to your weight trend) is better than any calculator.

I see two options:
- lower your calorie intake and see how your weight evolves. Try an average of 1500 per day and see how that works over the next few months? (If you don't get too hungry)
- increase your calorie intake very slowly (for example 1750 kcal daily for the next week or two, 1800 the weeks after that,...) over a few months and keep a close eye on your weight trend and stop increasing when you seem to be gaining. Some people have success increasing their metabolism by 'reverse dieting', which - if it works - gives you a higher starting point for losing weight. The reason I'm suggesting this option is because you mention having been at 1700kcal for years. Sometimes our bodies can learn to 'limp along' at a certain suboptimal intake level (by for example slowing hair and nail growth and other subtle changes) and increasing intake might help break the 'stalemate'.

You could also make your diary public to see if anything seems amiss there: you sound pretty meticulous, but scanning doesn't guarantee correct calorie counts and packages don't always contain the precise amount they say they do. All it takes is one or two inaccurate foods regularly eaten to throw off the numbers.

AnnPT77

desall wrote: »

All good info and questions!!

I used this calculator for my deficit…

https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=46&csex=f&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=7&cpound=204&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cmop=0&coutunit=c&cformula=m&cfatpct=20&x=Calculate

Per this, my BMR is 1598

I consider myself lightly active so I went with the TDEE of 2197.

Subtracting 500, I get 1697. In the last 4 weeks I have be under that without much effort by 100-200 cal.

I have been at this 1700 for years.

I do scan, measure and/or weigh my food. I track everything no matter how small. I don’t feel crazy hungry with this amount of calories.

I like suggestion that maybe I am at my maintenance calories. This could be very true however going down to my BMR feels a bit harsh if I am going to the gym 3-4 times a week. However, anything is worth a try!

Leitchi is correct. It's not "your BMR", it's just an estimate of it. Reality can vary.

If you haven't lost weight at 1700 over a long period of time while doing normal daily life stuff (job, home chores, etc. plus doing 3-4 weekly gym workouts, 1598 is not your current BMR. Those things would burn more than 102 calories on average daily. (1700 - 1598 = 102.)

(I'm not discounting the "reverse diet" idea necessarily when I say that, BTW.

ddsb1111

desall wrote: »

Hello,

I am 47 years old and currently weigh 204lbs at 5'-7" tall. I workout 4 hours a week lifting weights with some HITT cardio. I do yoga 3 x a week and walk my dog regularly for 20-30 min a day.

I have been tracking for a LONG time. Calories are set at a 500 calorie deficit. I don't add back any calories no matter how much I burn at the gym.

I take supplements (magnesium, multivitamin, iron, probiotics, omega 3s) , drink water regularly, only eat after 10 am and shut things down around 7pm. I sleep well (7-8 a night).

My macros are set to 30/30/35 (fat). I am usually under on my carbs and get at least 100 grams of protein a day.

I don't eat processed foods or much sugar (MFP is set to 25 grams a day).

I do have a desk job but work from home so I move around the house a bit during the day.

I have worked with two nutritionists in the past with little movement.

Recently, I have been using a body scan machine to track muscle percentage, fat percentage etc.

I feel good but have about 40 lbs of fat to lose. I weighed around 150 when I was in my 20's and then its just crept up over time with life and babies but has never gone down no matter my efforts.

What in the world am I missing?

At 204 lbs and 5’7” you should be losing a ton of weight at just under 1700 calories a day, especially with your activity.

Something is very wrong here.

You either need to see a doctor immediately or share your diary so we can see exactly what is happening. Either way, the math isn’t mathing.

Where’s that graph showing how off days can throw off a deficit when you need it? Actually, this thread needs all the graphs. The visuals are really helpful and direct.

desall

I have lowered my daily calories to 1600 and seem to be coming in a touch lower on most days. I think I have made my dairy public. There was about a year last year where I was tracking with a nutritionist on another app she had access too. There were long stretches where I was exercising hard so calories may have been different. The last couple weeks have been off for yoga and weights due to work travel. Trying to keep the walking. If there is no more change after this Sunday's weigh in, I will drop to 1500. I was also thinking of getting my RMR professionally measured. Has anyone tried that?

AnnPT77

desall wrote: »

I have lowered my daily calories to 1600 and seem to be coming in a touch lower on most days. I think I have made my dairy public. There was about a year last year where I was tracking with a nutritionist on another app she had access too. There were long stretches where I was exercising hard so calories may have been different. The last couple weeks have been off for yoga and weights due to work travel. Trying to keep the walking. If there is no more change after this Sunday's weigh in, I will drop to 1500. I was also thinking of getting my RMR professionally measured. Has anyone tried that?

It sounds like you're on a sensible track: Good show!

To the bolded: I haven't tried that, though I suspect mine is unusual. (I figured out how I needed to eat without the testing. I'm curious, but lazy about finding a source.)

Maybe you already know all about the options. Me, I've only read up on the tests, and learned some things from others here who have tested.

If you're talking about the test they do in sports/metabolic labs where they hook you up to a machine that has a face mask to measure your exhaled gases, in my understanding that can be fairly accurate if administered by experts and a person follows the prep instructions carefully. (Still just a small time-slice, though.) That process is a more direct measurement.

But there are other things that are referred to (often by those selling the service ) as professional and accurate that aren't very, i.e., they measure something, and apply statistical estimates to derive a BMR/RMR estimate. DEXA seems to be one that's relatively more accurate, but there are others done in gyms and such that really aren't much better than an online so-called calculator.

I haven't looked at your diary yet. I plan to. Usually I'm not the best diary reviewer, because I eat in a less-common style, so don't know much about calorie counting the more-common styles with lots of things I don't personally eat. (I'm not saying other styles are bad or wrong. I'm saying I'm a random idiot on the internet with very limited knowledge/insight.)

AnnPT77

Unfortunately, I couldn't look.

Hobartlemagne

This may be too simple of an idea, but considering that body fat loss happens when the body uses it for energy, you must deprive it of energy to make that happen.
In your case I think the only room for change is to reduce carbs.