Why am I not losing weight?

I’ve been at the same number for over a year. Have tried everything and nothing is moving. I don’t know what worse I can do any suggestions?

Answers

  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,241 Member
    You need to either eat less or move more or both. No other options.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,726 Member
    I’ve been at the same number for over a year. Have tried everything and nothing is moving. I don’t know what worse I can do any suggestions?

    And what does that mean exactly, 'tried everything'?
  • KareninCanada
    KareninCanada Posts: 959 Member
    Have you been to the doctor to rule out a medical condition?

    Are you logging everything you eat and drink, and are you measuring/weighing your food to make sure you are accurately logging?

    What is your current calorie goal?

    How much sugar, alcohol, fiber, and water are you taking in?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public.

    In the app, go to Settings > Diary Setting > Diary Sharing > and check Public.

    Desktop: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • blackpinkinbayarea
    blackpinkinbayarea Posts: 29 Member
    I 100% understand what you're going through. I experienced this all throughout my teen years. I was 5'9 and 134 lbs my entire adolescence. Never went above or below that number. I remember trying everything to lose weight which ended up in a nasty ed that I've been able to thankfully overcome now that I'm older.

    You can "eat less and move more", but if you don't have a fast metabolism, that'll do you batshit. What you need to do is build your metabolism. If you have unhealthy habits you'll be wrecking your health. Especially if you are a more heavy set person, you may struggle to lose the weight even more.

    There are countless resources on how to fix/build your metabolism.

    For me personally what worked was burning a minimum of 300 calories every day. Eating 1700-2000 calories a day. Eating vegetarian or just whole foods. But also not restricting yourself too much and allowing yourself to have some treats sometimes (so than you don't end up bingeing). Drink black coffee or green tea. Eat 2-4 meals a day. Find workouts/exercise that is enjoyable, sustainable, and works for your body. And immediately try to get over any sort of ed behaviors that you may have, eds wreck your metabolism.

    Those are all my tips for now hope this helps ily<3
  • blackpinkinbayarea
    blackpinkinbayarea Posts: 29 Member

    I'm not discounting it for some people, but for people who struggle to lose weight as the original poster claimed, they are doing all of the above but not losing weight. Everyone has a different body so therefore everyone will need a different routine. Idk how in detail I can speak on this on this site but when I was a teenager I would st4rve myself while doing professional level ballet. I would eat 0-100 calories a day while burning 1000+ on top of my BMR. I sometimes would gain weight. Or I'd lose weight but no fat. Sure I lost a little bit of fat in some parts of my body at some points, but overall, the way I was living was extremely dangerous and put me in the hospital. I was refused ed treatment though because I had a BMI of 19.5. All that did was make things worse.

    Long story short, my point is that everyone is different. "eat less move more" is a very simplified and green version of "improve your metabolism."
  • blackpinkinbayarea
    blackpinkinbayarea Posts: 29 Member
    edited July 10
    I'm not discounting it for some people, but for people who struggle to lose weight as the original poster claimed, they are doing all of the above but not losing weight. Everyone has a different body so therefore everyone will need a different routine. Idk how in detail I can speak on this on this site but when I was a teenager I would st4rve myself while doing professional level ballet. I would eat 0-100 calories a day while burning 1000+ on top of my BMR. I sometimes would gain weight. Or I'd lose weight but no fat. Sure I lost a little bit of fat in some parts of my body at some points, but overall, the way I was living was extremely dangerous and put me in the hospital. I was refused ed treatment though because I had a BMI of 19.5. All that did was make things worse.

    Long story short, my point is that everyone is different. "eat less move more" is a very simplified and green version of "improve your metabolism."
    weight fluctuations are mostly water weight fluctuations

    No loss= no consistent calorie deficit

    Until you understand that you will not progress with fat loss

    All body types respond in the same way regarding fat loss.

    Ok! Sure!
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,230 Member
    Of course "Eat less move more" is a simplified or summarised version of the process.

    But nevertheless it is the basis for weight loss.

    Types of food, amounts of meals per day, drinking or not coffee or green tea, etc are just secondary means to this, for some people.
    Not things anyone has to do to lose weight
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,139 Member
    edited July 10
    And some people SHOULD be trying to lose weight.
    And some should NOT be trying to lose weight.
    We don't know that about any particular individual, that's true.

    And then there are the WAYS that we can go about losing weight on top of that.
    We can lose weight while eating the MOST calories that we can... while still losing weight.
    Or we can lose weight while eating the LEAST amount of calories that we can... while still losing weight.

    Again though we know nothing about the OP... so there's that.

    Tom is absolutely right.
    In the exact same way I too am absolutely right to state that 100% of humans who read this post only have a number of seconds of life left before they die!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    Rather than debating the "fast metabolism" post, I'll just drop my favorite science-based resource for metabolism:

    https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/how-to-increase-metabolism/
  • blackpinkinbayarea
    blackpinkinbayarea Posts: 29 Member
    I think it's just important to note that the OP was talking about struggling to lose weight, they've obviously already tried all the fads and heard all of the popular weight loss schticks, and they obviously didn't work for them otherwise we wouldn't be here right now on this post. I was just giving a more detailed response, maybe one of those things was new to them maybe not, but I hope you get my point. Just wasn't trying to sound redundant
  • Ange1icious
    Ange1icious Posts: 207 Member
    I have a under active thyroid and i fractured tibia plateau last year so I was unable to do a lot of activity and my weight increases rapidly and my metabolism was at an all time low.

    I was immobile for over 3 months and had physio for 6 months afterwards and it has taken a while to get back to regular exercise.

    I took a while to find my maintenance level for calories as mine is lower than what MVP says. I decreased it by 50 calories at a time until I wasn't putting on any weight and started increasing my exercise steadily, I've now started losing weight again.

    You need to find your maintainance calories as it will be different for everyone and then reduce them depending on how much you want to lose at a time.. I'm looking to lose half a pound a week so my calories are reduced by 250 from my maintenance but I may have to change this again as my metabolism increases.

    I wish you all the luck finding what works for you
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,230 Member
    I think it's just important to note that the OP was talking about struggling to lose weight, they've obviously already tried all the fads and heard all of the popular weight loss schticks, and they obviously didn't work for them otherwise we wouldn't be here right now on this post. I was just giving a more detailed response, maybe one of those things was new to them maybe not, but I hope you get my point. Just wasn't trying to sound redundant


    except that, of all the things to focus on - 'how to boost your metabolism' is not one of them.

    how to be more active and/or eat less calories is it.

    of course there is nuance and method and personal preference etc within that - but this is the basis for weight loss not fixing an unbroken metabolism.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,152 Member
    edited July 13
    Most American's have a dysfunctional metabolism (around 90%) which is imperative for proper weight homeostasis. It's basically how well the body converts food into cellular energy by regulating how well the body then converts those calories into proper bodily functions. Hormones play a crucial role as well and when a person has a metabolism that isn't working properly hormones like Insulin, thyroid, cortisol, leptin and ghrelin, estrogen for example can and do make weight management very difficult for a lot of people.

    Personally I believe the types of food you feed the metabolism is important and considering over 70% of the population consume mostly UPF this can make it very difficult to find stable weight considering the effect these foods have on our metabolism like for example, they generally and the data supports this is people over consume UPF which are actually engineered for that result, which downstream results in dysfunction like IR, diabetes, altered gut bacteria, inflammation which is a big one, lower nutrient density etc. There's of course other factors that effect our metabolism, like physical activity, genetics but I'm just referring to the dietary aspect.

    There's of course many opinions how to maintain a stable weight and counting calories is one but personally I see that as addressing the symptom, being the weight gain and not the rood cause which are the types of food we tend to eat. Personally I chose a diet that is at least 80% whole and organic foods that include mostly animal products and their natural fats and I also subscribe to a higher protein and lower carb diet, which has worked for me, which might not work for you, but I would suggest if you aren't eating mostly whole foods to start there and see what happens with your hunger and satiety and possibly look at a Mediterranean type diet. :)