Mid 40s frustration

hhurst5594

Hi all! Anyone stuck losing and gaining the same 5 lbs? I track daily rarely go over my allowed calories and my success has been minimal. Sometimes my goal feels impossible. Would love to hear success stories because I’m wondering if the hormone shift is going to win:)

tomcustombuilder

The rules are the same at 40 as they are at 30 or 50, not being able to get weight off means your overall weekly calorie consumption is too high regardless of what an app calculator says you should be doing, factor in inaccurate counting and tracking and some days where you’re over your “allotted” amount and you have a recipe for no progress.

A 5 lb. shift day to day can be water so the long term weight is what to look for.

Seffell

You can always eat less than what you're eating. The hormones can never "win". Age is irrelevent. Weightloss is eating less than you burn. If you're not losing after 6 weeks in a row - eat less.

cmriverside

"Gaining and losing the same 5 pounds" is virtually what the human body does.

If you need to lose more than 5 pounds, come back and tell us more.

Current weight, height
Do you work outside the home? Care for kids or a large property?
Do you exercise?
Current calorie goal
Do you log everything?

With so little info about you, we can't be much more help than tom and Seffell already gave you. Your answer is on this flow chart somewhere.

AnnPT77

I pretty much keep gaining and losing the same 5 pounds, too. For myself, I call that "maintenance".

When I want to lose a few pounds, I'd reduce calorie level, and be patient: The trend over many weeks tells the story, not a week or two.

Here's the thing about calorie goals: The ones from MFP, a so-called calorie calculator online, or even a fitness tracker - those are all estimates, basically the average calorie need for superficially similar people. Individuals can vary.

If we stick close to a calorie goal (like +/- 50 calories) for 4-6 weeks, and our average weight isn't gradually dropping, then our calorie needs are lower than average, most likely.

Our body is a much better calorie estimator/measurer than any other source or device. Given a long enough time period to get a reasonable average - that 4-6 week thing - it doesn't lie.

Success stories? There's a whole section of them here in the MFP Community. Take a look:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/success-stories

. . . especially in this sub-section:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300359/most-helpful-posts-success-stories-must-reads#latest

Me, I lost around 50 pounds at age 59-60, when I'd been in menopause (and severely hypothyroid) for around 15 years already. I'm 68 now, still at a healthy weight after around 30 years before loss of overweight/obesity. Hormones aren't doom, IMO. They change some things, but the core of weight loss is the same for everyone.

Best wishes - success is worth the effort it takes to find it, in my experience!

csplatt

I'm 42 and my maintenance calories are much lower than they used to be. Around 1650. What Anne said is perfect - gaining and losing the same 5 lb means eating at maintenance. This can be simply normal fluctuations unrelated to fat content.

KareninCanada

Honestly your post is basically why I weigh in daily. My brain needs to see the ups and downs on a graph that trends downward in spite of whay looks like setbacks. Some days I am up 3 lb and then down 4 the next, sometimes I just seem to freeze for a week and then suddenly drop 3 lbs. (Weighing in weekly doesn't reflect all of that fluctuation and I found it more frustrating.)