Trouble losing weight

coolia1212

Hi, I'm a 26 year old female, 5'4", 190 lbs. About two years ago, I gained 15 pounds in about six months. Since then, I've started taking my health more seriously. I exercise for an hour 4 times a week, doing both strength training and cardio. I usually burn about 400 calories at a time, according to the machines at the gym anyway, which I know are not super accurate. I have tried various calorie intake goals for the past couple years, right now I'm doing 1500. I try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, no corn syrup, organic when I can, etc. My one downfall is my sweet tooth, but it's not out of control by any means. I just like to have a piece of dark chocolate or a small cookie once a day, something like that. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about a year ago. However, now that I'm on meds, my levels are good. I know my eating and exercising isn't perfect, but I weigh more now than I did when I didn't exercise much at all.

Sometimes I feel so frustrated, like I'm trapped in my body and there's nothing I can do about it. I try to embrace my curvy figure and it's not like I even want to be skinny, I just want to be 10-20 pounds lighter like how I used to be. Oh, and it's not just my weight, I measure myself and I haven't lost inches, either.

Any advice??

vorgas

If you open your diary (and assuming your diary is accurate) we might be able to help more.

General advice though:
Careful portion control. Some people have better luck when they weigh everything.
Overestimate calories consumed, under estimate calories burned.
Talk to your doctor about the effect of your medication on weight loss.
Make sure your sodium intake isn't too high. Leads to water retention.
Protein is your friend.

lgrix

Exercise more and eat less. Think about the 10,000 step/day as a basic requirement, without eating back those calories and then do your 4 day a week work outs. If you are not losing, then you are either underestimating your intake or overestimating your calorie burn.