Super obese, why isn't the weight falling off me?

Sarny60

Have you looked at the weight loss ***** website. This lady started off at over 400lbs and has managed to lose over half of it. Like you she was really against having surgery. She is on facebook and does a daily blog. I follow her blog and I am sure she would be able to give you the best advice. www.weightloss*****.com. Good luck x

Branstin

You don't have to defend yourself to anyone. You are doing the right thing by asking questions and weighing your options. This is your body, health, and life. Therefore, tell everyone else to back the hell off and give you time to digest all of the information available to you in order to make the decision that is right for you. Do not allow anyone to pressure you in either direction because you will have to live with the consequences.

dorisopen9

virgogrl, you are losing weight and you can show that to any who doubts you. Slowly admittedly, but you are losing.

You are right that changes have to be slow and sustainable. It takes weeks to break old habits and form new, better habits. So carry on the slow style.
With your weight and the pre-diabetes you probably want to reduce the carbs and this should be mainly the processed simple carbs like white flour and sugar. There is nothing wrong with fruit and veg and a moderate amount of whole grain starchy foods is also acceptable.
If after a several months of a healthy diet weight loss is still very slow you might want to try something unusual, Atkins-style diet or intermittent fasting for example. Whatever you do, give it a few weeks for any change to take effect; there is no point changing a diet every week as weight loss is not linear and a week too short to notice change. Weight fluctuates and it is the long term trend that needs to move down. Remember: you're in a marathon not the finishing sprint of the Tour de France.

Regarding exercise: someone has already suggested water based exercises. If you have access to a pool this is an excellent option. The water keeps the weight of your knees while the water resistance works cardiovascular system and muscles. Exercises like Aquarobics and Aquajogging give a good workout. On land cycling is the lowest impact on the joints but some people with knee problems cannot do it, plus you need a bike suitable for your weight.

Keep at it, you'll get there!

freckledrats

If I cut my calories by a few hundred and reduced my carbs under 100g I could probably lose 3-5 lbs a week which is what my dr thinks I should be losing. I realize my health is in jeopardy by having this much weight on me but as I previously stated, I really want this to be a lifestyle change. I know if I drastically change my eating, I may lose a good chunk of weight but I'll gain it all back. My mindset has been to make healthy changes that are realistic and I can do for the rest of my life.

I am getting pressure from my dr and from certain family members to have weight loss surgery and it's really hard defending myself when I don't have substantial losses with my method. I know it will take time but I'm going to need to lose well over 50lbs before it's noticeable. As long as I don't have any immediate health issues and can work with the knee pain, I would like to continue doing what I am doing with some tweaks to my diet and some activity.

This is great, and you should celebrate even the progress you've already made, because it's a big step in the right direction, even if it's not melting off yet like you thought it would.

I've seen a lot of comments about thyroid, and I just wanted to add that I'm hypothyroid and have never had it affect my weight loss. The only thing that ever stops me is my tendency to eat more than I should. Weight loss is 90% diet, so definitely work more with tweaking your intake than your exercise. Stay active! But definitely focus on the food.

Chances are there's a miscalculation somewhere, or a trend of them, sending your estimate too far in the downwards direction. If you're not making all your food and weighing it, I can almost promise the issue is trying to estimate other people's cooking. It is extremely difficult to always accurately eyeball portion sizes and ingredients. Butter and oil is a common culprit (not necessarily yours, but in general). Just putting butter in the pan and using it as a non stick agent adds all those butter calories to the food you then cook in the pan. (Sorry if you know that already and I'm being captain obvious here, you never know what's obvious.)

Or maybe you're doing a diet where veggies and fruit are "free" calories, and not counting them, and still eating too many? Both are fairly low calorie and great as healthy foods, but still have calories that could be thwarting your weight loss.

Any sugary beverage that's not explicitly diet (again sorry with the obviousness), any alcohol, using MFP to estimate food you're unsure of that you get from a restaurant regularly--any of these things or a combination of them can play a big role in stagnating weight loss. One time, for example, I was trying to log some yellow curry from a restaurant outing with coworkers and the first entry I found said a LAUGHABLE 120 calories for a whole cup! Cute, very cute! (In reality, I probably ate close to 600-700 calories worth of rice and curry, at about two cups of food.)

Another common culprit is over estimating exercise burns. MFP has some really questionable entries for house cleaning of all things. IMO folks shouldn't log an exercise unless it is exercise you specifically set out to do to do exercise. Anything less is your normal activity, and any sweat broken while cleaning or gardening probably did not result in 1000 calories burned, no matter what the entry in the database might have you believe. Also, machine readings for calories burned are also often inaccurate. The easiest way to get around this problem is just to do your exercise, and instead of eating exactly those calories back, just have an extra small healthy snack after. A handful of almonds, a banana, an apple and a tbsp of peanut butter, maybe. Trust me, you won't go into some weird body shock mode if you miss out on 50-200 exercise calories. As long as you're eating less than you're burning, you'll lose the weight.

Also don't forget to recalculate your maintenance intake every 10-15 pounds, just so you know what not to go over on cheat days. Remember. Cheat days are maintenance days, not go super crazy days! (That's a mistake *I* made early on.)

psuLemon

If I cut my calories by a few hundred and reduced my carbs under 100g I could probably lose 3-5 lbs a week which is what my dr thinks I should be losing. I realize my health is in jeopardy by having this much weight on me but as I previously stated, I really want this to be a lifestyle change. I know if I drastically change my eating, I may lose a good chunk of weight but I'll gain it all back. My mindset has been to make healthy changes that are realistic and I can do for the rest of my life.

I am getting pressure from my dr and from certain family members to have weight loss surgery and it's really hard defending myself when I don't have substantial losses with my method. I know it will take time but I'm going to need to lose well over 50lbs before it's noticeable. As long as I don't have any immediate health issues and can work with the knee pain, I would like to continue doing what I am doing with some tweaks to my diet and some activity.

You can always try this in phases. First, do a custom set up and set your diary to 1600 calories. Set macros to 30% carbs, 40% fats and 30% protein. Log for 4-6 weeks and reassess. And within that 4-6 weeks, set small goals for yourself. Maybe aim to add an additional 100+ steps a day. Maybe it's doing sit down exercises and have the mindset, do your best and forget the rest. So if you goal is 100 steps but only get 50, then you reset and try again the next day. Maybe force yourself to get up more often or even keep some small weights at your desk. Just keep in mind, that you don't have to take huge leaps.. they can be small step which improve each week.


ps - in case you need it, here is the link to do a custom setup http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals

shayemimi

You are doing great! 8 lbs is 8 lbs!! Just keep at it. Little by little. I didn't have as much to lose as you, but I did lose almost 100 lbs. I didn't drastically change my diet, didn't really pay too much attention to 'macros' etc. other than cutting back on things I saw had more calories and less nutrition, such as bread, pasta etc. AND upping my protein...WAY more chicken breast, etc. BUT I did still eat SOME bread , pasta, rice etc. JUST LESS. Use your food scale and weigh everything exactly to the gram. Eventually you won't have to be so precise, but it really helps to reduce calorie errors now, and teaches portion control. Don't use spoons/cups/etc. Weigh. Like peanut butter- wow- 15 grams doesn't look like a tablespoon, but apparently it is, lol. Liquid things I measure, like milk, juice, etc. I also learned pretty quick that I didn't want to drink my calories, so I did pretty much cut out juice, but I didn't drink much before anyway. Measure your creamer, stuff like that... Count every nibble, every spoon lick, etc.

As for exercise...do what you can. Move a little more every day and you will slowly get stronger. Get some hand weights and a DVD for beginners (you can do it sitting) or Wii fit. I LOVE my Wii fit. It's easy enough, but still gets you moving.

Drink a lot of water- it gets you up and to the bathroom a lot, lol. And keeps you full so you don't get so hungry.

Good luck and keep up the great work. It can and will be slow, but slow is better than not at all!!

healthygreek

Denial. You aren't ready till you are ready. For some, weight loss surgery doesn't work. You many not be able to change yet.

???what???
Where did you get that idea???

SallyPDXer

You're stuffing your face still. To maintain 440 lbs you'd need to eat around 2800 calories a day.

Where did you get that number from? I'm 80 pounds less than the OP and I have to eat 3700 calories to maintain.

I did a simple tdee calculation and set it to sedentary,

Im not sure what calculator youre using but that seems about 1500 calories off.

All that matters is to be 440 lbs and claim to not be losing at 1800 cals a day is flat out BS.

I'm 6'1 185 and lose at 2350.

No, it's not.

But people really need to stop judging on this forum because they do not know the medical issues that are impacting a persons metabolism. Does she has cushings or graves or hyperthydroidism? Does she have a metabolic disorder?

The answer is you don't know.

Just because YOU lose at 2350 doesn't mean someone else will.

.
.
.

^^This. Everyone's metabolism is different and the calculators can be way off. My suggestion if you are not losing at the recommended calorie level is to get a BMR test to see how many calories you ACTUALLY burn.

kate1103

First of all, I love your attitude!

Assuming your logging is accurate and you don't have any underlying medical conditions (these are big assumptions, but other people have already talked about them)...

If you really think the issue right now is that you're beyond sedentary, you need to increase the amount of movement you do. Note that I didn't say "do more exercise" -- I'd be really worried about you getting hurt and further immobilizing yourself, which is the last thing you need to do. Just move, however you can. Move your arms, pick up gallon jugs or grocery bags. If it hurts to walk, can you march in place? Look up seated exercises and do them. Then, when they get easy, do them standing up. Yes, you can lose weight just by diet alone, no exercise, but at this point any extra motion you can do is going to help.

Amen! For someone who has that sedentary a lifestyle, and the physical pain that goes hand in hand with such a lifestyle, just the idea of an exercise program is very intimidating. Just adding more activity to your daily routine is a great place to start. Maybe take a lap around the house. Once that becomes easier, add another lap. Just add more activity. Clean a room. Clean a cabinet. As you slowly add activity it will be easier for you to take on more tasks that eat up more calories. I wish you the best!

I agree with these posters. Keep trying because you're losing and that's great! I think you should try to add any kind of movement that you can-even fidgeting as much as you can throughout the day while you're working or whenever could be helpful.

Also, I think you've said that you do not want the WLS. I hope you don't give into pressure from family or a doctor or whatever if you don't want it. There are always other options that are way less invasive than surgery-like a medically supervised diet.

brazosrider

Low carbs isn't for everyone but it sure has worked for me. Ask your doctor about decreasing more. It can be hard on the kidneys if they aren't healthy. Also, are you drinking soda? Diet or regular, either way replacing sodas with plain old good for you water will help you shed more especially if you cut out the bread. It was hard for me to give up bread but I noticed I lost a lot of water weight quickly by doing it. I have also cut out preservatives as much as possible and sugar and artificial sweetener. Stay away from processed food, eat more raw and fresh veggies and fruits, and baked chicken or fish. Find some sort of exercise you can do without hurting that knee. Keep moving!!

CyberEd312

Look when I started out at 560 lbs. nobody put me into that position, I and I alone did that to myself. I never wanted to own it for the longest time until I found myself pretty much trapped in my house and staring down the barrel of a loaded handgun and then it became all to real... I finally accepted my reality and started the process of regaining control of my life... I went to a brand new doctor (had not been to a doctor in 10 years) so I pick a young 30 year old doctor fresh out of med school, up on on the latest of the greatest and willing to work with me. The first time I sat down across from him to review my initial blood work and ultra sounds the first words out of his mouth was "Do you want weight loss surgery?" I told him "Absolutely Not" If I could not figure out why I got myself in this position then no amount of weight loss surgery was going to make a difference long term... So he said I will be honest with you, if you have a medical condition I can treat it, if you get a cold, I am your guy, but I know just enough about weight loss to be dangerous so I am going to send you to the Endo dr. and Dietician and between the 3 of us we will do whatever we can to help you through the process. So that was our approach, now my Endo dr. was alittle more blunt the first time I met him. He said at the rate you are going if you don't make a change you will be dead within 3 years give or take... but he never pushed WLS on me after I told him I want to do this with diet and exercise so we schedule visits every 4 weeks, monitored my progress and this went on for the next few years.

Look you are losing weight however if be slowly but you are still losing that is a good thing. I have severe knee damage (grade 3 osteoarthritis both knee's, no cartilage or meniscus left in either knee, and I tore my ACL 18 months into my weight loss and they said it wasn't worth repairing with the damage I have so we have done several clean outs on each knee and I go and get my knee's drained and injections of Euflexxa every 4-6 months and I was fitted with braces that I wear when I exercise. (Have actually had to get refitted for new braces every 100 lbs. I lost so I am now on my 4th set of braces in 5 years). When I started I could not stand for more than 30 seconds at a time without sitting and walking was pretty much out of the question. I rolled myself around the house on a computer chair to go to the kitchen, restroom , and them bedroom. When I started I had to be put into a therapy pool on doctors script to use weight displacement to allow me to stand long enough to exercise. but out of the pool my PT girls had me walking. I started my very first walk from my recliner to the back slider door and back to my chair. (Round trip was 40ft.). The next day I walk from the chair to the slider and back to the chair and then half way to the slider and back to the chair. The next day..... Well you get the picture. Everyday I did more than I did the day before, always moving forward never looking back and I continued to make steady progress. Some weeks I lost my average 2 pounds, other weeks nothing, then maybe a 4-5 pound loss. but I was losing no matter what and that was the whole point... But you have to be honest with yourself in every aspect of this journey, you have to be honest in your logging and weighing and measuring. You have to put forth the work to improve your overall fitness... Walk 25 ft. today, tomorrow 30 ft. the next day 35 ft. it sounds corny but I just finished my first 5k last week where I ran/jogged (No Walking) the entire thing and finished with a PR of 38:24 which when I did my very first one, I had finished that one in 1 hour and 22 minutes...(I have done 15-20 - 5K over the last 3 years but they was walking or walking/jogging).

My point is progress is progress, you just have to be fully committed to the process and stay the course. It truly is a lifestyle and being that, you want to treated it in the beginning the same way you will want to live it the rest of your life.. Will it take longer than crash dieting and eatingt low this and low that, yeah probably but what I have done, for me anyway is sustainable for life... I lost 312 pounds in 3 years and 3 months and have been out of weight loss mode since September of 2012 when I underwent a circumferential body lift and had 17 pounds of skin removed.. Stayed in maintenance for a year and this past September started playing around with bulking (have areas of lose skin that only muscle at this point is going to fill). I still have a goal of wanting to get down to 235lbs. (I don't want to go any lower than that, I am actually content at my current weight but when I weighed 560 lbs. I set an all time weight loss goal of getting to 238 lbs which is what I weighed when I went into the Army at 18).

So my advice which you can take it or leave it is, I would not at this time lower my calories but I would start incorporating in some moving. If you have any chance of getting a script from your doctor for some Physical therapy particularly Aquatic therapy I would highly suggest that route especially in the beginning at your weight but if not then you need to start someplace and I would suggest the short walks. Get to an Orthopedic surgeon to get your knee's looked at and get a plan together of getting some pain management so that you are able to get moving... Beyond that I would stay the course and you will eventually achieve your goals... Best of Luck

CyberEd312

Oh and I never cut out bread, diet pepsi, or anything for that matter.... In the beginning I had to clear the cupboards of all my trigger foods allowing myself a couple meals out a week to indulge on a few things I wanted (Normally it was Subway for one of those meals with a grab bag of chips, and the other was at a sit down place only thing was I could have what I wanted but it had to be eaten there and nothing came home with me.) this went on until such a time that I was able to add those foods I liked back into my diet (in moderation) so that today If I can make it fit within my daily caloric intake and macros then nothing is off limits... Unless I just flat out don't like it... lol Best of Luck

virgogrl73

Thank you Ed, and everyone, for your advice, feedback and suggestions. What is most helpful is the inspiration from people who have lost weight and who have gotten off track and started over again.

I realize everyone has their own best method for weight loss and some are restricted by medical conditions so everyone's journey is different. It's great that this forum exists to share ideas and learn from others.

I may reduce my carbs a bit, perhaps from 180g to 150g but really want to focus on increased activity. That may be just being more active in my own home, short walks or looking into pool exercise. The key for me is consistency and to stick with it. I'm usually good the first few weeks, have one bad day which turns into a bad week, bad month, etc... I've made a promise to myself that if I have a bad day I get right back to tracking the following day.

Weight loss surgery may be a good option for some but I have a variety of reasons it's my very last resort. For some reason I'm feeling more confident about my journey this time around and hopefully will make significant progress, even if it's not as fast as I would like.

I appreciate everyone's feedback and wish you all luck on achieving your goals!

_HeartsOnFire_

If you start to have that one bad day...just remember we ALL have them. Each meal, each day fresh start. Forgive yourself, log it, learn from it and move on. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Also...you are awesome. You CAN DO THIS.

kmsnyg

Wow, CyberEd, congrats on your weight loss.

OP--Honestly, this is the post you should listen to. He's been there and understands what it is like to lose a large amount of weight.

I just want to give you some encouragement. You can do this! Just keep working on it, and don't get discouraged.

Look when I started out at 560 lbs. nobody put me into that position, I and I alone did that to myself. I never wanted to own it for the longest time until I found myself pretty much trapped in my house and staring down the barrel of a loaded handgun and then it became all to real... I finally accepted my reality and started the process of regaining control of my life... I went to a brand new doctor (had not been to a doctor in 10 years) so I pick a young 30 year old doctor fresh out of med school, up on on the latest of the greatest and willing to work with me. The first time I sat down across from him to review my initial blood work and ultra sounds the first words out of his mouth was "Do you want weight loss surgery?" I told him "Absolutely Not" If I could not figure out why I got myself in this position then no amount of weight loss surgery was going to make a difference long term... So he said I will be honest with you, if you have a medical condition I can treat it, if you get a cold, I am your guy, but I know just enough about weight loss to be dangerous so I am going to send you to the Endo dr. and Dietician and between the 3 of us we will do whatever we can to help you through the process. So that was our approach, now my Endo dr. was alittle more blunt the first time I met him. He said at the rate you are going if you don't make a change you will be dead within 3 years give or take... but he never pushed WLS on me after I told him I want to do this with diet and exercise so we schedule visits every 4 weeks, monitored my progress and this went on for the next few years.

Look you are losing weight however if be slowly but you are still losing that is a good thing. I have severe knee damage (grade 3 osteoarthritis both knee's, no cartilage or meniscus left in either knee, and I tore my ACL 18 months into my weight loss and they said it wasn't worth repairing with the damage I have so we have done several clean outs on each knee and I go and get my knee's drained and injections of Euflexxa every 4-6 months and I was fitted with braces that I wear when I exercise. (Have actually had to get refitted for new braces every 100 lbs. I lost so I am now on my 4th set of braces in 5 years). When I started I could not stand for more than 30 seconds at a time without sitting and walking was pretty much out of the question. I rolled myself around the house on a computer chair to go to the kitchen, restroom , and them bedroom. When I started I had to be put into a therapy pool on doctors script to use weight displacement to allow me to stand long enough to exercise. but out of the pool my PT girls had me walking. I started my very first walk from my recliner to the back slider door and back to my chair. (Round trip was 40ft.). The next day I walk from the chair to the slider and back to the chair and then half way to the slider and back to the chair. The next day..... Well you get the picture. Everyday I did more than I did the day before, always moving forward never looking back and I continued to make steady progress. Some weeks I lost my average 2 pounds, other weeks nothing, then maybe a 4-5 pound loss. but I was losing no matter what and that was the whole point... But you have to be honest with yourself in every aspect of this journey, you have to be honest in your logging and weighing and measuring. You have to put forth the work to improve your overall fitness... Walk 25 ft. today, tomorrow 30 ft. the next day 35 ft. it sounds corny but I just finished my first 5k last week where I ran/jogged (No Walking) the entire thing and finished with a PR of 38:24 which when I did my very first one, I had finished that one in 1 hour and 22 minutes...(I have done 15-20 - 5K over the last 3 years but they was walking or walking/jogging).

My point is progress is progress, you just have to be fully committed to the process and stay the course. It truly is a lifestyle and being that, you want to treated it in the beginning the same way you will want to live it the rest of your life.. Will it take longer than crash dieting and eatingt low this and low that, yeah probably but what I have done, for me anyway is sustainable for life... I lost 312 pounds in 3 years and 3 months and have been out of weight loss mode since September of 2012 when I underwent a circumferential body lift and had 17 pounds of skin removed.. Stayed in maintenance for a year and this past September started playing around with bulking (have areas of lose skin that only muscle at this point is going to fill). I still have a goal of wanting to get down to 235lbs. (I don't want to go any lower than that, I am actually content at my current weight but when I weighed 560 lbs. I set an all time weight loss goal of getting to 238 lbs which is what I weighed when I went into the Army at 18).

So my advice which you can take it or leave it is, I would not at this time lower my calories but I would start incorporating in some moving. If you have any chance of getting a script from your doctor for some Physical therapy particularly Aquatic therapy I would highly suggest that route especially in the beginning at your weight but if not then you need to start someplace and I would suggest the short walks. Get to an Orthopedic surgeon to get your knee's looked at and get a plan together of getting some pain management so that you are able to get moving... Beyond that I would stay the course and you will eventually achieve your goals... Best of Luck

TheSatinPumpkin

x2. thank you for sharing.

Wow, CyberEd, congrats on your weight loss.

OP--Honestly, this is the post you should listen to. He's been there and understands what it is like to lose a large amount of weight.

I just want to give you some encouragement. You can do this! Just keep working on it, and don't get discouraged.

Look when I started out at 560 lbs. nobody put me into that position, I and I alone did that to myself. I never wanted to own it for the longest time until I found myself pretty much trapped in my house and staring down the barrel of a loaded handgun and then it became all to real... I finally accepted my reality and started the process of regaining control of my life... I went to a brand new doctor (had not been to a doctor in 10 years) so I pick a young 30 year old doctor fresh out of med school, up on on the latest of the greatest and willing to work with me. The first time I sat down across from him to review my initial blood work and ultra sounds the first words out of his mouth was "Do you want weight loss surgery?" I told him "Absolutely Not" If I could not figure out why I got myself in this position then no amount of weight loss surgery was going to make a difference long term... So he said I will be honest with you, if you have a medical condition I can treat it, if you get a cold, I am your guy, but I know just enough about weight loss to be dangerous so I am going to send you to the Endo dr. and Dietician and between the 3 of us we will do whatever we can to help you through the process. So that was our approach, now my Endo dr. was alittle more blunt the first time I met him. He said at the rate you are going if you don't make a change you will be dead within 3 years give or take... but he never pushed WLS on me after I told him I want to do this with diet and exercise so we schedule visits every 4 weeks, monitored my progress and this went on for the next few years.

Look you are losing weight however if be slowly but you are still losing that is a good thing. I have severe knee damage (grade 3 osteoarthritis both knee's, no cartilage or meniscus left in either knee, and I tore my ACL 18 months into my weight loss and they said it wasn't worth repairing with the damage I have so we have done several clean outs on each knee and I go and get my knee's drained and injections of Euflexxa every 4-6 months and I was fitted with braces that I wear when I exercise. (Have actually had to get refitted for new braces every 100 lbs. I lost so I am now on my 4th set of braces in 5 years). When I started I could not stand for more than 30 seconds at a time without sitting and walking was pretty much out of the question. I rolled myself around the house on a computer chair to go to the kitchen, restroom , and them bedroom. When I started I had to be put into a therapy pool on doctors script to use weight displacement to allow me to stand long enough to exercise. but out of the pool my PT girls had me walking. I started my very first walk from my recliner to the back slider door and back to my chair. (Round trip was 40ft.). The next day I walk from the chair to the slider and back to the chair and then half way to the slider and back to the chair. The next day..... Well you get the picture. Everyday I did more than I did the day before, always moving forward never looking back and I continued to make steady progress. Some weeks I lost my average 2 pounds, other weeks nothing, then maybe a 4-5 pound loss. but I was losing no matter what and that was the whole point... But you have to be honest with yourself in every aspect of this journey, you have to be honest in your logging and weighing and measuring. You have to put forth the work to improve your overall fitness... Walk 25 ft. today, tomorrow 30 ft. the next day 35 ft. it sounds corny but I just finished my first 5k last week where I ran/jogged (No Walking) the entire thing and finished with a PR of 38:24 which when I did my very first one, I had finished that one in 1 hour and 22 minutes...(I have done 15-20 - 5K over the last 3 years but they was walking or walking/jogging).

My point is progress is progress, you just have to be fully committed to the process and stay the course. It truly is a lifestyle and being that, you want to treated it in the beginning the same way you will want to live it the rest of your life.. Will it take longer than crash dieting and eatingt low this and low that, yeah probably but what I have done, for me anyway is sustainable for life... I lost 312 pounds in 3 years and 3 months and have been out of weight loss mode since September of 2012 when I underwent a circumferential body lift and had 17 pounds of skin removed.. Stayed in maintenance for a year and this past September started playing around with bulking (have areas of lose skin that only muscle at this point is going to fill). I still have a goal of wanting to get down to 235lbs. (I don't want to go any lower than that, I am actually content at my current weight but when I weighed 560 lbs. I set an all time weight loss goal of getting to 238 lbs which is what I weighed when I went into the Army at 18).

So my advice which you can take it or leave it is, I would not at this time lower my calories but I would start incorporating in some moving. If you have any chance of getting a script from your doctor for some Physical therapy particularly Aquatic therapy I would highly suggest that route especially in the beginning at your weight but if not then you need to start someplace and I would suggest the short walks. Get to an Orthopedic surgeon to get your knee's looked at and get a plan together of getting some pain management so that you are able to get moving... Beyond that I would stay the course and you will eventually achieve your goals... Best of Luck

KaptMorgan

So I'm about to go for my Gastric Sleeve surgery on July 17th. I had to lose a ton of weight just to get the surgery due to a heart problem. My dietitian gave me this pre op meal plan some time ago. She asked me to try it out for a week or 2 to see how I liked it and let her know if any changes should be made. My calorie limit was 1400cals. This is the link to my dialy meal plan http://i.imgur.com/9oQlq9O.jpg . I didn't just stick to it for 2 weeks I ended up going with it for 3 months! I started on April 19th at around 438 and yesterday I clocked in at 362. I have a desk job. I hardly had to move anywhere. But when the weight started coming off I was able to do more and more. I took up playing that Google game called Ingress. That game helped make going for walks interesting. Not only that met up with some great people. Now I didn't follow the meal plan exactly. For instance I cut out the oil and glucerna and added more veggies. That allowed for a lot of left over calories at the end of the day and still feel great. I ended up using no fat yogurt as a base for almost all my dressings and no fat hidden valley (10 cals by the way) or no fat Kraft Ceasar dressing. The only real carbs I had were at night when I made my little sandwich of Dempsters multigrain flat bread buns and chicken. If this helps you or anything great. It's not for everyone but it is a great stepping stone.

Saramelie

I am sorry to say that at your weight it could be a whole host of thinks. The fat could be putting pressure on and disrupting the function of your internal organs. And I wouldn't be surprised if you had a thyroid issue at the moment.

As much as I hate to say it surgery may be the better option in your case. As it may alleviate some of the more extreme effects of all the weight you are carrying around. Hell even the ability to walk around would do you a tremendous amount of good right now. As if you are completely sedentary and your internal workings aren't moving right you may not even be burning 1800 a day anyway.

I have every sympathy with you as my weight got pretty big myself not at the stage you where at. But enough. And Honestly I think you are beyond conventional methods of weight loss. It's time to consider more drastic solutions. As the longer you are sedentary the more your muscles will atrophy. And the more mobility you will lose. You need to realize that you need something that works now. You don't have time t o be patient and wait the process out.

I hope I don't scare you and I sincerely wish you the best.

Hmmmmm.... Really?? NO! Keep at it, if you want to do it without surgery, go for it!!!!! Don't let that kind of post give you a sense of '' you can't do it'', it' bull-*kitten*!!

curlygirl513

Denial. You aren't ready till you are ready. For some, weight loss surgery doesn't work. You many not be able to change yet.

:huh:

If OP wasn't ready, she wouldn't be here taking the initiative to lose weight through diet/exercise.

If she was in denial, she'd be taking the easy way out and following her doctor's suggestion of getting WLS.

Weight loss loss surgery is anything but the easy way out. It is an incredibly invasive and risky surgery that can have many complications. Further the patient has to do a massive reduction in calories to make it work. MOST patients who have weight loss surgery cannot comply with the post op instructions and never lose weight, in fact many of those patients, (in denial) gain more weight than they had in the beginning.

Because there is such a high failure rate do to patient non-compliance with post op instructions, the physicians who are at the top of their field of practice have the patient lose a lot of weight, 30 to 50 pounds before they will approve them for surgery. Many cannot do that, and compassionate physicians seeing they risk of dying for these patients will proceed with the surgery despite the inability to stick to a program. They hope for the best too.

I always give a huge commendation to people who lose weight after surgery, because they have to work really really hard and be very brave to do weight loss surgery. Weight loss surgery is for true warriors when they do it right.

Denial is not a conscious choice. People are not in denial because they want to me. It is a survival defense mechanism. Change means facing fears and we have to be ready to face them. (painful feelings, painful situations, all sorts of real frightening stuff). Fear is amazingly strong motivator to not do something. A friend of mine said it this way, we choose recovery when the pain of staying the way we are outweighs the pain of changing. There has to be a internal shift.

Personally, I never thought I would give up refined sugar. That I have done so is a greater miracle than the parting of the red sea. I was an avoidant and not in denial about my eating, but I was not ready to do anything about it till now. It served me as a coping mechanism for some real and serious problems in my life.
I

Have you ever seen the show "my 600 pound life"? I'm also helped to understand because I have close friends who have had the surgery. It is a testament to strength and faith that they succeed with weight loss surgery. It is no magic ticket. Not at all.

chrystee

I've been at this for 7 weeks and have lost 8 lbs which is about a lb a week. For someone my size, I should be losing more. I track everything on paper which is why my diary isn't open. I think I am going to switch and try to log on this site. I started using paper so I could show it to my dr and just got in the habit of writing everything down. I can assure you though, I am sticking to my 1800 calorie limit, measuring EVERYTHING and don't have any food logging issues.

I really think the problem is my metabolism. I work from home and do no exercise and this has been going on for a few years. I recently got a Fitbit and it turns out I only walk about 300 steps a day on average. My daily calorie burn has got to be much less than the BMR calculation so it's possible even at my weight I'm not even burning 1800 calories a day.

I am going to start walking a bit and hopefully it won't cause me excruciating pain and maybe lower my calories a little to see if that makes a difference.

At my gym we have an arm bike.. That may be an option (instead of using feet, you use your arms).

Look into whole 30 and paleo.. changed my life..

Try to walk. 5 minutes. every other day increase it a minute.. just keep going. It may not even be arthritis, but just pain from too much weight. I was having foot and leg issues myself.. I just kept going.