It just won't come off!

LoViNlIFe0225

I'm looking for some help here! About two months ago I made a commitment to become healthier. Having never been a big eater all I really had to do was make what I did eat healthier! So in two months I've barely gone over 1200 calories in a day by simply eating healthier things. I also cut out all my week night drinking two or three months ago. Beer was a big part of my life...contributing to my 30 lb weight gain over the past two years. I thought some of the pounds would shed off by just doing that! On top of that I started walking at lunch and during the past two weeks I've been working out at 4:30 am. According to my heart rate monitor I am burning 700 calories or more a workout. I'm running two miles and doing circuit weight training every day! I'm not noticing a difference on the scale or in how my clothes fit!

When my fiance and I first started dating I was 120 lbs and looked good...now I'm 150 lbs and can't get rid of any of it! I'm getting married at the end of April and really would love to shed some of this weight! ANY SUGGESTIONS on what else I can do????

TennVolsGal

With your exercise you are probably way under the 1200 cals a day....if your not eating atleast that much a day your body wont drop the weight because its in starvation mode....try adding in a whey protein shake to get in cals without actually eating....you must eat atleast 1200 cals a day. If with your exercise you go under that then eat a bit more. Hope this helps! Oh and water water water!!

Adsnwfld

Make sure you log each and every calorie consumed. 3500 calories equal 1 lb of weight. Go to your GP and get a physical then start working out hard. Give yourself adequate days to recover also.
You may have a metabolic reason for retaining weight so the physical is important. When entering calories over estimate if you don't know for sure, and underestimate your workouts. Also get plenty of sleep, your body does most of its recovery work while you sleep.

By the end of the week a deficiency of 3500 calories will equal 1 lb of weight lost.

Good luck

sburt1

If you are burning that many calories then you need to eat more than just 1200 calories!!!

Avalon203

I totally agree with the comments above! Recently I was stuck at the same weight for 4 weeks and it was driving me mad as id been losing consistently up until then. Then I realsied that my plateau had begun the same time id joined my local gym and started working out much more intensely than before and thought maybe I hadnt been eating enough to fuel this extra exercise so upped my calories from 1200 to 1400 per day, then an extra couple of hundred on days when I work out (I usually burn between 600-700) Also, I stopped having carbs with my evening meal and having snacks other than fruit in the evening. This means im eating much more through the day which felt weird at first, but im getting used to it now and I'm never hungry at night and ive gone back to losing 1-2lbs a week.

savannahgur

On top of eating your "workout" calories you have to switch up your work out routine, your body is probably just at it's plateau and you need to switch it up..eat more calories one day and not the same amount the next, slowly shock your body..and just keep it up, eventually your body will adjust to the change and you will start losing again. Also, you may want to check your measurements..you may not be losing pounds but inches instead.

Hope this helps..and congrats on your weight loss journey!

robin52077

You need to NET at least 1200 calories a day. If you are eating "almost" 1200 and burning 700 with exercise, then you only net under 500 that day and are essentially starving yourself to death. This is going to lead to a whole host of problems, the least of which being a stall in weight loss.
You need to eat 1900 on the days you work out for 700, if you are sure you really burned 700...that seems a lot...
But you need to eat 1200 (not UNDER 1200) on non-workout days, and 1200 PLUS exercise calories on exercise days.
Your deficit to lose weight is already built into that 1200 number. You do not go below that to lose weight, that IS your "lose weight" number. Anything less than that is starvation.

When your body thinks it is in the middle of a famine, it will hold onto every ounce for dear life and losing weight is extremely difficult. Convince your body that you won't starve it to death by eating more (and GOOD foods, not junk), and after a few weeks it will start to melt off.
But first you have to undo the damage you did, and the scale may creep up a bit at first,but don't panic. It takes a few weeks to reverse the damage and send it the opposite way.

(trust me, I weigh 104 and have upped my calories to 1500 and am still slowly losing. you don't need to be hungry to lose weight)

johnthefatman

So if you joined in sept when did you loose the 24 lbs lost showing on your ticker? That would be a pretty good result for sept- nov. Confused - re-edit - ignore this I was misreading the tracker

clahut

Bump your calories up a little so that you are maybe consuming about 1300 AFTER you have taken your exercise calories into account. Also drink at least 2 litres of water a day (don't include tea, coffee or fizzy drinks like Diet Coke in that total). That will probably help kick start your body a little

erickirb

You must eat more. you should eat 1200 Net as the minimum so if you burn 700 calories you should eat 1900 to get 1200 net (1200+700) If not your body is trying to live off of 500 cals/day (1200-700) no where near enough. Also you should be getting a minimum of 7.5 hours of sleep per day. Getting up at 4:30 I am assuming you are not getting that much.

rml_16

I'm looking for some help here! About two months ago I made a commitment to become healthier. Having never been a big eater all I really had to do was make what I did eat healthier! So in two months I've barely gone over 1200 calories in a day by simply eating healthier things. I also cut out all my week night drinking two or three months ago. Beer was a big part of my life...contributing to my 30 lb weight gain over the past two years. I thought some of the pounds would shed off by just doing that! On top of that I started walking at lunch and during the past two weeks I've been working out at 4:30 am. According to my heart rate monitor I am burning 700 calories or more a workout. I'm running two miles and doing circuit weight training every day! I'm not noticing a difference on the scale or in how my clothes fit!

When my fiance and I first started dating I was 120 lbs and looked good...now I'm 150 lbs and can't get rid of any of it! I'm getting married at the end of April and really would love to shed some of this weight! ANY SUGGESTIONS on what else I can do????

What kind of HRM do you have? Unless you're doing that circuit training for almost an hour, in addition to the 2 miles, that sounds a little high.

You said you cut out weekday drinking, but how much are you drinking on weekends? Are you sure you're not eating more than 1,200 a day? Are you weighing and measuring your food to ensure portion sizes?

How are your clothes fitting? Have you been taking measurements?

rml_16

So if you joined in sept when did you loose the 24 lbs lost showing on your ticker? That would be a pretty good result for sept- nov. Confused

Her tracker says 24 pounds to go, not 24 lost.

johnthefatman

OOps - unconfused now - thanks

msbanana

You must eat more. you should eat 1200 Net as the minimum so if you burn 700 calories you should eat 1900 to get 1200 net (1200+700) If not your body is trying to live off of 500 cals/day (1200-700) no where near enough. Also you should be getting a minimum of 7.5 hours of sleep per day. Getting up at 4:30 I am assuming you are not getting that much.

^this guy^ Is spot on. I was just stuck for more than month. I was adding more and more exercise and feeling run down and terrible. There was no composition change there was no weight loss. I realized that I wasn't eating ENOUGH. People throw around the term "Starvation Mode" all the time here- what they mean is your body isn't getting enough fuel so instead of burning fat it begins hanging on to fat AND storing what you're eating just so you can get through the day.

It seems counter productive but try adding an extra 100 cals a meal (an extra 300 cals per day) on the days that you work out. Give it a week or two there (continue working out) and I'll bet you'll start to FEEL a difference and that scale will finally quit moving. Hope that helps!

badrianne

I'm looking for some help here! About two months ago I made a commitment to become healthier. Having never been a big eater all I really had to do was make what I did eat healthier! So in two months I've barely gone over 1200 calories in a day by simply eating healthier things. I also cut out all my week night drinking two or three months ago. Beer was a big part of my life...contributing to my 30 lb weight gain over the past two years. I thought some of the pounds would shed off by just doing that! On top of that I started walking at lunch and during the past two weeks I've been working out at 4:30 am. According to my heart rate monitor I am burning 700 calories or more a workout. I'm running two miles and doing circuit weight training every day! I'm not noticing a difference on the scale or in how my clothes fit!

When my fiance and I first started dating I was 120 lbs and looked good...now I'm 150 lbs and can't get rid of any of it! I'm getting married at the end of April and really would love to shed some of this weight! ANY SUGGESTIONS on what else I can do????

What kind of HRM do you have? Unless you're doing that circuit training for almost an hour, in addition to the 2 miles, that sounds a little high.

You said you cut out weekday drinking, but how much are you drinking on weekends? Are you sure you're not eating more than 1,200 a day? Are you weighing and measuring your food to ensure portion sizes?

How are your clothes fitting? Have you been taking measurements?

I was going to say the same thing. I think that you are overestimating your calorie burn. One mile of walking burns about 100 calories. Running does not burn a signifcant amount more (that I have read). So I would guess that you are not close to the 700 cals even with the circuit training added on.

Weight loss is mostly diet, so if I were you I would look closely at the foods I was consuming. Measure and make sure that you are keeping track of every nibble...at least for a while.

LoViNlIFe0225

Actually I'm usually in bed by 9:00 so I'm getting plenty of sleep but I never thought about 500 net calories! That's crazy...I can't believe that's all I'm eating because I never feel like I'm STARVING! Thanks for the advice!

LoViNlIFe0225

Thanks! This seems to be the consensus on my problem. I think I'm going to start trying six small meals a day or perhaps my regular three meals a day with two small snacks.! Thanks for the advice!

LoViNlIFe0225

Even without working out I am eating less than 1000 calories a day which would have to make some kind of difference. I only estimate that I burn 94 calories when I walk a mile at lunch...that's with a heart rate at 80-90. When I run my heart rate gets up to 180 most of the time. I'm measuring my calories burned with a heart rate monitor that have my personal settings (weight, height, age ect.) Then it takes my pulse (which I do frequently for accuracy) and measure my calories burned that way. I wonder if I should start not including my calories burned during my circuit training...that way I can ensure that I'm not over calculating my calories burned. Do you know of a more accurate way of calculating the amount of calories burned other than my heart rate monitor? Thanks so much for the advice!

robin52077

I just want to add that it sounds like your HRM is the kind that is just a watch.

FYI - those are basically a gimmicky toy. Gives you a VERY rough estimate but not reliable. You need one with a chest strap to get more accuracy. But even that is not perfect. Nothing is, unfortunately.

cjegger

I used to use one of those HRM that is a watch....now I use a Polar FT4 with a chest strap....much more accurate.

jocelyne2

I loved to have my few drinks mainly beer at night to relax which just like you gained about 30 lbs :noway: I had the exact same problem I would work my *kitten* off ....ate my 1200 calories and the scale would barely move...It was like a damn yo-yo .... it took a year to lose 15 lbs ...Ill be honest I totally fell off the wagon quite a few times because of frustration :sad: but, as of today I have lost 9 lbs and 10 inches in 6 weeks ,I workout about 4-5 times a week and burn 600-750 cals a time and eat about 1400 cals a day sometimes more lol. I have been cheating thou my energy was like gone... none at all so I bought some evomine-x (caffiene and crap) Cla and multi-vitamin and my energy went thru the roof which helps me get my workouts in after a 12 hr day !!!! I know some ppl are gonna have an opinion about using this stuff but for me its working and that's all that counts As for the beer I switched to red wine and if you are like me that 2nd glass is too much sometime :laugh:

jocelyne2

Oh and I forgot the whey protien shakes

rml_16

Looks like everyone else covered the HRM.

If you're eating fewer than 1,000 calories a day and exercising on top of that, then you should be losing weight. Eating too few calories over time can slow your metabolism, but it won't stop losses.

It sounds to me like you're miscaculating what you're eating. Somehow, you're eating or drinking more than you think you are.

If you're not, then you need to see a doctor.

LoViNlIFe0225

Thanks for all the advice. I know a personal trainer that said the heart rate monitor is usually within a 100 calories so I'm just going to start deducting 200 calories from the amount it tells me until I can get one that is a little bit of a higher quality. It also sounds like I need to start eating more so starting tomorrow its going to be six meals a day. Thanks again for taking the time out to offer me a bit of help!