Discouraged today--anybody else fighting this lack of real r

ShellyMacchi

I can only speak for my own results .. and at 55 I am in about the same category *S*

The short answer is.. no.. i've not had those issues.. but then, here's what i did for success:

The first 30 pounds i lost with no exercise (basically i pretty much could not do any).
Calorie control alone (1200 per day max). At first i struggled to even eat my full 1200, but once i started making myself do so the weight starting dropping more consistently though still not in large amounts.

Then i focused on water... at risk of sounding blunt *LOL*... i found i was becoming constipated alot with my changed eating habits... and the only thing (after alot of reading on the subject) that i had not tried to help the situation, was increasing my water intake. 8 cups a day was not enough.. for me my system seemed to need a minimum of 10 cups a day, and at those levels of water, voila! the weight really started dropping!

All was good until i started exercising (and not eating my exercise calories)... and then i stalled.. hit a plateau.. whatever you want to call it.

I begrudgingly started to eat back those exercise calories too (despite it feeling so counter-intuitive to be doing so), et voila! The weight started dropping again!

That all took place from January to October last year.. at which point I had lost 75 pounds and was approx. 10 pounds form my goal weight.. for the first time ever in my life!!!!!

At that time the holidays got in my way.. and i decided to relax (i was extremely focused and consistent with my eating choices up to that point.. including rarely going over 1500 mg sodium per day!) a little and coast for a bit of a break, on maintenance level calories.

In truth i should not have done that.. not yet anyway... i should have stuck at it with no break til those last 10 pounds were gone and THEN gone to maintenance, as, over the holidays i let myself indulge a lil too much and since then I have been struggling a little to get back in the groove I prefer (controlled consistency makes me feels good *L*).

But i am getting there, though my food diary these days is not as awe inspiring *tongue-in-cheek* as it was last year, I am hanging in there and slowly getting it back to where I am happiest... and I KNOW it will work for me, as I proved it to myself last year *S* Now though, being so close, i am approaching it with a higher calorie goal per day as recommended.

Good luck!

potluck965

Just the fact that you bumped this around an hour after you had first posted it shows to me that you are an impatient person. There is no quick fix to weight loss. You must be patient and honest with yourself and follow the best plan that works for you.

Sometimes it takes a little time to find what combination you need, but frankly, a weight loss of a pound a week is perfectly acceptable.

Remember that this is something you will be paying attention to the rest of your life. 3 weeks is an insignificant amount of time.

Be patient.

duanechez

With persistence

Persist, and small actions lead to big results. Persist, and you make time work in your favor.

If you give up after the first or second attempt, your level of success will be mediocre at best. When you persist for as long as it takes, you’re able to create magnificent, outstanding achievements.

Persistence is not a complicated or inaccessible strategy. All you have to do is choose to keep going.

After a successful day, instead of resting on your accomplishments, keep going. After a disappointing day, instead of wallowing in self pity, keep going.

Persist, and the small steps forward add together to create great advances. Persist, and even the setbacks will eventually work in your favor.

Set your sights on a worthy, meaningful goal, and persist. With persistence, you can take yourself anywhere you choose

MB_Positif

All I can say...give it more time.

farcry66

I've looked at your food diary, and aside from yesterday, it does seem like you are eating a good ammount for your target. Have you set it to a 2lb loss though? At your weight and goal, 2lbs is probably too much (according to MFP - I don't pretend to be an expert on this!!!!), try setting it at 1lb. 3lbs in 3 weeks is good going though! Go to the grocery store and pick up 3lbs of butter, it may make you feel better about it.

susanswan

DON'T GIVE UP! I'm here to tell you that I started my weight loss journey just before I turned 50. I will be 55 in April and I went from 205 to 138 today. My journey has been a struggle to learn and realize that what I do does matter. I read and listened and learned. You can glean a lot from what you read in the posts here. You will continue to see the same advice over and over and over again. TAKE IT! These people who have done the work and LOST the weight KNOW what they are talking about. They are the experts.

Of course everyone has a slightly different take. Here is mine: Whole foods, lots of fresh veggies and fruits. Minimal processed foods. Yep, means lots of shopping, cooking, and clean up! But I feel SO much better eating whole foods. Check out my profile if you'd like to learn more about me. My blogs (link in my profiel) chronicled my early struggle when I got on here to lose my final 30 pounds. This is where I made my most important changes.

Mind you I went through menopause LOSING 53 pounds. My GYN was astounded as she said most women GAIN 10 pounds just due to the hormone shifts. I also quit my hospital nursing job and switched to working at home sitting on my butt all day in front of a computer. Most people also gain 10 pounds just doing that, and so did I. I know first hand that it can be done. I also have been on medication for an under active thyroid since age 19. I know all of the excuses. I ate sugar and white flour night and day. Once I got rid of those two things from my diet my cravings went away in 2 weeks. So for the first time in my life I was in control of food instead of food controlling me.

I've learned a heck of a lot in the last year especially and patience is one of those things. It is often a waiting game. You can't force your body to do what it has never had to do before - mainly losing weight. We've only been good at storing our excess weight for the most part so it will take some time for your body to adjust. But I have witnessed first hand that with perseverance and dedication I can do this and so can you. I don't believe you need to kill yourself with exercise if that is not for you, either. I walk the dog at a good pace twice a day and work out with weights. More is probably better, but I still did get down from a hopeless size 16 to a "what's going on?" size 4 and so can you! I am 5' 5 1/2" tall.

Go do it! Friend me if you want to. I'll be a lifer here! Best of luck to you!!
Susan

susanswan

With persistence

Persist, and small actions lead to big results. Persist, and you make time work in your favor.

If you give up after the first or second attempt, your level of success will be mediocre at best. When you persist for as long as it takes, you’re able to create magnificent, outstanding achievements.

Persistence is not a complicated or inaccessible strategy. All you have to do is choose to keep going.

After a successful day, instead of resting on your accomplishments, keep going. After a disappointing day, instead of wallowing in self pity, keep going.

Persist, and the small steps forward add together to create great advances. Persist, and even the setbacks will eventually work in your favor.

Set your sights on a worthy, meaningful goal, and persist. With persistence, you can take yourself anywhere you choose

This! Amen!

ishallnotwant

you are probably turning your fat into muscle.. muscle weighs more than fat dear.. do not get discouraged, we are all fighting the same fight.. to loss weight!!

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. It is extremely unlikely that you are gaining muscle on a 1200 diet. Muscle needs a lot of calories and protein to grow.... which you don't get on such a low calorie diet.

try eating your exercise calories back. Make sure you are properly measuring everything. Ensure you are tracking everything. Eat at your BMR... this site puts most people at 1200 cals a day which is far too low for most people.

I'll add to this that it is IMPOSSIBLE to turn fat into muscle. You can LOSE fat, and BUILD muscle, but fat does not magically turn into muscle. :flowerforyou:

Kelekat

Good advice all.

A little background--other than immediately following pregnancy, I've never been more than 10lbs away from goal weight at any point in time in my life--and when I was, could usually drop it all in a matter of weeks without starving myself to do so.

The day I turned 50, I weighed 138lbs, and wore a size 5 or size 7 jean, depending on the manufacturer. I had great abs, great legs, and arms that made younger women jealous. I worked out three times a week, weights and cardio, and the rest of the time, I watched what I ate, but I didn't count calories and I wasn't afraid to eat popcorn at the movies if I so desired.

Then about a year and a half ago, with no real change in my exercise habits (although I had to do most of my cardio outside of the gym because I was in the midst of moving from Wyoming to California) and no real change in my calorie intake, the weight started piling on. Within a matter of months, I had gained nearly 35 pounds and I was at a loss as to how it got there or what to do about it.

I cut back my calories and joined the gym here, but my work schedule plus my son's football schedule made it impossible to get there, so I had to content myself with 45 minute walks in the hills around my place of employment at lunch. And nothing (and I do mean NOTHING) happened. I lost no weight at all. This is not my first time on MFP--I counted my calories back then and exercise as well--and I lost no weight--this went on for about 6 months. I had my thyroid checked, but no doctor seems willing to test the correct hormones instead choosing to check TSH and T4, tests that a couple of hormone doctors my insurance won't cover have told me are not only redundant, but don't look at the correct hormone levels. They believe my thyroid is hypo (I had postpartum thyroiditis after the birth of my first child which makes me more suseptible). But because none of the doctors in my insurance plan will listen to my concerns, I have to find a way through this with, what I am sure, is a malfunctioning thyroid. So here I am again...

That said, I DO attempt to eat back my exercise calories. I drink around a half a gallon or more of water every day, especially while I hike. My past experience tells me that my fat jeans should at least not be cutting of the circulation in my waist anymore, but that isn't the case.

I don't expect miracles. I'm not looking to drop three or four pounds a week. I would just like to see something happen after all of my hard work. I don't expect my body to act as if I'm still merely walking at lunch instead of busting my can in the gym with a trainer, as well as climbing every mountain range within a 30 mile radius.

Can hormones really affect one's ability to lose weight this much? Am I fooling myself into thinking that I can overcome whatever hormonal issues my body is experiencing by eating right and exercising frequently and regularly?

funkycamper

Kelekat, I don't have an answer for you. I just want to say it must be frustrating. I don't understand why doctors can't order a test that someone specifically requests. Even if they don't believe it will help, if you're willing to pay for it, why should they care? I hope you find the help you need.

Kelekat

Kelekat, I don't have an answer for you. I just want to say it must be frustrating. I don't understand why doctors can't order a test that someone specifically requests. Even if they don't believe it will help, if you're willing to pay for it, why should they care? I hope you find the help you need.

It is frustrating. Today marks two days shy of one month that I've been dieting and exercising. I've lost exactly 2.8 pounds and the first two pounds see-sawed back and forth for over two weeks before my body finally let go of them. That means I've lost .08 pounds in two weeks. And people want to tell me that I expect too much too fast?

Y'all try dealing with the <lack> of weight loss when you've put forth the kind of effort I have and see how it makes you feel.

I am at my wit's end.

funkycamper

Kelekat, I don't have an answer for you. I just want to say it must be frustrating. I don't understand why doctors can't order a test that someone specifically requests. Even if they don't believe it will help, if you're willing to pay for it, why should they care? I hope you find the help you need.

It is frustrating. Today marks two days shy of one month that I've been dieting and exercising. I've lost exactly 2.8 pounds and the first two pounds see-sawed back and forth for over two weeks before my body finally let go of them. That means I've lost .08 pounds in two weeks. And people want to tell me that I expect too much too fast?

Y'all try dealing with the <lack> of weight loss when you've put forth the kind of effort I have and see how it makes you feel.

I am at my wit's end.

What makes you think you're the only one putting out a lot of effort and seeing slow results? It took me three weeks to lose 1#. I've been on a stall since Christmas and have only lost 1# in that time. Although, with my intense exercise routine, I did go down a pant size since Christmas so I'm actually not too upset about that.

It sounds like you're only about 35# overweight. Is that about right? According to many people smarter than I about weight loss, this is roughly the weight loss you should be aiming for:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)

As for your effort...are you still exercising 3 times weekly? Maybe you need to increase the number of days, duration or type of exercise you're doing. I see a lot of people doing the same exercise plan for months and wonder why they're not improving. When i could first return to exercise after recovery from a back injury, just last August, I could barely do 5-minutes at a stretch on the elliptical. Now I'm exercising about 10-20 hours a week doing a lot of different things to mix it up, some things that are just plain fitness-oriented and some things that are just plain fun to do. The big variance is that I sometimes go on long hikes or long bike rides, sometimes I don't. My base exercising is roughly 10 hours per week.

I know many people say it's not necessary to exercise that much for weight loss. But my goals right now are more fitness-oriented. I do a mix of weights, HIIT, steady-state cardio, and classes for fun. I swim, run, bike, lift, hike, do various classes like yoga, pilates, cardio-kickboxing, zumba, aqua-fitness, and such because they are fun and offer a different workout. I usually do 2 spin classes weekly. I find that focusing on fitness goals is a lot more fun than focusing on the dang scale. And I'm sure if I wasn't doing all of this, I wouldn't have gone down a pant size with only a 1# loss in about 1.5 months time.

I suggest you read around the forums, concentrate on the good information in the sticky posts at the top of this thread, and then do some experimenting to see what works best for you. You might need to do some tweaking but don't look at this as being discouraging but, rather, an opportunity to learn more about your own body. There's a lot of value in that.

I'm 54 and it's all working for me. Maybe not super-quickly but that's OK because I'm fitter and feel better every day. You are already losing quicker than I have. Just be patient and enjoy the journey.

Kelekat

I exercise EVERY day. I weight train three days a week. I do some form of intense cardio seven days a week. On weekends, I generally burn over 1,000 a day hiking in the mountains that surround San Diego. My ability to withstand that punishment has increased. My fat has not gone anywhere. My BMI is 36.2% up from 22% just 1-1/2 years ago.

I don't think that I'm the only person having this problem at all--that's why I'm hoping to hear from some people who have. I'd like to find out how they overcame--especially if they're having probable thyroid related issues and can't get a doctor to give them the proper thyroid blood test to find out what is going on in their body, much less get one to listen to them.

I hate to sound as if I'm whining here. I'm quite sure that other folks have these same related issues. I'm just trying to figure out how to go forward, knowing that medically, I'm not likely to get any kind of help other than being viewed as a menopausal hormonal basketcase. I DO know my body--I've lived in it going on my 53rd year and I know when something is not right--and something is not right. In the past, I would have lost about 6 pounds or more by now (and when I say in the past, I mean less than 2 years ago).

All I know is that I am fighting an uphill battle with my body right now and if someone else has gone through this hormonal hell, I'd appreciate hearing how they kept their sanity and lost some weight at the same time.

Alphawolf02

If you are exercising regularly and eating back those calories lost (which is highly recommended), try checking in with your inches instead of weight. I am very slow to lose weight, but I am losing inches!

funkycamper

I exercise EVERY day. I weight train three days a week. I do some form of intense cardio seven days a week. On weekends, I generally burn over 1,000 a day hiking in the mountains that surround San Diego. My ability to withstand that punishment has increased. My fat has not gone anywhere. My BMI is 36.2% up from 22% just 1-1/2 years ago.

I don't think that I'm the only person having this problem at all--that's why I'm hoping to hear from some people who have. I'd like to find out how they overcame--especially if they're having probable thyroid related issues and can't get a doctor to give them the proper thyroid blood test to find out what is going on in their body, much less get one to listen to them.

I hate to sound as if I'm whining here. I'm quite sure that other folks have these same related issues. I'm just trying to figure out how to go forward, knowing that medically, I'm not likely to get any kind of help other than being viewed as a menopausal hormonal basketcase. I DO know my body--I've lived in it going on my 53rd year and I know when something is not right--and something is not right. In the past, I would have lost about 6 pounds or more by now (and when I say in the past, I mean less than 2 years ago).

All I know is that I am fighting an uphill battle with my body right now and if someone else has gone through this hormonal hell, I'd appreciate hearing how they kept their sanity and lost some weight at the same time.

I wish I could help you. It sounds like you're doing a lot. I know I lose slower now that I'm post-menopause but I am still losing. If you're doing all this and not even losing inches, then I'm at a loss. Hope you can find a doctor who will give you the tests you desire and find an answer.

You say you do intense cardio. Have you tried HIIT or Tabata style workouts? They sure seem to help me and might be worth a try. My straight cardio is more for fun stuff than for exercise. Just a thought.

The only other thing that I could recommend is playing with your macros. Maybe you need a different composition of your proteins/carbs/fats? I know I have to keep my carbs a bit lower in order to lose weight and feel better. But that doesn't work for everybody so it's just a suggestion. And upping your water, maybe?

I might suggest starting a different discussion with the word thyroid in the the title. It's possible someone else with thyroid issues will see it and be able to give you some insight. Best wishes.

debra102011

Don't give up until you find a good Dr. Mine was hesitant to order a A1C (diabetic test) but I persisted and now he does it yearly.
You must be proactive when it comes to your health which I am sure you know and it might help if you ask your GYN Dr. for the test, sometimes they are more in tune to a woman's body than the Family Practices guys are.

Good luck and hang in there .

juliekaiser1988

I had to admit to those little um, discrepencies, in my calorie count before I started to see the scale move appropriately. Just keep going forward. Don't give up!

gjc50

so true, very good advice

porvenir

I exercise EVERY day. I weight train three days a week. I do some form of intense cardio seven days a week. On weekends, I generally burn over 1,000 a day hiking in the mountains that surround San Diego. My ability to withstand that punishment has increased. My fat has not gone anywhere. My BMI is 36.2% up from 22% just 1-1/2 years ago.

I don't think that I'm the only person having this problem at all--that's why I'm hoping to hear from some people who have. I'd like to find out how they overcame--especially if they're having probable thyroid related issues and can't get a doctor to give them the proper thyroid blood test to find out what is going on in their body, much less get one to listen to them.

I hate to sound as if I'm whining here. I'm quite sure that other folks have these same related issues. I'm just trying to figure out how to go forward, knowing that medically, I'm not likely to get any kind of help other than being viewed as a menopausal hormonal basketcase. I DO know my body--I've lived in it going on my 53rd year and I know when something is not right--and something is not right. In the past, I would have lost about 6 pounds or more by now (and when I say in the past, I mean less than 2 years ago).

All I know is that I am fighting an uphill battle with my body right now and if someone else has gone through this hormonal hell, I'd appreciate hearing how they kept their sanity and lost some weight at the same time.

I hear you. Two years ago I was 41 years old, 5'6", and had been about 125 pounds for at least a decade. I was very active in my daily life and enjoyed a very clean diet. So, then I moved to CA, took a very stressful and mostly sedentary job (who knew there could be so many high drama meetings), and started and quit smoking. I grew 2 years older and I gained more than 25 pounds! Once I finally decided to try to get things under control, I thought "no problem, I've never had trouble with my weight." I cut out most complex carbs and saw no change in my weight. I started exercising with real focus. No weight loss and really very little gained strength. I quit drinking alcohol. I gained more pounds. I had my thyroid checked multiple times by multiple doctors - all was normal.

I have finally accepted that my body is changing as I age. The days of not really needing to watch my calories because eating clean was enough to keep the weight off are gone. Now I am logging calories and improving my diet again, focusing on stress reduction, and making sure that I get regular and consistent exercise. In more than 2 months, I have lost 6 pounds. That is less than 1 pound a week. But my body is responding in a positive way to the work I am doing. That makes me feel very happy.

Our bodies change. It is all part of life's path. At least for me, I had to make peace with the fact that this means that weight is not just going to fall off the way it once did without any sort of calorie reduction or hard won patience.

Please do speak with your doctor if your body is telling you something is not right. Try to hang in there, treat yourself kindly, and be proud of the good things you are doing for yourself.