Successful dieters, I need your help!

Luna_Ivoree

I've gained 10 lbs since this time last year. Not too terrible, but I'm only 5' 2", so 10 lbs is significant on me. Since last year I quit my physically demanding job for a desk job. I believe this is why I've been on such a terrible track. So now I've added in exercise (as much as time permits) and i've been taking vitamins and not over eating like I had been. I just keep gaining no matter what I do to get in shape. What am I doing wrong? Do you have any advice? I keep reading all of these people who have lost 20 lbs in a few short months, and i want to know what I'd need to do to accomplish similar results.

Feeling completely guilty and saddened right now. All I want to do is put my wedding dress on and have it lose, not too tight!
Thanks in advance, you are all always so helpful!

fiberartist219

I wouldn't call myself a "dieter" but I have lost about 15lbs so far.

It didn't happen in a few short months. I've been working at it for a long time, and finally started losing in July... about a pound or two a month, and it is staying off.

Yes, a desk job can be hard on your body because you just sit there all day. Have you started bumping up the intensity of your workouts?

vypeters

Are you tracking everything you're eating on here? Set up your current weight, activity levels, etc? Exercise is critical to fitness, but your eating is 80% of weight loss. You can't exercise your way thin.

You can do it, but it means tracking your food diligently to figure out what you're doing right and wrong.

Good luck

privatetime

What worked for me won't necessarily work for you, especially since my brief explanation won't be comprehensive enough. But, here goes....

I gained maybe 20lbs slowly, over several years. But that was fine with me because I'd been pretty thin for all my previous adult life (97lbs @ 5'4"). Then I gained something like 40lbs over five, short years, with no obvious lifestyle changes. Early on in that weight gain, I tried to lose weight through cutting calories and exercise, to no avail. ...Lots of calorie cutting and loads of exercise. Yet I didn't lose an ounce. I'd get demoralized and give up, only to have to try again, at a higher weight.

Last August, I tried again to lose weight, now at my highest weight ever. It was after two months of WEIGHT GAIN, despite diet and exercise, that I started doing research. I KNEW my body wasn't responding like the hoardes of Internet "experts" said it should. Long story short, I have a scientific apprach to most things, and my research suggested that my PCOS had probbly made me insulin resistant. I began taking a natural insulin sensitizer and, literally, within 24 hrs, started to lose weight.

Keep in mind that I have a very healthy diet and I exercise 90-120 minutes per day, pretty much every day. I am mostly vegan, and eat virtually no junk food and relatively little (significantly-) processed food. I've been eating a mostly low GI diet for several years. I was gaining weight because of my (then unknown) insulin resistance, not because of a "bad" diet.

I've been losing, on average, 2.5lbs/week, for the past few months. I'm still on-track to meet my weight loss goal on-time. I'm still losing weight (i.e. haven't plateaued), and lost another few tenths of a pound yesterday...as expected.

But since learning I was insulin resistant and addressing that, I've also tweaked my diet to minimize insulin spikes. Simple carb's like sugar, most bread, etc., result in my body producing more insulin than someone who isn't insulin resistant. What does insulin do? It triggers fat storage.

So, I try to ensure most of my carb's are complex and low GI. Protein also spikes insulin production, but protein also helps with muscle repair and (once on a mantenance diet) muscle growth, in addition to other metabolic needs. Fat is almost irrelevant, in terms of triggering insulin production. If I go over my general caloric allowance for the day, but in the form of fat, I will still lose weight.

Right now, I'm fiurther trying to optimize my fat/carb/protein ratio.

Remember that most nutritional experts say weight loss is about 80% diet and only 20% exercise. Exercise is important, but it's unlikely the average person would exercise-away most of their consumed calories. Most guides that list caloric expenditure are way overrated, IMO. When I enter my exercise, I leave strength at zero and probably only count half my cardio calories burned, according to MFP defaults.

I also exercise a fair bit each day, as I said. About at the 80 minute mark this morning, my husband popped his head into our home gym and said, "You're exercising too long." I'm just coming back from a slight injury, so he's concerned that I'm doing too much too soon. I did another 20 minutes, and hit the shower. I know that I workout hard, and I'm in the gym for at least an hour, sometimes 2, most days.

I feel silly trying to suggest I have any answers for you, though. Everyone is unique. This is just my experience. I hope something in there helps. :-). Good luck!

sexforjaffacakes

*loose

lin7604

i too am only 5.2ft and i wanted to loose 10-12 lbs. I have been at this since NOV and i have only lost 7-8 lbs. I track everything, and i exercise 30-60 min a day and i can't seem to get rid to least 10lbs. considering i put 10 on with in 6 month.... i completely changed the way i eat and what i eat and cut out many unhealthy things i was eating before and it doesn't seem to make that big of a difference. i guess it's just harder for us short people and one that have less then 15 to loose... that is just the way it seems to be! i don't like it but it seems to be true.

heybales

Keep a healthy deficit and increase daily activity.

Forget the intense exercise for know, get your diet in order first. As mentioned, that is where most of the weight loss will come.

For your small size and narrow margin, you should also have selected 1lb / week. More than that is not safe for you. And by safe I mean you'll just lower your metabolism, be discouraged, do the wrong things hoping to have a change, every splurge will result in weight gain, and finally quitting.

Focusing on diet now, that way when you start exercising and needing to fuel that workout, you'll know how much you can eat back and keep losing.

Take your available workout times and walk 3 to 3.5 mph instead.
Park farther away, take all stairs, when others at work go out to smoke, you walk around. When others go out to lunch, you walk half the time.

Confirm high carb meals don't hit you hard as privatetime explains above. You can still maintain a deficit, but it'll make it harder as you'll get hungry faster, be less satisfied, ect.

Once you've lost weight through diet, then you can add in some exercise, and feed it with a snack before and after so your muscles will grow stronger, keeping weight loss high as possible safely.

izzydino

Everybody is different. I lose weight slowly and I have to fight for every ounce left. Remember everyday is a new day.

lin7604

Keep a healthy deficit and increase daily activity.

Forget the intense exercise for know, get your diet in order first. As mentioned, that is where most of the weight loss will come.

For your small size and narrow margin, you should also have selected 1lb / week. More than that is not safe for you. And by safe I mean you'll just lower your metabolism, be discouraged, do the wrong things hoping to have a change, every splurge will result in weight gain, and finally quitting.

Focusing on diet now, that way when you start exercising and needing to fuel that workout, you'll know how much you can eat back and keep losing.

Take your available workout times and walk 3 to 3.5 mph instead.
Park farther away, take all stairs, when others at work go out to smoke, you walk around. When others go out to lunch, you walk half the time.

Confirm high carb meals don't hit you hard as privatetime explains above. You can still maintain a deficit, but it'll make it harder as you'll get hungry faster, be less satisfied, ect.

Once you've lost weight through diet, then you can add in some exercise, and feed it with a snack before and after so your muscles will grow stronger, keeping weight loss high as possible safely.

i guess that is where i have gone wrong, i did diet and exercise all at the same time. i wanted to do diet alone but hubby wanted me to exercise and get healthier that way... i find my endurance has hanged dramatically since exercising but yes the weight hasn't been coming off... i don;t want to stop now and try diet alone as i will have a harder time getting into the groove of things and have it become a habit again... i am bad for giving up easily or getting side tracked easily... it is frustrating to say the least, as i gave my self 5 months to loose the 1st 10 and i have only done 7-8 and my goal day ( 20th) is approaching very fast.

privatetime

*loose

Your clothes or your morals?

(Seriously...I kid because I love.) ;-)

sexforjaffacakes

Once you've lost weight through diet, then you can add in some exercise, and feed it with a snack before and after so your muscles will grow stronger, keeping weight loss high as possible safely.

really bad advice.
When you lose weight, you don't just lose fat, you lose muscle too. Yes it is possible to lose a lot of weight through diet alone, but a larger part of it will be muscle. You want to keep muscle, as it burns more calories just doing nothing. It is easier to maintain muscle while you're losing weight than to build it later on.
If you want to sustain your weight loss, exercise is essential, as it preserves your lean muscle mass. lifting weights etc is the best option.
However, it is too difficult to jump in straight away if you are not used to diet or exercise. Build up the exercise slowly, maybe start with 2-3 work outs a week, increase amount of walking etc.
Over time increase intensity/length of work outs as you get better at it, don't stop all together!

It's about finding a lifestyle you can sustain, so find an exercise that you enjoy, that gives you a good burn without totaly wiping you out and make sure you eat enough to fuel your work outs.

Exercise is real important, so don't give it up, just don't do too much!

Exercising and retaining muscle mass will make you lose fat faster (:

heybales

Once you've lost weight through diet, then you can add in some exercise, and feed it with a snack before and after so your muscles will grow stronger, keeping weight loss high as possible safely.

really bad advice.
When you lose weight, you don't just lose fat, you lose muscle too. Yes it is possible to lose a lot of weight through diet alone, but a larger part of it will be muscle. You want to keep muscle, as it burns more calories just doing nothing. It is easier to maintain muscle while you're losing weight than to build it later on.
If you want to sustain your weight loss, exercise is essential, as it preserves your lean muscle mass. lifting weights etc is the best option.
However, it is too difficult to jump in straight away if you are not used to diet or exercise. Build up the exercise slowly, maybe start with 2-3 work outs a week, increase amount of walking etc.
Over time increase intensity/length of work outs as you get better at it, don't stop all together!

It's about finding a lifestyle you can sustain, so find an exercise that you enjoy, that gives you a good burn without totaly wiping you out and make sure you eat enough to fuel your work outs.

Exercise is real important, so don't give it up, just don't do too much!

Exercising and retaining muscle mass will make you lose fat faster (:

The part of the advice that got left out of that quote is the part that keeps you from losing your already existing muscle mass.

"Keep a healthy deficit and increase daily activity. "

This will prevent muscle from needing to be broken down to provide glucose, because the deficit is healthy.
And the daily activity is a workout for all the muscles you normally use in, well, you normal daily activity.

So a healthy deficit is NOT eating below your BMR. That will provide enough carbs to keep you top off for normal daily activity, and therefore no need for muscle amino acids to provide glucose.

It is the unsafe deficit along with now new intense workouts that causes ones to lose muscle mass.

Note I also did NOT state lose it all. Once you have lost weight, some. Keeping weight loss high.

And this opinion was tailored to the OP's description. Someone else who has no problem feeding their workouts and a safe deficit would have gotten the same advice you gave.

CoryIda

Eat nutritious, well-balanced meals and snacks in sensible portions, drink plenty of water, and exercise (including strength training).
There is no magic formula, but hard work will get you where you need to be.

Werglum

I vote for getting the food side under control then once that is easier to bring in the exercise side of things. This is what I did and I'm now cranking the exercise too! I've lose 14.3kg (about 32lbs) but it hasn't been fast, it has taken me since September, but there have been ups and downs and when something seems to be working well it stops and you have to change things up. For example, I'd been losing slow and steady then hit a big plateau which is when I brought in the exercise.

alibaba77

I had similar issues with "my body not responding" have your Dr. do some blood work, might be your thyroid...

IvoryParchment

If you really don't know why you're gaining weight, the first thing is to understand what you're starting from. Only you can do that.

Get a food scale and log everything. Go to the USDA website and calculate all your nutrients, not just the couple that are on food labels. You have to know what you are eating/drinking and what you aren't.

MFP gives you a goal based on the standard mathematical formula based on gender, height, age, and weight. Then it uses a fudge factor for activity. Most of your calories are expended on keeping your body warm, not exercise, and as you can imagine, that can vary a lot from person to person. You may simply have a different metabolism than other people, and you need to calculate how much energy you are expending now.

If you find you're not getting enough iron or thiamine or calcium, or vitamin K or folic acid or whatever, your body can't use your calories to carry out its basic needs. It is undernourished, yet storing fat, because it can't do anything else with the calories. When they tell you to eat five servings of vegetables a day, they didn't pull that number out of their hats. It's hard to get all the nutrients you need with convenience foods.