Any advice to help my wife lose her last 10 to 15 pounds?

sean23

Hi. I am writing because I am totally at a loss and frustrated on why my wife cannot lose any weight. I am trying to research things and find out what I can do to help her. I really feel bad for her because she works her hardest doing the tough things to lose weight. She gets up and works out in the morning and at night religiously. Plus, she really watches what she eats and measures and keeps track of calories and carbs and everything. She is a mother of two and works full time. She lost 25 pounds doing LA weight loss 2 years ago. She still wanted to lose 10 more pounds, but got stuck and the program shut down. She seems to do a good job of being able to stay the same weight but she can't even keep off a pound. Once she loses one a couple days later it comes right back. Over the past 2 years she's gained probably 10 pounds back and desperately wants to lose 10 to 15 pounds. She looks good, but she wants to know how to lose the weight while she's still young, and she isn't at too low of a weight where she's at her limit. She's 5'2 and weighs 160 pounds. She doesn't drink pop but once a day (diet) and we don't drink or eat out much. She eats very healthy. She counts her calories on here and is usually from 1000 to 1300 calories a day. She is under on carbs fat and all the categories. It seems like when she adds more calories she gains weight. I have heard you never want to go under 1200 calories? Is that always true? She exercises about 20 minutes in the morning and most night 20 minutes walking briskly on the treadmill. Her job is one where she sits at a desk all day. The question I have is what is the best approach to help her lose the last pounds she needs? She is currently getting food programs from Jillian Michaels website and eating 1200 calories a day. She started doing that Monday. I am afraid if this doesn't work the frustration is really getting to her and I just want to help her do the right thing. Most people can't lose weight because they cheat on their diet or don't want to exercise. She is doing the hard part we just need the right advice on how to get the weight off. Judging by her job sitting at a desk all day and knowing what she eats and how much she works out, why can't she lose any weight and what can we do that will work? I desperately need someone to give me some advice that will actually work. Please could someone help us?
Thank you!

sean23

Hi. I am writing because I am totally at a loss and frustrated on why my wife cannot lose any weight. I am trying to research things and find out what I can do to help her. I really feel bad for her because she works her hardest doing the tough things to lose weight. She gets up and works out in the morning and at night religiously. Plus, she really watches what she eats and measures and keeps track of calories and carbs and everything. She is a mother of two and works full time. She lost 25 pounds doing LA weight loss 2 years ago. She still wanted to lose 10 more pounds, but got stuck and the program shut down. She seems to do a good job of being able to stay the same weight but she can't even keep off a pound. Once she loses one a couple days later it comes right back. Over the past 2 years she's gained probably 10 pounds back and desperately wants to lose 10 to 15 pounds. She looks good, but she wants to know how to lose the weight while she's still young, and she isn't at too low of a weight where she's at her limit. She's 5'2 and weighs 160 pounds. She doesn't drink pop but once a day (diet) and we don't drink or eat out much. She eats very healthy. She counts her calories on here and is usually from 1000 to 1300 calories a day. She is under on carbs fat and all the categories. It seems like when she adds more calories she gains weight. I have heard you never want to go under 1200 calories? Is that always true? She exercises about 20 minutes in the morning and most night 20 minutes walking briskly on the treadmill. Her job is one where she sits at a desk all day. The question I have is what is the best approach to help her lose the last pounds she needs? She is currently getting food programs from Jillian Michaels website and eating 1200 calories a day. She started doing that Monday. I am afraid if this doesn't work the frustration is really getting to her and I just want to help her do the right thing. Most people can't lose weight because they cheat on their diet or don't want to exercise. She is doing the hard part we just need the right advice on how to get the weight off. Judging by her job sitting at a desk all day and knowing what she eats and how much she works out, why can't she lose any weight and what can we do that will work? I desperately need someone to give me some advice that will actually work. Please could someone help us?
Thank you!

kleimola

Firstly, loosing weight isn't as important as being healthy. If she is exercising she could be replacing fat with muscle, in which case the scale can fluctuate. It can also fluctuate do to the time of the month or water weight due to salt intake. If her clothes are fitting better then I would say the weight number doesn't matter, it's how she feels. If all else fails, she should talk to a doctor. It could be a thyroid related problem or something else. Keep in mind loosing it takes time, she didn't gain it all overnight so she isn't going to loose it all overnight. Just be a support for her too, make sure you are supporting what she wants and not what you want her to be.

Jenzy

Maybe to mix up the workouts will help. Don't do the same exercises every day. Make sure to put the incline up and down on the treadmill and make sure she is maintaining a heart rate of 60-80% of max age predicted while on the treadmill. The more muscle a person has the more calories they will burn at rest so she should lift weights.

tig3rang3l

Has she seen a doctor? It could be an overactive thyroid, or some kind of hormonal thing going on. Check in with a nutritionist to make sure your wife is eating the right proportions. Good luck!

Dave198lbs

Hi. I am writing because I am totally at a loss and frustrated on why my wife cannot lose any weight. I am trying to research things and find out what I can do to help her. I really feel bad for her because she works her hardest doing the tough things to lose weight. She gets up and works out in the morning and at night religiously. Plus, she really watches what she eats and measures and keeps track of calories and carbs and everything. She is a mother of two and works full time. She lost 25 pounds doing LA weight loss 2 years ago. She still wanted to lose 10 more pounds, but got stuck and the program shut down. She seems to do a good job of being able to stay the same weight but she can't even keep off a pound. Once she loses one a couple days later it comes right back. Over the past 2 years she's gained probably 10 pounds back and desperately wants to lose 10 to 15 pounds. She looks good, but she wants to know how to lose the weight while she's still young, and she isn't at too low of a weight where she's at her limit. She's 5'2 and weighs 160 pounds. She doesn't drink pop but once a day (diet) and we don't drink or eat out much. She eats very healthy. She counts her calories on here and is usually from 1000 to 1300 calories a day. She is under on carbs fat and all the categories. It seems like when she adds more calories she gains weight. I have heard you never want to go under 1200 calories? Is that always true? She exercises about 20 minutes in the morning and most night 20 minutes walking briskly on the treadmill. Her job is one where she sits at a desk all day. The question I have is what is the best approach to help her lose the last pounds she needs? She is currently getting food programs from Jillian Michaels website and eating 1200 calories a day. She started doing that Monday. I am afraid if this doesn't work the frustration is really getting to her and I just want to help her do the right thing. Most people can't lose weight because they cheat on their diet or don't want to exercise. She is doing the hard part we just need the right advice on how to get the weight off. Judging by her job sitting at a desk all day and knowing what she eats and how much she works out, why can't she lose any weight and what can we do that will work? I desperately need someone to give me some advice that will actually work. Please could someone help us?
Thank you!

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I cant read it

sean23

Thank you for replying. She has had her thyroid tested and talked to a doctor. Also, she has been eating and exercising consistently all year. They had her do a low carb for a while. She lost 4 pounds right away and then it came back after a few weeks. I appreciate your time, I just want to know I've done all I can do to help her since she is working so hard.
Thanks again!

Petunia_K

I just read a great article about plateauing and people who have less than 20 pounds to lose. It said that you have to avoid putting your body into starvation mode because thats what makes people stop losing weight. The article said that you can avoid this by calculating the number of calories it would take to MAINTAIN the weight you are now and then decrease caloric intake by no more than 10-15%. You do this in increments. In other words once you have decreased that small amount and you perhaps lose 2 or 3 pounds then you re-calculate for your new weight and take off an additional 10% of your caloric intake. It sounds to me like your wife is perhaps not eating enough calories. 1000 to 1300 cals is super low. This is the first advice I would give. The second would be to increase her exercise intensity and duration and to add weights. When she builds muscle it will rev up her metabolism, but of course, adding muscle may make it so she loses more inches and not so much the weight. I hope some of this helps. Bless her heart, I know it can be frustrating. She sounds like a trooper, tell her to hang in there and hopefully she'll soon find what works for her. :flowerforyou:

tig3rang3l

Thank you for replying. She has had her thyroid tested and talked to a doctor. Also, she has been eating and exercising consistently all year. They had her do a low carb for a while. She lost 4 pounds right away and then it came back after a few weeks. I appreciate your time, I just want to know I've done all I can do to help her since she is working so hard.
Thanks again!

Kudos for supporting her so well :happy:

kleimola

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Thank you for replying. She has had her thyroid tested and talked to a doctor. Also, she has been eating and exercising consistently all year. They had her do a low carb for a while. She lost 4 pounds right away and then it came back after a few weeks. I appreciate your time, I just want to know I've done all I can do to help her since she is working so hard.
Thanks again!

RachVR6

She should NEVER be between 1000 and 1300 especially if she works out morning AND night. I would say minimum of 1600cal with those workouts. Her body is holding onto the weight because she's not giving it enough food. :flowerforyou:

LostinCali

I was just thinking, too, that if she's working out twice a day, she's not eating enough to keep her body fueled.

christy559

It seems like her workouts are pretty low intensity.

If she really wants to know how effective her workouts are, MFPers use a HRM by Polar. I've seen recommended a F6, F7, F11 or the Reebok monitor. 20 minutes in the morning an 20 minutes at night of walking may not be adequate for her metabolism, if there aren't any medical issues. The monitors can tell you how many calories were burned during a workout.

And she should have at minimum 1200 calories, or more depending on exercise level and activities. If monitors her exercise, she should also be increasing her calories to account for the increase in expenditure of energy. For example if a person should have 1200 calories a day, but runs and burns 400 additional calories, then their total intake should be 1600. If that person did NOT eat the calories, then they would be way below the minimum for the day, at 800 calories.

Hope that helps.

RachVR6

Here's Jillian Michael's method to calculating how much you should be eating...

Go to google and search for a BMR calculator and put in the info it needs.

Decide which of the following activity levels:

1 - Secretary (little movement)
2 - Sales person (up and down)
3 - Trainer (constantly moving)
4 - Construction (lots of movement, heavy effort)

Now take your BMR number and mulitply that by 1.(your activity level number), so secretary would be 1.1, construction worker 1.4.

That number is how many calories you burn every day.

Then you add in your exercise calories.


So if your wife's BMR is say, 1600, and she's a sales person activity level, she burns 1920calories a day without exercise. If she burns, say 600 calories a day, she's up to 2520calories!!!

Thats way too much of a deficit. I would say in that scenario she should be eating more like 2000cal. a day.

Have her put in her data and play with the numbers. Since she only has 10lbs to lose I'd say aim for a 500calorie deficit (per day) so she'd lose a pound a week.

MTGirl

But, let her know not to be surprised of she gains for a few weeks or so when she ups her calories. If her metabolism has been slowed by being underfueled, it will take a while for it to switch back. But if she tries it and holds out - I think in a couple of months she will see a major difference and a good loss.

Does she have her own account?? Maybe she can set one up Kudos again to you for being so supportive and helpful!! Good job!

hiddensecant

But, let her know not to be surprised of she gains for a few weeks or so when she ups her calories. If her metabolism has been slowed by being underfueled, it will take a while for it to switch back. But if she tries it and holds out - I think in a couple of months she will see a major difference and a good loss.

Does she have her own account?? Maybe she can set one up Kudos again to you for being so supportive and helpful!! Good job!

Yes, chronic undereaters will unfortunately have to deal with some weight gain before the metabolism gets knocked back in place. But without it she can be eating 1000 calories every day for the rest of her life and not lose or worse ... have to eat that much to maintain any weight loss she achieves.

Be sure to have her see a doctor to check her nutrients and for other issues. Then have her join and figure out how many calories she should really be eating. It will be more than 1200 and even more once she knows how many calories she's burning.

I'm glad you found this place; now get her over here .

Oh yeah, hide the scale and don't let her weight in every day. Scale weight can go up and down every hour. Weigh once per week, first thing in the morning before eating and after using the toilet .. less often if she doesn't kill you for hiding the scale :laugh:.

hamiltonba

I have only 10 pounds to lose and it is much more difficult. Why doesn't she try jogging? And she should be doing more cardio. Also, is she doing any strength training - lifting weights as well as stretching - I only saw cardio - the SAME thing every day - that is the worse thing you can do if she has been doing it for a while. She is no longer exerting her muscles!! You should be changing up your exercise routine every 4 to 6 weeks. Also what is her heart rate? If her heart rate isn't at 85%, she is not going to lose the weight. Sounds like she is still exercising like a beginner - time to push push push!!! Good Luck!!

MFS27

I think it's great that you support your wife and want her to be happy.

I also think that each one of us need to be responsible for our own wellness (physical and mental).

Why don't you tell your wife about this site and she can learn for herself what she needs to do to arrive at whatever state of wellness that makes her content? I believe that geniune, lasting change (whether it be weight loss or whatnot) only comes with understanding the issues and dedication to stay the task.

Best of luck to you and your wife :flowerforyou:

candessb

Hi!!!
You sound like a concerned husband that loves his wife. I have to tell you it can be frustrating if you try, try, try and don't lose. I have two peices of advice that can change her life.
#1 Diet pop is a no-no. If it feels too good to be true it is! If she's truely committed she needs to eat like she wants her body and organs to function properly for life and her body will change!
Read Tosca Reno's book Clean Eating. She says "The body doen't lie" . If she's not losing pounds she's not doing something right. Point Blank!
#2 She is not confusing the body. She should be sleeping like a baby every night if she's trying to lose weight. Her workout should leave her feeling like she just pushed her self; walking may not be enough if she used to it. Our muscles are made to function to the least if their ability, they strenghthen only to what they absolutely have to...she must make them work!
Look into getting Tony Horton's P90X.
I'm only pushing these items because the truely work!!! Variety is gonna make all the difference!

RachVR6

Hi!!!
You sound like a concerned husband that loves his wife. I have to tell you it can be frustrating if you try, try, try and don't lose. I have two peices of advice that can change her life.
#1 Diet pop is a no-no. If it feels too good to be true it is! If she's truely committed she needs to eat like she wants her body and organs to function properly for life and her body will change!
Read Tosca Reno's book Clean Eating. She says "The body doen't lie" . If she's not losing pounds she's not doing something right. Point Blank!
#2 She is not confusing the body. She should be sleeping like a baby every night if she's trying to lose weight. Her workout should leave her feeling like she just pushed her self; walking may not be enough if she used to it. Our muscles are made to function to the least if their ability, they strenghthen only to what they absolutely have to...she must make them work!
Look into getting Tony Horton's P90X.
I'm only pushing these items because the truely work!!! Variety is gonna make all the difference!

P90x is AMAZING! Now if only I could stick to it for more than a week...:grumble: :laugh:

beckyi88

Good for you for supporting your wife's efforts.
I would agree and say her calories are too low and her body is also probably too used to the current exercise program she is on. Eat more and change up the workouts and I bet she would be shocked!
Definitely have her join here. I'm down 4 pounds in 10 days after 8 months of plateau.

Becky

hiddensecant

P90x is AMAZING! Now if only I could stick to it for more than a week...:grumble: :laugh:

Ooh, I'm on P90X! I must have been the least likely candidate for such a program but if I can do it ... hehe.

Plan to up her calories to 1800 for that one and get a tape measure! I'm not even done with my 3rd week but I'm so glad I stuck with it and am really happy with my results so far.

Also, you can do it with her! It's a great bonding activity.

hiddensecant

I'm down 4 pounds in 10 days after 8 months of plateau.

Becky

Wow, kudos for sticking with it!

sean23

Thanks to everyone that took their time to give advice. I appreciate it. She is a member here already. She has always been scared of adding more calories to her diet afraid she will gain more weight that she won't be able to lose. All the evidence points that she needs to eat more and maybe intensify her workouts. She bought weights and is doing Jillian Michaels workouts and meal plan starting this week. We will give it some time realizing that initially she may gain weight before she gets everything on track by changing around her metabolism.
Thanks again!

StiringWendel

Okay, here's kind of a long reply from somebody who is also 5'2".

I don't know what your wife's age is, so I guess that she was in her early 30s based on your age. Why I bring this up was so that I could calculate her BMR.

Here's the problem with us shorter people....we don't need as much food as taller people. So while the standard response is 'eat more!', that doesn't always work for somebody who is 5'2".

Using your age, I calculated your wife's BMR (using the tools section on this site) to be about 1350 calories a day. This is how many calories she needs just to make her body function. Since you said she has a desk job, I'm going to assume that her daily activities outside of exercise is sedentary. Using Jillian Michael's calculations (referenced above), this means that her maintenance calories (in other words, the number of calories she would need to maintain her current weight without exercise) are 1485.

You did not indicate what kind of exercise she was doing in the morning, but one common rule of thumb I've read (again, from Jillian Michaels) is that for every 25 pounds you have, you burn about 50 calories an hour. This is an estimate for circuit workouts, btw. Anyhow, your wife is working out .66 hours a day. If she were working out for one hour, she would be burning approximately 300 calories (25 x 6 = 150 pounds and 6 x 50 = 300). Given that she is working out .66 hours a day, she is probably burning closer to 200 calories (or a little less).

Therefore, if she wanted to maintain her current weight, she would only need to eat about 1685 calories (and, again, that is estimating based on a somewhat intense workout regime, so it might be a bit high).

In order to create a 500 calorie-a-day deficit from that, she would need to eat only 1185 calories a day. And, yes, it is recommended that people don't go below the 1200 mark, regardless of their height. But it is totally safe for your wife to eat just 1200 calories because of her current weight/activity level (as I've estimated it based on the information provided).

But a 1200 calorie-a-day diet isn't going to get her to lose one pound a week given what I've estimated her activity to be. It's close, though!

My recommendation (and the way I've had to lose weight since I'm older than your wife!) is to try to up the intensity and length of her workouts. I know that is hard given her work and being a mother and wife and all, but it really is going to be the absolute best way of creating a better calorie deficit than what she currently has and yet keep her at or above that 1200 mark (which is really tough to maintain for a long period of time). If she does up the intensity of her exercises and starts burning off more calories, she might even be able to eat back some of those exercise calories! But, right now, she is not in a position to do that and still create a 500-calorie-a-day deficit for a 1 pound-a-week weight loss.

If she can't up the intensity or length of her workouts, then she really needs to be militant about the calories. I noticed you said she eats between 1000-1300 'most' days, and I hope I've illustrated how just one day a week at even something like 2200 calories (as just an example) can have a tremendous impact on whatever deficit she created for a week.

It sounds like you are eating clean, so kudos to you on that! The best advice is really just to make sure those 1200 calories a day are balanced (and I know that's what Jillian recommends) and healthy. And I'm happy to hear that she's talked to a doctor about her thyroid and such.

I think it's great that you are trying to support her! Wish her best of luck!