Am I meant to be overweight forever!?!

Rinkydink84

Hi everyone,

Over the last two years I have lost 70 pounds, but the first 50 was basically me starving myself. However, in May I decided that I wanted to completely change my lifestyle, not just lose the weight. I have been focusing on eating clean (for the most part) and getting fit. I have been eating between 1200-1500 calories a day and exercise 6 days a week. I completed The 30 Day Shred, then Ripped in 30, and now I am finishing Phase 2 out of 3 from Jillian Michaels' Body Revolution program (I like Jillian if you can't tell). On average I am losing .5 - 1 pound per week. Some weeks I won't lose anything, I may even gain. Then the following week I may lose 3 lbs. It is very frustrating and I was just wondering if this sounds normal. I'm going to stick with this because I feel so much better and I keep telling myself that EVENTUALLY I will have to get to a healthy weight range. BTW I am 5'5 and 165 lbs. My heart rate monitor is saying I'm burning between 400- 600 calories during my 30 minute workouts. I also have a cheat day, which is more like a cheat meal because after we eat a heavy lunch we are pretty much done for the day. I know people either swear by cheat days or absolutely hate them. I feel like they are important in helping me not feel deprived, but sometimes I will gain 4 lbs. from that one meal and it won't come off until 2 weeks later. I'm not a closet eater, this is literally one meal with an appetizer usually. Does all of this sound like normal weight loss problems? Do you have any advice to help me do better? ANY advice y'all could give me would be GREATLY appreciated. If anyone has met their goal and maintained it for any period of time would be especially helpful. Thanks so much for your time!!!!!!

MissMormie

A pound of fat is about 3500 calories that you got in extra above that what you need to maintain.
So unless you eat a cheatmeal of 14000 kcal there's no way you're gaining 4lbs of fat just from a single meal. The scale however will tell you your total weight, including water, muscle, food inside your intestines and other stuff. If you eat a lot of salt with a cheatmeal that will definitely bring up the scale as you'll hold more water for a day or two. Just water though.

If the overall line of your weight is going down, as it is with you, then the day to day numbers don't matter. Try not weighing yourself for the next month, you'll probably feel better.

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To be honest, I'm extremely jaleous of you. I've been eating right and exercising and have not lost an lbs for the last 2,5 months. To me it sounds you're still on the right track.

Rinkydink84

Thanks, I try to tell myself it's normal and to just keep going. However, I just wanted to get other opinions from people on the same journey. My fiance is my support system, but he loses weight so easily and never gains an ounce from our cheat days. Thanks your post made me feel better. It's not about quick results, but results that last. I have to keep telling myself that.

csplatt

I am always 2 lb down, 1 lb up, 2 lb down, 1 lb up. I don't worry about it because long term it is going down. You are building muscle, retaining water some days, etc. i say keep it up.

kenazfehu

I don't know wha is right for you, but I have decided to limit my visits to the scale. In the past, I'd celebrate a loss by treating myself with favorite food. I'd console myself for a gain by - you can probably guess - treating myself with favorite food. It was a vicious-vicious cycle.

My main focus now is to have 4 meals per day and eat absolutely nothing between meals - only water - also stay under 1400 calories (unless I've been working especially hard in the yard, then I can go up to 1500). I assess my progress each meal and celebrate a lot of victories. I don't deprive. If a craving is poking me hard, I plan it into the next meal or the next grocery buy.

No cheat days/meals as much as I can help it. Husband and I went out last weekend, and I made the most responsible choices that I could. I don't know where I was on calories that meal, but I do know the nutrition was good.

IveLanded

You sound like you're doing really good! Progress is progress, even if it's not always as fast as we'd like.

llgeisz

Just remember loosing weight in a healthy manner is a long term process that requires a lot of the techniques you are employing... Think about it, how many years did it take you to get to your max weigh? Look at the positive side of what you are doing becoming healthier prolonging your life and use that to keep pushing yourself forward. Thats what I do

mlcharb

If you're working out hard, are you eating enough for your body? Sometimes the body will hold onto foods (especially bad ones) if it's not getting fed enough <- something I've learned over the many many years of trying to lose weight.

Rinkydink84

@Micharb: I feel like I can't get an accurate understanding of how many calories I should be eating. Jillian's website says 1600, myfitnesspal says 1250 (which is too extreme to me), and other calorie calculators I've used have said anywhere from 1200-1800. I try to vary the number of calories I'm eating each day as long as it stays between 1200-1500. However, it's really hard for me to eat 1500 unless it's a cheat day. I normally won't even count calories for that meal. What is the best way to get an accurate understanding of what I should be eating and what I should be burning outside of the whole 3500 calories equals a pound. I am very aware of that, but it can't just be a numbers game or I'd be thin by now.

Thanks everyone... I'm feeling more motivated.

DopeItUp

What "problems" are you talking about? Everything you posted is normal and typical. Weight loss isn't a straight line, some weeks I gain weight and some weeks I lose, as long as the OVERALL trend is downwards at a moderate pace then you're fine. If you gain 4lbs after a cheat meal it's gonna be water retention 9.9999 times out of 10. Who cares, keep going, you didn't post any actual problems at all - especially since you said you've lost 70lbs already! What else do you need?

mlcharb

I'm not totally sure what number of calories you should be eating. I have the same problem trying to figure it out. MFP seems so low for me (1200) for my goal but other sites seem so high (1500-1800.) For me, I've just gone middle of the range, which it sounds like you're doing that now. Maybe you need to eat some of your exercise calories though. What ever you're burning, try eating 1/4 of them and see if that helps. If not, maybe try 1/2 of them. I think you just have to take the time to see what works. It's no different than plateauing...you have to change things up a bit to get your body into that fat burning zone. Good job on the success so far and good luck with the rest of your journey.