HELP

michellejayne

I have started exercising 20-30 min a day since dec 15 and started on my fitness pal Jan 4 , followed every spec of food i have eaten as well as exercised faithly, running and cardio and weights , to date i have only lost one pound, i have lost 1 inch in the waist but thats it, very frustrating, i had my goals set at 1 1.2 pounds per week to lose and was always under my calories by at least 100-200 every day!! Any suggestions, i did change it last night to 1 pound per week to give me more to eat as some days are really hard to achieve 1200 calories!!! feel free to add me as a friend i need all the support i can get!!!!

Thanks!

Tessie321

michellejayne you have to eat the recommended number of calories....eating too little makes the metabolism nose dive....your body probably thinks it is starving....result is no wieght loss. Eat less carbs and up your protein and try to cut the fat a bit more. I found the recommended carbs and fat to be too high for me to lose weight....I am 57 and losing weight has always been slow for me. Just stick to it and the lbs. will come off but I really do recommend making the adjustments as stated above.....I try to eat between 25-50 carbs less, 12-15 fat grams less and upped my protein to double my recommendation. I have lost only 9 lbs in 3 months....I go to a gym 5-6 days weekly (something I have been doing for years)....just keep going!!!! It takes time, dedication and determination and you can do it for YOU!!! Tessie321

kiffypooh

I have no advice, but just wanted to tell you not to give up!!!! :flowerforyou:

I did find this article very interesting and it may help you

http://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness-specialist/fixing-ruined-metabolism.aspx?xid=SendToAFriend

boccpio

Tessie, you can customize your goals on MFP. Go under "goals" and change click on "change goals" and then change it from the recommended version to the customized....I too like to eat fewer carbs and follow a 50 percent protien/20 percent fat/30 percent carb diet. You can enter how many calories you would like to be eating each day...

Anyway, thought I'd let you know in case you didn't already...

siobhannestor

Michellejayne, I want to second Tessie's response, particularly considering calories, carbs and protein. (While I do measure fat, I don't try to cut down so much on that - there is a growing body of research that getting an adequate supply helps weight loss). In addition, you might want to see if you have an undiagnosed thyroid condition (I did, and it had gone unchecked for a long time, contributed to all sorts of other hormonal problems/ovarian cysts, etc). It's a lot more common that many people believe. Check:

http://www.endocrineweb.com/hypo1.html

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothyroidism

I think it's hard to keep on going without seeing fast results - admire you for it. And remember, we are here for you!

~ Shivaun

michellejayne

thanks everyone, great advice!!!!

waguchan

What helps me the most is snacking. If you are going to eat 1200 calories a day, break it into 6 small meals a day instead of 3 larger ones. And don't go longer than 3 hours without eating. Eat protein at every meal/snack. For example, if you eat a small apple, put a teaspoon of peanut butter on it or eat it with a piece of string cheese. It will really help to keep your blood glucose levels steady and make your metabolism work in your favor.

Recently, my weight loss nurse told me that the muscles will use the calories for energy, but they can only take so much at one time. She told me that the muscles are like the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel are working at a chocolate factory. When the conveyor belt is slow, they have an easy time putting all the candies in the packages. But when the conveyor belt speeds up, there is a lot of extra candy that can be packaged in time. She said that muscles are the same way, if we feed them slowly through out the day, they will be happy and use the calories, but if we eat large meals, they don't know what to do with all those extra calories and it turns to fat instead of energy.

I also read a book called the Snack Factor recently which sites a number of studies in which groups of people eating the same number of calories lost weight if they ate more times a day than those people who only ate 3 times a day, or less.