What do I do when nothing works?

greenie

I understand your frustration. I also have tried many things that allow others to lose weight and have lost very little. I have come to the conclusion that I need to stick to trying to meet my calorie goal that MFP has calculated and eating back exercise calories, but not all of them. I have tried the super low calorie and feel terrible and low energy. So, find that level which allows you to have energy to work out, but you are truly hungry at meal times. As far from the medical perspective, you can have normal labs and still have a thyroid that is slower than normal. I do, so this makes losing slower. I also have hypoglycemia, which any blood sugar metabolism issues slow weight loss. My blood sugar labs are normal, but only because I know how to manage it with my diet. Soooo....just because your labs are normal, you have to learn about your body and how what you put into it affects you. Just because it works for everyone else, you may have to be patient and give it more time. I have had to accept the slow and steady route.

I do have some suggestios for you based on your diary. It looks like you eat a lots of carbs and sugar at breakfast. I try to save my biggest carb meal for right after exercise and that has helped. You seem to eat out often. It is so difficult to be truly honest when you eat out. Even if you look at the menu ahead of time online, it is so hard to meet your goals when eating out. Estimating what your nutrition truly is by finding the closest match on the MFP database can be off my hundreds of calories! You are consuming a fair amount of sodium and processed food. A lot of those 10 lbs you have may be water retention. Lastly, upping the vegetable and some fruit would be a great goal.

Whatever you do, don't give up!

rwhawkes

I followed the youtube link that someone suggested regarding weighing your food - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

I found that when I weighed my supper food tonight (first time ever) it was actually 300 calories more than the MFP estimate I had chosen (3 chicken thighs and a potato). Imagine doing that 6 days a week: that's 1800 calories that I wasn't expecting. That would add up to gaining 2 lbs per month and wondering why that was happening.

I have to completely agree with the suggestion of weighing your food and not relying on an estimate. You want to be as realistic as possible.

Same goes for the MFP exercise estimates. When I go for a 90 minute bike ride, my Garmin heart rate monitor says I burn around 850 calories whereas MFP estimates that I burn 2300 calories. I'd rather take the lower HRM value.

NanaWubbie

I am one of those people with a very slow metabolism. When you saw a nutrtionist did they do tests to figure out your individual metabolic rate? If I had 1800 calories per day I would be gaining weight. I tend to maintain at 1400 per day, and do not really lose until I get under 1200. When in weight loss mode, I'm usually getting in 1000 calories a day. People here may say I am nuts, buit I am under the supervision of a doc, and 6 months of recording every bite, along with watching the pounds disappear don't lie. The math "formula" that people use for TDEE or TEDAH, or whatever it is called does not work for everyone because we are all INDIVIDUALS, and we all precess food differently. So....what did "starvation mode" mean? If you are getting in 1200 per day, you are not starving. I do take supplements, and I exercise moderately...no extremes on anything. Anyway, don't give up....just do something different.

glennstoudt

No. It is not important to stay under/over all the MFP macro values. But if you have messed with your insulin sensitivity there is only one way to break that cycle from my experience and that is to reduce carbohydrate intake. I know this is a controversial subject but it does work for a lot of people and it is sustainable. Again not preaching no carb but if you are over on sugars (carbs) regularly then you are not going to lose weight very easily. My view. Good luck.

jennifershoo

Okay, I've made my diary public. I would just like to add that the past few weeks have been weird because of finals and moving home from college, so I'm still adjusting to the way my parents do things and what I have to add or subtract from what they're doing.

Also, no I have not been measuring because I have been on the meal plan at college, since I live in a dorm and it would be very hard to cook for myself and too easy to eat microwave food. So I eat (healthily) at the dining halls. And I know the look a lot of you have right now but I go to a very large school with very nice dining halls. Trust me on ths one.

If you're not measuring your food and you eat something that someone else prepared, how the heck do you know how many calories you are consuming? The answer is: you don't!!! It's time to start being honest with yourself.

jofjltncb6

There are a lot of numbers between 1200 and 1800. It seems like 1800 is too many for weight loss for you. I would eat 1800 cals. if I wanted to weight 180 lbs. (rule of thumb).

That rule of thumb has to be one of the worst out there...and yet its persistence is remarkable.

Anyhow, in...

...hopefully to catch up.

ETA: For what it's worth, as an n=1 example of the ridiculousness of that "rule", my calculated NEAT+BMR (or TDEE - additional exercise) has averaged ~2400 during the past two years. Based on that "rule", I should have weighed 240 when I actually weighed 152 to 180 during that time.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I followed the youtube link that someone suggested regarding weighing your food - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

I found that when I weighed my supper food tonight (first time ever) it was actually 300 calories more than the MFP estimate I had chosen (3 chicken thighs and a potato). Imagine doing that 6 days a week: that's 1800 calories that I wasn't expecting. That would add up to gaining 2 lbs per month and wondering why that was happening.

I have to completely agree with the suggestion of weighing your food and not relying on an estimate. You want to be as realistic as possible.

Same goes for the MFP exercise estimates. When I go for a 90 minute bike ride, my Garmin heart rate monitor says I burn around 850 calories whereas MFP estimates that I burn 2300 calories. I'd rather take the lower HRM value.

Glad it was helpful, I've found similar things. Ice cream was the biggest one for me. :sad:

khall86790

There are a lot of numbers between 1200 and 1800. It seems like 1800 is too many for weight loss for you. I would eat 1800 cals. if I wanted to weight 180 lbs. (rule of thumb).

Are you kidding me? That is ridiculous. My maintenance calories is 2200 cals per day and I weigh 138lbs, this is exercising 5 days a week. Even with no exercising at all, my maintenance calories are 1900 cals. So this is just not true.

Chances are you aren't eating the right calories for weight loss and you need to re-calculate or try dropping to 1400/1500 calories and see if you lose anything... you are probably eating too many calories but I don't think 1800 calories is too many, but it's also not enough of a deficit for a 1lb per week loss which is desirable when initially losing weight (and if you have more than just 5-10lbs to lose). Are you weighing all your foods properly? I think it sounds to be like your logging isn't reflecting your true calorie intake.

mhcoss

starvation mode = myth. eat less and lose

Peni_Davidson

You've had all the buy a scale and weigh your food properly advice you can probably take, but looking through your diary I can't fail to notice that you do not log your drinks.
You really need to do this as these too add calories to your daily amount. I can drink nearly 200 calories a day, but they have to come off my total daily allowance.