No matter what I do, NOTHING works.

bf43285
bf43285 Posts: 43 Member
in Motivation and Support
I have been trying to lose weight since the first week of October. I joined a gym and go with a friend 2-4 times a week with my schedule. I have been cleaning up my eating and logging everything. I drink water all day long and hardly ever drink anything else. My stats are:

Female
Height 5'5"
Age 26
SW: 168
GW: 138

I started with 1380 calories/day then lowered to 1200/day for about a week. (The past few days were off the charts with Christmas). I always try to eat back my exercise calories.

Back in April was down to 150 then lost my home and gained a lot from stress. Now things are stable and I can focus more on my health. I feel like nothing I do is working and have even tried weight loss supplements (spare me the lectures on how bad they are please!)

Replies

  • billsica
    billsica Posts: 4,741 Member
    Open your Diary to show.

    I'm going to guess you need to eat more.

    Also how accurate are your exercise calories?
  • pinkraynedropjacki
    pinkraynedropjacki Posts: 3,027 Member
    Why are they bad? Take a look at my diary. I take quite a few & I swear by them. HydroxyCut Max for me is the best...I bounce off the walls.

    Give it time. It took me about a month before I saw anything happen.... that was 11 months ago almost. Walk, run, lift. Zumba if you can (I swear by that one cause I started with that) ...... youtube Tiffany Rothe workouts as well as Pop Pilates. Trust me....Youtube is amazing for this. Fitness blender as well are great. If you don't have weights, then grab some bottles & fill them with wet sand or wet dirt (they weigh more then) and go for it.

    Walking has done wonders for me the last 3 weeks when I hit a stall. I now have enough walking each day to eat what I want & not even have to worry about it.

    BTW if you can...get a Fitbit..... trust me that's the best motivation I can offer. Be tough on yourself with working out, when you want to give up....don't.
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    http://theskinnyequation.blogspot.com/p/weight-loss-calculators.html

    i used that link to find your BMR and TDEE

    it says your BMR is 1504 calories, and your TDEE is 2069.

    never eat below your BMR. ever ever ever ever ever. Ever.

    personally, i like the TDEE-20% model of eating, and i don't add in my exercise calories. so if your TDEE is 2069, you eat 1655 calories.

    of course, please remember these numbers are estimations. a few extra or less calories here and there is no big deal.

    your body works more on a weekly basis rather than a day-to-day. so if on monday you go over your calories by 200, and then tuesday you stay under by a hundred and then another hundred under on wednesday, well, you broke even.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    How much are you eating gross? How often and what type of exercise do you do? How are you estimating exercise calories? Do you have cheat days (except for the last few days)? What is your non-exercise activity level e.g. type of job, other activities etc?
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
    I'm confused, you say nothing works, and yet you lost 18 pounds... you said yourself you just gained it back because of stress. It sounds to me like what you were doing was working just fine until you got off track. Get back to your healthy habits and the weight should start coming off again.
  • bf43285
    bf43285 Posts: 43 Member
    I have a desk job. I track my excercise with my Polar FT4. When I lost the 18 lbs I was doing insanity but I hurt my knee and cannot do the jumping and stress it puts on my knee.

    I think I am going to up my calories to 1500 net and try that for a while. I am also going to kick up my exercise to do a combo of insantiy and P90X. It's so easy to get discouraged.
  • Britt_Duffy
    Britt_Duffy Posts: 40 Member
    I'm going to second the use of a fitbit! I LOVE mine! I have a desk job also (and coincidentally, and also 5'5" looking to weigh close to your at goal weight) and my calories are set to 1380. With the use of my fitbit it automatically brings up my calories for the day to around 1500-1600 (which is close to my BMR of 1532 calories).
  • glitteredgrave
    glitteredgrave Posts: 194 Member
    Personally, I wasn't losing on 1200 cals. I bumped it up to 1700 and I'm steadily losing. Try experimenting and see what works for your body
  • prokomds
    prokomds Posts: 318 Member
    Have you lost any weight since you've started? It kind of looks like you're down around 6 pounds (starting weight compared to your ticker)?

    If that's about right... well, about 2 pounds a month is actually pretty good, especially considering you don't have a ton of weight to lose anyway. Is it that you're not losing weight, or that you think you're not losing weight fast enough? If it's the latter, you should probably ease up a bit on stressing yourself out, and just give it more time. Good luck! :)
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
    I pluggd your info into fat2fitradio.com's BMR calculator and this is what I got:

    "Entered information: 26 year old female, 65 inches tall, weighing 168 pounds.

    From the information that you entered, you'd like to weigh 138 lbs.


    Harris-Benedict Formula


    There are a few different methods to calculating yourbasal metabolic rate (BMR). One of the most popular, developed in the early 1900's is called the Harris-Benedict formula. Based on this formula, your current BMR is 1569 calories.


    How Many Calories Should I Eat?


    Based on your goal weight, the following chart was generated. The chart shows the number of calories that you should eat on a daily basis to reach your goal weight. At Fat 2 Fit Radio we advocate eating like the thin, healthy person that you want to become. The calorie levels you see in the chart are not extreme, but they do create that all important caloric deficit that is required to get you to your goal weight in a safe manner. Once you reach your goal weight, you will continue eating the same number of calories for the rest of your life to maintain that weight. You'll never be on a diet again.

    Based on how much activity you do on an average day, the calories in the right column will be the number of calories that you will be able to eat at your goal weight. If you start eating those calories right now (eating like the thinner you), you will eventually become that thinner person. As you get closer to your goal weight, your weight loss will start to slow down. It is OK to eat a few hundred calories less per day (200-300) to speed up your weight loss at this point.



    Activity Level

    Daily Calories



    Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job)

    1727



    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)

    1979



    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)

    2230



    Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)

    2482



    Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

    2734


    NOTE: Please remember that this calculation is just a guideline. Your metabolism may be higher or lower based on the amount of lean muscle you have. Use these numbers a a starting point and tweak them up or down based on your weight loss or gain. It may take a couple weeks to get your exact calorie level."

    My guess is you need to eat more - but do not eat back exercise calories under this method (TDEE) because they are already factored in. Also, you should not eat below your BMR (1569) for very long, otherwise your weight loss will stall because your body needs at least that amount of calories to support healthy organ function. Best of luck to you!
  • dillydally123
    dillydally123 Posts: 139 Member
    i have very similar stats to you 5'5 started around 170. I did loose at 1200 a day but i felt like ****e so I upped it a bit, which i kept doing gradually until i actually did the bmr maths and realised i was eating way to little. since i upped it again (at least 1600 plus most of my exercise cals) the weight has been flying off me (2 pounds a week)
  • Beyond_Value
    Beyond_Value Posts: 46 Member
    Possibly go to the doctor to make sure all is well with your health

    Then take it one day at a time and don't starve yourself.

    Losing weight is a slow process for healthiness.

    Get plenty of rest, drink water, eat well, and enjoy life.
  • Danni3ll3
    Danni3ll3 Posts: 365 Member
    I agree that you might be eating too little. I was stuck for a while while doing the 1200 calorie a day thing and eating part of my calories back. I took the advice on here and figured out my BMR and TDEE. Long story short, I am eating 1500 calories daily and not eating my exercise calories at all. The weight has started dropping off again. Oh btw, I am also 5'5" and a lot older than you so it is harder to lose weight at my age.
  • joannathechef
    joannathechef Posts: 484 Member
    Please be careful eating back the calories this site tells you earned - they are way too high.

    Get a HRM with details like weight age and height factors and use that to measure... you may be earting back too many cals.

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