Can anyone help? Nothing seems to be working

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laurarose831
laurarose831 Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Long story short:
I have been doing everything I can think of for weight loss and nothing is working! I have been trying to lose weight since last September. I've been extra careful about it since January, renewing my effort and using MFP. Overall, I get the formula... more exercise/fewer calories, plus choosing healthy calories... But it's not working for me! My weight has not budged. If anything, it is still going up. Help!

The backstory (longer version):
For many many years, I was at the same healthy and comfortable weight that I considered "normal" for me. I didn't exercise very often, I just didn't have time, but I was a healthy eater, and was fine. Then, last summer, I was living somewhere else, working a boring job, snacking, under a lot of stress... and long story short, I gained 10-15 pounds over the course of the summer, and then another 5 or so after that. It may not seem like a lot, but I really feel it, and it's uncomfortable! (It's all in my stomach and hips). It just doesn't feel like me. Then I returned home to normal circumstances and started eating extra carefully and exercising more, and figured my weight would sort itself out.

It didn't. So I tried exercising A LOT more (I'm unemployed at the moment, so I have time on my hands), counting calories, being very particular, eating very healthy (I've never been one for a lot of the usual suspects—restaurants, fast food, processed store bought goods, soda—I love cooking, and basically eat clean because of how I was raised). I am a small person, and have always been a very small eater. Right now I am at a calorie limit of 1200 (per MFP's calculations), exercising 300-400 calories off most days. (I eat the exercise calories "back" some days, though some days I don't).

My last resort is to go off Yasmin, the birth control pill I've been on for years. I've been thinking (and reading) that it might have something to do with all this... So that's a change I'm making today.

But other than that, I'm hopeless and out of ideas! Can anyone help? Hope this post hasn't been too crazy, but I'm just about going out of my mind with dealing with this for SO long with no results. Any similar or success stories, advice, or any idea of what could shift this would be much appreciated.
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Replies

  • sonia815
    sonia815 Posts: 5
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    Did you get your Thyroid checked?
  • laurarose831
    laurarose831 Posts: 24 Member
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    Yes, I had blood work done in the winter, when I was just started to get frustrated with all this. I had my thyroid checked and it / everything was normal.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Open your diary. and give us your height/weight. That will make it much easier to help.
  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
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    Without being able to see your food diary, it's hard to help/make suggestions.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    Have you tried the whole eat more thing? At leat eating back all your exercise, all the time?

    Are you aiming for a healthy weight or was your ideal below normal for your height?

    Have you tried strength training?
  • altinker
    altinker Posts: 173
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    I know a lot of people feel that supplements are not helpful, but I had a girlfriend who ate 1200 calories, ran for an hour a day, and she was heavy. Her doctor put her on a couple of supplements, and the next time I saw her, she had lost 20 lbs. One of them was raspberry ketones. The doctor said her metabolism had slowed way down.

    I hope you get it figured out.
  • squirrelzzrule22
    squirrelzzrule22 Posts: 640 Member
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    I see in your profile that you are only 21.... A lot of women (myself included) go through a weight gain of 10-15 lbs during a hormonal "settling" in their early 20s....basically your body at 18 may not be your "adult" body...and from what you described it sounds like you gained the weight in all the baby-making areas us ladies tend to! It doesn't mean that it will be impossible to lose it, but it may be an uphill battle because this weight (particularly if its still within a healthy range) may be what your fully developed body has settled into. Sorry for sounding like a cheesy video about puberty haha, I just really do believe its a pretty common thing to happen around your age.

    Maybe really switching things up will help? Calculate your BMR online and eat that much (it will be more than 1200) and then add in a good strength training program to target that fat that loves our lady parts!!
  • leopardjunkie
    leopardjunkie Posts: 149
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    have you tried eating more calories for a few weeks. lots of people have had good luck with that.

    are you taking measurements, Are your mesurements and weight staying the same?
  • laurarose831
    laurarose831 Posts: 24 Member
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    My diary only reflects the past few days since I was previously counting calories on another site, but I have made it public. I also wasn't logging exercise for a while, so that isn't reflected, but I've been doing ~30 minutes to 1 hour of moderate/intense cardio every day and weights every other day for two months, plus regular but slightly less intense exercise (4-5 days per week) for 3-4 months before that. I'm 5'4" and currently weigh 128. Goal weight is 110, or at least 115 (though I was 107 for years).

    I have tried eating more, yes, and each time, even if it's a slight amount more, I start gaining again! I seem to be able to eat to maintain (I've been constant at 124 for a while, and now I'm steady at 127), so I don't think that's it. Maybe, but then I don't know where to set my calorie limit... 1300? 1400? That intuitively seems like too much food to me, based on how much I used to eat.

    I'm really aiming for what feels right... I feel like I'm carrying extra weight in a way that is not comfortable. I don't think it's just changes with age or an unhealthy body image. Hope that makes sense, but it really just seems like "wrong" weight to me!
  • yocupcake
    yocupcake Posts: 32
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    See a nutrtionist. They will give you golden information & a magic # for your calories count designed just for you to lose weight.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,998 Member
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    Are you eye-balling your food, or using a digital food scale and mesuring cups and spoons for volume to measure everything, including oils?
  • wildchild06241
    wildchild06241 Posts: 130 Member
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    My daughter-in-law was on that. She gained weight like mad. Went off it and the weight just fell back off.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,998 Member
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    So, you don't even have your weight loss ticker set to lose weight here. (?)

    You most likely don't have an accurate idea of how much to eat, and you're not calculating exercise, and you're not keeping the best records. For results, you need to be accurately tracking all these things.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    My diary only reflects the past few days since I was previously counting calories on another site, but I have made it public.

    I also wasn't logging exercise for a while, so that isn't reflected, but I've been doing ~30 minutes to 1 hour of moderate/intense cardio every day and weights every other day for two months, plus regular but slightly less intense exercise (4-5 days per week) for 3-4 months before that.

    I'm 5'4" and currently weigh 128. Goal weight is 110, or at least 115 (though I was 107 for years).

    Your BMR is probably around 1400. Sedentary TDEE is about 1680. 80% of that is 1300 calories.

    You should be getting about 1300 calories per day before exercise. You're netting like 500-800 most days.

    In other words: eat more. Set your calorie goal at 1300, log your exercise, and meet your calorie goal every day.
  • laurarose831
    laurarose831 Posts: 24 Member
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    wildchild, I've read that around the internet a few places, although when I saw an OBGYN, she said it was "preposterous" and that she had never heard of b.c. being linked to weight gain in the way I thought mine was. But I'm going off regardless to see if that's it. That's my last resort, so it's good to hear it worked for someone you know. Fingers crossed!
  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
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    I just took a peek at your diary. Sweetie, you are not eating enough! Most days you're hitting around 1000 calories. Your sugar intake is also really high. The combination of the two could be slowing your progress. Try cutting back on the sugar and be sure to eat back your exercise calories. 1200 calories/day includes a calorie deficit. My suggestion, get rid of the granola and try unsweetened whole grain cereals, oatmeal etc.
  • psych0kitty
    psych0kitty Posts: 313
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    Have you tried the whole eat more thing? At leat eating back all your exercise, all the time?

    Can someone please explain that to me? If there's no such thing as "starvation mode" then why do I always see "eat more" as a helpful suggestion (and one that seems to work)??? Seriously please tell me why eating more would work for stalled people.
  • gayle121
    gayle121 Posts: 4
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    Try low/no carb. Get yourself in ketosis by eating 30 gm of carbs of less a day. I bet in two weeks you'll lose those extra pounds. Our body can not store fat without insulin. Your body only secretes insulin in the presents of glucose (all carbs become glucose as it is the only form of energy our cells can use). In the absense of carbohydrates, you're body has no choice but to use fat as energy. Generally eat good proteins and leafy greens. Peanut butter is great when your jonesing for carbs. Give it a shot.

    And.................tell yourself constantly that you are losing weight, not that you can't, your body listens to what your brain tells it to do. Also, going off birth control is never a bad idea. Hormones are tricking your body into thinking it's pregnant which is why you don't ovulate. I always gained weight when I took birth control pills.
  • james3302
    james3302 Posts: 119
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    My diary only reflects the past few days since I was previously counting calories on another site, but I have made it public.

    I also wasn't logging exercise for a while, so that isn't reflected, but I've been doing ~30 minutes to 1 hour of moderate/intense cardio every day and weights every other day for two months, plus regular but slightly less intense exercise (4-5 days per week) for 3-4 months before that.

    I'm 5'4" and currently weigh 128. Goal weight is 110, or at least 115 (though I was 107 for years).

    Your BMR is probably around 1400. Sedentary TDEE is about 1680. 80% of that is 1300 calories.

    You should be getting about 1300 calories per day before exercise. You're netting like 500-800 most days.

    In other words: eat more. Set your calorie goal at 1300, log your exercise, and meet your calorie goal every day.

    Yes! Eat more food.
  • james3302
    james3302 Posts: 119
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    Have you tried the whole eat more thing? At leat eating back all your exercise, all the time?

    Can someone please explain that to me? If there's no such thing as "starvation mode" then why do I always see "eat more" as a helpful suggestion (and one that seems to work)??? Seriously please tell me why eating more would work for stalled people.

    Watch this Video from Layne Norton to see why.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk

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