Anyone else discovered low calories are their only option?

Please expand, how is it even possible to not do it right? You are only going by the time I've been on MFP and a so called vague memory of something I said (which you haven't even really explained) but what about the 2 years beforehand when I ate more, hardly trained much and gained 23 lbs? According to many on here that should have been my 'reset' as i was eating much lower calories before that and then increased them and was eating at just above TDEE in average. So the real conclusion is I remain unable to lose at all except for when I eat around 1200 cals combined with daily workouts.

There was a thread in which you asked people what to do and then argued with everyone unless it was exactly what you wanted to hear. You tried picking and choosing various parts of different methods, using flawed logic, making the whole process too complicated. You refused to try what has been working for thousands (millions? trillions? gazillions?) of people, because you are a special snowflake. You stated that you didn't want to do that for 4-6 weeks and try it and see because you didn't want to waste all that time on what you insisted wouldn't work.

Nowhere in any of your threads do I see where you attempted a *proper* calorie deficit consistently.

Of course I'd rather eat more but seems that my body is just not built that way. By eating 550 calories 2 days a week it means I can eat 1450-1650 on the other days (in theory) so I'm starting that from tomorrow. Up until now I've only been able to lose any weight at all by lowering calories to 1000-1150 and after 4 months of exercising and eating 1400-2000 per day with no weight loss or fat loss I am still trying to figure out how low I need to go to finally start losing again.

If I tried to have days of eating 550 calories, I would have to quit my job because I would definitely not be able to function or think clearly.

You would think so, but if I can do it, and get through an active day, anyone can! I've (female - 58 years old - 5'7" - 175lbs) actually done 400 (2 - 200 calorie meals) calorie days on the 5:2, and done 15 miles on my bicycle. Was losing 1lb a week

I've now switched to my version of the Rotation Diet - 600 calories for 3 days, 900 for 2 days, 1200 (or more) for 2 days. Still active - biking, hiking, swimming. Losing 2 a week.

It's not as difficult as you'd think!

You are very likely losing muscle mass, and reducing your bone density which is not desirable for obvious reasons. Low cal diet and cardio only WILL reduce your Lean Body Mass (everything that is not fat in your body).

Really, it is sad that people are only thinking about the number on the scale and not seeing and understanding the overall big picture for long term health and quality of life.

I am going to repost the same answer I gave in March as it seems applicable once again. In previous threads, posters have given you excellent advice. It is not the amount of calories but the food you eat and the amount. You live in Spain but you do not eat fresh food, you drink plenty of wine and go way over the calories on weekends, you are very stressed, and you need to be more diligent on the workouts, but most important, you need to be patient.

"JAT74, looking at your diary and past posts, I think some of the issues are a)that you are impatient to loose the weight rapidly like loosing 10% fat in 6-8 weeks, b)continuously changing methods used and not sticking to one, c)you need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed food-you are in Spain after all!, d)may be you are overestimating the amount of calories you burn through exercising. You are also within the ideal weight for your height, although at the upper range, and that makes it more difficult to loose weight fast compared to someone who is more distant from ideal weight range. Pick a method, above your BMR (and you are not at maintenance at your BMR, these are the calories so you can breathe and do the basic organ functions, not sedentary living), stick to it, eat more fruits/vegetables and less processed fruits, and stick to an exercise program cardio/strength training and you will see results. Just be patient and consistent."

Quote by JAT74:

"Regarding fresh fruit and vegetables the food in Spain I can buy here is COVERED in pesticides and will probably do me more harm than good. 90% of organic food is sold outside of Spain and there is nowhere here to buy organic where I live so I eat some vegetables and a little fruit but generally try not to overload my body with this. Plus I'm always trying to meet my protein goals so try not to eat so much fruit and veg as I don't want to go over on calories.

every week in my weekly shop (which I've just done) I always buy onions, mushrooms, garlic, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocados, red/green/yellow peppers, tomatoes, aubergine, asparagus and green beans. I also eat frozen mixed vegetables, tinned tomatoes, frozen mediterranean vegetables and with my breakfast I usually have blueberries. raspberries or grapes. Every day I have these vegetables in some combination or another.

Also, I have been eating processed foods like sausages, ham, salami etc. due to the cost of this food compared to fresh meat/fish or canned fish as I'm on a budget but I have decided to cut right down on these foods now as I know they're bad for you but even if I ate them before I always drain off the majority of the fat from these foods using a grill or by blotting it away and I cut fat off bacon so can't see how that's the problem.
...



Regarding my training I was doing Jillian Michaels Body Revolution for 7 weeks and that consisted of 6 workouts with 4 of them containing weights and body weight exercises and the other 2 were pure cardio. In addition I was adding in 2-3 days of additional cardio on the running machine, elliptical etc.

I stopped BR last week as I wasn't happy with the speed of my results so I'm now doing Insanity plus I've added weight training for 45 minutes 2 x a week when I do Insanity also on that day. My new weights routine includes all the things you've said ie. legs, biceps/triceps, chest, back, abs etc. and I have a fully equipped home gym so I can lift heavy. I have started doing this twice a week for 45 mins to 1 hour per workout.

I'm doing Insanity now but I might skip an Insanity workout on my weight training days, for example tomorrow I'm doing weights and I was supposed to do Plyometric Cardio circuit too but maybe I'll skip it. I have a heart rate monitor and always use it and I discovered that on Sundays when I clean I actually burn a lot of calories too even though I'm not doing a workout so I think there's no need to double up on workouts some days."

As others posters have told you before, after you said that you eat a lot of vegetables:
"Went through your diary to last weekend, both Sat and sun you've eaten over 2,000 cals. There's not much veg in there."

All your questions are very similar and you keep getting the same answers in every thread, every month. As other posters have stated previously, are you may be too stressed with personal problems and that's why you are obsessing with the weight loss, in order to avoid dealing with the real issues you may be facing? You are in your ideal weight range for your height after all.

As I have been saying which you are obviously not listening to as you have some kind of personal vendetta against me

I do not know you, I have no clue who you are, I live in a different continent, but I still spent a considerable amount of time to look at your diary, read your previous posts, and have tried to be helpful. Everybody who disagrees with you is immediately attacked and you state that they do not listen. Do you think it might be you that you do not want to listen? As another poster said, you are like Teflon and people have been giving you the same advice every 3 weeks that you post a similar question, but you still do not want to listen to any of their advice and accusing them that they do not listen. You have been obsessing about macros, diets, exercise regimens, and you do not stick enough to any of them. With so much exercise that you do, it is incredible that your body fat has not moved at all (which you check with your tanita bf scale and multiple calibers). You have gained 20lb in the last 2 years, which indicates high stress and anxiety. Slow down, plan a program, and stick with it. I do not know what your real issues are. Your job? The relationship with your boyfriend? Is the biological clock ticking? Do you feel lonely because you live away from your friends and relatives in the UK? Relationship with parents? Kids?
These are just some general life questions people face, just throwing them here as I do not know your personal circumstances. But the weight and body image are just used to mask the underlying problem. We are here to help. Nobody has a personal vendetta against you, quite the opposite.

I just don't feel comfortable carrying visible fat and I find it horrible to look at on other people too. It isn't healthy and I don't like it. Obviously a small amount of body fat it normal for most people who don't exercise and even my thin friends have it but 31% like I am now it's just not nice!

I've been 178 lbs before and I didn't care so much, I never went to hot places so I could cover up and people always commented on my clothes so I didn't really think about how bad I looked. I dread to think what my body fat was then. To be honest since losing some of the weight and having been 122lbs when I got compliments about how amazing I looked I am not prepared to stay like this and I'm not happy as I am now. I look at other people and know I don't look as bad as many others but it's not good enough for me. I can't look at pictures of myself now if my arms or showing or if I'm in a bikini.

If I was lazy and didn't try to improve my body then I wouldn't care so much because it would be my fault but when I'm putting in all this work I want it to show. Personally I don't like looking at fat, whether it's on me or someone else! Since being bigger and losing I've realised that it just isn't pretty or healthy to carry so much excess. I wouldn't accept it if my boyfriend was fat and I wouldn't find him attractive or feel he's doing the best for his health so I I'm not happy to accept it on myself either. A friend of mine is super fit and looks great but her husband is fat and doesn't exercise with a beer belly. She says she loves him like that so he just keeps on eating and getting fatter and now he's been told he's got very high cholesterol. It's partly her fault in my opinion.

Everyone is different but how you look on the outside as well as what you're like on the inside is important to me. I know someone who is fairly overweight and spends all her money on designer clothes and hair, make up etc. Material things like that don't matter when her health is suffering due to being overweight.

WOW. After reading this entire thread, I do believe your writing here captures the problem. OP - start healing your mind and your body will follow. That is alot of self-loathing and negative projection in that piece of writing. Awful, really.

You just have to give it time. Think how long it took to put on that weight. You're actually losing it at a much faster rate.

Sorry it took so long. We live in the country and computer is slowwwwww!

For the last 7 days your sodium intake average = 1,741 mg/day.
I think that if you get it down below 1200 and keep it there you will see better results. It worked for me and my wife so far. She has lost 19 lbs in 9 weeks.

Wow, scary reading! I didn't realise sodium was so bad and that there was so much of it about!

I had no idea either until a friend told me about that article and that I need to get my sodium below my calorie intake. Sodium is important so I try and keep mine @ 1000 mg/day. I aslo got off 7 different blood pressure meds in the first 3 weeks after lowering the sodium

It is late and I need some sleep. I am online at least 2 times every day. If you want to stay in touch ,send an FR or a message and I will get back to you.
Later:glasses:

You say you have tried all these other options but you've only been doing this for 4 months? If you change your calorie intake you should give it at least 6-8 weeks for your body to adjust.

Often when people have been on low calorie diets when they increase their calories they see an initial weight gain maybe as much as 5 pounds. This scares people and they think they are gaining when really their body is just adjusting. After staying on the TDEE - 20% calorie amount you should start losing again once your body makes the adjustment and gets used to eating more calories.

Or you can just eat less long term. I would not find that sustainable if it were me so I would give these other approaches a more realistic try than just a week or two.

This. For 12 years I had various eating disorders. During recovery and now being recovered, I was certain I couldn't ever eat more than 1500 and lose. I started on 1000 and gradually increased to 1500 in stages. Any time I went over 1500, I would gain.

Now, a few months later, I eat up to 2027 calories a day (my TDEE) and workout 2-3 times a week in the gym (mainly strength and then a bit of HIIT). For the first month or two I stayed roughly the same or gained a couple of pounds. Now after 3 months, I lost 1.4lb. I'm not in a rush. If I can lose 1lb a month, then I'll be at my goal weight in 3 months. My net calories for the week are always over my BMR.

Ofc, there is the question as to how you work out your burnt calories and consumed calories - weighing foods, HRM etc.

If you have no medical condition as you stated, then you have no reason to eat 1300 calories a day and never more.