So frustrated!!

whiten31
whiten31 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Three and a half years ago I had my first and only daughter. I went from 145 to 206 the day I delivered (mostly due to serious water weight and swelling) and had an emergency c section.

Now I'm 175, I work out 5-6 times a week, once a week with a trainer, and I've been using MFP to count calories. I stay right at the 1400 calorie range. I've been really active and conscious about this for just about 6 weeks now. Not a single God forsaken pound has come off.

The work I do with my trainer is HIIT training with a lot of strength training. My workouts on my own are cardio (the crossramp/eliptical) and rowing.

I just dont understand how, not only have I not lost one pound, my pants are getting even tighter!!

I can't stand the way my body looks, and I hate shopping for myself, because nothing looks right. It all makes me look so wide. My husband wants another baby, but I refuse to get pregnant at this weight, because I can't bare to get bigger. And if it's this hard to lose the weight 3.5 years later, how hard will it be to lose the weight from 2 babies!?

Replies

  • mwiechel
    mwiechel Posts: 77 Member
    I am sorry this is so frustrating for you! Its difficult to work so hard and not see results! Exercise is only part of it, how does your diet look? If you are doing all this work, but eating junk all day, your workouts in the gym are not going to be of much use. how many calories are you eating a day, what are you eating? Are you taking in enough water?
  • robdel302
    robdel302 Posts: 292 Member
    It sounds like you maybe burning a really high amount of calories. Our bodies can only burn so much fat as energy while in a defecit. When we go beyond that, it sends our bodies into starvation mode and it holds onto what we have. Talk to your trainer about how much he/she recommends to eat based on your activity level. You might actually need to eat more just to drop weight. You could also examine what kind of foods you are eating. If you're not already doing so, try replacing some of your carbohydrates with healthy fats and protein. If you inhibit your body's ability to produce insulin, it spend more time burning fat as energy. Be forewarned; if your carb intake is to low, your workouts will suffer because you will feel like crap from lack of glycogen in your muscles.

    Carbs are a double edged sword with nutrition. Too much and it gets converetd to fat, not enough and muscles have no fuel for workouts.
  • whiten31
    whiten31 Posts: 3 Member
    I've cut out most soda, I have maybe 2-3 a week. All day at work is water.

    I start out most days with a protein shake in 1% milk
    Lunch is usually edamame or soup or salad
    Dinner is usually chicken when Hubs is home (he's bulking)
    I'm not going to lie, there are days I get a burger for dinner wth my three year old, or I'll have a bowl of mac n cheese with her. But I always make sure I'm staying within my calories (1400/day)

    Every single thing that goes in my mouth gets entered into MFP.
  • startheory
    startheory Posts: 63
    Hmmm maybe with that much exercise you are burning too much and your body needs more? Have you tried upping them to maybe 1500 a day?
  • robdel302
    robdel302 Posts: 292 Member
    Have you been entering your exercises into MFP? If you do, it should "geusstimate" the calories burned and you'll see that your daily calorie limit will go up. Mind you MFP is already built in with a calorie deficit so by exercising, you're widening that deficit. You could try eating back the calories. Not all at first, just some.

    If possible, wear a good heart rate monitor while exercising and you can get a really close match to your calories burned. Enter this information into the website and it will adjust your daily caloric intake accordingly. This will get your fatloss on track if the problem is indead starvation mode. And it sounds like it is.
  • shannon4health
    shannon4health Posts: 40
    Rodbel: Thanks for your response to this, that is a great reminder for me to make sure I am getting "enough calories as I lose". The starvation mode thing is rather baffling to me b/c all my life I have been trying to lose weight...but have done the extremes so much of cutting so far back that I am not getting enough calories etc. Thanks for that reminder.

    To Original poster, i can SO relate with you! I recently cut out ALL refined sugars, ice cream and breads from May to June 8th (4 weeks) and am nursing my newborn and did not lose not one stinking pound!!!!!!!! I felt "better" but still No loss...super frustrating. SO now since the weekend I am revamping my plan, in hopes to keep my body fueled all day by trying to break my calories down to 400 calories for Break/lunch/dinner and then taking rest of my calories and breaking them into 3 snacks in between in hopes to FUEL my body and keep my metabolism steady. I read last week that if we let our bodies get too hunger they will go into starvation mode which says to "store fat". MAN, what a pain!! LOL I pray you and I both start to kick into our rythhm for weight loss! I want to shed 80-100 for GOOD, just had our 6th baby!!! God is good and our babies are all worth it. But it's time for mama to put me first and FINALLY the weight!! I am working so hard and feel really discouraged right now!!

    Blessings,
    Shannon
  • whiten31
    whiten31 Posts: 3 Member
    I do enter my exercise into MFP, its usually around 300 the days I am on my own, and 600 when I'm doing HIIT with the trainer. And I do try to eat back some of the calories. I just upped my calories to 1500/day. I'll try that out for a week and see if that gives me any results...
  • robdel302
    robdel302 Posts: 292 Member
    Also, when are you weighing yourself? The best time (only time really) is when waking after a long night's sleep and a bowel movement. This is when our bodies are leanest and has the least water retention. Later in the day is the worst time since the food we eat have temporary changes to our bodies. Our cortisol levels are typically higher from the added stress of the day and exercise so we look more bloated.
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
    It may be that you need to eat more of your exercise calories back, or more calories in general. There are lots of people on this site who can explain why this works much better than I can. A few months ago, after a 3 week stall, I upped my calories from 1420 to 1590 plus most or all of my exercise calories, and that did the trick. I don't exercise nearly as vigorously as you do, and on days that I exercise, I net anywhere from 1700 to 2000 calories depending on my burn.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    I do enter my exercise into MFP, its usually around 300 the days I am on my own, and 600 when I'm doing HIIT with the trainer. And I do try to eat back some of the calories. I just upped my calories to 1500/day. I'll try that out for a week and see if that gives me any results...

    It needs more than a week's trial before you judge if it works for you. 4 weeks BARE MINIMUM, 6-8 is really better. Weight loss is not immediate, what I mean is the good job of calories you do today is not going to be reflected in your weigh in tomorrow, it takes a while. Give it more than a week, give it a real solid trial before you despair.

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