frustrated, unable to loose weight.

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Leooa
Leooa Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm having the worst time figuring out how to loose weight. I'm 5'3", 33 years old, female,205 pounds and gaining weight despite my efforts.

On days I don't workout, I briskly walk 2.5 miles and eat 1500 -1700 calories. I do this 3 days a week.

On days I do workout, I do the 'Insanity' workout for 20-25 minutes. I go all out, making sure my heart rate is in the high 160's to low 170's and break after 30 seconds or until my heart rate goes down to 110. Also, I lift weights (heavy ) for 30 minutes and eat 1700 -1900 calories . I do this 3 days a week.

The one day i'm not workingout or walking, i'm still doing light activities. Otherwise, I'm sleeping or at my desk job.

I'm tracking my calories, carbs, and protein everyday so the numbers above are very accurate.

In the recent past I have dropped my calories and eventually my hair starts to falls out.

I machine tested my metabolic rate (BMR) and it is 2040. The nutritionist that administered the test told me to eat 1500 -1600 calories a day. The nutritionist said that despite the fact I'm 80 pounds over weight, I have a lot of muscle on my body.

However, when I use the health-cal calculator on http://www.health-calc.com,
my bmr is 1640. This site also says on my workout days I'm burning a total of 3042 calories a day. On my walking days the total expenditure is 2600 calories.

I want to do is loose weight, but I'm not sure what i'm doing wrong. Please help…

Replies

  • smn76237
    smn76237 Posts: 318 Member
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    1) Do you have a food scale?
    2) Open your diary.
  • SisterhoodoftheShrinkingPants
    SisterhoodoftheShrinkingPants Posts: 474 Member
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    My hair has been falling out too!!! What is that about? I thought I was over-doing my vit A intake. Going back to my doc soon, it could be my age? Im 35. I abhor the idea that healthy living is causing female patterned baldness. UGH
  • 13suzie
    13suzie Posts: 349 Member
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    If it seems you are doing all the right things, make sure you get your thyroid tested!!!!

    It's a simple blood test that your general doc or an endocrinologist can order.

    Slow thyroids are often responsible for weight gain and for difficulties losing weight.

    In any case, good luck!
  • Leooa
    Leooa Posts: 12
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    Yes i measure everything on a food scale. However, I don't like the interface on My fitness pal. So I save all my info on my phone. i'm having some difficulity copy/pasteing the data so here is an example of typical day:

    Food Amount Calories Carbs Protein
    Protien shake 2 scoops \ 340 \ 14 \ 60
    cashew butter 2oz \ 376 \ 18 \ 10
    Dried Pear 2oz \ 148 \ 40 \ 1
    Egg whites 2 whites \ 34 \ .5 \ 7
    Cream Cheese 2oz \ 170 \ 8 \ 10
    Green Beans 3.oz \ 35\
    Dressing 1.5oz \ 70 \
    kale 1cup \ 35\
    Ham 2oz \ 100 \ \ 15
    Dried plums 2oz 110
    Mozzarella (no salt) 3 oz 250 3 24
  • Leooa
    Leooa Posts: 12
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    1My hair stops falling when I green juice 3 times a week and increased my calories from 800 a day to 1400 a day. Each green juice is over 20 oz.
  • Leooa
    Leooa Posts: 12
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    My Thyrod was tested in April 2013, and it was normal.
  • wamydia
    wamydia Posts: 259 Member
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    Well it looks like you are eating a clean diet and you are obviously exercising. What struck me about your post is that it seems like you are taking input from various sources and mixing it all together (ie. my bmr is this and my nutritionist told me to eat this much and that website says I'm burning these calories, etc). My first suggestion would be to try to work with one complete program to track exactly what is going on with your body and what the exact calorie deficit is. So if you want to use MFP, I would suggest that you set it up on the website to indicate how many pounds a week you would like to lose and then use the website to track all of your food and exercise. Aim for the actual calorie goal it has set for you for each day and see what happens for a few weeks. I usually go ahead and estimate my exercise calories at the beginning of the day so that I know how many extra calories I will have to work with throughout the day even if I do my exercise later. After a few weeks,you can see about making adjustments as needed. It's just so much easier to adjust what you are doing when you are looking at a single system that measures things consistently all the time.

    I suggest this because I have found from personal experience that trying to collect information from multiple places and put it all together never leads to success because different programs, websites, or individuals have different ways of measuring calorie burn or estimating calorie deficits, etc. And it's very easy to get confused about what you are supposed to be doing. I have always found the most success by putting all of my information in one place and using it as a main tool to track everything.

    My second thought is that you actually may not be eating enough. It's very counter-intuitive, but you can sabotage your own weight loss by creating way too big of a calorie deficit. If you use MFP as a tool, you can tell it how much weight you want to lose per week and it will build that into your calorie budget for the day. Then you really should eat back all of the calories you get from exercising unless you simply find that you cannot lose weight that way. The purpose is to exercise to burn off fat calories, but then to eat healthy food to provide fuel to keep your body going and to rebuild muscles. Your body actually does need a certain basic calorie input in order to be able to efficiently break down and burn the fat cells you already have in your body. The key is to make sure that you maintain enough of a deficit that you are not making new fat, but to not have such a big deficit that your body doesn't have the energy to function.

    My last thought is that you may want to visit a doctor and see if you can get referred to an endocrinologist for blood work. Thyroid problems can cause slow weight loss, but so can pre-diabetes, hormone imbalances, and other conditions. Only a doctor can assess if something like that is going on.

    Good luck!
  • derrickgooch1
    derrickgooch1 Posts: 8
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    Make sure you are eating the right foods that equal what your cal intake should be. For example if you only drink a protein shake and nothing else your health may suffer because it is malnourished. But good idea to check with your doc just to make sure it isnt something else.
  • MeadowSong
    MeadowSong Posts: 171 Member
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    My first guess it you need to eat a bit more. I think you have cut it too much. My "acquired" daughter does this when she's stressed and eats WAY to little, but when she eats healthier and enough, then she'll drop the weight. I would bump my calories up just a little, like 200, and see what happens. My other advice comes from what I've seen in myself--which is "Hang in there". Sometimes I have to do everything right for a while before my body catches on. If I give up, I put on pounds--extremely frustrating. Keep exercising, I think that's key. Change up your exercise. Your body will get efficient doing the same thing on and on and burn significantly fewer calories. Lifting Rocks--I feel SO much better when I lift and can keep my weight where it should be. Read all the books in the "New Rules of Lifting" series, starting with the "New Rules of Lifting for Women". He goes through a lot of research and lays it out along with what he's learned through the years and it all matches up with what I've found in my own life.
  • mykellester
    mykellester Posts: 1
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    Have you ever tried carb cycling? You eat carbs only on certain days to keep your body guessing.. I am about the same age and it has been pretty hard dor me to loose my last 20lbs..so next week is a advocare cleanse and start myself on carb cycling
  • RyanMicheals
    RyanMicheals Posts: 1
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    I recently came across this article http://leadingfitnessreviews.com/paleo-burn/.i got the product but at first I had my doubts but then I tried it and was like WOW.I was really surprised at how well it worked. It even did a couple of things I was not aware of. This overall was a very good weight loss program. Check out the site here http://leadingfitnessreviews.com/paleo-burn/.
  • TheSlinkyMinky
    TheSlinkyMinky Posts: 6
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    As far as the hair loss, be careful in regards to your iron. You might want to have your doctor check your levels and make sure you are not anemic. Do you find yourself bruising more easily lately as well? That is another sign of low iron levels. I lost quite a bit of weight years ago, along with half my hair because of undiagnosed anemia.
  • katherine611
    katherine611 Posts: 175 Member
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    My hair has been falling out too!!! What is that about? I thought I was over-doing my vit A intake. Going back to my doc soon, it could be my age? Im 35. I abhor the idea that healthy living is causing female patterned baldness. UGH

    I am by no means a doctor but I use Biotin suppliment for my hair 1 capsule a day with my vitamins:bigsmile:

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