266lbs and can't lose weight

Disnaee
Disnaee Posts: 1
in Health and Weight Loss
I am about 266lbs and am baffled as to why I can't lose weight.

I think I eat generally healthy. Most days I have toast and banana for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and pasta for dinner. I have a few cheat days a week as I eat about 1200 calories on non cheat days so I can afford to have some treats like a cheeseburger, ice cream, bacon sandwiches, cookies.

I workout a few times a week - usually a walk around the park.

I seem to keep gaining weight and think I may have a thyroid problem as I eat less than most even thin people so there must be something wrong with my metabolism or perhaps I am just one of those who is unable to lose weight without surgery.

My doctor referred me to weightwatchers but I don't want to live my life counting points and I eat healthily already so what is the point? I have a healthy diet and the doctor is just generally unhelpful.

I am really upset at this point, it's unfair that I put effort in to bring physically active and eating clean most days and still am overweight yet some eat non stop all day and look like twigs!

Replies

  • AvonBell
    AvonBell Posts: 107 Member
    You say you don't want to count points at WW but are you counting calories? You have to do that. Eating healthy might be great for your bloodwork but you have to control your calories to lose weight.
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    Hi there Welcome to MFP!


    We are all here to learn and since you posted I thought I might share a few thoughts.

    1. It is good to know what your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - the amount of energy expressed in calories that a person needs to keep the body functioning at rest)

    2. Then find your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)

    3. These links are a great place to start

    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
    http://thefitgirls.com/tdee-calculator.aspx
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    (Scooby's is my favorite)

    4. This is a great post here

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

    5. I hate to break the news.. but this is a calorie counting site and 99.7% of the people here will say "count calories" and then on top of it "weigh things". I happen to be in full agreement on that.

    6. Also... you will probably need to up your exercise to walking at least 1 hour a day 6 days a week.

    Good luck on your journey! :smile:
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    Ok, a few things stand out here for me:

    1. Have you ever counted calories, just to see what a typical week looks like for you, including cheat days? You could use the food diary here to log a typical day for you, including using the recipe builder, to get a sense of where you are. Without knowing how many calories you are actually eating, it's hard to give you an answer as to whether the issue is just eating more calories than you burn or if you might have a medical issue.

    The other thing to consider is what you are eating on your cheat days. A cheeseburger can easily be 1000 calories. If I'm set to a 1 lb per week goal, there's 1/3 of my calories right there, before the fries and condiments. I could easily blow a week's deficit with burgers, pizza, fries, etc.

    2. How long have you been eating this way? Have you calculated your TDEE to see how many calories you need to eat?

    3. Have you been able to lose weight in the past, or have you not had success? What have you tried?
  • chargraves
    chargraves Posts: 65 Member
    You say you don't want to count points at WW but are you counting calories? You have to do that. Eating healthy might be great for your bloodwork but you have to control your calories to lose weight.

    This! Have you started measuring your food and logging it in MFP or another app? Before I started tracking my food I thought that I did not eat very much and could not understand why I did not lose weight after starting to exercise. After tracking for a few days without cutting calories I was logging 3000+ calories a day! My meals were small but I was snacking on calorie dense foods all day. It is entirely possible to overeat even "healthy" foods. Logging is the first place to begin to checkpoint what you are actually consuming.
  • sschrock
    sschrock Posts: 114 Member
    I too started out around your weight. I was 267.5 on 3/3/14 and this morning I was 241. I am logging every bite I put in my mouth on this website. You must count calories!! There's no two ways about it. When you set up your parameters for your food section, and start entering foods, you are going to be shocked at just how many calories you consume! Just this past Easter, I "cheated," if you will, and ate what I wanted to, and when I got done entering it all, I had consumed over 4000 calories!! My daily caloric goal is 1380. I really try hard to eat around 1200 though with lots of fruits and veggies in the mix too. I make a point not to eat any large amounts of food after 6pm as well, and I almost always finish my day off by drinking 32 oz of water. As for exercise, I make it a point to get a minimum of 30 minutes of some type of activity 5-6 days a week. This ranges from riding a stationary bike, walking 1 mile in my neighborhood, or do an old aerobics video I have. I also lift weights at my gym 3 days a week. Hope some of this advice can work for you. Good luck in your journey!!
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Open diary.
    TDEE?
    BMR?
    How do you measure you foods?
    What sort of exercise activities do you do?
    Do you eat back your exercise calories?
    If so, how many?
    How are you estimating your caloric burn in exercise?
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,077 Member
    I am about 266lbs and am baffled as to why I can't lose weight.

    I think I eat generally healthy. Most days I have toast and banana for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and pasta for dinner. I have a few cheat days a week as I eat about 1200 calories on non cheat days so I can afford to have some treats like a cheeseburger, ice cream, bacon sandwiches, cookies.

    I workout a few times a week - usually a walk around the park.

    I seem to keep gaining weight and think I may have a thyroid problem as I eat less than most even thin people so there must be something wrong with my metabolism or perhaps I am just one of those who is unable to lose weight without surgery.

    My doctor referred me to weightwatchers but I don't want to live my life counting points and I eat healthily already so what is the point? I have a healthy diet and the doctor is just generally unhelpful.

    I am really upset at this point, it's unfair that I put effort in to bring physically active and eating clean most days and still am overweight yet some eat non stop all day and look like twigs!
    Let's clear something up first. People that eat whatever they want and not gain weight are eating less than they burn. People that eat more than they burn, gain weight. CICO isn't disputed by any journal of medicine or science. Are there health issues that can impede weight loss? Absolutely. So first I would encourage you to get your thyroid checked. And also be honest with yourself. Many clients I've taken on who stated they could never lose weight even though they eat "healthy" found out that they were really just over consuming. While it may seem like a pain, numbers don't lie. Unwillingness to count calories will probably result inaccurate intake and more than likely results won't happen the way one thinks it should.
    Do it for 30 days. If you do it for 30 days with 100% effort and it doesn't work, then you can do something else.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Before jumping to conclusions about thyroid problems you may want to consider a few things:

    1. Eating healthy, but being over the calories your body burns would still make you gain weight

    2. Uncontrolled cheat days CAN undo progress if you go overboard.

    3. If you log exercise don't eat back all the calories you get from it to account for inaccuracies and for the calories you would have burned during that time had you not exercised.

    4. Bananas differ in size, and it's hard to measure the exact tablespoon of peanut butter each time. To know the accurate calorie count for food, you may need to invest in a food scale.

    So here is the action plan:
    1. Find out how many calories your body needs every day.
    2. Determine how much you want to lose per week using MFP and it will automatically set your goal calories for you.
    3. Buy a food scale and weigh everything you eat. Make sure you log every single thing in your diary, including cheat days.
    4. Log your exercise and only eat 50-75% of it back. An easy way to do that is to reduce the minutes you log. Example: you walked for 60 minutes, only log 30-45.
    5. See how it goes for a couple of weeks of being diligent. If you start losing, problem solved. If you are losing much less than you thought you should have lost, you are either doing one of the previous steps wrong or you have health problems you may want to investigate.

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