Are there medical reasons for no weight loss
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PamPam1488
Posts: 11 Member
Good day guys, just wondering if you know of medical conditions that keeps someone from losing weight. MFP tells me that my normal intake should be 2100 cals but with my goal to lose 1.5 per week my daily intake should be 1350. I know that I probably do miss some calories but I find it hard to believe that I would eat 750 cals more by accident. I enter my exercise daily as I cannot plan ahead of time how many times or how long per week I will exercise. Maybe I am sleep walking during the night... ! 
Thanks for your advice!
Thanks for your advice!
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Replies
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If you open up your diary, people can give you great advice based on what you log.
But in general, do you use a digital scale to weigh your food? Have you been logging everything you eat and drink?
Also, read this http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants0 -
As above open your diary check the accuracy of your logging also. In reality very few people have medical conditions that effect weightloss
This link will help with the accuracy of your logging
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide0 -
No, there is no disease in this world to make you fat, only pile of food. You need to open your diary .0
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There could be a problem with your thyroid. If you rule out common issues like not measuring, inaccurate logging, and cheats, it may be worth a physical and labs with your doctor.0
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Hashimoto's can cause weight gain, even eating at a deficit. It can also prevent from losing. With this disease, you need your levels optimal or you won't lose, or will lose very little and stop, gain, lose, gain, stop.0
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No, hashimoto wont make you fat. I have thyroid problems too. You only get fat if you eat to much.0
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There are medical conditions that can make it difficult to lose weight. There are also biological processes, mostly involving water retention, that mask weight loss. If you're eating too much sodium, just started working out or just increased your workouts or are at certain parts of your monthly cycle, you could just be retaining water.
How long have you been at this? What recent changes have you made in diet/exercise?0 -
You need to invest in a food scale and remember to weigh meats and potatoes before they are cooked, because they lose volume when cooked, and you can under-estimate the calories consumed. Weigh pasta and rice before its cooked, because they gain volume when cooked, and you don't want to over-estimate either.Good day guys, just wondering if you know of medical conditions that keeps someone from losing weight. MFP tells me that my normal intake should be 2100 cals but with my goal to lose 1.5 per week my daily intake should be 1350. I know that I probably do miss some calories but I find it hard to believe that I would eat 750 cals more by accident. I enter my exercise daily as I cannot plan ahead of time how many times or how long per week I will exercise. Maybe I am sleep walking during the night... !
Thanks for your advice!
For exercise, you need to invest in a heart rate monitor with a chest strap for accurate calorie burns, rather than using the MFP database. They tend to over estimate calorie burns and if you are eating them back, along with under-estimating food intake, than there is your extra 700 calories. Once I started doing this, the weight is just coming off.0 -
There are medical conditions that cause hormonal imbalances that in turn can slow your metabolism down. In addition to these medical conditions, very low fat/no fat diets can also cause these kind of hormonal issues and also interfere with nutrient absorption. In that same RE, a lack of proper nutrition in general can cause these kind of issues as well as a lack of regular exercise.
I would also add that many overweight individuals, even if they do not have full blown diabetes or even pre-diabetes, have insulin sensitivities which can make weight loss more difficult. This issue can generally be remedied by eating a more balanced diet that includes less carbohydrate intake (not necessarily low carb...just less carb) than the SAD. Unbalanced nutrition generally lends itself to all kinds of other problems. I would also add that regular physical activity is also tremendously helpful in combating insulin sensitivities.
You can couple any and all of the above with a natural tendency to underestimate intake and overestimate output and you can pretty much wipe out any energy deficit you thought you had pretty easily.0 -
I agree with everyone who is saying that you need to make sure that your logging is accurate before thinking that it may be a medical issue.
In addition to the Sexy Pants link, read this:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide
If you still haven't lost after following the advice in the links after 4-6 weeks then maybe go see your doctor.0 -
There are some conditions that do make it difficult to lose weight. Let's give the op benefit of the doubt.No, there is no disease in this world to make you fat, only pile of food. You need to open your diary .0 -
Yes, there are medical conditions that can make it more difficult to lose weight, and there are plenty of prescription drugs that do the same or cause reactions in the body that make us crave sweets (and therefore we may eat more of them), or slow metabolism. If you are logging accurately and doing everything right, and still not losing, a full physical is recommended to check hormones especially. Basically, talk to a doctor if you think something may be going on physically.
Some medicines that can make weight loss more difficult/slower for SOME folks taking them:
Hormone replacement therapies
Steroids
Anti-depressants
Beta Blockers (and other classes of heart medicines)
Anti-Seizure Drugs
Antipsychotics
Migraine medications
Diabetes medications
Heartburn medications
Hormonal contraceptives
Antihistamines
It's really important to note that in these classes of drugs there are often some that may cause weight issues, and some that are not commonly known to do so. It is also important to realize that one medication may make your friend have a hard time, but not you. You know.....*Results may vary.0 -
Hashimoto's can cause weight gain, even eating at a deficit. It can also prevent from losing. With this disease, you need your levels optimal or you won't lose, or will lose very little and stop, gain, lose, gain, stop.
No no no no....
It will NOT make your gain weight or prevent you from losing if you are in a deficit. It MAY mean your deficit needs to be greater than an online calculator would predict, in order to lose weight.
ETA the gaining weight part0 -
There are most certainly medical conditions that can make it difficult to lose weight or so greatly slow your metabolism that you'd need to be eating at a dangerously low level to create a reasonable deficit. Two of the most common are thyroid disorders (8% of the US population) and insulin resistance (over 40% of US adults have IR at diabetic or prediabetic levels and it can be a result of many things -- PCOS, untreated thyroid disorder, obesity, genetics, etc.).
But, before you go down the medical path, be meticulous in your food tracking. Weigh every single thing you eat for several months. Track your output as accurately as you can (this is hard to do, but some like those bodymedia fit armbands or fitbits to help with this). If you're not losing weight despite what should be a sizeable deficit after three months or notice other symptoms, then it's time to go to the doctor and see if there are other issues at play. But, the first step is accurate logging -- it's the only way to know if you're really eating what you think you're eating and it's super common for people to be grossly off on their initial estimates -- it happens to so many -- and incorporating a food scale can be quite an eye opening experience.0 -
Hashimoto's can cause weight gain, even eating at a deficit. It can also prevent from losing. With this disease, you need your levels optimal or you won't lose, or will lose very little and stop, gain, lose, gain, stop.
No no no no....
It will NOT make your gain weight or prevent you from losing if you are in a deficit. It MAY mean your deficit needs to be greater than an online calculator would predict, in order to lose weight.
ETA the gaining weight part
Well, one of the symptoms of Hashi's is unexplained weight gain (or loss).
The difficulty with Hashi's, especially if you're in the earlier stages where you still have a lot of natural thyroid function left, is that you can swing from hypo to hyper due to the autoimmune response. So, you could be eating the same amount of food, but gain with it because you're hypo and your metabolism is slower than expected or lose with it because you're hyper and your metabolism is slighting higher than expected. So, it can be very difficult to find out what your TDEE and resulting deficit are because it can shift so much, which is not a normal state of affairs for a healthy person.
Once on proper treatment, many find these swings less frequent and less extreme and some steady out completely (especially if they're in the later stages where they don't have much natural thyroid function left), but when you're untreated, they can be quite intense and super confusing from a weight loss perspective. It can make you feel like you're going a little crazy trying to figure out what the problem is -- but you also often have other symptoms: fatigue, intolerance to cold (especially in hands/feet), dry skin/hair, brittle nails, constipation, difficulty sleeping, etc.0 -
Thank you guys for your comments and advice. I will definitely measure and weight all that I can and be as accurate as possible and see if there are any changes. I did not think about the fact that MFP might not be accurate in their estimate of the amount of calories burned while exercising and that might explain a lot. I appreciate the comment that reminded me about HORMONES, monthlies and the famous water retention. 0
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There are medical conditions that cause hormonal imbalances that in turn can slow your metabolism down. In addition to these medical conditions, very low fat/no fat diets can also cause these kind of hormonal issues and also interfere with nutrient absorption. In that same RE, a lack of proper nutrition in general can cause these kind of issues as well as a lack of regular exercise.
I would also add that many overweight individuals, even if they do not have full blown diabetes or even pre-diabetes, have insulin sensitivities which can make weight loss more difficult. This issue can generally be remedied by eating a more balanced diet that includes less carbohydrate intake (not necessarily low carb...just less carb) than the SAD. Unbalanced nutrition generally lends itself to all kinds of other problems. I would also add that regular physical activity is also tremendously helpful in combating insulin sensitivities.
You can couple any and all of the above with a natural tendency to underestimate intake and overestimate output and you can pretty much wipe out any energy deficit you thought you had pretty easily.
OP: my medical conditions were preventing me from losing. I was recently diagnosed with PCOS/pretty significant hormonal imbalance (I take progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, AND adrenal support supplements) and pretty severe adrenal fatigue - this all took over a year to diagnose.
I quoted the above poster because his post could have been directed at me!
Step 1 was to balance my hormones through medication. Step 2 was clean up my diet - again, Wolfman is RIGHT ON - lots of healthy fat and limited carbs (50-70 or so, not super low). My prior diet was trash and wreaked havoc on my body and my mental health (i.e. led to depression, which led to emotional eating, which led to weight gain, which led to depression, which made me not want to get off the couch, which made me gain even more weight....and the cycle goes on and on...)
The last statement in the above post is great too. Scales and measuring cups are your friend! If you'd compare the standard "cups" serving size to the serving size in "grams" for the same product you can easily see why food scales are awesome.
ETA: I agree with an above poster who says to clean up your logging first before assuming a medical problem! It could be just that!
Good luck to you!0 -
Hashimoto's can cause weight gain, even eating at a deficit. It can also prevent from losing. With this disease, you need your levels optimal or you won't lose, or will lose very little and stop, gain, lose, gain, stop.
No no no no....
It will NOT make your gain weight or prevent you from losing if you are in a deficit. It MAY mean your deficit needs to be greater than an online calculator would predict, in order to lose weight.
ETA the gaining weight part
Well, one of the symptoms of Hashi's is unexplained weight gain (or loss).
The difficulty with Hashi's, especially if you're in the earlier stages where you still have a lot of natural thyroid function left, is that you can swing from hypo to hyper due to the autoimmune response. So, you could be eating the same amount of food, but gain with it because you're hypo and your metabolism is slower than expected or lose with it because you're hyper and your metabolism is slighting higher than expected. So, it can be very difficult to find out what your TDEE and resulting deficit are because it can shift so much, which is not a normal state of affairs for a healthy person.
Once on proper treatment, many find these swings less frequent and less extreme and some steady out completely (especially if they're in the later stages where they don't have much natural thyroid function left), but when you're untreated, they can be quite intense and super confusing from a weight loss perspective. It can make you feel like you're going a little crazy trying to figure out what the problem is -- but you also often have other symptoms: fatigue, intolerance to cold (especially in hands/feet), dry skin/hair, brittle nails, constipation, difficulty sleeping, etc.
I implicitly stated that Hashimoto's does not cause weight gain nor does it prevent weight loss while in a deficit. It can make the deficit more difficult to figure out.
Honestly, I'm get really tired of having to repeat myself to you.0 -
I've learned I'm anemic and the docs say this could be causing my slow weight loss, and I've had Gastric Sleeve surgery. Also being on insulin isn't helping either.0
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Hashimoto's can cause weight gain, even eating at a deficit. It can also prevent from losing. With this disease, you need your levels optimal or you won't lose, or will lose very little and stop, gain, lose, gain, stop.
No no no no....
It will NOT make your gain weight or prevent you from losing if you are in a deficit. It MAY mean your deficit needs to be greater than an online calculator would predict, in order to lose weight.
ETA the gaining weight part
Well, one of the symptoms of Hashi's is unexplained weight gain (or loss).
The difficulty with Hashi's, especially if you're in the earlier stages where you still have a lot of natural thyroid function left, is that you can swing from hypo to hyper due to the autoimmune response. So, you could be eating the same amount of food, but gain with it because you're hypo and your metabolism is slower than expected or lose with it because you're hyper and your metabolism is slighting higher than expected. So, it can be very difficult to find out what your TDEE and resulting deficit are because it can shift so much, which is not a normal state of affairs for a healthy person.
Once on proper treatment, many find these swings less frequent and less extreme and some steady out completely (especially if they're in the later stages where they don't have much natural thyroid function left), but when you're untreated, they can be quite intense and super confusing from a weight loss perspective. It can make you feel like you're going a little crazy trying to figure out what the problem is -- but you also often have other symptoms: fatigue, intolerance to cold (especially in hands/feet), dry skin/hair, brittle nails, constipation, difficulty sleeping, etc.
I implicitly stated that Hashimoto's does not cause weight gain nor does it prevent weight loss while in a deficit. It can make the deficit more difficult to figure out.
Honestly, I'm get really tired of having to repeat myself to you.
Yes, but if your metabolism is shifting from hypo to hyper it can be nearly impossible to figure out a deficit. You can't rely on the general idea of the reverse engineering of your total weight loss as the baseline for your TDEE calculations. That's why one of the symptoms of Hashi's is unexplained weight gain or loss.
I'm just trying to get accurate, practical information to people -- which seems to be something you're against sometimes. You seem more interested in misleading technicalities. Weight gain is a symptom and it can be caused by Hashi's because of the shifting metabolism issues.
And, btw, I think you explicitly stated it.0
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