New to boards and frustrated- help?

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lakenruth
lakenruth Posts: 11 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hey everyone! This is my first post to the boards, but I've been using MFP for a month now. I'm a 27 yo female and my Problem is I'm not losing any weight at all. I have a chronic medical condition and just had brain surgery 4 months ago so basically exercise of any kind is still off the table. I was on steroids for a month after surgery and it put on some not so nice weight. I need to lose about 15-20 lbs now. I thought I could do it with diet. I'm not 100% clean eating by any means but I try- more veggies, salads, lean meat, less processed, etc. I went from eating probably 3000 cals a day (I've always been blessed with good metabolism so it's not been an issue) to less than 1500 a day, still without any weight loss. Seriously lost a lb in a month. I'm not completely sedentary (but not active due to healing!) and Fitbit says I have a much higher calorie output than intake daily. I'm getting really frustrated at this point. Hubby has barely reduced his calorie intake and is dropping weight like crazy using MFP. So that's annoying too. Any help or ideas??? Please! Thanks!

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  • jhayroe
    jhayroe Posts: 1
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    Are you still on the steroids? They would really make weight loss difficult if you were still on them. Are you able to go on short, slow walks? Any walking would be better than not exercising. If you think you are eating a good balanced diet, I recommend you ask your doctor. There may be something related to your condition or medication that makes weight loss difficult. Good luck to you! hang in there
  • lakenruth
    lakenruth Posts: 11 Member
    edited February 2015
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    No, I've been off of the steroids for 2.5 months now. Actually, my surgery *should* have increased my metabolism. But not so much for me yet. He says weight loss should be possible without issue. I do walk and do stairs. It's not that I'm still healing from surgery as much as I just will never be able to do much that strains my neck (I had my c1 vertebrae shaved during surgery) and bc of a sister condition, I get dizzy when I'm upright for long, get hot or my heartrate increases too much (POTS). I have tried some smaller exercises, like planks, push ups etc. I used resistance bands until the band snapped and the handle flew up and hit me in the lip, requiring 5 stitches not long ago. Now I'm sort of nervous about those! Exercise isn't my strong suit anymore! Lol
  • minamu68
    minamu68 Posts: 11
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    Have you had a thryoid function test?
  • minamu68
    minamu68 Posts: 11
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    sorry, that should read "thyroid"
  • lakenruth
    lakenruth Posts: 11 Member
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    Yep. Totally normal. Medically there isn't a reason why I shouldn't be losing. I'm just not. Idk if I'm doing something wrong or what.
  • lakenruth
    lakenruth Posts: 11 Member
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    I know it tends to come off a lot faster when you're a bigger person to begin with. I'm not. I'm not super tiny but I'm 5'5" and I'm between 135-140 lbs. I want to get back to my 120-125 range.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    MFP has a Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    Your Fitbit burn is your TDEE. If you eat at a reasonable deficit from that, you will lose weight. (A good rule of thumb is 250 calories per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight.)

    Your diet isn't public, so we can't give you any feedback on your logging. Logging is simple, but it ain't easy.

    Do not compare yourself to your husband! Men always lose easily. At your size, set your goal to .5 lb. per week, and be patient. Since you can't exercise, focus on your logging.
  • lakenruth
    lakenruth Posts: 11 Member
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    Wow. Unless I'm doing something wrong (I subtracted the calories out from the calories I took in daily for a week), according to Fitbit, I was at a 5,309 calorie deficit for last week. Granted I had one day where I had a light virus and didn't eat much at all, but besides that day, I would say that's a very normal week in terms of what I ate and my activity level. I'm totally not a crash dieter or TRYING to keep myself from eating. I just normally don't eat more than 1000-1200 calories a day now that I've started being conscious of what I'm actually eating. Most of what I eat is baked chicken, veggies, some pasta, light breakfast, tuna for lunch. Not anything very heavy. So how in the heck have I not lost anything in a month of this with my calorie deficit being so low?!

    I do my best not to compare but it's still disheartening! Lol
  • jskyjse
    jskyjse Posts: 28 Member
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    I don't have any knowledge to share with you, sorry rather new at this, but your body has been through a lot lately. Maybe you need more time to adjust before you introduce radical changes. Best of luck and I sorry you are feeling so frustrated.

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