Need advice: I can't get my body back

cmenge11
cmenge11 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all! So I have run into a bit of a problem. I gained around 40 pounds in the course of a year and a half. I'll admit that I was not healthy during that period it was my senior year of college so I did a lot of drinking and eating out at restaurants and I rarely drank water. It's been 5 months and I'm 5'5" 186 pounds (up from 135 average) and female.

A little background about me is that I was always a fat kid and I was fat until 10th grade. Then I lost about 50 pounds relatively quickly and kept it off until my senior year of college. I would say that my behavior (diet and excercise) hasn't changed much since my skinny days but for some reason I gained a ton of weight very quickly. I went to a friend who was an herbalife coach and he measure my resting metabolic rate and said it was comparable to that of a 55 year old woman (I'm 22). Since then it's been about 5 months and I'm consuming 1250 calories a day and working out alternating between strength training and cardio 6 days a week and I've only gained weight. What do I do? I feel hopeless and it's hard to stay motivated with no results.
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Replies

  • Mycophilia
    Mycophilia Posts: 1,225 Member
    Are you weighing your food with a scale?
  • cmenge11
    cmenge11 Posts: 8 Member
    Mycophilia wrote: »
    Are you weighing your food with a scale?

    Yes
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    If you open your diary people might be able to give more informed advice.
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    I am not sure a "herbalife coach" is qualified to measure your metabolic rate. If you did have a low metabolic rate, treating it with supplements most likely would not help. If you are concerned with your health please see a health care provider to access your thyroid function. Thyroid conditions are rare but they are the most likely cause of metabolic issues in otherwise healthy young women.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    cmenge11 wrote: »
    Since then it's been about 5 months and I'm consuming 1250 calories a day and working out alternating between strength training and cardio 6 days a week and I've only gained weight. What do I do? I feel hopeless and it's hard to stay motivated with no results.

    You are eating more than you think you are. Weigh and log EVERYTHING you eat. If you don't know how many calories are in it, don't eat it. I suspect you are still eating out a lot and guessing at the number of calories. Stop eating out. Restaurants can take something as simple as a one cup serving of green beans, normally 44 calories, and by the time they add pork fat, butter, and broth it's 200 calories. But it tastes oh, so good!
  • heatherlewisis
    heatherlewisis Posts: 118 Member
    So you did change your eating and exercise or you didn't? At first you said you gained weight because of drinking and eating out during college but then you said you didn't change anything and your body magically gained the weight... I agree that an herbalife coach isn't in any way qualified to measure your metabolic rate... Anyone who stands to profit from your situation by selling you a product is probably not someone who will be helpful to you in this arena. Bottom line is, if you aren't losing, you're not eating at a deficit. Barring a rare medical problem, that is the only thing that will make the weight come off.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    daniwilford wrote: »
    I am not sure a "herbalife coach" is qualified to measure your metabolic rate. If you did have a low metabolic rate, treating it with supplements most likely would not help.

    This, that was a sales pitch. If you've entered your stats into mfp, click on apps, and then bmr. That will tell you your basal metabolic rate.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    daniwilford wrote: »
    I am not sure a "herbalife coach" is qualified to measure your metabolic rate. If you did have a low metabolic rate, treating it with supplements most likely would not help.

    This.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    daniwilford wrote: »
    I am not sure a "herbalife coach" is qualified to measure your metabolic rate. If you did have a low metabolic rate, treating it with supplements most likely would not help. If you are concerned with your health please see a health care provider to access your thyroid function. Thyroid conditions are rare but they are the most likely cause of metabolic issues in otherwise healthy young women.

    They are actually quite common.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
    Consult your primary care provider, OP.
  • starryphoenix
    starryphoenix Posts: 381 Member
    Some of that weight might be muscle. Sometimes gaining muscle can make it look like you are gaining. In this case pay less attention to the weight and more to measurements.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    liahna wrote: »
    Some of that weight might be muscle. Sometimes gaining muscle can make it look like you are gaining. In this case pay less attention to the weight and more to measurements.

    That's a myth. I can't tell you how many times people told me that the reason I wasn't losing weight was because I was gaining muscle, which weighs more. And it does. But it takes a heck of a long time of weight-lifting to get there, not just by dieting and doing a few hours of cardio a week.
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    galgenstrick wrote: »
    Thyroid conditions are rare.

    They are actually quite common.[/quote]

    Comparatively rare, I should have stated. 12% chance over a lifetime in the US population.
  • kk_inprogress
    kk_inprogress Posts: 3,077 Member

    liahna wrote: »
    Some of that weight might be muscle. Sometimes gaining muscle can make it look like you are gaining. In this case pay less attention to the weight and more to measurements.

    Nope. You're not gaining muscle in a caloric deficit, sorry.

    OP - the Herbalife coach knows nothing about metabolic rate. Enter your stats on MFP and follow that. Log everything. You're probably eating more than you know.
  • cmenge11
    cmenge11 Posts: 8 Member
    heatherlewisis wrote: »
    So you did change your eating and exercise or you didn't? At first you said you gained weight because of drinking and eating out during college but then you said you didn't change anything and your body magically gained the weight... I agree that an herbalife coach isn't in any way qualified to measure your metabolic rate... Anyone who stands to profit from your situation by selling you a product is probably not someone who will be helpful to you in this arena. Bottom line is, if you aren't losing, you're not eating at a deficit. Barring a rare medical problem, that is the only thing that will make the weight come off.

    Sorry that was probably really confusing. When I started gaining weight I wasn't doing anything differently from when I was "skinny" I still drank a lot and ate a lot of bad food when I was skinny but it wasn't affecting me until later. Now I definitely changed the way I eat and exercise. It's just when I look back I see how unhealthy I was all of my college years it makes sense how I gained a lot of weight.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Now I'm on my computer I'll post this:

    MFP%20Flowchart%20lemonlionheart_zps3s3xqead.jpg
  • cmenge11
    cmenge11 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you all for your responses! Yeah I won't trust my friend anymore haha I'll keep trying and maybe see a doctor!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    cmenge11 wrote: »
    Thank you all for your responses! Yeah I won't trust my friend anymore haha I'll keep trying and maybe see a doctor!

    Did your friend put you on a Herbalife regime? :huh:

  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    daniwilford wrote: »
    I am not sure a "herbalife coach" is qualified to measure your metabolic rate.

    I am quite sure that they are not.

    See a real doctor--preferably an endocrinologist.
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
    How exactly does an "herbalife coach" measure your resting metabolic rate? I'm sure it's b.s., but I'm just wondering how it goes.

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