What is your biggest issue/concern/struggle with weight loss?

I am interested in learning about your biggest issues, concerns, and struggles with weight loss. I will try to answer any questions and/or concerns based on my scientific knowledge and past personal experience.
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Replies

  • minime0424
    minime0424 Posts: 101 Member
    I would have to say my biggest concern is not reaching my goal weight by next April, I know I've already come far, but when you set a goal and work really hard to meet that goal and don't make it, especially with weight loss it is beyond a huge disappointment. I am trying not to worry about not meeting my goal though because I have been doing so well!
  • dariacsf
    dariacsf Posts: 32 Member
    minime0424 wrote: »
    I would have to say my biggest concern is not reaching my goal weight by next April, I know I've already come far, but when you set a goal and work really hard to meet that goal and don't make it, especially with weight loss it is beyond a huge disappointment. I am trying not to worry about not meeting my goal though because I have been doing so well!

    Always remember that the number is just that, a number, if you are already seeing results, you are already succeeding and reaching your goal. Keep up the good work and keep your eye on the prize, even the greatest have failed before they succeeded!
  • dariacsf
    dariacsf Posts: 32 Member
    Accepting and living with the (IMO) small number of calories a 5'2 woman can eat and still lose weight. I want more!!! I exercise to get more and make good use of what I get, but it damn sure ain't a lot.

    In my opinion, MFP suggestions are a little too low for most people with calories. When I work with my clients, most females stay within the 1500-1600 calorie range to lose weight. As you continue to put on muscle because hopefully you are doing some resistance training, you can increase your calorie burn by 50 calories for every pound of muscle you put on. Which means you can eat more calories!!!!! Winning!
  • AlabamaMama224
    AlabamaMama224 Posts: 137 Member
    edited August 2016
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    My biggest struggle is with the glitchy MFP recipe builder and glitchy system entries which no longer get fixed in a timely manner.


    This!
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Sarcopenia
  • BibiMomeena442
    BibiMomeena442 Posts: 1 Member
    My concern is that i wont get to my goal i am keeping within the range of the calories but not loosing as i thought i would. In 6 mos i have lost 6 lbs. I walk and try to keep active but should i be loosing more within a mos.?am i expectong too much from myself? I sometimes get disxouraged but i am keeping the eating habit just ita hard to stay positive when others i know doing the same and loosing more .
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    My biggest struggle is with hunger. I'm tall and active, and my blood sugar has always run low. I have played around with things to do but hunger remains an issue
  • adhollifield
    adhollifield Posts: 6 Member
    I have been a yo-yo dieter for years. I am 30. 5ft 7in. and i used to be 138 and once i got into the diet yo-yo i have gained! I now weigh 156-57 and dieting caused me to gain. I have low faith in my ability to stick with anything so im just going to attempt to track what i eat without judgment just to see and gradually reduce. My concern is that i eat out frequently. It is very difficult for me to be accurate
  • LoraMartyn
    LoraMartyn Posts: 41 Member
    I am bummed because I am stuck......for 4 weeks now. After losing some weight MFP gave me 1200 calories, but I really couldn't stick to that so I upped it to 1400. I do exercise so I get a little extra on top of that. I am trying different things to try to get thing moving in the right direction again, increased exercise, drinking more, trying to get my diet to be healthier, etc...Even went to a registered dietician but all she did was confuse me!
  • ohsosweet26
    ohsosweet26 Posts: 45 Member
    LoraMartyn wrote: »
    I am bummed because I am stuck......for 4 weeks now. After losing some weight MFP gave me 1200 calories, but I really couldn't stick to that so I upped it to 1400. I do exercise so I get a little extra on top of that. I am trying different things to try to get thing moving in the right direction again, increased exercise, drinking more, trying to get my diet to be healthier, etc...Even went to a registered dietician but all she did was confuse me!

    I am also stuck for 4 weeks already, which is so frustrating because I've been working out religiously. I did the same thing as you did, went from 1200 to 1400 because I feel deprived from just 1200cals. I like to believe that I am fairly active, jogging in the morning for an hour 4x per week, then go out for an evening walk. On my best days, I go for an afternoon walk too. I also lift weights 2-3x per week and dance and bike once a week, but my scale isn't budging. I went back down to 1200cals because watching my burned calories go down (I have negative calorie adjustments on) was frustrating me.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    Realizing that my fittest shape will never resemble that of my "models" (Ana Cheri, for example) because everyone's bodies are different (even if you hit your goal of squatting 220 lbs. just like them!). Accepting the fact that fitness is a lifestyle and there is no finish line, it's a constant process of transforming and gaining strength.

    Well said, I feel the same way. I need to stop following some of them on IG it is borderline motivating and discouraging at the same time.

    Another struggle was losing muscle as I was in deficit. I tried my best (lifting, protein, slower rate of loss) but I'm sure I inevitably lost some in the process
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
    My approach is probably not the same as most people.

    my struggle right now is getting to what I consider to be a good fitness level. When I was in the army (back in the 80's) I was at a good fitness level and never had to worry about body weight. I could eat anything I wanted and always had a healthy body weight. I could run 2 miles in 14 minutes, do 70 push-ups in 2 minutes, and do 70 sit-ups in 2 minutes.

    Over about a 20 year period of not exercising and having a desk job, I became obese and my fitness level became very poor. I started having health issues and my doctors told me I had to start exercising and loose weight or else.

    I started exercising and after a year I have increased my fitness level from very poor to fair, and lost over 50 lbs. Another 5 lbs. or so will put me in the top end of my healthy weight range.

    I did learn how to eat a little smarter but for the most part it was the exercise. As my fitness level increase, my weight decreased.

    This year I started adding jogging into my power walk sessions, and my goal is to be able to jog for an hour non stop. I am also starting to work on muscular exercise.

    My overall goal is to struggle through a couple of years of getting to a good fitness level instead of having to be on a diet for the rest of my life.

    I think total health is a much better approach.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    I am very prone to gaining water weight [I have bouts of severe edema that are thankfully under control most of the time] so it's easy for me to rack up on water weight, even if I'm doing everything else right. It gets really bad after lift days [where I can gain up to 3 pounds].

    I don't let it get me down too much though, as I'm still losing inches off my waist, so whenever I do gain weight I know it's either muscle or water.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    My biggest struggle is with the glitchy MFP recipe builder and glitchy system entries which no longer get fixed in a timely manner.

    Yes! I get very cranky when I type in a whole stir fry only to get the "page not found" error. Grr!!!

    Also, choosing well when eating out can be tricky. I *can* do it, but am trying to have us eat at home a lot more because it's so much easier.

    Also, last time I calorie counted, I was living alone and only cooking for myself. Now, I have a husband and toddler (soon to be two toddlers) to split the food with which makes accurate portion measuring more difficult. I typically enter a recipe as 6 servings, take a third of it and call it 2 servings. Hubby eats half of it and either the toddler eats the remaining sixth or it becomes part of my lunch the next day. (The reason I do it this way instead of just calling it "3 servings per recipe" is that I can instead log 1.5 servings if I only take a quarter.)
  • Whitezombiegirl
    Whitezombiegirl Posts: 1,042 Member
    No Issues with food/eating other than a lack of protein. I'd happily eat nothing but carbs if I chose to. I'm very picky with food.

    Main issue is lack of muscle- mostly upper body strength. I'm banned from most of the machines at my gym for being to small to sue them safely (I can't get into the correct position to operate them and told I risk injury). I could use free weights but Id prefer to do that at home , in privacy- and I weights are expensive. I know I could start with body weight exercises. Honestly , strength exercises make me feel like vomiting when I do them. No idea why. I'm also depressed, anxious , lethargic and work 11 hours a day most days. I don't eat much (1050 cals ish) and would love to use exercise to up that, plus get more lean-looking. I'm 5ft, 40 years old and 98lbs.

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    LuckyAndi wrote: »
    My biggest concern right now is eating healthy on a very tight budget. Yes, I could just eat less of the not-as-healthy food, but I don't want to do that. I feel much better when I cook and eat fresh vegetables and prepare my own lunches and dinners versus fixing packages products or getting take out. That gets expensive.

    How does it get more expensive? Do you buy all organic, health food, gluten free, low fat? Or is waste a problem? Basic whole food ingredients and cooking from scratch is usually the cheapest way of eating well.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I have been a yo-yo dieter for years. I am 30. 5ft 7in. and i used to be 138 and once i got into the diet yo-yo i have gained! I now weigh 156-57 and dieting caused me to gain. I have low faith in my ability to stick with anything so im just going to attempt to track what i eat without judgment just to see and gradually reduce. My concern is that i eat out frequently. It is very difficult for me to be accurate

    I love that you have gained the insight that it's the dieting/yoyoing that makes you gain weight. Nobody can stick with eating plans that are just meant to make you lose/maintain weight and not enjoy life. Eating without judgment is exactly what saved me (thank you, MFP)!

    I think you don't have to be accurate. Just eat appropriate portions, let it even out over time. Set some eating rules for eating out. Depending on what kinds of places you eat, on what occasions, how often: Dessert only on Sundays, eat half of the starch, eat half the meal and bring half home, eat 20% less than you want to, avoid deep fried foods, etc. Yeah, those silly rules you see all the time. The point must be to utilize the ones that work for you.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    zyxst wrote: »
    dariacsf wrote: »
    zyxst wrote: »
    My biggest issue was not being able to eat to satisfaction.

    My biggest advice is to make sure to eat whole foods. Stay away from low fat/low carb, etc. whole foods are much more satisfying compared to prepackaged foods. Aim to eat foods that do not have commercials.

    For you, whole foods are most satisfying. For me, it's high carbs + high calories. When I eat until I'm satisfied, I've blown about 1,000 calories. Now if I could burn enough calories to compensate for 3, 1,000 calorie meals a day, I'd be quite happy.

    But if you have to overeat to be satisfied, you aren't eating satisfying foods.

    Or am I missing the point, again?
  • 8packsfitness
    8packsfitness Posts: 1 Member
    edited August 2016
    My concern is that i wont get to my goal i am keeping within the range of the calories but not loosing as i thought i would. In 6 mos i have lost 6 lbs. I walk and try to keep active but should i be loosing more within a mos.?am i expectong too much from myself? I sometimes get disxouraged but i am keeping the eating habit just ita hard to stay positive when others i know doing the same and loosing more .

    Here's an article that exactly speaks about calorie counting and goal setting and I believe you will be benefited by it. http://ricelean.com/blog/rethinking-calories-and-things-you-didnt-know-about-it/
  • merryward13
    merryward13 Posts: 1,662 Member
    That I'm never going to reach my "goal weight" and that it will forever be held over my head.