Don't lose weight

You_Can_Be
You_Can_Be Posts: 26 Member
edited December 3 in Motivation and Support
Does anyone have any ideas? I am a 53 year old woman and I don't lose weight unless I eat under 800 calories a day which is just not sustainable. A year and a half ago I ,it's the 18lbs that I need to lose by eating paleo, which I still do but with occasional potatoes and a small amount of fermented milk products on occasion. I also fasted a couple of days a week. What I found works is to look at my overall weekly calories and cycle them approximating 5600 calories a week. I put back on all my weight when I allowed myself to eat what I wanted on a paleo diet. I now want to lose it again. If I eat more food than 1000 calls a day I gain weight.
Exercise wise. I cycle, I wear a fit bit and walk between 10,000 and 15,000 steps a day depending on how busy I am. My job is sedentary. I am trying to run a bit but finding it hard because I feel too heavy at 142lb

Replies

  • You_Can_Be
    You_Can_Be Posts: 26 Member
    P.s I have tried eating more food and I gain weight. Eating Les Stan 800 calls a day this week bar one day when I honk I had 1200 I have only lost less than 1lb
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
    Are you weighing all your food and logging it all in MFP - in other words are you 100% sure that you are eating 5600 per week?
  • Pterod
    Pterod Posts: 131 Member
    Have you had your thyroid checked recently? I have to eat less than I'd like to lose weight too. Not quite as extreme as 800. I have hypothyroidism.
  • Cchioles
    Cchioles Posts: 276 Member
    800 Calories! Holy Macros! I Know It Sounds Counterproductive, But You Need To Eat More.. When You Say You Gain Weight, What Duration Of Time Are You Allowing Before You Come To That Conclusion? If You Start Eating More, YEs You'll Gain A Few Lbs, But If You Give Your Body A Solid Two Weeks To Adjust, It Will Level Back Out Again.. By Eating 800 Calories A Day , Your Not Getting Enough Of Anything Really And Basically Starving Yourself and damaging Your Metabolism. You Have To Eat, Food Is Energy, And We Are Meant To Eat..
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Are you doctor supervised at 800 calories? If so, you should take your specific concerns to them. If not, you really should make an appointment with your doctor to figure out why you gain weight at 1000 calories. That is an indication that something is wrong unless you're miscounting your calories.

    All that said, these are my really generic tips when someone says they aren't losing:

    1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

    2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

    3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

    4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

    5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

    6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

    7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

    8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

    9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
  • HazyEyes93
    HazyEyes93 Posts: 89 Member
    I really don't think you're counting accurately. Do you have a digital food scale? Because, if you don't, you could be wildly miscounting your calories. I remember being stunned by how little 4oz of chicken breast actually is. And how many more raspberries you get when weighing as opposed to just using a cup. Cups and tea spoons are always going to be slightly off the mark no matter what. Weighing my food was a game changer for me, especially since I was a chronic over estimator because I knew I wasn't measuring accurately. Felt terrible all the time. And now that I am measuring, I always know exactly what I'm eating. Way less error.
  • healthybarrel
    healthybarrel Posts: 10 Member
    Would you ever try getting into weight lifting to build lean muscle?

    Note that the more lean muscle you have the more calories we burn at rest!

    Building 1 pound of muscle burns an extra 50 calories a day. So to make it easy if you were to gain 10 pounds of muscle, your body will be burning up to an extra 500 calories a day by itself.
  • RelevantGains
    RelevantGains Posts: 83 Member
    I have to believe that there are inaccuracies with tracking. Unless you have a thyroid issue, there's no reason you shouldn't be losing weight at 1000 calories, ESPECIALLY with all that activity.

    Maybe you've had severe calorie restriction for many many years, which your metabolism has adapted to. If this is the case, I think you don't have much of a choice, but to work up to maintenance (I don't really believe in reverse dieting, but it may be beneficial in this case). Once you get your maintenance fixed, you'll be able to start losing weight again.

    But again, I'm thinking you're eating more than you think you are, that would be the most likely culprit.
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