PLEASE, I'm so upset and I have tried everything and I can't seem to lose weight

AnnPT77 wrote: »

cherys wrote: »

@Oilers846507
Hi Hannah,

I'm replying because I have exactly the same amount as you to lose, not because I am perfect and know all the answers. But reading your post a couple of things jumped out.

If you work out at home, you are far less likely to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. If you get a trainer or join a bootcamp or some circuits classes, you might find you should be exercising way beyond your current levels. It should feel hard - almost too hard - at some point in every session. If you're not cursing inside, it's not pushing you enough to burn the fat.

I also agree with everyone here: Measure your food! A portion of muesli looks like a sprinkle topping. A bowlful of muesli is about 5-8 portions! Peanut butter is incredibly high in calories. A teaspoonful of it scraped over wholewheat toast is very different from a generous smear of it. As in, about 300 calories difference. Your description of your food intake doesn't describe many veg. Why not try basing each meal around three unprocessed veg or low-sugar fruits (berries, melon).

Are you drinking loads of water? Water retention can keep you carrying an excess of 5lbs or more.

In addition to the comments others have made on the first bolded passage (risks of burnout, value of moderate exercise), I'd point out that too-intense exercise can be counter-productive, for weight loss. Sure, higher intensity tends to burn more calories per minute as we do it. But if someone pushes hard enough to cause post-exercise fatigue, it will tend to reduce daily-life calorie expenditure (i.e., they rest more, do less, even fidget less, etc.). That wipes out some of the exercise calorie benefit . . . in ways that are invisible, except when considering longer-term scale weight progress.

Intense exercise is also self-limiting in duration. I (anyone) can only do a max effort sprint briefly. If I have time, I can pretty much walk all day, at a casual speed. The sprint burns more calories per minute. The long walk can burn more total calories because of timespan.

Usually, for overall benefits in a calorie-counting context, the sweet spot is exercise that's a bit challenging - pushes current capabilities, but manageably so, during the time available. After a brief post-exercising "whew!", it should be energizing for the rest of the day, not depleting.

From a pure fitness perspective, elite athletes don't do high intensity exercise (as defined in terms of their fitness level) during every workout, or even most workouts. Moderate intensity exercise is the main dish on their exercise menu, with high intensity as a condiment or side dish, depending where they are in their training plan. (Sure, their moderate intensity is something that would be impossibly intense for most of us: When it comes to fitness development, these levels are always defined in terms of one's current fitness level.)

The rules for fitness development aren't different for sub-elites like us, such that we should be doing high intensity all the time. Beginners, specifically, will typically be best served, on the cardiovascular exercise front, if they build base fitness by doing moderate steady-state work to create base fitness at first, only later beginning to add in intensity.

The idea that we need to do very intense exercise to get benefits is a myth. The idea that we need to do miserable, exhausting exercise to get benefits is a destructive myth. Especially for those of us not striving for truly elite performance, exercise should be enjoyable, not punitive.

Also, we burn a higher percentage of fat during lower intensity exercise. Higher intensity exercise draws on relatively more glycogen, relatively less fat, as the immediate fuel. In our total day, the greatest fat burn, as a percentage of calories expended at the time, comes during sleep. Should we sleep all the time to burn more fat? Of course not. For the person pursuing weight loss, calorie deficit determines weight loss, and all-day calorie burn, from exercise *and* daily life, is what counts. Any sensible calorie deficit is going to be made up mainly by burning fat stores, sooner or later - not necessarily during the exercise itself. The immediate fueling during the exercise is generally only important to endurance athletes trying not to bonk, or something like that. The "fat burning zone" is not important per se for weight loss.

To the second bolded: It's unclear what you mean, but I hope you're not saying that drinking water causes water retention, because no. If we don't need it, and drink extra, it's just more urine, sooner. NBD. Our water weight fluctuations are a completely normal part of how our healthy bodies function. Our body retains water when it needs it (to balance electrolytes, repair muscles, metabolize carbs, whatever), then releases it when it doesn't. It's a bad idea to try to game that: The body knows what it's doing. If there's pathological water retention, see your doctor. Otherwise, since it's part of healthy functioning, and it's not fat, strive to understand that it can affect the scale, but don't worry about it. It's irrelevant.

ETA: If this is coming across as harsh or mean, I apologize. That is truly not my intention. Maybe try to think of me as an anxious old internet auntie, who wants everyone to succeed. There is *so much* partial and misleading information spread by trainers (with limited training) and the blogosphere, and the profit-making segment has a motivation to make things seem much more complicated than they really need to be. Best wishes, sincerely!

rheddmobile wrote: »

Did you say you think you have PCOS because your friends say so? Go to a gynecologist and find out! If you also have issues with anemia and can’t take iron, birth control pills should help both problems.

A lot of people with PCOS do better on a low carb diet because PCOS interferes with carb metabolism. But this is irrelevant if you don’t really have PCOS. And a doctor needs to decide that, not a friend.