Help!! Can't Loose Weight!!

benjaminfields25 wrote: »

Let me start with the basics, I'm a 26 year old British male, 5'8" and weigh 107kg (236lbs).

About a year ago I weighed 75kg and have since piled on the pounds due to lack of exercise and poor diet.

For the past 2 months my exercise regime has been an hourly brisk walk everyday (approx 8000 steps) consisting of downhill, uphill, flat and unever pathways.

I have completely cut out the takeaways and have started eating more healthy foods.

In the mornings I'll have only a banana for breakfast, a bottle of water and a green tea, after an hour I'll go for my daily hourly walk.

In the afternoon I'll have either a chicken salad with coconut aminos seasoning OR a slimming world carrot and red pepper soup with an apple.

In the evenings I'll have either a slimming world chicken in black bean sauce OR a slimming world chicken hot pot.

My average calorie intake therefore consists of between 600 - 800 calories a day compared to my old diet which consisted of between 2000 - 2500 calories a day (sometimes more).

I weigh myself each week with the same electronic scales on the same flat surface.

So my question is, why am I not loosing weight? Am I doing something wrong?

I'd be very thankful for any response as it's driving me insane!

My first thought is you might be eating more than you think - in this case that would actually be very good as 600-800 calories is nowhere near enough for you to survive on and it could really mess with your body if it hasn't already. You might be taking that walk, which is good, but how much do you move the rest of the day? If I tried to eat only 800 calories per day, I would be so fatigued after a few days that I would probably just lie around the rest of the time and move as little as possible. 800 calories is not enough for your body to do its normal body processes like organ functioning.

I would suggest that you go through MFP's guided setup. How many calories does MFP say you can eat per day if you want to lose 1 or 1.5 lbs a week? Eat that many calories every day for a month (being precise about it - don't guess how much you eat by eyeballing, weighing with a scale is the most precise) and see what happens on the scale. You might be surprised at how many calories you can eat and still lose weight, if you're honest and accurate.

If you are truly only consuming 600 calories per day, then you aren't eating enough calories. When you starve your body, it wrecks your metabolism and prevents you from being able to lose weight. You should definitely read the "must read" set up guides and articles here to get a better understanding of your nutrition needs. Yes, salads (without dressing), fruits, veggies, and chicken are relatively low in calories... but you would need to be eating very small amounts of those things to be under 600 cals per day. If you have any salad dressing or a palm sized amount of chicken then you are likely exceeding 600 cals (which is good. You need more than 600 cals). You are either starving your body or you aren't logging you calorie intake accurately.

FallGirl84 wrote: »

I have to agree with the previous commenters, 600 calories for a guy your size is way too little. You can't lose weight because your body thinks it must hold on to anything it can since it doesn't get enough to function as it should. Please check on how you're measuring food and marking it to MFP, and do increase your calorie intake. I'm a female, just an inch shorter than you but have a couple of kilos more on my waist - and even I'm losing weight while eating 1500-1700 kcal per day and not doing any exercise.

Nonsense - if someone is genuinely only eating 600 calories over a decent period of time then they will be losing weight unless they have slowed their heart beat, lowered their body temperature and stopped every movement of their body.

Eat too little and you will not lose weight is, quite simply, a story people tell when they convince themselves they are eating a lot less than they really are. It is a myth.

wmweeza wrote: »

https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/slimming-world-chicken-in-black-bean-sauce-500g/83390.html#start=1
Is that what you are eating?

If this is what OP is eating, then he's probably way, WAY undercounting his calories The package you linked is 500g, the nutritional information on that page is per 100g and lists 275kcal per 100g. That package contains 1375 Calories, if he's eating the entire thing for dinner.

You put on 70lbs in a year. That is a hell of a lot for someone who doesn't have much of an appetite or who is happy to exist on vegetables and tiny portions of chicken... So, you clearly DO have an appetite. It's just currently suppressed. It's not uncommon for people who start a Very Low Calorie Diet to temporarily lose their appetite for a while. These boards are full of posts like "Help! I can't eat all my 1200 calories!". That phase tends to pass for most people, and the hunger comes back (often triggering binging behaviour if people have been majorly restricting). Instead of falling into that trap, it's time to make calorie dense foods your friends. Nuts, cheese, avocado, olive oil, etc.. Hell, if you are genuinely that far under your calorie target, get stuck into a Mars Bar or a bag of Doritos, or whatever it is that floats your boat.

I don't know what MFP gives you as a target, but I just plugged your stats into the NHS calculator, and it suggested you should be losing on between 2151 - 2766 kcal. Which feels about right to me. Probably on the lower end of that if you're not very active. But you can definitely enjoy a lot of food. Normal, regular food. You don't need to exist on chicken and vegetables, or tiny microwave ready meals (unless you genuinely like them, in which case knock yourself out).

Whatever food you go for, it has to be food that you can see yourself eating FOREVER. Because this isn't about losing the weight. It's about learning the tools and habits that you'll need to sustain the weight loss. "Diets" don't work. 95% of people who "diet" to lose weight, will gain it back - because they do it in a way that isn't sustainable and when people feel deprived, they will eventually crack and the weight piles back on. Why put yourself through that? Be one of the 5%. Eat sensibly, stay active and strap in for a couple of years of slow, steady and sustainable weight loss. It will take a while to come off, but if you're consistent and accurate in tracking your food, it will come off.

Good luck!

PS - If you're not sure if you're tracking properly, make your diary public, and the experienced board folk can tell you where you might be going wrong.

If you’re not losing weight, then you’re not really eating less than 1000 calories. Something is off with your logging, the entries you’re choosing, or your estimations somehow.

OK, I"m a 44-year old 5'8, 135 lb female. While fairly active, I average a burn of about 2400 calories a day, based on my Fitbit. So, you must be really sedentary to have gained that amount of weight in a year on 2000-2500/day . Something is off somewhere.

There is no reason to eat so little calories. Not only are you making the chance of regain almost certain with eating so little, you actually WILL slow down your metabolism more than you need to Your body doesn't like to survive on so little calories, so will do what it can to preserve itself.

If you measure and weigh everything and are still not losing weight even eating 1000 more calories then you are now after a few week, then it may be helpful to go to your doctor and explain this to them. Then, you will have data to back this up, and may be able to investigate further then tell you "everything is fine."

Trust me, I once lost weight as a teenager on 900 calories a day. AT even that little, my weight loss slowed, so I cut it to 500. I ended up bingeing regularly, and created a cycle of restrict-binge that lasted YEARS, probably similar to what happened to the men in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment referenced above. It is not a path I would recommend to anyone.