Not loosing weight,starving 1500cals
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I’m a 50 yr old man with a similar issue. I’ve lost 100 lbs over the last 18 months but stuck at the 185 - 190 lb range. I was turned onto “reverse dieting”. It’s essentially slowly increasing your caloric intake over time. I went from 1400 calories/day to 2400 calories/day over a few months and actually lost a few lbs. it was nice eating more without gaining weight. The next phase was to cut calories for a period of time to promote weight loss. I track every morsel and workout just about everyday of the week. I know how frustrating it can be2
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See your doctor as it might be a medical issue (like your hormones are really doing a number on you this month)...but if it is not a medical issue then finding a balance is key. Maybe you are restricting your calories too much so your body is really holding onto what you do eat and eating a bit more might help...maybe you need to kick your exercise up a notch in intensity. Losing weight isn't a linear event, it happens in spurts.0
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I get 1700 calories per week for a 1/2 pound loss. This is a marginal area where poor logging, poor weighing, poor data base choices, water and waste accumulation will skew the weigh-in all to hell. So you have to count rigorously and give it 8 weeks. And, human nature being what it is, the hungrier you are the more inaccurate your diary will be. Just saying. And, switch to 1700 calories but count every cough drop and milk in your tea. At least till is starts to work for you.2
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wilson10102018 wrote: »I get 1700 calories per week for a 1/2 pound loss. This is a marginal area where poor logging, poor weighing, poor data base choices, water and waste accumulation will skew the weigh-in all to hell. So you have to count rigorously and give it 8 weeks. And, human nature being what it is, the hungrier you are the more inaccurate your diary will be. Just saying. And, switch to 1700 calories but count every cough drop and milk in your tea. At least till is starts to work for you.
This would be my vote for post of the day. You have a fine line between maintenance and losing and you may be on the wrong side, just barely.4 -
I would really suggest reading this back to yourself and imagine what you would advise a friend, child, sibling with the same issue.. If you're hungry all the time you're probably not giving your body enough food. I do 10-14k steps a day on a work day, lifting and shifting heavy things around. I'm heavier then you and shorter so it won't exactly match but my Fitbit normally gives me 500-1000 extra calories for that level of activity, I don't necessarily eat that much but if I don't have a more food to account for that I would be starving. Sending compassion, I hope you have someone you can talk to - uou don't have to live life going hungry and bring miserable when you have access to food.1
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Hi, OP. You have received really good advice. One more question: when you say you lost initially but it’s “been weeks and weeks” at the same weight, how many weeks exactly?
It’s not uncommon to see no significant scale movement (just ups and downs around the same weight) for 3 weeks or so then *whoosh* 3 weeks worth of loss in a day or two. For many people, loss is not steady or even; instead it comes in lumps even with magnificently steady effort. This explains the “whoosh” phenomenon: https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat
Good luck!
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I'd say go up to 1750 calories a day, and give yourself a break. you're overexercising, so that will be causing your muscles to retain water... You need to slow down and just chill. Good things take time.
Also my personal bid for not being hungry is high fat low carb. I now find carbs virtually MAKE me hungry: I swear. I eat them and in 2 hrs I am starving. But if I have a big meal of bacon, eggs, avocado, tomato, salad, cucumber... and a pudding of berries and yoghurt? I am not hungry till the next day.
And I'm on 1200 calories a day. Sometimes I have 800. I eat enough to not be hungry, and with high fat low carb that's way less than any other diet I've been on.
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I'd say go up to 1750 calories a day, and give yourself a break. you're overexercising, so that will be causing your muscles to retain water... You need to slow down and just chill. Good things take time.
Also my personal bid for not being hungry is high fat low carb. I now find carbs virtually MAKE me hungry: I swear. I eat them and in 2 hrs I am starving. But if I have a big meal of bacon, eggs, avocado, tomato, salad, cucumber... and a pudding of berries and yoghurt? I am not hungry till the next day.
And I'm on 1200 calories a day. Sometimes I have 800. I eat enough to not be hungry, and with high fat low carb that's way less than any other diet I've been on.
I have done low carb before, I actually lost a stone and half over a year ago doing keto. But when I cut out carbs, or even cut down to under 100g a day, I get really really bad insomnia to the point where even sleeping pills don't get me to sleep. It's absolutely un bearable.4 -
How you lose the weight is how you have to maintain the weight. So? If your are miserable and fighting to keep this up.. it is not working. I can't tell you what to do.. maybe you should eat more and exercise... some people lose slow but sure by eating at a very small deficit..but they are not miserable. ... but try something new.. this is no way to live.5
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How much are you drinking? I find that drinking all day long has meant I’m never hungry. Also I have soup with most meals - as little as 77 calories in a tin and then plenty of calories left for my main.
Maybe eating foods with more content will help you not to feel hungry. I also chew sugar free gum which helps me not to feel hungry.
Last little trick - sugar free jelly.0 -
Hi, OP. You have received really good advice. One more question: when you say you lost initially but it’s “been weeks and weeks” at the same weight, how many weeks exactly?
It’s not uncommon to see no significant scale movement (just ups and downs around the same weight) for 3 weeks or so then *whoosh* 3 weeks worth of loss in a day or two. For many people, loss is not steady or even; instead it comes in lumps even with magnificently steady effort. This explains the “whoosh” phenomenon: https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat
Good luck!
Along these lines, sometimes women with so little to lose only see weight loss once per month.
I weigh daily and use the iphone weight tracking app Happy Scale. That's how I learned I retain water when I ovulate as well as premenstrually, and that, rather than looking at daily or weekly numbers, it is important to compare myself to the same point in last month's cycle.3 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Hi, OP. You have received really good advice. One more question: when you say you lost initially but it’s “been weeks and weeks” at the same weight, how many weeks exactly?
It’s not uncommon to see no significant scale movement (just ups and downs around the same weight) for 3 weeks or so then *whoosh* 3 weeks worth of loss in a day or two. For many people, loss is not steady or even; instead it comes in lumps even with magnificently steady effort. This explains the “whoosh” phenomenon: https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat
Good luck!
Along these lines, sometimes women with so little to lose only see weight loss once per month.
I weigh daily and use the iphone weight tracking app Happy Scale. That's how I learned I retain water when I ovulate as well as premenstrually, and that, rather than looking at daily or weekly numbers, it is important to compare myself to the same point in last month's cycle.
It's been 5 or 6 weeks xxz
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Hi Lauren! I’m excited to find your post, because we are basically MFP twins — I’m also 35, 5’7” and 159 pounds! I restarted my journey about 3 weeks ago, and I have not seen the scale move yet either and have been feeling discouraged. I gained about 20 pounds (1.5 st) over the past 2 years and I’m starting to realize it’s going to take at least a year to shed this weight in a healthy way. I don’t have much advice that hasn’t already been said, but if you want to add me as a friend we can try to keep each other motivated!
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I want to be encouraging, and I think these posts really are, reading most of them before responding. I think you are trying to really see progress but are dealing with doctor recommendations on increasing or changing up exercise. I know from a close family member who shared her experiences, it can get in your head about having to measure food, see progress, and see it right away-- it can start to weigh on your heart and become almost an eating disorder mentality (not saying this is you but just hearing it from a close family member, once she sought professional help for her small weight loss she could not see happening). Maybe your current physician can refer you, as they are checking on your other condition mentioned, to see a licensed nutritionist. They will order bloodwork and put you on one of those Body Mass Index Scales that measures ( as you are resting, then as you lightly walk) how many calories you burn at a resting pace and moderately active pace. Then, you can know, truly and without a guess, what is going on specifically for your body. I did this just before Covid kicked off, in Jan 2020 ( a full nutritionist workup), and although the calorie recommendations were WAY low for what they told me to eat to lose a few lbs, I still thought the overall bloodwork and metabolism checks and balances were eye-opening. I now have to put all that into practice, with the tools they gave me then, and it is why I joined MFP less than a month ago. You CAN do this! I bet you will find out you can eat more than you thought to lose weight, and your body may not "like" these lower calorie levels and may be in storage mode (or something similar), fighting any weight loss because of the signals it sends to say "this is very little food, maybe a famine is coming"...this is what I learned, that eating too few calories is also bad for a healthy weight loss program. Rock on!!! And, I promise I am not trying to sound like I know everything, just encouraging you!!0
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laurenphillips198686 wrote: »It's been 5 or 6 weeks xxz
Maybe I'm missing it, but your response to @kshama2001 does not seem to imply that you're ready to take it a bit easier on yourself and adopt a more long term view.
It may have been 5 or 6 weeks (are you using a weight trend app by the way?) but you've also totally changed your exercise (unless I've confused you with someone else I believe you've been increasing activity and not eating back any calories in an attempt to break the stalemate).... And @kshama2001 does not say compare your weight to 6 weeks ago. She is suggesting that you compare similar timeframes during your monthly cycle. Of which in 5 to 6 weeks you would only have a single sample set which is probably affected by your changes in exercise.
I found MFP 7+ years ago because I was ready to give up on weight loss. Why? Because I was trying to create unsustainable deficits. And eat / live in an unsustainable way.
And it wouldn't have been the first time I would have done that. Go all out till something breaks. Quit (or promise myself I will re-engage tomorrow). A few months later regain all the weight and more. Rince, lather, repeat.
Reasonable sustainability worked... unsustainable max speed never did. That's my personal discovery even though it doesn't look like rocket science when spelled out in pixels.
Can you tweak foods? Of course you can. People log and review their logs and see what seems to be more satiating for the calories and what isn't and slowly modify what they eat towards satiety (and any other nutritional or health goals they may have). Many people find whole foods with more protein and fiber and a healthy amount of fat to be more satiating than alternatives. 5 to 10x 85g portions of veggies and fruits don't seem to cause too many 'health authorities' too many conniptions--and hey they take up space!
Let's face it: you can't lose weight without consuming less than maintenance calories. But you also can't under-eat to an infinite degree without consequences.
Finesse, not sledgehammer.
Back off the deficit to where you can reach sustainability. If you are eating and exercising and moving in a sustainable way... why would it matter how long it will take? It currently matters to you, a LOT, because you're NOT acting in a sustainable manner-yet.6 -
I am stuck as well. I have added a protein shake to my routine and it does help the hunger, but my weight is still stuck. I'm listening to your advice if you don't mind. 3
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Yeah, my metabolism is crap. For this week I'm trying something new. I'm shooting for a 2K calorie daily deficit. I'm trying to force my body to start using fat for energy. I tried a 1K calorie daily deficit but my body basically laughed back at me and told me to piss off, "I'm keeping this fat no matter what". I've been biking 7 - 10 miles per day and doing a 2 mile walk. No weight change at all. Considering a Ginsu and a lot of bandages.0
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Yeah, my metabolism is crap. For this week I'm trying something new. I'm shooting for a 2K calorie daily deficit. I'm trying to force my body to start using fat for energy. I tried a 1K calorie daily deficit but my body basically laughed back at me and told me to piss off, "I'm keeping this fat no matter what". I've been biking 7 - 10 miles per day and doing a 2 mile walk. No weight change at all. Considering a Ginsu and a lot of bandages.
A 2k deficit? How many calories does that give you per day? Seriously, the answer to all questions here is
a) patience! Especially in menstruating women it can take at least 5 weeks to see weightloss and changes in water weight can mask fat loss. Plus new exercise, as you did will do the same to help your muscles to heal.
b) thorough weighing of everything that has calories, including fluids, condiments, oils. Preferably with a food scale in grams and not with cups and spoons or estimates.
There are no shot metabolism. It there were there were a lot of dead people. What you're telling me is that you eat food in a deficit, and instead of keeping itself alive your body decides to not use the fat as energy but instead chooses to get sick. That's really not how it works. And certainly not with a 2k deficit, if really true.11 -
Have you looked into intermediate fasting? I am also 5'7 and I was 163 when I got covid in October last year and the doctor told me my BMI was too high and I was overweight. I run at least 10 miles a week, have been vegetarian for 10 years and am in good shape so it was news to me that I was overweight. As of yesterday I am 139.8 pounds. I fast between 8pm-12pm so I basically just skip breakfast and I eat 1300 calories a day. Two days a week I eat whatever I want and don't track calories. It was hard adjusting at first but now I'm not even hungry outside of my eating window. Might be worth a try!1
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Have you looked into intermediate fasting? I am also 5'7 and I was 163 when I got covid in October last year and the doctor told me my BMI was too high and I was overweight. I run at least 10 miles a week, have been vegetarian for 10 years and am in good shape so it was news to me that I was overweight. As of yesterday I am 139.8 pounds. I fast between 8pm-12pm so I basically just skip breakfast and I eat 1300 calories a day. Two days a week I eat whatever I want and don't track calories. It was hard adjusting at first but now I'm not even hungry outside of my eating window. Might be worth a try!
Yep I do this already. I've also started zumba and the gym, and still no loss this week. I track my food to an absolute T aswell. I've really had enough, I can't take anymore1
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