I can't lose weight-HELP

BT1988
BT1988 Posts: 48 Member
edited October 5 in Health and Weight Loss
SO here it goes. I have been struggling to lose weight for two years so far. Last year, I lost 30lbs very fast. I weight 290, I am down to 261. Since November of last year, I couldn't lose ANYTHING. I've tried increasing my calories, lowering them, doing more cardio, doing less strength, doing mores strength and less cardio. I tried eating less protein, eating more protein, less carbs and just NOTHING, NOTHING changes!

I have lost 11.5inches since August but every week since August, my weight has not changed. I usually go up and down, one week its 257, the next its 260. It drives me crazy. I don't know what to do. I feel so lost. I want to give up so bad.

I am currently on Lexapro for depression. 20mg. I heard it can inhibit weight loss. I just don't know what to do. My doctor told me to eat 2000, trainers say to do 1600-1800. I am so lost.....

Monday and Tuesday I do strength routines where I do about an hour of cardio I do 40mins on the treadmill (to finish 5k) and then 30 mins on the elliptical. It takes me a half an hour to do my strength routine. Wednesday I do only an hour of strength. I list 10lbs right now and it feels just right. Not too easy and not too hard. thursday and friday I do the same as Monday and Tuesday. Friday and Saturday I do a 30min run.

I do not feel I am overtraining. I only run at 5.0. One day out of the week (wednesday) I like to do a 20 min HIIT on the treadmill, then for the rest of the 40mins I jog very lightly and walk.

Should I push myself more? I don't know what to do. Is my diet bad? A lot of trainers at the gym said my diet is fine. I just don't understand.

=( please help!

Replies

  • Elisirmon
    Elisirmon Posts: 273 Member
    Wat types of food are you eating? Drinking enough water? I think you might be over training and not eating enough fiber/veggies plus remember you might be staying at the current weight due to muscle gain which you should be measuring body mass instead for a more accurate weight lose.
    Your medications is unavoidable but ask your doctor if there is a different kind of medicine that is better for weight lost that will have the same effect.
  • mizjohnston
    mizjohnston Posts: 196 Member
    From what I understand sometimes Lexapro can make you lose quickly. Are you on birth control? I was for a really long time and for 3 years my weight would not lower. I would exercise and nothing. If I didn't exercise I would gain. This July I stopped the birth control, changed nothing and I lost 11 pounds in one month. Could be your hormones?
  • bellawares
    bellawares Posts: 558 Member
    Wat types of food are you eating? Drinking enough water? I think you might be over training and not eating enough fiber/veggies plus remember you might be staying at the current weight due to muscle gain which you should be measuring body mass instead for a more accurate weight lose.
    Your medications is unavoidable but ask your doctor if there is a different kind of medicine that is better for weight lost that will have the same effect.

    Ditto. If you do not own a HRM I would suggest investing in one. This will help you with the over training / under training part.
  • marshars1
    marshars1 Posts: 56 Member
    hmm have u checked with gp about possibilities of pcos ? ny symptoms u have or thyroid?
  • BT1988
    BT1988 Posts: 48 Member
    Everyday I eat the same thing. Weekends I change my dinners ( i make healthier versions of things I crave like pizza and measure everything).

    Breakfast I have an egg, an eggwhite mixed with 2 cups of spinach. I also have either a half cup of oatmeal or a cup cooked in 1 cup of light soy.

    Midmorning snack I have a small yogurt with a kiwi.

    For Lunch, its a turkey sandwich, low sodium on multigrain, with onions, green peppers and red peppers as my toppings and more red peppers.

    Afternoon snack I have a serving size of almonds, about 10 pieces with a cut up cucumber in lemon.

    Dinner I have a 3oz chicken breast grilled, no skin and no fat, with tons of veggies of my choice (broc, green peas, green beans) with a half cup of apple sauce


    No birth control. Not sure if my hormones are out of wack. I made an appointment with a metabolism doctor for Jan. Their only available time. =( I feel so frustrated.
  • spottedlee
    spottedlee Posts: 372
    Your medications is unavoidable but ask your doctor if there is a different kind of medicine that is better for weight lost that will have the same effect.
    I have to agree here.. ask your doctor,, I did my homework by looking various med for bi-polar disorder. I picked the one I am taking because it does not tend to cause us to gain weight and my doc approved.
  • BT1988
    BT1988 Posts: 48 Member
    Wat types of food are you eating? Drinking enough water? I think you might be over training and not eating enough fiber/veggies plus remember you might be staying at the current weight due to muscle gain which you should be measuring body mass instead for a more accurate weight lose.
    Your medications is unavoidable but ask your doctor if there is a different kind of medicine that is better for weight lost that will have the same effect.

    Ditto. If you do not own a HRM I would suggest investing in one. This will help you with the over training / under training part.

    Have one. My target is between 140-170
  • BT1988
    BT1988 Posts: 48 Member
    My gp checked m thyroid and said its fine but I just don't know and that was 5months ago. I have never been checked for pcos. I always ask my doctor to test me for it but she always said it wasn't necessary cause I do not show any symptoms. =/
  • reneelee
    reneelee Posts: 877 Member
    Keep doing everything you are doing. It is working you are lossing inches, which means you are getting stronger and the weigh loss will show up on the scale. I would be worried if I wasn't lossing inches that is what people see they don't see the scale, only you have too.
  • geekymom57
    geekymom57 Posts: 176 Member
    Have you seen a registered dietitian through your health care provider? Trainers are trainers, not necessarily experts on nutrition. Frankly, the trainers at the gym I go to a essentially useless unless you are interested in working out with free weights. They run you through a program provided by the franchise and decide that becuase you are X you can realistically be X minus something. Nutrition, realistic weight loss goals, etc., are not in the picture.

    How certain are you of the calories you are burning when you exercise? Are you weighing/listing every single thing that goes in your mouth? It is so easy to forget to record a mini-candy bar eaten on the go, or a half can of soda, etc.

    And for what it's worth, I have often gone 2 months without a recorded weight loss. My clothes fit different (better), I can tell I'm losing "something" but the scale stays stuck.
  • bellawares
    bellawares Posts: 558 Member
    I know you just posted what you eat on the forum but you need to log it DAILY and log it accurately in your personal log. The daily log on MFP is a fantastic tool of you are willing to take the time to enter everything including your exercise and water consumption. This is the only why you will know if what you are eating, how much you are eating, carbs, protein, SODIUM etc is effecting / not effecting your plateau.
  • dlaplume2
    dlaplume2 Posts: 1,658 Member
    I went and looked at your food journal and it's not bad.
    I don't know what you have for setting, but I would go and make sure you have them all set correctly. The other thing I would do is make sure you are tracking every calorie that passes your lips. Include juices, coffee cream and sugars, etc. The other thing you should check is make sure you are burning the calories you are tracking. You have yourself burning 1000 calories on average. With all that calorie burn you need to make sure you are eating enough. You are netting below 1200 calories on most days. Make sure you are getting enough.

    One other thing is you say you have lost 11 inches since Aug. That is amazing progress. Don't worry too much if all your settings are correct and the scale doesn't budge. You are still losing inches.

    Best wishes.
  • BT1988
    BT1988 Posts: 48 Member
    Have you seen a registered dietitian through your health care provider? Trainers are trainers, not necessarily experts on nutrition. Frankly, the trainers at the gym I go to a essentially useless unless you are interested in working out with free weights. They run you through a program provided by the franchise and decide that becuase you are X you can realistically be X minus something. Nutrition, realistic weight loss goals, etc., are not in the picture.

    How certain are you of the calories you are burning when you exercise? Are you weighing/listing every single thing that goes in your mouth? It is so easy to forget to record a mini-candy bar eaten on the go, or a half can of soda, etc.

    And for what it's worth, I have often gone 2 months without a recorded weight loss. My clothes fit different (better), I can tell I'm losing "something" but the scale stays stuck.

    unfortunately, my insurance doesn't cover anything with nutrition or diets for weight loss. blast! I have a scale that measures all my food into calories. I don't have any wild recipes, everything's simple so I am pretty sure everything is accurate. I follow what my HRM tells me that I am burning. not sure if the ones on the database here are correct...they seem so high! I always record when I do a little cheating by having a bagel at work. Sometimes, even an hour after my snack, I get really hungry so I eat a multigrain bagel with butter. but that's just on rare occasion. On weekends, I cheat a little and record it in my notebook but I have never gone over 1900 calories.

    my clothes are fitting better and I see a difference but damn that scale. Maybe I eat too much protein...I don't feel so sore after my workouts.
  • BT1988
    BT1988 Posts: 48 Member
    I know you just posted what you eat on the forum but you need to log it DAILY and log it accurately in your personal log. The daily log on MFP is a fantastic tool of you are willing to take the time to enter everything including your exercise and water consumption. This is the only why you will know if what you are eating, how much you are eating, carbs, protein, SODIUM etc is effecting / not effecting your plateau.

    I have a notebook that I write in everything and i sometimes just forget to log them on here lol. but it always say I am over my protein so I don't know how to lower that....protein helps me stay full. carbs i process too quickly. guess I need more of it, in vegetables
  • lookfierce
    lookfierce Posts: 18
    Have you tried a ketogenic diet? you mentioned lowering carbs, but to what extent? forcing your body into ketosis (20grams or less carbs a day, every day) is an easy/healthy way to quickly lose lots of fat.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/keto (check the side links inc. faq too)
    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=132598293
    http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JtCZBe-2XVIC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA94&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
  • BT1988
    BT1988 Posts: 48 Member
    I went and looked at your food journal and it's not bad.
    I don't know what you have for setting, but I would go and make sure you have them all set correctly. The other thing I would do is make sure you are tracking every calorie that passes your lips. Include juices, coffee cream and sugars, etc. The other thing you should check is make sure you are burning the calories you are tracking. You have yourself burning 1000 calories on average. With all that calorie burn you need to make sure you are eating enough. You are netting below 1200 calories on most days. Make sure you are getting enough.

    One other thing is you say you have lost 11 inches since Aug. That is amazing progress. Don't worry too much if all your settings are correct and the scale doesn't budge. You are still losing inches.

    Best wishes.

    Can you explain net calories? My setting is to eat at least 1600-1800 a day and to lose 2lbs a week I am suppose to lose 1000 calories a day. How do you know if my net calories is too low? Not sure if I understand net calories. =/
  • missjoci
    missjoci Posts: 412 Member
    I have quite a few friends that have struggled to lose weight on certain medications. There may be a better alternative that would allow you to lose the weight better. I would ask your doctor about that. Also if you aren't seeing results I would consider speaking to a nutritionist and a personal trainer.

    For me personally, I plateau constantly because I'm on a workout schedule, the only way to fix that is to make your workout harder or change the routine. Your body likes to be surprised, which means mixing up the workouts on a weekly basis, maybe try a new group fitness class each week and work with different muscle groups. I would also try machines you've never used or instead of doing all of your cardio on one machine, switch machines every 10-15 minutes. To really get your body in fat burning mode I think running or jogging at a higher level (not necessarily faster) with more resistance will push you into the fat burning zone. Interval training is a really good one as well, most elipticals machines have it. Pump the resistance up as much as you can on any machine and try to increase it each week. It will make your body work harder.

    Hope this helps a bit! Feel free to add me if you need some encouragement. :)
  • Play_outside
    Play_outside Posts: 528 Member
    I think since you have lost 11 inches there isn't anything to worry about. We all lose weight in different ways. Since you are losing inches, I think it is safe to say you are doing the right things. The scale will eventually change to reflect that as well. Last week I gained 5lbs but lost an inch off my abdomen and a bit elsewhere.
  • geekymom57
    geekymom57 Posts: 176 Member
    I have a notebook that I write in everything and i sometimes just forget to log them on here lol. but it always say I am over my protein so I don't know how to lower that....protein helps me stay full. carbs i process too quickly. guess I need more of it, in vegetables
    For most of us, being over in protein is not a bad thing. My dietitian thought the MFP protein goals were too low, esp. with my calorie intake, so she prefers that I get about 50 vs. 45 grams of protein daily. Most days I don't, but I try for it. You will generally feel more full and feel full longer if you have more protein.
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