Can't loose weight. Been at it for more than 2 years

[NTripleA]

Now, I know that Fitbit is not 100% accurate, but I always stay on a 500+ calorie deficit. I keep track of my calorie intake elsewhere but I do use Fitbit as a tracker for the calories I burned. The thing is that it's been more than 2 years since I started my "weight loss" goal. I started at 158 and for the beginning, I gained some muscle weight, which was understandable because I lift weights (though not very heavy). But at one point I just started gaining weight like crazy. It is stupidly impossible to lose that weight. After this happened, I started doing more cardio during workouts. Gained weight. Started dividing food into smaller portions throughout the whole day, as one doctor recommended. Gained weight. Eliminated rice altogether from my diet (as a Puerto Rican, this is very hard for me, lol) and also started to either eat meat with salad or veggies. Increased protein intake. Gained weight. Keep in mind that all this time I've been tracking my fat % and it has either stayed the same or gone up. And when I got my Fitbit a little less than a year ago, I started tracking my calorie deficit even more and that has never worked for me. I'm out of ideas and I am getting desperate as to what to do now. Should I increase my calorie deficit or something?

[Dominique]

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@NTripleAwrote:

I started at 158 and for the beginning, I gained some muscle weight, which was understandable because I lift weights (though not very heavy).

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It’s very unlikely you’d gain any detectable amount of muscle in a short period of time just like that, especially from lifting "not very heavy" weights.

So if you started at 158 two years ago, what is your current weight (+ how tall/old are you) and what is your weight goal? What is your average step count and how many calories does your Fitbit say you burn in average?

[NTripleA]

Thanks for replying. 

I didn't mean immediately of course. I increase the amount I lift from time to time. But I still don't consider what I lift anywhere near "power lifting".

My current weight is an alarming 175 (almost 20 lbs over!). My weight goal was to be around 150 lbs at least. Never been able to go lower than that. My current fat % is like 22. My height is 5'6" and I am 23 years old. My average step is 6,300 which I know is not much but I think is good considering my job is a desk job (programming). I never stay in my chair for more than two straight hours. I either stand or take a walk. This is not counting I walk to my job and to the gym. I burn an average of 2500 calories while my intake is an average of 1800. 

[Daves_Not_Here]

@NTripleA -- sounds extremely frustrating -- many here report similar struggles.

Sounds like you have been making minor to moderate tweaks to your routine -- it could be time to try something more radical and disruptive - maybe try Intermittent Fasting for a couple of months?

Here's a talk by Jason Fung

[NTripleA]

@Daves_Not_Here you are right about that. 

I'll take a look at that talk. But I'm on the fence on intermittent fasting. I know it works for a lot of people but I always stay on the fence when looking at methods as radical as these. I'll take a good look at the pros and cons. Thanks for the reply 🙂

[Daves_Not_Here]

@NTripleA - Cool!

My opinion is that if moderation has led to the a 2 year stall, then maybe it's time to risk getting off the fence?  What do you have to lose (beside the weight)?  I stalled for years until I got radical.  I'd much rather lose the weight than avoid radicalism.

I have to tease you:  often I read posts to the effect of "I'm hopelessly stalled for years and I've tried everything.  Except maybe for all the uncomfortable stuff I haven't tried."

Good luck!

[NTripleA]

@Daves_Not_Here That's a valid tease right there. Never thought of it that way. I have always thought of trying conventional ways of losing weight. From my perspective, they were extreme since I never needed them to loose weight. 

10 years ago, when I was still a kid, I used to be very fat. I was around 220 lbs! Then I started doing exercise (martial arts) and stopped eating junk food. Which led me to be at 158 lbs. Which I maintained until 2 years ago. So I thought that adding weights, doing more exercise, eating less and all the things mentioned would have definitely worked. But they didn't work! I've almost hit a depressing point with this reverse progress. But you may be right that it is time to do something radical. 

Just to add more info. I don't have any blood sugar problems. I'm not diabetic either nor do I have thyroid issues (I tested them a few months ago). 

[Daves_Not_Here]

@NTripleA -- glad you understand the spirit that I'm trying to convey.

My situation was more dire than yours -- I had been working out 5 days a week, eating "healthy", yet I was gaining weight and pre-diabetic.  I realized I needed to stop with the half-measures.  Once, I adopted a more aggressive attitude, the weight came off pretty quickly; however, I was far more overweight than you. 

Now that I'm within 20 pounds of my target, things have slowed down, and I'll need to follow my own advice to lose more.  Right now, I'm trying to ingrain the habits for lifelong maintenance - in a month or two, I'll make a push to get down to my target -- for now, I'm enjoying how I feel and trying to get as many ski days as I can.

By the way, one common theme you'll see repeated here is how people try to break a stall by adding exercise and get frustrated when it doesn't work.  While everybody is different, I believe that your eating has more of an impact (but I'm in the minority here on his forum).

[Dominique]

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@NTripleAwrote:

My current weight is an alarming 175 (almost 20 lbs over!). My weight goal was to be around 150 lbs at least. Never been able to go lower than that. My current fat % is like 22. My height is 5'6" and I am 23 years old. My average step is 6,300 which I know is not much but I think is good considering my job is a desk job (programming). I never stay in my chair for more than two straight hours. I either stand or take a walk. This is not counting I walk to my job and to the gym. I burn an average of 2500 calories while my intake is an average of 1800. 

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I ran your numbers through this online calculator. Based on your step count, I estimated your activity level as "light". That gives a TDEE of 2139, almost 400 less than what your Fitbit estimates. Still, if your intake really was 1800, you should have been losing weight, albeit at a rather slow pace. If you haven’t, it means you’re underestimating your intake (not uncommon at all), or are expending even less energy than you think you are, or a combination of both.

I agree with @Daves_Not_Here that your intake is by far the most important factor for weight loss. That doesn’t mean your activity level doesn’t play a role, and you shouldn’t pay attention to it: you definitely should, after all, this is why most of us got a Fitbit in the first place, to make us more active. Increasing your activity level isn’t just doing formal workouts (go to the gym, for a 30-minute jog etc.), it’s about what you choose to do during the entire time of the day you’re awake. You have a desk job, so do I: I spend most of my working day in front of a computer, like so many of us nowadays. If you spend 7 hours sleeping, 9 hours working and 1 hour doing formal exercise, that still leaves 7 hours you can allocate with some flexibility: do you spend two hours watching TV or Netflix when back from work, or do you go out for a walk? do you read printed book sitting, or do you switch to audio books you can read while on the move? How about week-ends? For those of us office workers it should be the opportunity to try to offset as much of the sitting we have to endure during weekdays as possible.

This is my total step count since I got my first Fitbit:

I joined five years ago:

That’s 17.8k steps per day in average, which shows it’s definitely possible to be decently active even if you have a desk job.

[NTripleA]

@Daves_Not_Here I'm glad you didn't give up in your situation. That's enough motivation for anyone to never give up as well!

@Dominique To defend myself a little, I know I should probably get out more during the weekends, but I honestly don't know how you could amount to 17k steps a day. Whenever I do more than 7k I feel proud of myself. Your motivation is definitely something worthy to admire.

Also, I'm pretty sure I don't underestimate my intake. I tend to overestimate it to avoid that same thing. I never eat fast food nor any type of junk food. I always cook my own food and avoid unnecessary ingredients. I know your intake plays a very important role on weight loss. So that's one of the reasons I'm so frustrated. Because I know that I eat healthy and I know that I don't overeat. But nevertheless, I know that whatever is happening IS my fault. I'll just have to sit down and analyze what I've done according to what you guys told me and figure out my best course of action

[Mukluk4]

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@NTripleAwrote:

@Dominique To defend myself a little, I know I should probably get out more during the weekends, but I honestly don't know how you could amount to 17k steps a day. Whenever I do more than 7k I feel proud of myself. Your motivation is definitely something worthy to admire.

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Your desk job is 8-10 hours a day (depending on commute), sleep is another 7-8.  That leaves 6-9 hours every single day.  I'd suggest breaking down what you are doing during those hours and change it.  There is plenty of time in there for you to break 10k every single day.  Creating a bigger deficit will help you in flexing your diet and you won't have to go to some of the extremes you see on here.

[Lollia]

Can you describe what a typical day looks like for you? Typical meals? 

When you eat, do you weight your food or guesstimate? I find that when I weigh my food, I am often SHOCKED at how often the portion sizes I would have guessed at were wildly inaccurate.

[NTripleA]

@Lollia I hear you. I used to underestimate my food measurements as well. But I typically weigh them now unless, you know, it's not needed. Right now I don't have a scale because it broke when I moved recently. But I'm using the same amounts I use normally (which I also measure). So if I'm off, it can't be really bad. 

And typical day would be: breakfast (almost always eggs with one slice of whole wheat bread, cheese and ham)

• daily 20 minute walking commute
• 9 hours at desk job. I usually take 10 minute breaks every two hours since I don't have a standing desk.
• Lunch is either veggies or salad (no croutons, no cheese, no dressing) with meat as protein.
• Commute back.
• Go to gym for 1 hour and half. 
• Dinner is either a tuna salad or some whole grain cereal with protein.

The rest is just random stuff I do until I fall asleep. As for drinks, I only drink water. Nothing else. 

[Lollia]

That seems pretty good to me! What's your typical calorie deficit?

[NTripleA]

@Lollia I try to keep it at 500 minimum on days I exercise (5 or 6, depends on how busy the week is). While I keep it at a minimum of 300-400 on days that I don't 

[Lollia]

Hmmm. If you're not losing on that, I would try a slightly higher deficit or talking to your doctor. 

[Daves_Not_Here]

@NTripleA - another thought occurred to me -- in addition to watching your calorie balance, you may wish to experiment with changing your macro-nutrient ratios.  It seems some people respond to reducing carbs, while others respond to reducing fat or protein.

My sense is that these ratios can be powerful levers in terms of modulating appetite and satiety, metabolism, energy-level, mood, fat-storage, muscle preservation, etc., but the more I dig into it, the less confident I am in my knowledge.  And then you throw in exercise and the feed timing question and I'm completely confused!

Anyway, suggesting you try various approaches for a month each until you find that one that seems to work best for you.

[NTripleA]

@Daves_Not_Here yes, I will do this. Seems reasonable enough. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

On another note, I seem to have posted this multiple times. I don't know if this community has moderators or something but I can't delete those extra topics. The thing is that I tried creating those topics but they never showed up. Until I created this one which showed up immediately. But now there's three. I apologize for that

[Daves_Not_Here]

@NTripleA - as to the duplicate posts, while I don't think you can delete them, I think you can edit them to replace the Subject line and body text. 

So, the next time you get a brilliant idea for a topic, you can pull up one of your duplicates and replace the text.  I don't know what happens to the old responses -- probably confuses the heck out of people and makes the original responders look completely obtuse.  Kind of a practical joke you play on the Community, which is a bonus.