Having trouble losing weight

[Abbisnail]

Hi, this is my first time ever posting to a forum so please be kind! About a year ago, I lost around 50 pounds and managed to keep it off for about a year. Then, this last Winter was really rough for me and I managed to gain almost 30 back. About two weeks ago I started back into my diet. I exercise 4-5 times a week (HIIT, Bike riding for hours, trail running, etc) and take in about 1,200 calories (no soda, snacks, etc). I track every single thing I eat to a T. Now, I have hypothyroidism so I know weight loss is going to be slow. But, it’s been over two weeks and still the scale has not moved. In fact, it’s been going up and down. Now, I know our bodies go into a shock of some sort when starting a diet and such, but I was hoping to see some sort of result by now. Even just half a pound. I’m going to hang in there and see, but is there a normal time frame in which it will start coming off? I also and having trouble knowing how many calories to eat as in if I’m eating too few or not. My BMR is 1,800 calories. So, is 1,200 too few? Any help would be appreciated, thanks! 

[WendyB]

Did you just start taking medicine for hypothyroidism?

It will take time for your body to get use to it.

Just hang in there and keep going. It will come off

[Whyshoshoni]

Hi Abbisnail, wow, we have many similarities.  I too lost weight, about 30 lbs for almost a year, and then gained back 10 lbs over several months.  I also have been hypothyroid for 20 years.

I was still eating *somewhat* healthy, rather than pretty healthy.  And my exercise and activity had decreased to a moderate walk a couple times a week, rather than 6-7 times fairly vigorous exercise.  So I restarted food and activity early Feb, but didn’t see scale move till first week of March.  Since then it’s been a steady 1.5 lb about every week.

Based only on my own past experience, I think you might be eating too few calories for your activity level.  I am burning 2300 - 2500 calories per day average, and eating 1700 - 1800.  You might try increasing food consumption a bit and see what happens.

Don’t worry, you should start seeing results soon. Good luck!

[Abbisnail]

No, I was diagnosed when I was 15 years old and got prescribed synthyroid (100mg) and I’m currently 21 years old. I’ve been on it quite a while but it still proves to be quite a challenge in weight loss, haha. Thank you so much for your response! I’ll definitely hang in there.

[Abbisnail]

Oh man, sorry to hear that! But, I can tell you’ll definitely get it off soon! You’re doing great from what you’ve told me! 😊

That’s what I was wondering too. Although, I don’t exercise daily but I do every other day and burn close to 500 calories per workout. Unless I’m cycling, then it’s almost 1,000 calories! I was keeping my caloric intake lower due to not exercising as vigorously, but my doctor perscribed me phentermine on top of it, so maybe I am eating too few of calories with this added to the equation.ita definitely scary to increase, but I was thinking of increasing to 1,500! 

Thank you you so much for your response! It really helped not just for information but also seeing I’m not alone! Hopefully it’ll come off over the next couple of weeks! 

[idahoerics]

I agree with the comments that you might have been eating too little. I've read that 1200 calories is in the "starvation" range, which means your body might be compensating by lowering your overall metabolic rate. I really like the usda body weight calculator linked below - you might give it a try to see what it thinks you should be eating to lose something like 1#/week. Also, in my opinion, what you eat is nearly as important as how much. If you aren't building some muscle by maintaining an appropriate amount of protein in your diet, you may defeat your efforts to lose fat. Good luck! 

https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html

[Baltoscott]

Water retention can vary a lot in your body and mask weight/fat loss.  If you weigh in daily, you will likely see significant ups and downs day to day, but it takes several weeks for a trend to reveal itself.  And women also have a monthly cycle that confuses the whole issue.  So I think two weeks is probably too short a time draw any conclusions.  

That said, even if there is no such thing as starvation mode, I think 1200 calories/day is too low for most people to maintain over the course of a diet of several months (which is what you'll have to do to lose 30 lbs).  What seems to happen is that you can hit that mark just fine during the week when you don't have any social obligations, but then you go out with friends and have a few drinks and appetizers, and other uncounted calories just happen.  By Sunday morning you honestly don't really know how much you ate so you try to compensate by eating even less for several days and it just turns into a mess.  If you really want to stay that low it is probably best to do meal plans for the week and swear off all social activities, and not eat or drink anything if it is not on your meal plan, but that's really hard. 

It might be better to just plan a more realistic amount relative to your BMR, maybe 1500-1800 during week days (add some more veggies to every meal to help crowd out higher calorie less satiating foods with added sugar), and 1800-2000 on weekends when you are probably doing more exercise anyway.

I know it seems like nothing is happening, but it will come off if you stick with your plan.