My body refuses!

[Notlosingweight]

I've been dieting/exercising since January 25th-ish.
My Fitbit, it's been my inspiration and the thing I check 100 times a day (probably!) I've only gained weight. 4-5lbs. So what am I doing wrong. My body refuses all help.

[JohnRi]

Can you give us more information?  Let's start of with the basics.  Your height, age, and weight.  What is your goal?  How many calories do you typically eat in a day.  What types of exercise do you do? How often?  How long do you exercise?

First of all there are no diets.  To successfully lose weight, one must change your diet forever.  There is no going back to your old diet.  So if you trying various fad diets, that's probably your problem 

How many calories does your fitbit tell you are burning most days?

[USAF-Larry]

You don't mention what you are doing for dieting or exercising, so it is hard to tell what is going wrong.  Are you logging what you are eating, so that you know exactly how many calories you are consuming a day? There may be a lot more calories than you think in the food you are eating.  Are you exercising sufficiently to get your heart rate up into the cardio range? How many Active minutes are you getting per day?

[Bobbinyc · Accepted solution]

I've gained weight after a medical problem and was totally sedentary for a long time.  Now that I am mobile, and eating well, logging food, etc, I have not lost one pound.  It's possible there is something else medical going on.  If you are truly vigilant and not losing after a month or two, maybe a good physical is in order.  Could be hormonal/thyroid issues, several other possibilities.

I am curious though - how many active minutes do you guys get?  how much is real cardio?  what other workouts? (strength?)  

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

Are you at a healthy weight / body fat range?

Are you eating mostly out of habit or cause your body tells it's hungry? (feeling needing to force feed instead in the moment and eating on time vs your precious body telling it needs nourishment or still is feeling fine.. not needing anything currently..

Did you lost body fat and increased muscle mass?

Do you eat healthier foods overall? When eating high calorie preprocessed foods instead of natural foods.. even when not hungry its made to want more from due added sugars, since it's taste so good.. while not really needing..

Natural foods (fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat, fish..) without any label provide the body with all nutritients it needs (on lower calories overall) though feeling satisfied for longer. Your precious body likely not being hungry for more foods, due having everything it needs in the moment..

Are you eating until comfortably satisfied, or feeling stuffed afterwards? If feeling stuffed, may be eating out of habit instead of actual hunger.

If knowing eaten a epic meal recently until not needing more (comfortably satisfied), and wanting a snack directly afterwards, could be out of habit..

Foods can contain up to 20% more calories legally (or less) than mentioned on the package.. if estimating food intake, could have eaten more already instead..

In addition with logging foods, possible to write down on paper what you've eated.. the portions, how you felt before & after (feeling hungry, having appetite, feeling more satisfied after, not stuffed..).. seeing grabbing for a snack after dinner.. could have eaten to little earlier, or if knowing having a larger portion could be out of boredom, loneliness, out of habit instead or just for the taste but not for actual hunger..

When seeing body fat / weight stays around the same (more important is that body fat decreases and muscle mass increases, even when at the same weight, but being leaner).. if wanting to get leaner needing to change something in exercise or food habits.. (taken a bit smaller portions) or cutting out that dessert for television cause it was eated for the taste instead of hunger..

Since mostly food choices stay about the same, if wanting to get leaner, stick with the same foods overall and able to make better smaller changes where required.

Everything's possible,

Never give up

[shipo]

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@Bobbinyc wrote:

I am curious though - how many active minutes do you guys get?  how much is real cardio?  what other workouts? (strength?)  

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Answering your questions in order:

• I typically average 150 active minutes per day
• I would say a good half to three quarters is "real cardio" (running).
• My other workouts as in strength training is pretty much limited to taking care of 11 horses three days per week; mucking out the stalls, tossing around grain bags and hay bales, and shoving those brutes around between the pastures and the barn.

[Notlosingweight]

I am 5'3 and about 20-30lbs over the "average" weight. I don't feel like I'm that much over weight. Some days i look in the mirror and feel my curves are somewhat attractive. Other days...who am I kidding, most days, I feel so completely obese and disgusting. I eat healthy, I do have cheat days. I exercise....about 30-60min 5 days a week. I try to drink lots of water. 5-8 cups a day. Possibly more. I don't sit down at my job at all. I try to keep my steps at 10-15,000 a day. Here lately I've given up. I will get checked out by a doctor within the next Couple weeks to see if a have thyroid issues. Thanks for all the helpful feedback. Appreciated.

[Notlosingweight]

Oh. I'll be 32 in 20 days!

[shipo]

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@Notlosingweight wrote:

I will get checked out by a doctor within the next Couple weeks to see if a have thyroid issues.

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How is your energy level?

[Dominique]

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@Notlosingweight wrote:
I am 5'3 and about 20-30lbs over the "average" weight. I don't feel like I'm that much over weight.

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If you live in North America, 60% of the adult population is overweight, so if you’re overweight yourself, you would be in the "average". Now if you compare yourself to the anorexic (and photoshopped) teenage models used in fashion magazines and advertising, you may well be 20-30 lbs over that "average", but that wouldn’t necessarily make you overweight.

Using BMI, the upper limit of normal weight (25) for someone your height is 141 lbs. Obese (BMI 30) starts at 170 lbs.  How do you compare do these limits?

Note that we are all anonymous in the community: all we know about each others is our handle and possibly first name.

[Dominique]

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@Notlosingweight wrote:
I eat healthy, I do have cheat days. I exercise....about 30-60min 5 days a week.

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Here is my take on "eating healthy" and "cheat days": "eating healthy" is fine, but it probably means depriving yourself from foods you like; this is why you’re having "cheat days". It’s quite possible you can eat "clean" for six days and achieve the kind of deficit that would normally lead to weight loss, then destroy all this in a single day of relentless binging. This is why I personally think "cheat days" (or even "cheat meals") are a bad idea, because they can all too easily get out of control. Instead, I prefer flexible dieting: eat 80-90% "healthy", and what you want (= the "bad" foods you love) for the remaining 10-20%, but keep it under control (eating any food you want doesn’t mean unlimited quantities of it). The description of your diet is mostly qualitative, but weight loss is a numbers game: you need to get the quantities right (plus many "healthy" foods are high in calories, think avocados, olive oil, nuts etc., so you can’t eat unlimited quantities of them either).

And weight loss is usually 80% about nutrition and only 20% about exercising, so don’t put too much trust in the exercising you’re doing. 30-60 minutes of exercising five days a week is the kind of minimum prescription for basic fitness, but it’s not enough to offset a poor diet (yes, it’s possible six days of healthy eating and one day of binging result in a caloric surplus).

[Notlosingweight]

I'm a mom. I also take care of my disabled mother and help out with my partially disabled father. I also work full time. Between softball practices for child and dance classes for child, cleaning and keeping up with the house and working. I'm beyond overwhelmed. I'm basically looking for somebody to give me sympathy and say yes, sweetie. Give up, you're not going to lose weight. I want so badly to believe I just can't do it, I'm tired of trying. I'm just tired in general. So perhaps, therapy, Doctor, and not giving myself the easy way out (giving up) is all I need to do. I've just seem to have lost all motivation these days. I know, I know, cry me a river. Thanks for all the advice. I think it is helping. Just nice to have somebody to listen/read and HEAR me. Much love.


Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

Eating isn't easy, mostly eating out of habit instead of actual hunger & when eating, listening to the body if being hungry or still having enough.. & getting the feeling when the body telling having enough or maybe want more vegetables, meat.. a egg more..

Specially when combined with eating with the family (dinner!), if truly hungry before but if eating until enough before dinner, not able to eat dinner.. instead knowing dinner is coming, taking a smaller (healthier) snack instead.. if eated more before dinner.. possible to skip dinner (if feeling needing to force feed yourself), or choosing a smaller portion according on how the body feels in the moment.. and have more later on when hungry again.

Personally use a hunger scale chart on the phone* to be mindful when eating is it out of hunger, or habit? Just eat dinner until having enough, not needing more, so that snack soon afterwards before television is likely mostly due habit instead..

When using the hunger scale chart, possible to eat less calories overall (due listening to the body if it's out of actual hunger).. if not out of hunger, possible to have when hungry next time.. as it's not about denying foods but having everything with care.

It's possible to eat when not hungry, but being aware about and telling your body it's likely not out of hunger to eat this time out of hunger but for the taste.. and aim to eat again when getting hungry..

* Credit to appforhealth.com

[Corney]

There is no secret to losing weight, burn more calories than you take in.  The old rule of thumb is it takes 15 calories per pound to maintain you weight.  If someone weighs 150 pounds they must eat 2250 calories per day to stay at that weight.  Cut back to 1800 healthy calories and burn 300 calories you would lose 1 and 1/2 pounds a week.  It sound like you are very active and probably burn more that 300 calories with what you are doing, so look to what you are eating.  Avoid comfort food, fast food and learn to eat healthy and continue you active life style.

[Corney]

There is no secret to losing weight.  Burn more calories than you take in.  It takes 15 calories per pound to maintain your weight.  For example if someone weight 150 pounds they must eat 2250 calories per day to maintain that weight.  If you cut down to 1800 calories and burned and extra 300 calories per day you would lose 1 and 1/2 pounds per week.  It sounds like you have a very active life style and probably burn more than 300 extra calories, so look to what you are eating.  Avoid comfort and fast food, eat 1800 calories of healthy food per day and continue your very active life style and you will lose weight in a sensible fashion.  No one ever wins if they give up!

[Corney]

duece, I don't think it's appropriate to use this site to hawk your product herbalife, you should be ASHAMED!  What research do you have that supports herbalife's claims.  I place you in the same category as dr. oz.  Fit Bit should send you a warning.