Why am I having so much difficulty losing weight?

[MEG2131019]

I'm female, 21 years old, about 5'7, 141 pounds on average, do not eat junk food (soda, chips, ect) and minimally eat processed foods. I do circuit training/HIIT workouts lasting 1 hour 5 days a week and jog 3 days a week. I strive for healthy food choices but not going to lie, busy lifesytle so often end up making quick poor food choices for on the go. I monitor my calories and try to shoot for about 1200 daily, never going over 1400 even on my bad days. I'm vegetarian but maintain fair protein intake. My question is, why can't I lose weight? I've hit this plateu and just can't get the scale to budge. Any tips?

[Angee01]

You may not be eating enough with as much as you are working out. Your body will go into starvation mode if you are burning off more calories than you are eating and you will platue. When you are calculating your food what does it say your calories need to be? Eat small meals with protein in them throughout the day.

[desertgunner]

You're not eating enough.  Poor food chioces sabotage your goals more than you realize, so plan ahead.  If you fill up on plant based whole foods, it should help you curb the cravings for the less healthy choices.  Pay attention to how your body reacts from the foods that you eat and you will eat better foods.

[MEG2131019]

Out of principle and long term success, I do not starve myself. I eat when I am hungry, typically small amounts througout the day. Could my body be in starvation mode even though I do not feel hungry? 

[Ukase]

Ok - I'm not going to jump onto this and automatically assume you're in starvation mode. Let's take this from the basic level - in order to lose fat, you have to burn more calories than you take in. So - that being said, on a given day, you say you don't go over 1400. I don't mean to insult, just to find out more - how do you know how many calories you're eating? What are you eating? Are you using your fitbit to tell you how many calories you're burning in a day? I think that if you can take the time to give us a glimpse of a typical day, we might be better able to assist.

For me, right now, there's not enough information to answer your question.

[MissKai]

How are you monitering your intake?

I had to become militant, purchase a kitchen scale and literally weigh everything. I was in the midst of the yoyo up and down and it really made a different. I also try to know where my food comes from and if possible cook from scratch. This was way there are no hidden ingredients that slip by.

You also really need to know your coloric output like Okase said, so as to fine tune your intake. As women we typically have more difficulty in losing weight because of water retention and hormones. These are obsticals that can be overcome!

[JenniLacey]

Yup, agree. You're not eating enough. Since you're already a healthy weight for your height and you exercise, you can't expect to create as large of a calorie deficit from maintenance as someone who is overweight or obese. You need to eat closer to maintenance and go for a slower weight loss. 1/2 lb/week or a deficit of around -250 cals/day at most and less as you approach your goal weight. I would set your Meal Plan goal to that plan and see if it helps.

In my own experience, being at a healthy weight now (I was overweight), I find if I want to lose weight I can't lose or lose very little if I create too large of a calorie deficit. When I was overweight I could handle a -500 to -1000 daily deficit and lose consistently. Now my body goes into freak out mode and holds out on fat loss and causes me to feel like I want to gnaw my left arm off, which leads to a night of pigging out. When you have little fat to lose you have to trick your body by taking it off slowly so your body doesn't freak and think it's going to starve with no fuel saved up.

And yes, you don't necessarily have to feel hungry for the starvation response to kick in. In fact, if you've been eating this low of cals for awhile, that is part of the response... to no longer feel hungry. Your body would be trying to conserve energy (fat stores and by lowering your BMR) as much as possible.

I'm pretty small at 5'2 and 115 lbs but I wouldn't let my cals drop below 2000 when losing weight. When I do my body fights me tooth and nail to shed fat.

[Naomi94 · Accepted solution]

Hello! 

First, your BMI is 22.1. To be considered overweight, your BMI must be 25 or over. Healthwise, you are a perfect weight. That being said, some people have reasons for wanting to be thinner. Are you a fashion model? Do you want to look smoking in a bikini? These are all perfectly fine reasons. 

You probably cannot lose weight because your body simply does not want you to. The body's natural inclination is to maintain weight. I suggest that you look at yourself in the mirror and think about what you really want to change. Is it weight, or is it dress size? 

Sometimes it is better for women in your situation to think of a dress size rather than focusing your attention on weight. But then again, I do not know why you want to loose more weight as you do not appear to be overweight. 

For dress size, I suggest that you simply continue eating a healthy, nutritious diet. Drink plenty of water. Hit the weight room at least three days a week. Perhaps gaining a couple of pounds of muscle may turn out to be the thing that you actually want. 

I suggest maintaining your current healthy weight, and focus on dress size and muscle tone. 

[LCHFmom]

@MEG2131019 -

Do you log all of your food into either fitbit, or MFP ?  It would be helpful to see the foods you are eating, to help provide different recommendations.

Also, its a good idea to look at how many calories you are also burning.... you do 1 hour workouts 5/7 days AND jog 3/7.   That seems like a lot of calories going out -- and maybe not quite enough going in.

Do you know what your average calorie expenditure is ?

[AlfaPaolo]

I am in the same situation! I tryed to eat more and that makes me gain fat%. Obviously age is big difference here I am 51. Doing insanity few times a week, walking or jogging morning and or evening for about 35min. doing weights as well .Eating good food no sodas no junk food...feel like a monk! I have few pound to go and it's just not happening. everybody can look at my tracking. This has been going for years, stop smoking, decided to eat good and ealthy...with so much work I though i could have a six pack but obviously it seams like my system refuse to let go these 4 to 6 Kg remaining HEEEEEELP, but don't come with this starvation option I am overtired of it. could it be water retention???

Thank you folks 🙂

[Bobbiegirl · Accepted solution]

HI Meg

You certainly are active and should be commended for your efforts! You will plateau when your body gets 'used' to a level of fitness activitiy..try vamping it up in short spurts,,ie, while jogging,,give it your all for a minute or two at a very fast pace, then return to the normal paces set..repetition of this will help your body 'jump' it's plateaus..vamping it up and changing the routine will solve your problems!!

[Kibbles314]

I understand where you're at right now, since I am in a similar place. I decided to really focus on my weight loss just under two years ago when I maxed out around 165-170 (I'm 24 now at 5'5"). Over the year I lost 35 lbs to my lowest of 130. To get there though I went a bit crazy. I was working out 3-5 hours a day. I would wake up two hours before work to do insanity. Then work all day (factory work so that had me up for 8 straight hours), then I would ride my bike an hour out for an hour long pole fitness class, then ride the hour back home. I wouldn't eat nearly enough during the day (to the point I would count out the exact number of things like grapes or almonds, like I said, crazy) which led to me feeling faint, shakey, irritable, headachey, etc frequently during the day. It wasn't until later that I realized how unhealthy I was being. I'm currently trying to reach 125 lbs and stay there, but have hit a plateau at 137. It's frustrating to be so close, yet so far. I'm eating around 1200 calories per day too, but will probably increase that soon. I've found it helps me to always have water handy. Drink as much as you can, as often as you can. Because of my work, I'm not allowed to keep food on me or eat anywhere in the plant except for dedicated spots. If you don't have that restriction, I would carry some nuts or fruit or home made trail mix around to crunch on. Then find small ways to increase activity, like walking during your lunch and such. Keeping the snacks on you will help stop rash decisions for unhealthy food, and can feel like a tasty all day treat so you're less inclined for those too.
Sorry if the story was tmi, but I wanted to make the point that sometimes you can take it too far, and never see it because it's under the guise of being "healthy". Just keep up the exercise and clean eating, and plan your treats. Living in a constant state of guilt over your food is stressful. If you get a treat, enjoy it then move on, and find a variety of clean meals to make and enjoy so eating them is never a chore. I hope this helps.

[Heybales]

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@AlfaPaolo wrote:

I am in the same situation! I tryed to eat more and that makes me gain fat%. Obviously age is big difference here I am 51. Doing insanity few times a week, walking or jogging morning and or evening for about 35min. doing weights as well .Eating good food no sodas no junk food...feel like a monk! I have few pound to go and it's just not happening. everybody can look at my tracking. This has been going for years, stop smoking, decided to eat good and ealthy...with so much work I though i could have a six pack but obviously it seams like my system refuse to let go these 4 to 6 Kg remaining HEEEEEELP, but don't come with this starvation option I am overtired of it. could it be water retention???

Thank you folks 🙂

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Try to eat how much more for how long and how much weight gain?

You say gaining fat, how do you know it's fat?

Because lets do the math if you think it is.

If you ate 250 more calories daily over true maintenance, potential or suppressed, it would take 2 weeks to gain 1 lb slowly.

Reread that.

If you gained more than that eating say a mere 100 extra daily in a few days - obviously it wasn't fat.

Not say you because I don't know - but far too many have this concept fat goes on fast and comes off slow, without actually having any knowledge about it at all.

Few pounds to lose, you need a minor deficit first, so think 250 calories off what you burn.

You need best estimate of what you burn daily for that to happen.

That means you must log all that non-step based exercise you do, because if you don't, you are creating a bigger deficit than you think. Do you do that?

Do you weigh ALL the foods that go in your mouth? Because with minor deficit comes less margin for error - must be accurate.

And I know you don't want to think about starvation mode, also called adaptive thermogenesis or increased metabolic efficiency, but you think you keep gaining water weight over many years, hiding fat loss?

I'm sorry, but just as you might think AT doesn't apply, that doesn't make a lick of sense either. Gaining water weight exactly where the fat is lost so you can't tell?

Because if your body is stressed with everything thrown at it, and one of those is diet, it will adapt and burn less daily, therefore the Fitbit estimate of your burn is higher than truth, and you may have no actual deficit in place.

2 ways around it, max adaptive suppression in studies was 20-25%. So you could just keep eating less and less, and eventually you will start losing again. Can you adhere to diet eating that much less to lose the last weight? Can you adhere to diet eatingt hat much less to maintain goal weight?

Obviously this route your body isn't going to want to make improvements from exercise that require more energy, if it's already needing to slow down burn to conserve.

Other route is to break the diet, slowly eating more each week until you start to lose, or at least getting up to a best estimate of what you are burning, totally unstress the body, and then take that minor deficit.

This route is going to let exercise cause the biggest changes if given the rest for recovery and repair it needs.

Just to confirm on the exercise side.

Exercise if done right tears the body down.

It's the rest for recovery and repair that actually builds it back up, stronger if diet allows.

You have rest in there? Recovery is slower in a diet too. Like a good lifting workout can take 36-48 hrs to repair from. You workout the same muscles hard again in that time - you just killed that repair and wasted that workout.

Keep doing that and eventually your workouts are actually just mediocre each time, not really what could be accomplished that would require repair and getting stronger.

Lifting with tired unrecovered muscles doesn't require repair, they weren't overloaded.

Do insanity with tired muscles doesn't allow pushing as hard either, not intervals upside down.

[AlfaPaolo]

I like your post because its hard to follow, I have to read and read over
and over, many concepts you have expressed are new to me.
I do put my food in a measuring cup or scale (i feel such a freak) but when
it comes to training I think I do many of the errors you have mentioned.
Let me study your message and I'' get back to you. Thanks so much for your
time and knowledge.

[AlfaPaolo]

Thanks for sharing your story it opened my eyes to a few point we have in
common. Appreciate your time and help.
Take care

[MishaPanda]

Very interesting post Heybales. I'm in a very similar boat as the person who made this post, so I wanted to follow your advice as well.

Are you able to eat what your fitbit calculates as your calories out and not gain any weight? Because that is my concern. I'm currently at a 500-750 calorie deficit daily (depending on the day) and I've continued that for the past month. Given that I haven't lost a single pound, I've started to wonder if I just need to change my macros, because I think my proteins were too low and my carbs were too high. I've just (in the past two days) switched to a 30% carb, 35% protein, 35% fat split. 

Are you suggesting that it might be more beneficial to slowly decrease my calorie deficit to 0%, and then start over with a smaller deficit, like 250 calories a day?

[Bobbiegirl]

Hi you need to watch the calories and more a little more. 250 is not sustainable nor good for you! The calories are just a guideline to help you. Good luck and keep track'n!

[Heybales]

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@MishaPanda wrote:

Very interesting post Heybales. I'm in a very similar boat as the person who made this post, so I wanted to follow your advice as well.

Are you able to eat what your fitbit calculates as your calories out and not gain any weight? Because that is my concern. I'm currently at a 500-750 calorie deficit daily (depending on the day) and I've continued that for the past month. Given that I haven't lost a single pound, I've started to wonder if I just need to change my macros, because I think my proteins were too low and my carbs were too high. I've just (in the past two days) switched to a 30% carb, 35% protein, 35% fat split. 

Are you suggesting that it might be more beneficial to slowly decrease my calorie deficit to 0%, and then start over with a smaller deficit, like 250 calories a day?

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Unless you are racking up lots of steps you didn't take, or the stride length is off really bad and you aren't really walking as far as it thinks - Fitbit is normally going to underestimate your daily burn.

It assigns sleeping BMR calorie burn to ALL non-moving time.

But awake you burn more - RMR.

Standing not moving you burn even more.

Digesting and processing food you burn more (about 10% of calories eaten).

All those are missed increases to BMR level burn. So underestimated for probably 1/2 your day if not more.

Moving calories based on weight and pace, which requires distance. And most find the distance is on the low side.

That is the best way of doing it, because if indeed not losing, 2 potential points.

If short time span, logging of food eaten could be truly terrible, not weighing anything, eating out a lot, ect, or you are manually logging lots of exercise and over-estimating the calorie burn, such that even with 750-1000 cal deficit, combined with bad food logging, you have no deficit.

But if longer time span, body could have adapted slower, especially if deficit was big and exercise totally started up at the extreme level.

So if the latter, you'll want to start eating about 100 cal daily extra for a week at a time.

So if mainly a 1000 cal deficit, make it 900 for a week, then 800, ect.

Even if that eating 100 extra was over maintenance and your body did not speed back up fast enough, always giving you a surplus 100 calories to store as fat - it would take 35 days to slowly put on 1 lb.

Reread that.

If lifting it wouldn't even be fat.

Get back up to estimated maintenance, logging manually any workouts that aren't step based for best accuracy, and stay there a couple weeks totally destressing.

Then take a reasonable deficit.

Didn't go on fast - don't try to lose it fast.

[Dominique]

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@MishaPanda wrote:

I'm currently at a 500-750 calorie deficit daily (depending on the day) and I've continued that for the past month. Given that I haven't lost a single pound, I've started to wonder if I just need to change my macros,

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@MishaPanda: how much do you need/want to lose? I think this would determine how aggressive your deficit would need to be (more aggressive if a lot to lose, less otherwise). 750 certainly sounds like quite a lot for a woman (without knowing your age/weight/height).

Your profile shows consistent dedication to exercise:

I'd say you should persevere (one month is a rather short period anyway). Were you mostly sedentary prior to getting your Fitbit?

Have you taken body measurements? These can provide a better indication than the scale. In case you're not aware of that possibility, your Fitbit account can accommodate eight different measurements.

[MishaPanda]

Thank you to both of you (Dominique and Heybales)! Sorry for my late response - it took me awhile to find this thread again. I knew that my fitbit was underestimating my calories burned during my HIIT workouts, but I didn't realize it also underestimates calories burned throughout the day. I've been logging consistently and as accurately as possible, eating out for maybe 1 meal a week, if that.

I would like to lose 15-20 lbs, and I was sedentary for about 6 months before this point (I had taken a break from fitness/gyming). Now I"m back and being consistent by doing 30 minutes HIIT before work and making sure I get my 10,000 steps in. Saturdays I'll also add some weight training. I eat 1400-1600 calories a day and I'm currently 140 lbs, age 27. 

I guess I was hoping to have more results than I have had so far, but I'm starting to notice my body changing even though the number on my scale isn't. I've lost a total of maybe 1 pound in 1.5 months, but my boyfriend recently commented that my stomach area is the skinniest it's been so far. So maybe my fat is distributing itself differently over my body, I"m not sure. I'm just going to stick with what I'm doing for awhile longer and if that doesn't work for the next month still, then I'll go up 100 calories a week until I start gaining weight to see where my actual maintenance is. Then I'll decide what a true 500-750 calorie deficit is for me and stick to that.

I think a big changer for me was making sure that I'm getting over 100g of protein a day though. I think 90% of any of the small changes I've seen have been since I changed my protein intake. So maybe I'm on the right track now 🙂

Thanks so much for your support. I'll start taking body measurements too!