I am stuck, stuck, stuck, and need your help.
I have always been a bit overweight. Not a lot, just 25 pounds or so until about 4 years ago when it began to pile on. Now at 51 years old, I weight 193 and I am only 5 foot 4. I have been struggling to lose the weight and have not been successful.  I have tried lots of diets including pills from my doctor. Two years ago I hired a trainer. I exercised 4 days a week for 3 months under her supervision and only lost 5 pounds. She was dumbfounded. You can imagine that after spending all that money and time with very little success I quit. The five pounds came back but nothing more. Thank goodness.
Then I found MTM and decided this was it. It makes sense. It’s no magic pill just eat less and exercise more. Take a step and repeat. “I can do this”, I thought.
I joined MTM the end of June and started the 100 days of exercise challenge. About that time, I started the SMSM program. I listened to the advice not to burn out and decided I could commit to walking 60 minutes per day with a goal of 5 – 6 days a week.  I expected to lose about 1 pound a week, which would put me down about 20 pounds by mid-November.
Scott’s inspiration has been what has kept me going. As of mid September, of the prior 69 days, I have exercised 59, but I had only lost 4 pounds. I thought it was because I was eating too much so I found Calorie King and started tracking my calories. It says I should be eating 1419 calories per day. I’ve been good about keeping it there.
I still didn’t see the scale move so I decided I needed to get my intensity higher. I went to the track and started sprints – which I hated. I was so sore I couldn’t go to the gym for 4 days! I haven’t seen anything on this site about a very, very slow metabolism. I think I have messed it up from all the years on starvation diets combined with my age (51).
The good news is that except for being overweight, I ‘m in good health. My cholesterol is within range and I have low blood pressure. For the most part, my family on my mother’s side is overweight; some of them are morbidly obese. I’m actually one of the thinner ones.
I looked in the MTM forum and haven’t found anything on this. All I find is success stories or the occasional plateau. I feel like I’m the only one struggling with this. I see postings of people much heavier than me who seem to be successful.
What am I doing wrong?
Rizz

Hi Rizz,

Welcome to MTM land!

Looking at your story, the first thing I’m noticing is that you may be eating too little.  I checked out a few BMR calculators (here and here).  I’m sorry to say that I don’t know whether “Rizz” is a guy’s name or a girl’s, so I tried for both.  The two sites are about equal that for a woman of your height, weight, and age, your BMR is about 1550 calories, and for a man, it’s about 1730.

Furthermore, the BMR (base metabolic rate) is just that, a base!  If you’re exercising a lot, you’re going to need more calories to replace the ones you’re burning, or your body is going to go into starvation mode and hold on to all your fat stores!  This site and this site can calculate how many calories you’re burning when you exercise—you may be surprised at how much you’re burning with those sprints!

Remember that 1 pound is 3500 calories.  So in order to burn 1 pound a week, you only need a deficit of 500 calories a day, combined between your exercise and your diet.  So if you burn 250 calories doing exercise and eat 250 calories less than your total requirements for the day, you’ll lose a pound a week.  You don’t need to starve yourself to do this!

One other thing I’d mention is to make sure you’re using an indicator other than just the scale.  Though you’re burning fat when you exercise, you may be gaining muscle as well, which is much denser than fat (ie: a small volume of muscle weighs the same as a larger volume of fat).  You may be getting leaner and fitter while the number stays the same on the scale.  Do you have another measure of fitness?  Some examples people around here use are: clothing sizes, belt notches, body fat percentage, energy levels, etc.

If you’ve got any questions, all you need to do is ask!  I hope this helps you!

Cheers,
Julie

Hey Rizz, you will find that losing weight is like the law of diminishing returns, the less you way the harder it is to lose weight, also you have to remeber that you are not only doing this to look good but more importantly to feel good. I have a question for you, do you see noticeable changes in your body?If you are working hard you probably are, for some of us it is very difficult to take off the weight,myself, I haven’t dropped a pound in months, but I have noticed some great differences in my body,so hang in there Rizz it will come off!

Hey there!! Julie and Shawn gave you some great information to use.  On the medical side of it as well, if you feel like you are doing things correctly and all, perhaps it is a good idea to visit your family doctor and ask him/her to check your thyroid levels as well.  An out-of-whack thyroid can affect weight.  But here is the deal, just keep plugging along and keep us posted on how things are going.

Thanks for all your responses.

Julie, to answer your question, I am a woman. So I know hormones have a lot to do with the weird things that are happening to my body. But I am determined NOT to be a fat old lady! That’s why I’m working so hard at this without the use of drugs or surgery. It is very discouraging not seeing the changes that the math indicates should be happening.

I did go to all those sites and I have been tweaking the calories accordingly. I did learn I wasn’t eating enough calories. The Calorie King software does add in more calories based on exercise. When I wasn’t losing weight I decided I might have to keep it at about 1500 which is slightly higher than my BMR and then I started wearing a monitor to get a better count of the calories burned but still no movement on the scale. Then I decided it might be the 2 diet soda’s I drink each day so I substituted water instead and increased my water as well. Next I cut out wine much to my husband’s chagrin, since he enjoyed having wine with me on the weekends. I don’t think that will work long term, if you know what I mean.
I do feel better and my pants are a little, and I mean a little, loser. However, that will not sustain me long term. I need to get at least 30 to 40 pounds off my body for long term health because although my health is OK now studies show thinner people are healthier in old age.

I did have a thyroid test and it came back normal but I am beginning to think Zookie is correct that there must be something going on that is preventing me from losing the weigh. Maybe it is something else. I’ve looked all over the internet and having found a clue yet.

If you think of anything else please let me know.

Rizz

Rizz, what is your diet like? Do you eat much processed food? What is your salt intake like? Just trying to help you figure this out.

Thanks for asking. Here’s and idea of what I eat and exercise on a typical day:

Before going to the gym I drink about 12 oz. of water. If I don’t get it down before I go, I drink it when I get back. I go 3 - 5 times a week
When I started in June take one hour walks 6 days a week. I was so tired when I’d get home that I’d have to take a nap. Then I started going to the gym and I’d bike for 60 minutes keeping the RPMS at about 85. I kept at it and I graduated to the treadmill. I usually walk at 3.5 mph on 3 incline for 60 minutes but now twice a week do the elliptical for 30 min then walk for 30 minutes. My plan was to add the weights once I lost 10 lbs or so because I’m very self-conscience. It was very difficult even going on the elliptical because I’m not as fit the others.

Breakfast - I always have 1 cup of coffee with non fat milk
+ 1 packet of plain oatmeal with splenda and cinnamon (+ 1 cut up apple or handful of raisins)
Or
1 bowl of cheerios with banana and non fat milk
Or
1 bowl of raisin bran with non fat milk
Or
2 eggs cooked in the microwave (with some pepper on a sprinkle of cheese)
Or
2 eggs cooked in the pan with pam and green or red peppers
(I tired the egg beaters but I find I get hungry too fast if I eat them)

Lunch - (I used to skip lunch but now I’m making an effort to eat it. I’ve found sandwiches are the best way for me to be sure I eat)
1 slice (or 2 if I did a lot of exercise) of rye or pumpernickel bread toasted
3 or 4 oz of turkey (or ham or lean roast beef)
sometimes 1 or 2 oz of cheese
I add lettuce or tomato or cucumber
mustard
1 - 2 glasses of water

Snacks would be either - apple or organic yogurt or crunchy granola bar (150 calories) or cucumber or carrots
1 - 2 glass of water

Dinner - proteins such as salmon, lean beef, chicken, occasionally shrimp (whatever # of ounces I can depending on calories I have left - usually 4 oz)
usually brown rice 1 cup or less depending on calories left
veggies (fresh green beans or broccoli or aspargus if in season– steamed ) or if I’m out of that and / or pressed for time canned salt free corn or peas) 1 or 2 cups depending
sometimes I stir fry in 1 T of olive oil some onions and peppers and mushrooms or zucchini
1 or 2 glasses of water
About once a month we go out to an Italian Restaurant but I stick to a meal with more protein than pasta and I only eat half and the rest is lunch the next day
Sometimes I make a taco salad using ground chicken with lettuce, tomato, salsa, chili peppers + 1 soft shell tortilla
Sometimes I make chicken fajita with onions and peppers with one soft shell tortilla

Evening snack -I’m usually not hungry but if I am and and now that it is getting cold, sometimes I’ll have a sugar free hot chocolate with 3 tablespoons of whipped cream (that’s my splurge)
Water too.

The only thing I noticed on Calorie King was I was high in the Fat #’s so I switched to low fat cheese and I don’t do eggs if I’m going to stir fry etc. to keep that # in check,

I’m interested in your comments. Thanks again.
Rizz

Hi Rizz,

I saw a link to your thread in the MTM newsletter this week. I know how you feel about being stuck. I was in the same boat as you but eventually you will turn it around. I lost 26 lbs this year and it all started with the 100 day challenge. You have definitely started down the right path. I’ll share with you some of the things that worked for me. Maybe they will be of some help for you too.

On diet, one thing that I found helpful was to have a bigger lunch and then a light dinner. Since your metabolism slows when you sleep, it’s better to have less food in your stomach when you go to bed. Also, make sure that you eat at least 3 hours before you go to sleep. Nobody has mentioned it yet so I guess I’ll be the first in the thread to ask the “poop” question. Do you go regularly? If you don’t, try adding some additional veggies to your meals to get more fiber.

Finally, one of the keys that helped me was starting resistance training with weights. I wouldn’t wait until you lost 10 lbs to start this. Muscle mass determines how many calories you burn when at rest. The more you have, the more you burn. You don’t have to worry about becoming “She-hulk”. As Julie mentioned, muscle takes up less space than fat so even by adding a few pounds of muscle, you will have a slimmer figure even at the same weight. This might just be the kick-start your metabolism needs to get going! Keep us posted on your progress.

Regards,
Charles

Whoops!  I think everything I was planning on saying, Charles said first.  So… yeah.  What he said.  *grin*

Cheers,
Julie