I need help.
- Thread starter Nzumbe
- Start date
KaraCooks
New member
It's hard to give any reasonable advice without more information.
What do you weigh now? How tall are you? How did you lose the first bit of weight? Do you exercise? What kind of exercise and how often? What do you eat?
Without at least some basic info, there's no much to say other that I'm sorry you're frustrated.
What do you weigh now? How tall are you? How did you lose the first bit of weight? Do you exercise? What kind of exercise and how often? What do you eat?
Without at least some basic info, there's no much to say other that I'm sorry you're frustrated.
Ben Coomber
New member
yeah i agree with karacooks,
i lost 5 stone and the last 1/2 a stone took ages and its was all down to foods that i was sensitive too that were keeping fluid and muck in the cells etc, i really recommend trying to identify foods that your body is sensitive too, mine were gluten and dairy which i didnt eat at all, but didnt cut out the minute amounts in stuff like sauces, sausages, gravy etc etc, basically the stuff you dont think about and i now have a trim six pack as a result.
And i wouldnt change it for the world!
i lost 5 stone and the last 1/2 a stone took ages and its was all down to foods that i was sensitive too that were keeping fluid and muck in the cells etc, i really recommend trying to identify foods that your body is sensitive too, mine were gluten and dairy which i didnt eat at all, but didnt cut out the minute amounts in stuff like sauces, sausages, gravy etc etc, basically the stuff you dont think about and i now have a trim six pack as a result.
And i wouldnt change it for the world!
Sorry. I'm 5'5" and 170lbs.
At first I was just watching what I eat and it came off pretty easily. For the past three months or so I have been stuck at 170.
I started running and working out on almost a daily basis about a month ago but haven't seen any improvement.
I try to eat healthy food and stay under 1,500 calories. I don't eat meat but I think I might eat too many dairy products. I eat a lot of yogurt, lol.
At first I was just watching what I eat and it came off pretty easily. For the past three months or so I have been stuck at 170.
I started running and working out on almost a daily basis about a month ago but haven't seen any improvement.
I try to eat healthy food and stay under 1,500 calories. I don't eat meat but I think I might eat too many dairy products. I eat a lot of yogurt, lol.
Ben Coomber
New member
right, too little calories - your body will be in a starvation mode, if your body knows what YOU are doing then it will get rid of what it doesnt need.
two, why dont you eat meat? unless it is for ethical reasons etc i would seriously consider eating it, it is an essential nutrient. and as a result you are ating a lot of dairy which probably means you are eating equal amounts of protein to fat when protein should really be higher, and thats for every body type.
are you doing any weight training in your exercise regime, if not then i suggest you dump some of the running and do that, 3 times a week would be good.
from what you said so far that is my advice. any more check my profile and my site has loads of articles and all sorts.
In health, ben
two, why dont you eat meat? unless it is for ethical reasons etc i would seriously consider eating it, it is an essential nutrient. and as a result you are ating a lot of dairy which probably means you are eating equal amounts of protein to fat when protein should really be higher, and thats for every body type.
are you doing any weight training in your exercise regime, if not then i suggest you dump some of the running and do that, 3 times a week would be good.
from what you said so far that is my advice. any more check my profile and my site has loads of articles and all sorts.
In health, ben
KaraCooks
New member
Yeah, the two things I'd suggest are raising your calories a little (I'm coming up with around 1800 as a healthy number to lose weight with) and adding in some weight training.
It's possible that you've stalled out due to too few calories and that your body has become accustomed to the type and level of exercise you're doing. Changing things up should help you jump start the weight loss again.
And while I don't see a problem with not eating meat, do make sure you're getting enough protein from other sources. If I were you, I'd aim for at least 30% of your overall calories to come from protein.
It's possible that you've stalled out due to too few calories and that your body has become accustomed to the type and level of exercise you're doing. Changing things up should help you jump start the weight loss again.
And while I don't see a problem with not eating meat, do make sure you're getting enough protein from other sources. If I were you, I'd aim for at least 30% of your overall calories to come from protein.
fatty_doll
New member
Or you might want to consider that if you just started working out you might be gainning muscle. Do you know your measurements by chance? If you've kept a record of them you'd be able to see a measurement difference. Don't give up though, keep at it because eventually you will meet the threshold to where you stop gainning muscle and begin to lose the weight/fat again.
MAR1984
New member
You've been given some great advice. I'd like to take a different perspective. Firstly, its a huge accomplishment to lose 50lbs! congratulations! But I'd like to ask about this one line in your post: "I just don't think I can do it anymore." You may be desparate to lose that last 20 lbs, but what is going to happen once you do? Have you made changes you can continue doing the rest of your life just to maintain your new fantastic self? Losing weight is not something you do for a while, and then stop once you reach a goal... believe me, I know, I've lost 100lbs before, and then gained 200 back.
My advice, don't stress about it
you've got the rest of your life to enjoy your new self, and a couple more months or a couple more years is nothing compared to the rest of your life. Thats why you have to make changes that are sustainable forever, not just until you lose the weight. And forget about the scale... I've only recently discovered how silly the whole concept really is. You want to get down to 150, but theres a big difference in looks between 150 and 30% fat, and 150 and 15% fat. For that matter, I expect I'd take 170 and 15% fat over 150 and 30% fat, to be honest. The more you weigh, the more you can eat What I'm trying to say is, weight doesn't matter, its all in the fat %.And most importantly, just hang in there. You're not alone.
Where are you getting 1800 from? The calculator I used said 1600 but I figured why not do less than that.
And why weight training? I'm trying to lose weight, not gain muscle.
fatty_doll
New member
Let me just say that you cannot JUST lose weight. If you exercise (of any sort) you are trying to either maintain muscle mass or build more.
If you want to lose body fat (and eventually decrease in weight) you'll have to build some muscle to help burn off more fat. By building a bit more muscle it will help you to look leaner, thinner, and more toned. Without weight trainning you will still risk having that "flabby" look. Its just easier to get results if you're weight trainning. Try not to obsess over the numbers you see on the scale. They're very betraying because you may infact be losing fat and inches, just not kg or lbs.
KaraCooks
New member
I'll answer this first ... since it's more important. When you lose weight, you don't just lose fat, you lose fat AND lean muscle mass. In order to maximize fat loss, you want to minimize lean muscle. The only way to minimize lean muscle loss is to work the muscles and keep them strong and healthy.
The other reason you want to build/maintain muscle is that muscle is metabolically active. In other words, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn just by "being" ... and therefore the more fat you'll burn throughout the course of the day.
So yes, you ARE trying to build/maintain muscle.
I am getting 1800 from a fairly standard calculation as follows: The average moderately active adult needs 15 calories per pound of body weight to *maintain* their current weight.
For you that would be 170 * 15 = 2550 calories to stay the same weight.
Knock 30% off of that to get a healthy rate of loss.
For you that would be 2550 * 70% = 1785 calories to lose weight healthily.
Why not go lower? The idea here is NOT to drastically take everything as low as you can as fast as you can. The idea here is to have steady, sustainable, consistent weight loss, while keeping your metabolism as high as possible for as long as possible.
When you lower your calories, you lower your metabolism. When you lower your metabolism, then you have to lower your calories again to keep up. Then your metabolism lowers. Then it becomes a vicious cycle as you struggle to lower your calories enough to sustain weight loss. Whereas if you lower your calories JUST ENOUGH to lose weight steadily, then when your metabolism slows a bit and you lose that weight, you have wiggle room to lower them some more, as opposed to just hitting rock bottom right out of the starting gate, and having nowhere lower to go when you stall out.
Make sense?