I'd like to lose weight! Not sure what I'm doing wrong?

B

brazilian

New member
Hello everyone :waving:

I've always been a little on the bigger side. Part of it was due to my parents eating habits and the ones I was taught to have at a younger age. But of course most of the blame is on me. I currently weigh 250 pounds and I am 23 and 5 ft. 8 inches. I don't eat too much now as I did when I was a child.

My typical diet was not always very healthy but I never ate too many meals or portions too big. About a year ago I lost 20 lbs while eating a foot long from subway in the evening and a bagel in the morning. I eventually stopped that diet and put back on the 20 lbs.

Early June (I want to say the 3rd of June of this year) I thought it was time to get very serious about my weight loss. I want to lose weight. I HATE being big. I hate how I look in pictures and what I look like when I look in the mirror. I don't mind exercising.

I started a 500-600 calories per day diet. I worked out 5/7 days of the week (nothing extreme 30-35 minutes of cardio per day) But I did the math and figured this should help me lose a considerate amount of weight.

It's the 27th of June. I have lost NO weight!!!!!! I have not gained any weight but I haven't lost a pound. For this entire month I have been sticking to eating a salad in the evening and a light snack like fruits during the day. I do not understand why I have not lost weight?

I was thinking it might be due to "starvation mode" but for some reason I have difficulty believing that's an actual "thing". Can you really not lose weight by eating too little? It just makes no sense to me.

Doing some research I found that I should take in a minimum of 1200 calories a day.

Would eating a chicken burrito bol from Chipotle (no sour cream/guac) and maybe a six inch turkey sub from subway , a day be better than eating a salad and fruit per day? As far as weight loss goes?

It makes no sense. and I'm confused. I don't know anything about weight loss , I would appreciate your help. Thank you!
 
Also apparently my BMI is 39.5 , but I'm not sure what this does as far as weight loss goes?



And is this daily calorie calculator accurate? There are many online and they all give me different answers. Is there a specific formula? And thank you to anyone who responds I know I'm a bit clueless.
 
Hi and welcome! This is a great place to learn about healthy eating and exercise as well as to get motivation and stay on track!

There are different formulas for calculating daily caloric needs. So, it is possible to get different numbers from different calculators. From my information a female adult needs a minimum of 1200 calories/day and men 1500. And yes, it is possible to not lose weight by not eating enough calories. Also - a calorie is not just a calorie. If you chose high fat or sugar laden foods, they are not as good for you as the same number of calories of healthy foods.
BMI is just an indicator of healthy weight ranges based on your height and weight. It lets you know if you are in a healthy range or not. You should aim to get your weight down to a healthy range of 18.5 - 24.9 at a rate of no more than 1-2 pounds/week.

Nutrition is a complex topic but there is a wealth of information on these boards for you to check out. I have found that eating a well balanced diet, making most of my meals at home, eliminating soda (even diet ones), and increasing my water to have helped me out tremendously. Exercise is also very important.

What kinds of cardio are you doing? Have you thought about including resistance training in your workouts as well?

You could start a journal in the journal section and include things like what you eat and what you do for exercise and then other members can comment and give there suggestions. I have found a journal to be very helpful for tracking, goal setting and motivation.

I look forward to seeing you around the board and reading your journal!
 
Thank you for your response!

I mostly run on the treadmill or go on the elliptical. I just looked at your signature. Wow! Is that how much weight you've lost since the 15th of January? Congratulations.

It was discouraging to find that I was working out and eating at a minimum and still not losing weight. I've read a lot about "starvation mode" but it's still difficult for me to process. Do you think keeping at a steady 1200 calories a day would be a good plan to start? Instead of the 500 a day I was doing. I calculated it all out and due to my height/weight/level of activity I would need well over 2,400 calories a day to sustain my weight. To lose it I'd only have to cut a few hundred, but I don't mind something a bit more drastic (1,200). I would be losing almost 4 pounds a week if I did this on a daily basis. Then again I'm not sure if it would work. As my keeping calories low hasn't worked this entire month. But perhaps my body thought I was starving myself.

Thanks again & for the warm welcome.
 
It is best not to go drastic. If you aim for a slower weight loss your skin has a better chance of keeping pace - no one wants saggy skin! Also you will have a better chance at keeping it off if you go slowly and make it more of lifestyle changes rather than something that you will do only until you reach your goal weight. I am not much for counting calories, personally so I can't comment on what works in that area for me. If you check out some of the journals there are lots of people who do use calories and have great success. They might be able to offer you some advice and will possibly chime in here or on your journal.
I love this site - I hope you will really enjoy it too!
 
Thank you again!

I just am tired of going down the wrong route repeatedly. It gets frustrating and I'm tired of wasting time when I could be on the route to fitness.

I think for now I am going to stick to a 1200 calorie a day diet.
 
Holy cow! I'm surprised you had enough energy to do those exercises. If you're doing that amount of exercise, I think you should do a couple more hundred calories per day; the max healthy calorie deficit from your maintenance amount is 500.
 
graydragon10 said:
Holy cow! I'm surprised you had enough energy to do those exercises. If you're doing that amount of exercise, I think you should do a couple more hundred calories per day; the max healthy calorie deficit from your maintenance amount is 500.
Click to expand...

Hey! Thank you for your response.

Would you happen to know of an accurate caloric intake calculator? That estimates how many calories you burn according to your height/weight/level of activity in a day? There are so many online. I want to get an accurate measure of how many calories I'm burning in a day.
 
Your struggle with weight loss could definitely be due to your body's instinct to go into starvation mode.

This is how I battled with my weight loss and avoiding starvation mode.

I was never into calorie counting, I know it works for some, but I don't like the idea of it. I'm going to take the signs my body is giving me and go from there. The biggest part of me losing weight was eating a lot slower than I was used to. It allowed me to enjoy my food more and allowed me to stop from overeating. A key to not calorie counting and having success is eating what you know is healthy and not overeating. If you eat three healthy meals a day and only eat till you are no longer hungry then you'll be consuming an appropriate number of calories. Combine that with some high tempo exercise and you're golden!

This is just the way I've found to have some success, take what you want from it. I wish you all the best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top