So frustrated...Need help!

G

grace2819

New member
So I started dieting and working out in January and have only lost about 20 pounds. I weigh 195, eat between 1200 and 1800 calories a day give or take, and have been working out on an elliptical for a minimum of 30 minutes a day 4 days a week. I have had some slip ups and at one point i gained back 7 pounds which I had to re-lose, but for the most part I have stayed on track. Some of the time I do very rigorous workouts like and hour of bootcamp or running, but I always do at least 30 minutes of cardio. I feel like I should have lost more weight. I don't drink soda, I barely eat bread, and have even cut out juice. I've been doing Myfitnesspal which I don't think is at all accurate. It's so hard to gauge how much to eat when all of the cardio machines and calorie counting tools are so undependable. I feel like giving up. Like I was just made to be overweight. When I am on the elliptical I always set the resistance to at least 6 but a lot of the time I set it to 10 or even higher. I don't know what I am doing wrong.
Fatty 4 life.
 
You didn't become overweight over night, of course you won't get lean over night either. :) Just keep doing what you do and eventually you will reach your goal.

Out of curiosity, do you weigh yourself regularly? If yes, how much weight do you approximately lose per week? For example, if you want to lose 2 lbs in a week, you would have to consume 7000 calories less than what you would need to simply maintain your weight.
 
Keep at it and don't give up,
Losing weight is not meant to be fast, its better to lose it slowly as you will have a better chance of keeping it off.

I myself got hypnotized years ago to lose weight, it involved getting myself to look at healthier food options and not seeing cake, chocolates as a must like every piece was the last on earth and I had to eat it lol
Anyway it didn't work straight away but after the birth of my son a few years later plus seeing a dietitian I really think the hypno helped in keeping my motivation and will power to say "no, I don't need that cake"

Anyway, Hypnos and dietitians are not for all but it really helped me to keep motivated.
 
I weigh myself daily...probably too often. Yesterday it said I was 192 now today it says 195 and I ate about 2000 calories but did 40 minutes on the elliptical with the resistance set high. It said I burned 500 calories, so I assumed the machine was wrong and knocked that down to 400 thinking that I should net about 1600 calories...which according to my fitness pal I should be able to eat 2300 calories just to maintain my weight. This is my usual thing. This past week I don't think I've lost anything, and I don't know why. I'm so confused.
 
Some weeks you may lose nothing on the scales but in reality you have, that's ok and normal, it could be anything from water retention, time of the month, drinking lots of water,
Keep at it and keep motivated, its the long term goal you need to focus on :)
 
It could be hormonal or chemical related. Also you may be close to your goal which make losing the last pounds harder. You could have a large number of lean mass and a little body fat left to burn too. That is just my opinion.
 
Welcome to the forum.

I calculate your BMI to be 27.2 which isnt very overweight. Weight loss tends to be easier when we have more weight to lose so I am not surprised that it is not coming off as rapidly as you will see for some people... Having said that - an adequate calorie deficit should be giving you your loss.

I suggest that you count your calories eaten (and drank) as accurately as you can - logging everything you put into your mouth - weighing everything on digital scales and not using any scoops, spoons, cups, average sizes or other means of estimating... Instead of thinking in terms of a window of 1200 to 1800 - which can give a very variable average which literally goes all the way from 1200 to 1800 (or higher if there is one of those slips thrown in) look for exactly what your average across the week is...

Since you want to lose weight (and want to lose more weight than has been the case) and since you do not feel that you can trust the calories deduced by gym equipment or websites - I would tend to ignore your exercise and allow a tool like fitday deduce your standard calorie burn if you are sedentary... This is not the same as your BMR - but not as high as you will be getting... If you eat at a deficit to that level - then your exercise should accumulate to a calorie burn which is pure weight loss.

In addition - you do not mention your water consumption or anything too much about your diet... I suggest that you drink 1 ounce of water per 2 pounds that you weigh. Also that you track your sodium consumption and keep it under 2300mg sodium per day... A lot of people retain water due to not having enough water and also due to having too much sodium.

I suggest that you read the following thread - it may help you settle in and make friends
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/57955-My-advice-to-newcomers

Good luck with your project.
 
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