I can't lose weight and I feel I'm getting fatter

Page 1 of 1 [ 9 posts ] 

Joe90
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,492
Location: UK

03 Jul 2017, 4:00 pm

I've always been the slim type but in the last 2 years I have put on a lot of weight and I don't know how to lose it. I am 5 feet 6 inches tall, and I am supposed to weigh around 9 stone, maybe 9 and a half, but I actually weigh 11 stone and I can't shift it down.

I don't drive so I do walk to places I need to go, like to work or shopping. I don't go out for walks though because I do get social anxiety being out in the street, so I only go out if I have to. But I have a physically active job, and I'm sure I burn a lot of calories at work because it makes me hungry, thirsty, sweaty and tired after each shift. I sleep well, and I've cut right back on eating too. All I eat is breakfast, lunch and dinner without nibbling inbetween meals. I've given up chocolate, cut down on coke, and I usually drink sugar-free orange juice. I eat less than some people who seem to be thinner than me. I sleep well too.

I'm not really into exercising, as I'm so tired in the evenings and don't get a lot of time on my days off, as I'm often busy. My life hardly ever involves sitting around all day eating junk food. Why can't I lose weight? I thought maybe my metabolism had slowed down but my boyfriend says I must have a fast metabolism because no matter what I eat for dinner or what time I eat dinner, I never go to bed feeling uncomfortable and I never get heartburn, although I do get constipation.


_________________
Female


CivilSam
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 31 Dec 2013
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 168
Location: Maine

05 Jul 2017, 2:33 am

I had a similar problem as you. I was always super skinny and then I got a desk job and after years of that boom 200 pounds. This is what helped for me.
Cut all soda completely at your home. Also, juices have just as much or almost as much sugars and lots of calories in them so I cut those as well. Eat healthy with vegetables and fruits. I eat a lot of skim yogurt, bananas, cucumbers and berries for snacks. For meals I have eggs for breakfast with a fruit (not juice), and then I have salads for lunch and a meal with veggies and chicken for dinner. I prep all the meals beforehand so it is much harder to cheat.

Now here is the hard part. You can force your body to lose weight quickly, and by quickly I mean over a couple of months by walking an extra 4 to 6 miles a day. For me it involved buying a treadmill and listening to audiobooks. That is the hardest part, finding something that keeps you entertained while walking. I'm now up to jogging 4 miles a day and walking 2 miles just because of audiobooks (I hope you find what works for you too). I went from 200 pounds to 160 from January of 2017 to now. Honestly, it was brutal the first month and I often didn't meet my quota for the daily mileage and if that happens to you don't give up. After you get used to walks for a while you can throw in crunches and push ups (or other exercises) every one or two miles. Best of luck!


_________________
Good guys don't care what place they finish; only jerks do. - Me


MSBKyle
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 2014
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 339
Location: Kent, Ohio

05 Jul 2017, 7:42 pm

I understand how you feel. This year I have really been struggling with losing weight. I've been exercising, increasing my fruit and vegetable intake, drinking green tea and water, and walking. Nothing seems to be happening. I usually gain 5-7 pounds in the winter and then it normally comes off once spring is here. I have not had that happen. My winter weight has stayed on me and I can't get it off. I have been losing a little bit of weight but it is nowhere near where I would like to be. What I've been doing is trying not to snack as much. When I get hungry I just drink water or green tea. I try to only eat at meal times and drink liquids when I feel hungry. I try not to eat before I go to bed because that will really make you gain weight. The key to losing weight is to burn more calories than what you consume. I know it may sound easy but it is actually very difficult. You really have to make some cutbacks in your eating and snacking if you want to lose weight. If you exercise and right but still eat a lot of junk food the exercise and eating healthy won't help you as much. If you aren't eating junk food but not losing weight, you should exercise more.



Closet Genious
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,225
Location: Sweden

07 Jul 2017, 5:14 am

You can eat whatever you want, you just have to reduce your calorie intake.



BirdInFlight
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Jun 2013
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,501
Location: If not here, then where?

07 Jul 2017, 12:46 pm

Look into your portions, and how often you eat with other people and match their eating habits. A lot of sneaky weight gain that seems hard to explain is sometimes down to eating too-large portions, therefore more calories than you need, even though and even if you are only eating at the usual mealtimes and don't snack inbetween.

Anytime I've been in a relationship where we were both eating together a lot, I gained weight and I realized it was because at mealtimes together, I was matching a guy "plateful for plateful." We dished out the same sized portions for us both but while it was the right calorific portion for him, it was way too much food for my needs, and I gained weight.

Whenever I've been single again and eaten alone, controlling my own portions and eating the quirky things that wouldn't constitute "a meal" to someone else, I eat a lot less at each mealtime and my weight went down again and stabilized.



seaweed
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Sep 2015
Age: 29
Posts: 1,380
Location: underwater

07 Jul 2017, 1:37 pm

first, find your TDEE by searching for a calculator online, and then count your daily calories as accurately as you can. you can get an app, like myfitnesspal would be the most popular one. i prefer cron-o-meter :) if that's the problem, you've found it. if that's not the problem, you have either grossly miscalculated your intake or you could have a health problem like a thyroid condition and you need to see a doctor. best of luck.



League_Girl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 27,205
Location: Pacific Northwest

24 Jul 2017, 10:17 am

I would recommend fatlogic on Reddit. They do speak the facts and the reality and debunk fatlogic myths lot of people have. Also lot of people miscalculate their calories they put into their system and underestimate calories in food portions. Lot of people also seem to think that healthy food means eat as much of it as they want but how we gain weight is having more calorie intake than our body uses so you can still gain weight on fruits and veggies and meat and protein. Everything has calories but water. Even drinks have calories too and coffee and beer and alcohol.

This is what 200 calories look like:

http://sciencevibe.com/wp-content/uploa ... lories.jpg

https://imgur.com/aUyraGC

Also keep in mind that any food that is labeled healthy does not always mean healthy because it can still have hidden calories in it and still have a lot of them.

Also another thing, people don't even know what a normal portion looks like. From my personal experience, people who were overweight like my ex's for example, they would cook themselves something and their portion would be so large. My ex would eat food out of mixing bowls that would make about three servings, he also used one of my food storage containers as a breakfast bowl pouring in a half box of my cereal and I was pissed about it because it was my food and my own money and he was eating half of my cereal than giving himself a normal serving in a normal breakfast bowl, my other ex, he would cook us oatmeal but his food serving would be like four servings in a big breakfast bowl and a normal serving of oatmeal would be barely any so when I left him one serving when I had some the following morning, he calls me self centered. But me on the other hand I didn't always know what a normal ice cream serving looked like so I would have a breakfast bowl of it and my mom would wonder how ice cream would be eaten up so fast until she saw me having some and she was shocked at how many I had in a bowl. She had to show me what a normal ice cream serving looked like in a bowl and what bowls I use for ice cream and I am not even fat thought I often feel like I am and that I need to lose weight. I remember when I used to work in another building, there was one woman who worked in a office and she was obese and in her trash can she always had candy wrappers in there and TV dinner boxes and I have seen her eat fast food and chips and I thought in my head "no wonder" but I didn't say anything about it. I also could tell she tried to eat healthy but didn't know processed foods is not healthy just because it has meat or corn and veggies and just because the box says it's healthy. Fast food also isn't healthy either and neither is eating out. But lot of people don't know it. And the reason why I always looked in the lady's trash can was because I had to empty it on a daily basis and this is what I saw everyday but not the same stuff and she sometimes brought food from home like a sandwich she would make with cheese on it and ham but most of it was processed foods and chocolate wrappers and chips or fast food. Also snacking on food counts as calories. Most people will snack on food during the day while working like nuts or raisins or trail mix.

Also people on fatlogic say they measure their foods and weigh them using a food scale and they use calorie aps to track their calories.

Also another thing I think is people also throw the word "eating disorder" around. If you count calories, have less portions, they think you have an eating disorder. hat is not an eating disorder if you count calories or have smaller portions. Also skipping meals is not an eating disorder and also eating once a day. I learned on fatlogic this is all okay to do and it's okay to be hungry between meals. Sometimes people will skip breakfast only to have a big meal for lunch when they eat out and then not eat for the rest of the day because of calorie intake. So it may seem like thinnies eat a lot and not gain weight when in fact they might have actually skipped breakfast or not eat that way every day. I eat more than my husband and he thinks I have high metabolism but no I am just more active than he is because I work on my feet and I move around in our home and he just sits on his computer all the time and only sits around when he watches the kids while I am at work because of his feet. He doesn't need to eat as much as I do. But yet I am the one with an eating disorder? I have been actually diagnosed as having one. My husband thinks it's because I go extreme, it's either this or that.


_________________
Son: Diagnosed w/anxiety and ADHD. Also academic delayed.

Daughter: NT, no diagnoses.


Nay
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2011
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 140
Location: Ireland

09 Sep 2017, 6:52 pm

Even though orange juice is natural sugars its still sugar. Cut out carbs and sugar completely for 1 week and you will see a difference. Its 90% diet you need to do. But make sure you do a workout nearly every day even if its only 15-20 mins. Once you start sweating thats a good sign so keep going. Just do it.



Nay
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2011
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 140
Location: Ireland

09 Sep 2017, 6:52 pm

If your tired and you workout you won't be tired.