reasons someone can't lose weight

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It's calories in versus calories out. Period. I can speak to this through personal experience.

For a long time I was keeping an alternate fasting diet, where one or two days a week I would eat whatever I wanted (I love food!) and the rest of the week I would undergo calorie restriction. I was very adamant about my on-days and off-days, and worked my social life around my diet. (I suppose because I'm ASD, so I cared more about the food than the socializing.) I was doing very well for a long time, years actually, and easily lost any little weight I gained.

But then I had to stay in the hospital for a while, and had to revert to a "normal" diet. And BOOM, in one month, I gained THIRTY FREAKING POUNDS. That's a pound a day. I have issues with my brain telling me I'm full; when I eat, it has to be all or nothing. So three times a day, I was eating gluttonous meals. I knew I was gaining, but had no idea how much and how fast. They weighed me and I was shocked.

Now I'm miserable because I want to lose an amount of weight that is equivalent to a month's fasting.

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This isn't true. People can have medical conditions that cause them to either gain weight or keep weight on until they either get medication or surgery to fix the problem.

Some folks just see everything in black and white, from religion to weight loss.

Agreed. I used to believe it was that simple until I spent a couple months living with a girl who is rather heavy. I ate 5 times as much as she did (and I am slight), and she was the least tired of any of us after trekking around 10 miles a day and climbing things. She tried far harder than the average person and still was obese. (And she was on thyroid medication.) I'll never be judgmental towards overweight people again.

“There are none so tender as those who have been skinned themselves.”
Rev. C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) British Baptist preacher

People obsessed with chanting "calories in vs calories out" ignore the entire point:
that for many, tipping this equation toward weight loss requires nothing less than starvation and eating-disordered behavior.

Nonetheless, they love to insist you must be "doing it wrong" if you are a living example of how their mantra is demonstrably-false
- teh fattiez are stoopidz, too, apparently.

I was obese for several years eating in an entire week what other kids my age inhaled in a single meal.
As for "asking a doctor", there are a few, though not many, doctors who will say calories are the sole factor (vs calories from different sources) in weight loss/gain/maintenance, but none who deserves his license will say food affordability, genetics, medication, and underlying disorders and differences are magically non-existent.

I'll put in my thread nomination for a low-functioning thyroid.
Though it did eventually test (exactly one point) out of the reference range, enabling me to pursue treatment,
the vast majority of the time I struggled with my weight, it tested as normal.
I gained 30 lbs in a month when I was 16, walking an hour a day, just by attempting to increase my caloric intake by 50 calories a day.
No test showed anything.

my body wouldn't let go of the weight until i starved myself and exercised myself to exhaustion.

I've yet to meet one of the "eat less, move more" crowd who knows what it's like to be 20 years old and fainting in the shower due to malnutritioned weakness...and still obese. "Theory of Mind", "Theory of Mind".

such self-righteous folks' karma is to be reincarnated into a balky and lipid-laden body in a future lifetime of struggle. god is not mocked. let them find out for themselves, to their regret.

I also subscribe to the eat less than you burn. That is reality.

What makes it practical, though, is finding ways to distribute those calories over the course of a day. For example, I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with milk for breakfast. I use unflavored whey to add protein to my milk while minimizing calorie intake. (also take a multi-vitamin pill).

In the morning, I pour hot water and oatmeal in a thermos container that cooks itself over time; and eat it for lunch with an apple. (I tried slicing an apple and cooking it in the thermos with the oatmeal; it was very tasty with cinnamon, HOWEVER, for some reason, if I eat the apple on the side I actually feel more full than when I eat the apple in the oatmeal.)

If I am still hungry, after lunch, I grab a McChicken or a McDouble for a dollar at my college's nearby mcdonald. Or I get their new Banana-strawberry smoothies! Very healthy smoothies (fruit, and yogurt; vitamins, protein, calcium) and have almost 200 calories.

Dinner, I am still with my stay-home mother, and eat whatever has been made.


MISCELLANEOUS tricks for dieting.
Drink water, it is known that THIRST can be confused in one's anxiety to be hunger; and thus, end up eating more.

Caffeine, can help boost your metabolism. They say drinking a healthy amount of caffeine from a cup of green tea will boost your metabolism. But you would need to drink a cup like 4 or 5 hours apart from each other. It does not have to be green tea; soda-pop will work too.

Don't drink caffeine a few hours before you sleep; it can take a while to get out of your system. Even if you can sleep after, it will reduce your sleep quality.

Sleep, if you sleep enough you actually feel more full after you eat due to having healthy levels of ghrelin and leptin in your system.

High fiber foods make you feel fuller. So does high fat food, but you also feel nauseated after; it sucks to feel nauseous after a meal, so stick to filling yourself with higher fiber foods.

Eat slow digesting meals, that way you body works for a long time to digest them; this keeps your metabolism up. Also, it provides you with a slow income of energy over a long time. (I use normal oats, not quick oats, so my oatmeal gives me energy over an even longer period of time [because it digests slower]).

DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF. You end up emotionally eating that way and start to binge eat. Also, from your starved state, your body is going to turn food to fat right-away. As if you are a bear preparing to hibernate!


My diet OVERALL
I basically replaced my lunch with oatmeal and an apple on the side. And a snack before or after that (Mcdonald smoothie, or soft serve, or sometimes mcdouble). I always ate out at my college campus. If I do end up getting american chinese food, I've made sure to get a tofu dish, instead of general chicken.

QUIT ALL CAFFEINE


MAKE SLEEP A PRIORITY

I', not usually an "all caps" shouter but I wanted those two things to get heard.

It isn't as simple as "eat less, exercise more". Those two things are part of it, but they aren't the whole story. How calories are burned or stored is affected by more than merely exercise. It is affected by hormones. And hormones are affected by (among other things) caffeine and sleep deprivation.

If you have been exercising and dieting and not seeing results, try giving up caffeine (if you drink it in any form,. including tea and energy drinks) and focus on getting a solid 6-8 hours a night of sleep.

I second the votes for green tea and lots of fiber.

I agree with the poster above that sleep is really important to get in order to not get too fat. Apparently if you are overtired, your body is more likely to crave foods that aren't very good for you. Also, the sleep helps improve your metabolism.

Personally, I recently improved my diet (over the last few months) by a) adding a multivitamin with iron in it and b) increasing the foods I eat the contain iron. Since then, I have gradually become much more energetic and I think that my metabolism has gone quite up again (a rather poor diet combined with a stressful lifestyle over the last few years led to gradual weight gain to maybe 15-20 lbs. over ideal for my body type). It's kind of weird, now that I've improved my diet with the multivitamin and increased iron, junk food like chips (salty food in general) doesn't taste anywhere near as good as it did this time last year. I feel a lot more energetic and less tired, so exercise more than before, just because I actually feel like doing so now. On the balance, I end up with a heartier appetite, and have been eating more meat and quite possibly more calories than before. However, I've lost maybe 5-10 lbs. in the last several months, and feel great (and all this, just from improving my iron levels).

So if you're low/mid-20s female (or possibly beyond, if your weight issues have been going on for a while), you may really want to try adding a multivitamin (Woman's formula that includes B vitamins and iron) and focusing on adding more iron to your diet. (I specify this towards women, as women as statistically much more likely to be anemic than guys, due to having periods.) Some good sources of iron include: cream of wheat cereal, the suggested multivitamin that should contain iron, a square of dark (non-sweetened) baking chocolate, liver, beef, etc. Note that it is much harder for your body to absorb non-animal sources of iron ("non-heme"). Consuming more vitamin C helps your body absorb iron. B vitamins are needed to help metabolize the iron into new blood cells.

I suspect that similar issues of malnutrition may be leading to weight gain in many people (which is why increased weight is statistically more often seen in the lower socioeconomic strata). When malnourished, your body thinks it needs the burger and fries, because even though it might already have enough calories, it thinks it's starving.

If you have any questions about these suggestions, feel free to ask.

I said, "No excuses."

I did not say, "No valid medical reasons."

An excuse would be something a person makes up to cover their own lack of effort and initiative. A reason would be a pre-existing medical condition that makes weight-loss difficult for that individual.

It is a simple principle of science that an organism can not gain mass unless they ingest more than they expend or expel.

I have problems keeping weight off: bad joints, asthma, and a heart condition limit my ability to exercise; yet I have shed 15 pounds (from 230) since December 2010 by limiting portions, eliminating fats and simple carbohydrates from my diet, eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and drinking lots of water - no drugs, no surgeries, and no excuses.

Weight loss is difficult, especially when it requires medical intervention - but it can be done!