new to this site - desperate for help! anyone ??

M

mybellymustgo

New member
Hi !
I am a 32 yr old woman from UK .. I have joined this site as a last resort to getting the figure i crave lol

I am so confused by all the mixed messages on weight loss and if you have a few moments i would like to tell you my story and hopefully gain insight into what i am doing wrong ...

Ok So Here goes .... :(

I am 5ft 5 inches tall ( 165 cms )
I weigh 10 Stone 8.2 lbs ( 67.3 kgs )
On my homedics body fat scales my readings are a follows :-

30.5 % Body Fat
50.7 % Water
35.7 % Muscle
25.7 Bmi ...

I have worked out that my BMR would be approx 1447.68 not taking into account my excercise that I do three times a week ... which consists of the following ...

20 Mins on Crosstrainer - mix of 1.5 to 3.0 resistance - so start slow go up ..go down etc

25 Mins on treadmill - flat - 6.1 for 2 mins 9.0 for 2 mins 6.1 for 2 mins then 10.0 for 2 mins until time is out

10 mins / 2000m row on rowing machine level 10 .. at 28/30 sqm...

2 sets of 21's with a 6kg dumbell - (7, 7, 7)
2 sets of 15 dumbell kickbacks with a 4 kg weight
2 sets of 10 bodyweight tricep extensions

3 sets of 10 each leg lunges
3 sets of 10 leg curls on swiss ball
3 sets of 10 sit ups on swiss ball

I do this 3 times a week on a mon, wed and fri am at 9am before breakfast ...

I have been doing his for 5 months now .. well i didnt start out on these levels i have increased them upwards to this - AND I HAVE NOT LOST 1LB nor 1 INCH from my body ... ???

My diet is generally good during the week, i'll have an egg on wholemeal toast for breakfast, with tea and half a sugar .. lunch is mainly 2/3 ryvita with tin of tuna/light mayo/peppers and onions or a sandwich with ham or turkey.
Dinner is usually about 700 calories or there abouts .. mix of stir fry, homemade bolognese, jacket potato etc etc .. so generally ok.
I dont eat sweets, cakes and crisps, i do not snack during the day either ? I may have thur/fri/sat some wine .. maybe 3 glasses on a thu to a bottle on a fri/sat night - i know that this is my only vice and my guilty pleasure

I never had more that about 1500 max calories mon - thur and then no more than 2000 on fri/sat/sun/

why am i not losing any weight at all .. or even changing body shape .. i am so p***ed off .. i even went down to 1200 calories a day and was so strict and I gained 2lbs ? how the hell does that happen ?

Can anybody help me out here and show me the light ?

Thanks for taking the time to read xxxxx lou xxxxxx
 
Well, kinda hard to tell.

one: could be medical, have you spoken to a doctor?

second: user error, let me explain. Sometimes we think we are doing things the right way but we are overestimating the good we are actually doing. I'm not saying you are lying or anything. Maybe do a food diary for a week, writing everything down. As long as you are fully honest with what you write, you can look at it at the end of the week to see if you might have been wrong. If not, great!

third: Maybe you are forming muscle? I'm not sure.


Basicly I'll say this, there are others on this site who might have the better answer. These are my opinion.
 
agreed i know about fooling yourself - and yes i have kept a spreasheet on my calorie intake to the point of every single ounce that passes my lips inc drinks etc .. my husband is also watching what he eats so he knows how much i am having and doesnt understand it either ...

its sooo frustrating and upseting ... maybe i am not doing enough exercise ??

Thanks for your comments x
 
I'm getting 148 pounds as the equal to your "stones" but that could be wrong. My generation was never taught metric conversion and definitely not "stones" conversion. I had actually never heard of "stones" until about a week ago. So if I'm off, please consider that, but I am going to attempt to offer some advice but it's based on that one conversion.

First ~ eat something before you exercise in the morning, just a little to get your metabolism going. If you don't eat before you exercise and it's first thing in the morning, you're going to hold more than you lose.

Next, lower your nightly calories. 700 is huge for dinner. My dinner never exceeds 500 calories. Up your lunch if you feel you need that many calories.

The wine ~ cut it out. I know it sucks, but it's a huge thing that will slow you down. And a bottle in one night will slow you down all weekend and well into the new week.

I have a feeling you are taking in more calories than you know. Are you accounting for all that wine? And your sodium intake is off the charts. How much water are you getting?
 
Again..the idea that eating more late will cause you to gain weight is a dieting myth. Heck, I tend to eat alot more towards the evening and I've lost around 20 pounds over the course of a month.

I will also state there is nothing wrong with wine except calorie count and just how much..the key here will be moderation. Try to cut that down to a glass. A bottle of wine is around 500 on average. That's 500 calories you are drinking. Wine is good for you to a point..but a bottle isn't.
 
Ok a few thoughts for you.

First of all, how did you calculate your BMR as 1447? Because that's NOT the figure I get. If you use the Harris Benedict equation (which is pretty much the standar), your BMR comes to 1680. If you use a standard 1.4x multiplier for someone who is moderately active, that gets you maintenance calories of 2289.

Ideally to lose at a safe and healthy rate, you should eat around 1600 calories per day - which is about a 30% deficit.

Now there are two things I can think of:
1 - You are eating more than you think you are. I'd suggest watching this video and seeing how measuring and eyeballing things can really be a problem:

2 - There is some medical condition that you have that is skewing your metabolism so that you're not losing.

Honestly I'm inclined to say it's #1. Most people are not as accurate with their calories as they think they are and it affects their loss.

The thing about having a big dinner being aproblem is pretty much a dieting myth - it doesn't matter WHEN you eat your calories, as long as you stay within a range. Alcohol, however, CAN be a problem. Your body metabolizes alcohol differently and it can really mess with the whole process. I often have a glass of wine with dinner, but I know that if I have more than one glass, my scale will not show a change the next day.

I'd say for about a week you should be VERY strict withyour food and measure it carefully. Use one of the online tracking sites like fitday.com or livestrong.com to log everything you eat and drink to the gram ... and at the end of a week, see if your calories are coming in where you think they are.

You might be surprised.
 
Hey Kara ~ I used this site: and got 1453 as her BMR but, as I said, that's based on what I think is the correct calculation of her weight as around 148 pounds American.
 
I use the straight HB calculation, which I have on a spreadsheet. Obviuosly there are variations and everyone should take the calculations as a starting point from which to figure what works best for them! :)
 
For Men:
66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in centimetres) - (6.8 x age in years)

For Women:
655 + (9.6 X weight in kilos) + (1.8 X height in cm) - (4.7 X age in years).

Activity multiplier for maintenance:
1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.2
2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.375
3. If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.55
4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.725
5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.9
 
KaraCooks said:
For Men:
66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in centimetres) - (6.8 x age in years)

For Women:
655 + (9.6 X weight in kilos) + (1.8 X height in cm) - (4.7 X age in years).

Activity multiplier for maintenance:
1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.2
2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.375
3. If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.55
4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.725
5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Maintenance = BMR x 1.9
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this. As previously stated, metric is completely over my head. I went to school so long ago and everything we did was in American math. I may try and do a spreadsheet that would convert this, but I'm guessing I'd get it wrong. I'm a 4.0 student as long as there's no math class on my schedule (have gone back to school to be a nutritionist or a photographer, still deciding) and great at Excel, it's just metric freaks me out still.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top