AlexG
New member
I found this forum doing a Google search for Weight Loss experts. I am looking for someone who might have any ideas what's wrong with me, because I am convinced at this point that there must be a variable I am overlooking. I am WAY beyond little tips and tricks to shave a few calories off here and there. Here's a brief history of where I'm at.
I have always been the fat kid since I was born. In 5th grade I weighed 125 pounds. In high school I weighed 320 Pounds. I've now finally stabilized - For the last several years I hover at 455 to 465.
When I was in elementary school and middle school I ate like a fiend. If I ate now like I did then, I would understand why I have a problem. I was always hungry and it was insatiable. I don't remember when the change happened, sometime in high school, when I just wasn't that hungry anymore.
After I graduated college, and got my first real job, I decided it was time to do something better for myself. By this point, I hovered statically between 455 and 465. The problem is, nothing I do changes this - either down OR up. Here's what I've tried.
Just to be clear, when I say I cut things out, that doesn't mean I haven't had a snack or a piece of cake or a chocolate bar in 6 years. But these went from weekly, almost daily intakes to once or twice per month.
Some of you will say I'm just making excuses for myself. That I live in denial. "Stop eating your feelings (which I don't do), eat less, move around more." That's one thing about me... I HATE denial. Despise it. I'm an analytical guy, a very logical thinker. So I decided to put numbers to everything. Numbers don't lie, right?
I calculated my BMR. Currently, at 5' 10", 28 years old, and male, my BMR Is 3661.55 Calories per day. Slap the Harris-Benedict Equation on there, and my maintenance Calorie level is 4408 Calories per day.
I decided my calorie usage must be lower than that number by far, so I decided to track it. I still lost 0 pounds, but all of this has been about tracking and baselines, not making any changes. Nonetheless, the data surprises me.
Now I knew how many calories I burned, I started tracking my food, because that's all that's left of the equation, right? I downloaded MyFitnessPal's app and I tracked every single bite for 78 days. That's all that it can be, right? I must be eating a shitload of calories and somehow I just don't know it.
My average caloric intake per day was 2940.43 Calories. Below my energy expendature. Below my BMR! Only slightly more than a normal man my age eats and needs. I cook my own meals, usually pork, chicken, or beef, and a side dish, often rice or pasta. So it really pisses me off to have a body like a Biggest Loser contestant, people who get interviewed and say they go to McDonald's every single day and get two supersized meals with milkshakes for lunch, and to be bigger than they are.
Now I know it's easy to misjudge your calories even when you're recording them, but by 2164.76 calories per day? It's impossible! I would have to eat double what I do without knowing it. Either that or eat a brick of pure lard every single day.
In fact, you know what? Let's forget averages entirely and work with raw numbers. During the exact period of time I was tracking my food, Feb 23 2015 to 11 May 2015, I consumed 229,354 Calories. But I burned 429,117.
That's a defecit of 199,763 Calories, or 57.07 pounds I should have lost. I have lost 0.
Here are some other things that I think are odd about myself.
Medical History:
Both my parents are diabetic, but I am not. A doctor back in college told me he suspected insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. He said "You can't eat yourself into this kind of situation" and based on the data, I am inclined to agree with him.
I have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and advised to use a CPAP machine, but I could never get used to it. But I am not tired during the day, ever. I wake up before my alarm. I sleep 7 hours a night and when I wake up, I am fully refreshed, to the point that I can lay there and lay there but cannot fall back to sleep. I am fully rested and incapable of sleeping anymore. Most afternoons my eyes feel heavy and droopy around 2 PM for an hour to an hour and a half, then I am wide awake again. Even then, that's only if work is dragging by with not much to do. If I am engaged in a task, I don't even get drowsy. I never get tired at the end of the day. I can go until 2 or 3 in the morning before I feel tired. I outlast all my coworkers in the office and my friends outside of work. According to my issues, I should be exhausted, but I never am.
In short, I don't FEEL like a fat guy. I don't feel sick, or tired, or run down. Everything about me seems odd. Weight should be melting off me like wax melts off a candle but it doesn't, which either means I am burning radically fewer calories than the equations and the technology say I am, or there's something else I don't know about.
So have I ever succeeded in losing any weight? Yes. There is one thing I can do. If I go several days eating next to nothing (800 calories or less) per day, then I will drop some weight. I can shed 15-20 pounds in a few weeks if I keep this up. Resume normal patterns and I come back up to 455-465. Should I really have to resort to such a radical step to see any results whatsoever?
I have attached my fitbit data and food log for anyone who wants to take a look and see if they have any suggestions. At this point I am worried that a surgery which my insurance does not cover and which I cannot afford is my only option other than early death.
Has anyone ever had a similar experience, or heard of anyone who has?
I have always been the fat kid since I was born. In 5th grade I weighed 125 pounds. In high school I weighed 320 Pounds. I've now finally stabilized - For the last several years I hover at 455 to 465.
When I was in elementary school and middle school I ate like a fiend. If I ate now like I did then, I would understand why I have a problem. I was always hungry and it was insatiable. I don't remember when the change happened, sometime in high school, when I just wasn't that hungry anymore.
After I graduated college, and got my first real job, I decided it was time to do something better for myself. By this point, I hovered statically between 455 and 465. The problem is, nothing I do changes this - either down OR up. Here's what I've tried.
- In 2010 I used to drink sugared sodas. I drank them, but I didn't subsist entirely on them like a lot of people. One can per day with dinner was it. Still, this was a lot of sugar, so I cut it out. I switched to diet soda, because I still like the taste, and crystal light when I wanted something with flavor. I cut about 250 calories per day from my diet. I lost 0 pounds.
- I also used to really love the frozen sodas at 7-11. I drank at least one a week, usually more. The big one has 325 calories, so I cut out at least 700 calories from my diet on an average week. I lost 0 pounds.
- I used to swing by the convenience store on the way home a few times a week and get a couple chocolate bars or a medium sized bag of chips. That's between 500 and 1200 calories a few times a week - say 2900 calories per week - that I cut out of my diet. I lost 0 pounds.
- I cut out desserts and snacks during the day. I lost 0 pounds.
Just to be clear, when I say I cut things out, that doesn't mean I haven't had a snack or a piece of cake or a chocolate bar in 6 years. But these went from weekly, almost daily intakes to once or twice per month.
Some of you will say I'm just making excuses for myself. That I live in denial. "Stop eating your feelings (which I don't do), eat less, move around more." That's one thing about me... I HATE denial. Despise it. I'm an analytical guy, a very logical thinker. So I decided to put numbers to everything. Numbers don't lie, right?
I calculated my BMR. Currently, at 5' 10", 28 years old, and male, my BMR Is 3661.55 Calories per day. Slap the Harris-Benedict Equation on there, and my maintenance Calorie level is 4408 Calories per day.
I decided my calorie usage must be lower than that number by far, so I decided to track it. I still lost 0 pounds, but all of this has been about tracking and baselines, not making any changes. Nonetheless, the data surprises me.
- In September 2014, I got a Fitbit Flex. Over 151 days, my average calorie usage was 4107.86 Calories per day - a little under the estimate from the equations.
- In early February 2015, I switched to the Fitbit that tracks my heart rate. Over 189 days I averaged a usage of 5105.19 Calories per day. Presumably this is measured far more accurately.
Now I knew how many calories I burned, I started tracking my food, because that's all that's left of the equation, right? I downloaded MyFitnessPal's app and I tracked every single bite for 78 days. That's all that it can be, right? I must be eating a shitload of calories and somehow I just don't know it.
My average caloric intake per day was 2940.43 Calories. Below my energy expendature. Below my BMR! Only slightly more than a normal man my age eats and needs. I cook my own meals, usually pork, chicken, or beef, and a side dish, often rice or pasta. So it really pisses me off to have a body like a Biggest Loser contestant, people who get interviewed and say they go to McDonald's every single day and get two supersized meals with milkshakes for lunch, and to be bigger than they are.
Now I know it's easy to misjudge your calories even when you're recording them, but by 2164.76 calories per day? It's impossible! I would have to eat double what I do without knowing it. Either that or eat a brick of pure lard every single day.
In fact, you know what? Let's forget averages entirely and work with raw numbers. During the exact period of time I was tracking my food, Feb 23 2015 to 11 May 2015, I consumed 229,354 Calories. But I burned 429,117.
That's a defecit of 199,763 Calories, or 57.07 pounds I should have lost. I have lost 0.
Here are some other things that I think are odd about myself.
- I don't get hungry. I don't eat breakfast most days because I wake up, and I am not hungry. Around noon, my stomach starts grumbling, but if I don't take a lunch break immediately, the hunger passes, and I can easily work through it, especially if I am busy. It is not uncommon for me to eat only once a day, at dinner time, because I wasn't hungry any other time.
- Just because I don't eat like a fiend, doesn't mean I can't. When I am eating, I stop because I've finished what I allow myself, not because I feel satisfied or full. If I eat until I am full, I will never stop eating. Seriously, if I decide to not care for a weekend and get a thing of Oreos, I can eat the whole thing in one sitting.
- After the 78 days of tracking my meals and losing 0 pounds, I got very discouraged with the whole thing. I stopped caring. I went to McDonald's for breakfast, I drank coffee drinks with whipped cream in domed lids and chocolate shavings, I snacked, I drank sugared soda. I did everything I hadn't done for years, not because I wanted to, or had a craving for any of that crap, but because I didn't care. Screw it, I'm gonna be fat forever, it may as well taste good as I plummet towards my demise. I did this for a few weeks. I GAINED 0 pounds. Take care with what I eat or not, it makes no difference. I NEVER GAIN and I NEVER LOSE.
Medical History:
Both my parents are diabetic, but I am not. A doctor back in college told me he suspected insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. He said "You can't eat yourself into this kind of situation" and based on the data, I am inclined to agree with him.
I have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and advised to use a CPAP machine, but I could never get used to it. But I am not tired during the day, ever. I wake up before my alarm. I sleep 7 hours a night and when I wake up, I am fully refreshed, to the point that I can lay there and lay there but cannot fall back to sleep. I am fully rested and incapable of sleeping anymore. Most afternoons my eyes feel heavy and droopy around 2 PM for an hour to an hour and a half, then I am wide awake again. Even then, that's only if work is dragging by with not much to do. If I am engaged in a task, I don't even get drowsy. I never get tired at the end of the day. I can go until 2 or 3 in the morning before I feel tired. I outlast all my coworkers in the office and my friends outside of work. According to my issues, I should be exhausted, but I never am.
In short, I don't FEEL like a fat guy. I don't feel sick, or tired, or run down. Everything about me seems odd. Weight should be melting off me like wax melts off a candle but it doesn't, which either means I am burning radically fewer calories than the equations and the technology say I am, or there's something else I don't know about.
So have I ever succeeded in losing any weight? Yes. There is one thing I can do. If I go several days eating next to nothing (800 calories or less) per day, then I will drop some weight. I can shed 15-20 pounds in a few weeks if I keep this up. Resume normal patterns and I come back up to 455-465. Should I really have to resort to such a radical step to see any results whatsoever?
I have attached my fitbit data and food log for anyone who wants to take a look and see if they have any suggestions. At this point I am worried that a surgery which my insurance does not cover and which I cannot afford is my only option other than early death.
Has anyone ever had a similar experience, or heard of anyone who has?
