Three months and no weight loss - need a new POA

[Chingoo92]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie and don't know too much about the rules of this forum, so if I'm in the wrong category/format, sorry about that!

Summary;
I've been trying to lose weight since mid-September and haven't lost a single pound. I am a 26yo biological female, my thyroid levels are normal, otherwise perfectly healthy. I currently weigh 150lbs, 5'3" height, and I've been trying to bring myself closer to 130lbs. I adhere to intermittent fasting, 24 hours/twice per week, and otherwise consume calories in the range of 1200-1400. I haven't cut out any food groups from my diet, I work out 3-4 times/week at high intensity for 30 minutes to an hour, and my job is moderately active. I have been reluctant to try a restrictive regime like ketogenic diet or Atkins before because I want sustainable (and permanent) weight loss even if it takes me some time, but at this point I am concerned I am not going to lose weight at all and might even gain weight eventually. Please advise me what changes I should make to my plan so I can have real, but not-going-to-backfire weight loss.

More details;
I was a scrawny kid but I have been slightly overweight since I hit puberty, and in general, everyone in my immediate family struggles with maintaining a healthy body weight, as well as with obesity. I gained a lot of weight post-2011 when I went to college, about 170lbs at the pinnacle, and while I was off and on short-lived diets every few months I didn't accomplish much weight loss--the most I came down to was 150lbs (my current weight). After graduation, I finally put my mind to it and decided to lose all my weight, and finally came down to my goal weight of 125 lbs. I accomplished this with a very restrictive caloric intake, around 800-1000 per day, and I wasn't doing any strength training or cardio. When I went "off-diet" for maintenance, I immediately gained back about 5-6lbs in a month or two, but since then I've been in a limbo between 130lbs to 150lbs, mostly on the lower end, and after two and a half years, I've gained back half of the weight I lost in total, and now nothing I do seems to burn off my weight. I was doing quite well actually, I was around 135lbs in May, and then I had to move away for two months for a workshop, and since I had to eat whatever they served, I ended up gaining 10-15lbs in two months. Since I've come back, I've been struggling to bring myself back, but it's permanently glued to my body. I have been doing strength training and cardio for nearly a year and a half, so I understand that my weight will not be the best determinant of my body's health--but I have my body measurements between May and now, to back that up, I've gained an inch around my hips, waist and chest. I have quite a bit of body fat, so it's not muscle.

I recognize that going on and off diet is damaging, in general I'll always have to work harder to lose weight than someone who never gained weight, and all that fun diet trivia--but I'm not quite ready to accept that nothing can be done. This is why I haven't followed a restrictive diet or done crazy amounts of cardio since I went into maintenance, because I was afraid of how it would stack odds against me, and I really want to adhere to a diet I can follow for the rest of my life, and not one I will have to inevitably "go off of". Still, it seems like I am either eating too much and my only recourse is to live a 800-calorie existence, or I need to pick a restrictive diet to kickstart weight loss; I just need guidance to pick which one. I even spoke to my primary care doctor and she didn't really give me any advice, so there's that.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Trusylver]

Without more info all I can go off is BMI, and based on that you are only marginally over weight and your goal weight is good, however the less you have to lose the harder and slower it is to lose.

You make no mention of what your typical meals look like ? Are you tracking ? If you are tracking are you weighing / measuring your food or just estimating ? What are your current macros ?

Do you tend to eat more after a fast or do you keep your eating normal ?

Also I should note that keto is sustainable and permanent, I have been ketogenic for years, both for losing fat but also building muscle.

Most primary care doctors have very little training in nutrition.

 

[Lillian]

Hello Chingoo92,
When I saw your post it reminded me of my own struggle, I tried all sorts of systems to lose my fat belly and change my size to a much healthier profile, but it just seems that most systems online are about slimming your wallet not your body, I personally have spent a small fortune on courses and products to lose weight, but nothing worked, they were useless and just got me frustrated and disheartened, I hated going out where people could see me, you can see it in their faces when you meet or are close to them, I hated that and hardly went out except to work. I was lonely and miserable and was close to a very dark place. A family member was very worried about me and searched for someway to help me, that was when my whole world changed. I was given a link to a page that explained a system that actually works, I am not tall and was just over 100kgs a cuddly beach ball shape, at first I did not look at it I just thought here we go again, but curiosity got the better of me, I read the information and tried it and it has worked very well, I am still losing weight, today I weighed my self and am 72.5kgs. I am very happy with this result and will continue with it. Its probably not right to advertise on this forum so I will not name the system, its cheap and simple to follow and I am getting great results. But when you read it you can make your own decision perhaps you will not like it, anyway I wish you luck, here is the link
link removed

 

[superfuelyourlife]

Hey Chingoo92, thanks so much for being vulnerable in this space. Even with a background in nutrition I was still able to gain 70 pounds that I couldn't shake. I was adopting information that just wasn't working and I was continually getting more and more frustrated until I started to learn from Dr. Jason Fung. Have you ever read any of his books? It's not as cut and dry as the following but weight gain and loss is primarily due to hormones in the body. The body doesn't understand calories. That's a measurement we put on ourselves to control what we put in our body but once food enters the body it doesn't tell it's self that this apple that's in my stomach is X amount of calories. It just responds with a conversation based on hormones. If we are gaining weight or having a tough time loosing fat it's primarily a hormone (communication) imbalance.
When I read that you consume 800-1000 calories per day that sent of red flags for me. It's important to know that we eat food and that food is converted into energy. We need the proper amount of energy for the body to run normally. This is roughly around 2,200 calories per day for the average person. This is normal function, not optimal function. If you are restricting your calorie intake (energy) daily that means your whole entire body is lacking in energy. EVERYTHING it take for your body to function needs energy including metabolism. Restricting calories is a sure way to struggle for multiple reasons and gain the weight back super fast. You have not established a proper new body set weight. I could talk for hours about this and I became fascinated why I was struggling until I earned my training from the new understanding of the body and weight loss. For years and years we've been told that the quickest way to loose body fat is to exercise more and eat less. Unfortunately that's just not the truth and anyone who continues to push that conversation still doesn't understand the conversation of what happens within the body when food enters and the conversations that take place. Once I learnt the information, I lost the weight with ease, and created a new body set weight that forces me to stay at this new healthier weight. Feel free to reach out if you would like some support.