weight loss?

[CherryBomb24]

for months i have gone to curves, nutritional specialist and have worked out at home.
I cannot seem to lose any weight. I'm not like obese or anything, i'm 5'1'' and 180lbs. so i'm a bigger girl. But its getting me down the last few years so i've been trying what i can to make myself feel better. The nutritionalist / curves and working out occationally at home i have been doing similtaniously for about 9 months now and absolutally no sign of change. I dont over eat, i count my calories so my intake is about 2000 a day. My nutritionalist is stumped, i'm stumped - i'm thinking my best bet would be liposuction or something but i for sure cannot afford that.

Besides adequate exercise and protien / greens, do you guys have any suggestions? Like a specific routine of exercises or a dvd / equipment i could try?
At this point i'm willing to try pills or over the counter stuff.

 

[Firebrain]

You won't lose weight on 2000 calories a day - that's what a person who doesn't need to lose weight should be eating. Therein lies your problem, I imagine.

From what I remember, to lose weight, you should be eating around 1400.

I wouldn't go with pills. What happens when you come off them and your eating habits haven't changed? It just goes back on.

 

[satindesire]

Yeah, 2000 kc a day is too many for weight loss. You can probably maintain your weight at that many kc, but you won't DROP any weight.

Reduce your caloric intake, and you'll probably see a noticeable difference in a month or so.

 

[Cattypuss]

At the moment I'm eating around 1,300 calories a day (made up of healthy, balanced meals) and drinking at LEAST 2 litres of water a day, and walking around 6 hilly miles a day, briskly.

On that regime I'm losing about 1.5 to 2 pounds a week. I echo what the others have said - you're taking in too many calories.

For what it's worth, I'm 5'4" and currently 192 pounds, so roughly similar to you in terms of obesity.

 

[KellysCrack]

Have you had recent blood work done?

blood sugar?
triglycerides?
good hdl? vs bad?

there are a couple of other factors....esentially metobolic syndrome. It is a pre-diabetes issue.

May want to get it checked out if you haven't. ( just found out myself )

 

[EJFan]

yeah... weightloss is a pretty straightforward thing when you get down to it. the very simple equation is... caloric surplus equals weight gain; caloric deficit equals weight loss.

issues of health, nutrition and so forth are a little more complicated. different macronutrient combinations work better for different people depending on your body chemistry and what your goals are.

best recommendation i can make is to sign up (for free) at fitday.com and record everything you eat. if they don't have it in their database, get the nutritional info off the labels of what you eat. weigh and measure everything. do this for at least a month or so until you truly have your hands around what you're eating.

tracking your caloric intake along with your weight for a while will help you get a baseline. once you notice if you're maintaining, losing, or gaining, adjust accordingly. remember that 3500 kcal is a pound and you should never gain or lose more than a pound or two a week... that's healthy and leads to habits that are sustainable.

 

[Eilan]

Post a typical day's meal plan. I'll withhold judgment on whether or not your calories are too high until I see what you're eating.

Don't waste your money on pills--you're just lining the pocket of some supplement company. Take that money and shop the perimeter of your grocery store, buy whole grains, etc. If you must supplement, then get a multivitamin, fish oil, and digestive enzymes/probiotics

I second EJ's advice about getting a fitday account. I track everything, though I'm not OCD about measuring things exactly. It'll keep you honest, believe me!

Also, to be honest, Curves isn't much of a workout. It might be good for a beginner, but you're going to have to start lifting heavier to see results. I recommend that you pick up a book called The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler, Alwyn Cosgrove, and Cassandra Forsythe. Alternatively Schuler and Cosgrove's The New Rules of Lifting, which is geared toward men but can definitely be used by women. Both books are great for n00bs.

Diet ---> Weights ---> Cardio
In that order.

 

[sphy2]

You have two options:

1) burn more calories
2) reduce calorie intake

As a male, I go with number one (I hate feeling hungry).

Easiest way to loose weight? Get a dog, their excitement to go for a walk is contagious.

 

[frisky-leo]

Don't know if you would be interested, but maybe you would have fun getting into dancing. Weight loss this way don't have to be just for the stars, lol.

I am not that great at counting calories, but I noticed that when I was taking a dance class for fun, I trimmed up. I was in a bellydance class (trust me, you don't have to be skinny to bellydance, and you don't have to bare your belly) with quite a few women who were bigger than me, and they could do some of the moves better than me.

I had also found contra dancing to be lots of fun and a great cardio workout. You don't have to know anything about contra to start, its very beginner friendly.

 

[LittleBitMagic]

for months i have gone to curves, nutritional specialist and have worked out at home.
I cannot seem to lose any weight. I'm not like obese or anything, i'm 5'1'' and 180lbs. so i'm a bigger girl. But its getting me down the last few years so i've been trying what i can to make myself feel better. The nutritionalist / curves and working out occationally at home i have been doing similtaniously for about 9 months now and absolutally no sign of change. I dont over eat, i count my calories so my intake is about 2000 a day. My nutritionalist is stumped, i'm stumped - i'm thinking my best bet would be liposuction or something but i for sure cannot afford that.

Besides adequate exercise and protien / greens, do you guys have any suggestions? Like a specific routine of exercises or a dvd / equipment i could try?
At this point i'm willing to try pills or over the counter stuff.

A very good friend of mine tried Atkins, and she loved it.
She is actually still doing it and looking great.

The jury still seems to be out on whether it is healthy or not, but she says she has tons of energy and since she stopped sugar, she does not even crave it.
When the rare instances comes up that she does crave carbs, she eats a little more of them. For instance, wheat bread and good carbs. Not empty ones like desserts.

I am not saying that this is 'the' way to go, I would check with a doctor before trying any diet. But just offering a choice to you. Do some research, talk to the doctor and see what you think.

Good luck

 

[vin_26m]

(Had to cut this short so I didn't really re-read and edit it. It might seem repetitive or unapplicable to you specifically.)

I've been where you are.

First, you need a change in outlook on happiness. You feel lousy. You want to feel better.

Accept your bigness. Genetics has a role in appearance. Some people eat anything, do nothing, and look great. Some people bust their asses and still don't fit whatever society deems attractive. Look at your relatives. Your battle may be tougher because of things beyond your control, your genes.

A couple of hundred years ago, you would have been the hottie.

You're NOT broken and you don't need to be FIXED.

You're normal, good even (I'm guessing you don't have handicaps, you're mobile, etc.) and you want to IMPROVE.

And you're not going to magically become happy when you fit a certain dress size or see a specific number on the scale. Fit people get depressed too.

You WILL be happy when you use your body for things you enjoy, like dancing, sports and sex. Posing in front of a mirror and admiring yourself will NOT nullify the deeper issue of you not accepting yourself.

Second, you need to change the way you think of weight loss.

Weight loss is more complicated than calories consumed and burned.

If you don't eat enough, your body is genetically programmed to defend itself from starvation by STORING fat.

You have to eat until you're satiated. Maybe your body thinks you're starving when you eat 2000 calories, which makes your body store fat.

Maybe if you ate more, you would lose fat.

The way I think of it is this: if I'm hungry, that's bad because I'm storing fat. And I'm storing fat because my body thinks I'm starving.

Your body doesn't care about the number of calories you consumed in a day. Your body cares about whether you have enough calories in you at the moment.

If you have enough calories, you won't store fat. If you have too much OR TOO LITTLE, you WILL store fat.

Never be hungry. Here's how to never be hungry.

5-6 small balanced meals, equal portions of proteins and carbs, spread out every 3 hours. A portion is the size of your palm - bigger people have bigger palms and need bigger portions. Forget counting calories or points or any other crap like that. Go by size.

Even if you're not hungry when it's time to eat, eat something anyway.

If you are hungry, eat a healthy snack (a fruit, a low-fat yogurt).

Proteins you can eat include egg whites, white boneless skinless chicken/turkey, lean red meat, a can of tuna.

Carbs you can eat are brown rice, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, vegetables (in general the less processed the better).

Do not eat butter, oil, anything fried, cheese, any kind of white bread or pasta, sugary stuff like soda or fruit juice.

No empty calories (calories without nutrition value - fruits are sugary, but fruits are good because they have tons of nutrients your body uses).

In a pinch, there are decent fast food options if you look hard enough and make specifications (chicken sandwich, no mayo).

Also, stay away from "healthy" versions of regular food, ie "non-fat" really means "added sugar." Fake spreads are worse than real butter. Diet coke is worse than coke.

For activities, do something fun, that you enjoy. Stength training (which could be weightlifting or not) is good too. More muscle means higher metabolism so you're burning more calories when you're resting. Also muscle has a nice flattening/firming/shaping aspect to it.

Be healthy, feel good and have fun.

 

[fire_breeze]

You told us that you weren't losing any weight, to which I (perhaps erroneously) interpreted that you aren't losing any pounds. How about the way your clothes fit? Are they looser? Do you FEEL better, healthier?

To bottom line is that to lose weight, any kind, you have to create a caloric deficit. To do that, you should find out how much your body needs normally (for most women, it's about 2000), then to cut some calories. For most women, the recommended median is 1300 cal to about 1500. You really shouldn't go below 1200 per day, unless it's under a doctor's strict supervision.

I lost a lot of weight by eating between 1200 - 1550 calories a day (I went to sparkspeople.com) and exercising with lots of cardio. It came off slowly but surely. I also have a thyroid disorder which at times slowed down my weight loss. And I rarely get on the scale - for some this doesn't help, for me, it did.

I would stay away from pills, unless you want to line their pockets. Lipo may seem like a solution, but you will have to maintain the look and it may not resolve anything permanently.

Good luck

 

[breezyblue]

I agree that you are probably eating too many calories for weight loss. 2000 to 2500 is the generic recommendation for caloric intake for both men and women (women of course being more around 2000) who are of average size and looking to maintain their current weight and who have moderate amounts of exercise. As you are fairly petite in height you probably would be below this generic recommendation anyway even if you were not trying to lose weight. I would guess that you should be eating around 1400 or 1500 calories a day along with your exercise routine but definitely talk to your nutritionist first and make sure you still get a healthy amount of protein and fiber and iron etc.

Of course it is possible that you have something else going on that is working against you. My friend has been recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism and is having tons of trouble budging her weight even 2 or 3 pounds. You could consider getting some blood work done to rule out other factors besides just calories and exercise that are effecting your weight loss.

 

[DarkBee]

[rant]

People, please stop suggesting eating a lot less calories in order to lose weight. Let me say this first that 'calories = energy', meaning that calories run most of your body, so if you reduce the intake, you will also reduce the output. Just look at professional athletes who compete in endurance sports, like cycling or racing (ex. Tour de France or Formula 1/Indy 500): those people have to eat up to 5000 calories a day (maybe more) just to keep from passing out, and yet they are at peak physical condition (most cyclists are really slim, except of course for the legs). Because they burn so much energy, they need to restore it in the same large amounts.
Of course, you are no professional athlete, but if you start to work out, your body will demand more calorie-intake. However, in order to burn fat, the calories need to come from healthy sources, because calories and energy values from food in general come in different shapes and forms.
Processed food will only give you the wrong kind of energy and sugars, those which will send the wrong signals to the body as how fast to process the food (I forgot which was bad: slow or fast processing time), thus building up fat.

In any way you want to speed up your metabolism, so the amount of fat your body takes in is lower than the amount of fat that is burned away. Exercise and healthy food will help you with this. DO NOT drastically lower your calorie intake, this will not help you lose weight in a healthy way.

[/rant]

 

[Eilan]

DO NOT drastically lower your calorie intake, this will not help you lose weight in a healthy way.

Thank you.

 

[RuneBlade]

I'm not too familiar with curves, I was in one once a long time ago, but I don't remember seeing any weights. If you're looking for a change of pace, switch to a gym membership that has more free weights.

You'll want a higher caloric intake if you're going to be strength training with weights regularly, but probably not as much as 2000 per day. It depends on your metabolism and how much you're pushing yourself. You'll also want to watch your protein and fiber intake. The thing with building muscle is that lean muscle will help burn fat around the clock.

+1 Eilan, a good multivitamin, fish oil, and things that help you get the most nutritional value from what you're digesting will help you feel healthier all around.

 

[NippleMuncher]

People, please stop suggesting eating a lot less calories in order to lose weight. Let me say this first that 'calories = energy', meaning that calories run most of your body, so if you reduce the intake, you will also reduce the output. Just look at professional athletes who compete in endurance sports, like cycling or racing ...

The problem with this statement is that the OP is likely NOT training for the Tour de France, so a high caloric intake is excessive and only counter productive to weight loss. By no means am I suggesting starvation, or any unhealthy habits, however, without knowing what the OP does in their daily routine, there is no way to suggest an "optimum" caloric intake. 2000 calories a day is way too high for someone who sits at a desk all day with little or no other activity, yet this same caloric intake is too low for someone who does physical labor all day and/or works out on a regular basis. The OP also mentions "occasional" workouts, what does that mean? once a week? More? Less?

There is no judgment in my statements, only pointing out that we don't have enough information to say what IS right or wrong for the OP with the given information.

 

[VelvetDarkness]

Have you checked for any underlying issue like a hormonal imbalance or under-active thyroid? If you haven't had any bloods done for a while, it might be time for a general check-up.

Avoid processed food. This includes everything with white flour, white sugar or white rice. Make sure your carbs are complex, i.e. wholegrain breads/pasta, brown rice and sweeten foods with honey or raw cane sugar (I don't like artificial sweeteners myself). Avoid glucose-fructose syrup and hydrogenated oils like the plague as they're the most processed and have been identified as significant factors in obesity, high cholesterol and type II diabetes. Keep everything as simple and fresh as possible. Try and fill up on lean meats/fish, pulses, fruit and veg and cut your carb intake a little (unless you're doing a lot of exercise). View rich foods like dairy produce as fat and calorie rich. If you can kick processed foods and processed ingredients like that, you will definitely lose weight. You should also look into whether you have a food intolerance as eating foods your body can't process properly can cause weight gain.

Other, very general advice: -

Only eat when you're physically hungry.
Try to have your main meal in the middle of the day rather than the evening.
Moderate your portions so that you are physically hungry by the next mealtime.
Eat slowly, chew thoroughly, savour food and give your body's 'I'm full' signals a chance to kick in.
Avoid eating just to be sociable. Always ask yourself if you're actually hungry.
Drink 2L of water a day. Also, be aware that sometimes people snack when in reality, they're thirsty or dehydrated. Pay attention to what your body actually wants.
Be aware of stealth calories such as in wine, sauces, soft drinks etc that you might not otherwise notice you have had.
Focus on your bodyshape and how well your clothes fit rather than the number on the scales. If you exercise more you'll build muscletone which can make you feel like you're not making progress in weightloss.
Look for opportunities to do more. Take the stairs instead of the lift, walk short journeys rather than drive, walk more briskly and get your heart rate going. A pedometer can be an encouraging way to do this.

Just some thoughts. I hope they don't read as a lecture or blindingly obvious or anything.

 

[shiny5437]

DarkBee - I think you're getting fats, carbs, and calories mixed up. Yeah you need energy to 'run your body' but the point is that you're metabolising your own stores rather than supplementing with your intake.

Losing weight is obvious but people overcomplicate it. When people say they can't lose weight, unless it is a test-confirmed metabolic problem, they are generally just kidding themselves about their intake and activity level.

Eat less, do more - can't argue with the 1st law of thermodynamics.

At the moment I'm about 6lbs over my fighting weight because I don't do any exercise and just eaten a cheese butty for lunch.

 

[Eilan]

FWIW, a lot of people tend to underestimate their daily caloric intake and overestimate their daily activity levels.

 

[WriterDom]

for months i have gone to curves, nutritional specialist and have worked out at home.
I cannot seem to lose any weight. I'm not like obese or anything, i'm 5'1'' and 180lbs. .

You have a BMI of 34.01. This BMI puts you under the body classification of "Obese" according to the CDC (US Center for Disease Control & Prevention).

 

[saskatuna]

You have a BMI of 34.01. This BMI puts you under the body classification of "Obese" according to the CDC (US Center for Disease Control & Prevention).

yup, that was helpful.

 

[vin_26m]

BMI is bogus.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square.

In the same way, an obese person has high BMI, but a person with high BMI is not necessarily obese (ie, athletes).

 

[shiny5437]

Yeah the BMI goes out the window for the minority of people with large percentage of muscle mass. That muscle mass isn't hiding under that beer belly though - if you got a high BMI you probably need to lose some weight.

It doesn't matter where the concept of BMI comes from it's what's done with the measurements when fitting it into the rest of the evidence. Like these guys have done:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60318-4/abstract

You could more accurately measure body fat using electrical impedance measures etc but it won't change the resulting recommendation of eat healthily and get regular exercise.

 

[catnip42]

You might look into Weight Watchers. I joined 1 1/2 years ago and it has been great. I have lost 78 pounds and am still trying to lose about 20 more. The program is completely do-able. I have learned great healthy eating habits and portion control. By the way...I'm 5'6" and at my current weight of 170, I'm still considered above my ideal weight, so at 5'1" and 180 pounds it would very probably be considered obese.