How can my metabolism be this fucked?

[tenbob]

Yes, I have thyroid disease, but this is just ridiculous

I’m breastfeeding, which Google tells me should burn around 500 calories a day
I exercise most days, which my heart rate monitor tells me burns an average of 400 calories

But I have been struggling to lose my pregnancy weight, so thought I must have been kidding myself about my diet
So I’ve been doing one of those meal delivery services, where they bring me everything I eat for a day.

It’s set at 1400 calories a day, Ive followed it religiously. Literally nothing else has passed my lips

After 2 weeks, I’ve lost… 1lb. ONE POUND
So that means my BMR must be 900 calories a day? Is that even possible?

I think she's been exercising and watching her food for three months, but started the meal deliveries two weeks ago as she was worried she was underestimating calories.

Your TSH needs to be very low. My thyroid produces virtually no thyroid hormone if it’s own - my GP was amazed I was still conscious when he saw how crap my levels were before diagnosis! - if your thyroid isn’t working well then there’s no point in your TSH being above 1 or 2 as your thyroid can’t do anything about it. The TSH is your body shouting “make more thyroid hormones!” so ideally you want it saying nothing because it’s getting everything it needs.

That’s quite the list of questions..!

Fresh fitness food
I had a discount code for the first couple of weeks but it’s about the same as supermarket shop plus a couple of meals out, plus I’m not buying coffee etc out
They deliver daily, I wake up to a little cool bag on my doorstep with all my food for the day
some of the packaging is reusable, some is recyclable, some goes in the bin
I live with DH and 2 kids. We have a house full of food, and I’m cooking for the rest of them, but I am only eating what is sent for me plus drinking lots of water and peppermint tea

DS2 is 6 months old
i started exercising when he was 6 weeks and was surprised to not see much weight loss, so gradually reduced calories until I got to around 1200-1400 a day
After a couple of months of that, I had still hardly shifted any weight, assumed I must have been inadvertently eating more than I thoughts, so started on the delivery option and have still lost nothing

hence my absolute frustration and ranting here

I have hashimotos thyroid disease and don't lose weight unless I eat less that 1200 a day.

Same as PP. I stubbornly hung on to the last 3/4

What types of meals are you getting? Can you see a dietician for personalised advice? I'm not in the UK so not sure how much training on nutrition your GPs have.

I have hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's and recently saw a dietician who advised I need to do high protein (like way more than what I usually eat), moderate fat and low carb. She explained the science behind insulin and what happens to the body when eating carbs at every meal.

I found it less overwhelming to just listen to one person's advice. Specifically someone who was trained in that field and is up to date on the latest research etc.

Hashimotos here as well

Is that 1200 with or without exercising?

I wonder if I could drop the calories if I didn’t have to exercise, and could then shift the weight a bit
but I need to exercise for my MH

Its without exercise
I track it on the nutracheck app which says I need 1400 but I don't lose any or just a pound a month type thing, unless I go down to 1200.

Oops, posted too soon. I clung on to the last 10lbs or so until I stopped breastfeeding at 18 months. I was only feeding once a day by then but still didn't lose it until I completely finished. Then it dropped off within about 3 months. I remember I was going to a wedding just before I stopped breastfeeding and I really wanted to get back to my previous size and although I dieted and exercised I couldn't lose it. Once I stopped feeding it came off with no effort. I'm a few years on now and slimmer than I was pre-pregnancy.

I consistently lose on 1200 calories, above that by even a hundred and it becomes hit and miss for me.

I also stop losing when I exercise more intensely. I do lay down muscle pretty quickly and I also retain a lot more water when I exercise.

I also find weightloss stalls when I’m tired.

And lastly, I definitely found it harder to lose when breastfeeding!

All that to say- don’t lose heart. Maybe try just doing your walking for a week, see if that rests your body a bit and enables it to let go of some excess water and/or fat?

Unlike pp I gained quite a lot of weight when I stopped breastfeeding dd2. Plus felt like my hormones had gone crazy. Now on to dd3 and weight loss has been very slow, if non existent yet again. Used to be 9st before pregnancies, now hover around 11st 2 and seem to be stuck there. I don’t exercise as much as you though. I did lose a little bit with intermittent fasting, but that has still plateaued around 11st 1. As far as I’m aware I don’t have thyroid issues, but I don’t want to see my gp as they will just say ‘eat less move more’ blah blah blah!
i do wonder if you need to eat more than 1400 though if you’re bf and doing all that exercise, aren’t you exhausted?

Read Why We Eat (Too Much) by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. He explains exactly how people end up like this

Oh no OP! I know the feeling, it feels almost super human to being holding on to extra weight AND be supposedly burning hundreds of extra calories a day at the same time. It’s probably your metabolism trying to “take care” of you to make sure you have reserves for emergency but it doesn’t really feel that way.

You might want to this podcast episode on calories, it explains why CICO isn’t all it seems (start is a bit dry but it gets really good ) it might be reassuring! The trouble with calories

OP

A few years ago I took part in a study at a university...my BMR was 1050...so 900 sadly may be possible.

I hate to say it but I’m hypothyroid, have been since my 20’s and am now 50. I’ve tried everything. I even trained for a triathlon and just about lost 2lbs. The chap next to me at the start had lost nearly 3stone. I just keep going, eating carefully (gluten free now too for the last 5 years) and exercising. Still over weight but fitter than 80 % of my friends. Try not to let it file your life, but easier said than done.

Another Maintenance Phase fan!

I love Mike and Aubrey (although I’m not totally on board with all of their takes on things…)

Yes! They’re great aren’t they? They are a nice counterbalance to the usual health wisdom, agreed that they don’t get it right all the time, but they do a better job than most at pushing back against the morally certain zealotry of wellness culture.

I’d look into insulin resistance. Your post could have been written by me after my 3rd child. Nothing I did helped shift the weight, and I got so over people giving me the kind of advice you have had in this thread. At one stage I had a severe gastro illness for 8 days and would have been lucky to hold down 300 calories a day. In that 8 days I managed to gain 2 pounds.
Going on medication for insulin resistance was life changing. The weight loss was slow, but steady, without me actually having to do anything. I could just eat like a normal healthy person. If you were also exercising etc on top you would probably find it faster.

Slightly random but have you done the power zone training on the peloton?
I heard a few people say that they lost weight by doing that rather than the other rides as it's more steady endurance (doesn't knacker you out as much either!)
I'm doing a lot of power zone endurance rides at the minute and enjoy them

Hi do you mean insulin or metformin? I have thyroid disease which I take Levothyroxine for. I eat on average 1100 cals a day and struggle to maintain, never mind lose. I was diagnosed ‘pre- diabetic’ a few years ago. Nothing prescribed. I’m wondering if I have insulin resistance too.

I took metformin, although for people who don’t lose weight on that (I needed a high dose), Ozempic seems to work brilliantly.
I think if you can’t lose weight no matter what you do, there is obviously something amiss!