To think I should be losing more weight?!

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I’ve been on a significant lifestyle/diet overhaul since Jan, ive given up smoking, joined a gym with a personal trainer, and currently aim for around 1500 kcal per day.

I go to the gym 4 x per week, sometimes more. Of this two sessions are high intensity spin, one is body pump (weights), one hiit work out and one hour per week with the personal trainer.

I eat 1500 kcals most days. Occasionally on a weekend I have 1800. I track it all on MFP.

I started at 19stone. I’ve lost 1 stone.

I have had 2 children and since I hit 30 I cannot lose it. This is the most I’ve ever lost, usually it’s around 5lb and no more.

100 calories from a chocolate biscuit is not the same as 100 calories from an egg. This will make a difference

What the hell? What does this even mean?!

Dropping 2 dress sizes is a massive achievement, well done! What about instead of measuring your progress using your weight, you take measurements instead? Also I find taking progress photos really help put into perspective how well you are really doing

Stupid maybe but what helped me was fasting. So stick to the same cals but finish eating early, or move breakfast back
I fasted 14hrs and ate within the other 10 and it helped a lot

killinginthenameof, your body uses different foods, in different ways. This isn't plucked out of nowhere, it's been shown time and time again in valid scientific studies.

OP, stop being hung up on weight and just consider your measurements and your appearance. Do you have your body fat measured also?

You may not actually be eating enough food to be honest. You should be eating back your calories.

People should be banned from posting this twaddle. She needs to eat less to lose weight.

When you stop smoking your metabolism is affected, was you a heavy smoker?

I’d also get your bloods done to check for thyroid , at 18st and eating 1500 / 1800 a day you should be losing 4lb a month at the very least.

I was 13.8st and lost 2st on 1500 a day using MFP with NO exercise.

Is it or is it not the case that you can eat too little, which makes your body hold onto food and not burn fat, as I have always heard this to be true? I am not saying this is happening to the OP as her calorie intake isn’t a crazy one, but if you’re on something like 600 calories a day wouldn’t it be?

People saying OP is eating too much or too little have absolutely no way of knowing this without knowing her TDEE. Literally the only way to lose weight is by being in a calorie defecit. Where those calories come from matter for health but not so much for weight loss. It’s highly unlikely that 1500 calories isn’t a weight loss intake at 19 stone - the body would burn much more than that even without the excercise unless OP was totally sedentary which she isn’t. When I started my ‘diet’ I was 15 stone and I’ve lost three eating 2000 calories a day!
OP please check out Team RH, Rebelfit or Scott Babtie- that all teach about calorie defecit and nutrition without demonising any food group.

I don't believe you can ever eat too little. If I hardly eat for a few days then the weight drops off me.
I don't know where the 'you need to eat' comes from but it certainly Isn't true for me.
I also lost a atone in two weeks when I was ill & hardly ate.

Does anyone have numbers for how much metabolism "reduces" in response to low cal diets? It's a common claim, but I can't find numbers. I bet the change to BMR or TDEE is super small, like 60 kcal at very most, which is like 1 small tangerine.

Same with saying "all calories not created equal". I suspect the net maximum possible effect on body is negligible, or like 60 kcal a day - very small.

Someone I sometimes work with is quite plump, I notice that she mirrors what I eat when we travel. I wonder what would really happen if she shadowed me completely, did all my activity + same meals. I don't think she'd be so plump, anyway.

Is it or is it not the case that you can eat too little, which makes your body hold onto food and not burn fat, as I have always heard this to be true?

I have an underactive thyroid. My body is predisposed to store what I eat as fat, because my thyroid thinks my body is starving and the less I eat the more it will think this. So I have to eat enough to lose weight and it can certainly be the case that I can eat too little to lose weight. I take lifelong medication which controls the symptoms but doesn’t cure the condition by making the thyroid behave normally. .

What do your macros look like? I could eat 1500 cals per day and not lose weight if I was getting the majority of my calories from carbs due to the insulin resistance associated with PCOS. I lost about three stone by changing what I was eating and not significantly altering how much I was eating.

Great changes for health, look for the long term trend, not the quick fix. And I would caution against lowering calories too much more just yet 1. It will be less sustainable (most people crack, this is not just lack of willpower, but intense biological pressure). 2. At 18 stone I suspect 1500 calories is already on the low side, especially since you are moderately or very active.

Everything I read about PCOS, hypothyroidism (many conditions folk link to weight gain): they don't make calories work any different in your body, they just make it harder to be active or increase emotions/cravings. These lead to less exercise/more comfort eating, so the calorie needs/intake are skewed.

I'm waiting for that all-elusive evidence that an active 19 stone person could really eat only 1500 kcal avg/day and be physiologically incapable of losing weight.

Everything I read about PCOS, hypothyroidism (many conditions folk link to weight gain): they don't make calories work any different in your body, they just make it harder to be active or increase emotions/cravings. These lead to less exercise/more comfort eating, so the calorie needs/intake are skewed.

You need to read about it in a bit more depth.

Watch James Smith on Facebook. He's a no nonsense pt who explains well how calories work.

I lost 6 stone fairly easily. It is just calories in v calories out.

You may not actually be eating enough food to be honest. You should be eating back your calories

Do people actually believe this shit? I can't imagine anyone can realistically tell someone they need to eat more to lose weight and mean it.😱

Op, there is something odd going on here. At 1500 calories a day you should be losing weight a lot faster than you are based on your current weight. As such, I know you say you log and measure everything, but I think you must be eating or drinking a lot more than you think you are when you average it over a week.

It could be in your drinks, it could be just little snacks, popping things in your mouth, it could be having a little extra and not acknowldging it.

I suspect your calorie counting is off somewhere.

I weigh less than 19 stones and don't do nearly as much exercise and my TDEE is 2116. If the OP's TDEE is similar to mine then 1500 calories is a 600+ cal deficit which should be enough to see a shift on the scales.

I'm doing a combination of fasting and low carbing which is working without much increase in exercise (which I'm gradually building in). Perhaps look at carb intake and see where you could make an adjustment?

Congratulations OP. You've made some great changes and have already lapped those who haven't bothered. My advice would be to have an honest review of whats going in, especially sugary drinks and nibbles.

Just a side point and not a criticism of OP, but it annoys me when people bring out the 'muscle weighs more than fat' stuff. You need to be pretty damn muscly and eat a heck of a lot of protein for this to apply. I'm talking body builder, rugby player etc. In normal circumstances, i.e. non elite athlete, this is an excuse and a bit of a cop-out.

I would agree, it's very doubtful this is about muscle mass due to the ops weight, she'd have to be going some for that to be the case and be rivalling Geoff capes in appearance, much more realistic to assume she's simply consuming more than she thinks.

@serendippitty thank you for an informative post, I have hypothyroidism too, how on earth do I work out what the right amount of calories is then if the thyroid is screwing with it?

Are you both not on medication to make your thyroids perform normally?

Have a look at intuitive eating OP. I am not a nutritionist (like everyone else on this thread giving you advice) but I’m pretty sure that you will do permanent damage to your metabolism eating very low calories for an extended period of time, meaning you will end up in a cycle of yo-yo dieting. Keep exercising and eat nourishing food - do not drop down to 1200 or 1000 calories, that is shocking low, especially for an 18 stone very active person. Look at LauraThomasPHD on Instagram - an actual registered nutritionist with a PhD.

lljk I’m incredibly active. 21 minute 5km runner, get up at 4.30am to train for a couple of hours before work kind of active. PCOS doesn’t effect my activity levels at all! It does however mean that if I gorge on bread, I will very easily put on weight!