I cannot lose weight

[KeeG8181]

Not the best day to post this as it's Xmas day and I've eaten my bodyweight in treats!

I feel awfully down, I cannot for the life of me lose weight. I went back to my prebirth weight in 2019 after my son was born but since then I've gained around 3 stone. Lockdown hasn't helped and I'm really starting to feel disgusting. I am on the hormonal coil and have been since December 19, since this was put in I've not had a period, I've got terrible skin and I can't lose weight, I have been eating so so healthy for the past 2 weeks, pre coil I would've seen a significant loss but not anymore. I could cry!

Could it be the coil as I know weight gain wasn't mentioned when i had it.

Hormonal contraceptives absolutely can cause weight gain, and make it hard to lose.

But you've only been "eating healthy" for a fortnight, and say you've massively over eaten today. Your coil may be an issue, your diet is probably a bigger one.

"Eat healthy" and exercise for six months so that you are definitely consuming fewer calories than you use. If you're still not losing weight, then see about changing your contraceptive.

Eating your body weight in sweets won't help.
Can you not lose weight or are you eating too much therefore cannot contain your weight.
Log your calories.

Contraception can cause weight gain via increased appetite, but not weight gain in and itself. Its only been 2 weeks so its not surprising you aren't noticing many differences yet! It depends whether your appetite is tangled up in something else ie emotional eating, anxiety related etc which needs addressing before being successful; or whether it's a case of being honest about what you're eating as it might be more than you realise, and being more active.

Hormonal imbalances can play a big part In ability to loose weight and that is likely playing havoc with your skin too. I recommend speaking to a nutritionist who should be able to help.

If you are on a budget, try the the student clinic at CNM (college of naturopathic medicine).

The only thing that worked for me was intermittent fasting .. have a Google .. it's worked and I've kept it off

It's not just about eating healthily, you have to watch portion size too.
As I've got older (I'm mid 30s) I realised I have to actually be hungry to lose weight.

I really rate intermittent fasting. I do 16:8 and I find it really works for me.

I blamed lack of weight loss on my coil too, but the reality was I was still eating too much even if it was 'healthy'!

I recommend the book 'Why we eat (too much)' by Andrew Jenkinson. I've struggled to keep my weight in check since menopause but succeeded in gradually getting back to a healthy BMI following the principles in this book.

Eating fewercalories than we need is really hard for lots of us.

How far outside the healthy range are you? Getting back there could be a better focus to start with.

I always find when I start eating better and exercising it takes a couple of weeks before I start losing and then I see the difference

There’s great support on the weight loss chat board.

CICO. Weigh and track every single thing you eat in mfp. Don't use any of the entries in there already. Most of them are wrong or outdated. weigh it every single time even if you think it's roughly the same. I mean everything. Including oils. I weigh and track the same salad I have for lunch every day even despite the whole thing totalling less than 200 calories. I weigh every lentil.

Christmas eating isnt going to help. Two weeks of healthy eating also isnt fantastic - it isnt long term enough. Certainly not to shift 3 stone. You need a lifestyle change.

That said, I had the hormonal coil out for this reason. I had the copper coil put in. It did help with bloating but I was still overweight. I upped the exercise, and am still working on healthy eating choices (outside of christmas).

I weigh every lentil

Really?!

It is not necessary to weigh every salad ingredient every time.

It's twice as hard to lose weight than gain it, start again 2 weeks is no time for results.
If it took 2 years to put on it'll take awhile for you to lose it.

I empathise OP, it’s so hard.

2 weeks is not very long at all, and with Xmas in the way I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As someone else said, it takes time for weight to go on and it also takes time for it to come back off.

Google what your BMR is, subtract as many calories from that as is manageable, and eat that each day. You’ll start to see progress and that’ll motivate you to continue. Good luck!

OP- I've just lost a stone in the last 3 months. That's a pound a week so not exactly quickly.

But the key is that I've made changes that enhance my life anyway - I'm doing more exercising including weights so my body is more toned and I'm happier with my body shape even if my weight hasn't changed that much. Plus I've now adopted different eating habits that I'm happy with and can sustain, and feel better for it.

I couldn't lose weight until I'd stopped actively trying to do it and just saw it as making changes to make my life better.

Have you tried my fitness pal the only way I succeeded was logging calories- I'd thought I was eating healthily but soo wasn't 😩

I’m similar to you in that whenever I’ve had hormonal contraceptives, my weight has been significantly higher. Whenever I’m off them, my weight is a lot less and within the same half a stone parameter. This has been happening for 20 years.
Ditch the hormonal coil and review in 6 months x

In so much as I weigh out 20g of puy lentils for my salads