Why the f*** can’t I lose weight? I’m doing everything right

[Sorryagain]

Postmeno, 55, want to lose half a stone. I don’t like my weight. I’ve always worked out, done lots of heavy-ish weights and eaten healthily but in the last month I’ve really upped weights a lot. I’ve also

• kept to a low calorie count (20% off my TEE - track food most days. Try to keep to 3 meals but some days I do graze but not over cal limit
• upped protein most days to around 100-120g a day
• upped walking to try to do 7.5-10k a day
• added at least one HITT class onto 3 days weight training
• drink more water (my weakness)

i don’t drink, I eat v little sugar and almost no white stuff

the scales have moved by 1lb! I’m so fucked off.

I know post meno it’s hard but this is ridiculous.

I feel stronger, though, and I sense more muscle definition. But I don’t believe muscle will weigh more and keep me at this weight

thoughts? It’s v un motivating

I’m 5ft 2

I meditate every day. I do qi gong. I go dancing. I love being in nature.

I’ve told you about one strand of my life as it’s relevant to this post.

Half a stone is such a small amount of weight, even at your height. If you did lose it, do you think you really would feel magically different about yourself?

Yes your calories are probably too high for weight loss but less than what you’re currently eating would be miserable. I am on 1500 for weight loss currently (had about 20kg to lose when I started) and I wouldn’t want any less than that, it wouldn’t be sustainable. And it would be miserable!

Every time I need to lose a few pounds I’m surprised at how much I have to cut back in terms of calories, so that’s worth looking at again. I see you’re doing HIIT but unless you’re doing heavy resistance training I wouldn’t take much notice of the whole muscle weighing more than fat thing - it’s true but you won’t be piling on the muscle that way.

Stress? Exercise? Eating in a deficit and doing significant exercise can put your body into stress mode. Lack of sleep can also be a killer for weight loss. Prolonged deficits can also put your body into weight defence mode as it essentially mimics an environment where food is scarce so why would your body drop fat. Your body doesn’t know your fridge is full.

That seems high.

I'm 5ft, fairly active, in my 30s and 1300cal is my maintenance amount. To lose weight I need to be under that.

Remember 1lb is about 3500cal deficit.

This thread has so many conflicting pieces of advice. I guess to make money the healthy living industry keeps needing to come with new ideas and all the different ideas on here show how women are fed a constant stream of messages to keep us on our toes and keep us investing in diets, gyms and apps.

There have so far been posts saying: cut calories, up calories, fast, don’t fast, eat loads of meat, move to plant based, lift more weights, do more cardio, download this app, live your life and ignore all apps and advice.

It’s no poster’s fault but it says something about the messages women are fed about what’s right.

I'm not sure about this.

There are claims that weights can be a better fat burner than cardio given the same calorie deficit, but achieving the same calorie deficit with weights is far harder, as it burns many fewer calories in the same amount of time.

It really isn’t. If the experience is miserable on this allowance, you’re eating the wrong foods.

You answered your own question OP. calorie counting “most days” isn’t going to work. “Trying” to not snack means you are snacking. You do it all days, track every day. more calories are sneaking in, so do the steps you outline properly and your approach will work. Your walk is something you’re saying you try to do, but it’s not a high number and you don’t say if it’s consecutive. If you walk for an hour in one go (rather than focus on the steps accumulated over a day) you will burn more calories in the walk.

Ok, its 7 on a Saturday morning and I missed a bit of your posts! Shoot me!

What Im saying is it is often said glibly that someone who is not losing weight is 'putting on muscle' when its very unlikely unless you've been serious body building for around 6 months or so which now you'll say you have and its probably in another post, so shoot me again!

That's why any information coming from "the healthy living industry" should be ignored in favour of advice from the medical profession which is firstly, scientific, and secondly, has nothing to sell you.

Chill.

Yes, I hear you. But I can honestly say that I’ve also been working really hard at the above.

Lucky for you 1500 is a weight loss intake. My maintenance is 1550, so to lose lb a week is 1000k.

Im perfectly fine thanks, Im not the one who got arsey because I missed a bit of your posts.

I’m peri but for me I can only drop weight by reducing my carb intake. I also don’t go by my scales and go by how my clothes fit and how I feel. Ive been going to the gym regularly for 6 months and can tell I’ve lost weight even though I don’t own scales to back it up

It may be muscle.
Your description of yourself is close to perfect at 55, fit, strong, health, well done on keeping yourself strong and healthy.

Well if you count lucky as being so enormously obese to start with that my maintenance calories were high, then yes I suppose.

I didn’t get arsey. I just suggested reading my posts, which I think is reasonable if you’re going to comment? It’s a bit boring for me to keep having to repeat myself.

The only way to access your fat stores is to drop your insulin. You cannot access fat with insulin in your bloodstream because it is designed to make your body hold on to fat.

To drop insulin, you have to remove carbohydrates from your food as that is the trigger for insulin. This is why the carnivore/paleo/keto diet works. It drops the insulin through the floor. You can eat fatty meat and eggs etc and you lose the fat because the insulin is down, your pancreas is having a rest and you start to burn your own fat to fuel your body.

Calories in, calories out works up to a point but if you are not losing the stored fat, it's because the veggies and carbs etc. that you are eating, even in tiny amounts, is triggering your insulin and you are in fat storying mode.

When you start to remove the carbs, you use the carbs in the form of glucose from you bloodstream first, then you use the stored supply in your liver (that is held there to manage the bits between meals) and when that is depleted, you use the long term storage your body has built up. This is when you go deep into ketosis and really start shifting it.

A bit of intermittent fasting along the way will accelerate it but don't overdo it as it will make you feel rotten until your tissue is 'fat adapted' i.e., it can burn ketones really easily.

Anybody on a vegetarian diet that can't lose weight, needs to look at store cattle or overwintered sheep. They feed them vegetable matter to get weight on them for market or for the next round of pregnancies. Animals that eat 98% low carb, leopards, cheetahs etc., have very little stored fat.

Animals that can only eat low carb food but still gain weight, such as seals, have to catch their food but lie about doing nothing in between in order to keep that fat stored on their body.

Look to what you are eating that is releasing insulin @Sorryagain , remove it in favour of foods that do not and you will shift the stored fat. A bit of intermittent fasting will accelerate that and remember that you don't really start to properly burn it until the stores are depleted from your liver so three or four days.

I think people (not just women) have very easily bought into a narrative that you dont need to cut down what you're eating in order to lose weight, that calorie couting and deficits dont work

Its convenient to believe that, I used to believe that because a lot of us are in denial about needing to take account of what goes in so it is in deficit to what comes out. But its not true

So the consumer is somewhat to blame by wanting to believe a fantasy.

Considerably older and considerably fatter. I have ruined myself with many years of dieting ( thanks Mum) I don't like the way I look but I simply can not put myself through deprivation and bingeing any more.

Yes point taken, I was in the same position as well I think I was losing weight on about 2k calories a day!

Do you even need to lose weight though? Do you actually have too much fat in your body? Are you looking for something unrealistic? (Eg weighing what you did at 21)?

as a woman of the same age as you, I see too many women under-nourish themselves in a bid to be skinny

much better to think about building muscle and being strong imo

to grow muscle you need to eat really well, not cut out too much.

for reference I am the same age as you, and eat 2000-2500 cals a day, bmi of 23 and no six pack but think most women not meant to have six packs anyway

that includes treats, cake, occasional glass of wine, but lots of “normal” meals that include pasta or rice, chicken or met, lots of veg and sauce

eating well, and enough, whilst doing lots of exercise, had made my muscles bigger (noticeably so) which has upped my metabolism

so I can now eat quite a lot

i think you need to move your thinking around to how can you gain muscle and strength and how to nourish yourself well for that

on such a big calorie deficit, you will be breaking down any muscle you have been building

but maybe go and talk to a PT or nutritionist

God there's some bollocks on this thread. Carnivore diet ffs! I'm sure OP will love a side of atherosclerosis with her weight loss. Young men who live at the gym might be able to get away with that shit for awhile but older women need to look after their gut and their arteries - and that means eating fibre and healthy oils.

But muscle weighs more than fat! No way in hell is a 50+yo menopausal woman in a calorie deficit stacking on so much muscle in a few weeks, that's its just replaced a whole heap of fat she lost. Did any of you posting that ever try to bodybuild in your 50s?

Anyway OP, I just wanted to say I'm 53, considerably taller and heavier than you, and also lift heavy weights, and I need to stick to around 1200 a day for good weight loss. Menopause has slowed my metabolism down to nothing. Good luck!