To think I’ll be stuck at 16 stone forever

[justmeandthedogs]

I’m in the process of losing weight and since the start of the year I’ve lost about 13lbs.

But I seem to be in a loop. I’ll hit 16 stone 0.3 on the scales and then go back up to 16 stone 4, then go back down, then back up. It’s like an annoying cycle.

I eat well:

breakfast - yoghurt with berries and sometimes a drizzle of honey. On low protein days I’ll add some skyr.

lunch - something from home. Usually soup, a salad or a bit of meat with some veg.

dinner - again something prepped. Can be another big salad, cottage pie, pasta bake.

I eat 1550 calories a day, which is a deficit for my height and weight. I go to the gym twice a week (under the direction of a PT, to lift weights), try to run 3 times a week but I’m waiting on some new running shoes, and the other two days a week I’ll walk 10k steps minimum. I try to drink 4 litres of water a day at least.

my clothes fit better but the scale just won’t change 😥 do I just accept I’m stuck here?

What I find most interesting about this is that in barely 2 hours, there are over 200 responses about weight loss. Many of which are contradictory with each other. And many more openly accusing OP of being a liar or deluded.

It is fascinating that so many women are so utterly fixated with having to be smaller.

Always amazes me, it’s the TDEE! Why are people fixated on a number that simply asks them age, height, weight and a very basic question about exercise (what is ‘moderate’ anyway!).

This its just a rough starting point. You try it and if you pass out 10 times a day you increase your calories and if you don't lose weight after a while you decrease them.

The OP has discovered the TDEE has overestimated her need for calories and she'll need to reduce them. That sucks but having such terrific access to food that you need to strictly ration yourself is a first world problem.

Agree with PP to vary your diet by day to average 1500. Some days 1300, some 1700 (eg on a running /weights day). You might find it brings a whoosh. Good luck

I beg to differ, according to my apple watch I burned 1950 kcal on Monday 1300 on Tuesday and 1960 and yesterday. Hardly insignificant and I would find it impossible to eat the 4000kcal required to gain weight.

You dont say how old you are.. but I'm in my early fifties and can't move a damn ounce unless i fast. It is the only thing that works for me. We are a large family of females on my mums side and the majority of us have weight issues. I've watched my cousins eat salad and go to the gym for years and nothing changes for them. Fasting does work, it's hard to begin with but really quite easy once you get into it. You can still eat your favourite foods if you really want to eg i fast all day on a Saturday and we either go out or have a lower calorie takeaway like chow mein and a few glasses of wine. Last year i got married again and shifted a stone in a half in 10 weeks.

Perhaps you are gaining muscle and that's why the scales aren't shifting?

Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Lots of meat and a tiny bit of salad for lunch. Omelette for supper. Water or black coffee in between.

You have to consider all the carbs you are taking in, including the lactose in milk.

Think about animals in the wild. Those that eat meat (even fatty meat) stay lean. Animals that eat carbs all day but don't burn off calories, such as store cattle, sheep on turnips etc., will pack on chub. That's why farmers put animals on tight grazing (lots to eat and they don't need to walk far burning off calories to get it) to put on fat prior to slaughter. Everything that isn't meat, butter and eggs pretty much has carbs.

I lost nine kilos on the paleo diet. Meat, butter (fat doesn't make you fat - your body burns it as keto fuel) and eggs and a bit of fasting to really knock my insulin production down and get into ketosis) will have it falling off you and because the only way to remove the fat is by burning it (carbon basically) you will have breath like a rotting fox! There is no other way of doing it. You have to burn your own stores and your metabolism can't access it in the presence of insulin because the point of insulin is to store calories as fat for a rainy day.

Your body uses glucose from your circulation first, then the stores in your liver and when that is both depleted, it starts on your visceral and body stores. This is why intermittent fasting works. It allows the above to happen.

Anything that releases insulin will stop it and once insulin is released, it stays up for hours sometimes. This is why it's so damn hard to lose weight.

I’d like that to be the case! I find running is easier (even if I am still slow), and I do feel a lot fitter within myself.

I work so I can’t cook bacon and eggs every morning, and the complete lack of fibre would do me in!

I can't help OP but felt the need to comment, just for solidarity really! I feel your pain, I really do.

The only thing I will say is maybe don't focus on the scales at all for a few weeks/months as they can either make/break the day ahead (that's what I find anyway) and just keep on with your healthy lifestyle. Keep logging your deficit, keep up the protein and fibre intake, drink loads, make sure you get good quality sleep as much as possible, keep walking, keep weight training.

Someone mentioned the 'set point' in the thread and I've read 2 interesting books, I think the author was Dr Andrew Jenkinson. The books explain the concept and it makes sense.

It's beyond frustrating, I get it but you are doing all the right things so at some point, your body will react and the weight will come off. Best of luck!

I don’t know why people are being dicks. OP I believe you. To be honest it sounds like you eat a varied, nutritious diet and you exercise. On that basis, does the number on the scales matter?

Because bodies don't create muscle from nothing to start with; you need to be eating at maintenance or above (on a planned programme) to be physically able to create new muscle. Secondly you have to be training in a specific way for hypertrophy - just lifting weights won't grow more muscle, but it will increase overall strength (due to postural improvement, better connection to muscle chains, better awareness of muscle activation etc) and also maintain existing muscle which is extremely important for women especially going through peri.
Women don't lend themselves to growing muscle generally due to lower testosterone levels which is why it's hard to build for us. There is absolutely a phenomena of newbie gains where a woman with low muscle mass can gain some when she starts lifting even in a calorie deficit but it's only going to be a couple of pounds worth and doesn't persist beyond the first few months.

Links -
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/muscle-caloric-deficit/
https://blog.nasm.org/calorie-surplus-female-athletes-research
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/hypertrophy

The 2024 Food Foundation report showed that obesity and overweight caused nearly 40,000 deaths among UK adults in 2021 and are now the leading risk factor for years lived with disability in the UK.

Maybe women (and men) just prefer not to be dead or disabled?

I’m starting to think it doesn’t. If I feel good and can do more in the gym/when running, that might need to be enough for now.

Honestly OP running slowly really doesn’t do much at all. In my experience it’s a lot of effort for little/very slow gain! Building muscle is the way to go and cutting calories right down.

Like fuck did she put on a stone of muscle 😆 that's literally impossible. She got hungrier from all the exercise and ate more.

Going against the grain a little bit but depending on how long you've been in deficit, could you actually be not eating enough and your body is in starvation mode and clinging on?

I've also been on a bit of a journey and am now tracking calories with a decifict but prior to that I was exercising loads but not calorie counting. The scales didn't move much but my body composition did and my shape had changed with clothes fitting differently. Do you have abody composition machine at the gym you've been using? Instead of the scales changing you might notice changes in % body fat/% muscle instead?

It's really disheartening when you don't see the numbers change though, completely get it. And everyone's metabolism is different. I'm short, squat and find it really hard to lose weight. It's not always as easy as calories in vs calories out so don't get too discouraged and keep going. Can you discuss it with your PT?

I enjoy it. I’ve gone from a 10 minute km to about 8:30, and trending down.

Take the win. If you feel better and look a bit better then good for you. Where do you see this ending anyway? Once you get to 14 stone or 12 stone or whatever are you planning to say job done and kick back? Just treat it a journey to better heath in general and consider weight loss and shape as a side show.

And by the way you do realise that the more slowly you loose weight the more 'permanent' it will be.

That said I have had some good rapid results from 1 meal per day and 48 hour fasting, but I am in a slightly different place to you.

Then you have to get inventive. Cold hard boiled eggs.

You can do this or don't. Commit to it or don't. Losing weight is hard I get it. But in a year you could look back and realise that you nearly let the fact that you work (and didn't bother to find workarounds) keep you at 16 stone.

Have a look at anything by Dr. Andrew Chaffee or Dr. Ken Berry for inspiration though (and eye candy).

It is. That's not the problem.
How long has your stall lasted? Sorry if you've said elsewhere.

I recall reading something about internal "set-points" which lead to these intermittent plateaus during weight loss (in Second Nature info I think). Your body is adjusting to the weight loss you have achieved and responding differently.

Dont give up - maybe focus on measurements not kg for a few weeks, tweak your diet a little to keep it "fresh" and hopefully you'll slip off the plateau soon :)

I'll be honest I haven't read half the comments as I couldn't get passed the 'you must not be logging calories accurately' or are lying thing alot of posters said.

Sometimes calories in calories out doesn't work! I know that as I'm currently stuck in that position - I'm eating 1600 cals (accurately and meticulous logged) and do exercise 4 days a week at least. Not losing a lb, then going up and down the same sodding 2lbs. For the last 6-9 months. Its frustrating as hell!

I'm trying to train myself to not look at the scale but how I feel in fitness and how my clothes fit (sometimes hard as I've not dropped a dress size in about a year now). But having a life of always looking at scales its really hard not to do that.

Have you thought about seeing a nutritionist or can your PT help with nutrition? I'm seeing someone to help look at macros and the breakdown of what I eat to see if its too much carbs or sugar etc that is causing issues. This weeks change is drink more water - lets see if that helps.

It is much, much more complicated than that.

@justmeandthedogshave you read “Why We Eat Too Much” by Andrew Jenkinson?

Some real misinformation on here, and it’s just misleading the op. She’s not going to lose weight, if she beleives it.

its not feasible to maintain a 16 stone body mass on 1500 cals a day, unless bed or chair bound, the op says she runs 3 times a week. And is very active. It’s simply not feasible.

it is also not feasible to build muscle whilst in a defecit unless she has a high protein intake, ie over 2g per kg of body weight, and does heavy resistance training, neither applies here.

op, your calorie count is off somewhere, I’m sorry, but it is. There is only one other feasible explanation, if you’re genuinely in a defecit and only eating 1500 cals a day, and this is your body is retaining significant fluid which, co incidentally is the exact same amount extra each week as your weight loss.

so if you’re consuming as you say, you’d be losing up to 2lbs a week. So this means each week you gain another 2lbs of fluid. Which means you are very unwell indeed and need to see your gp urgently. It’s either that, or you have your cal count wrong.