To not understand my weight?

[MagdelenaMorrison]

I seriously don't get it.
I'm trying soooooo hard to lose weight.
It's bloody hard, hard work trying to shift it.
The eating less is easy, I find calorie restriction easy. I'm naturally a healthy eater and my diet consists of vegetables, salad, brown rice, potatoes, poultry, fish, a little red meat, lots of mixed beans and lentils. No cheese, cream, milk, ice cream, as I'm dairy free. I don't eat any UPF or takeaways or convenience food; everything I eat is home cooked from scratch. Nothing is fried. I've got Coeliac disease which means I can't eat gluten so that cuts out bread, rolls, pastries, cakes, biscuits, etc. as I medically can't eat those foods. No crisps, chocolate or fizzy drinks, don't like that stuff. I don't drink alcohol, I'm teetotal.
Anyway despite eating healthily I am overweight and I am now tracking my calorie intake on a diet tracker.
What's hard is not the calorie restriction, I'm doing that easily. It's how hard it is to get any weight off. AND how much my weight is bouncing around.
So here's my gripe about my weight:
6 weeks ago: 12.6
5 weeks ago: 12.8
4 weeks ago: 13.2
3 weeks ago: 12.7
2 weeks ago: 12.8
1 week ago: 12.6
Today: 12.9
WTF?
Throughout these weeks I have eaten EXACTLY the same amount of calories each day, 1,100. All weighed, measured and recorded in to my weight loss app. Not one day have I exceeded this amount of calories. Literally not once.
5ft 7.
45 years old.
And bloody fed up.
BTW I've had a load of blood tests done (not for weight loss but for other reasons), tested my thyroid, diabetes, LH FSH hormones, kidneys, liver, cholesterol, lots of other stuff I can't remember, and every test was in the normal range.
Why is my weight bouncing around all over the place????

Surely the chances of a 5 foot 7, 12 and a half stone woman not being in energy deficit at 1100 calories in normal circumstances are very slim. Just her basal metabolic rate would be around 1400 calories.

A tall adult woman will be miserable on a diet with the equivalent of the amount of calories a small child should be eating. That’s not a failing and no life to be living. I don't know what the answer is, maybe it's low carb, or intermittent fasting, or more medical tests, or accepting being a bit overweight and exercising for health, but surely it is not dropping calories to 1000 or less indefinitely until the weight comes off.

My maintenance is maximum 1100 calories, to lose weight (on Mounjaro) I averaged 950 (very slow weight loss).

so sorry OP, most people don’t get it.

Sounds like some people have genetic solution to world hunger. They should be studied for good of science to figure out how to get humans have less impact on environment by needing less food to be grown.

Meanwhile greedy guts like me should be discouraged from breeding & passing on our inefficient genes.

I’m the same height as you OP, and my weight hovers around the same range, despite eating 1500 cals a day, averaging 8-10k steps a day, running 25-30 mins 3x a week, and heavy duty gardening once a week (allotment.). Plus yoga etc as and when.

i don’t eat huge amounts of UPFs, no gluten (intolerant) and alcohol probably 4-8 units a week.

I’ve made my peace with it. This is my body. It used to be a size 8 (when I had a ED). Now it’s a 14-16. But it’s healthy and does what I need it to, and is actually aesthetically quite lovely. So my choices are to accept that this is my body at its “natural” weight, or starve myself and become obsessive again, so that everyone who has to look at my body, has the pleasure of seeing something marginally closer to the western, capitalist, patriarchal vision of perfection. I.e smaller.

I know what I’m picking.

Gently, 1100 is not enough to maintain your body weight, you know this, so based on that, how do you think your body is fueling itself?

im sure you know it’s not air. So you need to see a doctor, as its either something is very wrong or you’re drastically under estimating your cals

this is not accusing you of Lying as someone charmingly wrote. It’s saying you’re miscalculating in some way,

Do you exercise?

Google the HBD diet - it’s great for menopausal weight gain. Everyone I know who has followed it has lost significant amounts of weight, when nothing else has worked. Or as others have suggested, try Mounjaro. Good luck, it’s tough at this age!

Hey!

Im 34 but also 5”7 and about the same weight as you - it’s too little calories.

people don’t believe me, but I can 100% stagnate on 1200cals a day and not lose weight. For me personally, when I layer track things, I did subtly overdo it on weekends without realising.

if you do workout, get over 150g protein, carbs aren’t the enemy and you can lose weight. I can send you my plan if you like but I do weight train 5 days and get 10K steps. It’s average 1700-1800 a day but lower weekdays and higher weekends. I’ve gone from 12.10 to 12.5 in about 3-4 weeks with carbs most meals - eating more truly has always helped me, even in my 20s so it’s not an age thing for me either.

Thanks everyone for your advice.
Some conflicting advice - some say I need to eat more, some say I need to eat less, some say I'm eating more than I say I am.
A couple have mentioned PCOS which I do have.
Very interested in those with Coeliac having the same problem.
And very interested in the few posters who are in exactly the same situation as me.
Re exercise, I walk 10,000 steps daily, swim 3 x weekly early morning swims, and yoga once a week. I don't lift weights but will try this.
Thanks everyone for your input.
I think we need a lot more research in to why there is such a wild variation in how different people's bodies respond to weight loss methods.

Don’t eat more op, I think logically you know that’s not how weight loss works,

There is no way someone aged 47 at 12.5 stone is burning less than 1100 calories a day.

And it sounds as though your body has adjusted to 1,100 being your baseline intake, so you’re not burning enough to make it a deficit. This isn't how bodies work

Starvation mode isn't real

Mate. This is physically impossible.

I agree, I think her body is in starvation body so is storing food essentially.

I'm 5'1, weigh 8st and my BMR just for my body to function properly is around 1350 calories. 1100 calories a day is too little for anyone

Starvation mode isn't real. And how do you think she's going to gain muscle in that kind of calorie deficit?

This is the first sensible response. But it doesn't mean her TDEE is 1100 as that's not possible. More likely she's miscalculated her calorie intake

Most people don't want to hear or believe this, but calorie TDEE are a range and not a concrete science. So, if TDEE for a sedentary, short woman is 1200, and someone is gaining, that means their calories have to be less than 1200 to lose weight.

We've been brainwashed to think we'll die if we go below 1200 calories, but this simply isn't true when we're overweight, because we have the calorie deficit/nutrients to spare.

It's frustrating because we want to be healthy and we're told that going below 1200 isn't healthy but we stay overweight at 1200 etc.

It's a hard road, OP. But, as someone said above, your calories are too high at whatever you're at so they have to go lower.

Even if you eat the same calories, and exercise to a deficit, your calories are still lower because you've burned them off. So, it ends up being calories no matter what you do or no matter how you decide to go into a deficit.

The fluctuations seem to be on a 4 week pattern so I expect the extra is just fluid retention at particular points in your menstrual cycle rather than extra fat.

You need to up your protien intake and do more resistance/weight bearing exercises to build up your muscles a little. You don't need to bulk up too much but muscles burn more energy and rebalance your fuel needs better.

I’m another one who found they gained weight from minimal calorie intake once I hit peri.

When I weighed 13 stone 8, my maintenance calories were 1300. Now I weigh just over 8 stone and I gain if I exceed 1100.

It really is shit. I will be on Mounjaro long term as it’s the only way I can keep to a low enough calorie level that my weight doesn’t shoot up again, with worrying health implications.

I am your age albeit much heavier. I can only shift weight using a very low carb diet. Even using mounjaro low carb was required.

I have lost using it but it wasn’t magic - I’m still hungry and have an appetite - it just gives me space to make better choices.

I honestly think menopause does a massive number on us.

OP, there is only reason. You are not in a calorie defecit. There is no way you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight, unless you are 4 feet tall. You are 100% eating more than 1200 calories. Way more.

You are not tracking your calories correctly. Ignore all the complicated advice which makes quantum physics looks easy.

Calorie defecit is like gravity. There’s no defying it.

You have to be sure about the macros of everyone you eat, don’t guess. Weight what you are plating up. Thats the only way to be sure that you are in a calorie deficit.

But calorie calculation is actually not an exact science at all. A pureed cooked apple is not the same as a whole apple. You will extract more of the calorific value from the former and less from the latter. Your body also regulates metabolism to adjust to calorie intake so will reduce RHR etc if you are in a sustained low cal diet. This is why calorie deficit diets plateau after a while.
There is good science now backing this up. So whilst the cals in<out is in principle true, you cannot actually override some of the biology that is going on to account for the basic cal requirement your body needs to function

This is a complete misrepresentation. Yes if you go v low cal your metabolic rate reduces, but trials have shown weight loss continues at the same pace. No one has ever met an anorexic who plateaued. Or someone in famine. The body doesn’t work like that, it simply doesn’t.

if you consume in a defecit your body burns fat or muscle to fuel itself. Thus making your body lighter. The reason people plateau is they don’t continue to reduce their intake as their weight goes down. Not because they are fueling their body with fresh air.

the poster is right, she isn’t losing weight as she’s eating to maintenance. And as such,she’s miscalculating what she consumes. Every single human being ever is the same. There are no medical marvels. There are no fueling your body with air

biology is the exact same for all of us. Eat in a defecit. And you burn fat or muscle to fuel your body, to make up the defecit. and this makes your body lighter. There is no ifs, buts, whatabouts. Not one. Ever. That’s it. It’s how we all work.

I wasn't saying the cals in/out was wrong. I was saying that the calculation to get to a deficit may not be correct.
I am basing this on the work I've read and listened on Giles Yeo and others who say that yourweight loss will plateau even when consuming the same intake. Which doesn't appear to be the same as the trials you're quoting. I am genuinely interested so would be grateful for some references or people to look up.