Why am I so heavy?

[Souvlaki]

I weigh just under 11.5 stone and I’m about 5 ft 6. I do HIT almost daily. I hardly sit down - very active. I don’t calorie count but I don’t overeat and really rarely have stuff like biscuits. I’ve got naturally terrible legs abs work hard to keep fit . Why oh why can I
Not get below 70!Kg? Anyone else weigh this much with similar lifestyle?

Carefully calorie count for a fortnight. You will see where you are going wrong.

I'm the same height and age as you. I put on five pounds in lockdown one when my 12000 steps a day of normal movement to and around the office disappeared. It took six months of hardcore effort (and calorie counting) to shift. It's much harder in my 40s than it was 20 years ago to shift a few pounds. My calorie needs are pretty low now.

I think it all depends on genetics/your frame/ your metabolism

No it doesn't, if you want to lose weight you reduce the amount of calories you take in.

I’m the same height at you and currently 10.3stone, but have been over 12 in the past despite being constantly ‘on the move’.

I’m naturally active, walk all over the place instead of taking my car and rarely sit down until the evening, but my heart rate doesn’t get up high so and I don’t count it within my 150mins a week recommended exercise.

I now run or cycle daily and push my heart-rate right up to 135-150bpm for at least half an hour. When I do this, my body naturally stops craving all the high fat sluggish carbs and craves more water, fresh veg and protein, so I just eat better without trying and I don’t feel hard done by. The weight just fell off (although really slowed down for the last three or four lbs) and now it just stays consistent. I still eat what I fancy, I just don’t often fancy it now.

I stopped the high intensity exercise over Christmas and instantly started cramming junk in sideways, despite walking miles each day. As soon as I got back on my bike, the eating was curbed.

I’d recommend getting a fitness tracker and find out how hard you’re exercising and count calories for a while.

I'm 5'7, and I know my ideal weight range according to the NHS BMI calculator is anything between 8st 6lbs and 11.5lbs. 8st 6lb, for me, is ridiculously light, unattainably so, and at 11st 5lbs I'm probably about half a stone heavier than I feel I should be as I start looking a bit heavy and feel a bit jiggly. I've got a 'medium' frame, (check how much your wrist circumference is to get a rough idea), and I'm naturally quite muscular; defined abs, even without working out, big biceps and solid calves and thighs, etc. For me, about 10st 5lbs is my 'ideal' weight.

You're 5'6 and a size 10-12: I'd say that sounds pretty perfect, although according to BMI you're probably a few pounds 'over' the ideal.

I wonder if you might suffer with water retention issues? You say you have 'naturally terrible' legs, so am wondering if that means cellulite? If so, then cut out tea, coffee, ciggies, alcohol, and eat more parsley and green herbs. A good sauna can see you lose about 5lbs, if it's just carrying too much water....

Are you using hormonal contraception? I find most types of contraceptive pill blow me up like a balloon with water retention.

Im your height, and just under 70kg is my happy weight. Much less than that and I'm starting to look scrawny. My mother, at the same height, can weigh 7kg less and look less boney.
Just wish I was back there!

I did for years until I started working with a nutritional coach alongside hit classes and kettlebells. His advice has helped it melt off me. Was 11 st 10 in July. Now 9 st 9. Let me know if you'd like me to dm details. It's brilliant.

Do a food diary for a few days. Be completely honest. You are definitely eating too much.

I speak from experience. I am a 10-12 and know full well I snack way too often.

If you are doing HIT training almost everyday, then your musles will have a lot of build up fluid. When you are doing HIT you really should give your body the chance to recover after - it is very hard on the body. It is usually recommended to do it 3 times a week, with a rest day in between.
Obviously that doesn't account for all of the weight, but your muscles can hold up almost 2 kgs of water.
The rest is truely calories in and calories out. It does tend to get harder to shift the weight as you get older, but not impossible.

It’s the food and alcohol @Souvlaki. Exercise is brilliant but for weight loss not that effective especially when you’re at the lighter end and it’s cardio rather than weights. Diet is 90% of it, unfortunately that’s just how it is. For me as I got older the way I metabolise carbs also changed so a low carb woe has changed my body shape dramatically. Now in my early fifties I have a better body than I did in my twenties and my weight stays within a couple of pounds regardless of how much I eat.

Clothes size doesn't mean anything.
My sister is 5ft 6 and 3 stone lighter than the OP and wears 10-12.

Honestly OP I'm almost exactly the same and a) I can't believe you are a size 10. Are you shopping in places that vanity size/wearing loose styles/wearing old clothes that have stretched?
b) as you age you basically can't eat anything like the amount you do as a teen/in your twenties. I am 35 and have 2 children and am stuck at the same weight as you, I only lose weight if I reduce my calories to 1000 a day, and then to maintain a weight of about 10 stone I need to eat about 1200 calories a day and do strenuous exercise 3-4 times a week. I find this very difficult to do while my children are young.

It's hard because through my twenties I ate whatever I wanted, drank regularly, did little exercise and just sat easily at 10st. The reality is for many women (and men) your metabolism slows hugely as you age.

You say you have only been happy with your body when you "undereat". Its probably not undereating. You will get hungry initially but it's because you are used to eating too much.

Nicely
If you are size 10-12, 5'6" and are fit and healthy this is not about your weight.

I don't think you sound particularly heavy, but if you feel it, that's a different matter. It could be hormone-related – if you're mid-40s, you may well be perimenopausal. Plus HIIT exercise every day will stress your body and floods it with insulin and cortisol, preventing you from burning fat effectively. You might need to do less and have more rest days for better results. I can recommend this book called It's Not You, It's Your Hormones: The Essential Guide for Women Over 40 to Fight Fat, Fatigue and Hormone Havoc by Nicki Williams. Reading it was like a lightbulb going off – I just thought I was rubbish at dieting and resigned to be fat in middle age (I'm 48) but this has made me completely rethink my approach to my health.

If you are size 10 at 5'6" you look way better than you think you do. In old age, you will look back on photos where you thought you looked 'fat' and despair at how harshly you judged yourself.

But maybe you are eating the wrong foods? DF-i-L lost two stone in two months when he cut out wheat. Unknowingly, he had coeliac disease and the bread and cereal were making him obese, even though he didn't overeat.

Maybe your portion sizes aren't what you think. The difference between a portion of muesli (30-40gs) and a bowl of muesli (100-150g) is enormous. A portion is enough to sprinkle on top of yoghurt and berries, it barely coats the base of a bowl.

A ready cut slice of toast with reduced fat butter and marmite is a third or a quarter the calories of a thick cut slice of fresh bread with butter or peanut butter and jam. It's so easy to think 'I just had toast for breakfast/ I just had a bowl of cereal' and not admit it was 600 cals.

Weigh your portions. Fill up on extra fruit and veg: berries at breakfast, salad and fruit at lunch, 2-3 extra portions of green veg at dinner.

Drink fruit or herb tea instead of milky coffees and teas. Keep a strict eye on the booze or cut it out completely for a month and then see if you have made a difference. I bet you'll have dropped a few pounds.

I'm 5'6 too and 11.5 stone is my target weight ( 10 pounds or so away)
I'm a large size 12 and would be happy -/ a smaller size 12.
I run 4/5 a week, currently doing 4:3 intermittent fasting. Rarely drink alcohol but do overeat at your times.

I'm 44, one child. I just accept that age changes your physical composition.

Exercise is great for fitness, strength and muscle tone but to lose weight it's all about the "calories in".
You need to watch what you eat, you have to do a hell of a lot of exercise to burn off the 250 calories in a chocolate bar.
Try fasting a couple of days a week, Google it, start at 7pm then at 7am you have already done 12 hours, aim for 16 hours, only have water, black tea or coffee.
Also, exercise your biggest muscles legs and glutes doing squats, deadlifts etc, use weights or resistance bands (ebay), increase the weight as you get used to it.
Good luck

Watching this thread with interest.

Also 5ft6 now up at 12 stone despite cutting out alcohol and chocolate for January and doing a reasonable amount of exercise.

I know now there is no easy way round it, will need to calorie count and strictly as suspect menopause playing a part as well.

Mind you I'd take being a size 10-12, at 11st 7 I was a robust size 14.

@Souvlaki

Yes I drink but I was a similar weight even when I never drank. The only time I’ve been happy with my body was when I was working out excessively and underrating. I don’t seem to be able to eat abs exercise reasonably and remain so slim. I’d like to be 64 kg- a loss of about 10 kg.

Do you think you may have an eating disorder?

I could have written this post! I'm the same height, early 40's too and sitting just below 70kg. I don't do much HIIT but I do a lot of cardio and when the gym is open I do heavy weight training once a week and another resistance session weekly too. I can wear a size 8 on my top half and I'm probably a 10-12 on the bottom (i haven't worn anything other than leggings and trackies for the last year!). I was weighed by a nurse for a pre-op last year and she was shocked at how much i weighed for my size so hopefully some of it is muscle density. I lost a lot of weight a few years ago and got down to 56kg but it wasn't sustainable long term and I was probably too thin for my height. I tried doing WW again last year and I lost a couple of kg but it was painfully slow for the amount of effort i was putting in and how much I was craving food. I eat well, cook from scratch etc etc but I have a big appetite and I probably like wine too much!

I weigh a little less than you and am the same height. I’m a 14-16 top and 12-14 bottom. I’m not particularly fit and mostly just walk/dance for exercise. If you area 10-12 and doing that much exercise I’m guessing your weight is muscle rather than fat, and that what you need to be working on is your self perception, not a number.

OP some people are naturally heavier than they look. I'm one of those. At 67kg I look average/slim (and I'm shorter than you 5ft3).

Last summer I did a ton of HIIT and it didn't work for me at all. I felt chunkier and even though I was toned I was unhappy with the way I looked. I'm back to running and within 2 weeks I've dropped at least half a size.

Instead of HIIT try something like barré/pilates that will elongate your muscles.

BMI is a good guide BUT it simply doesn't work for some body types, at my super thinnest when I was marathon training I looked very, very thin and my BMI was still 22.

You sound healthy and fit op. Don't let it get you down.

Why so preoccupied with it?

How much HIT are you actually doing? Are you overestimating physical effort and underestimating what you eat? Once you get over 40 you generally have to eat a lot less not to put on weight even doing exercise. 30 minutes of HIT a day isn't a lot in terms of calorie burn.
It isn't as simple as calories in, calories in as if you are eating a lot of processed food and sugar, they are largely empty, won't fill you up and mess up your insulin production. Fasting is a good way to lose weight and remember what it feels like to be hungry.