I am 26y/o female. I am 5'3" and weigh 150lbs. This is the most I have ever weighed in my life and it is driving me crazy. I have tried all kinds of things. I have been trying for 6 months and have only lost 5lbs. I started out sticking with my normal amount of food just to see how much I normally ate. I was only eating about 1000 calories. I normally eat healthy things, I love fish and chicken and what is probably an unusual amount of steamed broccoli. If I eat pasta or really anything dough base it is homemade from scratch. I might (like maybe maybe) will eat out once every other week.
1000 being "to little" I started eating 1200-1500 calories and working out pretty intensively for about 2 hours 3-5 times a week. This went on for two months and nothing happened.
That didn't work so I dropped to 1000 calories with the same exercise also didn't work. I have varied my workouts and calories each for a month at a time to give it some time to see if it would work. Nothing has worked.
Just as an experiment I spent two weeks of walking 5 miles 4-5 times a week and swimming at least an hour (swimming 10 laps an treading water for 30ish minutes) a day 6 days a week. The kicker is I only ate 500 calories a day. Doing this I actually lost a whopping 2lbs a week.
I don't understand. I know I should be eating more so I started to eat about 1000 calories a day again. I gained 2lbs back over a week which I more then expected since I was technically starving myself.
I am starting to believe I have developed hypothyroidism which my grandmother, mother and sister have. I have been tested before but it was always normal (I will be going to a doctor to have my thyroid tested when I get insurance but this ins't for about another month). I am just at loss at this point. It is becoming very frustrating and is starting to depress me. Anyone else had a similar situation? Any advice? I just don't know what to do anymore.
How are you figuring the calorie amounts? Are you roughing approximating a serving, or are you using a kitchen scale? I suspect that your calculations must be off. If you are truly exercising that hard for that many times a week, there is no way that you would be merely maintaining your weight.
I was estimating using an app and then got a scale because I got suspicious of the app but apparently the app was pretty close anyway so unless it is something unusual I weigh it and put the weight of the food into the app because it is easier.
I do realize how ridiculous this all sounds that's why I have turned to the internet for some help.
Well, it seems like the healthiest thing you've done is to up your calories and exercise "intensively." What types of exercises were you doing during this time? It looks like your BMR is around 1400, so with hard exercises, you should be in the negative big time. You definitely shouldn't eat below your BMR.
I think if you're eating around 1600-1800 and exercising like that, it should come off gradually. Don't be impatient. You won't necessarily lose oodles of pounds on effort alone. It's all about calories in and calories out.
It appears that you have a health problem. Seriously. No one can possibly be fine (healthwise) if they routinely eat 1000 cals and become overweight (not that you were too overweight, but still). I'd ask the doctor to run some tests.
Maybe try cutting out ALL added sugar (like in yogurt, cereal etc), limit fruits to 1 a day and stop all grains? And eat limitless veggies along with lean protein and healthy fats... there is a lot of talk here lately how carbs interfere with weight loss in some people.
