Help, cant lose any weight at all, any advice would be helpful

I am 5'7" 260 pounds, 53 years old female. Before 3 weeks ago I did no physical activity at all...none. Before 3 weeks ago I ate all junk food about 4000 calories per day.

For the past 3.5 weeks I have been walking on a treadmill (up to 1.5 miles per day in around 30 minutes, at that pace for the past 8-9 days), I walk to get my mail, its 950 feet to my mailbox. I eat under 1400 calories per day, I still have things I know may not be the best choices but I am not eating just junk food. I am eating things like fish, lettuce salads, bananas, grapes, corn, things that are a ton better than what I used to eat, snacks for breakfast, pizza for lunch, fast food for dinner and chips, candy, ice cream more snack cakes all the time between meals. I was eating all day long.

So why now that I am being more careful with what I eat and am doing some exercise am I not losing any weight. In the 3.5 weeks I have been doing this I have not lost one pound, not one ounce. I havent gained, but cant seem to lose anything. I have not lost inches, my gut is still as big as ever. I seem to have a tiny bit more energy but not much. I hate getting on the treadmill everday, I dread it. Once I have done it I am proud that I did it but I hate thinking about getting on it.

I live in the country in a very small town. I dont have access to a pool, which I would love as I used to love to swim. I cant afford to join a gym, can barely afford heathy food, as I have found out is a lot more expensive than chips.

Help any advice as I am getting discouraged and know if I dont see some results soon I will quit again.

thanks

Julie

Sounds like you are not eating enough, cutting all junk and soda helps a lot. Plus try waking at a faster pace, maybe on an incline or walk 5 mins then jog 1 minute and repeat. Also doing more different exercising helps. If you don't change your exercising your body will adapt. Do more than just treadmill. I do treadmill, arc trainer and elliptical for total of 50 mins, but I do this at a fast pace. Not everybody has exercising equipment so if you don't get a fitness DVD.

Good luck and don't give up. I've lost 35 lbs in 10 weeks so far with healthy eating and exercising everyday.

I agree, you are not eating enough. the bmr calculator I use says your bmr is 1850. You min calorie intake should be close to or over your bmr. It also calculates that to maintain your weight at a sedentary level you would need 2200 calories, this to me translates to what you burn a day. So if you ate 1850 calories a day and did nothing you would burn 350 calories a day, causing 1 lbs loss every 10 days. If you burned just 150 extra calories a day you would lose 1 lbs a week. If you burned 650 extra calories a day you would lose 2 lbs a week. Weight loss of more than 2 lbs a week is not recommended. BUT none of this math workday it you are under eating. By under eating you are causing your body to hold on to everything instead of burn the fat. I recommend eat more, drink enough water and try to hit all your nutrition goals. Also re-calculate your bmr and burn rate every once in a while once you start to lose.

When I first started this site after I entered all my info, and I was totally honest it said I needed to eat 1400 calories. so I am eating between 1180 -1400 every day. I am scared to eat more because then I feel I will never lose. I do drink a coke every morning as I have migraines real bad and my dr told me not to cut caffine out of my life as it would have control my migraines. I guess I will cut the coke and try to get my caffine a different way. I am also eating up what is I already have like the corn but once that is gone I wil try better veggies, though I hate veggies lol. I just dont want to throw away all the food I have in the house, so I am eating it but watching the calories.

I have started lifting weights but I am so out of condition I cant even get on the floor to do situps, or I should say I cant get up from the floor once I get there.

thanks for the advice I will try to get closer to my 1400 and see if that helps.

 

I don't understand. why would you keep doing the samething if it is not working? This site is full of people that started losing weight after the stopped under eating. I am one of them. CC told me to eat at 1400 also and aftwr not lising any weight for r4 weeks I increased my calories to my bmr(1650 at the time) and lost5 lbs that week. i honestly do nit think 1400 is enough for you and veggies are great, try new receipes and new veggies. you might find that the ones you thought yoy didnt like are not so bad.

ok I will give that a try for awhile and see what happens.

I am going to get a few veggies that I havent tried in while to see if I can tolerate them now lol. I remember I used to say I hated califlower but my aunt put it on a salad and I ate it and liked it lol.

thanks again for suggestions and help.

 

Wow I just re-read my post and there are so many errors I am not sure I can apologize for them all. I am glad you are going to try a higher calorie more healthy food diet. I think you will be happy with your results.

Hi Teemix! I completely agree with everyone else that you should be eating more. Losing weight permanently takes changing the way you eat, so you are right to cut the junk and increase the fruits, veggies and whole grains. Yes, better foods are definitely more expensive, but hopefully you will save some money because you are not eating as much. I always try to plan out my meals and snacks in advance so that I only have to buy that much. Also, remember that while frozen fruits & veg are not as good as fresh, they are still much healthier than junk food and a lot easier on your budget. One of the reasons we all fall into junk food is that no one really cooks anymore. The more you cook from scratch, the more money you will save. You will also increase activity this way!

I just calculated your BMR (the amount of calories your body burns just to stay alive) and it said it was around 1850. If I were you I would try eating around 2000 calories a day for a while while continuing your exercise and see where that gets you. Just so you know, I used to weigh 278 and I was losing eating 2000 calories a day without any exercise. I currently weigh 185 and I eat 1750 and probably exercise about as much as you. Do not give up! You just have to figure out what works for your body. When I was heavier I tried eating at 1500 calories a day with no success, I was just too hungry.

I know it's hard and you are discouraged, but do not give up! Eating well and exercising has more benefits than just weight loss. You are taking care of yourself and that's what's really matters. Calorie Count is a wonderful community and there will always be support for you if you need it. 

Hi thanks for the advice, based on what you and others have said I am going to try to eat more calories and the right kind of foods. I do use my treadmill at an incline its only 2 right now but I am working on getting it up higher. Right now I dont have the energy to go any faster than I am. I try to up the speed a little every few days, when I first started the treadmill I was at no incline and only 1.5 mph now I am at 2 incline and 3 mph so I know I am doing more. I am going to see about getting a DVD to exercise to also.

thanks again for your encouragement and help.

 

I know what you mean about the not cooking especially since I am single with noone here at home so since its just me its hard to cook, too much leftovers and I hate just cooking for me. Also never really learned how to cook much.

I am going to give it a try eating more calories and eat the right things. I need to get to eating more veggies, I will just have to eat ones I dont like I guess.

thanks for your support and advice, and WTG on you weight loss that is great. Good luck in the future.

 

Hey Teemix, the other posters have already given tons of great advice, (I too was stuck in the catch 22 of not losing at first until i ate more) and sounds like you're making some great progress already!

I do have a few things to add which may be of help - fresh fruit and veggies are more expensive at first glance compared to chips and other crap, but in reality you are eating a lot less than your old self and so will be spending less $ on food overall keeping up the healthy eating lifestyle.Frozen fruit/veggies that are pure whole versions without added sauces etc.. are just as healthy as fresh versions, I often opt for the frozen versions in the off seasons (eg berries in winter) as they are more economical.

Cooking for one is quite easy actually, I like to plan in advance my uses for those leftovers. For example I will bake some fish to have with dinner, then put some of the leftovers on a bed of mixed greens for lunch at work the next day then use the rest of the leftovers a third time to make fish burgers. I also freeze leftovers of whole dinners to have quick and easy home made microwave dinners for those lazier days.

My best investment has DEFINITELY been a digital food scale. I had no idea what a true portion of anything was until I started to weigh it out. Now when I go out or to someone else's house for dinner I am becoming increasingly familiar to properly estimate serving sizes.

Best of luck! keep us posted with your progress :D