Why does my weight NEVER change no matter how much/little I eat?

Ok so I know I been posting alot asking topics lately, Im sorry for that. But I just want to learn more.

I'm 15 years old; 5'35 feet / 162 CM, weight 128-131 lbs / 59-61kg depends if I weight right after I eat or with empty stomach.

I ate around 1700 calories a day for a week and no changes, 1200 calories a day for a week no changes, and I just ate randomly numbers from 1200-1700 and nothing been changed for months.

I workout 4-5 times a week, 1-3 hours a day, always 30-60 mins eliptical, then others are toning arms, buns, abs etc.

I eat everything, means carbohydrate, protein, fat etc and I think its pretty balanced diet.

I eat ALOT in amount of food (not calories). I really cant eat over 1700 calories a day if I dont eat junk food, since my mom always makes 5 different vegtable and shrimps and lean meat etc. She usually never make potatoes or rice etc but I eat alot fiber rich cereal so Its enough.

So, no matter what I eat and how much I eat my weight is always the same, why?

I wanna hear all of your opinions EXCEPT: "You eat too little". I just wont eat more than what Im eating right now.

And I eat 5-8 meals a day in ALOT vegtable and pretty much lean protein and complex carbohydrate.  Other than my workout I just sit around.

Ok.

Your BMI is normal healthy weight.

You are a teenager and your calorie needs are higher than you think, even without the exercise.

I am happy that you maintain a healthy balance of foods though.

Try lifting weights if you arent already. Toning etc doesnt give enough info.

Why would you want to lose weight? Your BMI calculated from your figures is 22.0. This is well within the healthy weight range (20-25).

There seems to be so many people on this site who are both young, within normal weight limits but still unhappy with their weight/body. This is what I find most troubling.

Be sensible. Thats my advice.

I didnt say I wasnt satisfied with my weight, all I said was wanting to know why it doesnt change than however much I eat.

Original Post by wrenster:

Why would you want to lose weight? Your BMI calculated from your figures is 22.0. This is well within the healthy weight range (20-25).

There seems to be so many people on this site who are both young, within normal weight limits but still unhappy with their weight/body. This is what I find most troubling.

Be sensible. Thats my advice.

It makes me nuts too. But I can understand it. I'm about 5'4"... I'm 23 now. And I'm about 162 lbs. When I was 15-16, I weighed 125-130, and I was never happy with myself. I had an unhealthy relationship with food (always felt like I should be dieting/exercising/eating less, felt guilty all the time when I ate anything, really borderline eating disorder)... I think that is how I ended up gaining so much weight as I got into my 20s. I am only now learning about how to eat healthily, and I've been working on my self esteem in therapy. I'm feeling better about myself now at 162 lbs than I did at 125 lbs! Of course, I'm still hoping to get back down to that weight which is much healthier for my height.

Anyway what I'm trying to say is, I know how it feels to obsess about every little detail of your body. I would definitely recommend exercise but not with weight loss being a goal. Keep up a healthful diet but try to be gentle with yourself if you ever make mistakes. Too much strictness can't be maintained forever.

Try keeping a diary about your feelings, especially about yourself. One thing I tried doing for a while was, to write down all the things I did that day that I felt good about. Focusing on the positive can be really helpful.

For example, you should feel great about yourself for caring about your diet and eating well, for getting into an exercise habit early on in your life (it's sooo good for you). Those are two huge things and I bet there are tons more that I have no idea about from reading your one post :)

Good luck and please don't focus so much on the numbers on the scale. You *are* a healthy weight for your height. Focus on how great exercise makes you feel.

Original Post by doogloose:

Original Post by wrenster:

Why would you want to lose weight? Your BMI calculated from your figures is 22.0. This is well within the healthy weight range (20-25).

There seems to be so many people on this site who are both young, within normal weight limits but still unhappy with their weight/body. This is what I find most troubling.

Be sensible. Thats my advice.

It makes me nuts too. But I can understand it. I'm about 5'4"... I'm 23 now. And I'm about 162 lbs. When I was 15-16, I weighed 125-130, and I was never happy with myself. I had an unhealthy relationship with food (always felt like I should be dieting/exercising/eating less, felt guilty all the time when I ate anything, really borderline eating disorder)... I think that is how I ended up gaining so much weight as I got into my 20s. I am only now learning about how to eat healthily, and I've been working on my self esteem in therapy. I'm feeling better about myself now at 162 lbs than I did at 125 lbs! Of course, I'm still hoping to get back down to that weight which is much healthier for my height.

Anyway what I'm trying to say is, I know how it feels to obsess about every little detail of your body. I would definitely recommend exercise but not with weight loss being a goal. Keep up a healthful diet but try to be gentle with yourself if you ever make mistakes. Too much strictness can't be maintained forever.

Try keeping a diary about your feelings, especially about yourself. One thing I tried doing for a while was, to write down all the things I did that day that I felt good about. Focusing on the positive can be really helpful.

For example, you should feel great about yourself for caring about your diet and eating well, for getting into an exercise habit early on in your life (it's sooo good for you). Those are two huge things and I bet there are tons more that I have no idea about from reading your one post :)

Good luck and please don't focus so much on the numbers on the scale. You *are* a healthy weight for your height. Focus on how great exercise makes you feel.

Thanks for your reply.. Mind if I ask you gained weight becasue of you didnt eat healthy or just went up for no reason?

Good luck with your diet aswell :)

I definitely gained weight for not eating heathily. Like I said, a guilt relationship with food really led me to some bad behaviours, like restricting and binging on junk. I think I hurt my metabolism pretty bad.

I mean there's been a lot of factors to it, I had trouble getting exercise for a long time due to a knee condition, and I've been on meds for anxiety/depression that definitely have made me put on weight. But the poor eating habits are probably the biggest factor.

As a few other posters noted--your BMI is right in line and your description of your diet/nutrition and exercise sounds right: likely you've reached your set point: where your healthy weight actually is.

Original Post by chrystina:

I didnt say I wasnt satisfied with my weight, all I said was wanting to know why it doesnt change than however much I eat.

 Because you are establishing a healthy lifestyle right from the start, it shouldn't. You are eating exactly what your body needs to use, no more, no less. If all of us could be more like you, we wouldn't need this site. Congratulations, you did it correctly right out of the gate!

Sounds like with all the strength training your doing is keeping you at that weight range (which is healthy btw).  So I'm thinking the only way you might loose anymore weight is to quit strength training and wait to loose all your muscle mass.  But then you'll have to cut back calories since muscle uses more energy than fat. 

You have a good system going, I would keep it up and loose the scale.  It makes people crazy...

As others have said, your BMI is within your target range. 

The body is a pretty weird machine... it is resilient big changes in caloric intake for short periods of time.  Consuming more or less calories (unless ridiculously more or less intake) will barely affect your weight.

How fast is your metabolism? 

I wrote an Excel spreadsheet yesterday (for one of my friend's personal training service) that predicts over 16 weeks what a person's weight will be if keeping all other factors the same (meaning the exercise routine and caloric intake).

The spreadsheet finds your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which shows the amount of calories you burn daily by just surviving (breathing, digesting, etc).

Then, using the Harris-Benedict Equation, daily caloric needs are predicted for varying levels of activity.

After running your numbers:
BMR - 1432.196

So, you burn 1,432.196 calories daily by just taking up space.  Here lies the limitation of the spreadsheet... it cannot take in to account for a slow or fast metabolism.  Users of it account for the difference by undershooting their overall activity level (from the Harris-Benedict Equation definitions).

From what it sounds like, you are moderately active, but because of a slower metabolism (man, that sounds like I'm insulting you... haha, I promise I'm not!), the numbers from the light active or even sedentary active predictions will be more accurate.

But back to the numbers:

Over 16 Weeks, final weight:
Sedentary: 127.448
Light Active: 120.11
Moderately Active: 112.94

Anyway, I'm betting your metabolism puts you somewhere in between Sedentary and Light Active in how many calories you burn in a day. 

Sorry for the rambling... hope it helps!

EDIT:  I might try and see if I can post this spreadsheet somewhere for people to play with.  Theoretically, the numbers are right.  But it cannot accout for genetic factors and should mainly be used as a motivation tool.