Quote:
Originally Posted by BCubero
Since Jan. I have been focusing on my weight loss and fitness. I have lost 3 pounds. I have lost 13 inches so the fitness part is working . I am wondering why I am not seeing the scale drop. I am 43 and only have about 10 pounds to lose. What am I doing wrong that is preventing me from losing the weight.
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Three pounds in three months, when you've lost 13 inches and only have 10 lbs to lose, isn't poor weight loss at all. I think the only thing "wrong" may be your expectations.
How are you determining that you're 10 pounds "overweight?" BMI assumes an average amount of muscle (which unfortunately, isn't much). If you're very active and have gained more muscle, your healthy weight is going to be higher than if you didn't.
Maybe you aren't losing much, because you don't need to lose any more.
Another possibility is that you're body just won't lose more quickly. There may be nothing wrong with you - nothing wrong with what you're doing - and nothing wrong with losing one pound per month - and maybe nothing wrong with not losing any more.
About five years ago (I'm going to be 46 this month), I was losing just under one pound per month (with more than 250 lbs left to lose), and I complained to my doctor that I was failing, and "should be losing at least 2 lbs a week, like a normal person," and my doctor scolded me for believing such nonsense. He reminded me that "normal" is losing nothing. Normal is gaining or losing for a little while, getting frustrated and giving up and then gaining. One pound a month (even at almost 400 lbs) was extraordinary progress because most people (of any size) don't do it.
I took that advice to heart, and just kept going. Doing the best I could, and accepting whatever results I got. I decided that "just not gaining" was going to be my most important goal, and that while I was at it, I'd try to lose "just one more" pound.
I'm only NOW starting to experience an average of more than 1 lb per month (it's now about 1.5 lbs per month).
I couldn't exercise much at all when I started, and my diabetes and other health issues were much worse. So, I did have factors that contributed to slow weight loss, but slow weight loss is much more normal than we realize. We don't realize it, because we don't see it. People who lose slowly either give up in frustration or they don't admit that they're losing slowly because they don't want anyone to think they're not trying hard enough.
Often we view weight loss as if we were running a huge marathon and because we see 5,000 people ahead of us, we think we're in last place, not realizing there are 20,000 people behind us (all thinking they're in last place and envying those of us who are losing faster than they are).
Last year, I lost 11.5 lbs in my TOPS group (taking off pounds sensibly) and it won me third place in our chapter for weight loss. First place went to a man who lost 30-some pounds (maybe because he worked harder, or maybe because men often lose faster than women). The woman who came in second lost 12 lbs and she has 100 lbs more than I do to lose.
Our chapter has about 30 members now, and we're not a bunch of slackers. Our results are fairly typical of all TOPS chapters. Recent research compaired the results of Weight Watchers, TOPS, OA and other weight loss meeting groups and found that all weight loss meeting groups had similar results AND tended to be more successful than folks doing weight loss without a support group.
That means that one pound per month is good weight loss, not poor. We've been taught to think that AMAZING weight loss is average, that good weight loss is sub par, and that average weight loss is complete and utter FAILURE.
I've lost 105 lbs at an average of one pound per month. Slow weight loss isn't failure (or if it is, I've failed off 105 lbs).
You can't go by BMI if you're exercising more than average (and you are), so I'd recommend that you consider having a body fat analysis done, or at least speak to your doctor about how much you really need to lose or can lose safely. It's possible that you don't have 10 lbs left to lose, and that any weight loss would likely be muscle loss. It's also equally possible that you can lose a little more, but that one pound per month is normal and healthy weight loss for you.