[lcggrg]

Hi
I am Colleen. I am 6 feet tall and weigh 253 pounds. I've been overweight since I had kids. Before that I was incredibly skinny and always had been. When I got pregnant with my first I had an incredible amount of difficulty and ended up giving birth in the emergency room 6 weeks early! Because of the difficult pregnancy I couldn't do a lot and gained a fair amount of weight. Nearly the same thing happened with the second but thankfully he was only 2 weeks early. As a result, I put on a lot of weight. That was 20 years ago.

Since then I have tried off and on to lose the weight without success. I've been trying hard the last 5 years - working out and watching everything I eat. I've logged every morsel that goes into my mouth - carefully weighed and measured - so I know that I almost never eat over 1500 calories normally. Despite the working out 5 days a week for 1-1.5 hours and the careful eating over 5 years I have never lost any weight. I toned things up and lost a few inches but never lost weight. It is BEYOND frustrating! Periodically I will try something desperate like eating 800 calories a day or working out for 2-3 hours a day and will manage to lose 5-6 pounds over a week or two and then the weight loss completely stops despite continuing 800 calories a day for 3 more weeks. The weight just stays the same. Eventually I would get frustrated and go back to eating 1500 a day and regain the 5-6 pounds and stay at 253, again, forever.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what on earth is going on?

I'd go to my doctor if I had one. I am Canadian and due to an extreme doctor shortage in my town have not had one (despite endless searching) since my doctor retired 7 years ago. With no one to talk to or ask about weight loss I am pretty much on my own and so frustrated I could scream. I'm ready to just give up eating altogether because nobody could NOT lose weight without eating, could they?

Any and all help, advise or support would be helpful. Somebody must have come across this before... and could explain it to me because I'm completely at a lost.

Thanks
Colleen

[Mrs Snark]

Colleen -- Welcome! It is tough to figure out what is happening because it sounds like your body is breaking the laws of physics. It would seem like a 6 foot person weighing 253 would lose weight on 1500 cals a day, particularly if she is working out as much as you are.

To compare you to me: I am shorter than you, weigh less than you, work out maybe about the same or a little less than you -- yet I eat about the same or maybe a little more than you. I'd bet my cal range is 1500 - 1800, varying by the day.

I think it will be tricky for any of us to figure out what is happening to you. If you are really SURE about your calorie intake, then I can't even guess what the problem would be. I know people on steroids can retain ridiculous amounts of water -- but I think you would know what is going on in that instance.

I wish you did have access to a doctor, because I think that is where you might find your answer. All I can offer you is a big hug! I'm so sorry you are struggling with this!

[yoyoma]

Although different people have different metabolic rates and there are some other things that account for variation in CICO, it does seem strange that you cannot manage to lose weight on a strict 1500 cal diet at your current weight over a period of years with an active lifestyle. It is very unfortunate that you can't find a doctor to help.

Is it possible that you have some unaccounted source of calories? Maybe it's even possible you are sleep eating?

If that's not the case, the only thing I would suggest is trying a different approach that might work better for you. Since you are used to CC, you might try some combo approach. Maybe CC with low-carb or CC with an eating window (I use an eating window, btw, and I am very happy with it).

If you stick with just CC, you might try tweaking your diet. I don't know what your normal diet looks like, but you might be able to replace some of your current choices with more protein and whole foods (protein gives you more bang for the buck due to inefficiencies in using protein calories and whole foods with lots of fiber make you feel fuller and your body doesn't always manage to digest all the calories from fiber-rich foods). However, don't skimp on healthy fats.

Good luck. I hope you find an approach that works for you!