Hi all, I am a 26 yr old cancer survivor who has gained 10 lbs through chemo. I am trying to lose that weight.

Currently I am 5'4", and 122 lbs. I am slightly muscular from doing heavy weightlifting (to give you an idea, my comfortable squat is 80 lbs and comfortable deadlift is 130 lbs).

I need help figuring out if my plan is stupid and that's why I am not seeing results.

Here is my exercise plan:

3x wk heavy weightlifting (Strong lifts)
2x wk 20 minutes of jogging or walking on hills
2x wk hiking or long walks (up to two hrs)

Diet:

Very clean, anti-carcinogenic oriented diet of around ~1300 calories per day

Dears, my plan just isn't working. I am not losing any weight and neither am I losing any fat %. Please help me. I really, angrily, want my old body back. I don't want cancer to have affected me like this (among other things).

Edit: I am terrible, btw, at cardio. I am just not great at it.

How long have you been at it, and how are you tracking the progress? I know that my first go around with weight loss, it took a couple weeks of keeping at it before I the weight started to trickle off. (Also, your body might be retaining water from the sudden increase in exercise...in fact, this is very likely)

I feel like I've been doing the lifting for 3 months now, but I haven't been doing any decent cardio until now. I think you might be right because I'm pretty sure weight training may not have any effect on losing water weight

That sounds excellent, but your calories sound very low for that much heavy lifting and at your age. If you're strength training and not nourishing yourself in the process, you're shooting yourself in the foot for building lean mass. Your plan, both diet and exercise, sounds excellent, except for the calories. I'd suggest upping them to 14-1500 for a few weeks and seeing if that doesn't bust the stall. I'm not generally an advocate of upping calories for weight loss, but it honestly sounds like you're under-eating and that isn't going to help you get into a smaller size healthfully.

Especially post-cancer, you're likely going to see a lot of water retention and various forms of inflammation as your tissues are being bolstered and reserves being refueled. Weight can do crazy things during radiation and chemo, and it can take a good year or two for the body to respond normally, without over-active immune responses. An anti-carcinogenic diet is a brilliant start to keep that response to a minimum, but you still need to give yourself enough fuel to adequately rebuild what the disease and treatment are well known to decimate.

That's my .02

Hi there, welcome!!

I second what Arctic Mama said. It sounds like you've been through a lot and you're taking good care of yourself. I would also increase your calories to support all that lifting (why eat less than you have to? If that doesn't work you can always switch it up from there).

I'm glad to hear that it sounds like you're doing okay health-wise, and I'm sorry you're struggling.

I would also increase my goal weight, 110 would actually be underweight for someone your height.

Hi, first of all glad to hear you're a survivor!

Second - with that kind of lifting you can probably up your calories by quite a lot. Some posters on here who were around your height and weight (coughsontaiklecough) found their losses stalled at low calorie counts and picked up again with less cardio and more food.

Not according to the NIH calculator

The idea of eating more food to lose weight is hard to warm up to, especially because I am not doing calorie restriction - 1300 calories is my natural diet and has been for as long as I can remember. If I eat more I would have an uncomfortable time going to sleep at night. I love to cook and bake though! So that means I actually need to eat more to lose fat %?

Part of me knows that if I worked out more intensely, sure, I will lose weight, but I don't think I can work out harder in terms of weightlifting and I am still having trouble with cardio. Has anyone tried rowing machines? I actually like that one.

Rowing machines are GREAT but they hurt my butt a lot.

Haha same here! I need a rowing butt pillow!

This is interesting. It sounds as though you are a chronic undereater, which is too bad because it has long term effects on your metabolism.

How about this. Since you enjoy weight lifting and you are trying to build a strong, lean body, why not dedicate a month or two to *gaining* weight--that is, eat in such a way that you will *gain* muscle. If you put on a bit of muscle, you'll probably look and feel better, but you might also find it easier to lose fat afterwards. (And as a reminder, the point of weight lifting is to build and maintain muscle. It's really hard to do that in a calorie deficit.)

I'd increase calories slowly. If you've been undereating for a long time, your body will probably freak out and start retaining water when you increase your calories.

Holy moly. Is this all really true? I've been undereating? I LOVE food! I bake my own bread! I have cake for breakfast! That I baked! It was double dark chocolate!
Okay, so maybe my stomach is small (and irritable). But I'm not sure if I can eat when I'm not hungry. It does sound all very fun and indulgent to eat more than I ever have, (here I come, thin italian cheese pizza) but I really...isn't there something else I can try first?


Well, here goes nothing. Today I am going to eat about 1500 calories. Extra meal, yay! I am kindddda nervous guys!

Edit: I AM REALLY FULL NOW

lol!!!

Yes! eat more!

I never really stalled for longer than a few weeks or so but my weight loss got faster when I ate more.

When I hit 125 I upped my calories to 1600ish, 1800ish (or around there, I don't remember. Maybe someone can find an old post of mine or something ) and I lost faster and my muscles showed up nicely.

When you're weight training you can eat more than if you were doing cardio and still lose or maintain your weight. You HAVE to eat more actually. When you do you'll notice that it's much easier to do lifts and you'll probably make some progress.

I'm trying to add muscle right now and the extra eating is really doing wonders for my lifts and bodyweight exercises!

Sontaikle,

So lately (...as of yesterday) I am super into rowing machines at my gym, I will continue to do strong lifts but since I'm now going to do 40 mins of rowing 2-3x per week, I should eat higher calories...? My fingers don't want to type that out as I think it in my head. But I believe you! I'll give it all a go! I don't know how I'm going to eat more but I'm sure it's easy!

ahhh so scared