i think im going to give up
 

I have seemingly tried everything... weight watchers, biggest loser, meal replacement, fat loss for idiots, south beach, akins, etc... i can lose the first 5 or so pounds easy but then it stops... i go to the gym everyday of the week... start with 15 minutes of cardio move to my weight lifting for an hour head to the basketball court either shoot hoops or play and then cool down on the bike... Nothing seems to work for me... i am 18, 6' 5", weigh 298... i wish i could just get a knife and cut the fat out of my belly...

PLEASE I NEED THE HELP TO FIND THE SECRET I NEED TO BURN THE FAT AWAY...

Have you tried calorie counting along with any of those plans? Calorie counting works for many, many people; it's simple, effective, and free. I use calorie counting along with South Beach now and it works like a charm.

i did it mostly for the biggest loser one cause it would tell me how many i would eat in a day... i did the opposite of it... i counted how many i burned... i would stop usually after i would burn all te calories i would eat in the day which would be around 11am

have you kept up any one plan for a long time or given up each time you stall?

Hi and ditto what WarMaiden said. Calorie counting has been the only thing that's worked for me-but not the calorie counting we did in the 1970's when we were starving ourselves to death! I've also tried every other plan and pills, but none of that worked. I'm a lot older than you and finally learned here at 3fc a reasonable way to count calories and the weight is finally coming off (45 pounds since September). Please don't give up, but look into CC or any of the other methods that have been successful for the people here. We're all pulling for each other, including you:hug::hug::hug::hug::hug:

Consistency is the key. You have to stick with it even when its hard and you want to stop. That is the only thing different about my current attempt at a healthier lifestyle.

I have killed myself in the gym and seen no movement or 1 lb loss some months. When I calculate the number of calories I have burned not including BMR and subtract those I've eaten, I should have lost my weight in 3 months time at most. Instead because of the way my body is its taken me 7 months to get to this point.

Weight loss is frustrating and very challenging but to achieve any measure of success at it you have to put in the time.

i have been on biggest loser for i wanna say 2 1/2 months... i got my wisdoms pulled this past week so i wasnt able to follow along

I don't understand what you mean, exactly. "It" would tell you how many calories you were eating? What is "it"?

Calorie-counting usually involves writing down all your food and drink, or putting it into a web tool, and calculating how many calories you are taking in. Is that what you were doing? Do you know how many calories you've been eating/drinking?

I count how many calories i burn off... on the biggest loser they keep track of how much you take in... so like tomorrow they have me eating i think 1,847 calories

Don't give up.

Weight loss is a doable thing. It's not some crazy, hare-brained scheme. It's been proven. Time and time again. And anyone and everyone CAN do it.

But it is hard work. Very rewarding hard work, but hard work nonetheless. And if you ask me, it's waaaaay harder to be morbidly obese, as I was, then to lose the weight.

In order to lose weight you must be willing to give up certain things and add in others. But you must, must STICK with a healthy plan. The only way these plans "work" is if you stick with them. So that is ESSENTIAL.

It is a decision you must make - which is more worth it to you - to eat the high calorie/high quantity food - or to be at a healthy weight? Once you make that decision, that commitment to lose the weight, it will be much easier to stick with your plan. And even if it's not so easy, it doesn't matter, because you've DECIDED and COMMITTED to losing the weight.

It took me a lot of years to figure this out - you don't have to be fat if you don't want to be. This is something that you have complete control over. All the best.

Don't give up!

How long have you been going from diet to diet? 6 months? 12 months? Longer?

If you've gone a long time with no success, you may benefit from seeing a doctor to have your thyroid checked. It's a good place to start, just to make sure there isn't something tripping you up.

Make sure you are not overexercising. If you are burning as many calories as you take in, you're going to be running a massive deficit. Your body will, at baseline, use at least 1200 calories a day. At that kind of deficit, it will start scrimping and "holding on" to the fat. Your body is incredibly adaptive. That's why experts say to shoot for a 1-2 pound per week loss (500-1000/day deficit).

I sounded just like you a few days ago and I received so much encouragement that now I feel that I can do it and I will because I know there is always going to be someone int the 3fc family that will be there for support. Im new to this too but Im here whenever you need to vent.

Weightloss is hard and you have to work at you. Dont give up. When i started calorie counting i weighed around 240 and i started at 1800. Im thinking that maybe 1,847 isnt enough. IMO i think you should be starting out at like 2,200. How much and how hard are you exercising?

Can you continue your efforts to get healthy just.one.more.day? Try that and then do it for another day and another. I echo the others and say try counting your calories religiously AND count the ones you burn. Keep on keepin on...it's all you can do.

You don't want to get bigger do you? End up like the people on TV that weigh 900 lbs? They got that way (in part) due to giving up at some point. Please don't. I don't know you but I do care enough about you to say please just keep trying to get healthy!!

I for one, and of course we are all different, keep my calories consumed totally and completely separate from my calories burned. Those calorie burned calculators are HIGHLY inaccurate. I eat what I eat and I burn what I burn. One is not dependent on the other. Any calories I burn through exercise and physical activity is an added bonus in the deficit department.

So really, I would just concentrate on tracking the calories that you eat.. I think this is what you really, REALLY need to do.

Definitely add in physical activity, but IMO there is no reason at all to keep counts on that.

I suggest plain old calorie counting too! don't worry about the other stuff. I'd start at a middle number liek 1500-1600 cals... and the once you stall deduct 100 you can go as low as 1200 but that should only be when your near your goal...

or you can calorie cycle which it meaning an average each way but varying each day to keep your body guessing. like example one day eat 1300 cals the next day eat 1700- your body can never keep up with itself there for burning constantly..

Calorie couting has been the only thing that works for mee too! I tried atkins, south beach, weight loss pills... and nothing worked! lie ky ou said I loose some initial weight the first week but then be stuck and miserable! I jsut gained 4 lbs in the last 5 days :( It makes me want to quit too- but then I remember that I'm going be be starting my monthly in about a week and half and it's probably just PMS kicking in... there is a logical explantation why it's not comign off.. but don't quit your health and your life depend on it!

There's no big secret. It takes exercise and eating less calories than you expend. And it takes motivation, I learned in my psychology class -motivation isn't an elusive abstract element like I think of when I think of 'willpower', the "scientific definition" of motivation is "effort in a specific direction". So motivation for losing weight doesn't just come to you, you must put effort toward your goal and that is what will get you there. Try a food journal and keep track of everything you put in your mouth, a couple chips here a swig of a sobe there adds up throughout the day.

Here is the info from my nutrion class:
Determine your BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate here is a good formula for that...http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-ca...dict-equation/ Determine your activity leve and get that number.

Most sources don't add this but my teacher recommended accounting for the Thermic Effect of food so, Then multiply your final number by 1.1 this is for the thermic effect of the food on your body and you get your total calories a day to maintain your current weight.

Then if you want to lose 1lb a week subtract 500 calories a day and this will be the number of calories you should consume.

Or maybe talk to a dietitian to see if they can recommend changes or tweaks to your current meals. Just don't give up! Just think of where you could be in six months from now if you don't give up!

How are you feeling today?

Hi. I'm new here, but not to losing/gaining weight.

I have found that when I am successful is when I balance everything. There is no 'secret'. Almost all plans have some truth to them for each of us. Our bodies want balance. Balancing exercise with what we eat, how it's prepared and how/from where calories are taken and expended.

DON'T GIVE UP! This is not a punishment you have put upon yourself. This is a GIFT you are giving yourself. The gift of life, health. Maybe your body just needs to adjust to your new way of life. Give it time - give yourself time. I like the poster that mentioned trying just for one more day.

Your journey is longer than mine, so I can't really understand comepletely what you feel. However, I do know that whatever is worth doing takes time.

Have you been drinking alot of water? I know that water intake has been crucial to me.

Oh what wonderful advice you have received. I strongly agree with Robin about concentrating on one thing, (calories in) first. I'm not going to sugar coat this, it's going to take you a LONG time to get to goal, and the rest of your life to stay there. Doing it is hard enough, don't complicate it more.

What I am about to tell you doesn't win me any popularity contests, but I have found it to work very well for me. DON'T EXCERCISE, (yet!) Don't go to the gym and work out for hours and hours UNTIL you are total 100% confident and in control with your eating plan. You need to learn your food program frontwards and backwards. There might be a time you can't exercise, (broken leg, illness, 50 foot of snow...) If you are totally dependant on exercise to lose weight, and you can't exercise for some reason, you're screwed. Learn to eat properly...THEN exercise is the icing on the cake. By that time you will know how much fuel your body needs under regular circumstance, and you can start tweaking your calories from there. Give yourself a month (at least) to learn to eat properly. At your young age, I'm so sorry to tell you that you will have to fight this beast for MANY years to come. But you can win.

Very interesting advice Lori Bell! I never looked at it from that paradigm before. It really does make sense.

If you go out on the web and find a good calorie calculator...I think that the Mayo Clinic has one, but there are plenty of them...then you just put in your age/weight/activity level and it will spit out what you need for maintenance and most of them with also give you a weight loss number and an extreme weight loss number (You should not aim to lose more than 1% of your body weight a week...much more than that is not particularly safe and will be hard to keep off in maintenance as it will cause a drop in your metabolism). Tracking what you burn is not, in my opinion, a system that will work long term. To lose weight you need to be accountable for everything you put in your mouth. That means tracking it and staying in your calorie limit for the day. I would not worry about what you burn on any given day, as long as your activity level evens out to a basic level over the week -- the day to day differences don't really matter unless you, say, hike ten miles or something...then you'll need to increase a little.

There is no reason to give up...figuring out a system or plan that works can be difficult, but once you find your groove, the weight will begin to come off. Good luck!

I'm with Candykisses, I'm wondering if you're eating enough food for your activity level. Perhaps your body goes very quickly into starvation mode and stores the fat until you eat again. I've struggled with this very thing, I was on Jenny Craig for months while breastfeeding, I didn't lose weight, I dried up, my metabolism is such that if I don't eat enough, I don't lose weight, I just gain it when I do eat. As well, have you looked at a condition called hyperinsulinemia? Producing too much insulin makes you gain weight and is a precursor to diabetes. Blood sugar peaks and valleys wreak havoc with insulin production, eating enough food and having protein with your carbs balances out the blood sugar peaks and consequently insulin production. You might want to look into that, it's helped me understand my body a whole lot more. I didn't start losing weight until I started eating food, who knew??

Like rockinrobin, I never ever count my calories burned. Those are extra calories burned that help me get to my goal quicker than I would if I did no exercise.

Also as rockinrobin mentioned, those calorie counters on machines or on websites are grossly exaggerated. Don't bother counting what you burn, just make sure you get the daily needed calories to lose weight in a healthy manner.

We haven't heard from the OP in a while, and hey we'd love to know how you're doing, but from what I gather and I could be waaay off base, but it sounds to me that he just can't STAY on his plan. I don't think it's a matter of him eating enough. I think not being able to stick to his plan.

I totally agree here about the excercise. I am waiting as well, and i am SO out of shape that I would like to not start until I'm carrying around less weight. When I do I am going to go in 5-10 min increments cuz I notice when I go out all gung ho I wear myself down too easily and I just can't stick with it, but in the past when I worked up from 5 mins to 30 (eventually) I stayed wiht it longer. that is until I got allf at again after going Off Plan.

:(

Lottie, you will be amazed at what adding in just a small amount of physical activity will do for you. Let's not even call it exercise if you'd like.

How about adding in 10 minutes of walking, even in place, in your home right now? Today? Maybe even do it 2X a day. Then you can increase it slowly. No pressure. I'm telling you it will make a world of difference on your journey.

Another idea is Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds DVD's. They are AWESOME. Soooo easy to follow and to do. I started off with the 1,2 & 3 mile express. Naturally I started with the one mile. I was able to do this and I felt SO good about myself.

Also, how about purchasing an inexpensive resistance band? Do 10 minutes of strength training a day to start off?

These would be great ways to ease into exericise. You will be surprised how quickly you will become "hooked".

Where's the "thumbs up" smiley?? Because I ditto all of this.

You will be no more in shape if you wait to lose more weight than you are at this point. I know people will disagree because I hear the "I want to wait until..." a lot and I'm just a firm believer in moving. It doesn't have to be taking up running or killing yourself at the gym. The benefits of just starting an exercise plan of some sort (walking for 20 minutes, resistance bands, picking up some 2-5 pound weights) are felt beyond the scale. Truly.

And now I sound like some Susan Powter knock off. But I still stand by it ;)

Lots of amazing advice in this thread. Wow, everyone here has gained so much knowledge about nutrition and fitness.

The one piece of advice I have is to not only count the calories you are consuming but look at where they are coming from. If you are eating too many carbs then you are going to find it very difficult to lose weight. I have been trying to lose weight for over a month, exercising religiously and have only lost 5lb. Today, the light bulb went off when I finally sat down and tracked my calories. I am getting 67% of my calories from carbs when the recommended value is 55%. Whoops! I am also not eating enough for the amount of exercising I am doing as well.

This weight loss business is challenging but if you put in the work and learn about nutrition, you will succeed.

Lori, at last, a like minded soul. Studies have shown that weightloss is 80% diet so I agree get the big part right first and get to know what YOU need to do to lose weight effectively by diet then look at the other factors. Doing the exercise thing straight off means it becomes unclear what is working and how.

Kitty

If you 100% positive with giving up dieting, then I recommed on doing some reading on mindful eating method. On eating whatever you want, no rules, and eating only from stomach hunger.

I gave up the dieting world,and now am antidiet chick that lost 21 Lbs so far ..

Read on books on Mindful eating..One book that I have and it is my lifeline advice book, Its called, Overcoming Overeating by Jane hirshman and Carol Munter.

Best wishes on your efforts!! :)

Liliann

We are all different, but most people who are overweight, again, most, but I guess not all, have trouble listening to their stomachs. There stomachs pretty much tell them to keep on eating and eating. That's why they're overweight in the first place. At least that was the case with me. I guess I was a bit hard of hearing, well, actually more then a bit. ;)

Truth is, after losing 165 lbs, I STILL can't rely on listening to my stomach. It still wants me to eat waaay too much. Which is why I rely heavily on calorie counting. I believe lots of others do as well. It forces limits on oneself. Puts the brakes on. IT determines how much food one can eat. Nope, I can't rely on my tummy.

I am thrilled for you though as 21 lbs is a great start!!!! I bet all your friends tell you that you're a great listener. ;)

Food is not a crime.Food is for pleasure and no one should forbid any certain foods. I am a sweet eater, and won't give it up. I lost, my clothes are getting loosen...even I get TOM normal now.I am healthy, my sugar is 84 and am happy the way I am.

I need to be active,,and in my opinion, most overweight/obese persons need to be active.Make peace with food as well.

Robin, I remember you and Congratulations on your weight loss!!! :)

Liliann

For sure food is not a crime. And neither is being overweight, for that matter.

To say that no one should forbid any certain foods, well, I respectfully, yet STRONGLY disagree with that. Strongly. Certain foods are like crack to me. So, I need to avoid them. Completely. ESPECIALLY early on. Until I gained some control.

My wants for the high calorie foods greatly diminished when I cut them out. I had to let those wants dry up and out. IT was a miracle to me. And soooo very worth it. I discovered healthy, nutritious foods that are now totally and completely delicious to me. Foods that my family, friends and anyone could and DOES thoroughly enjoy. I have added sweets back into my life, in small portions and on rare occassions. I truly believe they are meant to be eaten once in a while. Not on a regular basis.

I wish you continued success. Soon you'll be needing a whole new wardrobe. How exciting!!! :carrot:

Amen, "sister in sweat" ( a quote from Leslie herself :D). :carrot:Leslie Sansone's videos are the best. After doing the 1 mile for about a week, you're ready for the 2nd mile, then 3rd, and so on.

You'd be surprised, Lottie, how fast you'll get in shape just walking in place. You'd also be surprised at how you'll want to do more challenging things as time goes on, as you get in good shape starting out with simple walking and a resistant band.

:rofl:

Very well put. This is exactly the case.

Well I don't know if the OP has left- but it does sound like you work out too much and probably aren't eating either right- or eating more than you think you take in or WAY too little.

If you weigh 300 lbs than that means you can eat 3000 cal a day and not gain- 75% of that is a good number to lose weight- so you should be eating 2200-2300 calories a day, then exercise an hour a day (how do you find more time than that!?). Whatever exercise you want- weights, running, cycling, ellptical, swimming, etc.

My trainer had a client who weighed 300 lbs who was eating 1200 calories a day and didn't lose ONE POUND because he was in starvation mode- when my trainer told him the magic recipe (weightx100x.75)= how many calories a day to lose weight he started dropping the pounds- so it is true that sometimes you need to eat MORE to lose weight- but that doesn't mean go to McDonald's everyday- eat healthy meals!

I guess you mean weight x 10 x .75, or rather, weight * 7.5? When I do that calculation, I'm at less than 1200 calories a day, and when I get closer to my goal weight I'll be even less! Not to complete disregard your magic recipe, I guess my point is that you have to find new ways to find the perfect number of calories sometimes, especially when you get smaller or if you start out at a lower weight. The only thing that works for me is trial and error, and listening to my body.

oops it is weight x 10 x .75 :D

Sorry lol.

Norcal,

You're getting some great advice from some very knowledgeable people and I believe they really do know what they're talking about. But I did want to throw another idea your way - Think and Lose. This is a self hypnosis program that deals with the overeating and food issues where it counts, in your head. I've tried almost ALL the other weightloss plans, with some success for awhile, spent thousands of dollars, and had my fill of frustration and hopelessness. This program has proved to be the answer for me. I absolutely love it. It's basically effortless, I don't crave chips and munchies anymore, sweets or candy, I'm eating healthy, no cravings, no feeling deprived, no more obsessing about numbers - be it on the scale or calories, no more frustration and hopelessness. It's something that will stay with me the rest of my life.

Just wanted to let you know that there is another option out there if you're at the end of your rope and figuring there's nothing that will work for you. I believe there is a plan out there that will work for all of us, it sometimes just takes time to find the right one. Good luck and don't give up.

Shirley