Counting Calories NOT working for me, what's going on???!!
 

I’m a newbie to 3FC. I am unfortunately one of those people that has been overweight from birth on up.

I got really serious about weightloss and decided to do it the “right” way after failing at the fad diets, by counting calories and exercising, back on Feb 23. From then until about the end of May I managed to lose 24lbs. I was so excited, felt like this was gonna continue and I’d be at my goal weight in no time. Ta-huh! Was I fooled. I understand the usually the initial 10lbs is most likely water weight and I’ve researched and researched about losing weight and found counting calories to be the easiest to stick with.

Well now, I’m at a stall and my weight fluctuates weekly, up 2lbs this week, down 1 lb the next week, but I can’t seem to continue to lose steadily! I am sooooo confused about the amount of calories I need. Nearly every other site I go to, book I read, they all give me different numbers for my required calories. I get different multipliers and different equations. I embarrassingly started out at 272lbs, the lowest I got to was 248lbs, now I’m back up to 255lbs, which I am dissappointed about . Well when I was losing, I was eating between 1900-2300 calories. After hitting a stall, I was told I may be eating too little for my weight/activity level and my body needs more calories to adjust and continue losing. I went up to 2500 (still power walking daily for 30-40 min/step aerobics 20 min) and dropped an addtn’l 4 lbs. Now that the scale is not budging and goes up instead of down, I’m wondering if I am eating too much and need to recalulate my calories? I really feel like I wouldn’t win eating fewer than 1800 a day, I’m barely fullfulling my hunger eating the 2100 I eat now.

I just don’t get it, why is it I can read success stories of people who exercise, cut calories and manage to lose 60lbs in 9 months or so with no problems and I just have to be that one that can’t lose even 25lbs and keep if off after 6 months?!

I have become VERY frustrated and at the verge of saying forget it, I must be meant to be FAT!

Has anyone else been soooo confused about their needed calories and could not seem to lose weight eating those required calories?

I really want to lose weight, I really feel like I’m just too young and have missed out a lot on my youth because my weight bears a burden on my self-confidence.

Suggestions, PLEASE?!!!!!!!

I don't have all your stats, but if everything is normal, you may be eating too many calories.

I understand the confusion about calorie levels. It is not that calorie counting isn't working, it's that you haven't hit the right level yet. I don't know what web sites you are referring to, but I do know I see a lot of noise about multiplying your weight by a certain number, blah blah blah. These methods are bogus. The gold standard for calculating an ESTIMATED calorie need is the Harris-Benedict equation. You might check out www.room42.com. That is the website that I have found to give the most accurate calculation based on this equation. That's a place to start. I think their recommendation as to the number of calories you need to lose weight is actually too low. Just look at their number for BMR and AMR. What most reputable experts I've seen recommend is to eat about 250 less than your AMR (as long as you aren't going below your BMR) to lose weight.

Of course, these are just estimates which assume that everything in your body is normal. If you want to be more scientific, I would HIGHLY recommend going to www.healthetech.com and find out if there is a facility in your area that provides the BodyGem or MedGem metabolism test. This is an easy test that actually measures your current metabolism and can tell you EXACTLY how many calories YOU need to prevent starvation mode but still allow you to lose weight.

Keep in mind that, as you lose weight, you need fewer calories. You don't have to adjust your intake every week, but it's a good idea to reevaluate every 3 or 4 months if you've been losing steadily.

Don't give up -- the answer may be elusive, but if you keep trying you will get there eventually.

Let me see if I can help. :)

I am no expert, but every time I have lost weight I have counted calories (I just don't maintain very well...) and it does work. It just has to be taylored to your individual needs.

Even though your scale might not be moving in the right direction, how are your clothes fitting? Sometimes the scale goes up but the measurements go down. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat, but takes up less space.

There are several things that you may want to look at:

1) How much sodium are you getting each day? Too much sodium will make you retain water (and therefore weight).

2) How much water are you drinking each day? Too little water will make your body retain every drop it can to keep the body running smoothly.

3) I would take your calorie limit up 200-300 calories each day for a few weeks and see if that helps jump start your metabolism. If that doesn't help then I would go see your doctor, maybe there is a medical issue that is contributing to the problem.

The most important thing to remember is that you are healthier now than when you started in February. You are exercising and eating better, even if the results aren't what you were expecting for this time frame.

Every person's experience is different, and every body has different needs to function.

Good luck!

I just wanted a few things to think about.

1. Stalls happen. Expecting steady weight loss is unrealistic. Your body has to constantly adjust to what is happening to it. As your metabolism moves around along with your fat to muscle ratio, you're going to see slight fluctuations and stalls. Step back and look at the big picture. The goal is overall weightloss and the ability to maintain that. It will take time.

2. If you're not already, pay attention to the quality of your calories. A calorie is not a calorie. If you are not meeting your nutritional needs, your not getting the maximum benefit of all your hard work. A 300 calorie candy bar is nowhere near a 300 calorie bowl of chicken stir fry.

3. Eat often. I personally found a lot more success when I gave up the concept of meals. Breaking up your 'normal' amount of food into 6-8 small chunks over the course of the day (along with making sure that it has the proper nutritional value) will not only keep you from being hungry, it will keep your metabolism running at a steady pace.

I have to agree with Funniegirl on the calories. 2000+ calories a day sounds WAY too high. Even if you're doing mass amounts of exercise, that still seems high. You didn't state what type and amounts of exercise you're doing right now, BTW.

I definitely wouldn't go too LOW on calories - 1200-1300 a day is probably as low as you should go - but over 2000 is not going to get the pounds off in the long term. The formula I use (which is simple since I'm not a math whiz) is to take my goal weight and times that by 11 - that's how many calories I need to take in a day to get to my goal. So let's say you want to get to 145 pounds - 145 x 11 = 1,595 calories/day.

And like StarPrincess states, it's WHAT you eat that's just as important as HOW MUCH. Nutrition quality! And for the most part, you get a lot more 'bang for your buck' if you eat clean, healthy foods. Like Star sez, 300 calories of stir fry is better for you than a 300 calorie candy bar - but remember the stir fry will take up a lot more room in your tummy and keep you satisfied longer (and BTW one of my cardinal rules for weight loss is to CUT OUT THE SUGAR. If there's ONE thing that can keep you from losing weight, it's SUGAR, the consumption of which only makes a person crave more and more!).

Just my two cents...

Hey Shay,

I gradually lost 42lbs over a coupla years and stuck at 182 for over a year, still trying to lose weight!

Just recently I took up a anew kickboxing class and started doing some cycling, and that seems to have revved up my metabolism. As for counting calories, I tend to stick to around 1500, depending on the exercise quota for the day!

I know how frustrating it is to plataue, I've been there for ages, and ages and ages!! I was counting calories and doing exercise, and then just 2 weeks ago, it started paying off! Although before then, I'd managed to shed some inches, cos I could get into 31 jeans that I'd bought in June.

So in this race I guess it's better to be the tortoise rather than the hare, just chill out, it WILL happen!

10 calories per day per pound for people with an 'ordinary' activity level (walking 3x week, that sort of thing) to 12 calories per lb for someone with a higher activity level (intense cardio 5-6x week, strength training 3x week) who wants to lose weight, is my personal equation. :)

The original poster didn't say anything about what sort of exercise she was doing, so I just averaged it to 11 per lb.

Another suggestion would be to keep track of every bite that goes into your mouth via Fitday.com or some other type of counter...not necessarily forever, but just to get a feel for what and how much you're actually eating. You might be surprised!

You may be counting calories but are you weighing or measuring your food or just eyeballing the portion size? You may be taking in more calories than you think.

More on the calorie issue
 

:^: Wow, thanks to everyone for your responses! Oh and Jack-150, I LOVE the sarcasm, lol. I’m used to it, I was raised in a family of smart mouth, outspoken women ;-)

Ok, the equation when calculating your calories are you not supposed to lower them slightly below your maintanence level? Let’s say my goal weight is 165lbs, why on earth would I eat 1650 calories now at 255lbs? I’d have to starve myself by the time I get down to 190lbs right? I used ivillage.com’s healthy calculator on weightloss (the one dividing your wieght by 2.2, subracting your age, adding your activity, etc) and my maintanence calories just to live, organs fuction, breath, etc is 1890 calories, would it make sense to eat below the 1890 now? I thought dropping your calories to low (while being so heavy) is what creates the stall in the first place? Augh! This crap is giving me a headache. I thought weightloss wasn’t this darn complicated?

I guess I thought the equations works to take your current weight by this multiplier and subtract 500 to lose 1 lb per week on top of exercising.

I am willing to be patient for weightloss, however, I’d hate to waste so many months eating this or that many calories waiting for it to work, when they were either too high or too low to begin with. Anyone understanding what I’m saying?

I guess best thing to do is to check with a doctor (lawd knows if my insurance doesn’t cover it how high this bill would be, lol).

Oh and work out includes 30-40 min of power walking (4mph) 4 days a week and step aerobics 3 times a week 20 min (20 min is max my joints can take at this weight).

How have some of you lost your weight that have shed off 100lbs or more? I see the numbers, what’s your story?

Thanks tobaccygirl. Well with the equations they give me and recalucating all day, it seems like I am still eating either the right amount to lose 1 lb a week or slightly under. So girl I don't know what the deal is. I'm just gonna keep on keeping on and hopefully I'll get a surprise in a few weeks and the pounds start rolling off again. What'd you think? :) :D