About to be done with this healthy lifestyle

[Rana002]

Hello everyone,

I am really about to cry, I am a 33 old female, spent all her teens and her all twenties TRYING to lose weight and I am still about 40 pounds over. 8 years ago I lost 30 pounds and now I am stuck 185 (I am 5'4 - Fat is %32 ) I workout six hours a week (fitnessblender programs) which include 3 X HIIT, 4 weight lifting and some cardio, core, pilate mixed in. I do have a cheat meal (not junk) once a week

I eat healthy (and yes I know you will say it is not as healthy as you think, you must be eating more) I am really not. I calculate what I eat, it is about 1200 - 1400, all healthy stuff, moderate in carbs and fat. Haven't had junk food in literally YEARS!

My BMR is 1300 but if I eat less than that I will feel tired all day and my workout performance suffers a lot!!! Worse part is if I eat one bite out of the way or skip few days of workout I would immediately gain. Once I skipped working out for a whole week and ate as I normally would, I swear and God is my witness I gained a solid 10 pounds (that was 6 months ago and I am still unable to lose those)

Everyone around me is losing weight easily by doing half of what I am doing, I am officially a social outcast cause I can't eat with my friends. I actually skip events in order not to miss my workouts because if I do I immediately gain!
I did several medical checks including thyroid and hormone, everything is normal. I swear even the doctor scratched his head and didn't know what to say to me.
I need this amount of workout because I have a desk job and pretty much sitting all day. Why on earth I am bothering myself with workout this much and missing all the food I crave for years now (WITH NO RESULTS WHAT SO EVER) LITERALLY NONE other than a bit of tonning!!!

I know I am missing something but I don't know what! over 7 years now! I lost a ton of money trying many fitness centers, nutritionists, and even food tolerance test, not to mention the hours of googling. All to waste!

Can anyone recommend a solution or a solid program?

[BecomingSmaller]

How do you know you eat 1200-1400 per day?

Do you weigh absolutely everything (good) or do you use volume measures like spoons, cups, scoops (bad).

Do you include everything, e.g. Oil you cook in, milk you have in hot drinks?

Do you double check the calorific value of what you eat in more than one resource (good) or do you just assume the value in myfitnesspal or some other software is correct(bad)?

Quite often what you think you are eating and what you are actually eating calorie wise can be quite different.

[Redfish225]

Quick diagnosis, I suspect you're consuming more calories than you think. Nothing cuts fat like a calorie deficit along with cardio. Do you have any pics?

[spradish]

Get on an actual lifting program, not fitnessblender.

Buy a digital kitchen scale and use it to weigh all solids. Measure liquids with measuring cups/spoons. Log your calories using your food label or USDA nutrition info.

Go to the Don't Look Past the Basics stickied post at the top of the forum and follow the link to how to figure out how many calories to eat to lose weight. Eat that number for four weeks. If you don't lose weight, drop your calories by 100 per day.

[chamelious]

As above, you're eating more than you think.

You're incorrect about gaining " a solid 10lbs in a week". Its pretty much physiologically impossible, it would require a surplus of 35,000 calories, assuming a maintenance of 2000 cals this would be at least 7000 calories a day, which I'm confident you didn't do. And fat is tissue, it can't be created out of thin air.

You're eating more than you think. Either every day, or you're going through cycles of eating low calories, then binging/overeating. OR, you're the exception to thermodynamics, and should have your body over to science, as you're the answer to the energy crisis

[Bean100]

What's a typically eating day for you? Post pictures if you can of both you and your food.

The other thing you can do is just drop 300 cals off what you are eating now. Either way, you have to eat less. I know you said it makes you feel crappy, which is to be expected for a little bit. You have to be willing to be hungry sometimes, and to stop eating when you aren't full. Your body will adjust a little, but the first couple weeks of eating in a deficit are hard. If this is important to you, you'll push through.

[Poyser16]

I have to concur with everybody else, there must be something wrong in the way you are measuring your calories. And I know that's a ****ty answer and nobody likes to hear that they've been doing something wrong for so long (especially for 7 years, wow. Props for keeping going, I wouldn't have) but it's pretty much the only explanation. If your figure of 1300 BMR is correct then that means your TDEE is around 1560, so eating 1400 calories per day would be enough for you to lose weight, without any exercise whatsoever. Add in all the exercise that you're doing, you should be in a big defecit. Unfortunately it's gonna be either:

A) You are measuring your food incorrectly
B) You are not consistent enough in tracking your calories
C) Your cheat meal is doing a hell of a lot of more damage than you think

My advice would be to start from scratch. Forget everything you think you know and act as though you're a newbie. Read the sticky called "Don't look past the basics", make sure you have a digital food scale, if you use MyFitnessPal to track your calories, then make sure you are double checking the values in the database with the values on your packet. If it's wrong, create a new food manually with the correct values that you can keep using. Double check to make sure whether values are correct for dry weight, raw weight, cooked weight etc. Track EVERYTHING, even cheats and slip ups. A slip up is no big deal whatsoever as long as you make up for it. Knowing the damage makes this much easier. Don't trust fitness apps for telling you how many calories you burned and assuming you can "eat back" those calories. My advice would be to stick to a certain calorie goal and not "eat back" any calories burned through exercise at all.

But most importantly, don't give up. You'll figure your problem out eventually and get it right. If there's one thing you shouldn't ever give up on, it's your health and happiness.

[ironwill2008]

Hello everyone,

I am really about to cry, I am a 33 old female, spent all her teens and her all twenties TRYING to lose weight and I am still about 40 pounds over. 8 years ago I lost 30 pounds and now I am stuck 185 (I am 5'4 - Fat is %32 ) I workout six hours a week (fitnessblender programs) which include 3 X HIIT, 4 weight lifting and some cardio, core, pilate mixed in. I do have a cheat meal (not junk) once a week

I eat healthy (and yes I know you will say it is not as healthy as you think, you must be eating more) I am really not. I calculate what I eat, it is about 1200 - 1400, all healthy stuff, moderate in carbs and fat. Haven't had junk food in literally YEARS!

My BMR is 1300 but if I eat less than that I will feel tired all day and my workout performance suffers a lot!!! Worse part is if I eat one bite out of the way or skip few days of workout I would immediately gain. Once I skipped working out for a whole week and ate as I normally would, I swear and God is my witness I gained a solid 10 pounds (that was 6 months ago and I am still unable to lose those)

Everyone around me is losing weight easily by doing half of what I am doing, I am officially a social outcast cause I can't eat with my friends. I actually skip events in order not to miss my workouts because if I do I immediately gain!
I did several medical checks including thyroid and hormone, everything is normal. I swear even the doctor scratched his head and didn't know what to say to me.
I need this amount of workout because I have a desk job and pretty much sitting all day. Why on earth I am bothering myself with workout this much and missing all the food I crave for years now (WITH NO RESULTS WHAT SO EVER) LITERALLY NONE other than a bit of tonning!!!

I know I am missing something but I don't know what! over 7 years now! I lost a ton of money trying many fitness centers, nutritionists, and even food tolerance test, not to mention the hours of googling. All to waste!

Can anyone recommend a solution or a solid program?

You were already provided with a solution, one year ago. Your problem is a lack of compliance and discipline.
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=171072931

[Jedee]

I have to agree with what everyone is saying here - that there is a good chance you might be weighing / tracking your calories inaccurately. Especially if you have been cleared of thyroid and other medical conditions. It means that the simple solution of caloric deficit should work for you. Don't be upset by this either, because it means if you do weigh/measure your food accurately then things will work for you!

[Adare1]

A lot of people will go for salads as 'healthy stuff' and not realize it's a 600 calorie nuke filled with fattening oils like ranch and sweet & sour or bacon this and that.

The first reply to your post is spot on... calculate calculate calculate, and be conservative. If you think it might be more, then tighten further. You're not eating 1200 calories for 8 years and gaining weight, I am sorry to say...

[janivl]

You need to sort out your approach to nutrition entirely. You're skipping social events because it will make you fat? How about you work those into your plans and don't sacrifice your social ties to spend a night at home counting calories incorrectly and still gaining weight. How ironic is that.

Not going to repeat the good advice already given by others here, but I suggest you take note and actually listen this time.