As title states...
I have been unable to lose 10 lbs for the last 3 years, on a fastidious and very healthy diet and am out of ideas. During this time I've been strictly dieting, lifting and doing cardio. Last year I joined a boxing gym and went full beast for 6 weeks with cardio boxing classes, I cut carbs and was eating less than 2,300 cals. After 6 weeks of this I went from 235lbs to 234.2...wtf.
I'm experienced in dieting and know I'm doing everything right. I figured something else has to be off with me so the only thing I can think of was that during this time I've also had very irregular bowel movements. One day I'm extremely constipated and only pass a little pebble. The next day I pass a pile of mud and have to wipe for 10 mins. That next day I pass a bunch of small turds that look are shaped like Cheetos. Several times my "area" was so raw and tender from wiping I couldn't sleep.
Is this related to my inability to lose weight? I have no idea.
Had a full bloodwork panel done last month. Completely normal.
I had an endoscopy that showed a higher than usual amount of white blood cells in my stomach but not enough to explain my issues. I asked the DR if this could explain my inability to lose weight but his response was "maybe". He prescribed me enzymes that I used for a month but they did absolutely nothing, in fact it felt like it made it worse so I stopped.
Then I had a colonoscopy which I was hoping would help me get to the bottom of this and it came out completely normal. Man.
Summary - I'm in a calorie deficit, exercising regularly and can't lose weight or take a good dump. Does anyone have any possible ideas what I could be experiencing or has anyone experienced anything similar? I'm beyond frustrated.
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12-24-2022, 04:15 PM #1
Inability to lose weight combined with erratic bowel movements
Last edited by ChiefRocka; 12-24-2022 at 08:34 PM.
Iron. Boxing. NFL. Mob stuff. New York City breed.
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12-24-2022, 07:20 PM #2
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12-24-2022, 08:26 PM #3
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12-25-2022, 03:45 AM #4
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12-25-2022, 04:28 AM #5
- Join Date: Aug 2013
- Location: Stanwood, Washington, United States
- Posts: 5,380
- Rep Power: 46096
You say "you're in a calorie deficit", but the fact that you haven't lost weight shows that you're not. The ONLY indicator of a sustained consistent calorie deficit is weight loss. Sure you can see measurements change without scale weight loss for a few weeks, but eventually that scale is going to start moving if you're actually in a deficit.
If you at 2300 and that didn't work then go to 2000, and after 3-4 weeks if that doesn't work go to 1800.
Infrequent bowel movements can be due to a lot of things, including what you choose to eat. Are you getting enough fiber? Enough water? Stress?All it takes is consistency, effort, proper nutrition, good programming, and TIME.
Don't be upset with the results you didn't get from the work you did not do.
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12-25-2022, 09:25 AM #6
I went down to well below 2000 calories. I tried low carb. Intermittent fasting. Same problem. I know a bunch of people come here complaining about not losing weight and are simply just not watching their calorie intake well enough but I'm trying to convey the fact that I've been in a strict caloric deficit for months at a time and not losing any weight. This is the first time in my life I've had his problem and it must be that something else is preventing me from dropping weight.
Iron. Boxing. NFL. Mob stuff. New York City breed.
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12-25-2022, 11:16 AM #7
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12-25-2022, 05:36 PM #8
- Join Date: Aug 2013
- Location: Stanwood, Washington, United States
- Posts: 5,380
- Rep Power: 46096
You're not listening. The laws of thermodynamics don't apply to everyone EXCEPT you. You can't maintain a living/moving/breathing body without enough energy. In the absence of sufficient energy (calorie deficit) your body will start to consume itself and the end result will be weight loss.
If I put you on a desert island with no food and just gave you enough water to survive, you would drop a **** ton of weight before you dropped dead, guaranteed. Ever watch the TV shows Survivor or Alone? Every single one of those contestants drop weight like crazy, that's what a real calorie deficit will do to you.
You're not being consistent with your calorie counting, or you're just not counting at all, and/or you're lying to yourself and us.All it takes is consistency, effort, proper nutrition, good programming, and TIME.
Don't be upset with the results you didn't get from the work you did not do.
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12-26-2022, 05:22 AM #9
If you think you're eating that much but not dropping weight, you're not eating that much.
Sauces, condiments, oils, literally EVERYTHING you cook with and use you have to go back to the drawing board and measure. Do you cook your chicken in olive oil? Measure it out. You're putting it in your body so it's calories. It's not water, it's oil. Spoon of nutella thinking it's only a small amount? It's 75 calories per tablespoon. Few pringles thinking it's only a few so doesn't matter? It does.
Hidden calories are everywhere in day to day items. 300 calories of sauce and oil etc is a lot easier than you think.Currently cutting.
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12-26-2022, 12:46 PM #10
I'm amazed at the responses here. You are all wizards who can foresee my diet, bravo. I clearly conveyed that I'm experienced with dieting, am watching my diet and calorie intake closely and am not losing weight even on a STRICT CALORIC DEFICIT.
I'll say it again....
STRICT CALORIC DEFICIT.
Even when I was taking ******** and barely eating once a day I didn't lose ANY weight. Amazingly not one mention here of a possible thyroid or pituitary issue which my DOCTOR (person with a medical degree) said could explain why I'm not losing weight in a calorie deficit and thought that might be the issue until that was ruled out.
Or the possibility of water retention explaining why the scale isn't changing on a caloric deficit.
Even a liver issue could potentially explain why one would not lose weight on a caloric deficit as well but not one mention of that here either. Good job keeping the bioscience alive and well gentlemen.
I guess it's my fault for thinking there may be some outside of the box thinking on this forum that could help me narrow it down but you are all stuck only one possiblity.Iron. Boxing. NFL. Mob stuff. New York City breed.
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12-26-2022, 01:41 PM #11
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12-26-2022, 01:47 PM #12
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12-26-2022, 02:05 PM #13
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12-26-2022, 02:35 PM #14
I know that I can't fit a square peg into a round hole.
The laws of thermodynamics weren't just a suggestion, as was already mentioned.
You probably aren't accounting for the adaptations your body is making in response to the reduction in calories. Try thinking in terms of your energy balance, as opposed to just your caloric intake.Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young. How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from? I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it. Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one.
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12-26-2022, 03:19 PM #15
First, by definition, if you aren't losing weight then you aren't in a calorie deficit. That's kind of why you're getting pushback since you keep saying STRICT CALORIE DEFICIT. You should just say you're eating xxx calories/day, which for most people, would lead to weight loss & you're wondering what could be the roadblock. To say you're eating <2,300 cals, and then in response to people saying to eat less, you revise it to say it's actually <2,000 cals, sounds like BS.
You also started out your thread by saying "I'm experienced in dieting and know I'm doing everything right." If you were interested in out of the box thinking, you'd also consider the possibly that you may not be doing everything 100% perfectly, and that it could one of several contributing factors. The fact that you're constipated af reflects the fact that your diet is probably not ideal even beyond the calorie intake. It's unreasonable for you to expect everyone to just accept that you can make NO diet improvements on your end when you say you can't lose weight.
Regardless, in my response above I did give you another possibility. If you can't take a regular, proper dump for 3 years and are constantly carrying around a few days worth of **** that you expel slowly in erratic intervals & fun shapes, that could amount to the extra weight constantly hanging out in your digestive tract.
Also, if at some point you were enhanced, that could create differences in how your calorie intake can affect your weight, whether you are or are no longer enhanced.
Lastly, since you already stated various possibilities that you believe are the cause of your problem & respect your doctor's opinion much more than people here, why aren't you exploring those options with him? Especially since he would know more about your health & your 100% perfect eating habits.
Don't blame people here for your lack of weight loss - I can lose weight on a drop of a dime if I want to without even tracking calories... people are only going to give you what is most likely the problem given what you've written that seems credible. Calorie intake isn't broscience, your random reasons of what you think the issue is are - since you're just making it up without even confirming them with actual medical tests. I mean, you could have a giant tumor/mass growing inside of you - is that really going to help you to have some random internet dude tell you this?
Go get some scans, tests & screenings if you believe you have a true medical issue & are 100% perfect with your diet/nutrition. Then you won't have to guess or get mad at other people because you suck at weight loss.
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12-27-2022, 06:10 AM #16
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12-27-2022, 06:48 AM #17
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12-27-2022, 07:16 AM #18
I wasn't saying anything specific about metabolism, just that you can't expect to have the same results with specific intakes when enhanced vs. not enhanced or even recipe changes. Probably more of a body composition comment than weight comment, but I've known folks who handle higher cal intake enhanced much better (probably due to higher %/growth of muscle mass than metabolism specifically, but I'm too lazy to google the science).
It was more just in case this applied to OP, since sometimes previously enhanced folk consider themselves to be experts in dieting/nutrition & don't get why what they once did isn't working now.
(Not knocking enhancements especially on a bodybuilding forum, just pointing out there's usually an unquantifiable difference in results.)
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05-16-2023, 05:35 PM #19
So it's been over 4 months and I remembered this thread I made and just thought I'd bump it to share an update to the commenters who seemed to know my caloric intake was a sham and I was a liar..and let you know that maybe you should not take everything you read on bb.com as gospel nor think caloric deficit is the end all be all to weight loss because it ISN'T.
As my original post states, while I was struggling with seemingly impossible weight loss on extreme caloric deficits, I was also experiencing extremely erratic bowel movements.
I finally sucked it up and got a prostate exam, yep the good old fashioned finger up your....
Luckily I saw an exceptional doctor. I told him my issues with constipation, irregularity etc as well as my inability to lose weight. His response "You need to go on a high fiber diet". I'm thinking, come on I eat fruits and oatmeal he's like NO....THIS high fiber diet (recommend a brand of psyllium and which foods to take how often).
He said it's likely as simple as something has changed in my body at my age and I now need to double or even triple my fiber. He said that the reason I probably can't lose weight is in fact related to my bowel movements....He said that I likely have (drumroll) INSULIN RESISTANCE CAUSED BY INSUFFICIENT FIBER INTAKE. Were any of you aware of such a correlation?
As per the doctor's words (man with a medical degree) "with high insulin resistance you can go on a water and lettuce diet and still struggle to lose weight".
I followed his protocol. It's not the tastiest but finally.... 3 months later I'm down 9 pounds, can make regular bowel movements on a HIGHER caloric intake than I was on before.
So there you go.... clearly having faith in a message board for a diagnosis was ill advised but just saying.... Almost every person in this thread has a lot more to learn about the different ways a body can struggle to lose weight outside of proper caloric intake.Iron. Boxing. NFL. Mob stuff. New York City breed.
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05-17-2023, 06:23 AM #20
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05-17-2023, 08:15 AM #21
Yes, if you keep lowering your calories you will lose weight but you will also wreck your metabolism going too low week after week, month after month. I would look into taking a diet break and eat maintenance for a few weeks. Give yourself a mental and physical break. Your metabolism is like a campfire, sometimes you gotta toss a log (no poo pun intended) on it to get it roaring again. Just don't consider it a two week cheat day and you should gain little to no weight in that time. Then jump right back into it.
Dec 1 2014: 188.5 lbs
Jan 05 2015: 178.5 lbs
Feb 2 2015: 170 lbs
June 22 2015: 167.5 lbs
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05-17-2023, 08:24 AM #22
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05-17-2023, 09:06 AM #23
I don't know all the scientific details bruh but it was the only thing that has worked for me after 2+ years of not being able to lose a single pound in a caloric deficit.
I googled it and there's a lot of stuff about fiber deficiency and insulin resistance, it significantly impedes weight loss and can counteract caloric deficits. In fact I would bet that even if you don't have insulin resistance, doubling fiber would probably accelerate anyone's weight loss.Iron. Boxing. NFL. Mob stuff. New York City breed.
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05-17-2023, 09:10 AM #24
Yes, that's what appears to occur.
As per one of the articles I saved:
When your cells don’t respond to insulin very well, levels of insulin increase as does glucose in your bloodstream. This makes it harder to burn fat because the extra insulin levels tell the body to store energy instead of using it as fuel.Iron. Boxing. NFL. Mob stuff. New York City breed.
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05-17-2023, 09:25 AM #25
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05-17-2023, 09:51 AM #26
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05-17-2023, 09:54 AM #27
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05-17-2023, 10:11 AM #28
This is what I'm taking, really a game changer: https://ibb.co/C0J5T9q
1 teaspoon in 8 ounces of liquid twice a day. Before meals after meals, really don't matter for me, as long as I take it.Iron. Boxing. NFL. Mob stuff. New York City breed.
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05-17-2023, 10:23 AM #29
I can read, you literally just claimed after 4 months that you solved the problem by getting a prostate exam (apparently the 1 test you didn't get) & seeing an exceptional doctor. How does that invalidate anything I said 4 months ago as broscience - which I quoted above? Talk about cope, I'm not the one who restarted the thread after all this time.
I can lose weight anytime I want & my bowels are fine without taking laxatives - but you do you, you're the non-broscience insulin expert. Make sure to give that advice to anyone who has trouble losing weight since it clearly is the answer.
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05-17-2023, 11:22 PM #30
I’m probably losing my time replying to this thread based on your “macho man I know better than anybody else and I came here for someone to tell me reassure me there’s something wrong with me” attitude, but on the off chance I can help someone out… It doesn’t matter if you have a thyroid issue, cancer or any sickness in the planet. When it comes to weight loss if you’re not losing weight you’re not in a deficit. Period. Sure, an illness will make it harder, but never impossible. Assuming you’re doing everything correct (sure, you’re Mr. Perfect) then that means you just gotta keep lowering your calories. Maybe you need to be eating 1000 calories to be in a deficit… Who knows… I could have the worst hypothyroidism ever, but if I stopped eating, what would happen? Would I lose weight? Yes… Calories are energy, and energy cannot be created out of nowhere. If your body is burning more energy than what you’re consuming your body has to take that energy away from somewhere. Oh, and fyi I’m diagnosed with hypothyroidism myself, and yes, it makes it harder. But guess what? I still lose weight successfully when I want to. I don’t use it as an excuse to cry about
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