I am eating around 1000-1200 cal a day and not losing weight

I am shorter then most people only at 147cm at 64kg and eating that amount should help me lose weight however it’s swaying goes to 63.8 then back to 64.3 then again stays at 64.4 etc
It’s really weird and I do weigh myself in mornings

I started to eat a high protein diet I never could eat high fat as I have terrible stomach issues for which I take lanzoprasole everyday. I have a lean protein shake in mornings and continue to eat high protein like fat free cottage cheese and fish and lean meats and of course vegetables and not so much fruit due to fructose so trying to keep the sugars and carbs down I don’t eat pasta bread or much rice.

Not sure what’s going on
Is it that I need to exercise too?
I was getting my body ready to be able to exercise as I used to in the past dance Zumba almost everyday 60min that was very good. But long long time I didn’t exercise much and due to lockdown the gyms are still closed I’m looking to start Zumba again but say 20-30min as a start. I did do some walking to get my condition up.

Any ideas what’s going on?
Thank you

Reply 1

Scienceisgood

Need to ask, what sex are you? You haven’t specified and men should be heavier than women.

Reply 2

Scienceisgood

You also failed to mention your age as the older you get, the slower your metabolism meaning it is harder to lose weight in general.

Reply 3

RozaliaP98

Original post by Scienceisgood

Need to ask, what sex are you? You haven’t specified and men should be heavier than women.

I am sorry didn’t realise I am female and I’m 22.

Reply 4

Scienceisgood

That is probably your problem then, no carbs. Carbs are not bad for you, in fact they’re fairly vital for yourself and where your body isn’t getting any carbs, it isn’t seeing the need to burn the fat as quickly because it can’t replace it. Obviously eat less than you’ll burn but eating no carbs won’t help you at all. Eat something like either porridge or weetabjx in the mornings instead and see if that does anything. Also, I would try and if possible drink a glass or two or water before your dinner. Will help you by filling you up a bit before you eat.

Reply 5

RozaliaP98

Original post by Scienceisgood

I do eat some carbs like porridge or bowl of cereal and sometimes rice. I try to just keep it low but not totally cutting it out.

I recently started to go higher on the protein so I feel really full so I don’t go over the intake calories. I count all the calories on my fitness pal I’ve used it for years.
Today I am again 63.8 and it sways like this I just hope it’ll go down soon as the high protein diet may take some time to work perhaps.

Thanks for your answer

Reply 6

Josh_J

1 of 2 things
1) you are eating more calories than you think you are
2) your body requires you to eat even less to lose weight (assuming no exercise is being factored)

Counting calories is really difficult to do accurately even if you meticulously weigh everything. Labels are legally allowed to lie about calories within a 20% range.
My advice is weigh everything you eat if you aren’t already doing so. This will take out the guess work and make calorie counting more accurate.

However it may be the case that 1200-400 is not enough of a decrease for you to lose weight ( which I think is unlikely but still possible) in this case you should reduce your calories further until you see some weight loss.

If you want to lose weight effectively you should aim for around 1% of your current weight a week MAX too many people make the mistake of going faster and end up either binging or not being able to stick to it due to the harsh calorie restrictions that is required to lose weight very fast. Don’t track weight daily track weight weekly. Slow consistent efforts are ALWAYS better than a crash diet in this case.

So yeah even though it isn’t related to the question since your around 60kg aim to lose around 0.6kg every week and no more. You may feel fine losing faster than this but in the long run it isn’t sustainable and you are 90% gonna binge or not be able to stick to your plan. I’d say this is the single biggest reason as to why people find it hard to be consistent with weight loss

Reply 7

wilshambe

Original post by Josh_J

However it may be the case that 1200-400 is not enough of a decrease for you to lose weight ( which I think is unlikely but still possible) in this case you should reduce your calories further until you see some weight loss.

no, this is incredibly dangerous advice.

eating below 1200 calories is not advisable for an adult female. toddlers need that many.

OPs problem is probably that she isn't active enough, which is hindering her metabolism. I'd advise doing some kind of strength training (any exercise w/ weights/resistance) to build muscle, which will in turn help your metabolism :smile:

Reply 8

Josh_J

Original post by wilshambe

I did say it was unlikely and yes you would be right in saying it is dangerous especially if it was significantly below her basal metabolic rate. However a small fraction of the population have underactive thyroids which could make it harder for them to lose weight as their calorie requirements are lower than the average person. Too add to my advice OP id say visit a doctor if you feel like you are finding it difficult to lose weight despite eating so little.

As is said previously i think it is more likely that OP is miscalculating calories meaning she is eating more than she thinks she is. If she sticks to my advice of eating to lose around 1% of her bodyweight a week then there is no chance of her eating too little. In fact it would be sustainably healthy. Also (and this is very important) no amount of exercise can not out-do a bad diet. At the end of the day the MOST important factor when determining weight loss will be how much you eat. You should still exercise because it is great for overall health but for weight loss it has little impact for most people as most people are not capable of/ do not have the time to exercise for the amount of time that is required to burn a significant amount of calories. This is also another big myth when it comes to losing weight

Final piece of advice Id add is that dont rely too much on calorie calculators to give you a figure to lose weight. Whilst they can provide a baseline it is not the be all end all and you should actively try and adjust the calories you intake to reach that 1% of weight loss a week. Everyone is different so will require different adjustments.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 9

illusionz

Original post by wilshambe

OPs problem is that she is consuming more calories than she is counting. Most people vastly underestimate calorie intake while trying to lose weight.

There's no way she's maintaining her current weight on 1200 calories. While there's a tiny chance her metabolism is abnormally slow, there are far more people who think they have a slow metabolism than actually do. It's much more likely she underestimates calorie intake.

Reply 10

StephRadriguez

Original post by RozaliaP98

If you are going to limit your calories, then you need to first figure out how many calories you burn per day. You can do this using a TDEE calculator, or total daily energy expenditure. Everyone burns a certain amount of calories per day, and eating fewer calories than that number is how we lose weight. However, you need to eat enough calories, because not eating enough is just as bad as eating too much. This type of diet is called a CICO diet, and you can learn all about it here: https://www.openfit.com/what-is-cico

In terms of exercise, it's not 100% necessary that you do it, because you can lose weight by dieting alone, however it wouldn't hurt and would probably keep you motivated to stay committed to your diet. If you're looking to do Zumba, there are tons of resources online that you can use for free.

Reply 11

Amanda0795

Original post by RozaliaP98

I suffered for a long time with diets and was looking for ways to lose weight. I've tried a lot. And a year and a half ago I found an interesting course. Write to PM if you're interested.