Top 7 Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

[greygoose]

goodworkswellness.com/top-7...

[spongecat]

Thanks for the link GG.

That is me to a tee! I simply cannot lose weight. I have been in calorie deficit for over a year now whilst weight training to maintain some muscle and try to bump up my metabolism. I use digital scales to weight everything that goes into me and have 1 "cheat" meal a week which is apparently good to keep your metabolism on its toes.

I eat only food I have prepared myself so no refined sugars and most of my carbs come from fruit and veg, I rarely eat bread or pasta as it makes me bloated.

To be honest I've given up with the scales and just use a tape measure round my tum (which looks like a barrel!) but I'm STILL 35" round my waist. Grrrrrrrrr. I just want to get rid of this adipose fat and be able to wear clothing that is suitable for my 5'2" frame.

Had another thyroid blood test 2 days ago, let's see what the results are this time and whether I need to go up another 25mcg to 100mcg.

What keeps me going is knowing that I'm not alone. I am fed up with being 11 stone. My dream is to get back to 9½ stone as I used to be when I was healthy.

[greygoose in reply to spongecat]

Frankly, you are not helping yoursel by limiting your calories. You should be counting nutrients, not calories. You need planty of fat, and that has the most calories, so that makes calorie-counting a nonsense!

You are also not helping yourself by weight-training. That won't increase your metabolism. Only getting your homone levels optimal will do that. And exercise like that uses up your T3, making you more hypo.

I hope you get an FT3 with your blood tests.

[spongecat in reply to greygoose]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes I work on a slight deficit to my TDEE. If I go too low I get hungry because I lift heavy with very few reps and I'm working on hypertrophy rather than endurance. I first started on the bare minimum of 1200cals which was a mistake. I now eat around 16-1800 with a slightly higher protein intake especially on weights days.

I do pay a lot of attention to my macros and get good fats from stuff like avocados and brasil nuts which all get bunged in the Nutribullet.

I would be devastated to give up weight training which I do 3 times a week.....that is depressing. I honestly thought that having good muscle density would boost my metabolism as they need to be "fed"....fat doesn't!.

I also do short 15 minutes worth of intervals on the dreadmill, again three times a week after weight training (yep, I guess I bought into the Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC theory).

.All I know is that the cardio work has reduced my "bad" cholesterol and I've gone from BP readings of approx. 140/86 to 118/78 which I'm very happy with..........at least something went right, lol!

[greygoose in reply to spongecat]

Cholesterol is totally irrelevant! And there's no such thing as good and bad cholesterol, it's all good! We need it for our brains and we need it for our hormones. You Don't want to reduce your cholesterol! Leave it where it is.

We've all been conned into believing that cholesterol is bad. It isn't, it's a necessary nutient, like protein or vitamins. Those with the highest cholesterol live longest - those with low cholesterol have heart attacks!

I very much doubt is your weight-gain is actually fat. It's more likely to be mucin. Mucin is a gooey substance that gathers Under the skin in hypos, and retains water. Have a close look at those 'fatty' areas. Where are they? Can you pinch up the skin away from the 'fat'? If not, it's not fat. It's mucin. And you can do all the weight-training in the world and it won't shift it! What you need is T3, and you're using that up on your weight-lifting and the treadmill.

[spongecat]

Well that sounds depressing! I have heard of this mucin so I better get my human biology hat on again and do some swotting before seeing doc next week.

To be honest I feel a lot better after a workout/walk or whatever. I do have some days where I will go home and simply conk out and feel pooped out like we do, I like to blame it on the sea air down here!

I'll see what transpires at the doc surgery next week. If he puts my dose up and nothing starts going right I guess I'll just have to be a porky, somewhat strong middle-aged woman with good cardio stats!

Better than nowt I suppose

[greygoose in reply to spongecat]

Sorry if that depresses you, but at least it means it's not your fault if you've put on weight. I would have thought that was Worth knowing.

[spongecat]

That is very true GG!

Never mind, onwards and upwards as they say *sigh*.

[greygoose in reply to spongecat]