Why aren't I losing?

I am a 36 year old woman. I would like to lose weight, but I am not.

Since March 22nd, I have been going on a walk every night of the week. Occasionally, I'll miss a night, but never more than once in a seven day period. I started by going for a 3.5km walk, and have slowly increased the distance and speed that I walk. Since May 10th, I have been maintaining at least 5km of walking each night at a pace, on average, of 5.7km/hour. According to my fitness tracker, the first week I began walking, I was burning 1800 calories per week; I now burn, on average, 2200 calories per week.

Additionally, I have been tracking my calorie intake on SparkPeople. Based on my height (5' 1"), weight (210lbs), and activity level, my BMR is approx. 2449. As a result, I try not to exceed 2000 calories a day, although SparkPeople suggests that I could eat up to 2510 calories daily. I have a generally good track record of staying within my target of 1700-2000 calories daily, and rarely, if ever, exceed 2500 calories. I make sure that I am eating when I am hungry, as opposed to eating out of boredom or in response to emotions. I also watch my carb, protein, and fat intake, and stay within my recommended ranges (243-408, 48-98, and 60-220, respectively). I do enjoy beer and wine, but not on a regular basis, and certainly not daily. I drink water consistently throughout the day, and rarely drink anything other than water, other than an occasional juicer of orange juice. I do not drink coffee or tea.

I have a slightly low thyroid, and take a small dosage of Eltroxin daily. I have no underlying health conditions other than this. I get 7 hours of sleep, on average. I have relatively low stress levels, and maintain a generally happy demeanour.

My hope was to lose 1lb per week; since I began my exercise routine and tracking of calories, I have lost 0lbs. I have not noticed my clothes fitting any differently, and have not noticed a change in my measurements. When I look in the mirror, I don't see any differences in my body.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there something I can adjust to start losing weight? Any suggestions or assessments of my situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Weightloss30]

Firstly, well done for taking the steps to try and lead a healthier lifestyle. Even if you haven’t seen any weight loss, increasing your exercise and eating healthier is a good thing.

If you are not losing any weight, it means you are not in a calorie deficit - you must be eating the same as the amount of calories you burn which is why you aren’t losing weight! I ran your figures through the NHS BMI calculator (which I suggest you look at) and as a moderately active individual, it suggest you eat between 1613-2073 kcals a day. You say you rarely go above 2000, but perhaps try sticking to the lower end of the range for a few weeks to see if you see a change. Also, it is worth looking at the accuracy of your tracking. Do you weigh out ingredients before logging calories? Your portion of food may be very different from the servings on calorie tracking apps. If you have a food scale, you can log what you eat in grams. Most people tend to underestimate what they eat by hundreds of calories which can really impact weight loss. Try writing down everything you eat for a day just to check you aren’t having any sneaky bites and forgetting to log them!

Your low thyroid probably isn’t helping but hopefully you can start to see some weight loss soon. Good luck and feel free to ask me anymore questions, I know how frustrating it can be!

[Diane2]

Hello aristaflare and welcome to this Forum! I dont recognise SparkPeople and have checked your data in the NHS BMI calculator which gives a Body Mass Index of 39.6, calorie range of 1613-2073 as indicated by Weightloss30. We in Admin team recommend aiming more for the mid-range not low end of this as then you have room to reduce.

Losing weight does take time, we can have weeks of seemingly zero progress then...it starts to shift! What is key is the nature of the food you are eating more than exercise though exercise is a help and brings other benefits for outlmr health too. So.... please don't give up but join in on here (especially with Daily Diary and Weigh In groups..read on!) And check out the specific HU thyroid site also available(separate to this). There are others who use this Weight Loss Forum with thyroid issues who will no doubt offer tips too.

People adopt a mix of approaches to losing weight on here which you will see as you explore. We strongly recommend new members make use of one of our Weekly Weigh In pages and the Daily Diary posts. You will find these via this link following which takes you to our Pinned Posts section. There you will find a Welcome message,general advice (eg: internet safety)and guide to our site plus links to a range of groups which we hope will interest you as well as the key Weigh In and Daily Diary pages.....

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

....it can take a bit to learn how to find one's way around so please read the material carefully and also note, don't use the HU App, it is much easier to use the website.

As explained above, we recommend that members join a Weekly Weigh-In, on the day of your choice, and also use the Daily Diary, where members share their meal plans and get useful feedback. They are found under Pinned Posts (go back to the link I gave you above)

A special feature of our Forum is the degree of support between members which you will experience (and add to yourself !) as you join in and chat with others.

All the best on your weight-loss journey ! 😊

[BoudicaWomensHealth in reply to Diane2]

Hi Aristaflare (Weightloss30 and Diane2)

I agree with the posts above - portion sizes are a great challenge the Heart Foundation have a simple guide where you can use your hand and fingers to assess portion sizes (I personally and always challenged around these, particularly as I like 'square meals' ?!).

As Diane2 suggests, focussing on appropriately adjusted total calorie count and portion sizes is likely to yield the result.

If you still don't see the results you are after, you can ask your GP for an updated thyroid function test (these are usually conducted annually) to see whether you might need a slight increase / adjustment to your levothyroxine dose.

If after 3-6 months and complying with all of the above, you may wish to have a full sex hormone profile, to determine if there are any underlying conditions which may affect your glucose metabolism.

(I am a clinician working in women's health in a specialist centre)

[Diane2 in reply to BoudicaWomensHealth]

Hello BoudicaWomensHealth and welcome to this Forum!

I see you have joined Sundays WI already 👍👏. Please see the welcome message above sent to aristaflare and please check out this link to key info about our Weight Loss Forum and most important pages we recommend people use to get the most out of the Forum

I would repeat(as it is such a strong aspect of the Forum ❤) that you will find a high degree of support between members here which you will experience (and add to yourself !) as you join in and chat with others.

All the best on your weight-loss journey ! 😊

[BoudicaWomensHealth in reply to Diane2]

Hi Diane2 - I'm having some difficulty navigating, and am not sure which links you are referring to .... Don't usually join communities online - it is a lockdown phenomenon for me - is there an easy way to sort by responses to messages ? Thanks

[BridgeGirl Administrator SS Supercook 2 stone in reply to BoudicaWomensHealth]

Diane2 was referring to the link to Pinned Posts that she's given above. Here it is healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

If you click on the blue link, you'll come to a list of posts, starting with Welcome Newbies. As you scroll down, you'll come to the current weigh in (I see you joined the Sunday team), Daily Diary and all the rest of the forum activities. If you wish to join in anything, you click on the title and read the opening post which explains how it works. You DON'T click on Write, as that will create a new post rather than you joining whatever you're interested in.

Have a browse through the Pinned Posts and join in when you're ready

[BoudicaWomensHealth in reply to BridgeGirl]

Thanks BridgeGirl - will have a read : )

[Subtle_badger]

Everyone on here always seems to suggest doubling down when it's not working, but I like the quote "the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result"

I experienced exactly what you did, letting an app put me on a diet and following that diet carefully, but when nothing changed about my body for 3 weeks, I decided the approach was broken. For one thing, if that was the amount of effort just to maintain my weight, I was going to fail in the long term.

I picked up a copy of Fast800, and followed it for a month. I lost 7.4kg and 10cm around my waist, and felt and looked much better. Then I increased my calories, and the weight loss slowed, but did not stop. I am still low carb/high fat an intermittent fasting, and I think I will be for the rest of my life. I've gone from obese to a normal BMI since October and lost total of 18cm around my waist.

HTH