wedding

babyjane4_64us

New Member
A little background first...I am 40 years old, with hypothyroidism, full time student and mother of three. I have put on 40 pounds in the last 4 years. I am getting married in June and would really like to get the weight off. I am 6 ft. tall and weigh in at 195 lbs. I work out with Cathe videos and other videos 4-6 days a week. I can't seem to budge the scales, even though I am practically not eating at all. I am in desperate need of help.
 
I am not Cathe but have to chime in because of the "practically not eating at all" statement.

It sounds like your metabolism has shut down. When you go with too little food, your body says "don't know when we will see food again, must store everything consumed as fat to survive the famine". Seriously, you need to eat more and make it healthy.

Do you know how many calories you consume a day?
 
Wow she gave an awesome answer. It's true. I was barely eating too thinking that's how I get the weight off. WHen I started to eat clean and more of it is when I started losing the pounds.
 
I probably take in 1200-1500 calories a day. I walk a lot during the day, I drink water all day. I have been hearing a lot about eating every three hours, and people taking a lot of weight off that way. It is just getting down to crunch time, and I really want to get this weight off. Any suggestions are great.
 
babyjane,

You are eating way too little! I know that can be a difficult concept to grasp when you want to lose weight (believe me, I know)! For your height, weight and age, your BMR (the total # of calories your body burns for normal bodily functions) is 1647 calories. Factor in your daily exercise, depending on the intensity and that # goes up.

Let's assume you you are moderatley active, then the # of calories you need to maintain your current weight is 2553 calories per day. To lose fat, you need a calorie deficit but too much of a deficit for too long and your body will not burn fat!

Right now, your body is in starvation mode from lack of calories. I recommend you consume 2000 calories a day to lose a pound a week. At absolute minimum...765 calories but every few days eat 2553 (your maintanance calorie count) so that your body isn't convinced to hold onto extra body fat to withstand the famine. Eat 5 meals a day or every 3 hours and divide your calories pretty equally through out the day, if anything, less in the evening since metabolism seems to slow down at night.

Also, no deficit larger than 1000 calories per day...that is too much for anyone. 1000 deficit will equal 2 pounds a week since there are 3500 calories to a pound.

FYI, I used the The Harris-Benedict formula (BMR based on total body weight) to calculate the # of calories you need to maintain your weight and how much to lose a pound a week.

I cannot tell you enough how much you will be helping your efforts to lose weight by increasing your calories a bit.

Also, make the foods clean...get rid of the junk. None of the above will work if you are eating donuts, chips, ice cream and all the other crap! I have noticed the less sugar I have, the less I crave it. Even a little makes me hungry, moody, tired and wanting more.

For the record, this is my opinion based on the many years of nutritional research I have done during my free time. I'm not an expert, just an enthusiast. It is certainly working for me! Wish I knew it before I walked down the aisle!
 
Yes, I have heard that eating every three hours will help you lose the weight quicker. I have started today to try to do that, although with my schedule, it may be implssible. I am very active in both my jobs and school, so I probably burn a lot of calories, it is just stuck in the "no burn" phase because I don't eat enough. I will take your suggestions to heart and work on it real hard. This is the biggest I have ever been, other than when I was pregnant, and I don't like it at all. Any suggestions and encouragement will go a long way.
 
It looks to me like you are getting good exercise. Just make sure you do strength, cardio and flexibility training.

If you think about it, that news/advice could not be more awesome! To lose weight you need to eat more!;-)

Seriously, for more responses from others on the forum, I'd post the question in the "open forum". You will get a lot of feed back! I stand by my opinion. At one point in my life I was actually gaining weight from eating way too little! Not fun!

Good Luck to you!
 
Sarah,

While I agree for her height she is taking in too few calories, her age may indicate something else....like perimenopause for instance. The fact that there is already a thyroid situation probably doesn't help. Just an observation based on the initial post.

Edited to say I know making a statement like this doesn't help the situation. I think everything you offered is excellent...
 
This is my very first response in this forum, but would like to add to what has been said.

The comment about not eating enough is true and also the comment about the thyroid situation needs to be taken into account as well.

Just one more thing to add to the mix is that since you have kept your calories so low, you do not want to just "jump" into consuming the 2000+calories. It would be best if you just gradually added to your caloric intake until you reach the recommended levels provided to you previously.
 

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