The answer to all the “why am I not losing weight?” posts

[simplefem]

@jag Typically it's only like a pound of muscle per month with proper training & eating enough protein. So maybe it slows you down on the scale, maybe, but it shouldn't hinder TOO much of the weight loss if you're in caloric deficit.

 

[brcseac]

@butterfly2222 These are the reasons why it’s good to drink lots of water and have lots of fiber in your diet and also limit high sodium processed foods when trying to lose weight. I mean so you can have regular BMs and avoid the bloating and water retention that can mask weight loss for weeks at a time, leading to frustration and believing that you’re in a plateau.

 

[butterfly2222]

@brcseac That is also good advice. The more comments I read on this post, the more I think I should make another post on things that make staying in a deficit feel less difficult, stuff like eating voluminous foods, having a lot of fiber and protein.

 

[niamh55]

@butterfly2222 I know exactly why I’m not losing weight. I don’t track shit and don’t work out. Ppl just need to admit it to themselves is all.

 

[pandafan]

@butterfly2222 Honestly it doesn't need to be so complicated. Just find a way to increase calories burned a bit each day, while cutting a bit of the calories you consume each day. Such as a walk that burns 100 calories, and shaving 150 calories off what you are already eating, for a 250 cal deficit. The latter could be as easy as making one or two of these changes to your diet:

• Switching to diet soda, if you drink the sugary stuff
• Halving the amount of juice you drink, or replace it with an orange instead
• One less glass of wine / cut alcohol down or eliminate it entirely
• Switch to non-fat milk/yogurt rather than full fat
• Replace your daily potato chips with popcorn or salted veggies
• Have a baked yam with whipped cream rather than a sweet treat
• Portion control: eat on smaller plates and bowls
• Reduce the amount of salad dressing / butter / oil you use
• A bit less starchy carbs (while adding more veggies instead): one slice of toast rather than two; a small potato rather than large; 1/2 the amount of rice or pasta you normally would consume
• For restaurants: choose from the apps for your meal; eat half the entree with no apps and save the other half for tomorrow; skip dessert, or split it to half the calorie damage
• If you eat fast food, check the menu for calorie counts and swap what you normally order for something less caloric, like the cheeseburger and small fries rather than the Big Mac and large fries

Weight loss stalls? Add a bit more exercise, and make one more of the above adjustments. Rinse, repeat. Slow and steady wins the race, and this graceful method will teach you over time how to eat for the body weight you are aiming for. Because once you reach that lower weight, it's not like you can go back to eating like you did when you were overweight. Think permanent lifestyle change, not quick-fix diet.

 

[butterfly2222]

@pandafan That’s one way to do it and it can work for some. Personally, it wouldn’t work for me as I already did most of this stuff and was unable to lose weight. That goes back to point number 6. You can try other things, especially at first, but if you’ve hit a plateau, the only way to know for sure that you will lose weight is to track properly.

 

[pandafan]

@butterfly2222 I'm 58 so I've been at this for many years. All of the above works for me, but as I've aged it's gotten harder because of muscle loss. So the other part of the equation is to lift weights. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, your BMR is higher.

When you diet without lifting weights and your muscle wastes, your BMR wastes along with it. Don't let it. I went through a period of 20 years with some health issues that didn't allow me to exercise at all much less lift weights and I lost a lot of muscle mass. Which meant I'd gain weight even with no changes at all to my diet.

Of course when you do start building muscle through weight training it gets more complicated because you do need to eat to fuel your body and protein synthesis, and you will gain water weight along with the lean mass that includes bone mass to support added muscle, additional capillaries and blood to support the muscles, and water to activate the muscles. That's when it becomes a fool's errand to fret over every 1 lb or 2 you gain on the scale here and there. Is it lean mass or is it fat?

That's when your more valuable tools are: what are your measurements saying? Have you lost inches? How are your clothes fitting? Are they looser, fitting better? How many lbs can you lift that you couldn't yesterday?

The thing that bugs me most about this sub (and r/loseit to a certain extent) is the over emphasis on calories consumed rather than muscle and lean mass gained.

Let's face it, when we say we want to lose weight, we mean fat. We don't mean lean mass -- muscle, bone (so important in young women!), and all the ligaments capillaries blood that fuel lean mass.

The TDEE and BMI calculators are all shit because they were based on people coming out of the Wars and Great Depression who were overly skinny with not much lean mass, many were anemic. (Okay I don't know if this is true-- I'm probably wrong; I just know I grew up with a mom and grandma of that age and I have my suspicions.)

 

[jamsie]

@pandafan Diet soda is actually pretty terrible for you and have been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes

 

[butterfly2222]

@jamsie Just jumping in to say that the increased risk of type 2 diabetes in people who drink diet soda doesn’t mean it’s a cause-and-effect relationship, that actually hasn’t been proven. It could just be random.

 

[jamsie]

@butterfly2222 Obviously, but it's a 67% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes as compared to those who didn't drink diet soda (notice I did not say those who didn't drink any soda) and there have been multiple mechanisms proposed that may account for decreased glycemic control amongst diet soda consumers

 

[butterfly2222]

@jamsie Once again, no causal link has been established. The idea is that artificial sweeteners would be the cause. Artificial sweeteners can be helpful to some when trying to lose weight, and the benefits overall seem to outweigh the risk, especially in very obese people.

 

[jamsie]

@butterfly2222 I'd disagree that the benefits outweighs the risks

 

[pandafan]

@jamsie Right, I don't touch the stuff myself. I'm just saying that if someone is drinking a lot of sugary soda, a very easy way to cut calories is to switch to the diet version.

 

[jamsie]

@pandafan But overall it's unhealthy so even though you cut out the calories, it's worse for you in the long run. Better to just enjoy calories in moderation

 

[pandafan]

@jamsie My post was about cutting 150 calories out of your diet. A can of Coke is 150 calories. So you could replace that with a diet Coke, or just drink one less can of Coke (if you're like my husband who drinks a case of diet Coke each day).

 

[magy]

@butterfly2222 Yep.

 

[oosbey1]

@butterfly2222 Excellent write-up! And to add on to point 4, it helps to also calculate an average of your weekly calorie consumption if you're including a cheat day. I personally don't do cheat days since I just tend to keep eating whatever I want but in moderation and while tracking my calories. It's so easy to go over if you decide to say 'fck it' and consume without keeping track and essentially allowing the cheat day to heavily impact all of the hard work you did throughout the rest of the week.

 

[butterfly2222]

@oosbey1 Thank you! That is such a great suggestion, I will add it!

 

[angelonline]

@butterfly2222

1. You have a metabolic disorder or other medical issue that lowers your BMR significantly compared to what TDEE calculators estimate. It’s less of a calculation issue and more of an estimation issue.

Issues like PCOS are way more common that people realize, it can affect 10-20% of the female population and almost always involves some degree of insulin resistance, inflammation, chronically elevated stress, and/or other endocrine problems. Before I learned how to manage my PCOS my BMR was almost 200 daily calories lower than the calculators estimated, and instead of seeing an endocrinologist and RD I cut calories even more and ended up with nutrient deficiencies and worsening PCOS symptoms.

 

[butterfly2222]

@angelonline Which is why I put in point #5. That was just the TLDR.