Why can’t I lose weight? Please Help.?
I’m 21 years old. I’m 5′9/175cm and 72kg/160.9lbs, which makes my BMI- 23.8.
I know this is a healthy weight, but I don’t feel healthy. I have had comments made about my weight by my grandfather on both side, my grandmother, my mother, and others. So I need to lose weight. I’ve been this weight/height since I was about 18, although two years ago I lost about 10kgs/22lb, but it’s creeped back up to where I was before.
I have Coeliac’s disease (so no gluten). My diet consist of the following-
BREAKFAST
Gluten free cornflakes or rice bubbles with tinned fruit (in juice) or a banana with skim milk and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
or
Gluten free seed toast with either peanut butter and banana or avocado and tomato.
LUNCH
Ham or tuna salad, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado, light mayo, tablespoon of pesto.
or
8 pieces of small salmon sushi
or
scrambled eggs (no oil) on gluten free seed toast.
or
one toasted cheese sandwich with cheese, ham, tomato.
DINNER
Chicken stirfry with veges and rice.
or
eggs and toast and a sausage or a hashbrown.
or
gluten free pasta with low fat mince, light pasta sauce, veges and a bit of cheese.
and then
Fresh fruit or tinned fruit or a biscuit. A slice of toast if I’m still hungry or a hot chocolate.
I may have a few squares of chocolate or a lolly or two. I drink at least 8 glasses of water every day, most days I have more. I may have a drink of orange juice or a glass of diet fizzy drink/soda.
As for exercise, I have arthritis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, so I do my very best to exercise. I get 30-50minutes of brisk walking 3-4 a week. This is all I can manage at the moment, but I’m trying to increase it (but I really need a rest day in between). I also have no access to a swimming pool.
So what am I doing wrong? Thanks.
Wow 5 spam answers.
I don’t use any butter, if anything I use ultra light margarine. The only time I use cheese is on my pasta or in a toasted cheese sandwich which is once or twice a week. It takes me 6 months to go through a block of cheese.
Skittles- I’ve had B12 deficiency for a few years, but since going gluten free it’s pushed it up over the line. There’s olive oil in the pesto that I have.
if can try to reduce usage of cheese and butter…..
count calories (eat around 1200-1600 calories a day)
no carbs (even if it’s gluten-free)
protein speeds up metabolism (but still count the calories, because everything has calories)
— the best and most effective way to loose weight if to eat 5 SMALL meals throughout the day, instead of 3 big ones. each “meal” should be around 200-300 calories and have a little bit of protein in it. so all together for the entire day, you should get about 1200-1600 calories. eat each meal about every 2 or 3 hours apart, to keep the metabolism going.
SAMPLE MEAL PLAN:
first meal of the day — 1 cup non fat plain yogurt and a FEW blueberries on top if you want
second meal — 2 hard boiled eggs and 1 fruit
third meal — bowl of vegetables (steamed, cooked in hot water, or raw)
fourth meal — protein energy bar (read the food label. find one that’s no more than 300 calories)
fifth meal — salad and a piece of lean meat or fish (salad dressing: olive oil and balsamic vinegar… but remember that oil has alot of calories, so use sparingly. you do need some type of healthy oil though, for healthy nutrition)
Drink plenty of water throughout the day!! studies have shown that when we think we are hungry, we are actually thirsty. so when you think you might be hungry, drink as much water as possible before you grab food.
Having enough of vitamin B12 really helps with weight-loss! seriously, this is NOT a myth. Vitamin B12 is obviously an important nutrient anyways (helps the nerves system, brain, emotions, combat stress, energy levels, etc…)! it’s found in foods like eggs (the yoke especially!), fish, and other meats. so try to get those into your diet (plus it’s protein, which helps metabolism:) but our food today has less nutrition in it than it once had back in the day when farmers didn’t grow their crops at a fast pace (not letting food ripen slowly and naturally, for all the nutrients to nourish in the crops/plants, etc..), so you might want to take a vitamin B12 and Iron supplement (iron and B12 “work together” and help eachother to absorb the other nutrient.) and/or you can get an B12 injection. since i’ve been getting mine, i seriously have a much easier time staying on my diet, because with enough B12, my body isn’t constantly looking for energy from food sources.
go on a 1 hour walk every day and a jog/run in the afternoons
write down everything you eat and your morning weight in a journal/notebook to keep track of your progress and keep you motivated. also, you could go clothes shopping for every few pounds you loose to keep you motivated.
COUNT CALORIES (1200-1600 a day)
….Then, once you lost the weight you want, you could do P90X (hardcore workout DVD to get toned)
Firstly: Do NOT Listen to the comments of your Family. This has happened to me. The people that are supposed to Support you in life can ALSO Be Your Worst Enemies.
I am on a Gluten Free Diet as well, due to Food Allergies, and it is VERY Difficult to lose weight on. You just need to jumpstart your metabolism, so add 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil to one of your daily meals. (Be it a Salad, Chicken, Pork, Tuna, etc) This will cause you to lose 10 pounds in 3 weeks. (Yes, it does work)
I made no changes to my diet and am very happy with this trick.
Here are some suggestions. First of all it seems like you are eating a lot of carbohydrates compared to your protein intake and that is driving up your calorie consumption. So the first thing I would recommend is to drop the bread and pasta almost completely except for once a week as a treat. That would be a lot of calories dropped with very little loss of nutrient value. Increase your green vegetables a lot. Try spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, green beans especially.
Next, since you have coeliac, you should be taking a good gluten free multi-vitamin to help increase your vitamin intake along with some omega 3-6-9 capsules or fish oil if you can’t get the 3-6-9 to provide some basic building blocks your body needs. The fish oil capsules will also help your arthritis in many cases.
Weigh yourself at the same time or as close as you can every morning and if your weight went up, then you ate too much the previous day. If you are eating just under what you should be to maintain, then your weight will stay the same and then drop by half or a whole pound if you are using a good digital scale. Monitor your weight and what you are eating and with some small changes, you should be able to lose what you want.
Remember, you have to be using more calories a day than you eat to lose weight. So do some online research about how many calories a day you should be consuming to maintain your weight. Then try to eat 200-300 less a day and over the course of a week you should lose one pound. Walking 1 hour will only add about 100-120 calories to the number of calories you can consume. Don’t overestimate how many calories you are burning off in exercise.
Hey not sure if this helps, but my friend has been using something called truth about abs. It’s worked for her, it’s been a few weeks and the results are noticable.
Good Luck to you!
Hey there everyone has lots of questions about losing weight and diet solutions etc. I have a friend that was in a similar situation, she found a program called the diet solution and it has been working great for her, so thought this might help you out.