Very Discouraged with Failure to Lose Weight -- help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a myth that at 50 metabolism dies. Maybe slows but not dies. Unless you have some thyroid disorder. After consulting with doc to rule out anything like medical, this is my advice. (Coming from a 49 year old woman with two older children. Same weight as age 17, metabolically healthy, no meds yet, I see doc annually. And I also work full time and don't have time or inclination to spend hours at gym. My BMI is normal at 19.0. I am pesco-vegetarian and eat seafood once a week. I have a typical so-called Mediterranean diet.

1 You are doing a marathon for weight loss. Plan on not losing more than two pounds a month. But it will stay off.

2 Stop counting calories and stop weighing food. The time you spent doing this, instead, meal plan and cook for the week. All calories are not equal. The human body is not a closed system. 100 cals of cauliflower is processed very differently than 100 cals of gummy bears. Weight gain or loss is controlled by hormones and biochemistry. Not calories. The processed food industry is the one that pushed "all calories are equal" propoganda and that all foods, even coca-cola can be part of a balanced diet. I don't agree with this sentiment of all calories are equal.

3 Eat three square meals a day, no snacks. I personally eat at 7:30am, 12:00pm and 6:00pm. It's healthy and good to build an appetite for dinner. I do enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the afternoon. With real cream or whole milk. But no flavoured creamers. None of this 6 meals a day thing. If you graze your insulin stays high which keeps you in storage mode. Drop insulin between meals and you will burn fat. If you do get extra hungry in the afternoon, eat a little more for lunch the next day or an earlier dinner. But let your appetite build and have some tea or water. Btw I sometimes have a biscotti with my afternoon tea, maybe a couple times or three times a week. But if I'm trying to drop some post-holiday vanity pounds, I skip afternoon snacks completely.

4 Evening herbal tea and no night time snacks either.

5 Cook foods from scratch, no ultra-processed foods at all. Make everything. You don't need to be a chef but do basic cooking and meal prep. Sit down for meals and enjoy, eating mindfully, and take your time for dinner.

6 Avoid pre made packaged food even if it pretends to be healthy. Consider premade factory foods with labels a warning label. Even standard whole wheat bread has added sugars. Eat Ezekiel bread instead.

7 Meal prep on weekend, prepack lunches etc.

8 Daily 2 mile brisk walk, 5 days a week. Get an audiobook or good music to pass the time. Walking at a brisk rate is a fat burner. No need to jog or run. You want your exercise to be aerobic. You don't want anaerobic (lactic acid etc) to kick in, if your focus is fat burning. Aerobic exercise where you can still somewhat have a conversation is best for fat burning. Do some old fashioned pushups too for upper body. Btw I'm not anti anaerobic exercise if you are trying to build muscle. But it sounds like you want to shrink some fat cells.

9 Avoid hidden sugars, make your own yoghurt, salad dressings etc. Even potato chips and whole wheat bread have added sugars. Read labels. Sugar has 56 names.

10 No liquid calories like soda, alcohol, fancy coffee drinks. Even diet soda will spike insulin.

11 Allow snacks, popcorn (avoid microwave fake butter popcorn, homemade only with real melted butter) even some crisps or one dessert on a once a week occasion, e.g. Fri night. Enjoy but don't binge.

12 No white flour. All carbs should be high fiber, e.g. barley, beans, einkorn etc. Lots of veggies too. Don't count calories, just eat real, high fiber food prepared by you. Don't feel the need to "go keto". Carbs are good if accompanied in their natural high fiber state.

13 Watch out for foods that are marketed as healthy but are not, e.g. flavoured yoghurt, vitamin waters, smoothies etc.

14 Avoid artificial sweeteners BC they spike insulin. In a high insulin state you will not burn fat. Avoid low fat non fat stuff. Eat full fat yoghurt etc. Fat does not spike insulin.

15 Weigh frequently and use an app like Libra to plot trends. You may not drop weight every week but you will progress down over time and that helps encourage. Slow and steady. Focus on your average overall weight progress. I weigh myself about 3 times a week.

16 Avoid sugars. Unless it is accompanied by natural fiber. E.g., you can have real whole fruit but not juice.

17 When you get back from say a one week holiday, don't weigh yourself for a week. Give a few days to adjust and perhaps lighten up portions. But after a week get back on scale. Never weigh yourself the day after takeout or restaurant food. Sodium will give you artificial higher weight. Just wait a day.

18 Check out Dr. Robert Lustig on YouTube. Protect the liver, feed the gut.

different poster and this is very close to how i live too. Although I am not a pesco vegetarian so i eat additional lean meats. When I see it written by someone else i can see how drastic it sounds. The simple fact that i never drink orande juice for example, or havent added sugar in my coffee, tea or yogurts in 10 years.. But this is how my 70 yo French mother roughly ate and so it stays "normal " and not restrictive in my head.

[Anonymous]

"different poster and this is very close to how i live too. Although I am not a pesco vegetarian so i eat additional lean meats. When I see it written by someone else i can see how drastic it sounds. The simple fact that i never drink orande juice for example, or havent added sugar in my coffee, tea or yogurts in 10 years.. But this is how my 70 yo French mother roughly ate and so it stays "normal " and not restrictive in my head."

I am the same person who wrote the 15 plus bullet points. You and I must be the same person! I grew up overseas (French born, UK, Austria) and moved to USA when I was 18. The way I live my life is the way I've always lived it. I was shocked and overwhelmed (and enjoyed) the snack culture when I first moved here but quickly realized how processed and over the top it all us here, espp portion size. The amount of hidden sugars is shocking. Even the bread is sweet. I still have my plates that I use from my time overseas and my ates are about 1-2 inches smaller than the standard plates here.

[Anonymous]

Try intermittent fasting -- It jump started weight loss for me.

[Anonymous]

15 point bullet lady here. I'm not anti meat at all. But gave it up about 3 years ago BC if history of digestive cancer in my father, and heart disease in my spouse. He has FH gene sadly. I do eat eggs and all other stuff. But I believe neat can be part of a healthy diet. Also I never thought my points sounded extreme. It is just so normal.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for everyone's advice. I do pretty much follow the 15 bullet points--my diet is very healthy, very unprocessed, I prepare most of our meals from scratch, and I routinely exercise. I agree that I may need to spend a little more time moving, going to 45 minutes cardio a day, not including weights.

I am also going to get a pelvic ultrasound/dr's appointment just in case.

Onwards!

[Anonymous]

Good luck. Make sure they look at hormones, thyroid etc too. Hang in there.