Why can't I seem to lose weight?

[Anonymous]

I've been trying to lose weight for just over 2 months. I only eat 500cal a day and exercise everyday, but still not losing ant weight and waist is the same. I measure myself once a week an occasionally I've lost 1IB but then the next week it back.

I really don't know what I'm doing wrong. And somebody please help me?

I'm 35
131Lb
150cm tall
Waist is 38cm

Updates

1 y

My waist is 38inches not cm. I put it wrong

Updates

1 y

YES I'm only eating 500cal a day and YES I'm adding everything. Why do people keep saying I'm lying when all I'm doing is asking for honest advice... wish I hadn't bothered

[dynamicyandere]

Your metabolism has severely slowed down.


Dieting shouldn’t be your focus right now, what your focus should be on is repairing your metabolism.


Whenever you’re in a caloric deficit for long enough, your body’s metabolism will eventually slow down to adapt to it. It’s your body’s survival mechanism for preventing you from wasting away during a famine.


Let’s say someone started at 2000 calories a day. If they cut down to 1500, they will lose more and more weight until they plateau and stop losing weight at 1500. If they cut down to 1000, they will again lose weight and then eventually stop losing weight at 1000. Then the same thing will happen if they cut down to 500. Each time, their body adjusts to the new caloric intake and loses weight along the way.


Here, at 500 calories, I strongly advise not to cut lower. Instead, you should focus on increasing your calories (be sure to include protein) and strengthening your body so that your body can get the nutrients it needs and your metabolism can begin to repair itself.


The stronger your muscles are, the stronger your metabolism will be. But, your muscles need nutrients to get strong. You can try to incrementally increase your calories and focus on strengthening your body.


You can focus on increasing your calories by just 5% what you normally have, while workout out, and watch your body get stronger. Then, when you stop getting stronger, increase your calories by another 5%. Repeat until you can eat at least 1500 calories.


You can Google “reverse dieting” as that is exactly what you need. There are many people going through the exact same thing, they are eating less than 1000 calories and still not losing weight. Reverse dieting was their cure.


I wish you the best on your journey. 🤞

[dynamicyandere]

Thanks for the MHO. 🙂

[qwert1234]

A few points.

500cal is way too low. The usual average is 1200 for women and 1500 for men. Ofcourse, this does not fit all.

Losing weight has an easy formula. Your calorie intake must be less than the amount of calories you need to maintain weight. Does not matter if you eat cake, as long as calorie intake is less than the required calorie to maintain weight - you will lose weight.

People call you liar probably because 500cal is way too low and it's almost impossible to have a maintaining calorie of 500 unless you are severely malnourished. And a severely malnourished person won't have a 38" waist line.

But I think, if all you said were true, you need to see a doctor.

Why don't you list down the things you eat on a daily basis?

For a sample measure:

1 cup of rice is already 200 calories.

1 grande cafe latte is on 220 calories.

1 apple is 52 calories.

1 tuna sandwich is 450 calories.

Maybe you are counting calorie intake wrong.

[Silver158]

1500 for men ain;t the average

[qwert1234]

@Silver158
Ah you are right.
It's 2000 for women and 2500 for men.

Thank you! I must've remembered the suggestion to me when I was trying to lose weight back then.

[Amy10223]

I think 500 calories a day is not much at all, it might even be considered dangerous. I would eat more, but limit carbs (like none or just a slice of borwn, grainy bread a day) and eat more protein. You can actually eat fatty foods during the day, such as a hamburger (no bun or eait it on rommaine lettuce slices). when you will work it off by walking or other exercise, but not at night hours before bedtime. Drink plenty of water. When you wake up, you should have bottle of cold water or more. If you can--eat breakfast much later than you normally do. Dont eat until you are very hungry. Try to eat all of your meals in an 8 hour time period. You can try intermittent fasting if you think you're able to. That would be part of the plan above (eating within 8 hours but there are other time frames you can look up to see what's best for you. I skip breakfast and dont eat until about 12:00.

I'm not sure what your height is, but that should help. Let me know what you think.

[Pinay_ako]

500 calories a day? What the hell? How are you surviving without eating? That’s not healthy at all! You’re not losing weight because your body is consuming the nutrients left to keep you alive! You need to consume at least 1500 calories or a caloric deficit to sustain your body functions and at the same time burn calories as you work out! You can’t work out and expect to burn 🔥 or lose body fat/gain muscle without fuel! That is unhealthy. Drink water based on your weight divided by 2. Eat whole and healthy foods! Don’t starve yourself! Limit your bad carb intake. Workout but listen to your body. All the best 🤗

[hyperben]

Try eating a little more, I know this sounds counter intuitive but a well balanced 1500-2500 calories will give you much more energy than essentially starving yourself. I would suggest making small changes, these generally yield sustainable results.

Personally, I think altering your fitness/output first and then changing your diet in due course is better, you will start to see more results and it is going to be more manageble to maintain.

regarding fitness, try to do more, eating more will facilitate this, walking 10,000 steps per day is good, if you can start to manage running, do it, basically anything you can do, take the opportunity. Cycling is good, its fun and that is what will motivate you. as your fitness slowly improves, what your body wants to consume will naturally change, listen to it and change slowly.

source; im a personal trainer unaffiliated with any brands, gyms or sponsorships specialising in high end athletes but also people who are truly desperate for a change.

remember, small changes = sustainable results! work hard and keep trying, I hope you do well!

[Coldblooded]

First of all, 500 kcal a day is crash dieting and it usually doesn't yield long term results but There are a few reasons why you're not losing weight...
1- You don't know how to count calories and you're eating a lot more than you think. I suggest pay more attention to your calories and learn how to properly count, or get a dietitian or coach to do it for you.
2-You have a thyroid issue which significantly slows down your metabolism. The solution here is to visit a doctor.
3-Your metabolism has adapted to the amount of calories you're eating after a long time of dieting at this number of calories. In this case, I recommend that you take a break from dieting altogether and allow your body and metabolism to recover by introducing more calories, then after few weeks go back to dieting again with at least 1000kcal.
4-Your stress hormone (cortisol) is way too high and you might try to reduce your stress levels and sleep more and relax a bit. Cortisol is known to cause muscle atrophy and water gain in the midsection.
5-It could be just water retention from either the 4th reason, high sodium intake, or not drinking enough water because surprisingly not drinking enough water will make your body hold more water.
6- You could be building muscle and losing fat at the same time which is called body recomposition.
7-Weigh yourself at the exact same time and with same clothes or preferably naked, you might be weighing at different times with different clothes.
8-The scale you're using mighty be faulty.
9-Maybe your life is too sedentary and you should increase your ( non exercise activity thermogenesis) or do more cardio such as walking to burn more calories and stimulate fat loss as well as flush out water from your body.

[oneHuman]

Loosing weight is actually really easy if u know how to do it. I can not tell what u are doing wrong exactly as there are many factors to consider so I ll only focus on the neccessary points. I myself lost 10kg and those were the key ponts for me: 1) Try to determine your daily needed Calories (easily done through google) and then try to eat 500kcal less than that. Dont try to eat even less as it will trigger the jojo-effekt which I suspect is your problem. Tip: only eat when u are hungry, but dont try to be hungry extra long. 2) Control your makros: Out of all your needed calories about 15-20% should be attained through fat (women typically need more so u might want to try 20%), 30% through protein and 50% through Carbohydrates. that is really important. 3) Exercise: U should try to build up muscle as more muscles burn more fat. But also try to be as active as possible during the day. A typical 1 hour gym session burns about 300 to 500 kcal but taking the stairs instaed of the elevator and riding ur bike plus all the little things can amount to just as much or even more;) 4) trust the process: if u are loosing 0.5 kg per week u are doing a great job. in Fact to loose weight even faster is not reccommended. sadly u won't see those little changes if u weigh urself every week. I d try to weigh myself once per month. 5) ur body looses fat in every region of ur body so measuring ur belly only shows half the truth and u should not be dosappointed that ur belly doesn't show change. 6) set a goal: from what u shared u r only slightly overweight so u dont have to loose much. still write down ur wanted weight and calculate how many months it should take and remind urself why u are doing it. 7) lastly: as said, I am not sure what ur problem is exactly or how much of this u already know but I hope that those 6 points can help you out. Cheers!

[Anonymous]

500 cal/day is way too low, so most likely your body is in starvation mode, and instead of burning the fat and calories, it's STORING them (opposite of what you want). Look up what your ideal daily calorie intake should be, and that's what you want to maintain.

Also, if you do the same exercises, try switching it up every now and again because your body can adjust to it and get used to it over time, so it looses it's effect somewhat and you plateau. Also what exercises and how long? Maybe you're not doing enough?

[Opinion Owner]

For looking up your calorie intake, there's probably something online, or at your gym (if you go). It's based on gender, age, etc. For women it's generally 1200-1500 a day.

[Asker]

Thank you for giving me an actual and honest answer. For some reason everyone else keeps calling me a lyer. My exercise workout is pretty much the same everyday, will try to switch it up a little. Thank you again for the advice

[Daniela1982]

I told you the same thing, that 500 is way to low and it can damage your health if it is made into a habit. Why ask a question if you don't want honest answers?

[Asker]

I DO want honest answers. I'm getting annoyed with the ones calling me a lyer and saying it's impossible to only eat 500cal a day. Clearly it is possible so I don't get why people think I'm lying

[midnightmoon05]

Post a question what a weeks meal plan look like. That would help.

[Daniela1982]

@midnightmoon05 That is a good suggestion. There must be some rational explanation.

[Daniela1982]

If you are honest when you say you only eat 500 calories a day there is no way you can't be losing weight. Are the calories of any soft drinks or booze also counted? I believe around 1500 calories are what is needed a day to subsist on and stay somewhat healthy if you are in jail. On a long-term basis, the average person requires a minimum of 1,200 calories a day to survive. On a short-term basis, a person can survive on nothing for 1-2 months as long as they live a sedentary lifestyle. The amount of calories each person needs depends on their height, age, gender, activity level, and body composition. So you must be missing something. Even a troll needs more calories than 500 a day.

What you must eat a day.

[Asker]

YES I'm being honest? Why the hell does everyone keep calling me a lyer when in genuinely just asking for honest advice on my health? Wish I hadn't wasting my time

[Daniela1982]

You are not facing the facts on what a body needs for it's well being. If you are really on a 500 calorie a day subsistence you are seriously damaging your health. If your body does not get what it needs it will start scavenging your muscles for the calories it needs to burn. So something is not adding up.

[Asker]

There's plenty of foods that are less than 500cal. It's honestly not that difficult.

[Sixgunsound]

Starving yourself puts your body in self preservation mode which limits its ability to burn calories. You are actually hurting your goals by doing that. Our bodies evolved in a situation where food was scarce and difficult to acquire, and in order to survive a ‘low power mode’ of sorts developed to help us avoid starvation in the lean times. Forcing that to switch on makes your body fight to hang onto every calorie it does get. I have no reason to believe or disbelieve what you write, but if that actually is your approach I would suggest a change.

[Anonymous]

I’m not saying this will work for you, but I gained about 15-20 lbs during the lockdown period from 2020 into 2021… I started eating a bunch of fruit and would replace one of my meals with a bowl of fresh fruit and drink raw fruit and vegetable juices, not even super regularly but maybe twice a week…

I’m down over 10 lbs since last year. I cut out a lot of junk food, but still indulge periodically, get out and walk sometimes, I think a lot of what did me well was just the increased intake of antioxidants and rebalancing my diet around more plant-based foods. I still eat meat, and everything, but just to replace a few meals a week with some different and more nutrient rich foods, I THINK, has really helped me.

[Corina_J]

Short answer to why you're not losing weight?

Your brain is stopping you. Each person has a chemically determined body shape, size, weight etc.

That's why dieting is so difficult. Cuz you're changing your body by exercising, cutting calories etc. But your brain isn't getting the memo YET. It will, but only if you're consistent with your behaviors while your brain "rewires" to change the chemical determination.

Also, the human brain has the best chance at functioning its best when the body is properly hydrated (water is zero calories, and can help curb hunger by temporarily filling the tummy n intestines) and getting proper nutrition (vitamins n supplements) are also zero calories (or barely any at all!)

Let me know if you want some tips on vitamins n stuff.

Good luck!!

[Kori1236]

You’re not eating nearly enough so your body is going into starvation mode. It’s going to store any and all fat to keep from shutting down. Drink lots of water, cut out sugars like pop, juice and processed snacks (chips, chocolate etc) and cut your portion size, increase vegetable and fruit intake.

[_Aragorn]

She might hold water in her body because of starvation. Best is to have a bit more protein than fat and carbohydrat and eat small portions (3-5x) a day. She has to abstain from soft drinks as well. She also might consider to do HIIT training.

[Kori1236]

That too, I personally cut out a lot of grains and that did wonders for me. I drink a lot of water, rarely have pop or juice. And my idea of a snack is some snap peas and chip dip lol

[_Aragorn]

Yes grains are carbohydrate and they are broken down in monohydrates (sugar), which are turned into glycogen and fat in our body. Some people put lemon or even cucumber in their water. Are you familiair with that? Some vegetable are low in digestible carbohydrates (calories). I should myself focus more on that by the way. Snap peas and chip dip sounds good to me. You doing this diet for a long time now>?

[Kori1236]

I have heard of putting cucumber or lemon in my water I personally don’t like it and do like water. While my friend has to have carbonated or flavoured water to actually drink water. I wouldn’t call it a diet as in trying to lose weight just a general overall diet, I try to eat a balanced diet for the most part. I just don’t do grains because it makes me feel gross yet I haven’t been diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.

[_Aragorn]

Ah I see, a balanced diet. Yeah, some food / drink may make you feel "swollen".

[CA4444]

Some underlying conditions? I know someone who was basically starving herself to lose weight and wasn’t loosing any and that was because of thyroid disfunction… would need to see a good endocrinologist to find out & get treatment - especially if you have other symptoms - because it is a complicated topic and GPs or general testing may be quite useless

[CA4444]

But basically not losing weight is a major symptom so do get it checked properly, even if it’s only to cross that option, because this is a serious condition that need treatment. You need to listen to your body if you feel something inst working the way it should (like not losing weight when it should for example) and investigate

[andreasderjuengere]

You did not mention what your diet (food) is made of. How about your drinking (liquids)? Do they perhaps contain some extra calories?

And: sometimes a medical condition (known, or unknown) can bring disorder into your metabolism.

Maybe also your expectations are on the optimistic side: just 2 months isn't too long for lasting results. My own unwanted ''belly bulge'' of ca. 3 kg took me about 1/2 a year to erase.

I'd say that also your basic body type has an influence; some of us tend to a more heavy set, where others of us are a lot less affected by weight issues.

[Seinna]

Counting callories is the worst thing you can do. The things that worked for me and worked long term are fasting (intermittent and for a couple of days) combined with a ketogenic or mainly carnivorous diet. Exercising before food, so before breaking the fast, never after. Never starve yourself with small portions, eat reasonably until you're not hungry because otherwise your body will adjust to it and slow down your metabolism.

[Guy13]

No carbs means no frozen, snack aisle, alcohol isle plus other natural carbs. 1600 calories of proteins. gym in weights or cardio every day. Come home clean bath, mow yard, walk stairs... keep metabolism going till be. 8 hours of sleep for body to recover. Metabolism will still be working during sleep. morning exercise.

[Anonymous]

500 calories is a big no no. You're putting your body in starvation mode and anything you do it will only lead to weight gain. Push for 1200 and daily 30 minute walks. No sugar and no oily foods. Stock up on plenty of blueberries to detox and remove inflammation. Only drink water.

[DJB72]

Your body has gone into starvation mode. It will store every spare calorie you eat.

Go see a registered dietitian and an endocrinologist. 500 calories a day will eventually kill you from starvation.

I've experienced organ failure after I lost weight in a coma. You don't want to experience that. Trust me.

Don't ask on here, see a doctor.

[Pleaznhim4me]

Not enough calories. Your body is storing fat as protection and metabolism is slowed down. If you want to screw up your ability to lose weight for a long time or even gain more weight you can keep that up. Otherwise learn to eat nutritional, healthy portions of food daily with proper exercise and vitamin intake. Also push H20 and maybe your body will actually become healthier when you eat like a healthy human.

[14JDPO]

It is not healthy for any person to eat less than 1200 calories a day, unless instructed to do so by a doctor, so your body may be going into "starvation mode" to protect itself and is holding onto the fat - maybe try upping your calories to at least 1200 and see if that helps. Also make sure you're drinking enough water and maintaining your electrolyte levels.

[ohsheeT]

Okay so first of all how committed are you second of all do you drink sodas what kind of foods are you eating and I can tell you how to tone your body up lose weight 30 minutes a day for 30 days you will not believe the change you will have that you have to be committed before I even tell you I've answered this type of question before everybody's desperate but they haven't even tried

[like-light]

First of all, we need to check whether the calories you consume are actually 500. Then, if the sport you do is really a sport?

After all, the main thing to lose weight is to consume 400-600 calories less than the amount of calories you need on a daily basis. More can harm you both in terms of health and appearance. Did you know that if you do not consume the amount of nutrients you need, your muscles will also melt? I know that you are trying to lose weight and stay hungry in order to have a better body, but the real way is not never to eat anything.

[Smashingdoozy]

Probably because you're only eating 500 val a day. Your body is in starvation mode and storing all the fat. You need to eat at least 1800 calories.