I have been able to lose 13.5 pounds. I am having trouble going below 200 pounds. I have been eating 1,000-1,100 calories daily and walking 2 to 2 1/2 miles per day. I do not understand why I am not losing weight. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you so much!!
Thank you for your question. In theory with what you are doing you should be losing weight, however, there could be a couple of reasons for weight loss to have slowed down. I have listed a few things for you in order to answer your question.
1st I would advise to check with your doctor for any hormonal problems such as thyroid dysfunction and possible underlying diabetes. Excess weight can be connected with hormonal imbalances or possible first stages of type 2 diabetes. If you haven’t had all these checked I would highly recommend it. Such issues can slow down weight loss or they could be the reason you cannot lose any more weight. In such case your doctor will be able to advise you in terms of treatment and appropriate diet.
2nd Make a diary of the foods and drinks you eat for about a week. It could be little things which you may not have accounted for such as fizzy drinks (coke, lemonade), sugary milky coffees, alcohol etc. which can carry a lot of extra calories. From your diary you can see if indeed there are things which were adding to your calorie intake and you can adjust your diet accordingly.
3rd You have lost quite a lot of weight so far. Was that done over a long period of time or quite quick? Sometimes the heavier we are (especially passed the overweight range) the more difficult it is to lose that little bit of extra weight. It could be that your body reached a plateau and is straggling to gain the momentum it needs. Some research has shown that for some people with a lot of excess weight is best to follow a very low calorie diet. But before you consider following a radical diet have a check with your doctor (1st point as well as if it would be safe for yourself). Very low calorie diets can be hard to follow and can put considerable strain to the body. In addition, if you do follow a very low calorie diet, make sure that:
- Consult your doctor and make sure is safe, appropriate and that there are no underlying medical issues.
- You have a varied nutrient intake. Aim for a diet that has a higher protein intake and lower carbohydrate intake. Keep some carbs for your walking.
- Don’t follow it for very long period. Use a very low calorie diet to help your body gain momentum in losing weight and not as a very long term prospective.
- Account that you are doing some walking and should have an appropriate calorie intake for it.
- If you do lose some more weight increase your physical activity/exercise and slightly increase your calories to have enough energy for exercise.
- If you do opt for as low as 500 kcal a day best not to do any high intensity exercise.
4th Make sure you do not skip meals. I understand that you do consume an average of 1000 kcal per day, however, if you have breakfast and nothing else all day for 10 hrs until the night you could be slowing down your metabolism. You would still use some of your own reserves for fuel but your body will try to hang on to as much as it can as it feels that is starving through the day.
It is best to have all 3 meals through the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). You can try to delay breakfast in the morning to increase fat burning but do have it. Also have a protein based breakfast which helps in felling full for longer. Moreover, you could add green tea to your diet which has been linked with increasing metabolism and aiding weight loss.
However, don’t expect that you will lose loads of weight with just drinking green tea. It just helps in combination with everything else to increase weight loss.
5th Try splitting your ‘walking’ into 2 sessions instead of one. Some studies suggest that by having 2 sessions of exercise can increase metabolism. It may be helpful to add some resistance exercises as well. Don’t have to go to the gym just adding a couple of exercises for 10 min such as bicep curls could help. I would not recommend lifting heavy weights or doing squats as it can put extra strain to your knees and back and lead to injury.
Light weights, and to your ability. In general just try to keep physically active through the day with things such as cleaning the house, walk to the shops instead of taking the bus etc. However, if you do follow a very low calorie diet do not increase your exercise.
I hope these few steps help to put you in the right direction. If you have any further questions please do contact me again.
