I'm ready to give up!?

Question

I've been exercising like crazy and haven't eaten more than 1500 calories aday and have lost NOTHING!...I don't want to be fat anymore but I feel like my work is in vain.....What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

How long have you been trying? You may need to give it more time - be patient. OR you may not be eating enough and your body thinks it is starving. If you made a drastic change, your body may be in shock and it will hang on to all your calories. You may need to take a step back and evaluate your new habits. It may be too much too fast.

Answer 2

A lot of it depends on what is in those 1500 calories a day you are eating. If it is high in saturated fats, and surgars, you can't expect to lose much weight. Just reducing your calories and exercise aren't always enough. The kinds of foods you eat are very important in this journey, and 1500 calories a day, may not be enough to get your metabolism moving. The idea is to eat foods that help speed up your metabolism, so that when you are exercising, your body will burn the fat.

Fresh fruits and vegetables, lots of green leafy vegetables, chicken and fish, baked or broiled, not fried. Brown rice, and beans, No red meats especially the steaks that are heavy on the fat, and hamburger. Learn about how to read food labels. Stay away from the fast food joints, and stay away from junk food like potato chips, etc.... Eat 6 small meals a day, to keep your blood sugar more even, and keep exercising. I guarantee the weight will start coming off.

You will have to make this a lifestyle, to keep eating healthy, and exercising regularly so that you don't gain the weight back.

Keep doing research. the web has all kinds of great info on sites like, WebMD, Oprah.com, DrPhil.com., to name a few.

Good luck and I hope this helps

Answer 3

Don't give up! You're doing exactly the right things! If you're on a packaged diet, however, you may consider changing to a diet of fresh fruit and veg. Also, drink water, rather than diet soda, coffee, and less healthy options.

Also, the hunger signal is often really your brain telling you that it's thirsty. Drink water when you're hungry, and you may find that you have fewer food cravings. Also, eat more salads, and use healthy dressings (skip the Ranch). Read food labels, and look for ingredients that are hiding as fats and sugars. Make this an opportunity to educate yourself about what you're putting into your body.

Another thing: Taking a brisk walk for about half an hour before eating will help your digestion, and increase your metabolism. It'll also work wonders on your legs and thighs.

One last thing: No late night snacks. Drink an herbal mint tea instead, as it will also help you feel sleepy.

Best of luck . . .

Answer 4

I am not sure what your diet is like or your exercise routine, but try to eat whole grains and whole foods. You could eat only 1500 calories, but if it is full of sugars and carbs then that might be a problem. Introduce more water to get the sugars flowing.
In addition, stay away from the Fat Burning zones on treadmills. If you step it up a bit, you will actually burn more fat in the higher zones.
Good luck stay focused.

Answer 5

Try taking a really good multi vitamin and supplements. Plus I ate six small meals a day (it was about 1700 calories total) to rev up my fat burning machine..lol
It also helps to vary what you eat.
Also, DON'T (if you do) drink diet soda..the crap in that actually makes you keep the weight on..and aspartame is awful for your system.
This is how I lost 68 pounds a year and a half ago. Then I got pregnant for the first time in 12 years! My body had a different idea..lol
Also..exercise is good, but don't overdo and hurt yourself..many people underestimate the importance of walking.

Answer 6

You did not say how long you have been exercising. Keep it up it will happen. You usually lose inches and some fat before it shows up on the scale. The best way to judge is to measure yourself with a tape measure before you start when you want to lose weight. Every month or so you can remeasure and see were you are at. Measure around your arms, waist, hips, upper and lower thighs and your calves. Don't give up. When you exercise also you might gain a little weight because you gain a little muscle mass. Don't worry about that though. Muscle might weigh more that fat but it takes up less space. Good luck to you and don't give up hope.

Answer 7

Sounds like you're not changing your lifestyle...and that's a big part of dieting. Try going to your doctor....at best they'll work out a diet plan best for you...at worst, they'll give you a prescription to get you started. But it will be tailored for you. And they've also recently discovered a gene that some people have and others do not that greatly contributes to the weight factor.

Answer 8

How much do you weigh? Use these tools/tips to figure out the right number for you(calories wise)

Step 1: Find out what your basal metabolic rate is. Goto http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html
This is the amount of calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight. Then to http://www.biggestloserclub.com/ and get the number they give. I have found that the number that lies between these two is the best to start with.

Step 2: Do you exercise? Do you exercise right? Exercising right means that you monitor your heart rate and make sure that you reach your target heart rate and maintain it for the longest period of time while exercising. You have two targets a fat burn zone and an cardiovascular zone. The fat burn is usually 60% of your maximum an d is easier to achieve and maintain and if your goal is weight loss this is where you want to be. Just walking/excising is a good start but if you want to get the most out of your work out find out what your target range is. If you don't belong to a gym then I recommend the
Polar Fitness F11 Heart Monitor Watch.

Step 3: You need to decrease your caloric intake or increase the amount of calories your body uses in a day by 500 calories a day for a week to lose 1 pound. So you can decrease that basal number you got in step 1 by 500 calories and exercise very little(yes you still need to exercise). Or you can decrease it by 250 and exercise off 250 calories or any other combination. Remember that your basal number is the amount of calories you body needs to live. If your number were 2400 then your body burn 100 calories per hour. So if you walk for half an hour and burn 300, 50 of that is your basal.

Step 4: Count your calories, it's not hard and you'll find out that you eat a lot of the same things on a daily basis so you won't have to research everything over and over again. Balance what you eat(equal parts carbs and protien whenever possible) . One of the best websites out there is one from the FDA. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/
This database has almost every food on the planet counted and weighed. (Hint: they do a lot of their weights based on 100grams. If you put 0.28 in the serving size this equals 1 ounce). Get a reliable food scale, preferably digital. Weigh everything that you put in your mouth that is not prepackaged. You need to know what you’re eating and how much you’re eating. The number one mistake is "eating healthy". Everyone thinks because it's "healthy" the portion isn't that important. A handful of peanuts is "healthy" and has nearly 250 calories! Eat enough calories and it won’t matter how "healthy" it is your going to gain weight. Great ideas for people on the go are: South Beach Raisin Granola Bar, Snickers Marathon Multi-Grain Crunch(Wal-Mart diet aid aisle), Snickers Marathon Protein Caramel Nut Rush(Wal-Mart diet aid aisle)

Step 5: Adjustments and Variety. If you are doing your best and losing weight but your starving, increase the amount of calories your giving yourself by 100-200 calories a day. Losing weight and starving are not good bedfellows. If you starve eventually you will crack and lose the battle. The more types of exercises you do the more weight you will lose. You will work more muscles and keep your body guessing.

Step 6(optional): If you belong to a gym or have some free weights at home. Use them! Muscle takes up less space in your body than fat (pound for pound). A pound of fat sits
around and does nothing all day, while a pound of muscle, even at rest burns calories(increasing your basal metabolic rate).

Step 7: Sleep, Never underestimate the power of a goodnight sleep. Will power can crumble in a second if your going through your day tired. You end up with a diminished sense of self control and tend to “give in” to temptation.

Step 8: Find a distraction. Read a book, Ride a bike, Play a game. Whatever takes your mind off of food, do it. You will need something that you can turn to in a moment of weakness. Something that will distract you for a half an hour so that your will can reassert itself and help you to make a rational decision.


Good luck!!!

Answer 9

use a site like calorie king. Depending on your height, 1500 cals. may very well be too much to lose weight. As far as I know, 1500 cals is a good number to mainain wieght, not promote weight loss.
Please don't give up! also try Weight Watchers...it helped me lose 50+...and you don't count calories at all.

Answer 10

you are doing everything right. but try not to lose weight in vain unless it is really working. try to be positive. say to yourself:
"I'm getting healthy"
"I'm in control of what goes into my body"
"I love myself"
"I'm Xdays in"
etc.

look in the mirror and find something you like about your body rather than something you don't.
you are at your toughest leg of your journey. once you get closer to the body you want, motivation will be abundant. picture yourself at your desired weight and take a moment to feel how you would after accomplishing the weight loss. that feeling alone should keep you in this.

keep it up.