1500 calories a day, moderately active and not losing weight?

[Deleted]

I used to be 200lb a few years ago (Im rather tall but still, "thanks, WoW"), went on a diet and lost around 30 lb but I think I need to lose 20 more. It's just not working. I've been on 1500 calories a day diet for 2 years now, jogging 30 minutes twice a week and I walk a lot but I havent lost a any weight for more than a year now. Oh and I eat mostly protein (soy based foods since im a vegetarian, very low carbs). Calorie calculators show that I would need 1800-2000 a day even on base metabolism or with very light activity so what am I doing wrong?

[Ryme]

How sure are you of exactly what you eat every day?

[AmilAsphoron]

This happened to me last summer. I was riding my bike to work everyday, eating around 1600 calories everyday. Doing the Couch to 5K workout 3 days a week. Was gaining weight.

Went to the doctor and after numerous tests, discovered I had Hasimoto's Thyroiditis. Started on thyroid medication and the weight started dropping like crazy.

[Kuniku]

how accurately are you filling in your calorie counting? A lot of people - myself included - have fallen into the trap of not including the little things - and often drinks. These can add up.

Do you know your body fat percentage? If you are quite tall you might not have much 'comfortable' weight left to lose - I'm fairly fit 6' tall and have got to around the 200lb mark myself, while I'm not going to be on the cover of Mens Health Magazine any time soon I've lost a lot of weight since I started my diet/fitness regeime (about 25kg in fact) and ideally I'd like to drop a tiny bit more to hit the next weight category for jujitsu competitions. But going much below that? Would probably mean trying to drop into the single figure body fat percentage figures - and tahts a different kettle of fish compared to just watching the calories.

You can also find that too few calories hinders your progress, your body goes into starvation mode and hangs on to everything it can.

Lastly - work out more. Try and do some weight (strength) training, while diet accounts for about 70% of weight loss, exercise makes up a large chunk of the rest. Your 30 minute jog might burn a few hundred calories off, but once you stop running the burning stops too. If you increase your muscle mass the new muscles will burn more calories at rest throughout the day, as it takes more calories to maintain the muscle. Failing that HIIT cardio excercise is better than just flat out jogging.

some food for thought.

[vindicatorx]

muscle weighs more than fat it's that simple I was bicycling a lot when I was 15-17 by a lot I mean I did a lot of centuries (100km rides) my legs got huge my calves are like tree trunks.

[Reg]

Has your body fat percentage changed? Are you losing fat and adding muscle? How tall are you?

[Gamdwelf]

muscle weighs more than fat it's that simple I was bicycling a lot when I was 15-17 by a lot I mean I did a lot of centuries (100km rides) my legs got huge my calves are like tree trunks.

uuuuhhhhh a Century is 100 miles not kilometers.

[Deleted]

How sure are you of exactly what you eat every day?

Very accurately. I basically eat the same stuff every day - self made soy bread with cheese, self made pizzas, some alcohol.. grapefruit..

how accurately are you filling in your calorie counting? A lot of people - myself included - have fallen into the trap of not including the little things - and often drinks. These can add up.

Do you know your body fat percentage? If you are quite tall you might not have much 'comfortable' weight left to lose - I'm fairly fit 6' tall and have got to around the 200lb mark myself, while I'm not going to be on the cover of Mens Health Magazine any time soon I've lost a lot of weight since I started my diet/fitness regeime (about 25kg in fact) and ideally I'd like to drop a tiny bit more to hit the next weight category for jujitsu competitions. But going much below that? Would probably mean trying to drop into the single figure body fat percentage figures - and tahts a different kettle of fish compared to just watching the calories.

You can also find that too few calories hinders your progress, your body goes into starvation mode and hangs on to everything it can.

Lastly - work out more. Try and do some weight (strength) training, while diet accounts for about 70% of weight loss, exercise makes up a large chunk of the rest. Your 30 minute jog might burn a few hundred calories off, but once you stop running the burning stops too. If you increase your muscle mass the new muscles will burn more calories at rest throughout the day, as it takes more calories to maintain the muscle. Failing that HIIT cardio excercise is better than just flat out jogging.

some food for thought.

Im a girl so I dont really want too much muscle mass:P And I think I look.. okay'ish but I hate my upper body so I try to avoid any upper body exercises. My waist is tiny but the shoulders sort of ruin it. It's actually the main reason for my diet as they look so broad and I hate it.

muscle weighs more than fat it's that simple I was bicycling a lot when I was 15-17 by a lot I mean I did a lot of centuries (100km rides) my legs got huge my calves are like tree trunks.

Hehe, thats true. But it looks amazing Im 100% content with my lower body, just hope to lose a lot of weight above the waist if it's at ll possible.

[hbalsack]

Weight loss plateaus happen when you lose a signifigant amount of fat, your body tries to replenish your percived loss in energy stores by extracting every last calorie out of the foods you ingest (taken from the Dukan Diet).
At the start of a diet you may get 100 calories from a slice of bread, but after weight loss the body can pull as much as 130 calories from the same slice of bread.

Give it time and daily moderate exercise (60 min walk), the weight should start dropping again.

[Kuniku]

muscle weighs more than fat it's that simple I was bicycling a lot when I was 15-17 by a lot I mean I did a lot of centuries (100km rides) my legs got huge my calves are like tree trunks.

Its ALL about the cycling calves! *high five for huge cycling calves*

And yes, muscle does weigh more than fat, however with just doing 2 30min jogs a week I doubt the OP is putting on much muscle. And the muscle weighing more than fat is only really a problem if you bulk up, the increase in BMR from having the muscle, along with the diet, will generally reguate the weight to a point.

I reached the point where for 2 months I was getting visibly fitter, but the weight didn't change - The fat I was losing was turning to muscle at the same weight ratio. I had to then drop my calories further and change my gym routine to drop the last stone to hit my target. While I'll have to do again for the last half a stone for my secondary target.

[gamingmuscle]

muscle weighs more than fat it's that simple I was bicycling a lot when I was 15-17 by a lot I mean I did a lot of centuries (100km rides) my legs got huge my calves are like tree trunks.

Huge? are you sure? I have no doubt you may have gained muscle if you started from basically nothing. But cycling is more an endurance thing than strength. The guy with huge legs is squatting 500lbs not cycling 50+ miles =P

[Gamdwelf]

just hope to lose a lot of weight above the waist if it's at ll possible.

You don't always get to choose how your body loses/gains weight. I have a gal pal, and whenever she loses weight, it comes off her upper body while her ass stays huge.

[suicidebears]

with your weight/muscle mass, 1500 calories for your energy expense level is still really high.

i would say incorporate 20 minutes of sprints every day and heavy weight training for 20-30 minutes per day and cut your calories to about 1000-1200.

youll get huge results in no time.

also high protein diets are unnecessary. i would recommend no grains/wheat/dairy, stick to raw veggies and healthy grass fed meat.

[Reg]

Im a girl so I dont really want too much muscle mass:P And I think I look.. okay'ish but I hate my upper body so I try to avoid any upper body exercises. My waist is tiny but the shoulders sort of ruin it. It's actually the main reason for my diet as they look so broad and I hate it.

Broad shoulders is more bone structure than the presence of fat. You can't really diet away your skeletal structure lol

[Gamdwelf]

Huge? are you sure? I have no doubt you may have gained muscle if you started from basically nothing. But cycling is more an endurance thing than strength. The guy with huge legs is squatting 500lbs not cycling 50+ miles =P

Yeah how do you get huge calves from cycling, my calves stay the same. Thighs yes, but calf muscles don't get that much use while biking.

[vindicatorx]

uuuuhhhhh a Century is 100 miles not kilometers.

I only did the 60 mile length sections of them but yeah you are right they are 100 miles in total length and usually have smaller sections.

---------- Post added 2013-06-05 at 11:42 AM ----------

Yeah how do you get huge calves from cycling, my calves stay the same. Thighs yes, but calf muscles don't get that much use while biking.

I was also lifting weights so that may have something to do with it.

[rinleezwins]

Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a disease that is found about 10-20 times more often in women, than men. Since you said you are a woman I'd give it a shot and have it checked.

It's a pretty common reason for women not losing weight properly.

[Reg]

with your weight/muscle mass, 1500 calories for your energy expense level is still really high.

i would say incorporate 20 minutes of sprints every day and heavy weight training for 20-30 minutes per day and cut your calories to about 1000-1200.

youll get huge results in no time.

also high protein diets are unnecessary. i would recommend no grains/wheat/dairy, stick to raw veggies and healthy grass fed meat.

The body needs about 1200 calories to just sustain normal body functions. You don't want to go below that because it causes your body to go into a type of "starvation" mode and slows your metabolism.

[Deleted]

You don't always get to choose how your body loses/gains weight. I have a gal pal, and whenever she loses weight, it comes off her upper body while her ass stays huge.

Id trade places with her in a heartbeat lol I do have the hourglass shape but Im really self conscious about my upper body. It's super embarrassing when my mom asks me to carry stuff for her when shopping -.-

[crakerjack]

Maybe you're not pushing yourself hard enough? Everyone is the same when I say their bodies don't want to work as hard as you're working them... so they find ways to make the exercise you do easier... if you do the same run every day without changing it up... all you're doing is causing your body to plateau. This is when your body doesn't work as hard because it found a way to get used to the same run and conserve energy. When I was into lifting weights, I didn't change up my lifts for muscle confusion... so eventually I was plateauing on all my lifts... I was pissed because I finally got to 265 lbs on bench, but couldn't get past it. I found out by confusing my body with different motions... I could break past the plateau barrier and go forward. My friend was in your same boat, he'd go to a local track and just run multiple laps... he started with a mile and went to 3... he never pushed himself for more until I mentioned why he wasn't losing weight... Told him to go running on paths that have random up and down hills since changing your pace and adjusting to slopes causes muscle confusion, thus more weight loss. If you managed to read this whole thing, cool, Hope it helps, if not... TL;DR.