Fitness & Exercise Community

The thing about weight loss is that to lose you must burn fewer calories than you consume no matter how much exercise you do. Even if you run a marathon every day you will not lose weight if you consume more calories than you burn. So if you're not losing then you are consuming more calories than you burn, even if you think you're not. In fact, research shows that people can under estimate their calorie intake by as much as 40% to 50%. I suggest you do the following:

1. Continue with exercise. It does burn calories, and of course will get you fit and strong, and it's also the best predictor of keeping your weight off.

2. For the next week write down every single morsel of food you eat, and every ounce of beverage with calories you drink. Estimate the portion sizes as accurately as possible, and weigh and measure everything. Get a food scale and measuring cup to do it accurately.

3. Then go to the following site to figure out how many calories you are consuming
http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-food-calorie-counter

4. Then to this site to estimate how many calories you burn all day (called the 24-hour energy expenditure (24-hrEE)
www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-fitness-calorie-counter

5. Then here http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-metabolism-calculator to estimate your metabolic rate. Use the "Inactive" activity level for an additional cushion for underestimation of calorie intake.

Once you know your 24-hrEE, and how many calories you consume, you can modify your intake accordingly, and/or increase exercise, so that you burn more than you consume.
If all of this is too confusing, then just do #1 and write down everything you eat. If you do just that you'll lose weight. Feel free to post back if you have questions.

You can post your diet-related questions to the Diet Community:
http://exchanges.webmd.com/diet-exchange

Finally, weight loss can be difficult and lonely on your own. WebMD has excellent resources to help people lose weight. You can get all the support and expert guidance on your diet that you need by checking out the Diet Community and the Weight Loss Clubs. The support and guidance will be extremely helpful to you.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-fitness-calorie-counter

And you can select one of the Diet Clubs based on how much weight you want to lose.
http://exchanges.webmd.com/dieting-club-10-25-lbs-exchange
http://exchanges.webmd.com/dieting-club-25-50-lbs-exchange
http://exchanges.webmd.com/dieting-club-50-100-lbs-exchange
http://exchanges.webmd.com/dieting-club-100-lbs-exchange

You'll find everything you need to lose weight on these sites. And of course, feel free to post back here any time you like if you have questions, and the support for exercise can be helpful too.

Take care, Rich