Fitness & Exercise Community

Yes, weight loss can be very frustrating, especially when you are working hard and believe you are doing everything "right".

The thing about it is that to lose you must burn fewer calories than you consume no matter how much exercise you do, not matter how hard you work, no matter what happens. As frustrating as it can be to hear, the bottom line is always that if you're not losing then you are consuming more calories than you burn, even if you think you're not. As for calorie counting, even with an application like My Fitness Pal, research shows that people can underestimate their calorie intake by as much as 40% to 50%. Depending on how hard you want to work, I suggest you do the following:


1. 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.

2. Then go to the following site to figure out how many calories you are consuming
http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-food-calorie-counter (You can check it against My Fitness Pal).

3. 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

4. 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. As you said, you have no support group for this, but WebMD has excellent resources to help people lose weight. You can get all the support and expert guidance you need by checking out the Diet Community and the Weight Loss Clubs. The support and guidance as you seem to realize will be extremely helpful to you.

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 with exercise questions.

Take care, Rich