Low cal/high exercise still not losing weight?

Question
Laurie
I am at my wits end. I am 53, 5'8", and have always had a slow metabolism. I have no idea why-I go for physicals every year and my Doc says all my numbers, including thyroid, are fine. BUT, I am inching toward high blood pressure and he wants me to lose weight. He says to eat less and exercise more BUT I eat less than 1000 calories a day, spend 45 minutes  three times a week on my elliptical, and the scale wont budge from 250. I swear to God. I was  told I wasnt  eating enough and my body is in 'starvation mode'. Last summer I raised my intake to 2000 calories a day, didnt execise except for golf, and I gained 15 pounds! I am only now getting back to 250, which my body seems to want to stay at.
Have you ever heard of this? The worst part is my huge belly. The rest of me is not bad-thanks to the exercise, but the belly makes me ware size XL clothes. If it was smaller I could prob wear L. I have tried lots of supplements, 'HIIT' workouts, low carb, low fat, vegetarian. Nothing works.
Thanks for any comments!

Answer
Hi John,

I'm sorry to hear of your situation. I realize how frustrating that is.
In the cases I've seen of people eating very low calorie diets and not losing weight, the most common reason is the underestimation of calories. I believe you think you're eating 1000 calories, but I suspect you're eating more than that (larger portion sizes, forgetting some foods eaten, getting so frustrated you go off your diet for a few days, etc--these all add up to hundreds more calories a day).
For instance, one woman told me she had to eat 800 calories to lose weight; when she gave me a 24-hour intake record which she considered to be 800 calories, it was in fact 1600 calories, and a very reasonable intake for her to lose weight on.
Another woman told me she couldn't lose weight on 1200 calories--it turned out she would stick to this calorie level only 1 or 2 days a week and told me she was too hungry to follow it closely the rest of the time.

My suggestion is to keep a food diary for 3 weeks and just see what you find out. There are lots of great websites that help you track your intake of food and calories. FitDay.com, TheDailyPlate.com and SparkPeople.com are a few user-friendly sites. LoseIt.com also lets you log on an iphone. You will have to measure some of your portions at first, until you have an excellent idea of what 4 ounces of chicken or 3/4 cup of cereal looks like.

I expect you will find some over-portioning has been the culprit, and I predict when you get that taken care of you'll start losing a pound or two a week!
If it works, keep up the diet diary, which is proven to help continued weight loss.
If it doesn't, find a local dietitian who can monitor your situation more closely and personally. (Contact me for assistance in finding one in your area if you need any help!)

Let me know how it goes,
Laurie

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