Why don't I lose weight?

this is a stupid comment. a pound per month????

minor calorie restriction, and massive carb restriction for a month will jump start the process to lost 15 pounds.

then balance the diet with some carbs, fat and protein.

and finish off the rest of the weight loss\

all of the above is very well known by now but apparently not well enough known hence posting here.

do it..

I think a lot of the middle-aged guys who drop 30 pounds are on TRT.

I personally know a guy (not really a runner) who felt like his weight was getting out of control (over 200 lbs for 5'10) and so he started taking T. He lost like 40 lbs in 6 months. He also did a morning run each day before work and always showed me his route and pace. It was always like 7:40 pace. I know that is not fast (for a runner) but he was basically late-40s and not a runner.

I am not on T and have opted instead for my wife's fabulous home-cooking, good beer, and 50 miles weeks. I am still fat after a year of "trying to cut weight by eating healthy."

I think that is the real key. Good protein and lots of veggies (not Adkins!) will change the middle age body. Carbs are killing me... It must have to do with how the carbs/sugars cause a change in blood sugar (insulin response) and then cause the body to store everything it can as belly fat.

I know it can't just be about "calories in / calories out" because I ran less and ate more when I was young and skinny. Now I eat less and run more and am gaining weight!

I agree with this 1,000%! (And never expected someone on these boards to put it together so well.)

Especially, the part about estrogen and estrogenic chemicals further adding to our weight problems as a country.

For anyone who hasn’t thought about it before:

estrogen is a powerful driver of hunger. A fertile woman has higher estrogen levels than a prepubescent girl or a menopausal women — estrogen levels signal fertile women to eat more to prepare for a possible pregnancy. Extremely elevated estrogen levels of a pregnant women, signals the mother-to-be to eat extra to nourish the baby.

So it is strange that modern Americans are so blase about exogenous estrogen and estrogenic chemicals. They will spend silly amounts of money on ozempic, but can’t be bothered to look at one of the sources of distorted hunger signals in the first place.

I will spare everyone my rant on this subject (for now!), but mostly just wanted to acknowledge one post i really, really agree with.

Sorry, no, caloric differential is all that matters; rest is noise. You may be eating “less”, even eating fewer calories, but your body may have adapted to running so as to be more efficient and adapted to other daily activities as well so as to reduce your caloric output.

What you are experiencing is that calorie counting is pretty ineffective or at least unnecessary, which is indeed true for most people but that isn’t inconsistent with CICO.

I’m not a dietician, but just pretty simple. Do these two things every day and I get you start losing a lot or weight:

eat 30 grams of fiber everyday

eat 150-180 grams of protein

hitting those two targets is not easy, and by doing so you’ll probably consume less calories and eat healthier. Do that and stay active and you’ll shed weight in a healthy way. Ideally if you are doing some strength work that would help.

7 lbs lost in 5 months is a healthy steady progression. Keep at it. Losing 40 lbs in 5 months would involve extreme starvation and they will likely gain it all back. Gradual weightloss means less flabby skin once you lose the weight, so keep it slow and sustainable. Your results are nothing to be worried about.

You /are/ losing weight. You've dropped about 1/3 of a pound per week. Using the common shorthand of a 500 cal per day deficit equaling 1 lb lost per week, you've been doing something like a -100 to -150 calorie deficit per day. That seems maintainable and like you don't have to go around being hungry and miserable aiming for huge losses fast.

For some perspective, I am the same height/age as you, and my weight fluctuates between about 149 at a summer peak of training up to about 158 if I get really lazy in the winter. My weightloss is spread over April to sometime in June/July doing 70-80mpw.

One thing I have found to be very helpful in jumpstarting that weightloss is simply to reduce my snacking. Meaning, anything I eat more out of habit or purely for enjoyment than for hunger is stuff I keep under control. I'm guilty of things like cookies with my coffee, so I'll drop that from 3 to 1. I skip having a handful of crackers between breakfast and lunch (unless I am legitimately hungry). If you drink alcohol or soda, cut back on that some. Stuff like that will do wonders over a long period of time.

Just keep going like you're going and you'll keep succeeding. If you want to boost your progress, just trim a little bit from the edges of your food intake. You won't even notice it's gone after it becomes your new habit in a week or two. If your body will handle it, maybe do the opposite approach with your running and squeeze in an extra ~5 miles each week.

It all adds up, and once you're down to your new weight it's way easier to maintain that level than it was to get there.

If you go from zero running to a consistent moderate volume you do actually build a substantial amount of muscle in your legs and a little in increased bone density, especially if you're heavier. Have you seen the calves on some 200lb+ 25min 5k runners? You may have only lost 7lbs overall but I bet the ratio between muscle/fat has improved far more substantially, and if you're doing this for health that will be of more benefit to you than simply dropping weight

Sugary drinks are an easy way to ingest a lot of empty calories really fast. Just replacing soda or juice with water can make a big difference.

Calories in/calories out is not the whole story.

Some foods/drinks increase metabolism. For example, chugging I think 8 oz or more of water at once (0 cal), actually increases metabolism (burns more calories than otherwise) by inducing an adrenal response.

Some foods/drinks increase the hunger drive. E.g. diet sodas (0 cal) have been shown to increase how much people eat. Basically, the brain thinks it got X calories of sugar, then when the blood glucose levels don't change like they should, it overcorrects and eats/drinks more calories than it would otherwise.

There are a bunch of other foods/drinks like this. All foods are in a sense drugs in that they have other psychological/metabolic effects.

It's not purely calories in/calories out if what you eat/drink can change your rate of metabolism or your rate of calorie consumption.

Its interesting how people can exercise like a dodge demon and still keep the weight on. Here is a thought............................ STOP EATING THE SAME AMOUNT OF CALORIES THAT KEEP THE WEIGHT ON!!!!!

cos you eat to many biscuits

M65 here. I’m sure some folks thought I was “on something” when at age 48 I dropped a lot of weight but I just used intermittent fasting.

I’ll preface this with the disclaimer that the way I used IF was likely not very healthy and certainly not easy. But if you want results, damn the consequences, then this is what I have done a few times.

Very simply, I’d only have two cups of coffee in the morning with two teaspoons of sugar in each cup. That’s 60 calories. Then I’d eat nothing until 6:30pm. And when I ate, I would eat until I felt full. I swear it is like a cheat code because even when I ate poor quality food I still lost.

At age 48 I went from 181 pounds to 160 in 30 days. I’m 5’8, with small bones. It took about two months to go from 160 to 150. At age 53 I went from 150 to 135 using the same method. I would argue that I really was too thin at 135 as I set my old-age PR’s at age 50 when I was exactly 150 pounds and got slower when I dropped below 150.

I’d be lying if I said this was easy. I got hunger headaches for most of that first month in the afternoons. Occasionally I would feel weak and a bit dizzy as 6:30 approached. However, after about a month I stopped feeling hungry, weak, or dizzy.

Now at 65 I hover about 155. Since I am injured so often I will occasionally pop up to 160 but I can get it back to 155 with only 2 or 3 days a week of IF. It just works. But it aint easy.

I was inspired by the diet of Nolan Shaheed.

outsideonline.com

How Fasting Could Make You Faster

Meaghen Brown

A growing number of ­scientists, athletes, and even a retired general believe that ­fasting leads to better health. Should you listen?

Open link

https://www.agelesstimeless.com/featured/nolan_shaheed/nolan_shaheed.html#:~:text=He%20eats%20one%20meal%20a,protein%20to%20provide%20him%20sustenance.