Frustrated, just can't lose weight!

Miss Hap

Hi everyone, I'm 40 years old and for the first time in my life I'm really starting to struggle with my weight. I'm only 5ft but weigh just over ten stone, about 20 pounds heavier than I did this time last year. I have a huge appetite and a hectic lifestyle that leaves little time for exercise (or is that just an excuse...). But before, any time I put a few pounds on I was able to shift it quite easily with a couple of weeks healthy eating and some exercise. Now nothing is working. I've been trying to eat healthily and exercise regularly for the last month and I can't even shift one miserable pound, not one!!! I feel like giving up when I'm getting no results for all the effort! I've read that weight loss can be a problem for women my age for hormonal reasons but I'm not menopausal yet! I hope! I wonder is there anyone else out there that has been in a similar position who could recommend something that worked for them? Sorry for moaning but its really starting to get me down, any advice/motivational tips etc would be much appreciated, thank you!

Paigne

Hi Miss Hap, if you want the best advice those familiar with dieting can offer, post what you eat on an average day.

Also, what does your hectic lifestyle involve?? (i.e. busy job? Constantly running errands? Superhero by night???)

What have you changed in your diet over the month you failed to lose weight, and what exercise did you do and how much?? Is there any exercise/sports you enjoy that would make you allow time for??

Finally, don't let it get you down, that's the battle lost!! You'll get there just be patient with finding a method that will work best!!

EileenG

What are you eating now?

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that you are eating a lot of low fat food, and try to avoid anything with high fat.

As a dieting strategy, this is fine when you are young and healthy and your pancreatic system is going full blast. It doesn't work so well when you get older and start to have insulin issues. Where do you carry your excess weight, round your middle or on your bum?

LKBeenit

Hey Mis Hap, great advice from Paigne and EileenG and you will find loads of info here so read all the stickies etc.
My metabolism seemed to just switch off when I reached about 45 and so I went from being able to what really seemed like eating anything at all without putting on weight and being the envy of all to putting on 1.5 stone without any warning. Probably over a 12 month period I found myself close to 2 stone over my weight the year before.

And so the battle commenced - I messed about with gyms and diets and all that goes with it but eventually I took up running and I started cutting out carbs - I lost 7 lbs fairly easily in about 3 weeks - a huge triumph though for a 45 yr old with a sluggish metabolism. Following 2 weeks hols I started the Dukan diet and have lost a further 7lbs since in the last 10 days. I have been running every second day too. I am not starving myself and am bursting with energy. I ran the fastest I have ever run yesterday.

Take the advice from the experts here re. diet etc. and do kick start yourself into an eating and exercise routine to get that metabolism going again. Do not accept that you are destined to be a certain shape as a 40+ woman - you do not, that is pure hype!

shannon guy

Eileen is straight onto it with the insulin issues.

I have been reading up on it recently and it is amazing the problems it causes when you spike insulin at the wrong times, eating low fat, high carbs can cause this alot.

But if you keep trying you will succeed. It just takes fine tuning.