Hello. I want to say I have low carbed before and successfully lost weight until I stopped. The difference this time is I'm trying to integrate exercise. I generally do a walk/run of 6-12 miles a day (an average of 1000 daily calories burned. I have been eating between 500-800 calories of veggies and protein. I am 5'5 and my weight is stuck at 152. Although I have lost noticeable inches the scale refuses to move. I also want to mention ketone sticks show I'm dark red so really in low carb mode. I'm so frustrated that I'm exercising this time and not going down in pounds and last time I was losing a pound every other day. What am I doing wrong? Should I stop exercising? I have recently upped my burn calories to 1500 with no results other than "I look thinner". I know I'm probably gaining muscle but I don't want muscle over this fat body. Please send advice to help me shift this.

Let's take this one thing at a time.

First of all, at 5'6" tall, and 152, you are the opposite of fat. Your weight is NORMAL. In fact, if you try to get down to 120, you will probably be too thin, especially as you are significantly well muscled.

Second, really, you are not doing Atkins. Because nowhere, ever, did Dr. Atkins advocate that people starve themselves. And the amount of calories that you are eating, especially with the extreme amount of exercise you are getting, is starvation.

If you are enjoying your running, keep it up. If you would prefer to do less, do less. If you would prefer to stop, stop. It's not exercise that helps you to lose weight. It's burning fat by eating fat.

But you DO need more calories, and they need to come from fat. The biggest advance in low carb science has come from the realization that it's the intake of FAT that allows our bodies to burn fat. Too much protein, and we may as well be eating carbs, because, in the absence of fat, our livers will make carbs from protein, a process called gluconeogenesis.

Realistically, at your weight and height, and the level of physical exertion you are getting, there is no way on God's green earth you should be calling yourself fat. Really.

Allow yourself to eat healthy fatty meats, eggs, cheese. Chicken with the crispy skin on it. Bacon and juicy bunless burgers with cheese and bacon and avocado. You may lose slowly, because, again, you are at a healthy weight, and you have very little fat to lose, at this point.

Be kind to yourself. It's not nice to be mean to anyone, right? So don't do it to you, OK?

Rocky, what MickiSue said.

Also, if your energy deficit is too low (and it does seem way too low), your body can work against you and slow expenditure. This is not just calories in and calories out. I suggest reducing the excessive exercise, because it can also increase inflammation and hinder results. Don't eliminate it, just reduce it. Also, add a it more good fat. I know it seems counterintuitive, but it works.

Finally, a good plan will allow 1-2 pounds of loss per week, at most. Try to be reasonable and shoot for that goal. Be patient and enjoy the positive changes you will feel instead of being a slave to the scale. If you do some reading of various posts here, you will see what I mean. This is about health, not just weight.

I agree that the mix of exercise and restriction is what's keeping you from losing fat pounds. When you combine daily hour-long exercise and a big calorie deficit, that can lead to "adaptive thermogenesis." Your metabolism slows down. so the calculators of "burn calories" won't be accurate. It kicks in with deficits over 30% for some people.

I ran your numbers on a calorie calculator, assuming you're 30, and your calorie deficit at 800 calories is like 66% ! the calculator says:

You need 2,433 Calories/day to maintain your weight.
You need 1,933 Calories/day to lose 1 lb per week.

Also those long daily runs raise cortisol/stress which affects women more and maybe you too. High cortisol is a carb-burning situation, not fat-burning. that's one way you get chubby women for hours on treadmills and nothing happening.

A pound every other day, is very harsh and even pro fitness competitors don't like the consequences of that. I know you did that before - but what if that harshness is partly why your body is hanging on now? Would you consider changing expectations? like a pound a week?

In your shoes I would do those long runs only 1-2 times a week, short weight training for 3 days, and 20 min easy ambles on rest days.

And I would *gradually* increase the food and change the exercise mix such that it was more like a 25% deficit.

Just sayin.

I would echo what others have said and add that, based on what you've written, I would wager that you've got one heck of a lot of inflammation going on all over your body! When body cells are inflamed, they hold onto excess WATER. Water weighs 8 pounds per gallon and you would be amazed at just how much excess water you can have "hiding" in those inflamed cells.

I recently got into a bad patch of chiggers and ended up with chigger welts all over my body. All of my clothing still fit just fine and I certainly didn't look like I'd gained an ounce. But the chigger welts added 3 pounds! Seriously, the chigger welts added 3/4 of a QUART of water weight! Soon as they subsided, the excess weight went too.

With all your running, you could easily be carrying quarts of excess water spread in tiny amounts all over your body. Take a few days OFF from running and give your poor muscle cells time to recuperate and see what happens with your weight.

And PLEASE, stop with the starvation diet before you totally screw up your metabolism! You want to find a Way of Eating (WOE) that allows you to lose weight slowly and safely AND, more importantly, a WOE that you can stick with for life so that, once you get down to your goal weight, you never regain!

Do you honestly think you can possibly continue to eat only 500 to 800 calories a day for the rest of your life???? No way! But if you force your body to survive on only 500 to 800 calories for a long enough period, then as soon as you start eating anything approaching a normal amount again, the weight is going to pile back on....and the next time you try to lose weight, you may have to drop to 250 to 400 calories per day to do it.

That is madness! Stop torturing yourself.

A proper low carb diet should be a pleasure that you can and will want to stick with for life!

If you are looking thinner, gaining muscle, and staying the same weight, you ARE losing fat! But I agree with others that you are probably taking in too few calories, some amount of water may be involved, and some rebalancing may be in order.

You will have a different experience with LC this time because YOU are different. Age and fitness level will be different now from when you were younger, so don't worry about competing with the younger you - focus on being the best present you and not the past you. (I had to adjust this thinking for myself, too )

My biggest question for you: do you want to be smaller, or do you want to weigh less? You say you've lost noticeable inches - WOOHOO! SUCCESS! As you see eating LC and running will help you get smaller but you might not show scale weight as rapidly as someone who is not exercising; your newly building muscles will weigh more than the fat you're losing. That's fine. You are getting smaller and fitter!

Also keep in mind that weight loss is not a straight drop - there will be weeks of no change while your body does whatever magic it does. Then you'll see losses again for a while. Then you won't. Repeat. Staying the course will get you to your goal.

Julia--she's still eating the starvation levels, just increased her exercise.

Rocky, are you still there? You posted once, and haven't responded. I really hope that you are OK.

You're right, my mistake - edited my post to remove the reference. Thanks!

Thank you everyone for the advice. I am still struggling to get the scale to move. The two times I did not exercise I lost a pound but every time I do even if it's only 2-5 miles I stay the same. I am nervous to eat more to see if upping my calories would help. I feel fitter than I ever have at this weight but ultimately I'm a slave to the scale so not figuring my rhythm out is really bothering me. I wasn't aware that you could be low carb and not lose weight every other day. It wasn't my experience before. Can anyone suggest if I should fast a couple of days to kick start things? Would that help?

You're already at a MAJOR calorie deficit. Please do not make it worse by fasting!

Honestly, based on what you've written about how MUCH you're exercising (walking/running up to 12 miles/day) and how little you are eating (only 500 to 800 calories/day), you are scaring me.

I try to be supportive of all sort of dietary efforts because I know all bodies are different and, ultimately, we each have to figure out for ourselves what will work for us. BUT, there are things that are simply dangerous to do. One CAN kill oneself trying to lose weight too fast.

You say that your are losing inches but that the scale refuses to move. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOUR SCALES ARE BROKEN??? PLEASE CHECK! Maybe something is wrong with the scale.

Even if your scale is working perfectly, you need to give your body a break. A reasonably healthy woman (and by that I mean someone who hasn't already totally screwed up her metabolism by over-dieting) who is 5'5" tall and weighs 152 lbs AND is reasonably active needs between 2200 and 2500 calories per day to maintain her weight. The older you are the fewer calories you need. I'm guessing you're well under age 40 and your activity level is way above normal so you OUGHT to be able to eat up to 2000 calories per day and still lose weight at a acceptable rate.

It should only take a 3500 calorie deficit to lose a pound. At 500 to 800 cals/day, you're running a 1700 to 2000 cal/day deficit. Therefore you should be losing about 1/2 pound per day. That is, if you still have a "normal" metabolism.

Thus, IF you are truly eating only 500 to 800 calories per day AND running/walking 5 to 12 miles every day but not losing weight, then it certainly seems something is already seriously wrong with your metabolism! If so, don't you think you need to figure out what is wrong and find a way to FIX your metabolism before you worry about losing any more weight?

I seriously doubt that starving yourself is the way to FIX your metabolism. Among other things, you cannot possibly get all the various nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc) your body needs to function properly while ingesting only 500 to 800 calories. And the last thing you need to be doing are things that could screw your metabolism up even worse!

If you want to insist that your metabolism is fine, then the ONLY other thing I can figure out to explain why you are not losing weight is that you sleepwalk and eat without knowing you are doing it!

I know this post sounds a bit harsh and I'm sorry about that. But seriously, what you have written scares me. I am truly afraid you may be harming yourself. Please please please, take a long hard look at what you are doing and ask yourself if it is healthy for the LONG TERM?

NO. Seriously. You need to eat more calories, and I strongly suggest that they come from fat.

Are you able to put away the scale for a bit? Lock it in a closet, give the key to someone you trust and tell them not to give you the key back for at least two months?

Because something will probably happen if you start feeding your body the amount of food it needs to survive. Yes. Survive. Right now you are eating at literally starvation levels.

Initially, you will gain. Your metabolism has slowed down so much that it's nearly dormant. And a day or two of at least 1500 calories will cause you to gain, as that extremely sluggish metabolism struggles to use those calories, instead of squirreling them away in fear of further deprivation.

But, after a bit (varies by individual, and I don't know the specifics for you) your body will relax enough to allow itself to use the calories and the nutrients that you give it, in the way they should be used. You'll build muscle that has wasted from lack of food, and, if you stay low carb and high fat, you'll burn fat that your body stored up because you were starving it.

Two months of not weighing yourself will allow you to not be, as you say, a slave to the scale. It will allow you to notice the changes in your body more dispassionately, and to gauge your activity, not on frantically trying to lose weight, but on feeling the good feelings that being active can give you.

Fast weight loss on any WOE tends to be more prevalent for those with higher levels of body fat. If you are muscular, you will lose less. If you are starving, you will lose, but at as slow a rate as your body can handle, because you are willfully slowing the metabolism.

For me, I lost 20 lbs in about a year, on moderate low carb and no grains--about 50 a day. Then I got stuck at 164. When I dropped carbs AND INCREASED FAT, I've now lost another 14 in about another year. I eat what I want, within my WOE, (Less than 20 total carbs/day) and take in, in two meals, probably between 1200-1500 calories a day. I'm 65. I'm not extremely active, having had a head injury and currently nursing a broken toe.

It's going to take you longer to lose this time as a function both of having less fat to lose, and being older. Not eating enough fat is deadly, when you want to lose fat, and don't have a whole lot of it available. It's having adequate fat to burn that allows your body to use protein for its normal uses, instead of turning it to glycogen in the liver with the process called gluconeogenesis.

Please, at least try some of the suggestions you've gotten here. Be willing to allow your body to heal from its deprivation before starting to lose. And much as I hate to say this, but it's all that got me to where I am, on the brink of the 140's: practice patience. Your body will lose at the rate that it will lose. You don't control the scale. Why let it control you?

Awesome Rocky! I'll make a suggestion since you are asking. I also exercise quite a bit this summer. Sometimes paddle boarding many hours a day. This is good as I can tell my shape is changing dramatically but weight loss fairly slow and steady. I eat like a hog too.

I'll bet if you STOP exercising for 2 weeks and keep everything else the same you will see the scale cooperate. If you do not loose significant weight, I will do, on video, any reasonable dare you can come up with, up to and including crying on camera.

The folks above don't want you to harm yourself, neither do I. What can it hurt to participate in a 2 week experiment ?

"...gonna fly now..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bztxd7BJSco

Every Rocky needs to take a rest now and then... to get stronger!