Okay to ask doctor why I'm not losing anymore weight?

I would say that you can feel comfortable asking your doctor about anything health-related

What is your current height and weight? How much weight have you lost from your starting weight? I myself am not a doctor, but I have an idea of what could be causing your weight loss plateau. You say that you eat 2000 calories per day. That is definitely not enough to sustain an active, young male.

It sounds counterintuitive, but when you don't eat enough, your body slows down your metabolic functions to conserve energy. Consequently, your body uses less energy overall, and it lowers the amount of calories you need to either maintain or gain weight.

Again, I'm not a doctor, but from what you've said, it sounds like you need take in more calories so that your metabolism stops suppressing itself.

 

You're paying your doctor, so you can ask him anything you want. That is a legitimate health question and it would not be a waste of time. Diets are tricky, I've had friends that have had to "trick" their body with certain foods and exercises.

Either way, your doctor has access to all of your health records, not the web. Before you change your routine, you should make an appointment.

 

I'll once again preface this with the fact that I am not a doctor and that your physician is much more qualified to comment on your individual circumstances. What's below is only my speculation.

That being said, at your current height and weight, 2000 calories is almost certainly not enough. Right now your body needs around 3,800 calories per day to break even...and that's assuming that you sleep for 8 hours and then do nothing but sit for the other 16! The number goes up even more depending on how active you are. No wonder you're not losing any more weight with that large of a calorie deficit.

Lest you think I got those numbers by witchcraft, I use this calculator. As with any online resource, it can't totally match your individual circumstances. But unlike the vast majority of bullshit calorie counting websites, this is a very precise calculator which factors in all kinds of activity, accounts for the amount of sleep you get each night, and does not royally underestimate the body's energy needs.

Use the calculator to figure out roughly how many calories your body has been using. Your goal should be to generate small energy deficits (around 200-400 calories). That might not make you lose weight as quickly as you'd like, but it will be sustainable and, more importantly, will not do damage to your organs and metabolism in the process.

 

One other question some forget about - how often are you eating? When I went to the gym to loose weight, my trainer suggested I eat less food more often, keeping my daily intake about the same. If you are eating all your food for the day in one or two sittings, your body may still be limiting the metabolism. My trainer recommended I eat about 5 times a day.

 

A 2000 kcal diet is not unusual for a carbohydrate-restricted diet. For someone 6'4", it might be a bit low but it's not too far off the mark when someone is wanting to lose stored fat.

For someone in their teens who is athletic and is building muscle or maintaining weight, a 3000 kcal diet is the minimum.

Yes.

Since you're having these weight issues at such a young age, your doctor would want to rule out thyroid or other hormone imbalance.

Once these are eliminated, then you know that the issue is either your activity level or your diet.

Out of curiosity, was the diet that you were following a planned meal program like Weight Watchers or a diet that a nutritionist had recommended?

 

That calculator is total BS. There are a lot more factors that need to be taken into consideration, and even though this calculator considers more factors than others do, it's still grossly inaccurate. For example, let's say I am a 23 year old female, 226 lbs., 5'2", and I spend about 3 hours each day (averaged) on my feet standing/walking and 8 hours sleeping each night. By this calculator's measures, I need 2,250 cals per day just to live. The only thing that would happen if I ate 2,250 calories per day is that I'd become massively obese again. (I've been at those stats before, so I used them as an example.)

Almost every Internet calculator that you can find will get these things wrong because they don't take into account how much of your body is fat vs. muscle. An average estimate of body fat percentage for somebody of my height, weight, gender, and age is ~56%. My actual BFP is ~42%. Everything you calculate needs to be personalized.

If I were you, I'd go to the doctor and ask for a reference to a good nutritionist. It's not just about what calories you eat -- the composition is very important. You'll need to balance how many grams of carbs/fats you eat each day and learn how to set maintenance goals for when you've lost your weight and you're done dieting. You need education on which foods to eat to further your goals, though, as a tip, "whole foods" are always going to be your best choices. These will be unprocessed foods like chicken breast and fresh veggies that are high in good things like protein, fiber, and antioxidants and low in the bad things like fat, simple carbs, and starches.

You also need to account for how many calories your exercise is actually burning, and that can be difficult because your body uses less energy to do the same exercise over time as it becomes used to the activity and thus is more efficient.

One thing that could be happening to you is that you might be losing fat, but gaining enough muscle that you outpace your scale on progress. Last year I weighed ~230 lbs. and I started a couch to 5k program thinking I'd drop a bunch of weight. I dropped to 220 lbs, then got back up to 225 lbs. as the program progressed. I lost a pants size, and when I checked my BFP, it was ~35%. So I lost a large amount of body fat, but gained enough muscle that I lost no weight. Jogging is no joke!

If you want more info on this stuff, feel free to PM me xD. In 2011, I weighed over 330 lbs. and decided I was going to change it. It has involved a lot of education, but it's also given me some pretty good resources, and I'd be happy to share them with you xD. Particularly, I have a good wiki about proper eating choices, and a couple of chapters out of a book about maintenance calories/carbs/fats and all of that. Good luck, and good job! Your progress so far is admirable!

 

I am currently on a similar weight loss journey. I don't think it ever hurts to get some insight from your doctor. Also sometimes (for me anyway) just changing up a few things will help kick start a plateau. Not necessarily exercising more but maybe different.....for example I love to run and run 4 or 5 times per week. But eventually your body gets used to that so you need to "confuse" your body...so maybe I will take a cycling class a couple of days for a few weeks. I also have found that maybe even changing up your diet helps too....I am a creature of habit and can eat the same things over and over so again your body gets used to it. So by changing foods not even really the calorie count may help the effort. Just food for thought (pardon the pun :lol

 

Yeah, I'm not surprised. It's a very tough thing to take weight off.

I look at dieting like a little kid - it works for awhile, but then gets tired and really bored, so it doesn't want to do anything. You have to keep it entertained.

Our bodies get accustomed to what we do. If you just cut back on eating, you'd totally lose some weight. but..... it's going to be hard to keep it all off.
And if you do the same exercises over and over again, you're going to get accustomed to it.

I'd ask your doctor what he/she thinks will work best for you. It might be that you eat smaller meals more often, or do bigger meals at different times, etc. The nice thing is that there's so much out there and you're going to be able to try a lot.

Just DO NOT get discouraged. This is a tough time but you have done so well already!

 

Drink lots of water. and sense you said you've been a little lazy maybe cut back on the calories a little that with help. And do some inside work outs. this is what I do..
Strechs
150-250 Sit ups
125 Leg lifts
150 jumping Jacks
50-100 Push ups
And I go on runs at like 8 pm

 

Well, there's some of the problem.

Activity is activity. So, during the winter you will need to do indoor treadmill or do an indoor exercise program. If you can't afford a gym membership, there are plenty of good workout DVDs that offer programs that take about 30 minutes a day.

This is a problem. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, if you are prone to storing fat, eating too few calories and not working out will encourage your body to store more fat.

Think of it this way: your body wants to store fat. If you don't eat enough, your body starts thinking that there's not going to be enough food in the future, so it will slow your metabolism and start to put away fat to use during the tough times ahead.

It's important during periods where you want to lose weight that you eat enough calories, be consistent with your diet and keep active so that your body doesn't try to store fat.