Here I go again.....weeeeee

Okay, I don't get this.  I am taking in the amount of calories I am supposed to be taking in, working on the elliptical 3 times a week and pretty much stearing clear of all the processed high fat sugary foods that I love, so whats the deal?  I will tell you what the deal is, I never lose weight on normal healthy diets. Never have.  Since a teenager I have only lost weight taking in less than 1,000 calories per day.  Especially if I work out.  Sometimes in my teens I would fast for 2-3 days to keep my weight down.  In my early 30's I went to an endocrinologist who did all these tests and told me I have a "sluggish metabolism".  Those were his words, he then proceeded to tell me to work out doing an aerobic exercise every day and eat only 1200 calories per day to lose weight.  This was his brilliant advice.  I would not have energy to do an hour or aerobics everyday if I were only eating 1200 calories.  In any case, deeply discouraged I went home and no doubt ate.  It is now nearly 20 years later and I am certain my metabolism is a whole lot more sluggish now than in my early 30's.  I keep reading about foods and other things that are supposed to "speed up" your metabolism but nothing ever works.  I am clearly going to have to go back to the "starvation" dieting that has always proven the only effective thing for me. I will up my workout and add a FIRM work out that I like to the mix along with the elliptical and start doing weights and crunches on a more scheduled basis as well and while I will be exhausted every single day, at least I will finally be losing weight again.