I am just coming off of another failed attempt to lose weight. I've tried to do this seriously twice in the last 5 years.
First time I joined a gym, got a personal trainer, nutritionist and began eating healthy. Lost about 20 pounds and nothing more over a 9 month period.
This time around, it was medically supervised, had blood drawn (which I hate), nutritionist and classes run by fitness experts. Had a machine determine my metabolic rate (a machine you breath into). Lost about 20 pounds and have plateaued again.
They claimed that exercise only amounts to 20% of weight loss, the other 80% is eating correctly.
New job has killed my workout routine and I stopped exercising regularly in Oct.
Since then I have gained the weight back and then some.
Kinda at my wits end and not really sure what to do.
I've been looking into the Medifast, Herbal Magic kinda diets.
Been talking with supplements people...
Not really worried about starving myself, but I don't want to regain the weight (like everyone says happens). Also worried about health risks, muscle loss, etc..
honestly, i lost my first 40 lbs, on weight watchers and 1 hr of pilates a week.
40 LBS!!
(in about 5 months).
while calorie counting is what i am doing now (after a giant plateau), i feel like it does not teach you enough about the foods you should be eating- it's worth paying for weight watchers if you can afford it, atleast until you learn what foods you should be eating to lose. IMHO.
I'm so sorry you have been struggling - it's something we all deal with at some point, and the DREADED PLATEAU!
I have a question - when you stopped working out, did you stay on the meal plan that your nutritionist recommended? What kind of plan was it?
Is it possible that you don't really have a lot of weight left to lose?
I find it difficult to lose weight and have been at a general plateau for months, but I'm admittedly not working at weight loss like I used to (part of it is laziness and I don't have the free time I had years ago when I was child-free). I just make sure that I don't veer off of making healthy food choices, especially because I'm not able to spend hours at the gym.
What is your general day like right now? Meals/meal plan? Do you have time to go for a half hour run everyday? There are options that are so much better than starving or turning to drugs.
Instead of starting over completely, from scratch, can you take the knowledge you learned from nutritionists and personal trainers, and modify it to help you lose weight?
If I were you, I'd take all that helpful information and then learn how to calorie count (or learn an exchange program, like weight watchers).
You also need to do a lot of thinking. You need to identify what went wrong and why it happened.
If someone would have asked me in August, before I started calorie counting, why I was still 20 lbs overweight, I would have said I was the victim of a slow metabolism.
Well, it seems after looking at the situation honestly that I am 1) a boredom eater, 2) I eat larger portions than I needed, and 3) I pick at leftovers on the stove the entire evening, even though I'm not hungry. These three main factors were causing me to eat too many calories, so I was still heavier, even though I was eating super healthy and exercising.
Anyway, weight loss is hard. Plateaus happen. Welcome!
Ya know, I literally cannot lose weight using a lot of the plans that other people are very successful on. Low fat and low calorie do nothing for me at all after I lose the first 6 to 8 pounds (which I believe are water and the actual weight of the food in my belly). I had doctors tell me that they've never seen a type I diabetic lose weight and I was starting to become pretty resigned to a life of only getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And then quite by mistake I figured out how *I* lose weight, which is completely counter to everything I've learned over the years about weight loss. So, it may be that if a particular diet doesn't work for you after 20 pounds (and you're sure you've followed it -- not let the portions creep up or something), it may be the wrong diet for you.
I hope you do find what works for you soon! It's sooooo frustrating.
I have a question - when you stopped working out, did you stay on the meal plan that your nutritionist recommended? What kind of plan was it?
Is it possible that you don't really have a lot of weight left to lose?
2800 cals per day, gave examples of foods. Basically veggies, chicken, beef, etc..
I am in the extremely obese category so I have plenty to lose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unna
Instead of starting over completely, from scratch, can you take the knowledge you learned from nutritionists and personal trainers, and modify it to help you lose weight?
If I were you, I'd take all that helpful information and then learn how to calorie count (or learn an exchange program, like weight watchers).
I have counted calories. I was tracking it through myfitnesspal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by josey
I also suggest calorie counting. Learn how your body reacts. Workout or not you can lose weight.
The key numbers seem to be (BMR x Harris Benedict Equation) - 500 = your caloric intake per day.
Code:
bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Even at 2800, that's 700 lower then the calculations from that site.
Last edited by BigCanadian; 11-28-2011 at 04:47 PM.
The key numbers seem to be (BMR x Harris Benedict Equation) - 500 = your caloric intake per day.
Code:
bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Even at 2800, that's 700 lower then the calculations from that site.
500 per day is a 1lb loss per week. I am sure you can go way lower especially if you are very heavy.
They say 1-2lbs per week is good. However, when you are real heavy it might be ok to go faster. I think the stress on the body with reduced calories is less than being very heavy for longer.
Find something that you can do for the rest of your life. If you can't see yourself on a particular plan forever, then it probably isn't for you.
I agree. Also, with exercise, find something that you enjoy doing - like Zumba. A lot of my friends really enjoy it. If you happen to have a video game console like the Xbox Kinect, it works wonders. You're having so much fun, you don't even consider it an exercise.
You know, my thing is that exercising really doesn't help me with enough of a calorie deficit to lose weight JUST be exercising. It helps me with feeling like "Ok, I worked out today so I don't want to blow it by eating junk." Especially when you realize how FEW calories most exercise actually burns and how MANY calories are in junk! I think that's why exercise plays a big part in helping me lose- and also because it kind of helps get you in a healthy "mindset."
If you can be eating 2800 calories a day and still be running a 700 calorie a day deficit from your resting metabolism, what's going on? It's time to be honest. Are you eating too many calories? Do you have a medical condition that is causing you not to lose or for it to be harder to lose (diabetes, thyroid issues,PCOS, etc)? Usually, even with medical conditions, your body can't gain weight on food you don't eat. There are lots of people on these boards who struggle with these issues and are still making great progress! I was hypothyroid for years and blamed my weight on it, but I'm medicated now, and though it definitely has helped me feel more awake and so it's been easier to get out and move around, it hasn't made it easier for me to say no to junk, unfortunately.
So what is it that's going on with you? I've noticed it's easy for me to get in a funk and feel like "nothing I do works" when I'm really slacking and forgetting about all the high calorie food I've been sneaking! Really, when I've counted my calories and stuck with it and been honest with myself, the weight comes off fairly easily.
BigCanadian, Maybe you need tough love, I don't know. But I think if it was as simple as "calories in, calories out" then there would be very few fat people in this world. I don't believe in calories in, calories out because I lose weight when I eat more calories than I did when I gained the weight. I am also doing no exercise at all, atm. For a few weeks earlier in my journey I walked about 45 minutes a few times a week mostly because I just had too much energy to sit still.
If conventional dieting doesn't work for you, I highly, highly recommend the book Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (and he's got a shorter more readable book that's supposed to be good, too, but I haven't read that).
I go through the same thing at times. Sometimes I will read up on every single diet there is out there, and each time I read about a new one I think to myself "Ok, this sounds good", but then I change my mind as soon as I read about the next Diet Fad. So my advise would honestly be to avoid all "pre-packaged diets". You will only be spending tons of money on meals you could prepare yourself. At the end of the say thinking of all the ways you can lose weight will discourage you. The best way to start is to simply eat healthy. Switch to Whole Grains, Stop eating after 7pm. Incorporate more lean proteins and veggies and less refined carbs. Drink loads of water and as much fruit as you like. Exercise should start slow, a 30 minute walk every day is a good start. With These changes a lone, you could lose around 10 lbs easily this month. And you wont feel deprived or unhealthy.
Something That I was thinking of doing is having a juice fast once or twice a weak to keep my metabolism guessing. Juices are basically any raw fruits or vegetables that are juiced and drank within 20 minutes. They are loaded with fresh nutrients, are great for detoxifying. Your body will not go into starvation mode since it takes 3 days for it to.
Oh and one more thing, you need to understand that your past attempts at weightloss were NOT failures. You lost 20 lbs each time! That is amazing! The failure was maintaining the weight. So you know you can lose the weight if you want. So just work hard to do so, and do it in a way that you can stick to for the long haul. Other wise you'll end up in square one.
Everything to Lose, (Want) Nothing to Gain
