I signed up for the September Challenge at least in part to make myself weigh and measure my food, so that I could relate what I was eating to what I would be eating when I hit target weight. I am currently 260, have lost about 30 lbs eating what I thought was about 1000-1400 calories per day, and have a target weight of around 160. So I picked 1600, although I did initially sign up for 2000.
I added some additional food (mostly, a couple of pieces of bread or potatoes) because, as I suspected, I wasn't eating my target number of calories.
I found out two things -- The first is that I can't eat a few additional pieces of bread -- I would slip up to 1800 calories really easily.
The second is that this is just too many calories for me -- even though I upped my exercise. I suspect that there are several things going on -- the most important is that I am just post-menopausal, and we all know that this can play havoc with our metabolisms, the second is that I am rather depressed with a long job hunt (even though I didn't really try very much until my daughter went back to school a few weeks ago), a third is that I really still have very little muscle mass, so most of my weight is still nice inert fat.
So I am resetting my challenge to 1200 calories -- let's see what happens. The good news is that I'm not eating depressively, but I'm not doing a lot -- and "not doing" (also known as sitting on my butt) isn't a path to a healthier, more active me, even with scheduled exercise.
I'm no expert, and I don't play one on TV, but 1200 calories seems really low if you're doing exercise, too, and I'd be afraid that eating so low would lead to binging, and also cause your body to hang on to fat thinking it's starving. While I'm not a low-carb person, I do know that if you're eating a lot of white stuff (potatoes, pasta, sugar) in your calorie count, you might want to substitute whole grains, fruits, etc.
Are you incorporating any strength training in your exercise routine? For many, that makes a huge difference. It did for me. Also, varying your caloric intake each day can help with weight loss because it fools your body.
Although I'm on Weight Watchers, I was counting calories on fitday.com and noticing that I was getting 1200-1300 eating at the lower WW range, and I wasn't losing much weight. After reading a bunch of stuff on eating more to lose more, I started upping my calories and reduced my exercise somewhat, mainly because I haven't had a car to go to the gym. I actually lost more by eating more. I think my body was hanging on to my weight. I'm 50 and I know my metabolism has slowed down a lot so I was a bit astounded when I started losing more weight by eating more.
Everyone is different so what I do may not be of any help to you, but you might want to look at what you were eating, and the calorie to exercise ratio to see if perhaps you really need more calories (and "better" calories) rather than less.
Originally posted by KristasMom
So I am resetting my challenge to 1200 calories -- let's see what happens.
You'll get some flack from some about that. My question is more specific: WHAT are you eating? The number of calories affects how much weight you lose, no question: The larger your calorie deficit, the more weight you'll lose. However, if you aren't getting enough protein, all your work will be for nothing, since you won't be able to build up any muscle-mass. As I was losing weight I averaged about 8000-9000 calories per week (1200 calories per day), and then exercised about 2000 calories per week off (300 calories of exercise per day), for a net of about 6500 calories per week (900 calories per day). But the key was that I did some weight-bearing exercise (in my case, Hatha yoga) every other day, and made sure I got enough protein (about 70-80 gm at that point -- I aim for over 100 gm now) each day.
Quote:
The good news is that I'm not eating depressively
This is really important. You're learning the skills and methods. Nothing to get discouraged about.
I'm really eating healthily -- my whole purpose in doing this weight "thing" is to get to be an old parent for my kid, so I started with good for me. This is what I've eaten today
Breakfast: 1/2 cup fatfree cottage cheese
1 tbl sunflower seeds
1/4 cup organic raisins
Lunch: Smoothie made up of:
1/2 cup lite silken tofu
1/2 cup blackberries
1 cup waterpacked pears
Late-afternoon snack - 1 thick slice bakery Italian bread with 1 tbl soft Promise
Will be:
Dinner - 4 oz chicken with 4 oz brown rice, and stir-fried vegetables (water chestnuts, broccoli, bean sprouts, green beans)
I think this is a really healthy diet -- and it's about 1600 cals
The only change I would make to go to 1200 calories would be to eliminate the bread and butter
PS I don't eat any transfats, and I do take a flaxseed oil and a fish oil capsule every day
Exercise - either .5 mile swimming laps or a mix of circuit training and laps at least 3 days a week, and a yoga stretch tape and a beginning pilates tape 5 days a week.
To me, this just says, I really need to cut my calories
Last edited by KristasMom; 09-17-2003 at 05:09 PM.
I can't remember if you use fitday or another calorie counting program to check on nutrition so I stuck this in fitday.com just to see how many actual calories (I'm trying to avoid mopping my kitchen floor). Unfortunately, fitday doesn't have fat-free cottage cheese or waterpack pears, so using a higher calorie version (2% cottage cheese and extra light syrup), what you've written totals up to be 1252 calories. So it seems like you're hitting your target 1200 pretty darn well even with the bread and butter. Hope this works and you see the kind of results you are hoping for.
It's in between the 70-80 grams of protein that Brian mentions, too.
when people hit a plateau, the problem is breaking it. among the hints are to increase water dramatically, increase protein, and decrease the carbs. although you are eating fairly good protein levels, substituting some other protein for that lovely slice of bread might help. eating more vegs might help as well.
also, with the exception of the blackberries, the fruit you're eating are very high on the glycemic index, which sometimes makes weight loss slow as well. my suggestion would be to cut down the fruit at lunch [have only one piece and have some fruit and cheese later?] and add veggies.
and take those snacks and make them higher in protein for awhile.
I watch Cooking Thin a lot and she's a doctor on there that seems to make a lot of sense.
Although your caloric intake looks good on paper, you were the first to admit that with bread you did not stick to 1600 calories. But I don't see how that lead you to reduce it to 1200. Why not cut the bread out an add the additional calories with something else?
If I were you, I would try sticking with 1600 consistantly and seeing if that doesn't nudge you off your plateau.
I think if you exchanged the "400+" calories that you got from the bread and butter with some healthier fruits, veggies, and proteins, you would see a change in your weight. Or for goodness sake, add some dessert. I can't stand to see a diet plan without some dessert in it!
Dr. Peeke is one of the bright spots in Cooking Thin these days. (I've gotten rather disenchanted with Kathleen herself since the first season.) I just ordered Dr. Peeke's book ($7.50 delivered -- very cool); it should be an interesting read.
Food Plan not working!
