Shmead- I just noticed how much weight you have lost, you obviously know what you are talking about! How long did it take you to lose it? Did you lose and regain? I'm afraid i've yo yoed so much that my metabolism is permanently broken. As to your three possibilities
1.) I have tried eating more and lost around the same amount of weight. However, I hadn't quit birth control yet and I've read that for some people is stops weightloss. I may need to try it again. All I can say is today is the last day of this 650 calorie diet no matter what. Not to be gross, but i've had diarreha today which makes me think my body is seriously pissed off.
2.) I've scoured the internet trying to figure out what it could be. I'd do anything and I mean anything to make my body work like the "average" persons
3.) I'm always very anal about sticking to my diets. I measure everything out with measuring cups, measuring spoons, scales etc. I always do allow myself one cheat meal (dinner) once a week. Do you think that could have sabotaged everything? I've also always been a breakfast skipper because I was afraid it would ruin my diet. I know that is a no no. I would really like to try slim fast. from what i've read people on here have had decent results. I just don't know if it will work from me. I'm so tired of trying and always being let down. I'm afraid i'm going to be stuck in this prison (my body) for the rest of my life.
Okay, so you've been to doctors. Have you been to a competent dietitian or nutritionist? Maybe they could have some sound advice for you - give you a plan, monitor your results and than reassess as need by.
By the way, eating breakfast most certainly won't ruin your diet, unless of course it's pancakes, sausage and bacon. It seems to me that you've struggled for so long, that you may have lost sense of what it really means to adhere to a healthy lifestyle.
That's what I would focus on for now- eating well, really well and seeing what happens. And by eating well, I mean eating three healthy (delicious) meals a day and a few snacks. I think you need to retrain yourself and maybe not focus *so* much on the weight loss for now - just the eating healthily.
For instance.
B- 1/2 cup oatmeal with a 3 egg white omlette or FF/SF yogurt or low fat cottage cheese with fresh berries and with fiber one cereal mixed in.
S - a thinly sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon and a few almonds.
L - a LARGE salad - baby spinach, romaine hearts, grape tomatoes, bell peppers, red onions, shredded carrots, grilled chicken or turkey breast
S - a pint of blueberries or roasted grape tomatoes with garlic or a veggie platter of cukes, baby carrots, radishes, mushrooms and some hummus or salsa or both.
D - A big bowl of tomato cabbage soup, 4 oz of pesto salmon with roasted green beans
S - frozen sliced banana dipped in sugar free chocolate syrup
Maybe, just maybe (not certain of course) if you start focusing on the good eating (as opposed to weight loss), the weight loss just may occur... How cool would that be?
rockinrobin, you also have some sound advice. I have just one question, where do you find the time to cook all those delicious meals. If only I had a personal chef, I know I'd be a success
Oh, and yes I have seen a nutrionist. They said all I needed to do was to add breakfast in. Otherwise they felt my meal choices were solid.. The guy kind of treated me like I was lying. If I was eating the way I claimed to be I wouldnt have a weight problem. So rude..
rockinrobin, you also have some sound advice. I have just one question, where do you find the time to cook all those delicious meals. If only I had a personal chef, I know I'd be a success
.
Ha. I used to watch Oprah,, ya know the shows where she had her personal chefs cooking her all these wonderful, low calorie gourmet meals and I used to think, "if only I had a personal chef like her, I'd be thin". Well two things come to mind - Oprah had/has a personal chef and she's still regained the weight, so it does take more than that.
And number two - I ALWAYS had a personal chef - ME. I mean I was cooking ANYWAY - just the wrong things. So I figured it was time to start cooking foods that taste good AND are good for me, long after I was done cooking.
I've mentioned this many times, I was willing to give up lots in order to get healthy (pasta, rice, cookies, cakes, etc.), BUT I was NOT willing to ever be hungry or to eat boring, tasteless, bland food. Nope. I now eat food that tastes great and is GREAT FOR ME, long after I'm done chewing.
So how do I have time to cook such great fare? I MAKE the time. It's just THAT important to me. I MUST eat yummy foods. If I eat yummy foods, than it's no hardship to stay with my plan. I'm able/willing to stick with it. If I'm eating yummy foods, than I feel zero deprivation when I'm passing up on the pizza, pasta, cakes, etc. So eating delicious foods is ESSENTIAL for my continued *success*.
So, how does that sound? Focusing on eating healthy foods? Healthy delicious foods?
Well I have good news, My diet has changed considerabley in phase 2. I'm much happier and it's so much more tolerable! I am taking Easter off to eat whatever I want. Is anyone else doing that?
personally, i dont take off days, i allow a treat every now and then. what happens with me is i can always find an occasion to eat something bad. I focus on LIFETIME changes to eating not just something that I'm going to do until my goal. Im going to eat like this forever so i would rather lose it slowly and allow some leeway along the way then restrict myself for 2 years and never be able to continue that for a lifetime and God forbid gain my weight back. I have already been thinking about what maintaining will be like so the transition is smooth.
Can I just say that your 'personal trainer' sounds crazy? No offense.
Your body needs a certain number of calories every day just to function.
I'm also seeing a personal trainer and we did a body composition analysis. I'm only a bit heavier than you and I need to eat 2118 calories every day just to live, not including ANY form of exercise. Restricting by a couple hundred calories per day and adding in exercise will (and is!) helping me lose weight quickly. If you're only eating 650 calories a day that's essentially one third of what your body needs.
I was like you, I thought I had to eat a tiny amount of food to lose weight....wrong. I upped my meal intake to 6 small meals (from 1) per day and have lost 15 pounds in the last 10 days. All I'm doing is eating healthy and exercising (walking my dog).
Have you considered switching personal trainers? Mine would NEVER suggest something like that, I'm shocked.
Have you spoken to a doctor about restricting your calorie count so much?
I think it may be a little early in the game for you to take an ENTIRE day off and eat whatever you want... Once you start adding in those foods once again, it will be HARD to get started on the right path again.
Even when I do plan to go OFF plan, I plan THAT. There is ALWAYS a plan. Leaving the door open is just too risky. Why not plan in a small treat or two and leave it at that? Decide AHEAD of time which two treats they will be. Make yourself some definite no's. "I will definitely not have this and this and this. I WILL stay away from that, but I will have one small serving of this and a small piece of that".
Set some boundaries, not leaving it an all open food fest. Staying on plan is a GOOD thing. It feels marvelous. I think you will be shocked to find that adhering to this healthy lifestyle feels better than any of the food could have possibly tasted. Challenge yourself!
I have never, ever not even ONE time ever regretted NOT eating something. Never. I can't begin to tell you how many times I HAVE regretted eating things. It would be millions of times. Start instituting healthy eating patterns right this minute. Fortunately we are given many reasons to celebrate and have good times. And since we are what we are, food will most likely be attached to it. We've got to learn how to navigate through life and all those events WHILE remaining healthy. There is no time like the present to do that.
We have oodles and oodles of "oh, but it's just this one time". If we allowed ourselves to eat whatever we wanted for each and every one of those times, well if you count them, you could be certain there are dozens of them, we really wouldn't get very far.
Enjoy your holiday, enjoy your family and your friends and your surroundings, by all means. Remember, it's not ALL about the food.
What strong, solid advice you've received already!
I just wanted to add my personal experience with the whole birth control issue. I went on BC just prior to getting married and could NOT lose weight for the wedding, no matter what I tried! After the wedding, I gained 70 lbs in ONE year. Then I got pregnant and just kept gaining. Nursing did not take the weight off like I'd heard it should. I tried diet after diet and nothing. I'd lose a few pounds, but I always made the diet and exercise too difficult so I'd quit.
I have my suspicions about BC too. I think it triggered PCOS in me. I too am insulin resistant. It doesn't matter if you've been diagnosed with PCOS or not. If quacks like a duck, treat it like a duck. You said you MAY be insulin resistant. There's no harm in eating low carb then.
I bolded the part above because it is crucial to my current weight loss. YOU are making weight loss too hard right now. You can not stick to that diet plan, really you can not. I don't know about the exercise. After losing 30 lbs the last time one day I just woke up and couldn't go to the gym, couldn't stay on my eating plan, and I quit. I gained 40 lbs. Because I wasn't losing fast enough to suit my own expectations, I completely sabotaged myself.
I have never been a big eater. Yes, I ate the wrong things and a bit too much. But I'm not a binger and I still insist my diet wasn't THAT bad. My diet was probably on par with most people who'd like to drop 20 lbs. I have stretches of complacency, but this weight did NOT sneak up on me. I watched every pound pack on and like you said, it did happen over night.
Now today:
I decided this was it. No more. I CAN and DO lose weight, even if not quite as quickly as everyone else. I CAN succeed.
I calorie count. This time I started without exercise, which I don't now recommend. I dropped 30 lbs in two months, which I'm not knocking! I added exercise and have struggled since January 1 to lose 10 more pounds. But I feel so much better now. I've had to dig in my heels, mind you, and ignore the scale as much as I can. I come here and whine and then I feel better.
The biggest difference for me this time is that I made a one year commitment. I'm in this for one year no matter what. I can not and will not quit what I am doing every day because I have made a mental contract with myself that I will give this one full year and see what happens. Now you know, once that year rolls around, I will have formed a habit and I'm pretty sure I'll be feeling pretty darn good about myself and I will have lost something! I'm currently losing 3-4 lbs per month, which sucks, let me tell you!! But it's 3-4 pounds GONE and gone forever and I'm certain it will continue.
So, to wrap up and answer your questions:
I don't know how much I lost the first week because I didn't weigh myself. I have to guess. I think I lost 17 lbs that first month.
I calorie count but tweak all the time. Right now, because of the insulin resistance (PCOS) I'm switching out most of my fruit/grains for veggies and protein.
I do strength training, Spin class and the elliptical machines 6 days a week.
My highest weight was 278. This morning I weight 189.8 So, very close to 90 pounds lost. This has been a 2+ year journey for me so far. I started in Oct of 2007. I do not remember what I lost in my first week or month. I do know that if I stuck with it, it did happen. Calorie Counting and this site, is something I could not do without on this journey.
