[jensjourney3]

So here goes...

I'm new here, even though I've been poking around reading posts for a long time. I figured it was time I jumped in.

I'm 36, 344.6 lbs (as of yesterday morning) and I just really need help getting myself on track. Let me tell you a little about me...

I've battled my weight my entire life, and it's won! I've been "READY" to fight this thing, but so far it's always beat me. Last Nov I'd had it....I was ready. I told my Dr (who also runs a weight loss clinic) to sign me up... protein shakes, B-12 shots, adipex, veggies and lean protein. I stuck by the letter and by the end of Jan I was down 47 lbs!! Feeling great, great about myself! Joined the gym, started taking Zumba (LOVE IT) and was really thinking I had it beat! First weekend in March I walked my first 5K!! The next weekend they brought a nutritionist into the gym to talk to us and the first thing she said was if you're doing low carb...STOP!!! I was doing it on my own by this point (I'd stopped going to the dr) and figured what she was saying must be true....so the next day I was adding carbs back in my diet. And slowly but surely like every other time I've tried to lose weight....I started back into my old habits. Started making excuses why i couldn't go to the gym and before I know it, It's July 1st, I'm up 14.6 lbs. I haven't been to the gym in weeks and I"m just miserable with myself.

It really felt good to get this off my chest! (sorry for boring you all with the details)!!

I'd love to know what is working for ya'll, low-carb, calorie counting, low fat....whatever. I know what is good for one is not good for all but I'm curious.

Thanks for reading my rambling....

Jen

[asharksrevenge]

Welcome, Jen, and congratulations on your weight loss! I definitely understand how it feels to want to lose the weight and feeling like the weight has won. Also, I sympathize with you about regaining and slipping back into your old habits. Now, I can't say that your nutritionist was wrong to tell you to stop eating carbs, because everyone has their own methods of losing weight and hers could be very valid (what did she tell you to eat?), but I am on a low-carb diet and so far (it's been 2 weeks) I've been successful and losing and maintaining my loss. I keep my carb count to less than 50g/daily, but there are many people on 3FC who successfully lose weight at less than 20g/daily and others who lose at 100/g. Everyone seems to be different.

I successfully lost 50 lbs. using low-calorie, low-fat until my cholesterol was tested and I learned I had gained 40 points of "bad" cholesterol despite my weight loss. Now that I am back (or nearly) to my highest weight and cholesterol levels, I decided to lose 50 again and see what this kind of diet (low-carb eating) would do to my bad cholesterol levels.

Anyway, welcome to 3FC and congratulations for restarting your journey!

[jensjourney3]

Thank you so much for the welcome! She (the nutritionist) basically said we needed GOOD carbs.... As much as I was exercising she had me convinced that I needed the carbs before a workout... Maybe I was just looking for an excuse....who knows. I do have insulin resistance and low cal just hasn't really worked for me in the past. I tried WW, with very little success.

Are you on "induction" in your low-carb plan? 50g/carb seems very doable. Do you count your veggies?

Congrats on your success thus far!!

[asharksrevenge]

I also have insulin resistance and since I have begun this diet plan, I have felt no blood sugar swings like I would when I was eating poorly. I hear you about trying lots of different weight loss strategies without success...hopefully this one will be the one that really works for me, and so far so good! I'm not going to give up today, and I am taking it day-by-day.

I am not on induction, and I don't plan on changing my carb limits until my body plateaus naturally (in which case, I will reduce my carbs for a while to jump-start my weight loss again). I believe 50g is doable for me, and I do count veggies as well. Good luck to you and I hope to hear more about your weight loss and fitness goals/achievements!

[kaplods]

I understand why many people, even the "experts" are critical of low-carb diets. For over 30 years, I was one of them. I didn't believe low-carb was healthy, and my only experience of them supported that notion (I get very sick on any low-carb diet that cuts carbs under 50g per day).

When my doctor recommended that I try low carb, but not "too low" (though admitting he had no idea what would be too low), I was skeptical, but started experimenting.

I didn't just document what I ate, I documented how I felt (emotionally and physically), and I learned that for me "healthy" is eating a lot fewer carbs than I ever would have imagined (I'm even thinking of cutting back a little further than I do).

I used exchange plans to compare one carb level to another (otherwise it could have been calories or something else causing the differences in plans - I chose a 1500-1800 calorie plan and then tweaked by swapping out high-carb exchanges for lower-carb exchanges, for example swapping bread exchanges for more protein exchanges).


After much experimenting, I settled on a plan much like the higher-protein exchange plan on frugalabundance.com website. I also have a higher carb "back-up plan" for days when I want to eat more carbs, or on days when eating low-carb is going to be difficult - say at a family gathering when I'm not in control of the food).

The back-up plan is for emergencies, because if I use it too often, my weight stalls, and I'm hungrier so am more prone to going off plan.

I'm still somewhat conflicted on the healthfulness of low-carb for everyone, but I can't deny that restricting carbs has been the only food-plan I've ever had this much success, for so long a time. Before experimenting with low-carb and paleo diets, my "record" loss was 70 lbs (with amphetemine-type diet meds) 60 lbs with meal-delivery plans. My record losing-trend was 18 months (on the diet pills) and about 8 months otherwise. My record for "not gaining" was about 4-5 years at near my highest weight in which I didn't diet.

"This time," I've lost 105 lbs, and it's been a losing trend for more than 5 years (eight years if you count "not gaining" in the trend).

I have to go with what works, and only restricting carbs has worked. If low-carb is unhealthy, it can't be as unhealthy as weight 394 lbs.

[mountain walker]

Hi JJ3 and welcome to the club! I asked a very similar question when I first joined and spotted some really significant weight losses. I think the main answer is to listen to your body. Someone posted on the UK forum that she had a week of eating rubbish and her body felt sluggish, out of sorts and desperate for healthy food and exercise. When you get to our weight the only voice we are used to hearing is the one that constantly says"eat" even when we aren't hungry. We just need to readjust our hearing in whatever way works for us.
Lo carb works for some I know or weight watchers, gluten free etc.
Personally I have 2 days a week of Slimfast as I find it workable.I don't cope with very low carbs but tend to have an evening meal that is either protein and veggies /salad or carbs with veggies/salad. I eat lots of fruit too and drink lots of water.
The key for me is exercise. As long as I can exercise I eat healthily. And I mean walking or swimming not marathon running!!!
Good luck!

[Elliemar]

That might have been me, MW - exactly how I felt last week though bizzarely I still lost weight so probably effort from the week before carrying forward

Welcome JJ3! Joining here is a fab step as you'll get untold encouragement, advice and info here. Different things work for different people and as others have already said, listen to your body and go with what works for you.

I don't do well with carbs at all. I followed Slimming World (not sure they have it in the US) and stuck to red days - high protein and low carb. I concentrate on trying to have mostly "good" carb - natural and not processed carb, with the exception of my breakfast of Weetabix. I've noticed that when I stray and have lots of carbs it's like a switch being flicked in my brain and I just want to keep eating. I never seem to get full. My weight losses also totally stall.

You've already made great progress, especially with the exercise. Think about how great it made you feel and get back to it. We all had temporary setbacks along the way, but as long as you don't quit, then temporary is all they are!

[jensjourney3]

Thank you for the info kaploids! And GREAT job on the weight-loss. I'm trying to figure a plan for myself that limits carbs and is a lower calorie... (myfitnesspal gives me 1850/day). I think that using low-carb for health reasons and not just a "fad diet" it can be healthy. And I certainly agree, it has to be healthier than 394! I too started at 391, and I will say that I will do what I have to do not to see that # again!

[jensjourney3]

Thank you MW and Elliemar for the welcome! I think you are both right, I have to find what works for me....tweak it a little and go from there. And I know EXERCISE is KEY! I think I have found a great place here for support...and from a family where I'm the only one with a weight problem, I need all the support I an get! Thanks again for the feedback!

[Pysanky]

Hey Jen - if you need an accountability partner - let me know. I am at 345 and NEED to lose this weight. I am checking into info on the nearby metabolic center, but haven't made an appointment yet.

HANG IN THERE!!!

[mysleepingdragon]

I think the most important thing for you to do is what feels right to you, whatever makes you feel vibrant and healthy. Don't blindly follow other's advice, no matter how qualified they are, since there will always be a contradiction between authorities. It's your body, go with what your body glows with.

[kaplods]

Originally Posted by jensjourney3

Thank you for the info kaploids! And GREAT job on the weight-loss. I'm trying to figure a plan for myself that limits carbs and is a lower calorie... (myfitnesspal gives me 1850/day). I think that using low-carb for health reasons and not just a "fad diet" it can be healthy. And I certainly agree, it has to be healthier than 394! I too started at 391, and I will say that I will do what I have to do not to see that # again!

Thanks so much. I really think that my success this time is not only due to being willing to try carb-restriction, but also my "paradigm shift" of thinking of weight loss in a new way. I see many of my former bad habits as behaviors we're "taught" to use (and then we're taught to blame ourselves for using them).

We're taught that one bite off plan means we've "blown it" and should binge until the next starting over point (tomorrow unless it's midweek, then the following Monday, or if it's past mid-October, then the New Year....)

We're also taught that while dieting, if we have a significant gain, the appropriate response is to keep gaining until we've decided we've reached the appropriate start over point.

To succeed there's a lot of "unlearning" that has to be done. We have to rebel against the diet traditions and rituals that don't work (but first we have to recognize them).

For me, the admonition to stay off the scale was one of the first that had to go. Whenever I ate off plan, I would immediately get on the scale - which was my new "start fresh" point (though I had to remember that there really is no starting fresh, there's just moving on).

But weighing immediately would show me the "worst case scenario" (because you can't gain more than the food weighs - so if you eat a 2 ounce candybar, you can't gain more than 2 ounces, so getting on the scale proves that the damage that candy bar has done isn't what causes weight gain, it's deciding that you've blown it and eating seven more.

I had to give up the weight loss dogma that getting on the scale was discouraging if I didn't see a huge loss. To make weighing more useful, I decided that my goal wasn't weight loss, it was "not gaining."

Making "not gaining" your primary goal also takes away the logic of the binge. If I haven't lost, and I've decided that only losing matters, I might be tempted to think that a gain isn't really that much worse than not losing - so it gives a logical reason to binge. However, if my primary goal is always not gaining (or not gaining any more than I already have) then there's never reason or reinforcement for bingeing.

Not gaining is my first and foremost goal, so that when I feel like "I can't lose another pound," I can tell myself "so what - every pound counts, and if you can't lose any more, you can at least keep off what you've lost so far.

The thing is, "not gaining" is at least as difficult as losing, so if I'm going to be at the business of not gaining, I might as well try to lose "just one more pound" while I'm at it.

The key really is celebrating the "not gaining" because it's the most important part of this journey. You can lose and gain the same 5, 10, or 100 lbs if you make losing more important than not gaining.

But if "not gaining" is your priority, you get to celebrate a lot more, AND you make better progress because there's no (or less) backsliding.

I really suspect that if we individually, and as a culture made "not gaining" the primary focus, even more important than losing, we'd have far less of an obesity problem, and a far better weight loss success rate.

Instead, we view weight gain as no worse (or at least not much worse) than failing to lose. So gaining 5 lbs is no worse than losing nothing - and when we see it that way, a binge becomes logical. Hey if gaining is no worse than not losing, then if I can't lose (or feel like I can't) then I might as well eat until I do gain (and I'll start fresh later).

I used to think "If I can't get slim, I should at least get to eat what I want."

I knew it was crazy logic, but I thought it was coming from inside me. Instead I started to realize that I didn't invent that logic, it was put there. I had learned it, it was one of dieting's unwritten rules that we all learn by watching how weight loss is done in our culture.

Success is about becoming a rebel. Learning to think and act differently than "most people" in our situation - refusing to play by the rules we've been taught (and may not even realize we've been taught).