thanks again for everyone's advice. it's been almost a week since i increased my intake by about 150 calories and i'm up two pounds already. i know i should give it at least two weeks, but any move in the wrong direction is pretty heart breaking to me at this point. every inclination in me wants to drop calories immediately, but i know i should stick it out at least another week...i just hope my brain can win out over my heart.
on a side note, lorilove mentioned i should get a hrm to see how many calories i'm actually burning. i've been contemplating getting one, but i don't know how they exactly work. Does it give you an actual read out of what you burned or do you have to calculate it based on your hr? i also have a ridiculously low resting hr (45)...would the results be skewed because of that?
I read in a couple different books that you should vary your calories day to day so that your body doesnt adapt. Example one day 1200cal, then
1500cal, then 1200cal then 1800cal etc... Hope this helps.
I read in a couple different books that you should vary your calories day to day so that your body doesnt adapt. Example one day 1200cal, then
1500cal, then 1200cal then 1800cal etc... Hope this helps.
stuck
I have read this also but don't know if it really works. Hopefully it does and I'll be able to see some results because I am fairly inconsistent in my daily calorie intake, some days I'm around 900, most I'm around 1200-1400.
What you're talking bout there is called calorie cycling. BUT. It's not done the way you describe it necessarily. You take your weekly total of calories and divide it up over the course of the week. So if your goal is 1500 cals a day, then that would be 10,500 cals a week.
So you might eat 1300 cals one day, then 1700 cals the next, then 1500 cals the next, then back down to 1300 cals, and so on. But at the end of hte week you've STILL only eaten the 10,500 cals - for an average of 1500 a day.
YOu have to plan it out ahead of time and if you're going to calorie cycle, you have to be VERY careful not to get into the mindset of "it's ok if I eat a few more cals today because it's a low day anyway, and I'll make up for it tomorrow" ... that's what makes calorie cycling not work for me.
300 calories?!?! oh my goodness! that seems like a lot. i guess that makes we wonder, how do you know whether you need to cut calories to start losing weight or increase them? i would never even imagine that adding that many calories to my diet would help me start losing weight...my first instinct would be to cut them. how do you know which is the correct solution? i've varied my calorie intake between 1000-1500 calories over the last seven months and nothing has worked. i don't know whether the right answer is to drastically cut them or drastically increase them.
right now, i've increased my intake to 1600 calories and i've gained two pounds. how do i know that i'm going in the right direction?
Height: Tall enough for my feet to reach the ground
Are you getting in enough water? Protein? Have you had your thyroid checked? I was (at one point) gaining 5lbs per month on 1300 calories per day because my thyroid was messed up. My dr didnt believe me at first then he tested me and viola'!!!!
For what period of time have you been gaining weight? I'm wondering if you should just stick with what you were doing and see if things change.
IMO the "starvation mode" idea is over-emphasized. You should absolutely eat a reasonable minimum number of calories each day, of course. Especially because you are working out quite a bit.
But think about it - people with anorexia, people on liquid diets, people who had bariatric surgery - these are all people who consume very little calories and lose plenty of weight.
I'm not suggesting these kinds of extreme measures at all. My point is that eating more may not be the answer, maybe it's just that your body is being weird, and you might want to wait out the weirdness for a few weeks before making changes.
Just my two cents!!!
Also - ditto on the thyroid check - I have that issue myself as well.
Last edited by ShrinkingShrink; 07-24-2008 at 02:14 PM.
It sounds like you might be at a pretty decent weight for your height and with the amount of exercise you are getting maybe you are just at the optimal weight for your height and build? Do you have a body fat scale? Maybe you are just aren't losing weight but gaining muscle? From past experience I've had doctors tell me to stop losing weight at 160 because seriously they could count my ribs.
I've been gaining weight for at least the last year and half, if not longer. For the last seven months, my weight has been relatively stable, but in the last two weeks, I've jumped up at least 5 pounds and the scale is still climbing. Throughout the entire weight gain (35 pounds and counting) it's never been steady. My weight will be stable for a couple of months and then, inexplicable, I'll gain like 5 pounds over a few days and it sticks. No matter what I do, no matter how much I exercise or how little I eat, it won't budge. I'll stay at that weight for another month or two, and then again, inexplicable, it will just jump up another 5 pounds. I know that in order to gain 5 pounds over a week, I'll have to consume an extra 17,500, which know I've never done, but yet the weight still sticks.
I starting off by eating 1000-1200 calories and exercising close to 2 hours a day (cardio and weights) 5 days a week. At that point, it was pretty clear I wasn't getting enough calories, but I was still gaining weight. I slowly started to decrease the exercise and increase the calories, but I still gained weight. Right now, I'm eating roughly 1600 calories and working out about 1 & 1/2 hours, 5 days a week. I had my metabolism tested and know that my RMR is 1400. With an RMR of 1400 and a calorie intake of 1600, even without exercise I shouldn't be gaining weight!!
I've been to all the doctors (6 of them) and had all the tests run and nothing is wrong with me. They've all just looked at me, shrugged their shoulders and said give it time. It's been almost two years...how much more time needs to pass and how much more weight do I need to gain before any of them realize that there might be something wrong with me?!?
I'm sorry for the partial vent, but I've literally been crying my eyes out every morning because it seems that the harder I try, the more I fail. I literally think I'm starting to fall into a depression because of this and it's absolutely starting to destroy my life.
Thanks for listening...
Are you sure there's nothing going on with your thyroid? It might be worth getting tested again. There's some disagreement about exactly what TSH number indicates an underactive thyroid, and I know there are some doctors who see a number that's in that zone and say it's fine. (It used to be that a TSH level of .5 - 5 was considered normal. That range has been narrowed down to .3 - 3.) It certainly seems possible that you could have a mild thyroid issue that hasn't been diagnosed, and that's what's going on.
That sounds really frustrating. I'd want to vent also.
Oh hun, you must be so frustrated! I can't imagine! Obviously you've explored many options and have no real answers.
The only thing I can think of that hasn't been addressed (I don't think) is whether you are accurately counting your calories. I.e., measuring, weighing, etc. But chances are, you've already thought of that.
Perhaps you could go back to some of those doctors and let them know...?
I read where certain medications can cause people to get up in the middle of the night and eat--and they have no memory of it the next morning.
No kidding! I know someone who does this--her housemate has observed her.
Not saying that this is what's happening to you--but maybe you ought to tape shut some of the food containers overnight or otherwise arrange them so you'll know...
Otherwise, I'd say keep your calories steady at 1350 per day for a week and watch what happens. Don't panic.
Jay
Edited to add: If most of your calories are carbs, you could put on weight even if the level of cals seems low...
i know i should give it at least two weeks, but any move in the wrong direction is pretty heart breaking to me at this point. every inclination in me wants to drop calories immediately, but i know i should stick it out at least another week...i just hope my brain can win out over my heart.
300 calories?!?! oh my goodness! that seems like a lot. i guess that makes we wonder, how do you know whether you need to cut calories to start losing weight or increase them? i would never even imagine that adding that many calories to my diet would help me start losing weight...my first instinct would be to cut them. how do you know which is the correct solution? i've varied my calorie intake between 1000-1500 calories over the last seven months and nothing has worked. i don't know whether the right answer is to drastically cut them or drastically increase them. 
i have no idea what i'm doing wrong!!
