Definitely cut out the Lean Cuisines. What happens with the sodium is basically your body is working really hard to maintain a balance of sodium and water. If you eat a lot of sodium the cells of your body absorb all that salt and, as a result, must absorb a lot of water to maintain the balance so you swell up.
If you drink a lot of water now there is a lot of water in your bloodstream (outside of your cells). To achieve balance the sodium filters out of your cells and into your bloodstream and, as a result, can release a bunch of the water it was holding onto in the first place. And then your kidneys filter through everything and you pee it all out.
That's kind of sciencey, but does that make sense?
I find that the act of cooking food (provided I don't taste test too much!) and the anticipation of a good, healthy meal, means that the food fills me up so much more than ready meals. I'm aiming around 1500 cals and I'm struggling to eat everything on my plate, because I'm filling it up with lean protein and veggies. It only takes a few minutes more to make a delicious stirfry, than it does to nuke a frozen meal and the sense of pride I feel when I put a plate of yummy food on the table helps me counteract any bad feelings I have about my weight.
^That's my experience, too. When I first started I just tried to fit meals, froen or otherwise, into my budget. Now I make my own food so as to control every ingredient and make every calorie and bite count. Cooking keeps me from just eating the first and often worst thing I see, and it also makes me feel fuller automatically, having put the time into it. It's weird, but it works!
I ate a LOT of lean cuisines. I still eat the pizza ones from time to time. I liked them because they taught me about correct portion sizes. Now I can pretty much eyeball anything and know what the correct size should be. Are they the best nutrition, probably not. If that's what ends up working for you, great. No matter what you do, it has to be sustainable.
I'd give it at least a week or two before you start seeing results. You're probably still losing water weight from all the food you ate before starting.
The first few weeks are the hardest. It did get better for me though and I was much less hungry as time went on. Just don't give up and I swear it will get better!
It bears noting that sodium can't make you retain enough water to mask weight loss indefinitely. Let's say you weigh 200 pounds. If you eat a lot of sodium you'll retain more water and may go up to, say, 203 pounds. But you won't keep going up and up -- there's a ceiling. So if you lose 10 pounds of fat, the scale may show 190 pounds if you don't have much sodium in your system and 193 pounds if you do.
For me, the Lean Cuisine meals wouldn't be satisfying because they're tiny (low volume) and taste a bit artificial. I find it a lot more satisfying to eat a large bowl of tuna salad with mayonnaise and lots of veggies, large tortilla pizza, very large Asian soup bowl (all homemade), etc.
In your shoes I would be concentrating on finding the foods that are the most personally satisfying, rather than putting all the focus on convenience.
F.
Thank you for pointing this out.
The issue of sodium in food masking weight loss is not so much of a huge concern so long as you you are eating less food than you are burning.
Even if your water retention has gone up, your body composition will have to be changing as your body has to find a way to fuel its energy needs.
I think people get way to hung up on sodium!
It's calories in vs calories out at the end of the day and that is the only thing which is going to change fat stores!
I've lost weight eating lean cuisines ... and if sodium is an issue you can choose ones that have slightly less and depending on what else you eat during the day you can stay within the RDA's for sodium...
I eat in the 1200 to 1500 calorie range when I'm trying to lose... So I try and keep the sodium content of my meals in the 400 to 500 mg range and that keeps me in the ballpark for the day for salt...
That being said... I did get bored pretty quickly and I knew that it wasn't a long term solution for me... But definitely helpful in the short term for me to get a grip on staying on track to stay within my daily calorie target...
Replace some of those lean cuisines with lean turkey breast, chicken breast, lean pork etc and fill up on green leafy veggies, cucumber, tomatoes, etc etc. I've tried to eliminate processed carbs and I find that I'm pretty full throughout the day on 1300-1600 calories! Just give it time. even if you don't see results yet in the mirror, I GUARANTEE if you stick with it for a couple of weeks you won't be disappointed. what's the worst that could happen? you try a couple of weeks and don't get the results you want? it's just a couple weeks but I promise that won't happen, just stick with it & have faith. weight loss is a long journey! I believe in you!!!
Last edited by AilsaPearl; 11-12-2012 at 10:23 PM.
I know it's old-school, but drink a large (20 oz) glass of water before your meal.
You are doing great for your first week. It's totally overwhelming to go from not paying attention to calories/nutrition to suddenly logging calories in excruciating detail. The Lean Cuisines are fine for now. When you have time, one meal at a time, work on "real" food replacements for the packaged meals.
If you are hungry, truly hungry, and you are at your max calories - eat vegetables (dark green, preferably, but anything as long as it's not starchy). If that isn't appealing, then you aren't truly hungry. I drank a lot of tea and chewed a lot of gum at the beginning.
Interesting info on the Lean Cuisines. I've actually been alternating between salads and Lean Cuisine-type meals for lunches at work. I add about 1.5 cups of frozen veggies to them which helps to make them filling. There is always plenty of sauce to cover the veggies in the meal. With the frozen meal/frozen veggie strategy, my lunches usually come out around 400 calories, which is conveniently keeping me within my calorie limit. I'm definitely losing, but the sodium might help explain why I seem to be retaining water sometimes. Looks like I've got some research to do. Thanks for the alternative ideas everyone!
I know it's frustrating to not see immediate results for your hard work, but if you are accurate in your calorie count, you WILL lose weight. It may not be immediate, but you will eventually lose weight!
You also start learning about what foods will satiate you and what foods won't. Lean Cusines are great for learning about portion control, but they won't fill you up all that much. In your other thread I mentioned grilling up chicken—lean protein is great for making something filling without making it high in calories if it's prepared correctly.
One of the things you quickly learn while calorie counting is how healthier foods are generally lower in calories and will fill you up. While you could eat a brownie and still lose weight if it's within your calories, you could probably eat a good salad for the same amount of calories and stay full for quite a while.
For example, let's take two dishes from one of my favorite restaurants (Cheesecake Factory). They always come out on the same plate:
Fettucini Alfredo: 1832 calories!!
Tuscan Chicken: 590 calories!
Look, it's the same relative amount of food, but the Tuscan chicken will leave you full for a while, while the Fettucini will probably leave you wanting more sooner...but you'll have blown a day's worth of calories. All the Tuscan chicken really is is just lean protein and veggies put together to make something yummy.
It's just something to keep in mind. Calorie counting is like a game, you have to find the foods that can fill you up but not make you go over your calorie budget
Also, just know that weight loss isn't linear. You can do everything "right" and still not see a loss, or even a gain. If you stick to plan though it WILL come off!
I like to show off this chart of mine, because I think it says more about weight loss than any explanation ever can. I weighed daily from May 2011 to December 2011:
As you can see my weight was all over the place! However, it went down in the end
Wow, the info and visuals of those Cheesecake Factory dishes were really illuminating. A good reminder to all of us about the benefits of using calories wisely.
Sontaike--thanks for sharing the pictures and your weight loss graph. I've been counting calories and generally losing weight, but your insight into weight loss not being linear or predictable was so helpful. Even though I've been on plan this week, my scale won't budge down this week like I want it to. I'll be more patient. Thanks!
Check out the full plate diet or hungry-girl for lots of ideas on bulking up food with mostly fiber so that you don't get so hungry. I eat more than 50g of fiber a day now, and find it pretty easy to stick around 1600-1800 calories a day even tho a month ago I was probably eating double that on average.
