Hi everyone! I posted this in another section, but someone mentioned that I may want to try posting it here. I hadn't even thought of that. I suppose that if you are all maintaining, then you have had to 'budge' those last pounds.

I have been living a much healthier lifestyle for two years now and last year I managed to lose a steady 1kg (2.2lbs) a week. I was SO happy. Well, towards the end of the year I went off the contraceptive needle and hormones kicked in pretty much straight away. For two months now I have actually GAINED weight for one week and have really struggled with losing the rest of the time.

I have heard that things become harder as you get closer to target, but I set my aim to be at a healthy weight by my 44th birthday, which is in early April. I only need to lose 16lbs to get into the healthy weight range for my height, the rest is 'breathing room'.

I would appreciate ANY suggestions you could give me.

Thanks,

Zelma

Zelma,

First off all congratulations on yopur big achievement. I think it is really good to stay on track for 2 years steady.

NOw for your question: you lost steadily, went of contraceptivers and now you striggle. The main point IMO is to keep on going !!! Now that you are much closer to your goal weight, your body does not burn as much calories as it did in the first place, so you might need to up the excercise, and down the food, eat cleaner etc.

You do not give much info on what your current lifestyle is, but I notice that a lot of the maintainers really look at their food very critically, eat clean (so use the calories for healthy foods ) and do a lot of excercise.

Also, the weight loss that you have mentioned is high. For myself, at close to my weigh target, having a 0.3 kg loss per week would have been quite good. That is much lower than what you have, so that effect kicks in as well.

I hope this helps,
rabbit

Thanks rabbit. I have looked at my eating lately and am trying to alter a few things. I had upped my exercise, but my dietician friend said I was doing too much, so I have gone back to 40mins on treadmill in morning and 30mins on exercise bike in afternoon/evening. I also do a few reps on a step and am trying to fit in some arm exercises to reduce a little flab.

I eat mostly fruit and veg, with a little extra carb and protein at lunch and dinner. I snack 2 or 3 times a day, mostly on fruit and yoghurt or low-fat icecream. For breakfast I rotate between whole grain cereal and skim milk, or fruit and nuts with yoghurt.

I am on summer break at the moment, but haven't changed my routine because of this. Because it is a lifestyle change, I know I can't just drop everything for holidays.

I went and had a full blood check today to rule out anything medical hopefully.

I had kind of figured what you had said about things slowing down and I may have to just learn some patience. I know that it won't happen overnight, but it WILL happen.

Thanks again for your reply.

Hi Zelma,

When I read your routine above, I seem to miss 2 things that are present in a lot of posts of other persons, and both have to do with building muscle. Building muscle IMO is a good thing because it improves the looks a lot and muscle burns a lot more calories than fat. Apart from that I find it is easier in everyday things (hauling shopping or small children) if you have more muscles. So what I am missing in your routine is resistance excercises (weightlifting or the like) and eating a lot of proteine ( to build muscles).

It looks like you are watching the calories and doing a lot of cardio, but maybe it is a good idea to throw in some resistance training and more protein to build those muscles. There is a lot of info about this on the ladies who lift forum, which is directly above this maintainers forum.

rabbit

Zelma and WOW a big congrats on your weightloss that is not small feat!!

The first thing that jumped out at me from your exercise routine is that you do not regularly weight train .... Most maintainers weight train, many of then weight train a LOT... The more muscle you have the faster your metabolic rate is and the faster your metabolism is the more you burn calories even when you are at rest.

I agree with the other posters about the weight training. What I wanted to mention, however, is that sometimes when you start working out with weights, you'll notice a slight gain, or no loss, because your muscles will retain water. Don't worry, though, because you'll start losing again plus your clothes will start fitting better as you build muscle. I once stayed the same weight for over a month, but everyone kept asking if I'd lost weight. It was because I had started a rigorous weight lifting program and I was building muscle and reshaping everything.

Thank you everyone. I think you may have hit the nail on the head. I don't do a lot of resistance exercises. I tried at one time, a couple of months ago, and I noticed what Sheila mentioned, that I actually gained weight. So I got all paranoid and stopped. I think I'll just have to bite the bullet and keep with it until I notice a difference again.

Rabbit, you are also correct in that I don't think I have enough protein in my diet. I'm trying to add more red meat, but it is something I'm not used to, so that may take time to build up. I will also look into other good sources of protein.

I will go and check out ladies who lift for some ideas on exercises I can do.

Thank you all again.

Hi Zelma,

A note on the protein...most of the ladies who lift do not consume that in the form of red meat, but they use a lot of alternative sources:
- chicken breast
- cottage cheese
- protein powder

I myself use soy grits (they are nice & crunchy) and soy protein powder. Also there are a number of recipes on protein muffins, protein bars and the like on the ladies who lift forum. This is a sub section of the excercise forum here at 3FC.

rabbit

Hi Zelma

In addition to everything that everyone else has mentioned, I have another thought: with this last 25 pounds, you have a wonderful opportunity to begin transforming your mindset from "losing" to "maintaining." It's not that you will stop losing, but that you can begin to put into place the practices that you will follow for the rest of your life. I think what we have all found is that our lives don't change significantly once we go from one phase to another. We keep eating clean. We keep exercising. We keep using the tools that helped us lose (e.g., journaling, logging food, following a routine, etc.--everyone is different). And we learn that maintenance is an up-and-down kind of thing. A big part of maintenance is learning to roll with the punches. You've accomplished so much!!! I'm sure you can make maintenance work, as well.

Another lean protein to add to the list: egg whites ... They are a stapple in my diet, so is chicken and protein powder...