Hello All-

I posted my intro in the 100 lbs support forum, but I was just wondering if there were others out there who are confused as to why they are so overweight.

Here's the thing. While I will admit I'm not the healthiest eater and I don't workout everyday...sometimes I still feel like well, ok, while my lifestyle is not the makings of a thin model, I don't think its the makings of morbidly obese person either (I'm 250 lbs). I know, I know everyone is different and we have to find what works for us. I guess its frustrating sometimes....I was reading the "Confessions" posting and thinking to myself, gosh, I haven't had a doughnut since I was 14, a big mac since in ten years...I don't even remember what I a milkshake tastes like....last night I had a baked chicken breast with green beans (no butter) and "indulged" in half of a baked potato which I feel guilty about....

Ok well that was my rant, I guess I was hoping to hear from others coming from similiar situations....

Peace, Love and Happiness

Liz

You'll find great advice and support here.

Why don't you try posting a whole day's food, and any weekly patterns (dessert, alcohol, restaurants, snacks)?

Elizabeth,

I had times where I was confused about that also. I didn't overeat or indulge in "bad"foods very often...but when I did...Whew...!!! And then there were the little things...

Like starting the day at starbucks make that a venti with whipped cream and a piece of that pound cake, You will need a glass of apple juice to wash all that down. Go out for a big chef's salad for lunch dripping with salad dressing and a couple pieces of bread oh yea, and don't forget the coke with 4 refills. Maybe you need a snack of some nuts and an apple to get through the afternoon and some more coke. Then for dinner some soup and a plate of fettuccini...add a little extra cheese on top and add in a few pieces of that yummy bread and butter that they bring to the table, some more salad dripping in dressing and a couple glasses of wine. Maybe stop for an Ice cream treat on the way home since you ate salad twice today. Then there is the chips and dip for a snack while watching TV with some more coke. That may not be your exact diet...but it will get you to 250 without being a compulsive binger.

It is usually enlightning to write down everything you eat and be brutally honest about it. You can do that on one of the calorie tracking websites like Fitday. You might be suprised how many calories you are eating.

Then there are health reasons. If after an honest look at your diet and excersise habits, you are still confused...go see your doctor. He can run tests on your thyroid or determine other reasons that you may be gaining weight.

Good luck,

DJ

I know why I'm big, but I never figured out why my mom was big. She was a lot like you. She recently got diagnosed with diabetes and started eating *healthy* instead of just not eating bad stuff. She also started exercising more. That might be what you should look into. Instead of just thinking you don't eat that bad, try to eat healthy - veggies, lean meat, whole wheat, etc. and exercising.

Yeah, it's hard to give advice or opinons when we don't know what you eat.

It's easy to say "here's what I ate for one very healthy meal - why aren't I thin?" but when you keep track of everythign you eat in a day ... that's another ball game.

I was never a big binger - I didn't go hide in my room and eat food in private. But I made bad food choices constantly. A venti latte every morning. A pumpkin muffin (surely that's healthy, right?). Frozen yogurt (healthier than ice cream). I loved grilled and baked food, but I didn't realize that 10 oz of chicken breast is 2.5 servings. Sunflower seeds for a snack (sure they're healthy - and high calorie). And so on and so on. It's just little things that add up and add up and add up over time.

Also keep in mind that here in America, we have a VERY skewed idea of what a portion size is. Too many "super size" and Cheesecake Factory style restaurant servings have really messed with our perceptions of a "portion".

So while you may feel you're eating healthy foods in healthy proportions, you might be eating more than you think unless you weigh and measure your foods.

Maybe if you give us an accounting of what you eat on an average day, we can help?

.

LOL - oh, yes - I know exactly how you feel. In my routine, I always ate healthy foods. I have been a vegetarian for 26 years. I always had FF, SF stuff - never had chips, dessert, ice cream, sweets of any kind around - and literally went years without buying them. I also skipped breakfast and often lunch - which meant - I only ate once a day - how on earth could I be fat?

But, I was. So, I needed to take a hard look at what habits caused my situation. An honest look at my lifestyle revealed:
1. I ate too much of healthy foods
2. I didn't eat nearly enough vegetables
3. My lack of eating breakfast and lunch was not healthy - I needed to eat 6 times a day - and really watch my portions
4. I ate a lot more "free food" at work than I realized
5. I needed to bump up the exercise - a lot
6. I needed to eat more fat - more protein and a lot fewer carbs
7. I needed to drink lots more water and lots less diet pop
8. I needed to eat fewer refined (white) foods and lots more fiber

Once I changed my lifestyle, the fat disappeared. It took me a year to make all of the changes to the point where they are now my WOE. I had to learn calorie counting to make sure that I didn't "cheat" since my satiety switch seems to be missing.

I encourage you to use Fitday or thedailyplate and a food scale. I think you will probably find that your lifestyle is in need of a tweak or two as well.

The great news is - this place is awesome for support and help along the way. Reading everyone's posts gave me so much encouragement and ideas of things I could do to help make those small changes.

Glad you found us!

Its amazing how much so many of our stories sound alike. I didnt eat poorly (I didnt think). But my story almost mirrors Photo's. Sometimes its not what we eat that hurts us, its what we dont eat. We skip meals thinking that skipping a meal wont kill us, and when we do eat we dont eat the right things like whole grains and we dont watch our portion sizes. I am just now remembering what a proper portion of meat is again, and its taking some getting use to. So take a look at your daily eating and exercising habits and reflect on those and let us know and i'm sure you'll get plenty of great advise. Stick around, you can do this.

Thank you all for your advice and support. I definitely agree with alot of what you guys said. To answer some of your questions. I use the everydayhealth.com site to log my foods. The biggest thing missing from my diet is fruit and I could probably do with some more veggies, though that I don't mind because I actually crave greens and love veggies, fruit I can do without but try to manage some. Well as far as a typical day...today I had:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup organic oatmeal (plain) mix with water and 1/4 cup skim milk
Coffee w/ 1tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp non-dairy cremer (the powdered stuff)

Snack: Coffee w/ 1tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp non-dairy cremer (the powdered stuff)

Lunch: Subway six inch veggie patty sub on wheat- all the veggie toppings, mustard, hot sauce, black pepper and salt - no mayo, no oil, no vinegar

Dinner: Grilled snapper (let's see, a portion size is about the size of a palm so I had about a portion and a half), steams carrots and green beans (pinch of salt), brown rice (1/2 cup) with tsp olive oil and some herbs

Snack: Yoplait Yogurt (strawberry)

Yeah, thats me today. I didn't have enough water, only four cups maybe. I don't drink juice or full calorie soda, though I know regular and diet sodas are equally bad, I may have a diet cola a few times a week. I do drink quite a bit of coffee, two cups a day. And sometimes a glass of red wine with dinner, I'd say 3-4 times a week.

I did go to the doc last year who tested my thyroid. She said my thyroid is bordeline. I dunno, I don't know much about it but what I've heard abouth the hormones you may have to take and that its a trial and error process (u don't know how much of the hormone you should be taking) and the side effects it just didn't seem worth it especially if I am a "bordeline" case.

Anyho, I hope I've given you guys a better picture. Thanks again for all of your responses and advice, I really appreciate that complete strangers would take the time to help a gal out. !

Best wishes and good luck to you all!!!

P.S. DJay....I probably would weight 500 lbs if I ate all of that in a day!

Low thyroid definitely does lower metabolism. My mom was a borderline case, and medication has been very helpful (but not a cure) to her in her weight loss. But if you're not wanting to treat it with meds - you're pretty much stuck with whatever metabolism you've got.

Which I think is true for almost everyone. The whys don't really matter very much because you can't change them, you've got the metabolism you've got - and you can increase it somewhat with exercise, but you've got to deal with what you've got to deal with whether it's "normal" or not. Worrying about or feeling sad that you might have a lower metabolism than "everybody else," just is a major bummer. Maybe you are typical and don't realize it, or maybe you really do have a snail slow metabolism - either way it's what you've got to work with.

I've been morbidly obese since grade school - and why I was fat wasn't a mystery. I ate WAY too much, but the why I was so hungry all the time, that was a mystery. I had some success with dieting by sheer determination (though it took every single ounce of energy to lose weight). And eventually, I've learned that why (carbs trigger cravings).

I have insulin resistance and my thyroid is very low normal, (just barely above the point most doctors will consider medication). I'm also on disability and not nearly as active as I was in my twenties, but it still shocks me that I have to cut my calories so drastically compared to what I "used to" have to do in order to lose weight. In my twenties, I would bet the weight would have fallen off rapidly at the calorie levels I'm eating now.

If I think too much about what I "used to be able to eat," or what someone else seems to be able to eat without gaining, I can easily get into the "it's not fair" mentality which is the first step towards defeat. In essense it doesn't matter, because I can only deal with my situation, not any one else's.

Elizabeth, I didn't put your meal into Fitday, but that doesn't look like nearly enough calories for your weight. Even if the oatmeal is 1/2 cup dry (not cooked), it still isn't much food.

Since you are keeping a food journal, how many calories do you average?

240+40+15+20 = 325 cals

10+15+20 = 45 cals (coffee isn't a snack, it's a drink! )

About 260 cals

275+60+100+60 = 495 calories.

120 cals

Total: 1245 calories
(estimated, since we don't know exact portion size)

At your weight, 1245 calories probably isn't enough. Your body is probably freaking out a little and hoarding stores since you've cut calories so drastically. A lot of people call it "starvation mode" - I think "survival mode" is more apt, since you're not really starving, but your body is fighting to survive and gain nutrients from somewhere.

I suspect you could go up to around 1700 or 1800 calories easily and still drop weight pretty quickly. In fact looking at a basic calorie calculator, I come up with maintenance calories of 2180 per day , assuming you do no exercise at all. Drop about 500 calories from that will average a pound a week loss, and you could still eat 1680 calories a day. (And keep in mind that all the calculators are estimates and you might need to tweak up or down a bit depending on how much working out you do, and what your particular body type is.)

.

If you didn't have the thyroid issue, I would agree that 1200 calories is probably too little for you. But with the thyroid issue (even borderline), I think it's really hard to say what your metabolism can handle and what it cannot. Low thyroid can really slash metabolism to surprisingly low levels. I think you should discuss your calorie requirements with your doctor, and ideally a dietitian, and maybe even an endocrinologist.

Hm. I missed the thyroid issue ... however, I still think that 1200 is too low, especially if it's just not working for you. I do agree that talking to a nutritionist might be a good idea.

Another couple of thoughts. I'm assuming that your measurements are spot on - but mis-measuring portion sizes can add a ton to your calorie count. It's amazing how much having an extra portion here and an extra portion there can make a difference.

Also the glass of wine 3-4 times a week - are you having a serving of wine? In other words, 4 oz? That's 100 calories, give or take, depending on the wine. Or are you having a GLASS of wine (my wine glasses hold a lot more than 4 oz and I .. um .. like a full glass. ). You could easily be consuming 600 or 800 calories a week extra in wine, if you're not careful.

My problem really was portion control and I had NO IDEA what a real portion was until I started measuring everything. I thought I could eyeball 1/2 cup ... and when I started measuring it out I was shocked. Same for pouring out 4 oz of wine.

Just ... further pondering.

.

Hey-

Sorry I haven't responded sooner, but I've had a realy busy week. I'm still amazed that you guys who have responded have taken time out of your day to respond and offer advice. Its really cool :-)

Kaplods...thank you for sharing your experience and your mother's story. Its nice to know that someone understands that sometimes a person has health issues affecting their weight and its not because they sit on the sofa everyone with a tub of ice-cream. :-)

Photochick....about three years ago I tried WW and so was always measuring things, I got pretty good at it (i.e. using the individual packets for my oatmeal and drinking wine from the small glasses, not the chic large ones). I did see a nutritionist once who actually got mad at me because she put me on a 1600 calorie diet and had me keep a journal. After a few weeks when I didn't lose any weight she said I HAD to be cheating and nothing I could say would convince her otherwise....I got so upset that she could be so insensitive, I said why doesn't she come live with me and follow me around with a camera!!!!

I guess I will need to experiment for a few weeks and see what calorie approach works best. Right now I think it ranges from as low as 1000 some days and as high as 1600 on other days..so I think based on the feedback, I should try the highest range first, maybe 1700-1800 for two weeks and see what happens from there to determine if I should go lower or higher, what do you guys think?

BTW, I've basically been heavy since birth, from 15-19 I had an eating disorder (typical, I know) during which I excercised 4-6 hrs/day and ate close to nothing, maybe thats why I have so much trouble now, started gaining the weight back after college....

Ok guys well, thanks again. I'm going to prolly start posting regularly in the 100+ forum since thats how much weight I gotta lose.

Thanks again for your help!!!!

Liz

I do strongly believe that restricting calories (dieting) especially crash dieting, lowers metabolism (perhaps permanently) by a variety of mechanisms. I also believe that when you restrict calories severely, especially if doing so is preventing you from eating a balanced diet, you face other challenges that make weight loss more difficult (whether it decreases your metabolism directly, or indirectly by making you more susceptible to fatigue, stress, sleep disorders...)

I also can completely relate to being completely, brutally honest about what you've been eating - and being accused of "lying" about it because the weight isn't coming off as fast as someone else believes it should. I've always been very conscious, aware, and candid about what I was eating - and during most of my life there was no surprises as to why I was having difficulty losing. I had a hard time controlling how much I ate, and the results were a surprise to no one. Now why I couldn't control my hunger was a much deeper question, and I didn't get a lot of answers from medical professionals. Even when I started to suspect them (like my hormonal connection) and asked doctors about ways to address them like controling PMS cravings with changes to my birth control, it was only recently that I found a doctor willing to let me try it (with remarkable success, boy I wish I'd been more stubborn when I first started asking about it in my 20's).

If you raise your calories, assuming you're monitoring your calories carefully and find that you have more energy and interest in physical activity, feel generally better, and start losing weight - I think you can chalk your problem up to "survival mode." However, if the problem persists or you gain weight, then your thyroid issues are probably the primary culprit.

Another possible issue might be carbohydrates. Some people (with or without thyroid issues) find that they lose weight better when they eliminate or limit carbohydrates or certain carbohydrates (whether that be sugar, corn, all refined carbs, some or all grains, or carbs in general). If you do consider restricting carbohydrates, I would you suggest you try the least restriction first and only restrict more if you need to. So maybe just starting with sugar or refined or processed carbs. I've had to go further, but I still would always recommend the least restrictive food plan that works (not only for nutritional and practical reasons, but for psychological reasons as well - no need to box yourself into a corner unless you have to. Options are important).

One other suggestion that may be coincidental, but I've had an amazing recent surprising experience with it, so I think it worth sharing for what it's worth (which may not be much, as even I can't say for sure yet):

I love wakame, a japanese seaweed salad, and discovered a few months ago that our local health food store/deli has a really good one on their salad bar, so I was stopping in and buying it rather frequently. The clerk told us that they also sold it frozen (ready to eat after thawing), and said it was good for stimulating the thyroid (I'd never heard that, so of course when I got home I googled it).

I kind of expected there not to be alot of hard evidence to support the claim, but instead found that foods high in iodine (especially some fish and sea vegetables like sea weeds) can most assuredly improve thyroid function (in fact, too much iodine in the diet can cause an overactive thyroid). From what I've read, you'd really have to eat a lot of seaweed (or have hyperthyroid to begin with) to have a problem, but it's important to know it can happen. The cases I read about, in which it was most likely to happen, the person was eating what almost anyone would consider an excessive amount (as much as I love seaweed, I don't see myself eating it every single day or in huge portions).

But anyway, I decided it wouldn't hurt to try eating higher iodine foods more often, so I've been eating wakame a couple times a week for a few weeks, and while I feel like my energy-level and metabolism may have improved, those are rather subjective and could be just my imagination or placebo effect. However, one thing that can't be explained by placebo affect, is that my normal body temperature seems to be increasing. For years and years, I've had a low body average temperature - usually significantly under 97.6. For my temp to be over 98, I have to be pretty sick. (Low body temp is one of the common symptoms of low thyroid). Now this may all be coincidence, but it's so much like what I've heard the iodine would do, that I'm hopeful, and think it worth mentioning.

I am NOT advocating supplements, especially without discussing with your doctor and having his support, but I think eating more of a natural food is relatively harmless to try (assuming the food is something you like and you don't decide to gorge yourself on as much as you can eat daily).