I am 5'9 and 227 today. I would be happy weighing 150 again, where I weighed a few years ago (but I really want to weigh about 130 or so to look better). Here is my diet plan and the reasoning behind it.

My problem is that it has been 23 days of this...I have not lost a lot of weight. I dropped to 227 after the first week and have not seen any results since. I have started going on walks to increase my activity level, rising from a sedentary life more or less (I was concerned about my knees and tendons / ligaments, so I'm trying to start slow with the exercise).

Starting status:

I weighed myself at the beginning of this month and the number was 234. That's more than I've ever weighed in my entire life. I knew I ate too much sugar, but I drank lots of water and didn't think that my habits were accumulating to such an extent. I didn't sleep well, often ate late at night to compensate for this, and I ate sugar a lot. I have been very depressed for a long time (several years) as well...so emotional eating has been a factor. Also, meals / snacks were my break from working on things and when I really wanted a break or dreaded getting back to work, I would eat more.

Reasoning:

When I saw the number 234 lbs on the scale, I wanted to make the weight gain stop. I'm very embarrassed of my weight and the way I look now; it makes me feel awful and unattractive and depressed. I feel like people see me and see "an ugly fat girl". Last year I weighed 214-215 at about this time, which was still very overweight, so I started exercising a lot. I would go on long walks (and eventually jogs) several times a week most weeks, and I started drinking a lot of water. I ended up gaining weight after doing this for ~6 months and after injuring my foot (tendon or ligament related, had me limping for weeks, it was painful) I stopped exercising and gave up. I think the reason I gained weight was not because of exercising, but because of my eating habits being so bad (not that I would eat a cake a day, but I think I ate too much, too many calories and sugar). I felt it was hopeless after gaining weight while exercising a lot. I thought I could never lose weight.


What I'm doing now (stuck to it pretty well):

1. No heavy-sugar foods if I can help it. It's my biggest weakness. If I can't help it and I really crave the sugar, I can have something very small (one tsp chocolate chips for 70 calories or some hot chocolate for 120 calories).

2. I'm limited to 1500-1600ish calories each day. I have to keep a food record, and I do this on an excel spreadsheet on my computer desktop. If I don't know calories in something, I look it up...and I never eat anything unless it's a measurable amount in proportion with a serving (it stops the "well I ate one chip...that's hard to estimate" problem). This has made me more aware of how many calories are actually in foods and how to plan for the rest of the day.

3. I have to think about what I'm going to eat before I actually eat it. This helps me to be able to plan.

4. If I have to eat late at night (3-4 am) I count it for the next day instead of giving up on that day. If I don't give up, it encourages me to keep going. I try to limit this, but sometimes I have to say up very late to work on something and I get very hungry. I never binge though.

5. I keep track of my weight on the days that I weigh myself on a separate column of my excel sheet. I weigh myself only when I feel like it, and not every day. I just weigh some days. I also don't want to look at the numbers (which seem horrific to me), so I use different numbers. I take my weight and multiply it by the square root of 3, then divide by 4 (arbitrarily chosen numbers) and this "disguises" my weight so that I'm not embarrassed to have my sheet open on my desktop sometimes during the day. I think this is a really good idea actually...I was sick of looking at my weight in numbers, so I changed the numbers but did not lose the information.

6. I have 4 goals. First to 215 (my last year's weight), then to 200, then to 180 (about 5 years ago), then to 150 (close to where I should be), (and last, the seemingly impossible 132). I would be happy at 150 and not ashamed of myself. I also know I would look MUCH better (I'm so tired of how I look right now and clothes fitting how they do...and my sizes), and feel SO much better (knees, back, stomach, arms...tiredness..).


It sounds good to me...What am I doing wrong? I've heard of a lot of success with eating right and counting calories.

How long are your walks? Are you getting enough sleep? What is your carb to protein to fat ratio? Are you keeping your sodium low? Are you getting enough fiber? Are you on any medications that could affect your weight loss?

Hey there,
I am 5'9, right now I am 200, and have scaled down to eating about 1620 calories per day. I think you should up your calories. When I was in the 220's, I was eating between 1800 and 1900 and was losing well on that.

I think 7 lbs in 34 days is pretty good. When I started out, I actually dropped the most weight during my second month.

What type of foods are you eating? Can you give us a sample menu of a typical day's food choices?

As far as the exercising, maybe do some arm work, lifting, boxing moves, etc.--Stuff that won't put pressure on the legs and knees and feet as much.

Walks are usually 20 minutes to an hour (it varies depending on how late it is when I go...when I'm out I tend to want to stay out though, so usually long).

Sodium is pretty low I think. I don't drink any soft drinks of course--water and carbonated water, and occasional juice or milk (maybe once or twice a week I have some). I'm really not sure beyond that. I try not to overdo on anything like carbs or salt.

I am on no medications or supplements currently. About a month ago, I took provera to regulate my menstrual cycle, but that's 10 pills (1 a day for 10 days) then no more for 3 months. I have only had trouble with this after reaching 180+lbs, but have not been able to lose the weight, so it's been a problem for a few years. The weight gain has been gradual for about 9 years with small peaks of losing 20 lbs and gaining it back gradually. I have "normal" bloodwork as of 4 years ago.

Now I'm really curious what foods you're eating...

Hmm, thank you for the advice, I'll think that over! Here are three example days. I forgot to mention that I've had about 3 cherry sobe drinks since this started (100 calories per bottle, 25g of sugar in bottle). When I estimate, I look up the foods (via internet or the cans if possible) and amounts and add these things together (so that you know I'm not just guessing here).

Ex. 1

oatmeal---160
2 pieces wheat bread---100 total
1 slice cheddar cheese---90
1 can chicken (like tuna)--120
half of a small baked potato with sprinkle of cheese--150 (estimated)
cherry pomegranate sobe drink--100
chicken and white bean soup with noodles---600 (estimated)
2 pieces of wheat bread, toasted--100
---------------------------------------estimated total ~1420 calories

Ex. 2
2 granola almond bars (1 at 3-4 am, one at about 7 am)--320 total
1 serving shredded cheese (cheddar / jack)--110
2 pieces wheat toast---100
4 chicken tenders---450
1 small red apple--85
pork barbequeue shredded meat--300 (estimate)
2 pieces wheat bread--100
peanut granola bar---170
----------------------------------------estimated total ~1635

Ex. 3
can of progresso chicken enchilada soup---340
2 pieces of toast (different brand)--150
chicken veggie burger---500 (estimated calories...really unsure)
bun---180
1 cup black eyed peas---160
golden delicious apple--100
banana--140 (estimated)
------------------------------------------estimated total ~1570

are you WEIGHING your food on a digital scale? eyeballing portions, or using measuring cups?
If you arent weighing on a digital scale (20 bucks, walmart) you could be underestimating your food intake by several HUNDRED cals a day, putting you at maintenance.
Take one week of weighing EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth (SO NO GOING OUT) and see where you are really landing, calorically

FYI- prepackaged food (cans of soup) can be, according to FDA rules, off by as much as 20 %

i see a lot of sodium, and a lot of *estimates*

i stand by my original observation--- you are getting ALOT MORE cals than you realize (its ok!! 99.9999% of us do!)

Your nutrition seems ok, but carbs seem a little heavy. You could try reducing your carb intake and see if that has any effect. I've seen it work for other people's weightloss stalls, and when I decreased my own carb intake in the past my loses have gone up as well.

Not weighing it, no--but I am very sure that my portions are accurate (I do measure and if I don't know the calories, I research it). There are a few times where I'm unsure, but I tend to overestimate those things (I hope at least) so that I have room...better to say more than less.

I don't record what I drink if it has no calories. I drink water and carbonated water (la croix brand canned). Otherwise, I have had some milk (skim) and grapefruit juice (very sparingly--I measure this, as 8 oz has 90 calories). I also have had a few sobe drinks (I record these and the juice--sobes are are 100 calories each and I have had about three in the 23 days of this).

I think you're right...I noticed that as I was typing it, seems I don't eat as many fruits and vegetables as I do carbs, even avoiding sugar... I will try that.
Thanks for this.

You sound super-motivated and admirably organized; I'm sure both of those traits will help you out tremendously as you keep with the plan.

As for the plan itself, it seems fundamentally sound. Your caloric intake looks good--maybe even a little low for your height, but you did mention being sedentary (something I battle as well)--and you're measuring instead of estimating, which is quite smart.

Do you have issues with feeling hungry between meals? I think you could afford to bulk up your menu with some vegetables; if hunger's an issue for you, that could really help. You may even find that adding vegetables and reducing carbs speeds things up for you; while "calories in, calories out" is the general rule, some people find that excess carbs just slow their weight loss down and that they can get the same weight loss results from 1800 low-carb calories that they would from 1200 carby ones. Everyone's body differs, though, and you may need to experiment with your plan a little to find out if carbs bug you.

It also looks like you estimate calories a lot. I know it's tough to get a read on accurate calorie counts when you're eating home-cooked foods. One thing that's helped me out with that is SparkPeople's Recipe Calculator. After plugging in some of my favorite items, I now have a nice little stockpile of go-to recipes that I've calculated and entered into FitDay as custom foods.

Best of luck, and I know you'll have good success. With your analytical approach and willingness to make changes where you see fit, you can't lose--err, rather, you CAN lose, but in the good way.

looks like you are not eating enough protein, you are eating a little too many carbs, definitely too much sodium, and not enough fiber. i have noticed eating to much cheese stalls my weight loss and "stops me up." you might wanna try cutting back on it a bit.

it also looks like you might not have included somethings like the tuna sandwich did you put mayo on that tuna or did you just eat the tuna? did you dip the chicken tenders in anything or did you put something on that veggie burger? condiments do count towards calories and ketchup and mayo are relatively high calorie. on example #3 did you forget to eat breakfast or was breakfast one of the pieces of fruit?

Okay, too much carbs and can cut out the cheese (it's mostly fat anyway and I can make up the calcium with skim milk).

I didn't actually eat tuna--it was chicken in a can like tuna (not sure what it's called, same brand though). I didn't mix anything with it, was 120 calories for the entire can (I ate all of it on the two pieces of bread listed). I also don't really dip the chicken tenders in anything (I don't like mayo / mustard / ketchup / most salad dressings / tartar sauce / horseradish sauce...etc. The only things I'll use are barbequeue sauce or a small amount of Italian or Vinegrette salad dressing, but those are always listed with the item I eat.)

I don't eat breakfast usually, but when I have to it's either a banana, a granola bar, or a little bit of cereal (my choice is special K with skim milk).

Hmmmm that is strange. Have you tried switching to home made meals or are is your schedule to hectic to prepare your own meals?

Do you feel fatigued easily? Do you get muscle cramps in addition to joint pain? Are you really sensitive to cold? Is your skin dry? And is your cycle irregular sometimes?

hello everyone,

I am new to this forum, i am on my weight loss thing for like 2 months now, so far i have lost 18 KGs i still have to lose like 10 kg to get in good shape, but these last few kgs are just not going off, i walk 2 hours on treadmill at 7 speed and also workout that zumba sculpt and tone cd thats around 40 mins, also i do yoga for 50 mins, but still my weight is not going down at all, also i am on fruit diet that too only watermelon.

somehow i am just not losing the weight ...

if anyone has solution for this please help me