Hi -- I joined 3fc a while ago and even posted a couple of times. Since then (you've heard this story), I've gained weight. I haven't been working out and I've generally felt terrible, so I've set up a workout schedule and I've been sticking to it. I have rediscovered (yet again) that I love using weights, so that has been no problem whatsoever. What's going on now is... I'm discovering I don't really believe that exercise + watching food = weight loss.

My history: during my 20s, I was always a size 6 or 8 without much effort. (I'm 5'5", weighed usually 130-135. And thought I was fat. [sigh]) I worked out, but I didn't weigh obsessively or anything. I never dieted. When I was 30, I went to grad school and put on weight. At the time, several of my friends were doing liquid diets, so I did one too and went back to 140/size 6. I stayed about that size until I had my first baby. I've been anywhere between 160-180 ever since, size 12-14 (and if I'm going to be honest, size 16, although I've stayed in old clothes rather than buy a 16!).

Two years ago I started taking thyroid medication for a sluggish thyroid and... voila! Weight started coming off. I didn't diet, although I was writing down what I was eating in Calorie King. I was also doing BFL as my workout program, but I really associated the weight loss with the medication. I had the flu in spring, couldn't work out for a while, and when I could started working with a personal trainer instead of doing BFL. I gained weight.

Last year I had problems with my shoulder and stopped lifting. Earlier this year I had shoulder surgery (try saying THAT 5 times fast). Recently, however, I've said, It's time to get back to lifting, and I've restarted my gym program, doing BFL for lifting and HIIT on an elliptical on the days when I don't run. I downloaded an app for my iPhone to keep track of what I'm eating.

I haven't lost any weight yet. For one thing, I haven't kept track of what I'm eating until this week. But even though I've decided that I am going to get into shape and I am going to lose this weight... I don't honestly believe it's going to happen.

I don't know whether this is because I've really only done one diet (and that was the liquid diet, which isn't quite the same thing as keeping to a calorie count). Or whether having doubts at the beginning is fairly common or not. Clearly I need to give this a few weeks before I can honestly judge whether it works but despite everything I've read (esp. here!) I don't see it working. Is this common?

Hey! Welcome back to 3FC!

Your plan sounds good as far as it goes... but I'm thinking it doesn't go far enough. But, maybe you just haven't gone into details yet. So--tell us more! What is your resting metabolic rate? Have you calculated how many calories you should eat in a day to lose at a certain rate? Most tracking programs have ways for you to do that. What about your nutrient ratios? Also, do you like to cook, hate to cook, or in between? Do you have to cook for your family, and are they willing to eat less of fattening foods?

My own experience has been that just "watching" isn't enough. I need to have daily goals to go by. But let us know what you are planning.

Jay

I think you're off to a great start and already know you have to give it time.

I think it will help a lot to realize that every thing you are doing is *worth* doing even if you didn't lose weight. Really. That takes some of the pressure off, and gives you additional motivation to make the changes.

Jay is right, you'll need to do the actual calorie counting if that is your plan. The exercising is great and necessary, but it sounds like you also have a lot to learn about a healthy diet - because it will all come back if you don't develop a permanently healthy way of eating. Eating healthy becomes so much more fun than restricting the calories in junky diet.

I don't know what your diet is actually like, but I'm assuming it's your weak point since you didn't mention any healthy foods and only have experience with a liquid diet.

I've had this same exact experience. Watching was simply not enough for me. I absolutely, positively, without a doubt must track (count) every single morsel that goes into my mouth. It's the only way to set a limit for myself. Waaaay too easy for me to overeat. Must be brutally, brutally honest with the food intake, IMO for this to "work".

Track that food and give it a couple of weeks. There's always time to tweak it and "make" it work. You CAN do this.

Oh my yes. I just told someone yesterday that when I first got here I spent more time just lurking and reading and rolling my eyes thinking "how nice for them - won't work for me". Even after I joined and started posting all kinds of "rah-rah I'm so positive" stuff, in the back of my mind I was still rolling my eyes. Even the first time I actually tried a suggestion from a 3FC member I was really thinking I was just going to prove to myself that it wasn't going to work so I could have another excuse to go back to cruddy habits. Oops, it actually started working

I really think that weight loss is very much like any other endeavour we set out on - dating someone new, job interview, buying our first new car, any of that - we are going to have a few doubts about our possibilities for success (OK maybe more than a few ). But, we'll never know if we could have been successful if we never even give it a try.

Thanks for the replies. This forum is really wonderful.

I've set myself a goal of 1600 calories a day -- I thought that would be a moderate amount of calories to start with and see how that goes. I'm not planning on counting exercise calories. I know WW has the idea of FlexPoints or something, extra points you can scatter during your week, but I have no idea how that translates into calories so I guess I'm not planning on using those either. (After I posted, I remembered I did try WW with some other moms, who were already familiar with the routine. I was not comfortable with the atmosphere and stopped going.)

I eat pretty well -- 3 meals a day, usually with one intermediate snack in the afternoon. For that snack I used to have what the kids were having (like...ice cream!) but I'm going to substitute a protein shake from now on. I do the cooking for dinner, except on nights when we eat out. I don't go nuts in restaurants, but unless I'm really paying attention it's much too easy to load up on calories. I know I need more vegetables, and I'm trying to find times to eat them: lunch, and maybe that afternoon snack (with an egg or something).

I haven't paid enough attention to nutrient ratios, other than making sure I have protein with every meal. I'm not fond of starchy carbs, so it's easy to stay away from those. Sugar is my downfall: I could probably eat chocolate morning, noon, and night. I have to pay particular attention to sweets. Except for cheesecake. I wish every dessert in the world would suddenly turn to cheesecake, because I don't like it.

My resting metabolic rate is about 80. I wear my heart rate monitor for exercise and 170 is right around where I stop being able to breathe well, so I regard that as the upper limit.

hi diane
Shoulder surgery, shoulder surgery, shoulder shurgery

that plan sounds a lot better. I have found that the more specific you can be in your plan, the better you tend to do. You might already know this, but if you track your calories on the daily plate it will break it down into how much of your diet is carbs, fat and protein if you want to know what that kind of ratio is like

How do you track your calorie intake? It can be tricky and be the reason for your failure on a diet. I thought I had everything figure out until I heard about fitday.com. I was so surprised my intake was almost 3,000 cal/day and I thought I was keeping good track of my eating.
Now I don’t use fitday.com everyday, but it gave me an idea about how much calories each kind of food I eat most. Now I can be more careful when planning my meals.
Good luck to you!!!

Back during the amazing 30+ pound loss during the thyroid medication time (which might not have been the thyroid meds, but I don't know for sure), I used Calorie King on my Palm. Right now I'm using Edibles on my iPhone -- entering in every single food (and its data) by hand.

whoa the iPhone does that? That is so neat!

I'd love it if CK would get ported to the iPhone -- it already had a wonderful database in it!

i wish i had a palm or an iPhone that would just be too cool to be able to be sitting in a restaurant, and look things up before you order them

Oooh, cool app!