I'm frustrated! I've been at 3FC for about 6 weeks, in Asia for 2 months. After weighing myself today, I have lost 0 lbs since starting at 3FC. I know weight loss can stall but it hasn't started! I have started exercising (JM 30 Day Shred), I naturally am active (no car, always walking, stairs everywhere), cut out some unhealthy foods (almost no fast food, soda, Pringles my 2nd month here), and I eat Korean food at least one meal a day. Most of my food is natural/unprocessed and I have nearly eliminated snacking. While I ate more produce in the US, I am eating smaller portions here and rarely overeat. My boyfriend, with no exercise, lost 7-10 lbs just from eating new foods and walking more. He's now considered underweight.
After the hard work of exercising with Jillian everyday and saying no to junk/fast food that I love, I really feel I've put in a solid effort and I have lost maybe an inch or two, and 0 lbs.
So anyways, I just want to know if you've found that to reach your weight loss goals, does weight loss have to be your life?
My mom is an exercise addict. She works out before work, after work, and extra on weekends (think 60 mile bike rides). She has definitely soured my views on exercise, I think of these marathon sessions as unhealthy. But then again, I read Poppi from the Biggest Loser's diet: 1200 calories and 2.5 hours of exercise a day. So I'm wondering if you others have had to readjust your life to lose weight? And was it forever?
I'm pretty happy with my life as it is. All I can think is if I start exercising this much to get this body I want, will it take over (and ruin) the rest of my life? Will I have time to accomplish other things in my life? Will I be able to keep my friends?
I DO want to lose weight but will it take making my days just look like: wake up, workout, work, workout, bed. ? It seems so miserable!
Clearly I have to do MORE. I've been overweight my whole life and if my slim boyfriend and I do the exact same things and he loses and I gain, then you can see I am starting off pretty metabolically challenged.
I don't know. I guess I want to hear from those that are having success:
How much do you exercise a day?
How closely do you monitor what you eat?
How has your life changed with your weight loss efforts? With your success?
If I need to work out 2 hours a day, I guess I'll try two hours a day. I just think that 2 hours a day is not going to make me happy and I will feel isolated to boot.
im sorry you're feeling stuck are you tracking your own calorie intake? Some things are sneakily high in those little beggers...
Personally, i work out for about 45-60mins a day, 4-5 days a week. I eat between 1200-1500 calories a day, i monitor it pretty closely, i track almost every single thing every day. My life has changed since starting- my priorities have changed, and i know that i have to make time for me to work on being healthy as well as working on everything else
Last edited by Iconised Ghost; 10-21-2008 at 02:19 AM.
I think that perhaps you need to monitor your calories, even if only for a week to give you a general idea of how much you're eating. To me it sounds like you either need to bump your calories up a bit, or reduce them. Remember it can also be the types of foods you eat, protein and fresh fruit & veg should be very consistent throughout your food intake and according to 'volumetrics' are probably the best kind of calories to eat.
Let us know what you do and how it works for you! but dont worry and please don't let it bring you down
I agree with some other people that monitoring your calories for a week or so would be a great way to see any pitfalls that might not be obvious now. Do you know your resting metabolic rate / approximately how many calories you should be shooting for in order to lose weight? You might be surprised at how low it is (because of your small frame.) Worth checking out.
Yes, by the way, when I started losing weight, it became my life. It's still the biggest chunk of my life (especially since I'm only working part-time right now.) But exercise isn't the biggest part -- mostly I'm completely consumed with meal-planning, shopping and cooking. So it's kind of lovely.
For me, personally, I don't like to be obsessed with exercise and diet. For a time, I was writing everything down, thinking about what I was going to eat or how I was going to exercise and how I would need to do this or that and this, not that....
Then I realized that it had taken over my life and that was depressing. I want to live a well-rounded life and not be so focused on one thing that it takes over the rest of my life.
I like taking the more laid-back approach. I try to eat better and healthier foods, smaller portions, protein/fiber, exercise about 40 minutes at least 4 to 5 days a week. It works better for me--but it may not work well for everyone. If you want to be totally serious and reach a goal, you may need to make it a bigger focus in your life for awhile until you can get everything under control!
I lost 20 pounds a few years ago, got down to 130, simply by walking everyday for an hour and cutting my portion size (still eating junk and drinking soda--just kept it under control). I went from 150 to 130 in about 6 months. So it's a slow and steady process, but I didn't have to make it my life.
This time around, at first, I was obsessed and I haven't lost a pound. So...going back to just going with the flow and making smarter choices.
I do agree with a lot above to record your calories for a week. You'd be amazed at the hidden calories you might not have thought of, or even seeing if you're not eating enough calories which can stall weight loss too!
Good luck and hang in there. It's hard at first, but the weight will start to come off and that will motivate you beyond words.
It honestly is my life. Im not one of those obsessed gym rats who needs to stop their life to hurry up and make sure I get to the gym, but watching what I eat and how Im percieved has taken control of me. I try very hard, and sometimes when I feel like I mys well give up because Im not losing even 1 pound, I just keep thinking to myself that if other people can do it, I can most certainly do it, and that gives me hope right there.
I exercise three times a week for about an hour. And thats on a good week. But I watch my calories very closely, I get about 1200-1400 a day. I bet it would help you a lot to pay more attention to what you're eating. Maybe even measuring out portions at first. Because although you may think you're eating a lot healthier, there are some things that are surprisingly high in calories that you wouldn't expect.
Again, agree on the keeping count of your calories thing.
The main reason being, like Spoz said... you might have to take in a few less... but you might even have to take in a few more! If you shocked your metabolism by suddenly dropping your number of calories super low, it might be rocking the "starvation mode"-- meaning, it holds onto the garbage in the foods that you eat, thinking that the sudden drop in food intake is a lack of available nutrition.
Or, like was also suggested... you might not know the amount of calories you're ingesting by surprise... I swear, I don't consider myself stupid, but I was blissfully unaware of the amount of calories in the organic salt-free almonds I was stuffing in my face. Good lord, those things are high up there!
Also... another idea to try if you're SUPER frustrated and feeling like nothing's working... I'm sure a lot of people think this is insanely extreme, and won't want to give it a shot... when my mother first started doing it, I thought it was a bit intense...
She cut out wheat and gluten from her diet as a result of digestive issues... she did it by switching to rye or gluten-free breads, and eating rice pasta, and avoiding baked goods, and without a change to the amount of exercise she puts in... dropped about 60 lbs over about... maybe 8 months? And has kept it off successfully for over a year. Which is nuts. No one's ever yo-yo'd more than my mother dieting-wise. Obviously, she also portion controls her sugar intake, and doesn't tend to eat fried foods, but... she found that what really kick-started her metabolism was the lack of gluten-infested foods. She looks, and feels better, and it turns out that her digestive issues were in fact a gluten intolerance.
So, I've been trying it for almost 2 weeks now. I haven't said this out loud on the forums since I got back here, because I feel super guilty about it, and also kinda lazy, but... secret? I haven't been to the gym once, and I've lost 3 and a half pounds in two weeks.
Again, that might be too extremist for you, but with all the people in the world with gluten intolerance/celiac, it's super easy to get your hands on gluten-free stuff. In North America anyway.
Yeah, I pretty much think that weight loss is my life and it's terrible. I don't know about anyone else but I can't be happy if my weight isn't going a certain way. I've been on an exercise kick lately, too!I think that was inspired by watching a show about the super obese and it definitely kicked my butt into shape.
Yeah. I have to focus on it a lot. A little less than I did in the beginning. It's changing the habits that's the hardest part, I think. Right now my motivation kind of waxes and wanes so I need to find something to reinforce it.
Jelbb- I'm very bad about not exercising. I'm sitting here expressing frustration over not getting to onederland but I'm sitting on my butt all the time when I'm not at work. Being on my feet all day long drains it all out of me, and then I get home and put on my Mommy clothes so on my days off I really kind of enjoy the loafing. So you're not the only one in that club.
Counting calories is tough here. I eat Korean food at lunch each day and I don't know 80% of what I eat. I eat vegetarian so usually it's like rice, kimchi, soup broth, vegetable and maybe something else like tofu or nuts or more vegetables. My lunch is generally very light, I eat about half of what my skinny Korean co-workers eat and I'm usually stuffed (probably the rice).
I rarely snack so I checked my calories, sans snacks & lunch, on a junky day (like eating cheese & ramen noodles) and it's about 900-1000. So add in my lunch which I KNOW is not more than 300 calories and I'm generally eating pretty lo-cal.
Anyways, here's my point and I feel like everyone is proving it: I have to be obsessed. Counting calories, to me, is obsessive. Exercising more than an hour a day, everyday, is obsessive. For years, I've tried to be laidback about weight loss. It seems I run into people all the time who were like "Oh I just cut out fast food and soda and started going for a walk after work and I lost 40 lbs!" Yeah, I ate fast food like 1-2 times a month, rarely had soda and walk everywhere. No lbs lost.
In a perfect world, I would eat less, eat healthier and still be able to go out and have some drinks or restaurant food with my friends without gaining 3 lbs in a day. I could take two days off from exercise without gaining weight. In a perfect world, I would workout everyday and LOSE WEIGHT.
I'm just frustrated (clearly!). I've weighed 165 pretty much all summer and fall now. Sometimes I've worked out everyday for weeks. Other times I've done nothing and ate whatever I wanted. I've counted calories. I've not counted calories. Give or take 3 lbs I've been this weight for months now.
I know I can do more. But it's kind of like, oh I want more money, I'll get a 2nd job.... and you bust your butt and work so hard for extra money and you just feel like you're using your whole life to get extra money and for what?
I've been overweight my whole life and I've been on a diet since I was 8. I want to stop being on a diet and I want to stop being fat. If I stop being on a diet, I get fat-TER. If I want to stop being fat, I have to be on an all-consuming diet.
This is clearly just a rant. But I'd also like to commiserate with others that find themselves in my predicament too. Or hear from people who can have their cake and eat it too (literally and figuratively!).
Oh yes and about wheat gluten--last summer I got tested for allergies because my friend was tested and found out she had a whole bunch of allergies, including wheat gluten. She cut out foods and felt great. I was proven allergic to nothing. So much for that theory.
How are your clothes fitting? I've started exercising regularly (5x a week for 45 min) for the past month and haven't seen the scales move much, but I do feel it in the way my clothes are fitting.
Joyra:
Aww, darlin you sound so frustrated, I'm sorry.
As for the calorie counting thing.. ****, I could never count calories for the rest of my life. But if you do it for a few months, you learn to just kind of know what most of the foods you eat are calories-wise, and you can kinda guess with other things. But I don't think you should go obsessive hardcore with the calorie counting, because it's hard to keep that up for the rest of your life...
The wheat gluten thing... it doesn't necessarily mean you have to have an allergy to it... I certainly don't have a wheat or gluten allergy, I could chow down an entire loaf of bread and feel fine. (Other than a little sluggish, I'm sure, considering I just ate an entire loaf of bread...)
However, cutting it out of my diet has still somehow kick-started my metabolism and cut down on my cravings. I haven't done anything except walk a little bit more (emphasis on a little. I haven't had time for the gym recently... ) and eat a ton of rice and potatoes, rice pasta and rye bread instead of regular bread and I've lost 4 lbs now over a span of just over 2 weeks.
Obviously it's not for some people, but... Essentially, I'm saying as a worst case scenario, last-hope type deal... if it's trying that, or giving up... try it out for like 2 weeks, just to see if it has an effect. If not, then.. f*ck it, but... can't hurt to try, right?
You do sound like you're having a hard time of it but stick to it!
One thing that might help is drinking more water. I plautaued for a long while, but when I started drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day (which equates to about 2-3 litres) it started to come off again. Not sure why, I guess it's what some people call water-weight, but it might help!
Also - it might be a good idea to get your BMI measured? You might be losing body fat % rather than weight at the moment. (That is a good thing, it reduces risks of all kinds of illnesses and diseases).
Is your weight loss your life?
are you tracking your own calorie intake? Some things are sneakily high in those little beggers...
