[Blueyedblond]

Not too long ago I posted about how I had only lost 4 lbs the entire time I have been going at this, and had not seen the scale move in 3 weeks. Well my frustration has been at an all time high. So I went to talk to my kickboxing instructor - she is also a trainer. I basically gave her an overview of what I was eating, doing for exercise, etc. Told her that I weighed and measured every bit of food that went into my mouth and counted every calorie, that I used Fitday to moniter it all.

She told me I was starving myself! My calories that I take in are equivelent to my RMR. Then I do anywhere from 350 to 550 worth of calorie burning exercise. My daily calorie deficit is around 1300 a day. She said I should eat about 1400 calories a day. I havnt been eating anywhere near that.

Confession: I couldnt do it today. I have a mental issue with allowing myself to eat that much food. Ive gotten to this place in my head where Im obsessed with it. Im exersising at like 2 am if I think I havnt done enough for the day. I mean look----- Its 1 a.m. right now - and Im going to exercise in a few minutes, even though I've already done kickboxing today.
I really dont think I can eat that much.....I mean, my body will eventually have to lose at this rate right?????

This is driving me crazy! Off to exercise I go.

[Heather]

Yes, I think you really should eat that much! It sounds like you're a little fixated right now on getting weight off as fast as possible. Step back and take a look at the bigger picture for a minute.

You want to be healthy, right? Well, if you don't eat a lot of food it's hard to be nutritious. You don't give your body the FUEL it needs to run efficiently and stay healthy. It's like trying to run a car on very little gasoline. What happens if you don't give it enough? It stops running.

There are lots of other reasons to eat enough food. Are you weight lifting? Building muscle? How do you expect your muscle to repair itself without protein? Also, eating too little may slow your weight loss efforts if your metabolism slows.

Finally, you are focused on losing weight, but what about what you look like? Healthy skin? Hair? Requires nutrition. Toned body? Needs exercise...

Stop focusing on the scale as your measure, it's not a great measure of health, esp since you are a reasonably healthy weight already.

I realize you want to weigh less, but maybe with the right weight lifting, you can lose inches rather than pounds and fit into smaller clothing sizes!

Also, at the weight you are, it is going to come off slowly! Each pound is a greater percent of your mass than mine is. When I weighed 300 pounds, 3 pound was only 1% of my mass. It's reasonable to loss up to 1% of your mass/week. At 128, 3 pounds is 2.3% of your weight... you just won't lose the same number of pounds as quickly.

Again, take a step back and think about your long term goals, not trying to lose weight as fast as possible. After all, losing weight fast is how many of us became obese in the first place. It can be a vicious cycle.

[veggielover]

I think you might want to adjust the intake so that you have a 1300 after the exercise calories burned have been subtracted from the total. You dont want to lose the weight too quickly. In fact, your metabolism might even slow if you do not eat enough.

[aphil]

I agree that if you are doing a LOT of exercise, then your calorie needs are completely different than someone who does lighter exercise-a liesurely 1 mile walk each afternoon, for instance.

You really DO need to let go of this fixation-simply because you can possibly develop a form of bulimia where you "purge" through over-exercise rather than via laxatives or forced vomiting. Exercising at 1 or 2 am, when you have already exercised-simply because you *think* you have eaten too much is NOT a good sign.

The sooner you correct this, the better. Your trainer knows what she is talking about. 1400 calories is NOT a ton of food. It isn't. I lost my first 10-15 pounds eating 1800 a day, and lost the next 10-15 eating about 1600 a day....and so on, and so forth.

If you think 1400 is a huge amount of food-then what were you eating before?????

You have to think about the fact that your body NEEDS fuel to do your workouts. You are just like a vehicle. If you put $5.00 in your gas tank-that gets you across town to do a couple errands just fine...but you need to fill up a lot more for a 6 hour road trip, or you simply "aren't going to make it".

[Blueyedblond]

Originally Posted by wyllenn

Stop focusing on the scale as your measure, it's not a great measure of health, esp since you are a reasonably healthy weight already

I know it seems like my weight s healthy, but I am only 4'10" tall - so I am over weight. I wear a size 11. Less than a year ago i was wearing a size 5.
I am really fixated on it. I wouldnt be so focused on the number on the scale if my clothes were looser. But their not. Even if I was only losing 1 pound a week Id be ok. I just need to see something.

I just dont know how I should be doing this now. I used to be able to lose weight with no problem before- but then was never more than 10 pounds overweight before.