Nervous Breakdown Ensuing

arozeisarozie

I know these threads happen all of the time, but..I am seriously about to have a nervous breakdown. I kept reading different things, so I am just gonna put my story out there.

I used to be chunky. I am 5'3" and at the time, I weighed 145 pounds. I ended up doing Insanity and going to France (tourist walking, phew!) and voila! I was 127 when I came back. I was kind of shocked because it just seemed to happen. I never counted calories, I just ate whenever we hit lunch time or dinner time, etc. I did stop myself from binging and ate a bit healthier, but other than that, I ate until I was satisfied - not stuffed - because I had learned my lesson. It was great because when it was time to eat, I was actually starving from walking around all day.

Fast forward a year or two later and here I am, completely confused about how to lose weight. Now that I'm actively trying, I honestly don't know what works and what doesn't.

I exercise at least 3 times a week (about 30 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of weight training) and my net calorie count is 1200 - 1300 with and without exercise. I have cheat days, blah blah and I am actually 125 right now, but I'm not a happy 125. I jiggle. That's all I really want to get rid of. I want to be healthy fit and I'm scared that I've messed up my metabolism by this calorie restriction thing because I simply do not know how much to restrict myself! It doesn't help that I have an irregular schedule as I am a student and, let's face it, all-nighters are a necessary evil sometimes. It's also harder for me, because I can't always tell when I'm hungry, unless I haven't eaten for quite a long time, in which case I'm starving. That happened in France when I ate. I stayed busy and stayed hungry for awhile before I ate, but now people are telling me that that is bad and it will kill my metabolism. So I calorie count...

There are 8 billion calculators online, loads of different people spouting different advice.. I'm just really lost and stressed right now and I could use your guys' help! Do you have any idea how much a 5'3", 125 lbs, 21 year old girl should be eating and when!? Or just any advice in general?

Ugh, I wish metabolism wasn't a factor! A math equation would be so much easier. (Oh, and speaking of which, I never really do the food diary thing on here, so looking at that won't really help. I'll type things in to see how much they'll be and just leave them there..I do most of the math in a personal spiral.)

Liftng4Lis

You are at an ideal weight, so try to: lift heavy weights.

arozeisarozie

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

You are at an ideal weight, so try to: lift heavy weights.

I do lift. I know I'm doing that right at least because I've been able to move up in weight this past year and I'm seeing the muscles! It's so exciting, haha.

Sometimes I wonder that because I am at an ideal weight, if that's why I can't really lose anything.

Liftng4Lis

arozeisarozie wrote: »

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

You are at an ideal weight, so try to: lift heavy weights.

I do lift. I know I'm doing that right at least because I've been able to move up in weight this past year and I'm seeing the muscles! It's so exciting, haha.

Sometimes I wonder that because I am at an ideal weight, if that's why I can't really lose anything.

This, yes! Forget the scale and watch your body transform! WTG woman!

999tigger

You students have it so tough. Perhaps read the stickies at the top of each section on this forum and learn how weight loss actually works. Good luck with not recording your food intake or counting calories. I can see why you would be having a nervous breakdown.

mscheftg

Just exercise! Allow yourself 1600+ calories a day. Get doing some body toning exercise!

3dogsrunning

arozeisarozie wrote: »

There are 8 billion calculators online, loads of different people spouting different advice.. I'm just really lost and stressed right now and I could use your guys' help! Do you have any idea how much a 5'3", 125 lbs, 21 year old girl should be eating and when!? Or just any advice in general?

Ugh, I wish metabolism wasn't a factor! A math equation would be so much easier. (Oh, and speaking of which, I never really do the food diary thing on here, so looking at that won't really help. I'll type things in to see how much they'll be and just leave them there..I do most of the math in a personal spiral.)

All the calculators are estimators. They are meant as a starting place. Pick one. Try it for several weeks (ie. more than 4) and adjust slightly from there. Rinse and repeat until you find the numbers that work for you No huge jumps, 100 calories or so one way or another at a time and monitor over several weeks.

Metabolism is a factor but outside of medical issues, most people fall pretty close to the "averages".

*When* you eat doesn't matter. I work shift work and have lost weight successfully. People do 6 meals a day, 3 meals, 2, whatever. Do what satisfys your hunger best. Aim to fill your daily calories with however many meals keeps you full.


ANd yes, being at an ideal weight means it is much harder to drop weight. Progress will be slow but you can make a lot of changes in your body without making huge changes in the scale. Like others said, keep up the lifting and track more than just the scale.

arozeisarozie

[/quote]
This, yes! Forget the scale and watch your body transform! WTG woman!
[/quote]

Thank you! I don't really care about how much I weigh, more..I want to feel fit and fabulous. But it does time time, I know. I just want to make sure I'm on the right track.

999tigger wrote: »

You students have it so tough. Perhaps read the stickies at the top of each section on this forum and learn how weight loss actually works. Good luck with not recording your food intake or counting calories. I can see why you would be having a nervous breakdown.

I just have more trouble with it than most because I have very weak hunger signals and sometimes none at all. It's just always been that way, so I try to eat like other people by calorie counting and eating when they do. It isn't ideal, but it's the hand I was dealt. Thanks for the advice!

mscheftg wrote: »

Just exercise! Allow yourself 1600+ calories a day. Get doing some body toning exercise!

This may seem like a silly question, but isn't that too much to lose the flab? I do exercise at least 3 times a week with weights and cardio, but other than that, I'm just a student on my butt at the library!

3dogsrunning wrote: »

arozeisarozie wrote: »

There are 8 billion calculators online, loads of different people spouting different advice.. I'm just really lost and stressed right now and I could use your guys' help! Do you have any idea how much a 5'3", 125 lbs, 21 year old girl should be eating and when!? Or just any advice in general?

Ugh, I wish metabolism wasn't a factor! A math equation would be so much easier. (Oh, and speaking of which, I never really do the food diary thing on here, so looking at that won't really help. I'll type things in to see how much they'll be and just leave them there..I do most of the math in a personal spiral.)

All the calculators are estimators. They are meant as a starting place. Pick one. Try it for several weeks (ie. more than 4) and adjust slightly from there. Rinse and repeat until you find the numbers that work for you No huge jumps, 100 calories or so one way or another at a time and monitor over several weeks.

Metabolism is a factor but outside of medical issues, most people fall pretty close to the "averages".

*When* you eat doesn't matter. I work shift work and have lost weight successfully. People do 6 meals a day, 3 meals, 2, whatever. Do what satisfys your hunger best. Aim to fill your daily calories with however many meals keeps you full.


ANd yes, being at an ideal weight means it is much harder to drop weight. Progress will be slow but you can make a lot of changes in your body without making huge changes in the scale. Like others said, keep up the lifting and track more than just the scale.

You're right. I need to experiment.. I just get confused on what my average is because I seem to just be maintaining and I don't want to go under 1200 because I've heard it's really bad for you. I guess there is only one way to go and that is up! Which is weird, but might as well try it.. I've heard eating more helps, it's just such an odd concept for me. But that goes back to the experimenting, like you said! Thanks so much, you really helped!

girlviernes

You need to eat more. You're young. Check out Intuitive Eating to start to learn to tune into your hunger signals (they are there). Lift weights. Be patient.

kitsilana

can i just say that you may be the first person to ever go to France and come back weighing less?

that's some impressive s*** right there, lady.

every time i go to France... well... oh, the cheeeeeeese. And the wiiiiine.
And did I mention the cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?

arditarose

Keep up your lifting girl! You're at an ideal weight. Why don't you raise those calories a bit?

rainbowbow

I'm your same height. I started at 136-ish and wasn't happy with the way i looked until i hit around 113-116. I maintain around there and lift weights now.


Oh, also, i ate 1300 calories give or take.

arozeisarozie

girlviernes wrote: »

You need to eat more. You're young. Check out Intuitive Eating to start to learn to tune into your hunger signals (they are there). Lift weights. Be patient.

Will do! Anything to rediscover hunger would be nice.

kitsilana wrote: »

can i just say that you may be the first person to ever go to France and come back weighing less?

that's some impressive s*** right there, lady.

every time i go to France... well... oh, the cheeeeeeese. And the wiiiiine.
And did I mention the cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?

LOL, I was also in school at the time, so I wasn't able to explore as much as normal! Gosh, I miss their bread..

arditarose wrote: »

Keep up your lifting girl! You're at an ideal weight. Why don't you raise those calories a bit?

I'm hearing that a lot from all of you and I think I may try that. I'll stick to what I'm at for a bit longer and if this really is my plateau, then I'll up it 100 or so calories. I LOVE lifting. It's so weird for me, I used to hate exercise. But lifting is so de-stressing. Now cardio..that's another story. Ugh.

rainbowbow wrote: »

I'm your same height. I started at 136-ish and wasn't happy with the way i looked until i hit around 113-116. I maintain around there and lift weights now.


Oh, also, i ate 1300 calories give or take.

Oh! This is really helpful! My doppelganger, haha. Did you maintain around that calorie count until you were happy and then just stop? Or did you slowly wean off?

rainbowbow

rainbowbow wrote: »

I'm your same height. I started at 136-ish and wasn't happy with the way i looked until i hit around 113-116. I maintain around there and lift weights now.


Oh, also, i ate 1300 calories give or take.

Oh! This is really helpful! My doppelganger, haha. Did you maintain around that calorie count until you were happy and then just stop? Or did you slowly wean off?

I ate around 1300 until i was happy with where i was (around 115) then i slowly added 100 cals every 2 weeks until i was maintaining that weight.

I maintain roughly 17-1800 calories a day. Sometimes more if i work out heavily.