Listening to your body vs. your mind...

ltfitz89

I've got what might seem like a strange question.... Should you listen to your body or your mind when setting a weight goal? I started "diet"ing last July and as I come up to the 1 year mark in my lifestyle change I am constantly wondering if I will lose any more weight. I had a goal between 115-125 depending on how my body changed and adjusted over time. Since December I have only lost about 10lbs and I have been fluctuating between 140 & 147 for the past 6 weeks. I have started working out my muscles and trying to tone up so I can attribute some of the lb gains to building muscle, but not 7lbs worth (as my body hasn't change that drastically). So I am wondering if my body is telling me that this is the weight it wants me to be, even if that isn't where I want to see the scale.

Regardless of what my body wants I plan to continue eating healthier and working out to tone up and build muscle, I just want to know if I should try to stop obsessing over the number on the scale. What do you all think?

deksgrl

Well, I don't know how tall you are to make any sort of educated guess on whether your goal seemed reasonable or not. But I did take the liberty of looking at your food diary and if logging correctly, it seems you are under eating. You might want to set your weight loss goal to 1 pound per week and eat back at least some of your exercise calories.

ltfitz89

I have just gotten back to logging and so often times I dont add in my late night snacks... and I try to eat somewhat under my goal especially on days I am cooking/snacking a lot because I find it difficult to count BLTs (bites, licks, and tastes). Also, My fitbit makes adjustments based on my exercise/activity for the day. On days like today I do try to eat back some of the calories, because I have been very active, but I honestly don't think I burned 1000+ calories today even being as active as I was.

And maybe someone can explain why I feel less hungry/munchie on days I exercise. It seems that most people I know tend to be hungrier on days they work out/train hard because their body is looking for more fuel. Today I worked out a lot for me (more than I have in a LONG) time, and I want to eat more because I know I have a burned a lot of calories, but I am not hungry...at all.... so weird..

deksgrl

I am often more hungry on the day after I trained hard. Like my body is calling for more food in addition to the fuel it used on the workout day. That said, appetite is controlled by hormones, there is a hormone that signals you are hungry and a hormone that signals that you are full. These hormones are affected by how much you eat, sort of a natural survival mechanism. Under eat, and that will make you feel not hungry, and over eat and then you can't stop eating. In times of famine people survived on less food and felt less hungry, but in times of plenty it was necessary to eat and store everything they could.

Still not certain what a reasonable goal weight for you should be, but I don't think you are stuck permanently at your current weight, I think you probably need to shake things up a little and do some things differently. Your body adjusts to the level of food you give it and the amount of exercise you demand of it, always to be more efficient. So to get things moving again you sometimes need to make changes.

psuLemon

Your mind is proactive, your body is reactive... so would you rather prevent the problem or fix the problem?

psuLemon

Also a few things to consider..

1. You need to log consistently
2. Up your protein and fats
3. Eat more calories


with little to lose you need to fuel your body. Most women I know eat 1700 to 2100 total calories.