Don't know what else to try...
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pittmanclan545
Posts: 22 Member
I am 48 years old 5ft 2 inches and in July 2016 I weighed 105lbs. I was the perfect weight for my size. I am a runner and felt in the best shape of my life. Weight started to creep on me even though my diet and exercise had not changed. By December I was 115 bs with no explanation! In January I hired a personal trainer and hit the gym in addition to my 5 days a week of running. She said I wasn't eating enough so I tried to increase my diet. It made me feel sick and bloated to eat so much food so I cut back down to my normal intake. Finally in April I started to lose a little weight and by May 20th I had dropped down to 110 lbs in time for my vacation. One week away and the weight came right back on and since then I've been hovering between 113-117. Nothing I do will work. I run 5x a week in the mornings between 3-4 miles a day at a 9:15 min pace. In the evenings I either do 25 minutes on the stair climber or 20 min intervals on the treadmill or I go for a 4 mile walk at home. If I hit the gym to do the stair climber or intervals I also do some weight training and ab exercises. So I am running 5 mornings a week and hitting the gym 3 evenings a week. My fit bit shows a daily average steps of 17000 and calories burned over 2000. I don't know what else to do to get my metabolism moving or to get my weight back down under 110. I would love to hear some suggestions. Additionally.. my diet is pretty basic. I have hard boiled eggs, fruit, veges, chicken as my staples... very rarely do I eat junk food. Once a week I allow starbucks for coconut milk lattes.
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First, I'd have your Dr. run bloodwork to make sure no thyroid issues or anything. Maybe also see your gyno about HRT, because at 48 your hormones may be playing games with you. Second, do you log? Or are you going under the assumption that nothing has changed with your eating and you have just added extra workouts on top of the norm?
If your bloodwork comes back fine, I would make sure you are logging accurately. With the amount of cardio you are doing, you may be either 1) getting really hungry and eating more than you think or 2) your body is getting really efficient. We were just talking about this in another thread. Studies have shown that people who do excessive amounts of exercise like marathon runners, tend to adapt to overall not burn more calories than someone who only moderately exercises.1 -
Thanks for the quick reply. I have had my bloodwork done. All good. I also went to my GYN last fall. She thought my hormones were a little wonky so I am taking supplements to help balance out the estrogen and progesterone. Yes, I log everything! I am a boring eater so it's easy b/c I typically eat the same stuff everyday. I do wonder if I eat too much fruit. I tend to eat cherries, grapes, blueberries and apples as part of my lunch. I don't eat fruit for breakfast or dinner.. just at lunch midday. I'm not a big eater which is part of the problem. I don't feel good when I consume large quantities of my food. My trainer tried to have me eat 6 small meals a day and it nearly killed me I felt so bloated.
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Maybe consider changing up your workout routine? Instead of long runs for burning calories you should consider high intensity interval training.0
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pittmanclan545 wrote: »I am 48 years old 5ft 2 inches and in July 2016 I weighed 105lbs. I was the perfect weight for my size. I am a runner and felt in the best shape of my life. Weight started to creep on me even though my diet and exercise had not changed. By December I was 115 bs with no explanation! In January I hired a personal trainer and hit the gym in addition to my 5 days a week of running. She said I wasn't eating enough so I tried to increase my diet. It made me feel sick and bloated to eat so much food so I cut back down to my normal intake. Finally in April I started to lose a little weight and by May 20th I had dropped down to 110 lbs in time for my vacation. One week away and the weight came right back on and since then I've been hovering between 113-117. Nothing I do will work. I run 5x a week in the mornings between 3-4 miles a day at a 9:15 min pace. In the evenings I either do 25 minutes on the stair climber or 20 min intervals on the treadmill or I go for a 4 mile walk at home. If I hit the gym to do the stair climber or intervals I also do some weight training and ab exercises. So I am running 5 mornings a week and hitting the gym 3 evenings a week. My fit bit shows a daily average steps of 17000 and calories burned over 2000. I don't know what else to do to get my metabolism moving or to get my weight back down under 110. I would love to hear some suggestions. Additionally.. my diet is pretty basic. I have hard boiled eggs, fruit, veges, chicken as my staples... very rarely do I eat junk food. Once a week I allow starbucks for coconut milk lattes.
I'm 5'2" but older and for most of my life was in the 90s. In my 50s my weight started to go over 100 on a regular basis. 10 pounds is a lot to gain over 5 months. There must be an explanation, either in terms of calorie consumption, activity, or a medical problem. Even pre-menopause and menopause don't usually put the pounds on that quickly if everything else is exactly the same and you are highly active.
Not all trainers are qualified. A trainer who tells a petite woman to eat more without reason doesn't know what she's doing.
See a doctor. See a nutritionist. Weigh and log all your food. Weigh yourself every day. Try eating low carb for a while (you may have to switch to an activity other than running for a while). Ignore calorie burn estimates on fitness equipment and certainly, do not eat more merely in response to them. OBSERVE. If something doesn't work after three weeks or a month try something else. But if your weight is seriously headed in the wrong direction after a week, stop.1 -
pittmanclan545 wrote: »Thanks for the quick reply. I have had my bloodwork done. All good. I also went to my GYN last fall. She thought my hormones were a little wonky so I am taking supplements to help balance out the estrogen and progesterone. Yes, I log everything! I am a boring eater so it's easy b/c I typically eat the same stuff everyday. I do wonder if I eat too much fruit. I tend to eat cherries, grapes, blueberries and apples as part of my lunch. I don't eat fruit for breakfast or dinner.. just at lunch midday. I'm not a big eater which is part of the problem. I don't feel good when I consume large quantities of my food. My trainer tried to have me eat 6 small meals a day and it nearly killed me I felt so bloated.
Fruit is good, but it has a lot of sugar and some fruits are high on the glycemic index. You have to see how it fits into your overall diet. You should drop this trainer if you haven't already. Ordinary people do not need to eat six times a day. You need to find intervals that work for you. Some people eat three squares, others graze all day, others fast and eat only in limited windows.
You log everything. But do you weigh everything?
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I do not weigh everything. Truth is I don't really consume a lot of food so my diet is pretty uneventful. Everyone says I don't eat enough. I'm not the one to have a "real" breakfast. I grab a hardboiled egg and a coffee before my run. Then I don't eat again till lunch time.. usually fruit and veges and an activia yogurt. I'll eat some quick protein before the gym and that's pretty much my day. A little something when I get home but honestly, I am rarely over 1000 calories a day. I rarely consume alcohol. I don't eat stuff like chips, ice cream, cakes, cookies etc.. except on rare occasions. One day a week I refuse to log in my food. That's my starbucks coffee day. If I'm going to eat "bad" that is the one day I do. To be honest, my calorie intake would probably hit 1500 on that day at best. I've seen 2 doctors (gyn and family doc), had bloodwork and still can't get the scale to budge. So frustrating.
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pittmanclan545 wrote: »I do not weigh everything. Truth is I don't really consume a lot of food so my diet is pretty uneventful. Everyone says I don't eat enough. I'm not the one to have a "real" breakfast. I grab a hardboiled egg and a coffee before my run. Then I don't eat again till lunch time.. usually fruit and veges and an activia yogurt. I'll eat some quick protein before the gym and that's pretty much my day. A little something when I get home but honestly, I am rarely over 1000 calories a day. I rarely consume alcohol. I don't eat stuff like chips, ice cream, cakes, cookies etc.. except on rare occasions. One day a week I refuse to log in my food. That's my starbucks coffee day. If I'm going to eat "bad" that is the one day I do. To be honest, my calorie intake would probably hit 1500 on that day at best. I've seen 2 doctors (gyn and family doc), had bloodwork and still can't get the scale to budge. So frustrating.
Well, if you want to figure this out, you have to go over everything you do and break it down.0 -
pittmanclan545 wrote: »I am 48 years old 5ft 2 inches and in July 2016 I weighed 105lbs. I was the perfect weight for my size. I am a runner and felt in the best shape of my life. Weight started to creep on me even though my diet and exercise had not changed. By December I was 115 bs with no explanation! In January I hired a personal trainer and hit the gym in addition to my 5 days a week of running. She said I wasn't eating enough so I tried to increase my diet. It made me feel sick and bloated to eat so much food so I cut back down to my normal intake. Finally in April I started to lose a little weight and by May 20th I had dropped down to 110 lbs in time for my vacation. One week away and the weight came right back on and since then I've been hovering between 113-117. Nothing I do will work. I run 5x a week in the mornings between 3-4 miles a day at a 9:15 min pace. In the evenings I either do 25 minutes on the stair climber or 20 min intervals on the treadmill or I go for a 4 mile walk at home. If I hit the gym to do the stair climber or intervals I also do some weight training and ab exercises. So I am running 5 mornings a week and hitting the gym 3 evenings a week. My fit bit shows a daily average steps of 17000 and calories burned over 2000. I don't know what else to do to get my metabolism moving or to get my weight back down under 110. I would love to hear some suggestions. Additionally.. my diet is pretty basic. I have hard boiled eggs, fruit, veges, chicken as my staples... very rarely do I eat junk food. Once a week I allow starbucks for coconut milk lattes.
Sounds like you're going through hormonal imbalance or even premenopausal weight gain. Also seems like your cortisol level is too high. Stop running. That raises cortisol! Start doing yoga and Pilates to destress yourself. Go for walks. Do high intensity interval training two to three times a week. You sound like a cardio bunny. Do 2 weight training sessions instead. If nothing else works go on an exercise holiday where you do no workout sessions for the entire week. This will balance your hormones out. Also try to increase your calories just slightly up to maintainance. So eat 1500 calories for a whole week. Then slowly add the workouts back in and focus on breathing. Yoga works with the breath, and in our busy lives we forget to do deep breathing. This will help to lower the cortisol.2 -
SAME! I had the exact same issue. You may be over doing it and your body is holding on to fat in response. For me, eating more protein and exercising more made me FAT. Well, maybe not fat, but I couldn't lose and was working so hard! I hired every professional in the books- nutritionist, trainers, coaches, etc. but the scale did not budge. For over a year. Then I started doing lower intensity exercise- pilates and yoga, and just fast walking instead of running. I started eating smaller portions of what I wanted- instead of a egg white veggie omelette with turkey sausage for breakfast every morning, I'd have a bagel thin with whipped cream cheese and a mid-morning snack. I lost 5 lbs of pure fat (I get bi-monthly body scans) in two months. You may be stressing your body out.
Also, if you can, get a V02Max test done- it shows you at what heart rate your body is burning fat. Mine is WAY lower than I thought- 140!2 -
I have really loved getting older. I must say that I was pretty much a self-absorbed b*tch before the age of 40. What I haven't loved is that my body is constantly challenging me to rethink what worked before. Yikes, I'm getting older and I have to think more!
May I suggest:
1) Eat more frequently. There's nothing that isn't debated, but when I read about fitness professionals they eat frequently. Usually 3 meals and 2 snacks.
2) Eat some veggies. This may be me, but veggies are like spark plugs for my body. They seem to get everything moving..it may be because of the high water content, but they seem to act like a diuretic.
3) Do some weight training. I like free weights, but I think free weights are best when you start with a trainer, but that isn't something for everyone. Do Nautilus. Build some muscle. Muscle is more metabolically active.
4) Do HIT: high intensity intervals. All out for x amount of time, usually pace for y amount of time.
5) Are you sleeping? Another thing which is under debate, but people who sleep less then to weigh more (this may be part of a cluster of bad health habits, I don't know but I find if I get 8 hours my body shifts into a better gear.)
6) When was your last physical? How is your thyroid and your hormone levels? After our son was born in my 40s, my thyroid began to drop and dropped every 3 years or so. If you at the low end of the normal range, get a thyroid "boost" of synthetic thyroid. I can function at the low end of normal, but my body holds onto every calorie and I'm cranky...so a boost is worth the occasional debate with my doctor. And, hormone levels. You may be inching towards menopause. It isn't the hell that we read about, but I found that when I started inching towards menopause I had to rexamine my habits.
Take care!1
