Looking for Advice please

jimbmc

My girlfriend and I are users of MFP, and we enjoy a good healthy lifestyle. Over the last couple of months we have been focusing on weight loss, general fitness and toning up, ready to hit the beach in July. Having lost around 11lb so far, my GF is really struggling to maintain her weight loss, even tho she is still very focused on what she eats, how she exercises etc.

At the moment, we are both trying the 30 Shred, which has definitely made an impact on her appearance. Her clothes fit better, she is losing inches around her waist and back, and looking very good.

Her main problem is this tho - Having got under the 10 Stone mark (140lbs) she cant seem to keep reducing her weight? On Monday she weighed in at 9 Stone 12 lbs (138lbs), then today, she weighed in at 10 Stone 1lb (141lbs). It has been like this for the last few weeks, whereby she seems to make in-roads, then be put back again. Her diet is good, we do this together. She has upped her calorie intake over the last 10 days, as I believe she was going into starvation mode (weekly average of 500cals per day - not good), but now that is increasing. She walks everyday, does her Shred everyday and eats good natural food (Salads, Chicken, Fish, Porridge, Green tea and so on)

If anyone out there, has had the same experience, and has advice to offer, or can see where she may be going wrong, please please try to help her out. I don't want her motivation to get lost, and at the moment, she only has me to bounce off, and I am doing well, which re-enforces her doubts about herself.

I know she is doing great, and I want her to keep going, because I know she is gonna look awesome (more than she already does now!), But i want her to be Happy too, whilst she is going through this.

Many thanks for any replies

James

mockchoc

Losing inches and looking better than any number a scale can give you. Get rid of the scales!

TavistockToad

if she's losing inches and her clothes fit better why does it matter? she needs to stop caring about the scales so much

on a separate note, starving herself and only eating 500 cals a day is just ridiculous, and will only lead to bingeing

how tall is she? whats her goal weight?

dammitjanet0161

Agree with TavistockToad. Could she have chosen an arbitrarily low number to reach for on the scale? I know that for some women, 10 stone can be kind of a "magic" number to get below at all costs!

Also, could she not come on here herself to ask if she genuinely wants people to have a look at her diary and point out any tweaks she could make?

oneoddsock

How tall is she? What is her goal weight?

hortensehildegarde

um, it GF has an average of 500 cals a day (net or otherwise) she does NOT have a healthy lifestyle. How can you even possibly say that?!? WTF is wrong with you that you would let your smallish GF starve herself like that?

I am beyond floored at how shallow your post sounds.

punkuate

What had she upped her calorie intake to? 500 calories and all the exercise must have been absolute torture!

TavistockToad

presumably this is the wife:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/user/Nikky1969/status

just reading her diary makes me hungry!

hellllllen

500 calories, is far to low. The reason your failing to shift anymore pounds is because your body has quite literally stopped functioning. Up that goal significantly, more energy = more productive weight loss and exercise.

jimbmc

Many thanks for all your replies, both positive and negative. I'd like to add that the reason for me posting was due to the fact that she was quite upset this morning and I had ran out of answers for her, without sounding like a broken record.

I was and am still looking for some more advice.

Regarding the calorie intake, we now have that under control and we both understand that we need to meet our calorie goals as often as possible.

My point was that although we have made changes, she still seems to be struggling a wee bit.

Once again, if anyone has any good advice or has experienced the same issues please could you let me know.

Thankyou

Ps. Height is 5 foot 5 inch, goal weight is 9 stone (126lbs)

TavistockToad

Regarding the calorie intake, we now have that under control and we both understand that we need to meet our calorie goals as often as possible.

yesterday she ate 800 cals and burnt 300... either the issue is she has disordered eating and needs some professional help, or she isnt logging honestly which is why she isnt losing.

melaniecheeks

That's quite a low goal for that height. Not unacheivable, but losses will be veeeeeerrrrry slow. And weight fluctuates by 2-3 pounds every day, so the scale readings she's getting are perfectly normal.

oneoddsock

Having looked over the past few days of her diary, her calorie intake is just too low. She needs to aim to hit at least 1200 per day - it's up to her whether or not she eats back exercise calories (you'll find lots of threads around that debate the pros and cons of doing this) but it still looks like she's just not eating enough to fuel her body's day-to-day activities, let alone doing any exercise.

It's really important that she tries eating properly for a decent period of time - at least 4-6 weeks, consistently. Weight loss takes a long time (especially with not much to lose) and she needs to give her body a chance to show changes. Patience! Always patience!

You haven't really mentioned her attitude to eating, but if she's struggling to eat enough and is getting very anxious about losing weight, the best thing you can do is to find out about available support for eating disorders. It sounds like you're in the UK; in which case http://www.b-eat.co.uk/ is a good place to start.