Ok, Ready to ask for some help please

vanillasugar

*warning - this may be long and rambling*

I am approaching my one year anniversary here and have been overall happy with my progress. I went into this and am still looking at this as a lifestyle change, not a diet.

For the most part, I am not discouraged, but have been finding myself starting to get a little discouraged because I am just not seeing any results. I mean I am not seeing any lost inches anywhere, no weight loss. This will go on for weeks, sometimes 4-6 at a time and then minimal loss, like half a pound or so.

I am prepared to accept my weight the way I am now if it never goes down any because I know I am healthier and eating better than I was before I started this, but I am nowhere near what my weight should be according to health/fitness charts and honestly, even my goal was set to about 15-20 lbs more than what charts recommend and I will be happy with that. I keep telling myself and believe that this is not a race and I am not really in any real hurry to get to my goal, but I just can't help but feel that I am doing something wrong.

I realize loss will slow down as you get closer to goal but I am still a good 35 lbs away from my goal.

Just when I think I have the numbers and ideas down pat, I get confused again. When I first stalled for a good length of time, I re-evaluated and I really think at that time I was eating too little, so I increased my calories. I did start losing again but then stalled again, panicked and decreased calories again. And have been basically repeating that cycle over the past 6 months.

This last time I swore I was not going to decrease calories again, but I did.

I used to eat a LOT of processed crap and fast food and probably was in major starvation mode as I rarely at more than once a day and then of course would overeat on crap.

I still don't eat completely "clean" but have cleaned up my eating considerably from what it used to be. I drink at least my 8 glasses of water most days, I try to aim for 5 fruits/veggies a day and most days achieve that. I watch my sodium and sometimes go over, but again, it *HAS* to be better than it used to be.

I started out very slowly with exercise and worked my way up to what I am doing now. Right now, I am doing Zumba 4 days a week and sometimes will go one other day to the gym and walk treadmill at a good pace for 30-45 minutes.

Right now however, I joined a challenge at my local gym because I thought it would be fun to shake things up a bit for one thing and for another, if you complete the challenge you get 2 free months membership :happy: So, the challenge is to exercise 7 days a week for at least 30 minutes each day and then one of those days do an extra workout of whatever the challenge is that particular week in addition to your regular workout. (This week it was 10 minutes on stationary bike, 10 minutes on stairclimber, 10 minutes on treadmill and 10 minutes on elliptical and we had to do 30 sit-ups and 30 push-ups in between each of those machines and I am STILL sore as he!! from doing that on Monday, but, I digress...)

So I'm 1.5 weeks into the challenge and will be exercising 7 days a week for the next 4.5 weeks if all goes according to plan.

I usually do eat my exercise calories or at least most of them. My diary is public so feel free to point out areas where I may need to work or adjust or anything (please be gentle! lol ) Some days when I am way under my calorie goal though it is because I am trying to keep at or under ALL of my settings that I am watching and it just seems impossible. I may have 500 calories left, but be at my limit for sodium or sugar or fat and unless I can find something that has NONE of those added, then I will be over on one or all of the other goals. It seems impossible some days to stay under everything.

Oh, and I was out of town Sat through Tuesday this week, so those days I can already tell you were crap. I was over almost all of those days even if it was only a little and it was nearly all eating out of restaurants, so... bleh. But other than those days, the rest of them are pretty much how I normally am eating.

I am open to suggestions. I still don't know at this point if I am eating too few calories or too many. My setting is to lose 1.5 lbs per week I believe.

catmisha

The less weight you have left, the harder it will be. Don't quit. You can make it to your goal..Lower your salt and sugars. If you lower your carbs for 2 weeks you will get another jump start. No starchy veg, sugar or carbs. Then go back to your diet. Good luck!!

bstamps12

It sounds to me like the challenge at your gym may be just what you need. Zumba is fantastic but even with all the different routines, your body can become accustomed to it. Thus, you aren't burning the number of calories in Zumba now that you were when you started Zumba. Changing up your workout from day to day or even throwing in some weight lifting/ calisthenics could jump start a period of weight loss. Just don't give up! Even if you aren't losing, you are maintaining & not gaining weight! Keep it up!

jennygurumi

Congrats on the progress that you have made! You have done beautifully. I wish you much success as you continue on.

improvstitute

Maybe some weight/strength training is what you need. More lean muscle = higher metabolism. You body requires more energy to maintain muscle than fat. This is the reason why generally men lose weight faster than women (probably not what you wanted to hear...sorry!). A lot of women don't want to lift weights because they don't want to bulk up. But you can lift weights without adding bulk. Just do less weight with more reps. That will build lean muscle without the bulk. Hope that helps!!! Keep up the good work. Losing 62lbs is amazing!!! You can push through this plateau and knock out the rest in no time! Good luck!

jazze916

I believe the estimation of calories burned for certain exercises on this website are incorrect, perhaps you are actually going over your calories? You have lost so much weight however, so I should be asking you for advice your inspirational keep your head up! Make sure your getting a good amount of fiber in your diet so that your regular, drink tea with your meals to aid in digestion. and I agree with improv because if your not seeing a difference in your inches then maybe you need to build muscle- it will make you leaner and drop inches. You got this

elf618

First, you've made some amazing accomplishments so far and I think you're on the right track. I didn't go really far back in your diary but your choices look reasonable to me. I think it's tough to get your fat and sodium perfect every day, so probably have to go over somewhere sometimes and be ok with that. Have you tried going back to the initial setup and re-taking the profile questionnaire that figures your daily allowances? Is it possible that the assumptions it's making about you for your daily goals are incorrect?

If you've already done that, I'd say keep doing what you're doing. I find stepping it up at the gym makes a lot more difference than what I eat. Also, have you tried a Heart Rate Monitor (or even checking your pulse between songs at Zumba and putting it into an online estimator) to see if your burn is accurate compared to what HMS says for the calories burnt in your workouts?

Keep at it, you'll get there. You've got the persistence you need!

vanillasugar

I appreciate all the replies!

Just an update: I added in some more nuts to my snacks this week, did a few days where I added some strength/weight training. I borrowed a heart rate monitor and put in all my information so that it was accurate for me and wore it to my zumba class and the good news is I wasn't far off at all on my calorie calculations - I have been logging in 500 calories burned for a 45 minute class and the HRM said I burned 485.

Step on the scale this morning and still NOTHING. ARGH. I am going to keep doing what I am doing but it is sure getting frustrating. I also think I am going to increase my calories again.

Someone mentioned going back to the initial setup and retaking the profile questionnaire on here though. How do you do that? I have gone in to change goals, but is that the same thing?

Any other suggestions for breaking through a LONG plateau?? If I were losing inches I wouldn't complain. But I am seeing no changes on measurements or the scale.