No loss in 3 months, lots of details - Help!
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You've already gotten better advice here than I can give, but I wanted to add a couple of other things to consider. You mentioned having a cold for a significant part of this time. Medicine you may have taken or the cold itself could change your fluid retention. Illness messes with your body in many ways, and it could be responsible for some of your additional hunger too. Track while you're getting well for a couple of weeks, but maybe your body is ready to come out of this now anyway? I may have missed it, but did you mention whether you've lost any inches?
Someone else said that she thinks of the plateaus or "stuck" times as her body "resetting" to a new, normal, lower weight. I like that idea... it encourages me when my loss isn't as fast as I'd like, but at least I'm not going backwards.
Good luck!0 -
As far as the scale goes, I have a recommendation. I got an Escali scale a few months back and it is fantastic. $35 on Amazon. Copying and pasting the features from their site:
Measures up to 15 lbs (7 kg) in 0.1 ounce (1 gram) increments
Single, smooth glass surface makes clean-up fast and easy
Measures both liquid (fl oz, ml) and dry ingredients (g, oz, lb + oz)
Display Hold feature: weight holds on screen when weighing large items
Tare feature: subtracts a container’s weight to obtain the weight of its contents
Automatic Shut-off feature ensures long battery life (2—lithuim batteries included)
For example, when I'm measuring juice, i just put the glass on the scale, hit tare and pour up to the oz that I want. I've also used it to measure a packages weight before taking it to the post office. It was like five pounds and physically large than the scale, so I just hit hold, put it on, it beeped when it had the weight, I took it off and the weight was still displayed. I think they are available in like 13 colors too if that matters. These things are wonderful...
http://www.amazon.com/Escali-Pound-Kilogram-Digital-Scale/dp/B0051ABGG6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1358396850&sr=8-4&keywords=escali0 -
Thought you all might like an update.
After educating myself on the basics and taking in everyone's advice, I set my calorie target to 1800 without eating back exercise calories. Since I like to record my work-outs, I just log my calories burned as "1."
I also set my protein to 30%, fat to 35%, and carbs to 35%, which is what I believe Sara had suggested.
I wrote down my goals for the entire month. In no particular order...
1. More water (mainly to help with hunger and so that I don't waste calories).
2. More lean protein (because I wasn't meeting my goal before and ALWAYS hungry).
3. More fruits and veggies (love fruit, hate veggies).
4. Plan ahead/Prepare food ahead of time/Cook at home.
5. Lift 3X/week (already doing)
6. Cardio 2X/week+ (already doing)
7. Stick to my calorie goal - no matter what!
My plan this week was to commit to my goals and fidget with my food and numbers in hopes that, within 2 weeks time, everything would be "right." Meaning, I would consistently meet or be under my calorie and carb targets, and I would meet or be over my fat and protein targets. On Monday, I had a few folks look at my diary and give me some really helpful advice. Tuesday, I had my numbers right.
The next 3 days have been oh-so-close, but I'm waaaaay closer than I was before, and if nothing else, I KNOW what I have to do to make them right.
I have to make myself get to the grocery store, even if it's 8 o'clock and there's laundry to be done. I have to make myself pack my fruit the night before so that running late for work in the morning isn't an excuse not to pack it. I have to cook and cook more than I need so that I can take left-overs to work the next day. I have to plan ahead and make it a priority to take the chicken out to thaw so that I don't have an excuse for getting take-out. I have to measure ALL of my food, even if all I have is tablespoons and measuring cups (don't worry, I'm getting a food scale this weekend).
The working out part is the easy part. I simply love it, but now that I am well, I've been consistent in my work-out routine for the past 2-3 weeks.
Happy to report that, since last Friday, I have lost 5 pounds. Who knows how much of that was water weight, TOM weight, whatever. I don't care. After seeing something between 209.5 and 211 on the scale for the past 3 months, this morning the scale finally said 204.5.
:happy:0 -
Wow - that is excellent. Thank you so much for the update. Next stop...getting into the 'onesies'.0
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Correct. Which will be a first in my adult life. 0
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Its amazing how a little extra food and protein macro nutrients will go along way. That is awesome about you breaking the plateau.0
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good job0
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Excellent!
You made a good, reasonable plan. And you stuck to it! Even more important (I think) was that you didn't let not being perfect discourage and derail you. As you noted, other things may have helped this week, and everyone has days that don't go quite right, but you've got a good plan that should work in the long run. And you can keep improving it over time! Thanks for the update. I'm so glad your plan worked!
Congratulations!
P.S. Hope that doesn't read as patronizing... you really did wonderfully. And it was good of you to share what you did, and how it worked so we can all continue to learn good ideas from each other.0 -
So happy to hear. You are an inspiration.0
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Megalin, I get suckered into eating out A LOT with my family. It used to sabatoge me bc I ordered the wrong things. But I have a few hard and fast restaurant rules. Always order a salad. Always. For the entree, I want something that meat is the superstar in. My protein goals are high and I have a hard time meeting them without supplements. So when I go out to eat I order a big hunk of meat and make sure my sides are lowish calorie veg. I still eat pasta and bread and tons of cheese, but if eating out I avoid those things like the plague bc dishes like a pasta Alfredo tend to be about 300 or 400 calories more than they would be if I made it at home. Idk what they put in that stuff, but i don't eat it when I go out anymore.
So. Salad. Meat. Veg. Pretty easy to stick to.0 -
Wow - that is excellent. Thank you so much for the update. Next stop...getting into the 'onesies'.
As of last Friday, I am in the "onesies"! I am at 199.5 pounds for the first time since...I can remember! My BF% has decreased by 3-4%, and I have lifting gains almost every week.
Also, with meeting my protein & fat targets more often than not, playing with my breakfast and snack choices, I am no longer constantly starving. I am satisfied on 1800 calories.
I promise I won't update you after every success, but since I am no longer in the 200s, I wanted to let you know. 0 -
Wow - that is excellent. Thank you so much for the update. Next stop...getting into the 'onesies'.
As of last Friday, I am in the "onesies"! I am at 199.5 pounds for the first time since...I can remember! My BF% has decreased by 3-4%, and I have lifting gains almost every week.
Also, with meeting my protein & fat targets more often than not, playing with my breakfast and snack choices, I am no longer constantly starving. I am satisfied on 1800 calories.
I promise I won't update you after every success, but since I am no longer in the 200s, I wanted to let you know.
That is freaking fantastic. I am so happy for you.0 -
Wow - that is excellent. Thank you so much for the update. Next stop...getting into the 'onesies'.
As of last Friday, I am in the "onesies"! I am at 199.5 pounds for the first time since...I can remember! My BF% has decreased by 3-4%, and I have lifting gains almost every week.
Also, with meeting my protein & fat targets more often than not, playing with my breakfast and snack choices, I am no longer constantly starving. I am satisfied on 1800 calories.
I promise I won't update you after every success, but since I am no longer in the 200s, I wanted to let you know.
HELL YES0 -
Congratulations! Love hearing about the successes!Wow - that is excellent. Thank you so much for the update. Next stop...getting into the 'onesies'.
As of last Friday, I am in the "onesies"! I am at 199.5 pounds for the first time since...I can remember! My BF% has decreased by 3-4%, and I have lifting gains almost every week.
Also, with meeting my protein & fat targets more often than not, playing with my breakfast and snack choices, I am no longer constantly starving. I am satisfied on 1800 calories.
I promise I won't update you after every success, but since I am no longer in the 200s, I wanted to let you know.
By the way, have you checked your fiber amounts?
Enjoy your continuing progress.0 -
Awesome! I love it when someone comes back and updates their thread to report success. Congratulations to you, and thank you for motivating me. :flowerforyou:0
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Awesome job on breaking through the plateau.
We are temporarily locking the thread due to a new procedure (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/914180-thread-locking-and-intake-follow-ups)
Please feel free to PM one of us if you'd like to add more commentary or questions. We'd love to hear from you in a couple of weeks about further progress.0
This discussion has been closed.