Bear With Me Here

smaihlee

I am getting very frustrated and suppose I just need to vent and ask for suggestions from some of you who have been at this longer than I have. Let me just preface this to say I have not lost sight of what I'm trying to achieve, but I am feeling very unsettled right now.

I have been overweight my whole life. 20+ pounds through high school and college, 30+ pounds before pregnancy, and 50-75 pounds since then. I have lost weight before but never really more than 15 pounds in one "chunk" (pun TOTALLY intended). I literally have never been able to follow any program, even loosely, for more than a month or so. I started logging on MFP in mid-November when I got on the scale (after ignoring it for months) and realized I had let my weight creep back up to an all-time high. Since it was around the holidays, my main goal was to be mindful of what I ate and try not to gain weight. I lost 5 pounds rather quickly in the first week, then another 5 through the end of the year.

I had been exercising 1-2 days a week in a very basic way (30 mins cardio plus resistance machines) plus an hour of yoga a week. I have a desk job that keeps me on my *kitten* most of the day. I was trying to keep calories around 1800/day and was not eating back my exercise calories.

The first week in January, I began a 3x/week boot camp that consists mostly of circuit training-type exercises. According to my HRM, these sessions burn about 400 calories/hour. I am still doing the 60 mins yoga/week. At this time I also became more judicious about sticking to the ~1800 calories and also started eating back my exercise calories. Still wasn't losing so I dropped my calories to 1590/day. That seemed to kick-start things again and I saw a gradual 5-pound drop...and then it stopped. Over the last couple weeks I have seemed gain and lose the same 2 pounds over and over.

I am a big girl and know that eating too few calories can be dangerous. I also know that a low-calorie diet is just not sustainable long-term for me. I read about IPOARM and thought I'd give that a go. Did all the BF/BMR/TDEE calculations and decided on TDEE-30% since I have to much to lose. Based on this I raised my calories to a set 1975/day. I am only a few days into that but I feel kind of bloated and icky. Scale keeps going up and down 1-2 pounds a day.

I'm just getting really frustrated because with the amount of weight I still have to lose (60 lb) and the changes I've made to my diet in the last 6 months, I feel like I should have made a lot more progress. Part of the problem is that this idea of sustained effort is really foreign to me. On paper I understand that losing 60 more pounds could take a year or more to achieve, but it's really hard to wrap my head around that. That being said, I know it's NOT all about the scale. I can tell a big difference in my clothes and others are starting to notice.

I'm proud of the changes I've made to the way I eat. I used to be a chocolate/sweets wh*re. Thanks go a daily magnesium supplement, I mostly kicked my lifelong addiction to chocolate: my afternoon snack went from Peanut M&M's to Raisinets (IT'S FRUIT!!!) to homemade energy bars. I have cut most processed foods out of my diet and I have mostly eliminated traditional fast food from my menu. I cook dinner 6 nights a week and create most meals from scratch. I have cut my portions way back. I get my 8 glasses of water every day, and don't drink soda of any kind (and haven't for 15+ years). I try to avoid artificial ingredients wherever possible. I try very hard to eat in a balanced way. I love fruits and veggies and feel like I get plenty of those every day.

I'm not giving up on the changes I've made, but my attitude is faltering and I feel like the negativity alone is enough to sabotage my goal.

What I'm looking for is some guidance. Is there anything in my diary that stands out as a red flag? Anything I haven't shared that could be questionable? If you were me, would you go back to the 1590/day and just stick with that for a couple months? How long is long enough to know something isn't working?

I realize mine is not a unique situation, and that as I speak the world's smallest violin just broke into song. Even so, I guess none of us would be here if it was easy--right??

kcook323

I just read about the IPOARM today and I adjusted my calories for it.

I went over your journal for the last few days, and to me, they look fine. Maybe instead of the 30% drop, you only need the 20%, since you are exercising, I would definitely give it a month before I gave up on it though.

I thought maybe your sugars were too high. I don't keep up with mine (as a rule), but I changed my settings to see what I was doing, and it was pretty similar to yours.

Then, I thought maybe your sodium. I see Thai food, and to be honest, I have never eaten Thai food, but is it similar to Chinese? As in higher in sodium? That may be a culprit for you this week.

Then of course, Aunt Flo. If she is due, then she may be contributing to your icky bloated feeling.

I am supposed to be on Metformin for pre-diabetes (PCOS), and I worried that I wouldn't be able to lose well without it, but so far, so good. I hate to change things (IPOARM), you know, if it ain't broke...., but I totally believe in this.

From the bottom of my heart though, before you decide to give up, I will help you all I can with whatever I can.

Crochetluvr

Your carb count stood out for me. If you could cut back about 50g. a day, that would probably jump start you.

smaihlee

Thanks for the suggestions and support! I have tried to cut bak on the breads but I do see a lot of carbs in there that I haven't considered. I'm not really going to give up, I'm just more concerned that there's some elephant in the room, so to speak, in my food log. What funny is that of all my friends, I honestly have the best eating habits. And what's so frustrating is that none of them (except one) have weight problems

Very frustrating to eat lunch with a skinny friend whose meal consisted of powdered donuts and chocolate milk. And don't think I didn't give her *kitten* for that!!

likitisplit

Everybody has a different body. You were blessed with one that would keep you healthy if we had a famine. LOL.

I think your exercise and eating habits look fine. What I would suggest is changing your ticker. Instead of focusing on the entire 75 pound loss (which would take me *years* to do, and I'm somebody who loses consistently), figure out what 10 percent of your body weight is and make that your short-term goal. That's where you get most of your health benefits and it should be achievable in less than a year. It can also be more motivating when you don't have your ladybug stuck in the same place week after week.

That one to two pound fluctuation? I fluctuate as much as 5 pounds in a day and sometimes have to use excel to figure out the velocity of my weight change to see if I'm still losing :P (I never thought I'd actually apply calculus in my real life, but there you go)

smaihlee

You were blessed with one that would keep you healthy if we had a famine. LOL.
...
I never thought I'd actually apply calculus in my real life, but there you go.

HA to both of those. I am an engineer and can appreciate the humor It's funny b/c now that I have adjusted up and have the same goal every day, I'm having a harder time meeting my calories! Last night I was a good bit under so I grabbed some cashews and then had a tiny bowl of raspberry sorbet after dinner. I haven't been eating many sweets like that lately so I was able to actually savor and enjoy the treat!

I get panicked easily, especially when I actually put effort into something and it doesn't pay off as quickly or consistently as I'd hoped. I will stick with this for a while unless it becomes very apparent things are going the wrong way.

That's a good idea about the ticker--gonna have to mull that one over. I actually had it set to less weight at first, but felt like I needed to keep my "real" goal in sight! Maybe I should compromise and switch to the "pounds lost" ticker instead.

WBB55

There's no elephant, I think. I think you're at the "tweaking" phase here. Where you're eating WAY better than you used to, but could still improve little things, if you wanted to. You don't have to do them all at once, I'm just making suggestions. Pick a couple, do them all. Whatever doesn't seem too harsh. Basically, you've already done the part of the job that improves your health, decreases your risk for disease, will improve your bloodwork numbers, etc. Now, it's just about the weight. The vanity. You ARE healthier. Now you can make some tweaks so your body reflects it.

I looked at your diary. Truly, you're doing great. Here's some things, though, if you're ready to take it to the next step, in my opinion. They are just suggestions that will make sure you're providing your body with the best environment to lose the weight. Giving it all the nutritional support it needs:

-Sodium: decreasing sodium can help you optimize weightloss. Sodium holds onto water and disguises true weight loss. You have plenty of days where you're over 3000. Maybe shoot for 1800?
-Fiber: you have days of 8, 10 etc. fiber per day. Shoot for 25 every day through your diet.
-Carbohydrates: I like the general "look" of the days where you eat less than 200 g. Maybe make that your ceiling.
-Protein: I see days where you're eating 60-70. Maybe shoot for at least 100 g
-Processed food/eating out: though you _CAN_ work these into an overall healthy diet, I always feel like the fewer things I eat with labels, the better.
-Sugars: you sometimes eat a lot of added sugars. Being mindful of keeping these under, say, 80 g, would be a great goal for you. I'm not one of those people afraid of carbs.
-Fats: I can't see your mix of saturated vs. unsaturated. But keep saturated low compared to the others. Maybe something like making saturated be 1/3 or less of your total fat consumption.

likitisplit

I like the pounds lost idea - that keeps your focus on your success, which is where it should be.

\I was originally shooting for 155, so that was three rounds of 10% losses. However, I got some real measurements done and found that I should be shooting for 172 (apparently running after toddlers does not burn calories - it builds muscle), so I'm going to set that on my tracker if I ever make that first 10% number.

LoraF83

Keep at it - give IPOARM at least 6 weeks of consistency before you decide if it's working or not. Put the scale away until then. There's absolutely no need to weigh every day - especially if you are going to be freaked out by the number. My weight fluctuates as much as 5lbs a day. I'm up 8lbs right now (hormones, TOM, just got back from vacation, lots of salty food, etc). It's no big deal because I know that my clothes fit and I look good in the mirror.

It took me a year to lose 48lbs, but I don't regret it taking that long. I feel awesome, my life has improved so much, and I know that I'm setting myself up to be healthy for a long, long time. In the big picture, 12 months really isn't that long anyway - and it's going to pass whether you lose weight or not.