This is BS - 70 days and this is it?

LisaLamb1

This is half vent, half cry for help.

I started on MFP Jan 22, 2013. My start weight was 245, I am 5'6", work at a desk all day, don't exercise (other than walking to and from work). I started out with the MFP settings (1270) and I lost 5 lbs right away, but wanted to seriously hurt someone - I was Hangry. So, I read everything I could find on this miracle "Eat more to lose" - I calculated my BMR/TDEE and took off the 20% because I have A LOT to lose. I was told to be patient, it takes 6 weeks to work - for my body to adjust to the change. Well, it has now been 8 weeks (since switching to TDEE - 20%) and I lost 4 lbs, but gained back 5. WTF?

My diary is open, feel free to critique (be kind - I am asking for help, I am not perfect, but I try and I do track honestly everyday). Since last Wednesday I have had somewhat of the attitude of "what's the point" and my eating reflects that. Prior to that though I was doing well, I have added in WAY more fruit/veg than I have ever eaten in my life. I just don't see how I can go from how I used to eat to eating what I eat now (even if it is crap food somedays, I am still usually under my calorie goal) and nothing?

I am so frustrated. That being said, I do feel better - no stomach issues/heartburn anymore (Yeah!) but I cannot believe that after 70 days all I have lost is 4 lbs?

Also, I do not track my water intake but it is sufficient - I start my day with 24 oz before anything else, and drink another 36 oz throughout the day.

Also, I have taken my measurements, not much change there - I would say down 2" in my waist, but if I eat alot of fruit and get bloated, I am right back to where I started.

Any suggestions/support?

Thanks, Lisa

Sarah_cm

Hi Lisa. Sorry you're struggling. :flowerforyou: Have you tried forgetting all the figures and calculations? They bog me down, so I try and keep it simple. I've upped by protein (only by 5%) at the expense of my carbs and feel fuller for longer. Also try getting a little more exercise in as it will help to speed up your metabolism and get things moving. An additional 30 mins brisk walk a day may help. I don't believe in all the insanity, mega burn type stuff. I hope this helps.

fitfreakymom

you need to eat breakfast and morning snacks, you also need to get a good calorie burn going like lifting weights, hiking, running ect.

MysticRealm

you need to eat breakfast and morning snacks, you also need to get a good calorie burn going like lifting weights, hiking, running ect.

You DON'T need to eat breakfast or morning snacks. You DON'T need to exercise (though exercising is always a plus)

Do you have a scale to measure your food? Have you tracked your sodium? I can gain 3-5 pounds from high sodium days and if eat high sodium most days that could explain seeming to hold some weight. Did you try a few different sites to determine your BMR/TDEE maybe it's not quite right.

NYFAN07

you need to eat breakfast and morning snacks, you also need to get a good calorie burn going like lifting weights, hiking, running ect.

Agreed; any exercise helps. Start walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes every other day and maybe add in a few light weight training sessions.

If your not working out, your limiting your growth

TheStephil

Do you have a scale to measure your food? Have you tracked your sodium? I can gain 3-5 pounds from high sodium days and if eat high sodium most days that could explain seeming to hold some weight. Did you try a few different sites to determine your BMR/TDEE maybe it's not quite right.

I agree. I found that when I started actually weighing my food, it opened my eyes. I was overestimating the amount of meat i was eating, underestimating the amount of fruit, etc. Food scales are the most accurate way to measure out your food. Sodium is also a huge factor, it may be water weight.

Are you weighing yourself at the same time of day, the same day of the week? Are you wearing the same thing each weigh in?

I found for whatever reason that if I get 100+ grams of protein/ day in my diet I tend to lose weight faster/better than when I have more carbs/fat. This is just personal experience though. I suggest trying different foods, upping/lowering your calories by a few hundred and trying that for a few weeks.

Calculating your BMR/TDEE on multiple sites can also help. I've seen some sites that calculate a few hundred higher/lower than the average site.

daffodilsoup

I see a lot of processed, high-sodium food choices in your diary - Subway bread, poutine, etc, all can cause water retention that can inhibit weight loss. I'd start small - cut the regular soda and the high-calorie morning coffee out in favor of fruits, vegetables, salads. These will help you feel fuller for less calories.

kelly_e_montana

i'm sorry but if what everyone said about sodium was true, I'd be holding onto 50 pounds of water weight. it's not super glue for fat. i agree it can have some effects here and there after a big meal or binge day but everyone always blames it on sodium like you could eat 1500 calories for 6 months while running a marathon and lifting heavy but salting your veggies is making you fat.

WVWahine

Have you had blood work done? I too was struggling and my doctor ran a complete panel of blood work. Everything was normal EXCEPT my Vitamin D. Seven weeks after he started me on Vitamin D supplements I started losing weight. I also met with a Nutritionist who helped explain the reason the Vitamin D deficiency was interfering with my weight loss (in a way I could understand!), helped me figure out how many calories I should be eating (turned out to be more than what MFP recommended) and also helped me understand the importance of eating breakfast and eating at regular intervals as well as the importance of both cardio and strength building exercises. Weight loss doesn't seem like it should be this complicated but for some of us it is! Good luck!

TriEli

Hey there, you mention stomach issues and bloating after fruit, you don't have IBS or other stomach issue? Fruit is notoriously difficult for some people with IBS to digest and when eating too much and having an IBS flare up of the constipation kind, it can make it look like you have serious weight gain. I have roaring IBS but if I am very careful with food, I can somewhat control it and stay off heavy duty meds in any case. Can't dream of touching fruit though. Or sugar substitutes. Bad IBS flare up and the scale can go up 6 lbs in a couple of days.

And eating breakfast does help as it resets your metabolism from sleep/starvation mode to awake mode. Extremely important.

Finally exercise really really does help shift the weight. It is frequently the little nudge that gets things going.

Hang in there. You just have to trust in the process and know it will work but it may take time.

Jujubie

I did a few spot checks on different days of the week on different weeks. What struck me is that in the days I consulted there were little vegetable or fruit. Perhaps by purposely upping those you will eat less of the processed stuff. I assume from your food entries that you are Canadian. We are lucky to have access to tons of unprocessed food. If you're not sure what to do with raw ingredients, let me know and I'll share my favourite recipe book.

serluk

I'm just getting started on this trip, but I have to say cudos to you for staying determined. Try to relax, don't worry about all those numbers. You know what foods and amounts are right for you, just take it one day at a time. Think of this as your new LIVE IT plan, and enjoy yourself. I'll keep rooting for you!

GreenEyedLady1

for just straight up weight loss, it's all about your diet. what you eat and how much.

my opinion is that you need to stop getting so many calories from drinks. you get a lot more to eat that way and will feel fuller. this makes you less likely to snack. also, pay attention to your macros (carbs, fat and protein). try to get more protein. and get more fiber, which helps you feel fuller longer.

also, you are still eating a lot of highly processed foods. i would try to cut that out as much as possible. eat more veggies.

if you want to really make some changes for weight loss, start lifting. exercise is good for your heart and overall health, but not necessarily for weight loss. lifting for weight loss. exercise for health. get some walking in, or cycling. but seriously look into a weight lifting program of some sort.

pinkraynedropjacki

Exercise then. I think it's all BS that you don't have to do any to lose weight. I know if I didn't workout then I'd still be fat regardless of the food change.

I know it's hard at a desk all day, but even 30 mins (hell use your lunch break) is more than enough to get some cardio in. That WILL help.

vjohn04

you're probably eating more than you think if you're not using a scale to weigh and measure food. Dry and liquid measuring spoons / cups can be very misleading.

Sodium can make you retain some water... but it's not an end all be all. Processed foods or not, veggies or not, eat in a caloric deficit and you should lose.

snaapz

Maybe you would have more success on weight watchers (points system), my fiancee switched to that and it is working wonders for her... MFP works for me.

janiesue101

You might need to up your calories.

shorty35565

Track your sodium. High sodium can make you retain you retain water.
Are you weighing EVERYTHING you put in your mouth? If not, get a food scale & do so. I weigh every thing. Like serving for peanut butter is 2 tbsp (32g) or mine is. Do I use the tbsps? Nope. I weigh it all out. Serving for these pretzels I eat is like 9 or 30g. I weigh them. It's more accurate. Also, what are you using to figure your TDEE? What activity level are you using? Those calculators are only giving u an estimate. So sometimes u gotta tweak a little bit.

shorty35565

Exercise then. I think it's all BS that you don't have to do any to lose weight. I know if I didn't workout then I'd still be fat regardless of the food change.

I know it's hard at a desk all day, but even 30 mins (hell use your lunch break) is more than enough to get some cardio in. That WILL help.

Well, weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. U can lose without it. Fat burning is all about a calorie deficit. Exercise allows u to eat more & look better in the end. It's also healthy to do. But it's not a must.

rainavsfood

Exercise then. I think it's all BS that you don't have to do any to lose weight. I know if I didn't workout then I'd still be fat regardless of the food change.

I know it's hard at a desk all day, but even 30 mins (hell use your lunch break) is more than enough to get some cardio in. That WILL help.

Agreed. Best of luck!

eperezamora

i just took a look at your diary and your eating tons of things that are full of carbs. Dinner rolls, soda, alcohol. try to stay away from those as much as you can. Give yourslef a cheat day a week to indulge and get those craving out of the way, trust me. I have been eating good and on my first 2 cheat days i felt so sick to my stomach, I learned my lesson... only you can make the chaneg if you really want to. Good Luck

CristinaL1983

So I looked through your diary. It looks like you don't weigh your food. It also looks like you get a lot of food "out" with no disrespect, I would suggest that you are probably eating more than you think.

I would suggest that you start by measuring pretty much everything you eat and maybe for a while start making a lot more of your own food which will help ensure that what is supposed to be there, calorie wise, is what's actually there.

It is also possible that your "calories out" are not right. In that case, simply reducing your calories would allow you to start losing more weight. If all you did was cut out the starbucks coffee in the morning, which doesn't really contribute positively to your overall nutrition, you would lose a pound every 2 1/2 weeks.

You don't have to drop it down to 1270 calories but maybe where you have it set (1762?) is too high for you to have appreciable weight loss. Again, it's probably got more to do with not weighing food and eating out a lot (where calories can vary a lot from the nutritional data because different people make things different ways).

dixiewhiskey

What to you do for exercise? Eating healthy is great but you need to work your muscles and strength your heart/lungs too....

bluebear_74

Are your portions correct? Sometimes 100g of something is a lot less than you think it is. Also you really should trying to get some exercise in. Even if its just 30 minutes 3-5 times a week.

LisaLamb1

Thanks everyone for your input. I am going to go through each post and see where I can improve. I am buying a food scale for sure!

dixiewhiskey

Food scale is great but tbh, I've lost weight perfectly fine without it and so have a lot of other people... you just need to get off your butt and move around.

MysticRealm

i'm sorry but if what everyone said about sodium was true, I'd be holding onto 50 pounds of water weight. it's not super glue for fat. i agree it can have some effects here and there after a big meal or binge day but everyone always blames it on sodium like you could eat 1500 calories for 6 months while running a marathon and lifting heavy but salting your veggies is making you fat.

Sodium has ZERO affect on fat but it can show an increase on the scale due to water weight. If your body is very used to it it probably does not affect it as much but it CAN show a large increase in the scales for some people.

SanteMulberry

After looking at your diary, I think I can help you. To start with, you are eating WAAAAY too much sugar when, as a seriously obese person, you really cannot afford ANY empty calories on a calorie-restricted diet. If I ate like you eat, I can guarantee that I would never have lost more than a few pounds.

It is important to realize that obese people are NOT like those who have a few pounds to lose. They have serious metabolic derangement and sugar consumption is a big part of that. It isn't the glucose in sugar that does the metabolic harm, it is the fructose. (Sucrose, i.e. table sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose.) Those who are investigating the role of fructose metabolism in obesity believe that fructose acts like a "fat switch" that tells your body to store fat and to stubbornly hang onto the fat that you already have stored.

You have an extra problem in that you are a woman and you have estrogen. Estrogen LOVES to raise your blood sugar and that makes you store fat through high insulin levels. You are also very likely to be leptin-resistant. (Leptin-resistance actually precedes and predicts insulin-resistance---the leptin resistance comes first and almost all people who are seriously obese are leptin-resistant from their fat cells pumping out tons of leptin (just as, similarly, high blood levels of insulin eventually lead to insulin-resistance). What leptin-resistance does is to shut off your body's natural satiety. People who are leptin-resistant are hungry all the time and they eat more than their body needs because they do not have the normal mechanism of satiety. Lowering total carbohydrate intake is essential as obese folk have the ability to efficiently convert blood glucose into fructose--raising uric acid levels and doing more damage at the cellular level. I generally aim to keep my total carbs for the day at 100 grams or less--but that carbohydrate allowance must be spent on vegetables and some fruit (but mostly vegetables). It is sometimes useful to go on a very low carbohydrate diet for a couple of weeks and that will mean eliminating fruit for a couple of weeks. This will help to back off your fructokinase enzyme which is probably also sky-high from all the fructose you have been taking in through your sugar-consumption. After the two weeks are up, you can add a serving or two of lowish-fructose fruit like berries, citrus and tomatoes. But, sorry to have to tell you that you will likely never go back to eating much sugar or you will start the obesity bandwagon rolling again. The other thing that you are likely going to have to severely restrict or eliminate is grain. I eat one piece of organic whole rye bread on my heavy exercise days.

And, don't believe anyone who says that you don't need to exercise---it is essential for helping to repair your deranged metabolism. (Don't believe that your metabolism is deranged? Then why are you obese?) If you do drastic calorie reduction, (instead of a moderate calorie-reduction combined with a bit of exercise) you will hurt your body and guarantee regain. Heavy lifting is ideal for improving your body's insulin response---and because it will build up lean body mass, will help you to burn more calories 24-7.

Lifting is more important than cardio but cardio is important too. (I lift three days a week and go to the pool for an hour, twice a week.) If you have a problem exercising "on land" (as I do because of arthritis) then you can go take a water exercise class at your local public pool. You will feel great AND you will lose weight IF you follow the other dietary recommendations. I had a lot of trouble losing weight before I got mad and started to investigate just what was wrong with me. There is a lot of obesity research going on these days and what I have told you is reflective of the newest information that is starting to come out and also, what I have learned about being an obese female (an obese female's leptin levels are 2 to 3 times that of a man at the same body fat level). It really IS harder for women to lose excess body fat. This is something that women have always known but now research is revealing why. If you have any more questions, please feel free to message me. Good luck! You CAN do it!

p.s. One more thing. MFP will allow you to track your sodium and potassium. You need to keep your sodium down to about 1500 mg per day or less. And you need to try to keep your potassium blood levels as high as you can (eating lots of vegetables will help with that because they have a lot of magnesium which aids the uptake of potassium). Sodium not only discourages you because if causes water retention, but there is now some evidence that it interferes with fat burning.

MysticRealm

Food scale is great but tbh, I've lost weight perfectly fine without it and so have a lot of other people... you just need to get off your butt and move around.

If you are grossly under estimating what you are eating (especially if you eat out a lot, a lot of restaurants under estimate the calories in their food by a good bit) no matter how much you exercise you may not lose weight.

dixiewhiskey

Food scale is great but tbh, I've lost weight perfectly fine without it and so have a lot of other people... you just need to get off your butt and move around.

If you are grossly under estimating what you are eating (especially if you eat out a lot, a lot of restaurants under estimate the calories in their food by a good bit) no matter how much you exercise you may not lose weight.

I checked out her food diary and most of the things she is consuming don't require much measurement (e.g. one brand dinner roll). If you make poor food choices, you won't lose weight no matter if you measure 1 slice of toast on a food scale.. If she worked out more, she would be likely to see the scale or measurements move. Doing nothing in fact does nothing. Getting a food scale to measure things that are already pre-determined will not change the funk she is in.

GamerLady

I disagree with the persons that say you need to eat breakfast. I never eat breakfast and I do just fine, in fact I'm not hungry until dinner most of the time. I think you need to exercise. A good one for you to start with is 30 day shred if you don't have time to go to a gym. It's 20 min and you do 10 days of each level. Since you're sitting at a desk all day and don't have a lot of time I think it would be great for you. If you eat within your daily calories and stick with it, you WILL see results. You can get 30 day shred for under $10 for your own dvd, or get it for free on youtube.com

Also, get yourself some sugar free fudgdesicles that are about 40 calories each, some sugar free jello, and kellog's 90 calorie snacks, some stevia for your coffee, and save room for at least one treat for yourself a day or every other day. A 90 calorie treat is better than none and you go off binging because you're craving stuff.

I say this because it seems you like sugar from just quickly glancing over your diary. It will help to have these low cal/low sugar/sugar free snacks around. Just give yourself 1 treat a day or every other day so you don't feel like you're depriving yourself and cause yourself to binge.