What am I doing wrong??

Hi Dori -

I switched to a fully whole food plant based program almost 4 weeks ago - dropped 11 lbs to date and am holding waiting for my next drop - I absolutely get the frustration on not seeing the scale move...........

Had you watched the documentary Forks Over Knives?

I took a look at your diary and I have to say at first blush, I can see the great effort and you are doing what I did the last week or so - I ate 2-3 servings of fruit and when I ran the nutritional reports, my sugars were so high - from the fruit. Now I am cautious and have 1-2 a day at most and also watch the sugars in other things I am eating.

I have been strict no meat, no dairy and no oil - there is absolutely no nutritional value in any of that and it is loaded with fat - so despite the Subways you are eating, that bread or roll has oil - when you food shop, and this can be time consuming but it is eye opening, read the labels on everything - you will see oil in almost every product out there.

I shop at Wegmans in Natures Marketplace or Whole Foods - the only bread and buns I have found to be oil free and totally whole food, plant based are the Ezekiels 4:9 - they are in the frozen section in Natures Marketplace and I love them!

Also, your sodium intake is high - that can hold water weight - I love soy sauce too but get the low sodium if you must have it. I also found that condiments like ketchup have a ton of oil - there are many organic ones out there and a good # of them do not have the oil and give you that taste you seek.

You are mostly there - why not give up the meat, dairy and oil entirely and see what happens???

A friend at work lost 9 lbs in 5 days, her spouse lost 20 lbs in 2 weeks, I was 11 in in 11 days and my BF was 13 lbs in 2.5 weeks - although we do not see big loss like that as healthy, and we were all absolutely eating all day and doing good food, we all are sort of holding steady after the big drop while our body readjusts to much better food. We think much of what we lost was inflammation from the crappy food we used to eat - and so many health issues are already seen - sleeping soundly and better at night, high energy all day, ringing in ears for my BF is gone, and BP's are down, my skin amazingly soft and youthful - all this in 4 weeks.

I can tell you know health wise, this is the way to go and it can be very tasty - we scour the internet for recipes from Engine 2's website, the Happy Herbivores site and her cookbooks which are quick, cheap, plant based and tasty along with the FOK cookbook............

We soak our own beans, make our own hummus and oh, you should buy Wasa crispbread in the food store (organic section) and the one without oil - then buy the organic peanut butter that has only crushed peanuts - no oil! It is a filling and tasty snack in between the meals...........I have it at my desk at work as a snack every day!

I have 2 kids and they are partly WFPB and partly crap b/c it is so hard to switch it out when they are not adventurous eaters - as I make their food I find pangs of wanting to taste it but that documentary still plays in my head and I just cannot do it..........

What has helped me stay accountable and spirits up when the weight isn't dropping as fast is the girl at work, my BF and anyone else I find who might be eating this way as I see it as a lifestyle change not a diet - perhaps we could start a thread here or open a site for chatting for plant strong people???

Either way, please email me here for any support - look at my diary (only about 4 weeks) and see the progression into the better foods, the homemade recipes from the cookbooks and low in fat and calories and sugar and know they are so filling............I eat ALL day, am full ALL the time and find I now crave mushrooms and cilantro - it is crazy!

So my advice, slow down the fruits - look at the sugars, esp in bananas - have 1 maybe 2 max and if you need it, pick lower sugar fruits like Kiwi or Watermelon or Cantaloupe.................

You also need to be aware that Subway might be low in calorie but that bread is loaded with oil, the processed meat and cheese are all fat and cholesterol city and eggs and such are the same thing.................we found a quick and amazing recipe for no oil caesar dressing and we love it...........you can most anything in a healthy way and still have the taste..........your condiments too seem to carry the sodium in high amts so be aware, buy low sodium or condiments that are all plant based or you can make your own - and yes, they are very tasty.

My goal is 30-40 lbs by end of June - a big goal but I WANT it and I plan to hang on to the vision of it happening and I plan to keep eating well b/c I feel better on this, I know it is better for me and I can totally eat alot and be full on it..........

Kristen

It doesn't look like you are accurately logging in your food. You have a lot of missed entries in your diary.
Are you just estimating your food intake?
If I had to take a guess, I would say your are under estimating how much you are eating.


Also, switching to "Healthy" food does not equal weight loss. You can still gain weight from a plant based diet and you can lose weight going on a "Twinkies" diet. It all comes down to calorie in vs calorie out.

Honestly, I think you are probably undercounting your calories. Also, don't discount the fact that you worked on your feet 8 hours a day. Using another website with a weight of 200 lbs, I calculated that 8 hours of standing - light work would burn approximately 900 MORE calories than 8 hours of sitting quietly. That's a huge TDEE drop for you. Now, maybe you didn't burn 900 calories more a day than you are now, but you probably burned at least 500 calories more, which could definitely help make up for the donuts and stuff.

Couple of things I saw with just a quick diary glance - one T of peanut butter is NOT 45 calories, it's 90. If you aren't measuring it with a scale in grams, then there's also the very real chance that it's closer to 150 or 200 calories.

The Minute Rice entry today or yesterday, I question the accuracy of that listing, too. According to info I've seen, 1/2 C dry is 150 calories - it doesn't matter how much it ends up being cooked. If you start w/ 1/2 C dry (which I recommend measuring on a scale in grams 43 g) and end up with 2/3 C cooked, you still have the same calories as if you ended up w/ 1 1/3 C cooked.

I highly recommend getting a food scale and weighing every food that you eat for a while and stop using generic entries, use the labels from the foods you are actually eating. It's a pain at first, but it's easy to copy from day to day if you regularly eat similar things, plus they show in in recent foods and in favorites. I suspect that if you do this you will probably find that you are eating more calories than you think, probably quite a few more. A few calories here and there can add up to 500 + calories over the course of the day, which reduces your losses by 1 pound per week.