WANTED: Suggestions please......

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Queen2day
Queen2day Posts: 68 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
A few years back I ate horribly, sodas, candy, and other high calorie items on a daily basis. I cleaned up my foods, went cold turkey from drinking approximately 2 L of Dr. Pepper a day, which was probably my biggest bad habit. I began eating a large salad every day and made healthier choices, many which I stuck with and managed to lose 65 lbs in 3 months and I walked about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Unfortunately I got into a verbally abusive relationship and gained back the 65 lbs plus 30 additional pounds.

Last year I decided I needed to get myself in a healthier state and wanted to lose back all the weight I gained plus a few pounds. At my highest I was wearing a size 32 jean. I even worked with a personal trainer for 6 months in 2012 as well as returned to healthier choices. However, I have only managed to lose 15 pounds since I began working with the personal trainer. Part of this time I was limiting myself to only 1200 - 1300 calories a day, but my weight stagnated.

I know I need to increase my working out as I have currently only been working out 2 - 3 days a week instead of at least 5 days, and am not wearing a size 24 jean. My overall goal is to get down to a size 8 - 10, which I don't deem impossible and know that it will take time. I have also read the threads on 1200 calories and have calculated my BMR and have adjusted my calories to 1850 per day. When I first did this, I have lost a few pounds, but only 4 pounds in as many months. Knowing it is possible to lose weight without exercising, I am dumbfounded as to why my lose has been so slow, especially with reading all the wonderful success stories here.

Could it be that the current changes I have been making to my food choices aren't as drastic changes as they were before?

My diary is open, and before anyone says anything, I do know that the past few days have been horrible, but otherwise I would appreciate input as to what I can try that might help jump start me in the lower direction again. Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Good Luck to all in their personal journeys !!!

Replies

  • kusterer
    kusterer Posts: 90 Member
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    A comment, not a suggestion. My personal experience, as someone who has more than once lost and gained like you have, is that each time it takes more effort and still you lose more slowly. Radical diets are not sustainable for most people, and lead to regains.

    So it's: gradually keep the same calories but eat more healthy food, up the aerobics as you say, and do some weight work.

    Weight work doesn't need a fancy set-up. Sit in a chair, and push your feet through floor a bunch of times, then lean on the table and try to lift it with your knees/thighs. Do "curls" while carrying several heavy plastic grocery bags in each hand and bending your elbows until the bags are level with your shoulder, then hold your elbows up behind you and see if you can lift the bags back until your arms are straight. There are lots more like that.
  • 4_Lisa
    4_Lisa Posts: 362 Member
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    What types of things were you doing with your trainer? my initial goal was to lose 120lbs, most of what I do with my trainer is circuits consisting of 2 weights and a cardio. This keeps my heart rate up while building the lean muscle.

    At your age, it will be a slower loss. You will need to work a little harder. My suggestion would be to add a strength workout or two into your week. Lean muscle burns more calories just to sustain itself. And take in as much protein as possible to fuel the build of muscle.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    Calculators for BMR are geared toward that average person and the fact you've done this before may have set you up a bit. When you're on the higher end of the scale the calculators may give you more calories than you need because they're assuming a certain ratio of fat to lean muscle mass. As you get into the higher weight ranges that ratio changes and you really don't need to feed the fat. You want to eat healthy and exercise to maintain your lean muscle but you may not need all the calories a BMR calculator is giving you.
  • blu_meanie_ca
    blu_meanie_ca Posts: 352 Member
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    A), I would suspect that 1850 + work out calories would be more maintanence calories, not deficit calories. 1850 including workout would be more likely to have a small calorie deficit.
    B) You are going over your calories often enough that you balancing out your deficit. When you set your deficit small, it doesn't take as much to nulify it.

    I didn't look more than a few weeks back, so there may of been a time when you stuck to your goal well, and still didn't lose weight. If that is the case, try that calorie goal including your workout calories. If, after 2 weeks there is no results... drop your calories by 100, and see what happens. Rince and repeat until you see movement on the scale. Don't forgot, the numbers on here are estimates, and individual results may vary.
  • ShellBurns17
    ShellBurns17 Posts: 9
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    The thing is also you have to take into considration how much muscle you gained the 1st time as well muscle does weigh more than fat the same thing has happened to my fiance he was about 280 before i met him and started doing P90x he dropped about 45 pds and then this last summer we spent it working in alaska but his schedule was night so his body was all wacky and his eating was to he gained about 20 of it back since we have been home he has gotten back to P90x but for the 1st 3 weeks he was not really losing like he had before and his diet is very healthy... I suggested that is could be back the 1st time he did P90x he gained so much muscle so it gonna be harder to kinda shed what he gained back.. he kept at it and in about 2 months he had lost about 15 of what he gained back so that could be part of it.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    Looking through your diary, you seem to log most things as 1 fruit or in cups. I would invest in a food scale, and start weighing things in grams. When we start eyeballing servings we end up underestimating how much we are eating, and that can really cut into your deficit.

    Here's more information about how much we think we eat compared to how much we eat:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

    And a great video on why using measuring cups is an inaccurate method for logging food:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    If I understand correctly, you upped the calories you are eating and dropped the amount of exercise you are doing. It's seems obvious that your weight loss slowed because you decreased your deficit.
  • Queen2day
    Queen2day Posts: 68 Member
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    Thank you all for the replies. I have gone back to the calculator and rerun my numbers. Yes, I am elderly young, 50 to be exact, 5'8", with exercise 1 - 3 times per week. The results it gives me is BMR = 1347 and TDEE = 1852.

    For the most part, I was previously sticking to between 1250 - 1300 cal per day, but hadn't lost any weight for about 3 months. Therefore, I decided to up my calories per reading the various roadmap posts, which initially I did start losing again, although it was very slow in addition to being affected by the amount of sodium in my food choices.

    I probably currently have my daily limit set too high and need to adjust downward, just maybe not as low as I have previously done, as well as increase the amount of exercise I get each week.

    I have just been really frustrated, which I'm sure most of us have been there, just have to tweak things until they click.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Thank you all for the replies. I have gone back to the calculator and rerun my numbers. Yes, I am elderly young, 50 to be exact, 5'8", with exercise 1 - 3 times per week. The results it gives me is BMR = 1347 and TDEE = 1852.

    For the most part, I was previously sticking to between 1250 - 1300 cal per day, but hadn't lost any weight for about 3 months. Therefore, I decided to up my calories per reading the various roadmap posts, which initially I did start losing again, although it was very slow in addition to being affected by the amount of sodium in my food choices.

    I probably currently have my daily limit set too high and need to adjust downward, just maybe not as low as I have previously done, as well as increase the amount of exercise I get each week.

    I have just been really frustrated, which I'm sure most of us have been there, just have to tweak things until they click.

    51 yo here. I would suggest upping the intensity and/or frequency of your workouts to increase your deficit. In my experience exercise is a key factor in weight loss as you age. And even without a need for weight loss it's important to exercise regularly to keep your metabolism from slowing and to prevent bone loss.

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