A Little Help Please :-)

natalie1508 · May 2013

Hi, I'm new to this forum and am after a little bit of help from those of you who are more experienced :-)

I'm 5ft 5ins, 32 and small build (wrist size less than 6inches).

Since I've had kids (first one at 22), I have always hovered around the 140-145lb mark, so this for me is what I'd call "normal". I was alot smaller before I had kids, but I was young then :-). But 140-145 is a happy me.

Anyway, in October 2011 I was around 148lbs and I had a horrible relationship breakdown. On 1st December 2011, I weighed 122lbs. That's pretty much a 2 stone loss in 8 weeks. I was in such a state, I did not eat. I was signed of work and the GP was useless but I did try and help myself by drinking a Complan everyday, but this was pretty much it. After 1st Dec, I really tried to gain and as the situation got easier, I was able to get back upto about 130 where I stayed for a few months. Then, as I got over things, I started eating normally, but I was still extremely depressed and spent nearly a year doing nothing but laying in bed feeling sorry for myself. I knew the weight was creeping up, but I thought it was a good thing to be healthy again and enjoying food. Fast forward to now, 3rd May 2013, nearly 18 months ago I weighed 122lbs and I now weigh 174lbs :-(

For the last 3 weeks I have taken action. I have gone from doing nothing, to walking for 80mins 2 x a day and doing a bootcamp (which boasts to burn 1000 cals each hour) 2 x a week. I have gone from eating a packet of biscuits for breakfast and then crap all day and night, to eating 3 square meals a day and I have always drank lots, which I still do. All of this and I have only lost 2lbs. The first week was 1lb, the second week was 1lb and this week was 0lb. I understand that I have wrecked my metabolism, but I want to get it back on track now, and I thought this was the way to do it, but now I'm not so sure. I have seen people smaller than me lose 5lbs in a week after cutting out butter and cheese, so I don't see why I have lost so little.

I know a loss is a loss and I'm happy to carry on, but I want to ensure I am doing the best thing before I carry on. I now wonder whether I'm eating more than I was before, despite gaining weight, maybe I was in starvation mode despite eating crap and now I should be eating far less to get things moving?! I just don't know :-(

In a week I am averaging 1500-1600 cals. I didn't want to do the 1200 thing straight off incase my body got freaked out I was starving again! I don't know whether this TDEE thing is a proven, but different sites say different things so I've roughly got a bmr of 1550 and a TDEE of 2100....but this varies between 100's, so I've tried to average it out amongst 3-4 sites.

I'm willing to listen to all ideas of what I should do.

TIA

natalie1508 · May 2013

Anyone?

dittmarml · May 2013

If you eat between your BMR and your TDEE you'll lose weight.

A "gross" rule of thumb around here is 20% less than your TDEE. So if you're getting around 2100 (estimated) for TDEE, putting it around 1600 is good. If you're exercising alot and it sounds like you are you might want to bump that up by 100 or so, but in any case make sure you're getting good food in - lots of vegetables, whole grains, etc.

So in short, yup, you're doing the right things - just keep on keeping on and you'll see changes! Congratulations to you for making the commitment to turn it around!

tinytemple · May 2013

You need to open your diary so that we can see what you've been eating otherwise it's hard to tell where you are going wrong!
Don't despair though, you need to just stick at it for long term success!

natalie1508 · May 2013

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

I have no idea how to open up my diary, but a regular day would be as follows.

Breakfast: 3 x boiled eggs, 2 x wholemeal toast, glass of apple juice, Greek yoghurt (around 600 cals)

Lunch: Bowl Minestrone soup, cucumber & houmus (around 300 cals)

Dinner: Pasta & tom sauce with mushrooms, onions & peppers & grated cheese (around 500 cals)

I don't really snack but if I do I will have a Timeout (85cals) or some grapes. I also have a couple more glasses of apple juice which take me to around 1500-1600 each day and I only sometimes eat back my exercise cals. So for example, my net cals for the last 3 weeks have been (averaged) wk 1 1200, wk 2 1400, wk 3 1400. This is literally me adding up each day and dividing by 7, but there are obviously some days where I eat back all my cals and some days I don't.

My main issue before was skipping breakfast and lunch and then eating a big dinner and snacks til I went to bed. I have really tried to focus this first month on getting my body used to three meals a day, and stopping the late night eating, but the changed have been HUGE, which is why I'm kinda stunned that I haven't lost more. I read a post about a woman who's metabolism was dead and she had to eat LOADS to kick start it again....is this me?? Or shall I give 1600ish more time?

natalie1508 · May 2013

I was meant to say that before my 30th, I used MFP and pretty much the same exercise routine and lost a stone. Although the exercise was the same, I did 13-1400 cals and the weight came off 2lb a week - so I know my choice of food and my exercise routine can work, as it's proven; but my main concern is wtf have I done to my metabolism and is it fixable?!

natalie1508 · May 2013

Lost nothing again this week.

Exasperated is not the word. If 3 healthy meals a day, no cakes or choc and lots of exercise are not working, then what gives?!

I am definitely eating less than I burn but I think this TDEE & BMR thing may put me too high. If my maintenance is 1850 approx and I need a 500 deficit, then I'm not getting that by eating above BMR of 1550 approx. So maybe dropping to 1350 might help?!

A Little Help Please :-)

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