I am Jamie, over weight, and so confused.

pepsicolaho · September 2015

I am Jamie. I am 31 and mother to 4 boys (and 3 bonus children). Before getting pregnant with my almost 3 year old (whom I am still breast feeding, so no detox suggestions please), I was 155ish pounds. I was 199 the day I delivered him and 170 2 weeks later. Between then and now I ballooned to 216.5lbs (5 foot 2). I decided last month that I needed a change. As of July 30th I quit drinking Pepsi. It's all I drank, 4L a day. No coffee, milk, water or juice. A week later I decided to try changing my diet. I am not "dieting" as I need a life style change, not a fad diet. For now I eat whatever I want but try to restrict my calories (not so much carbs) to 1200 a day. I've pretty much eliminated the obvious bad foods (candy, chocolate, chips, sweets I'm general). I only drink plain water. I still eat a lot, but it's namely veggies and chicken, some bread, granola, yogurt, occasional Cheerios. Still seems like a lot of days I eat lots but have plenty of the 1200 calories left over. 2 weeks ago I started going to the gym. I love it. I usually spend about 2 hours there a night (sometimes 1.5 hours, sometimes 3) and burn typically 500-650 calories there a night. I seem to be losing approximately 0.5lbs a day (15 total so fat, weighing in at 201.5 today).
I am wanting to know what I can do better, healthier. Besides breast feeding I don't have any health issues that limit me that I know of.

pepsicolaho · September 2015

I want to namely make sure I won't hurt myself eating too little (even though it seems like a lot) and working out too much (a month ago I was winded walking up and down stairs to the bathroom). Nutrition information is so confusing. Some of what I read says I need to eliminate carbs. Others say I need to make sure carbs are part of my every day. I am so confused.

jennifer_417 · September 2015

If you're still breastfeeding, I would definitely think you would want more than 1200 calories. 0.5 lbs per day is too much to sustain. At 1st, if you have significant weight to lose, it probably wont hurt, but you wouldn't want to do it for very long. Also, I believe MFP has an exercise logged for breastfeeding, which you'll want to log so that you can get some of those calories back. It's really not hard to pad your calories, there are quite a few foods you can add to your day that will give you lots of calories for relatively low volume. For instance, PB, butter, and Nutella all have 100 calories per tbsp. A handful of nuts will also have a fair amount of calories, and are super good for you.

pepsicolaho · September 2015

I am a night time/first thing in the morning nurser, so he nurses for comfort rather then nourishment, so I've always just kind of ignored that. I canny find a suitably accurate calorie deficit for the amount of nursing we do

My gym is OF COURSE over top of a grocery store (how evil). Days I am closer to my 1200 I usually pick up an apple and a package of watermelon. Days I know I am quite a bit under, I pick up some cashews (my fav) and sometimes some whole wheat mini pita and guacamole or hummus. I really eat so much though it's crazy. 3 times as much as I ever ate before, but, just so much better.

Thanks so much for your time and reply, and advice. I think the PB suggestion is a great one. Protein has kind of been a struggle

Damien_Scott · September 2015

Welcome to the first step toward your new life! I say this because to keep the weight off you have to count calories for the rest of forever.

Buy a digital food scale. Any cheap $15ish will do.
Set your activity level on here to the lowest setting to get your true daily calorie allotment.
Don't add exercise to your daily calorie intake, and never eat back the calories from your workouts. (at least not until you are maintaining and close to your goal weight) If you are more hungry that day, don't feel bad going over 100-200 calories, but don't eat everything back.
If you have a hard time starting out at 1200 calories a day, then try for 1400-1450 to start. My girlfriend did this and found it easy to change to 1200 after a month. She started at 195 and has lost 16 lbs in 45days so far.
Plan your calories around your dinner. You can eat pretty much whatever you want and then plan to have a light breakfast and lunch, or no lunch. It's much more rewarding to skip lunch to have that sexy "cheat" meal than to actually cheat yourself and go way over for it.
Don't worry about your Macros (carbs, sodium, sugars, etc) But do try to eat your 90grams of protein every day. If you don't have any health problems then the other macros won't be a big deal. I try to keep my sodium under 2 times the daily limit though.
You might want to go to the subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit and search for conversations about breastfeeding while losing weight for more info on that. I bet there are some supplements you might need to take to help assure your child is as healthy as can be.
As far as carbs go, I don't worry about it too much. We have limited our intake of them, but not cut them out completely. My issue with them is that they tend to be empty calories that don't keep you as full as other things. I substitute bread for lower calorie wraps such as the FlatOut brand. They even make nifty tortilla thin pizza crusts that are 90 freaking calories compared to the 500-1000 calories a normal pizza crust.
Keep your soda, chips, cookies, pastas, and breads to a minimum.You can eat whatever you want and still lose weight. The problem is that these things don't fill you up and are very high in calories for their serving sizes, so you get hungry later.
If you want something with flavor I suggest getting into unsweetened teas and coffees. There are tons of 0 calorie hot teas and Tradewinds Has started making unsweetened raspberry and peach teas that aren't terrible.
Constantly be on the lookout for places where you can cut out calories. I mentioned the wraps before, but We also look for lower calorie dressings without getting "Fat-free" sodium bombs.
If you like to feel like you're eating more for a snack, look for things like goldfish crackers or even some teddy gram knockoffs. Gold fish are something like 55 crackers per serving and some gram brands are 30+. This gives you the feeling of eating more for your calories.
If you like cold stuff, they have brands such as outshine that make 30-45 calorie popsicles.

You seem to be on the right track and are already doing most of these things. It might be slow at times and you might even seem to be gaining, but it works. If you have any more questions let me know.

Ashtoretet · September 2015

How many days a week are you working out? If you're going 3 times a week for 2 hours at a time you are eating far too few calories. http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=25&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=2&cpound=216&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1.55&printit=0&x=58&y=17

1200 is your 2 pounds a week weight loss calories for being SEDENTARY. 1800 for someone going 3 days a week for multiple hours at a time.

Losing more than 2 pounds a week is not healthy.

Justifier · September 2015

If you are only eating 1200 calories a day, going to the gym for 1-2 hours, AND breastfeeding, you are starving your body! You are not giving your body enough calories to maintain its daily metabolic functions.

Producing milk takes 300-500 calories per day. If you aren't giving yourself enough for that plus everything else your body does in a day, it's not going to be too healthy.

You want your "calories remaining" to be as close to zero as possible. There's a reason it's a "goal" and not a "maximum." Eat to fuel your body. You won't gain weight unless you eat way more fuel than you need. MFP is set up so you eat just a little bit less fuel (a healthy amount less) than you need so your body uses some of its stored fuel (fat) to keep you going.

Damien_Scott · September 2015

Ashtoretet wrote: »

1200 is your 2 pounds a week weight loss calories for being SEDENTARY. 1800 for someone going 3 days a week for multiple hours at a time.

From what I've seen, people have had a lot of trouble with doing this. It's way too difficult to accurately figure out what you're burning, especially with MFPs shotty calculations. (3000 calories burned for swimming for 100 minutes?)

Others that have had success always suggest to put it to sedentary and then not eat back your calories. If you're hungry after a workout don't feel bad about eating a little bit more but don't go out and eat another whole meal. Not to mention if you sit there and eat back what you exercise calorie for calorie then you aren't going to lose anything extra. Exercise is more for fitness than it is weight loss.

When you have a 50-100+ lbs to lose you don't have to worry about balancing your calories out as much with exercise. Granted, the breastfeeding thing throws in something I am unfamiliar with, but I doubt it's that much different.

pepsicolaho · September 2015

I've been going every day except tonight, so the past 13 days. Sometimes twice a day. This is kind of what I worry about. I'm not hung up on losing the 1.5lbs more then the 2 pound goal, but do want to make sure I don't do anything detrimental. But that's where I get confused. "Don't eat back your calories", but I should eat more?

pepsicolaho · September 2015

Damien!! I found the flat bread. We had pizza last week. I used the flat bread (though mine was 120 cal) and made my own sauce. I loaded up on veggies instead of meat (though there was some) and used low fat cheese to compliment rather than smother. And it was great.

Damien_Scott · September 2015

You very well might have to. Your best bet is to try and talk to a nutritionist or someone in a relevant profession. At the very least search reddit or some other forums for a consensus on what to do about breast feeding.

Just remember, so long as you are at a calorie deficit, you will lose. No matter how low the deficit is.

PinkPixiexox · September 2015

Most importantly - You need to up your calories. You are eating far too little for a breastfeeding mother.

Cutting out the 'junk' is a good start and definitely a good way to educate yourself into spotting the high calorie foods but I really want to re-iterate, up your calories. Just while your breastfeeding, at least.

GaleHawkins · September 2015

@pepsicolaho it sounds like you are serious. Give yourself some time we did not get over weight in a few months time and it will take time to learn how and to reverse our weight gains. In my case I needed to manage my pain by a new eating lifestyle. Like you I cut back on the sugar at first. In the end I removed grains as well to get good pain management.

You will get to a new eating lifestyle in time that works for you. We are all different so no cookie cutter eating lifestyle of others may work for you but as you experiment and do more research it will click for you.

Welcome to MFP forums.

pepsicolaho · September 2015

I am so over the breast feeding. I was almost hoping it will help dry up the milk so hems quit on his own. It's so hard to say no otherwise. But I will definitely follow your reddit link Damien I see what more I can find out. Google tells you nothing but what you need/burn while breastfeeding a young young child (still using breastmilk as as piece of nutrition). There must be plenty of people in my situation so info out there somewhere

pepsicolaho · September 2015

Thanks so much for the advice everyone

I am so ignorant about it all.

pepsicolaho · September 2015

I need to try to keep a handle on this whole balance thing. Today was a very bad eating day as I was jut so busy. Too busy to even be hungry. As per suggestions, I had a little snack (piece of cheese and a banana), despite it being so late. Maybe it will regulate my blood sugars while I sleep, lol

sodapoppin28 · September 2015

I also workout seven days a week, I do a mix of cardio and weight training. Its definitely doable if you feel your body is up to it but never force yourself. One thing I will suggest is if you plan to work out everyday never work out for two hours, only go for 45 mins to one hour. Also try not to go twice a day, I know the excitement overcomes you but trust me give your body rest for the next day.

I am Jamie, over weight, and so confused.

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