Help! A little confused and frustrated!

"Lifting weights" simply means using muscle in a progressively harder fashion as it becomes easier. You can do the same thing during your walks... Stop every 5 minutes and do 1 pushup as best you can (knees, against a bench, etc) . Try to "feel" the muscle in your arm and chest contract/release. After a few days when you can do this fairly well, try doing two each time.. or stopping more often... or doing a "better' pushup (going from knees to toes, etc). The only thing that matters is that once you can do something "easily", make it a *little* harder.

Pushups is just an example. If you walk near a park, use the swings (pump your legs) or hang from the monkey bars as long as you can.

You could also try just doing a few squats every time you go to the bathroom (so you do it in private). Start out with 2 . WOrk your way up to ten, or work on getting your butt lower. Pretend to sit on the toilet then at the last second stand back up...

If you really, really, hate all that, you could buy a weighted vest to wear on your walks. Start with a lighter one and then progress to heavier ones. I would not recommend ankle or wrist weights - they will throw your bones/muscles out of whack.

There are all kinds of bodyweight related exercises you can do, and they are progressive - i.e. start doing pushups simply by standing two feets from a wall and pushing yourself from the wall to standing over and over without moving your feet. When it is easy and you can do a lot, step back another foot and start over. When you get out far enough, kneel on the ground with hands on a bench. Then eventually hands on the floor. Then eventually toes instead of knees. All exercises use your body weight, and your angle or position increases/decreases the weight. Look up "you are your own gym" or "convict conditioning" or "marks daily apple" for some examples if you need ideas (you dont have to follow those programs, but it will give you ideas on different body weight things you can do).

Good luck!

I'm 5'1 so I'm a shorty as well. My highest was 333lbs. What I've found that has helped me, besides counting calories. I got rid of carbs and I try to stay below 10g of sugar per meal if any at all. Getting rid of those 2 things has helped me. I don't know if it's healthy or not, just letting you know what has worked for me

Weigh absolutely everything you eat! see where that puts you.

As others said, I'd switch to grams rather than ounces for anything that can be weighed. I'd also add that using "Generic" entries isn't a good idea. "Generic pepperoni pizza" isn't going to be a very accurate entry. Varying amounts of sauce, dough, cheese, etc will all alter the calories in a slice.

On chips, nuts, etc, those should be weighed rather than counted.

"Generic homemade meat sauce" -- Use the recipe builder if you made the sauce and weigh the pasta rather than using a cup measurement.

Avocado - again, weigh, not log by slices.. how large is an avocado slice?

WilsonFilson wrote: »

Have you considered expanding your exercise routine? You COULD be eating more and still losing in a year from now by increasing your lean mass (i.e., muscle).

I'm a big fan of dropping the low intensity steady state exercise (walking) and replacing it with a solid weight lifting program and interval cardio 3-4 times a week.

I'm a fan of doing both.

kimny72 wrote: »

OP, my humble two cents...

Commit for 2 weeks to weighing every solid food you can in grams, even packaged stuff. In this time, also commit to making sure the entries you are using in the database are accurate. Don't use generic or homemade entries. Search for "raw" or "usda" whenever possible. Make sure there are no items slipping through the cracks, like condiments or snacks.

Is this level of accuracy necessary long term? Not unless you want it to be, but this will give you 2 solid weeks of good data and may shine a light on any possible issues.

As others have said, it is possible to go for as long as 4 weeks with no loss and then get a whoosh. So that could be the whole story right there.

Walking is great exercise, and if that's all you can do, then that's all you can do! With the bad weather, I'll sometimes march in place in front of the TV for 10 minutes here and there to get some steps in, LOL.

Hang in there :drinker:

In addition to marching in place in front of the tv, there are free Leslie Sansone walk at home work outs on youtube.

I am not a fan of exercise DVD's at all, but I found doing those bearable.

Like the OP, I started out with the only form of exercise I found to be enjoyable being walking. Things progressed from there.

I used those Leslie Sansone videos when I didn't feel like going to the gym to use the treadmill.

arnolddelor wrote: »

Briacha, I think first of all amazing job so far, don't be discouraged. Patience is a virtue. second of all, you should stop worrying about numbers. Stress can affect weight loss by releasing an hormone called cortisol (if I remember correctly), which means that sometimes u need to look at body measurements other than body weight. I also think that you need to include weight lifting into your workout, walking is great but intensity is the key here. Pushing yourself more and more by setting goals to achieve. However, over training can also cause a lot of stress to your body so don't forget to rest well. Food wise, counting calories and eating clean is the key BUT sometime we tend to forget the essentials, as you are getting leaner by losing weight you need to eat more too to burn more. DO NOT starve your body, spread those 1200 calories over 4 to 5 meals a day by eating every 2 to 3hrs. When your body enters starvation mode, it builds fats instead of burning it. Finally, like others said be careful when you enter your food, make sure you are weighing things properly and also maybe just stick to one unit. I use grams as I think it's easier.
Just keep pushing and be patient you will get there

she does not have to eat more to lose more, and starvation mode when it comes to weight loss does not exist. she will not build fat in a deficit,she also does not have to eat 4-5 meals a day or eat every 2-3 hrs unless she has a health issue where she needs to keep insulin or something along those lines at a decent level and has to eat that often.fat is burned in a deficit. your body wont store it.

alarmed123 wrote: »

I'm 5'1 so I'm a shorty as well. My highest was 333lbs. What I've found that has helped me, besides counting calories. I got rid of carbs and I try to stay below 10g of sugar per meal if any at all. Getting rid of those 2 things has helped me. I don't know if it's healthy or not, just letting you know what has worked for me

so you got rid of veggies and fruit? carbs=sugar=carbs