One massive hit in several weeks now and little to show for it..

kommodevaran wrote: »

johncharles1962 wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

johncharles1962 wrote: »

L1zardQueen wrote: »

Good job giving up alcohol! Are you trying to maintain your weight?

Trying to lose around 12lb and then maintain, and hopefully will have more muscle by then as well

How long ago did you start the exercise and weight training? When I started lifting, my scale weight stalled out for many weeks, just due to the water retention. It was frustrating to not see movement on the scale because I was used to losses being pretty regular. That was when I started losing in stalls and whooshes.

I would recommend logging a day or two, just to be certain that you are at a reasonable calorie intake. You want to be sure you are getting enough nutrition to fuel your body and your workouts, plus to make sure you aren't eating more than you think (it happens so easily). Some people can lose without logging, others have to log, particularly if they only have a little to lose.

Give it some more time and have a little more patience with it. Your body has gone through some really big changes. Good on you for not drinking anymore. Take some pictures, and use a measuring tape in a few places, to get an idea if things are changing. The scale doesn't tell the whole picture, and your eyes may not see changes in the mirror that you will notice when you hold two pictures up beside each other.

Very interesting again, now that has hit a nerve with me. I cannot help but feel I have been retaining water, don't ask me how , But I do hear that swooshing in my stomach after not really over drinking,

I don't thnk you can hear water retention, it's more in the muscles.

plus if anything there has been that slight concern from me that I could have been under eating, seriously!.

Boring food can make you feel that. You might even be short on some essential nutrients.

I get the point about the logging of food etc, but if anyone had any idea what it has been giving up the alcohol alone will understand my patience and concentration have not been good, but I am just taking the postive from this and telling myself I have done 5 good things in one hit. I also wanted to try meditation or yoga as well, but too p***ed off at the moment to try it which is perverse because it is probably the best time to start, but bit by bit, taken a lot on as it is.

And that's why people advice logging food, so that you can eat food you like, without exceeding your calorie target.

So so true about water retention. I am the *queen* of water retention, and I've never ever been able to hear it. It's a tightness feeling, not a swooshing sound. It doesn't make a sound.

johncharles1962 wrote: »

collectingblues wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

johncharles1962 wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

johncharles1962 wrote: »

L1zardQueen wrote: »

Good job giving up alcohol! Are you trying to maintain your weight?

Trying to lose around 12lb and then maintain, and hopefully will have more muscle by then as well

How long ago did you start the exercise and weight training? When I started lifting, my scale weight stalled out for many weeks, just due to the water retention. It was frustrating to not see movement on the scale because I was used to losses being pretty regular. That was when I started losing in stalls and whooshes.

I would recommend logging a day or two, just to be certain that you are at a reasonable calorie intake. You want to be sure you are getting enough nutrition to fuel your body and your workouts, plus to make sure you aren't eating more than you think (it happens so easily). Some people can lose without logging, others have to log, particularly if they only have a little to lose.

Give it some more time and have a little more patience with it. Your body has gone through some really big changes. Good on you for not drinking anymore. Take some pictures, and use a measuring tape in a few places, to get an idea if things are changing. The scale doesn't tell the whole picture, and your eyes may not see changes in the mirror that you will notice when you hold two pictures up beside each other.

Very interesting again, now that has hit a nerve with me. I cannot help but feel I have been retaining water, don't ask me how , But I do hear that swooshing in my stomach after not really over drinking,

I don't thnk you can hear water retention, it's more in the muscles.

plus if anything there has been that slight concern from me that I could have been under eating, seriously!.

Boring food can make you feel that. You might even be short on some essential nutrients.

I get the point about the logging of food etc, but if anyone had any idea what it has been giving up the alcohol alone will understand my patience and concentration have not been good, but I am just taking the postive from this and telling myself I have done 5 good things in one hit. I also wanted to try meditation or yoga as well, but too p***ed off at the moment to try it which is perverse because it is probably the best time to start, but bit by bit, taken a lot on as it is.

And that's why people advice logging food, so that you can eat food you like, without exceeding your calorie target.

So so true about water retention. I am the *queen* of water retention, and I've never ever been able to hear it. It's a tightness feeling, not a swooshing sound. It doesn't make a sound.

I just came back to mention this again, was reading about it last night because it hit a nerve.. Also never mentioned my stomach feels bloated and I am not very productive in the Loo department if you get my meaning. I just have this big feeling that suddenly stopping heavy drinking has it's effects, maybe bad effects to start with?

Thoughts aren't facts. You're looking for a way to justify a continued behavior, it seems, and to stop focusing on the idea that you need to stop drinking... Which I know is hard. But that doesn't mean that you should grasp at straws as to why stopping drinking messed everything up.

Water retention is different from constipation. (Which, thanks to celiac, I'm also all too familiar with.) Still never heard a swooshing sound with constipation. So sure, you might have some bowel/digestive issues at play. But those are separate from water retention.

johncharles1962 wrote: »

collectingblues wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

johncharles1962 wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

johncharles1962 wrote: »

L1zardQueen wrote: »

Good job giving up alcohol! Are you trying to maintain your weight?

Trying to lose around 12lb and then maintain, and hopefully will have more muscle by then as well

How long ago did you start the exercise and weight training? When I started lifting, my scale weight stalled out for many weeks, just due to the water retention. It was frustrating to not see movement on the scale because I was used to losses being pretty regular. That was when I started losing in stalls and whooshes.

I would recommend logging a day or two, just to be certain that you are at a reasonable calorie intake. You want to be sure you are getting enough nutrition to fuel your body and your workouts, plus to make sure you aren't eating more than you think (it happens so easily). Some people can lose without logging, others have to log, particularly if they only have a little to lose.

Give it some more time and have a little more patience with it. Your body has gone through some really big changes. Good on you for not drinking anymore. Take some pictures, and use a measuring tape in a few places, to get an idea if things are changing. The scale doesn't tell the whole picture, and your eyes may not see changes in the mirror that you will notice when you hold two pictures up beside each other.

Very interesting again, now that has hit a nerve with me. I cannot help but feel I have been retaining water, don't ask me how , But I do hear that swooshing in my stomach after not really over drinking,

I don't thnk you can hear water retention, it's more in the muscles.

plus if anything there has been that slight concern from me that I could have been under eating, seriously!.

Boring food can make you feel that. You might even be short on some essential nutrients.

I get the point about the logging of food etc, but if anyone had any idea what it has been giving up the alcohol alone will understand my patience and concentration have not been good, but I am just taking the postive from this and telling myself I have done 5 good things in one hit. I also wanted to try meditation or yoga as well, but too p***ed off at the moment to try it which is perverse because it is probably the best time to start, but bit by bit, taken a lot on as it is.

And that's why people advice logging food, so that you can eat food you like, without exceeding your calorie target.

So so true about water retention. I am the *queen* of water retention, and I've never ever been able to hear it. It's a tightness feeling, not a swooshing sound. It doesn't make a sound.

I just came back to mention this again, was reading about it last night because it hit a nerve.. Also never mentioned my stomach feels bloated and I am not very productive in the Loo department if you get my meaning. I just have this big feeling that suddenly stopping heavy drinking has it's effects, maybe bad effects to start with?

Are you getting enough fats in your diet? I skimmed back through the thread to see what you'd mentioned eating, and I wasn't seeing a lot of fat in there, though you didn't pretend to list your intake exhaustively.

A very common thing to see here is someone deciding to "eat healthy", significantly increasing fiber, and reducing fats to a minimum because fats are relatively high in calories. That's almost a recipe for constipation, and I have to say, constipation can contribute to several things you've mentioned - lower than expected weight loss, bloated feeling, belly sticking out a bit, etc.

If you've gone pretty low on fat, consider adding some. It can be healthy things like nuts, avocados, a bit of olive oil on your salad or on veggies, etc.

The other thing that can contribute to constipation is too little water. Most people "dieting" do increase water, so that's less common as a cause around here, IME. I'm not talking crazy amounts of water (or equivalent fluids), rather just enough to keep urine pale straw-colored or lighter.

Beyond that, it may help to eat some probiotic foods, like live-culture yogurt; raw, unpasteurized sauerkraut or kim chi; miso; kefir; kombucha; etc. That's a bit more speculative, but it seems to help some people. Getting more magnesium (food or supplement) could also help, if you're deficient.

One of the problems with not logging food is that it's a little harder to figure out how much fiber you're getting, whether you're eating enough fat, whether micronutrients are where they should be, etc., so that leaves experimentation (or medical tests for some micronutrient levels).

The other thing I usually mention for constipation is getting exercise, but you've made clear you're going hard on that front.

Above are most of the "medically normal" factors I can think of, with respect to constipation. You could have something not medically normal (like a food sensitivity, say), but the common things tend to be common.

Best wishes!

The stomach issues might be from the change in diet -- a sudden increase in fiber (likely if you went from the typical 'American diet' to eating more vegetables, beans, etc) will cause what you described.