97 lbs down but now not losing weight...

tiffanyctyree · November 2011

So, I have been at this for quite a while. December 9th will mark my 3 year anniversary of deciding enough is enough and beginning my weight loss journey. I had just taken a trip to NYC with my mom at 350.2 lbs (at 5'4" - whew) and there were so many things on that trip that pushed me over the edge: trying to stuff myself in the airplane seat, out of breath and pained while walking down the street, barely being stuffed into a 3x jacket, and the horrible pictures I had taken.

Anyways, so over these 3 years I am down 97 lbs (was down 117 at one point in May but gained back up to 267 by September). September 7th we (my husband and I) signed up for a new gym where we had just moved (3rd gym membership in this 3 year period) and received a free fitness assessment where they basically sell you on the personal training. Well, we got our butts kicked so bad in that 20 minute workout (and we thought we were pretty in shape before that) that we decided a personal trainer was the way to go and we have been training 4 days a week ever since.

Every month we have a fitness assessment that shows our results. So October 20th was our first fitness assessment and I lost a whopping 6 lbs in almost 6 weeks. I definitely wasn't happy with that number but I had a consolation prize of almost 6% body fat percentage lost, better numbers in every category - upper body strength, lower body strength, flexibility, etc. So I told myself, next month you can do better and get those 10 lbs you were shooting for. Well, tomorrow will be 3 weeks from that assessment and I have not lost any weight. I have been fluctuating up and down but no real loss.

I should probably tell you at this point that I know that I am still fully addicted to food. I have alot of off days where I just go crazy and eat all my favorite foods (all horrible for me). But at the same time, I have alot of good days where I stay right at my calorie goal and don't eat any of my exercise calories. So I just feel like it should balance out and when I run the numbers it says I should have lost 2.37 lbs in those 3 weeks. Since I don't track on most of my bad days (I have been really trying for the last 10 days to do better at tracking even bad days) I have estimated that I ate 3500 calories. While I hope that is an overestimation, part of me thinks it is right on. Below is my spreadshet I used for these calculations:

Date Food Exercise BMR Net
10/20/2011 2035 749 2350 -1064
10/21/2011 1639 1020 2350 -1731
10/22/2011 2650 761 2350 -461
10/23/2011 3500 0 2350 1150
10/24/2011 2474 500 2350 -376
10/25/2011 3500 0 2350 1150
10/26/2011 3500 385 2350 765
10/27/2011 3500 400 2350 750
10/28/2011 3500 350 2350 800
10/29/2011 3500 0 2350 1150
10/30/2011 3500 0 2350 1150
10/31/2011 1560 929 2350 -1719
11/1/2011 1301 1150 2350 -2199
11/2/2011 1348 1000 2350 -2002
11/3/2011 1070 1080 2350 -2360
11/4/2011 1451 300 2350 -1199
11/5/2011 2060 574 2350 -864
11/6/2011 3356 300 2350 706
11/7/2011 1310 800 2350 -1840
11/8/2011 2682 432 2350 -100
-8294

lbs 2.369714286

I don't even know what I am looking for you all to say, but does anyone know of anything that could help me? I just feel like every week I try to start again but something always happens. I can admit my addiction, but that doesn't help make it go away. I have lost alot, just very slowly, and I still have a long way to go. I haven't made any real progress in the last year (I am the same weight as a year ago) and at this point it feels like it is never going to happen. I have 120 lbs to go. How can I conquer this beast?

drivermarshy · November 2011

youve come a long way already and well done on tha loss... having ur hustbands support will help push on. keep with it. your doing the right thing in joining a gym and personally i find this slows the weight loss but increases the inch loss which is a far better trade off... ive started making healthier alternatives to the "bad" foods i love. maybe that will help you too? good luck and once again well done so far x

♥_Ellybean_♥ · November 2011

with the personal training you may be gaining muscle ... I know they kick your butt and I had this happen to me too.

Concentrate on the BF% that's an awesome accomplishment, which means you are losing BF even if the scale is not moving.

carolinedb · November 2011

I've had to force myself to track on those days I go crazy in order to break through plateaus. It hurts, but it's worth it. It's definitely helped me get right back on track. Also, there were days I estimated 3000-3500 calories for a bad day, and it was up in the 4000 range...that could definitely be affecting your weight loss. Maybe try finding a way to cope with your food demons as well, instead of going all or nothing on your days.

lindalou4850 · November 2011

i think you have been doing good so far. Now you need to stop eatig your favorite foods and try to stay at your calorie goal. Switch up your exercise routine often.Good Luck an remember no one said this is an easy journey.
One more thing 1-2 pound weight loss per week is good .If you do more than that it will be easier to gain it back quickly

jamiesadler · November 2011

Unfortunately for most of us putting it on comes so much faster than taking it off. Be thankful for what you have accomplished this far and just keep going. You have lost a great deal and your body may just be adjusting. I can tell you that if you still feel addicted to food you re going to have a problem. Try to find healthier alternatives to your favorites. Try to stay away from processed and artificial items. Whole fruits and veggies and natural sugars are the best for you. You have done great and you will get over this hurdle and keep going . Try not to get discouraged weight loss is a life long journey.

engineman312 · November 2011

this is 80% nutrition. you said yourself you are addicted to food, and like with any type of addiction you need to learn what triggers you. stop rewarding/comforting yourself with food. buy a food scale and start measuring your portions. start planning ahead of time what and when you'll eat. i know i always make better food choices if i go to the groccery store and plan my meals ahead of time. and the same way you saw a trainer for exercise help, you need to see a nutritionist for food help.

ruby_red_rose · November 2011

i was also not losing any weight for a period of a few weeks. my dietician said that i was gaining back the weight i was losing on my good days by eating poorly on my bad days. try being very strict with your diet for 2 weeks in a row, if you notice that you are losing weight when you are very strict, then you will know that the days when you eat poorly are to blame. good luck.

Ken_Roper · November 2011

I agree with Ellybean - you ARE losing the RIGHT stuff (body fat). Muscle gain is NOT a bad thing! It will help you burn more calories and that is good. My personal goal is not to touch the calories I burn in cardio each day and also to eat a couple hundred less than allowed by MFP. Some days I don't do well and I've found on those days that I tend not to track my food intake (guilt takes over, I fear). But, thank goodness for the guilt! Otherwise, I would eat without conscience and not make the effort to discipline myself.

Hang in there. You will reach your goal and you will be even happier once you are there. I think your success to date is wonderful!

MelDarni · November 2011

Even losing 2.5 pounds in 3 weeks is progress and you're moving in the right direction! You can do this.

Genkaku · November 2011

First off, great job on the weight lost so far, that is definitely no easy feat.

Couple things...with the trainer, I notice they usually have you do full body workouts opposed to sticking to machines, etc. (that is, in my experience, not sure how yours is). With these full body workouts, you're much more likely to gain muscle with them, as you're working out new areas you're not used to. Muscle gain is kind of inverse to weight loss, meaning that you will gain alot of muscle quickly, then plateau where you don't gain so much. This could account for you only losing 6 pounds, but dropping 6% fat.

Next, this will be the quickest way to see results, but not necessarily the easiest. Looking at your spreadsheet, your calorie intake is all over the map. What you should aim to do is shoot for a low calorie diet (1200 is the starvation line, so make sure you never go below that), and set a maximum for the day you'll ever allow yourself. Say you set it at 1400, and alter it according to harder workouts, you could set a cap of never over 1700 for additional food from working out. I get the feeling your metabolism has no idea what's going on, and hopefully if you get a regulatory diet, with small meals throughout the day it can help?

I'm not an expert by any means, but these things have worked for me...hope this helps!

msjac23 · November 2011

I work out with a trainer too, I do weight lifting three times a week and cardio five times a week. My scale weigh loss is slow, but I try not to focus on that, I focus on how my clothes fit and my body fat %. Though I would like to lose another 20 pounds I'm in know hurry I will eventually get there. It took me 5 months to lose 11 pounds, but it look like I loss 20 pound. Most importantly you have to track everything you eat. That one thing I never stop doing even when I feel I have bad days. The only time I didn't track was when I was sick with the stomach flu, but I got right back on track. I don't want to gain back any weigh I have lost. Good Luck!!

vim_n_vigor · November 2011

Great loss first of all. To lose the weight you need to manage what you are eating. If you are still so addicted to food after all this time, you may benefit from some counseling for help - I am saying this in a totally supportive way. You need to deal with the root cause of your weight to ever totally beat it. A counselor can help with that.

funkycamper · November 2011

I think a 6% loss in body fat is amazing. Focus on those types of positives.

Personally, I think your list of days with calorie amounts is useless if you aren't tracking your days of eating over your calorie goal. And, if anything, we tend to underestimate what we eat if we're not tracking. Studies support that under-estimation is common even in dietitians who should have the knowledge to be more accurate.

Do you have a food addiction? Maybe. Or maybe you just haven't found the eating plan that works best for you. Maybe your are trying to eat in a way that makes you feel too deprived and increases obsessing on what you can't have leading to gorging.

I will share what is working for me and a couple of my friends with the hope it will work for you. Or at least lead to to thinking about different ways you can tweak your eating plan to make it work better for you.

First, don't deprive yourself. Of course, this doesn't mean that you can eat what you what, whenever you want. But even thin and fit people splurge once in awhile. I think those of us who are trying to lose weight need to splurge now and then as well. I do calorie cycling (a/k/a zig-zagging my calories). And then I really pay more attention to my calories for the week, not on a daily basis. This allows me to eat less on days where I may not be as hungry and bank some calories so I can eat more when I'm more hungry or just when I need a splurge or if I'm at a festivity where I want to join in on the special food there. The key is that your calories for the week must be within your weekly calorie goal. Don't sweat the day-to-day ups and downs as long as you have hit that weekly target or remained slightly under it. I don't feel guilty about a piece or cake or some other goodie as long as it doesn't push me over my calorie target and I eat healthy most of the time.

Second, maybe you need to play with your food choices to see if something is triggering the urge to binge. I have to watch my carb intake because I can be triggered to binge on carbs fairly easily. But I have found some tricks to help. I can enjoy enjoy carb-dense foods without binging as long as they are healthier and lower on the GI index (whole-grain bread instead of white or sweet bread) and I eat proteins with it. I also know I can't do this more than once or twice a week or I start wanting to binge on eating a whole loaf. Even whole-grain bread isn't diet-friendly if you eat it by the loaf! Your triggers might be totally different but you need to pay attention to what sets you off and try to identify ways to minimize or eliminate that.

I guess it sounds like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth a bit because I'm telling you to splurge a bit but, at the same time, not do things that trigger a binge. But, really, it's working well for me as I don't feel the least bit deprived, am losing at a slow, healthy level, and learning eating habits that are sustainable for the long haul. I can splurge, not feel guilty, and stop myself before it turns into a binge while feeling satisfied. It's so much better than living in deprivation.

lizziebeth1028 · November 2011

Congrats on your weight loss, 97 lbs is a great accomplishment but........

like every else said. You need to track your calorie intake ALL the time!!!!, not just on good days, because obviously that is not working out for you. Weight loss is all about calorie deficit. period. And all you are doing is see sawing back and forth with that defiicit....your eating habits are all over the map. Consistently and I mean consistently you have to maintain that calorie deficit if you want to see results. Stop crunching the numbers to figure out what is going wrong and start living a healthy consistent lifestyle!

gpizzy · November 2011

Congratulations on your amazing achievement! Don't lose sight of where you have come from.

I would recommend that you DO track the 'off' days. When the numbers are staring you in the face, it can be quite a motivator to stop eating those foods. Everything in moderation, and committment to a healthy lifestyle. It's not about the weight, it's about what is going on inside your body, and you know, just as well as I do, eating food that isn't good for you, isn't good for you.

Fuel your body with food.

The type of calories you are putting in your body is just as important as how many. Remember too, fat doesn't make you fat, sugar makes you fat. If your foods are high in sugar - there's your answer.

jecka31 · November 2011

First off, 97 lbs is amazing!! Congrats on the hard work you've put in so far. As many have already said, adding the weight training with the personal trainer is going to increase your muscle mass, which may reflect as a low weight loss or even gain on the scale. The thing to focus on is body fat % (BF%) and a 6% loss is pretty good!! Having higher muscle mass (lower BF%) means your body burns more calories just sitting than someone that weighs the same but has a lower muscle mass (aka higher BF%).

As for nutrition, I'd see if the gym you are attending has a resident nutritionist. They can look at what you are actually eating (not just calories) and see if you can make better swaps. As stated before, you never want to go under 1200 calories as this kicks on starvation mode where your body will store any nutrients you eat. I have a wicked sweet tooth and I've found that it is hard to resist sweets. Some will tell you to keep them out of your house all together but I've found, in my case at least, that just means that when I do have access to eat (say when I'm stuck on campus really late) I over eat. Since chocolate is my downfall, I keep HERSHEY'S Kisses in a bowl on my counter. I allow my self to eat one after my lunch or dinner. They only have 22 calories per kiss. I've found that by allowing myself this little indulgence, I don't over eat.

Since you have stated your self that you have a food addiction, controlling your meals will be difficult. The sucky thing about a food addiction is you can't quit cold turkey with other addictions. We need food to survive.

Good luck!!!

psych101 · November 2011

Track.

Track everything...every single thing that goes into your mouth, track it.

If you bite it, you write it.

Not only will this help you track whats going on with your body, but it will hopefully help you to slow down on your addiction eating days, to be more 'in the moment' and realise the full extent of what you're doing.

Track it. All of it, good or bad.

You can't out train a bad diet

Edit: By the way - congrats on 97lbs thats awesome

lalasmar · November 2011

I understand your frustration. I have also lost 97 lbs - in just about 1 year exactly. For the past 2 months, I feel like I have gained and relost the same 5 lbs or so. I, too, have good days and not so good days. And it is frustrating sometimes. But, I try to remember how far I have come and what a difference I have made in my eating/exercising habits. I try to think about the non-scale victories - like going for a walk with my kids and being able to keep up with them. And these things keep me motivated to keep going. If I dont loose one more pound, I still am 97 lbs better off than I was a year ago.

97 lbs down but now not losing weight...

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