Confused

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Hi Everyone,
I have been eating around 1200calories since around mid January with the odd blowout. I am 44 with a sedentary lifestyle I weighed 130kgs when I started. My husband and I joined the herbalife weight loss challenge beginning of February and I was losing between 100gms to 1kg a week with the weight loss being less over time.

at the beginning I was doing no exercise and because of heel spurs and a few health issues pretty much was in bed most the day. I then started exercising when the challenge started. I was walking on the treadmill at a very slow pace and started at about 10 minutes every second day. Presently I am on the 6th week of the couch to 5k treadmill course http://www.c25k.com/c25k_treadmill.html We are doing it at speed 5.5 on Tuesdays I do walking on the treadmill with various incline for 30 minutes and Thursdays we walk to our local DVD store which is a 2.8km walk all up.

like I said I was eating around 1200cal a day. A few weeks ago I started using MFP again, I had used it for a month at the beginning of my journey then thought I knew about how many calories I was eating. When I started again with MFP I let it determine how many calories I should be eating and it has put me up to 1310.

Also because I was not losing as much weight as I had thought I should be I saw my doctor...he went through everything with me and we came to the conclusion that the depo needle may have been part of the problem I was gaining weight to begin with (I was putting on about 1.5kgs a month for the last year or so sometimes less thats why I had to start losing). The Dr then put me on Duromine 30mg about 2 and a half weeks ago. the first week I lost 1.8kgs the second 1.4kgs and this week 800gms. I have had no effects from the duromine...doesn't make me hyper etc in fact I can't tell I am on it. I am confused because I know between my exercise and eating I should be losing what I have or more without duromine yet the weight loss is low for what I would expect.

I am drinking usually 6 glasses of water minimum I am recording everything I eat even if I have an alcoholic drink etc and I am staying very close give or take depending on the day to what MFP suggested. The foods I am eating are good foods not burgers or anything silly.

I am getting very frustrated that the weight is not coming off very fast. I have done reading online and there is so much conflicting advice I am now so confused and bewildered....I know any loss is good but I KNOW I should be losing more.

Does anyone have any help?

Replies

  • cwalters1540
    cwalters1540 Posts: 39 Member
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    When I first began losing weight I stuck very closely to 1200 calories (more if I worked out). I began loseing 2-3 pounds a week for the first few weeks then the amount I lost steadily decreased as time went on until I eventually plateaud for about 2 months. Very frustrating! I tried all sorts of tricks to over come the plateau and eventually what worked was eating MORE calories (about 1500) and working out LESS for about 2 weeks. Go figure. After that the weight steadily came off at about .5-1 lb. a week which isn't a lot, but a loss is a loss.

    You always lose more weight at the beginning and then it tapers off. Have you tried increasing your calories at all? It doesn't work for everyone, but it may work for you. MFP may have bumped up it's estimate of calories you need because of the exercising you're doing. The more calories you burn in a workout the more calories MFP will tell you to eat so that you're getting enough calories.

    Sometimes, for me anyway, we can get so focused on losing the weight that we forget we're also doing all this work to get healthy. Your couch to 5K workout is impressive. As long as you keep progressing with that each week you KNOW you're getting more fit. Have you tried measuring yourself? A lot of people don't lose pounds but do lose inches. You have to be gaining muscle mass with all that walking which could slightly offset the pounds you lose during dieting. I know it's easier said than done, but hang in there because you sound like you're doing all the right things. Slow and steady wins the race.
  • luv1another
    luv1another Posts: 13
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    Thanks... I am currently doing the weight loss challenge that herbalife run so am being weighed every Tuesday night they also took body measurements. next week they will take body measurements again and then again at the end.
    I have read recently about eating more calories and am trying to do that but it's seriously hard. I know I am overweight and generally people who are overweight eat too much but I am starting to think I was the opposite as before I started my eating would be...
    Breakfast...porridge (one sachet instant)
    no snacks
    Lunch... a sandwich or a burger or maybe chicken and chips
    no snacks
    dinner... meat and veg and an alcoholic drink

    I am now having snacks and for lunch am having a herbalife shake and have added protein powder and shake mix to porridge in the morning. have cut the alcohol down.
    most days I am under 1300 calories

    someone on facebook suggested I start doing some weights so may give that a try too