some thoughts on "it's just math"
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Math, shmath. It drives me nuts when slim 20-somethings eat rubbish and still don't gain. And I don't see much effort at exercise from them either. Are they really all that healthy? Probably not. Slim does not necessarily equal healthy. The unfairness of two different outcomes really kicks when the "it's just math" crops up.
Okay one plus one is indeed two. But in chemistry heat and other pressures might cause the outcome to be a bit different. Yes, we are different. So there's no need to feel that we've failed when the math doesn't work in our case. Instead of a pure mathematical formula, maybe we are flasks gurgling and bubbling over a bunsen burner; research still in progress. Just wait. One of these days, and VOILA, we are going to be the breakthrough that people oooh and ahhhh over! :bigsmile:
Well maybe not. But comparing ourselves to those not in our circumstances is not worthwhile. It doesn't help us to succeed. And it doesn't stop younger ones from joining our group when their time comes. Let's keep doing what we can and feel good about ourselves for ourselves, not for others.0 -
You have eloquently captured what SO many of us know to be the absolute truth -- MATH be DAMNED!!!
I have been tracking every morsel on MFP for about two months and have lost five lbs, which is fine. However, what galls me is that the nasty old waist measurement has not changed one bit! If I were 20 it'd be a completely different story but I'm not. At 57 there are certainly additional factors at work and pieces of the puzzle that seem to be highly variable from one woman to another. I think it's often a matter of trying different approaches – bioidentical hormone replacement, metabolism-activating exercise, calorie cutting (but not too severely), stress reduction, perhaps even some dietary supplements – to see what works for your particular set of circumstances. It's incredibly frustrating and disheartening at times but it's nice to know there is a "sisterhood" out there that really understands... it's NOT just math! Thank you for your thoughtful post.0 -
Thanks for validating my reality ladies! You guys are my inspiration.0
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Thank you, Sabine!
I just faced the seemingly never-changing scale again this morning and harkened back to the days when I lived in NYC as a 20-something who would go out on the weekends and close the bars, grab a slice or a falafel at 4:00, sleep a couple of hours, then go to the corner diner for pancakes and eggs -- and still had a seemingly never-changing scale. Was I fit and healthy then? -- I smoked cigarettes in those days, too, for crying out loud!! -- No, I wasn't fit, I was just young. And where, exactly, was this mythical math in 1988??
Fast forward 25 years and now I track what I eat, I exercise hard every day, I take care of my family (right, that's both the elderly father and the 'tween daughters), and generally pay attention. Would I trade this life for the one I lived back then? HELL no! Yeah I have a flabby *kitten* and saggy knees. What of it? Yeah I'm carrying 15 extra pounds. Oh well. There's real muscle under that layer, people. I am strong!
You know what? My scale may well never move again. I may well be sitting here, strategizing for my 1,200-calorie day when I'm 60. I will likely die hating math just as much as I did when I was 12. But I love my life and I'm proud of my body.
Bottom line: It's all good.
Have a fantastic weekend, ladies!0 -
Thanks, everybody! This string is exactly what I was hoping for when I joined this group on MFP. Menopause changes the weight-loss equation for many (most?) of us and I think it's great if we can share what works/doesn't work.0
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Great!Thanks, everybody! This string is exactly what I was hoping for when I joined this group on MFP. Menopause changes the weight-loss equation for many (most?) of us and I think it's great if we can share what works/doesn't work.0 -
Today on the forms: shirtless man after shirtless man posting about calories in and calories out. Oh, and one 31 year old woman saying hormones aren't what causes menopausal weight gain. :happy: :flowerforyou:0
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Today on the forms: shirtless man after shirtless man posting about calories in and calories out. Oh, and one 31 year old woman saying hormones aren't what causes menopausal weight gain. :happy: :flowerforyou:
I always giggle when I read someone who's never been through menopause talk about it as if they know. Really? It's like my 18-year-old son telling me how college works, or my 13-year-old daughter explaining to me about teenaged girls. They may have some idea, but until they're knee-deep in it and covered in hormonal mud, it's all just theoretical for them. The rest of us, on the other hand, have mucked through well enough to recognize that the answers are never that simple.
Leave them to their illusions. The reality will be hard enough when they go through it; no need to pop the balloon too soon. :drinker:0 -
I'm a very logical person, and math mostly makes sense to me. However, as a woman who hasn't yet quite hit menopause, but who is sneaking up on it very stealthily, I know that MATH won't explain the intstantaneous overnight 3 to 5lb weight gain when "aunt flo" comes a-visiting, and that same drop 3 days later when I toss her baggage to the curb and my family is willing to be around me again. (I kid about the emotional stuff, but it sure feels that way at times.) It's nost likely hormones. Math can't explain those, as the original poster here so beautifully put it. :happy:0
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I think it is called "New" Math. Calories- excercise *(-hormones) / (age +stress ) = +/- 1 pound .
One thing we can count on is that, those kids in their 20 and 30 don't know what they don't know, They will be 50+ someday (God willing) and still be taking about us, saying those 80 year olds in my dance class are kicking my butt.0 -
Great post!0
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I think it is called "New" Math. Calories- excercise *(-hormones) / (age +stress ) = +/- 1 pound .
One thing we can count on is that, those kids in their 20 and 30 don't know what they don't know, They will be 50+ someday (God willing) and still be taking about us, saying those 80 year olds in my dance class are kicking my butt.
Love this! My husband is a math teacher. I'll have to show him this equation. :laugh:0 -
I think it is called "New" Math. Calories- excercise *(-hormones) / (age +stress ) = +/- 1 pound .
One thing we can count on is that, those kids in their 20 and 30 don't know what they don't know, They will be 50+ someday (God willing) and still be taking about us, saying those 80 year olds in my dance class are kicking my butt.
Brilliant!!0 -
I love this equation and this post! thanks for sharing
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I decided to bump up my own post from April 2012.
Thought someone, somewhere might get a kick out of the ravings of a menopausal mad woman. The comments from others, especially the "new math" comments are brilliant!
ps: I'm STILL trying to lose those 5 vanity pounds!
Cheers!:flowerforyou: :blushing: :bigsmile:0 -
Always love your posts, Sabine. And I am right there with you on those last vanity 5. That is, of course, after adjusting my goal so that goal weight at 51 is a much more realistic 10 pounds higher than it would have been at 41. Good news, at least, is that like so many of you guys, I am stronger and fitter than my 41 year old self...happier too (on my even keel days). :drinker:0
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Hormonal mud :laugh:
Love it!
Bump:bigsmile:0 -
I wonder what BackwoodsMom's husband did when he laid eyes on the equation. Was that the grinding of the pencil sharpener readying his tools for the challenge??
)
He'll win the Fields Medal if he can crack the code and make sense of what is going on
here. Let's hope !0 -
Or the Nobel Prize.
Please, BackwoodsDad, keep at it until you find the answer! :flowerforyou:0 -
I know, there's always the skinny guy who never had to think about anything with his weight that's saying "it's not that hard, people". Or maybe not the skinny guy but one's normal-weight husband who drops 3 pounds in a week just by not having as much beer and losing the dessert, while his mate sweats, starves, and strains, to lose, what, a half a pound if that! The fact of the matter is, that women, whatever their weight, because of hormonal situations, respond DIFFERENTLY to diet and even training along the way, compounded by their genetics and of course lifestyle. Personally, I wouldn't take weight loss advice from that hypothetical skinny guy/young skinny gal for that matter - I'd pretty much only listen to people who either are very experienced with working with mature women as trainers, or someone who's been in the trenches and successfully come out of them, i.e. a post-menopausal women who started off overweight and unfit and then with smart work got into great shape! As many women find around menopause, just going "low-calorie" doesn't always get results. Nor going on that crash diet that worked in one's 20s or 30s where 5 pounds just fell off like that. Since our hormones have changed, then the hormonal aspect of diet and fitness has to come into it somewhere along the line. Depending on a woman's own biochemistry, she might have to go low-carb, and that might be enough, along with the good weight-training program.. Others might have to do both low-cal and low-carb. Still others have to do both AND 45-60 minutes of cardio(that part on most, if not all days of the week in some hard cases)on top of the weight-training program.
Depending on what one reads out there, the average weight gain for many women at menopause is 10 -15 pounds but some people are saying it's often 30.0
