Jeyradan Member

I'm under 5'2", have a tiny frame size, a desk job and sedentary sideline career, and am subclinically hypotonic with a low metabolism - so there's not a lot of BMR going on there. My body's calorie needs to exist simply aren't very high. Adding exercise bumps it up, of course (and the doctor did tell me to eat back my…

Yes, I did mention that in my post above. Perhaps you could elaborate on what you mean by "red flags?"

Thank you! Perhaps I wasn't clear. We've been working on diet and exercise since January 1st (so five and a half months). We've just been stuck at a "plateau" for the last month and a half or so in that we're going up and down within the same 3 lb-ish range, but never getting beyond it. I've just ramped up my water intake…

Thanks! We weigh ourselves weekly, but perhaps we ought to buy a measuring tape and do inches as well. It's not something we've ever considered trying before! We're both on a plateau. This week, he was down 0.2 lbs from last week's weight, but he's supposedly on a 1 lb/week weight loss gradient (and gets plenty more…

Thank you! I don't know when I'm heaviest, but I've been weighing on Friday mornings since January 1st, so I guess at least it's consistent (so if I weigh more this Friday than last, the number might be off, but the gain is still true). I'm not sure what TOM is (unless "time of month?" in which case, does that affect men?)…

I'm mainly worried because I weigh so little that "a few pounds" is a fairly significant amount for me - and if I get things wrong a few weeks running, I can gain so much that I'm in trouble. I'll keep doing mostly what I'm doing for another week, but if there are small tweaks I can make, I might want to do that.

Sounds delicious; contains protein; contains whole grains; contains fruit. Seems healthy to me!

I can't afford a gym and haven't got much time in my day, but my size and calorie allowance are so low that I'd never get to eat anything if I didn't exercise to earn it. I've found a few things that work for me or my friends: - the Sworkit app (free, interesting, varied and it syncs with MFP to log your personal calorie…

If you're a) losing a pound a week, b) working out hard, and c) feeling hungry afterward, I would say you're doing fine. You're losing weight steadily by doing it, and your body's sending you signals. If you couldn't shake the weight, it might be different, but you're doing great eating them back! (For what it's worth,…

Every Friday morning before breakfast. Any more than that, and the numbers fluctuate too much to be reliable. (I mean, that's even true to a certain degree of weekly weigh-ins.) Also, I know I have a tendency toward obsession, so this limits it.

No, thank you for the advice! I think you're right about the calorie increase, and the doctor agreed (kept me at 1000, but bumped my partner up to 1500). Unlike you, though, she recommended eating back exercise calories - perhaps as a result of our low baseline allowances? (I wonder which one we should be doing! Mixed…

Thanks, Jake! This is a lot of very useful information. Neither of us has a lot of fat to lose (my partner's trying to shake the last little bit, which in weight numbers seems to be about 5 lbs; I'd like to do about the same, but recognize that I might simply not have 5 lbs of pure fat left and don't want to drop muscle).…

Very much the opposite. We're both non-drinkers with very little money, so fast food and the pub make poor bedfellows for us. Unfortunately, we both work full-time, have commutes we can't do actively (too far to walk and we don't own bicycles - which would also be a challenge - so we're stuck with public transit), and have…

Update: My partner and I spoke to our doctor. He had his calorie allowance raised; I did not (because I'm so small in terms of frame size that raising it even a tiny bit has a disproportionate impact). We were both encouraged to eat back more exercise calories. The doctor also said that we were probably doing enough…

I actually like them fine (although it probably varies by brand and preparation method). They're expensive, unfortunately, but so is buying prepared noodles made out of vegetables. (We have courgetti here, which I'm pretty sure is the same thing as zoodles, but we also have "noodles" made out of carrot or butternut squash…

That's what we'd both like to avoid. When we do finally manage to hit our goals, we'll definitely continue tracking (although possibly switching to the easier, app-based "calories-only" method instead of following all the macro- and micronutrients). That's the easy part; continuing to raise the activity levels when…

This is entirely possible! We do focus hard on protein, but we aren't always successful. Sugar is a problem area for us both (and, to a lesser extent, carbs because you can't really have sugar without carbs). Thing is, we don't eat that many "sweet treats" - things like fruit and vegetables do us in!

That's certainly part of it, although we've recalculated our limits to reflect our new, lower weights. We're okay with slow weight loss; just worried when it seems to stop altogether! My partner is on 1200 calories a day as calculated by MyFitnessPal; he used to be on 1310, but the app recalculated him lower after he lost…

Oh, gosh. Hopefully "hungry forever" isn't the new normal for us, especially as my partner has a strong tendency to get depressed (or occasionally irritable) when he feels hungry or unsatisfied. I hope you find a solution to your hunger, too! I wish I could offer suggestions, but it's clear from this thread that I don't…

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'll download Libra this afternoon and take a look at it. I was under the impression you weren't supposed to weigh yourself every day because of the variability due to water and temperature and what you ate the day before and stuff, but perhaps the app will teach me to understand in a…

Thank you! I love zucchini noodles (called "courgetti" here). Can't afford shrimp often, but will start making them with inexpensive chicken more regularly. I'll keep an eye out for black bean noodles, too! There's a thing called "zero" or "miracle" noodles here, which are shiratake noodles and have almost no calories, but…

If you're looking and feeling better, why worry? If you're improving your habits, your health and your mood by doing what you're doing, I say (as a total non-expert) go for it! (If you really want to keep track of a number for whatever reason, why not try using measurements instead of weight? If you're gaining muscle and…

I had a day like this yesterday. I planned food carefully to fit a calorie budget... then walked in the front door after work, flopped down on the floor, and dreamt of pizza. What helped was remembering that if I didn't cook the green vegetables that night, they weren't going to last; that and thinking about how pleased…

Thanks so much for being so encouraging! You're right, it has been frustrating and demoralizing. Our main problem with exercise is finding the time (although admittedly, neither of us finds it fun, except for aikido classes), but we've had some great suggestions from this thread and we'll give them a try. I'll also do some…

Thank you so much for the encouragement! We'll make some minor changes (increase our calorie intake so we're closer to maintenance levels, hopefully up our exercise levels) and fingers crossed we'll snap out of it soon. I'll definitely post with updates!

Thanks for the advice! Bodyweight training is great because we can afford it, and our local library has a copy of "You Are Your Own Gym," so we will definitely take a look at it! We'll try Fitness Blender, too. Thank you so much!

This is the first "stall" for both of us, so perhaps we're just overreacting. It just seems wise to correct for any problems now, rather than allow them to continue. Letting our bodies reset, then setting new deficit goals and increasing exercise seems to be the answer...

Thank you for all of this advice! We try not to eat back exercise calories, but sometimes end up doing it anyway. I guess we'll just need to dial up the willpower in order not to do that, or set a defined limit (like never eating back more than 50% of them). Willpower seems to be the tough one in that respect! I think…

Thanks - I'll try to shake up our schedule so that there's room for extra exercise. (It might be difficult to convince my partner, who is not a fan!) Unfortunately, we can't lift weights because we don't have equipment and can't afford to buy any or join a gym. What we can do is add in more bodyweight exercise as well as…

Thanks! We're working on building muscle (through bodyweight training and aikido), so losing it would definitely be a bad decision. Perhaps we'll try scaling back the "loss" to 1 lb/week and making up for it with additional exercise. It's just so hard to find the time!