Title: I Am Driving Myself Crazy...literally.

I am and 18 year old female, 5'4" and i weigh 122lbs. I have been fat almost my entire life, at my heaviest i weighed 174lbs. At about the end of January, i really began to crack down on myself. I weighed 150lbs and i was so unhappy with myself. I became very careful about what i ate by cutting out a lot of the junk food that i normally consumed, plus i lived at college so it was easier to select meals becuase they were already prepared. in about the beginning of april i began to go for runs about three to four times a week for about 20-30 minutes and i was also cutting back on the amount of food i was eating. well school ended in may and since then i have been working at my weight at home. But lately i have been getting a little obsessed i think and i just need some reassurance or something cause i am going nuts. this is my routine and has been for about two months now. every morning i wake up and run for 3.5 to 4 miles which takes me about 40-45 minutes. then i eat breakfast which is usually a high fiber cereal(although i LOVE Lucky Charms too and tend to have them a lot). Then i let that settle for about an hour to an hour and a half and i do my aerobics tapes which takes me about 25 minutes. then i eat lunch at about 12:00-1:00. i usually work in the evenings, so i will have a snack at work like a piece or fruit or a bowl of soup, or jello, and then i come home at about 8:30ish and eat dinner. Also i do about 7 different ab exercises every day which takes me about 20-30 minutes. my meals usually include: for breakfast, a bowl of cereal, about a cup, with skim or soy milk. for lunch: yogurt, or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or a salad, or tuna salad. and for dinner i have a normal meal like chicken and vegetables, or a sandwich...but i don't eat red meat and not many potatoes either. for snacks i usually have a piece of fruit. i now weigh 122lbs, which is pretty much my goal. now is where my problems and worries set in. first of all i am always hungry! i never seem to be full when i eat and my stomach is always growling. i am so afraid though that if i eat more i am just going to gain all the weight back. like tonight for dinner i ate a Peanut butter and jelly sandwich and after i finished it, i felt so guilty and so afraid that i am just going to get fat again. once school starts i am not going to be able to run as much or as often and i won;t be able to do my aerobics tapes everyday like i do now. i am just so worried that i won;t be able to maintain the weight i am at. i think i need to eat more but i don't know what to eat and how much and i am never satisfied after i eat anyway and i feel so guilty. i deprive myself constantly, i have not had pizza or ice cream in ages and i am craving junk food like you wouldn;t believe! i need help, i need to know how to go about eating and exercising so that i can stay at the weight that i am at. for example, do you have any meal suggestions, like what and how much i should eat at meals and how much i should exercise and still stay at my current weight. also, are the foods that i listed above ok for me to eat? like PB & J sandwichs on whole wheat bread, and low fat yogurt, and tuna salad, and sandwich wraps? I need some guidance big time and some feedback so that i can get some of these things straight. Please help.

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Title: Re: I Am Driving Myself Crazy...literally.

I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL! I am the same way about training and eating right. I train too much (at least 2 hours, 5 days a week) and the biggest thing is I dont eat enough. I can only manage about 1000 cals a day, above and beyond that I am forcing it....with guilt.

With eating as long as you are getting your cals, carbs, fat, and protein from good food (chicken, tuna, salmon, turkey, tofu, nuts, oats, whole grain, fruit, veges, cottage cheese, and drinking lots of water!) then you will prob not gain weight. Try not to eat foods with added sugar, such as the jelly you mentioned and lucky charms. Have low sugar jelly and maybe oatmeal in the morning.

You do have to still train though. For me and it sounds like you too, cut down a little. Give your body a change to rebuild the muscles and recover from strain. It is atually a benifit to take a day off here and there! Also balanceing wieght training and cardio is good. Cardio can burn muscle, while weights build them and increase your metabolism more and burning up what you eat better!

Let me know if you have anyother questions! Good luck!



Name: danica
Date: Jul. 3rd, 2001



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Title: Re: I Am Driving Myself Crazy...literally.

If you keep going like this, you're going to gain weight.

You're doing way too much Cardio... when you do Cardio, you burn muscle. The less overall muscle on your body, the less Calories your body will burn daily. Try cutting back on the running first thing in the morning to about 4-5 days a week, at the most. I wouldn't really suggest the Aerobics tapes... they're probably not helping that much.

You should really incorporate strengh training into your routine. Having more overall muscle on your body will increase your Metabolism, burning more Calories everyday even when you're not doing anything.

As for the Abs workout, you're overworking them, and hence you're working backwards. No muscle in your body should be worked more than 1-3 times per week, depending on how intense the workout is.

And for the food... try for 6 small meals a day. Just take whatever you'd eat in your normal 3 meals, and devide it into 6 meals. Having more frequent meals gives your Metabolism a boost through out the day.

You need more Calories through the day... if you don't get atleast 1200, you're starving yourself and will end up getting hurt. For maximum muscle growth, and hence maximum sustained weight loss, you should try for about 1600-1800 per day. To do that, try to make each of your 6 meals about 300 Calories each.

Name: Adrien
Date: Jul. 3rd, 2001



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Title: Adrien Is Right N/t




Date: Jul. 4th, 2001



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Title: Please Read!

I have lost 50 pounds this past year, and I too was afraid of eating normally, fearing I would gain weight. My nutritionist told me to eat 3 meals a day, and 2 snacks ( soem examples:3/4 cup of fruit, 3 cups of popcorn, 1 cup of pretzels). Your eating habits are not commensurate with your rigorous exercise routine. please try to cut down to 30-45min of cardio a day, and do strength training on separate days, or strength train but shorten your aerobic workout. Most importantly, try to work on your attitude. Realistically, the calories in a PB and J sandwhich are not going to even make you gain half a pound. To gain a pound, you have to eat 3500 EXTRA calories. Please do not let your weight loss plan destroy the pleasure of eating. If you are tempted to eat even less, I would advise you to see a nutritioist or a counselor to address your issues with food..it helped me a great deal. Good luck, and keep us posted!

Best wishes,
Dana

Name: Dana
Date: Jul. 5th, 2001



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Title: Re: Please Read!

dana,
thank you so so much for your reply! that is just the way i feel! i am so afraid to eat normally again, and that bit of advice that you gave me is great...the one about having to eat 3,500 extra calories to gain a pound, that really makes me feel so much better! i will definitely cut down on my exercise routine, and add strength training. can you give me an example of what you eat on a daily basis, like your basic menu and other foods that you often eat? also can you give me some idea of what exercises you do and for how long you do them? it would be very helpful to have somebody else's input so that i can better direct myself. thank you so much again! you really helped!!!!
~SAMMY~
Dana wrote:
> I have lost 50 pounds this past year, and I too was afraid of eating normally, fearing I would gain weight. My nutritionist told me to eat 3 meals a day, and 2 snacks ( soem examples:3/4 cup of fruit, 3 cups of popcorn, 1 cup of pretzels). Your eating habits are not commensurate with your rigorous exercise routine. please try to cut down to 30-45min of cardio a day, and do strength training on separate days, or strength train but shorten your aerobic workout. Most importantly, try to work on your attitude. Realistically, the calories in a PB and J sandwhich are not going to even make you gain half a pound. To gain a pound, you have to eat 3500 EXTRA calories. Please do not let your weight loss plan destroy the pleasure of eating. If you are tempted to eat even less, I would advise you to see a nutritioist or a counselor to address your issues with food..it helped me a great deal. Good luck, and keep us posted!
>
> Best wishes,
> Dana


Name: Sammy
Date: Jul. 6th, 2001



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