Confused

G

ganpat

New member
My wife and I recently started working out and eating healthy. We eat a lot of salads and soups with wheat bread. Excercise includes the treadmill and cycling for me and my wife does the threadmill, step master, aerobics and abs excercises.

However, while I have lost weight, she has gained. I dont get it. She gained 2pounds this week despite having really sweat it out at the gym and eaten healthy. I have the exact same diet and much less excercise and i lost 2 pounds.

In the last 2 weeks, i lost 5 pounds and she has been excercising for a month and didn't loose any weight at all. Today she checked and she gained.

Can anyone help or advise us on this?
 
Not everyone has the same caloric requirements. To lose weight, we obviously need an energy debt.

That said, suppose your wife needs 1500 calories to lose weight and you need 2500.

Also assume you are both eating roughly 2000 cals.

Net result.

You lose.

She gains.

Very simplistic numbers, but just to prove my point. To give more specific recommendations, I suggest providing us with both of your stats as well as a general idea of how many calories you are eating.

Have you seen sites such as or
 
what are each of your stats?

If you're both eating the same things yet not at same startinb point weight wise that could explain the difference... she's just taking in too many calories..
 
Might be water retention. Might be muscle gain (although 2 pounds in 2 weeks is much much more likely to be mostly water retention). Might be that exercise makes her hungry, so she eats more than she thinks she does (although, again, 2 pounds is more likely to be water). Hard to tell without more information.

Salad and soup aren't synonymous with healthy food. You can get quite a few calories into either, if you aren't careful.
 
she is 29,her weight is 182 pounds,trying to loose weight since the last 3 weeks. she does the exercise bike for 30-40 mins ,step master for 15-20 mins and abs exercise everyday for about half an hour. Inspite of all this no weight loss.
 
I'll make an assumption that you weigh more than her. Most men have higher base metabolic rates than women. That and generally women have a predisposition to hold onto weight more tenaciously.

That said, she is eating too much. Whole wheat bread can be calorie heaven. Cut out the breads and dressings on the salad and she'll lose weight, trust me.

Michael
 
Don't you think she should have some whole grains in her diet?

I eat whole wheat bread, but I opt for the lighter versions, which just means they slice it thinner.


I agree with the salad dressing though - I only have a drizzle, just enough to taste it. Salad doesn't need to swim in dressing.
 
You can certainly get away with avoiding really dense carbs for a while just to get to a point of weight loss, and then incorporating them again once you have a better idea of your total energy expenditure for a day.

People often assume because whole wheat is healthy that it will help with weight loss. Unfortunately eating healthy and losing weight are not the same things.

Michael
 
ExercisePhysio said:
You can certainly get away with avoiding really dense carbs for a while just to get to a point of weight loss, and then incorporating them again once you have a better idea of your total energy expenditure for a day.

People often assume because whole wheat is healthy that it will help with weight loss. Unfortunately eating healthy and losing weight are not the same things.

Michael
Click to expand...

But you should have some sort of whole grains in your diet, right?

I mean there are different versions of whole wheat bread - and just because something says "whole grains" on it, doesn't mean it's necessarily the healthiest.

Have whole grains in your diet helps with the fiber that you need, correct?

I guess my point is is that - you can have whole grains - just limited.
 
For health reasons, sure you should include whole wheat, complex carbs in your diet. A large component of that is for fiber. But this is blanket advice...one could well get away with numerous vegetable and achieve the same effect. The difference is eating 1000 calories of bread is a lot easier than 1000 calories of vegetables.

Obviously you can have whole grains. For some people kick starting weight loss is helped by eliminating them for a while. A few individuals will often try and start losing weight by moving from refined carbs to complex carbs, and given the density of whole wheat bread, that will have an adverse effect on your weight.

Michael
 
So do you promote low carb diets to start out with?

I have always been of the mind set that the "diet" you choose should be something that you can do long term.

There are more benefits from grains than just fiber, right? I know grains are good for the mind - clearer thinking. Or so I've read.

I've also read you shouldn't cut out any food group that you normally would eat.

I guess if I was giving the OP advice, it would be that the wife needs less calories than he does. For example, if he's eating 4 slices of bread per day, then she should have only 2.

Men do seem to lose weight quicker than women do, but it's because of the make-up of their body (more muscular - and women tend to be fattier due being the "child barer.")

I don't eat bread everyday, but I do try to eat some sort of grains - whether it's rice or cereal or whole wheat pasta or bread. I'm not an expert though, of course.
 
Adequate blood sugar is needed for clear thinking...has nothing to do with grains.

I dont have a one size fits all plan, so no, low-carb is not something i promote very often. However on occasion if i get the impression that someone is a carb addict I'll advise that they re-introduce carbs into their diet from scratch.

Why? Well some people feel a lot better and healthier when they remove carbs from their diet for a while. Especially those who eat carbs without adequate protein. Sometimes this 'feel good' sensation of more energy for a week or two acts as a catalyst for long-term changes in carb intake, and then the weight takes care of itself.

I know personally that I always feel 10x better when I limit my carb intake. Which is why im so grumpy right now. Lol.

Michael
 
As an aside, I'll be doing a permutation of a PSMF this next cut..... ketosis here I come. :(

Have you ever tried a protein sparing modified fast or something of the sort, Michael?
 
ExercisePhysio said:
Adequate blood sugar is needed for clear thinking...has nothing to do with grains.

I dont have a one size fits all plan, so no, low-carb is not something i promote very often. However on occasion if i get the impression that someone is a carb addict I'll advise that they re-introduce carbs into their diet from scratch.

Why? Well some people feel a lot better and healthier when they remove carbs from their diet for a while. Especially those who eat carbs without adequate protein. Sometimes this 'feel good' sensation of more energy for a week or two acts as a catalyst for long-term changes in carb intake, and then the weight takes care of itself.

I know personally that I always feel 10x better when I limit my carb intake. Which is why im so grumpy right now. Lol.

Michael
Click to expand...

Ok.

I do watch carbs as well - but that's so that I get a balanced diet. My husband is diabetic. So I know a lot about blood sugar levels. And he does very well controlling his diabetes with proper nutrition - which includes carbs. More of a carb monitoring way of eating than a low carb way of eating.

Just by your first statement and some other comments you made it sounded like you were advocating a low-carb diet.

Soups can be fairly high in sodium - unless they are making their own from scratch. But I doubt that. Breads can be high in calories too, but you can get reduced cal. bread that tastes pretty good - and for like 2 slices you only get a maximum of 17 g of carbs. Which is great if you are monitoring carbs.

I guess that's why I was asking. Sometimes simple answers are best, but sometimes it doesn't really help when someone has a question that needs a little more meat in the answer.
 
PSMF is interesting. It's one of those things that conceptually sounds good. I certainly don't think it can hurt. Lyle has lots of great ideas. As for the blood sugar comment, ya, I know. I just sometimes like to throw out generic advice.

Being extremely comfortable with my class schedule has left me lots of time to start working on some training protocols. I'm working on two. One is an ideal training protocol and the other is an ultra-simple but effective plan.

I took out ACSM's advanced exercise physiology text from health sciences two days ago. I need to review a couple topics to sort out some of Alan Aragon's thoughts. I like his book...but...

hmmm, just musings. When i flesh it out more i'll let you know.

Michael
 
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