Hi Everyone!

T

This-is-the-yr!

New member
Well, I just found this place and it seems like there's a lot of great information-which I need. I am beyond frustrated with my weight loss issues.

Here's my story:

I'm 5'2", just turned 36, have a 7yr old and a 3yr old. Before I had my first child I was at about 125, which was a great weight for me. Between the 2 kids I coun't get lower than 135. Mostly I stayed ay around 145.

Now...done with birthing babies and I want to get in shape and get back to where I was...or at least close. I'd be thrilled to just maintain at around 135.

I'm at 156. It's way too much on my frame. I really hate it. But what I really hate more is that I have been trying. And trying. And just not succeeding.

Last summer ('06) I joined WW at 157lbs. I lost weight pretty well and was 142 at Christmas. Now, one year later...156. I stopped going to WW meeting this fall. I'm starting to doubt the program. I think it MAY be too low, calorically.

I was in the category of 23 points a day, which is roughly 1,150. PLUS the flex points (35 a week) which I always ate.

I'm still half-heartedly following WW. I do it on my own. But it'as very hard, most days to stay in the piont range. Not sure if I need more motivation or a new plan...have I suppressed my metabolism?

Exercise: I do 2 "Group Power" classes a week (it's an hour long barbell class, high reps) and I absolutely feel that I have gained muscle. I have increased my weights in class and I can feel that my muscles are stronger. Which is excellent. I'm VERY happy with it and I will keep doing it. But I just want to drop this FAT.

I was wearing a pedometer and making sure to surpass 10,000 steps a day. Walking around the neighborhood a lot, at least 30-60 minutes, most nights, but chatting on the cell phone and just walking at maybe 3mph. Also, going to the gym to use the treadmill (at maybe 3.6 mph or so) about twice a week. I just started to do HIIT. Or maybe HIT. Twice a week. But then I definiteyl cut back on my nightly walks since we've got a ton of snow and it's so cold and dark here! (NY)

At the 15 calories per pound of body weight, minus 500/day idea I should be eating around 1800 calories a day. That seems a little scary after WW. And also, I love the convinience of the point sytem and not so into the idea of counting each calorie. But I'll do what I ahve to do. I'm so sick of it.

By the time I turn 37 I want to have this weight gone. So 11 months.

But the thing is that I actually GAIN a little and lose a little and GAIN a little and since I've been refocused and trying (a month) I've actually gone up a net of a pound or 2. Damn it.

So, what am I doing wrong?

The other piece of the puzzle is that I'm nursing my toddler. I've been pregnant and/or nursing for 8 years. Not sure if this has anything to do with it but I have heard and read that your body will hang on to an extra 5 or 10 lbs while nursing (to save fat to make milk in case of a faminie!) BUT I wonder if that is only true when nursing an infant? I would think the body would adjust to the lactating state after this long.

I'd love to hear from this "STEVE" guy. :waving: I've read so much of what he's written and he sounds like he really knows his stuff. And I really need someone to give me REAL advice. I can't tell you how frustrated I am with "just eat less, just exercize more"...I feel like I do that already! You'd think I'd at least not GAIN. Or is my metabolism just screwed up from WW? And how long might it take (and how much gaining?) till it's "re-set"?

Whew.
 
Welcome to the forum! There are many people here who have lost tons and tons of weight so you will definately be able to find the help and support you need. Goodluck on your weightloss journey and I'm sure you'll fit right in:)
 
Welcome to the community. :)

This-is-the-yr! said:
Last summer ('06) I joined WW at 157lbs. I lost weight pretty well and was 142 at Christmas. Now, one year later...156. I stopped going to WW meeting this fall. I'm starting to doubt the program. I think it MAY be too low, calorically.
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You were following it religiously and it just stopped working and you started gaining?

Sounds like your consistency was broke or something.... you shouldn't just gain weight without eating more. Weight loss will certainly slow, but what was once a deficit won't turn into a surplus.

I was in the category of 23 points a day, which is roughly 1,150. PLUS the flex points (35 a week) which I always ate.
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That's interesting.... I know a lot of people who successfully lost weight with WW and I never heard them going too low in calories. But 1150 definitely seems low for you.

Not earth-shatteringly low, but low nonetheless.

I'm still half-heartedly following WW. I do it on my own. But it'as very hard, most days to stay in the piont range.
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Establish a plan that's too strict, calorically speaking, you're almost sure to battle your natural inclination to eat and have trouble with consistency.

Not sure if I need more motivation or a new plan...have I suppressed my metabolism?
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When is the last time you took a break? How consistent have you been with eating 1150 calories?

Oh, and if something is not working, it's time for a change.

At the 15 calories per pound of body weight, minus 500/day idea I should be eating around 1800 calories a day. That seems a little scary after WW. And also, I love the convinience of the point sytem and not so into the idea of counting each calorie. But I'll do what I ahve to do. I'm so sick of it.
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I'm a calorie counter but not really, lol.

I establish my caloric goal and from that, decide how many meals I'd like to eat per day. So if my caloric goal is 3500 for example, and I'm going to eat 6 times per day.... I would then create a LOT of meals that are in the 550-600 calorie range that are balanced.

This way, I don't have to count calories from that point forward.... simply pick a meal on the list and go with it.

Ideally at your weight, you'd be getting 1500-1600 calories in per day. I don't care if you start counting calories or continue using the point system.... whatever you feel comfortable with that allows for this range of calories.

So, what am I doing wrong?
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Too strict calorically speaking and you go through spells where you eat too much b/c of said strictness which nets out to be a small caloric surplus, hence, weight gain.

That's my guess.

I'd love to hear from this "STEVE" guy. :waving: I've read so much of what he's written and he sounds like he really knows his stuff.
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Haha, I didn't even see this part until I got down to it in my response. I appreciate the kind words. :)
 
Thank you Angelica and Steve!

So Steve, 1500-1600, huh? I'll give it a try. I sort of figured around 1800. I did it on fitday, chose the "mostly sedentary" option and It came up with around 2400 calories burned each day. I figured the HIT, weight training, walking and caring for the kids would be just extra calories burned.

Also, any thoughts about the idea of hanging on to weight while nursing? It just seems like it was a whole lot easier to lose weight before I had my kids. I know age is a factor there, but the difference is tremendous.

Oh, and I did 1850 calories yesterday, based on fitday and it felt totally luxurious and shocking! It would be very cool if I could really lose at that amount.
 
This-is-the-yr! said:
Thank you Angelica and Steve!

So Steve, 1500-1600, huh? I'll give it a try. I sort of figured around 1800. I did it on fitday, chose the "mostly sedentary" option and It came up with around 2400 calories burned each day. I figured the HIT, weight training, walking and caring for the kids would be just extra calories burned.
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My advice is always eat as much as you can while still losing weight. If 1800 works, go with it.

But if you've been dieting for a while now, and by dieting I mean in a chronic, consistenc caloric deficit for an appreciable length of time.... it's very possible that your metabolism has adjusted downward.

The only way to speed it back up is to eat more.

But jumping right up to 1800 or even 1500 probably isn't the wisest thing.

If it were me, I'd systematically, incrementally ramp up calories every week or two.

Week1: 1250
Week2: 1400
Week3: 1550
Week4: 1700

Something like that.

It's important to keep in mind that we all respond differently to an increase like this. I've seen people actually lose weight while doing this. Others simply maintain while others gain. Don't worry so much about what kind of fluctuations you see on the scale during this time, assuming they aren't drastic. Gaining a few lbs isn't all that important.... this is a solution for the long-term... not the short.

What you're eating makes a big difference too. What does your food selection look like? While calories matter mostly.... macronutrients do make a difference.

Also, any thoughts about the idea of hanging on to weight while nursing? It just seems like it was a whole lot easier to lose weight before I had my kids. I know age is a factor there, but the difference is tremendous.
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Hormones are the major regulatory factor in our bodies.

Birthing children can do a lot on this front, unfortunately. Evolution wants to make it easy for women to store fat in order to assure survival of the human species.
 
Food- I think I'm a little heavy on carbs. I'm vegetarian and I'm allergic to dairy and soy. (And wheat, but I can have some..)

I eat whole foods, organic, generally pretty good stuff. I think I do need more protien and since nuts are so high in calories and there is only so much you can do with beans and lentils, I'm thinking about (gulp) adding fish to my diet. Oh, and I can eat goat's milk so I use goat cheese sometimes. More rarely, goat milk yogurt.

The carbs I do eat are almost all whole grain...brown rice, spelt, quinoa, millet, oat, for the most part.

I eat a fair number of eggs. Egg whites alone, too.
 
You might consider trying an egg protein powder to supplement your intake.

In general, I'd shoot for 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass. For you, that might be something like 110-120 grams.

I'd shoot for maybe, as a ballpark figure, .25 grams of fats per pound. This should come primarily from the good stuff: fish, nuts, peanut butter, avocados, fish oil, extra virgin olive oil, flax, etc, etc.

If you're having trouble losing and you know your calories are on, I'd reduce the carbs a bit, depending on how many you're eating. Some people are sensitive to carbs (more so insulin resistance) which could give you a hard time.
 
Thanks for your input.

I think you're right about the calories being too low. I think I've been bouncing around. I decided to keep track of calories on fitday and give myself a range of 1600-1699 per day. Yesterday I just broke 1600 and felt good. I was a little hungry when I went to sleep but not so hungry that I couldn't sleep. (Which used to happen to me all the time when I was pregnant...it's really unpleasant!)

I also tried to get more protein. I got 99 grams! I took your advice and looked for an egg white protein shake but I didn't find any. I DID find 2 that aren't whey or soy based...brown rice protein and hemp protein. I got both. I tried the rice...not bad. I added a little xylitol to it and it was fine. It's got no fat, very low carbs and 15 grams of protein. Perfect! It was just right for a snack in the afternoon. And I really did stay full longer than if I'd had a cereal bar and an apple (which is something I would have had)

Thank you!
 
This-is-the-yr! said:
I was in the category of 23 points a day, which is roughly 1,150. PLUS the flex points (35 a week) which I always ate.
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Which averages out to roughly 1,500 per day - you have to count the flex points when you figure what your WW calorie allotment is. And there are zero-point vegetables that nevertheless have calories, so it's not a straightforward "50 calories per point" conversion. (WW wouldn't work for me for completely different reasons, but it's not unreasonably low-cal.)

This-is-the-yr! said:
The other piece of the puzzle is that I'm nursing my toddler. I've been pregnant and/or nursing for 8 years. Not sure if this has anything to do with it but I have heard and read that your body will hang on to an extra 5 or 10 lbs while nursing (to save fat to make milk in case of a faminie!) BUT I wonder if that is only true when nursing an infant? I would think the body would adjust to the lactating state after this long.
Click to expand...

My kid nursed until she was older than 4 (and would still be nursing now if I could have taken any more of it - she's *still* asking, 4 months after she finally weaned). Holding on to the weight is probably a "your body and nursling may vary" thing, and there aren't enough extended nursers for meaningful statistics to be available. Conventional wisdom says that after about 15 months, most kids don't get a significant amount of breastmilk; I know a woman who nursed until 6 whose daughter said at age 4 that there wasn't actually any milk there. But my kid said she got lots (and I could hand-express, so she was getting some). If yours is getting lots, I'd anticipate losing more slowly than if yours is getting none, but that's pure guesswork on my part.

This-is-the-yr! said:
I did it on fitday, chose the "mostly sedentary" option and It came up with around 2400 calories burned each day.
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Hmmm. I'm 34, 5'4" and 144, and if I tell Fitday I have a desk job (which I do), it calculates me at ~2,000 calories a day. If I change my stats to match yours, I'm still around ~2,100 calories a day. gives you a maintenance calorie level of about 1,600; adding exercise takes you back up nearly to 2,000.
 
allyphoe said:
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Hmmm. I'm 34, 5'4" and 144, and if I tell Fitday I have a desk job (which I do), it calculates me at ~2,000 calories a day. If I change my stats to match yours, I'm still around ~2,100 calories a day. gives you a maintenance calorie level of about 1,600; adding exercise takes you back up nearly to 2,000.
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I was thinking the calories looked way too high for the weight. I'm a lot larger than 150 and I'm not completely sedentary, yet my maintainance calorie level is about 2000 w/o exercise. (I'm using fitday too)
 
you said you did the WW but were on the points, have you tryed the Core plan? when i was on WW i would change every other week and found that the Core plan you loose more, i lost 3.4 the first week on Core.....
 
Amber, Core is a thought. But right now I'm going to stick with just plain old counting calories. I eat pretty "core" so that might be a good thing to try when I get sick of this, for a change of pace.


About the numbers...2400 is what fitday says I burn both just by "being" as well as my exercise level. I put in the second level of eactivity on it but really, it might be higher. I have 2 kids who I'm really busy with, I walk most every night (some long, some short) and I weight train 2 hrs a week. The walking isn't sweat-breaking activity but it's not uncommon for me to walk 3 miles around the neighborhood.

Well, regardless, I'm happy to say that 1600 seems wayyy more managable for whatever the reason, than WW. I've been doing it this way for the past few days and I've lost 1.8 lbs! Some of it is just water weight, I'm sure, but this is a victory for me because I was GAINING even though I was trying pre-Christmas. So, from the 26th-today, 1.8 is fantastic!

Allyphoe, I think you're right about the nursing and everyone being different but I was hoping there was some wisdom out there that I didn't yet know of.

My little guy (3) is getting a fair amount of milk. He tells me he gets "a belly full" several times a day. (I imagine that he is because he barely eats!! This kid is PICKY.) My daughter nursed well past this age and she feasted when he was born! :party:

I guess the answer will be evident in a couple years!

And congratulations on your weaning. I know it can be bittersweet.
 
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