Journey, Not A Destination

Steve said:
When is the last time you ate maintenance calories? Took a break from dieting?

What are your stats?

Why low carbing?
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Thats the thing. I haven't really taken any time off. I took the past two off for my birthday, but I am pretty strict with my eating. I am very lucky. I don't have any problem with willpower, binge eating, and I don't really care for sweets. I am not an emotional eater so I rarely have any problem with eating healthy. This has been my lifestyle for 8 years.

I am currently 167lbs with an estimated BMI of 29%. I am in pretty good shape. I am very muscular, especially my legs. And I can run an 8 minute mile and usually run 3-4 miles with each run. I am killing myself to shed this body fat.

My dietician had me doing 130 carbs a day and 150 on workout days. She suggested I lower them because of the hypothyroidism. Apparently that's practically the only way to shed pounds with that condition. In the first 6 weeks of the lower carb I lost 6lbs. It has now stopped again. The doc informed me 2 weeks ago that the thyroid levels are within normal ranges but still a little low. They increased my dosage so it should be a little easier to shed the weight.

What do you suggest?
 
AmyRB said:
Thats the thing. I haven't really taken any time off. I took the past two off for my birthday, but I am pretty strict with my eating.
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Two what? Days?

I am very lucky. I don't have any problem with willpower, binge eating, and I don't really care for sweets. I am not an emotional eater so I rarely have any problem with eating healthy. This has been my lifestyle for 8 years.
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Very cool!


My dietician had me doing 130 carbs a day and 150 on workout days. She suggested I lower them because of the hypothyroidism. Apparently that's practically the only way to shed pounds with that condition.
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Not sure about that. But if you are ok with low carbs, so be it.
What do you suggest?
 
Hola Bonito!

Actually, I know French much better: Salut, mon cher, ca va bien?

Steve said:
Dammit, you are going to give me a bad rep.

I am NOT an ass poacher. I've gone to AGA* and I've been clean for 6 months.

*AGA = ass grabbers anonymous
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6 months, eh? Well, we want to see the "Clean & Serene for 6 months" keychain....


You on Dangle? Solid Gold, man. :)
 
Steve said:
Not sure about that. But if you are ok with low carbs, so be it.
What do you suggest?
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Yes, two days.

I am usually much happier with the 130-150 carbs but I'll do what I need to. I know I need to take time off and just eat maintenance to increase my metabolism. How long? Also, with the lower thyroid levels I'm not sure what my maintenance would be.

This thyroid crap is new to me so I am having to rethink everything I have always done. The thyroid doc suggested I lower my calories to 800-1000 but I that's way too low for my activity level. My dietician on base is going through a divorce so she's been out of pocket lately. This problem is driving me crazy! I will do whatever it takes to get back down to 130lbs.
 
OMG! That picture is so damn funny!! Hey, at least he has nice arms. LOL LOL way to thin on the lower end in my opinion. What did we ever do without computers is beyond me. I hope your day is a good one!! You just made mine a good one with that photo. LOL LMAO!! Chow:jump::)
Kim
 
AmyRB said:
Yes, two days.

I am usually much happier with the 130-150 carbs but I'll do what I need to. I know I need to take time off and just eat maintenance to increase my metabolism. How long? Also, with the lower thyroid levels I'm not sure what my maintenance would be.

This thyroid crap is new to me so I am having to rethink everything I have always done. The thyroid doc suggested I lower my calories to 800-1000 but I that's way too low for my activity level. My dietician on base is going through a divorce so she's been out of pocket lately. This problem is driving me crazy! I will do whatever it takes to get back down to 130lbs.
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Hypothyroidism or not, your body needs a longer break from the stress of dieting than 2 days.

I'd shoot for a week at maintenance calories.

If that doesn't work, you may need to work in some form of cyclical carb manipulation. When you are relatively lean and dieting for a long ass time, your body adapts to the stress in a way commonly known as the starvation response.

Certain hormones get out of whack and to reverse their 'out-of-wackness' you need to eat more to reset some things.

Ask your dietitian if she understands the role of leptin in dieting.
 
Steve said:
Hypothyroidism or not, your body needs a longer break from the stress of dieting than 2 days.

I'd shoot for a week at maintenance calories.

If that doesn't work, you may need to work in some form of cyclical carb manipulation. When you are relatively lean and dieting for a long ass time, your body adapts to the stress in a way commonly known as the starvation response.

Certain hormones get out of whack and to reverse their 'out-of-wackness' you need to eat more to reset some things.

Ask your dietitian if she understands the role of leptin in dieting.
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Thanks Steve. I'll go for maintenance this week and see if I can reverse their "out-of-wackness". Lol!

I can't believe I have never heard of Leptin. I'll be researching this. Sounds interesting.

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave you alone now. Enjoy your day!
 
Ya, leptin is new in terms of discoveries wrt to human metabolism and endocrinology.

Quite astonishing considering pretty much everything in the body has receptors for the hormone.

Not to mention it's the key 'player' in the response to stress associated with dieting.
 
Steve said:
Ya, leptin is new in terms of discoveries wrt to human metabolism and endocrinology.

Quite astonishing considering pretty much everything in the body has receptors for the hormone.

Not to mention it's the key 'player' in the response to stress associated with dieting.
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I did not know this. Is it difficult to diagnose?
 
It's not a disease.

It's a hormone that resides in all of us.

Here, read this when you get a chance. It will give you a lot more understanding.
 
Steve said:
It's not a disease.

It's a hormone that resides in all of us.

Here, read this when you get a chance. It will give you a lot more understanding.
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I think diagnose was the wrong choice of words. Is it difficult to detect?

Thanks for the links! You're a big help.

Amy
 
AmyRB said:
I think diagnose was the wrong choice of words. Is it difficult to detect?

Thanks for the links! You're a big help.

Amy
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Leptin goes up and down with body fat stores as well as caloric intake. It's the hormone primarily responsible for letting your brain know that you are fed.

If leptin levels drop, a whole chain of events happen to trigger a response from your body. This response to most is considered negative. The only people who don't view it as negative are those stranded on an island, lol.

Reason being is a reduction in metabolism, increased appetite, muscle loss, fat maintenance are all characteristics of this response.

If you are plateaued, chances are you need to let your body know that it's fed.

Make sense?
 
Steve said:
Leptin goes up and down with body fat stores as well as caloric intake. It's the hormone primarily responsible for letting your brain know that you are fed.

If leptin levels drop, a whole chain of events happen to trigger a response from your body. This response to most is considered negative. The only people who don't view it as negative are those stranded on an island, lol.

Reason being is a reduction in metabolism, increased appetite, muscle loss, fat maintenance are all characteristics of this response.

If you are plateaued, chances are you need to let your body know that it's fed.

Make sense?
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Yep. I keep a binder of interesting articles about nutrition and fitness and these will be added. Thanks so much for your help. I learned a lot today. :)
 
No problem. If you can't resolve your plateau with a simply break in dieting, let me know and we'll do some digging.
 
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