Stuck and Frustrated

L

lisa920

New member
I started a jogging program about 5 weeks ago. Previously I had little extra activity except from my job and chasing my kids. I am now up to running about 20 minutes a day and have been watching my calories. About 1500 - 1600 / day. I lost 7.5 lbs in the first three weeks and haven't dropped a lb since. I have gotten to this plateau before, become discouraged and quit, but I really want to continue. Any ideas to start losing again? My pants feel looser and I have more energy but it's frustrating. I weigh 198, 5'6". I have polycystic ovary syndrome and hypothyroid going against me per my endo. My boss says maybe I'm changing my fat into muscle and muscle weighs more. any truth to her theory.
 
Are you on medication?

Doubtful you're adding enough muscle to offset fat loss given that intake... especially since you're not lifting weights.
 
On Metformin for PCOS and Levothyroxine for thyroid. Was hoping to lose when I went on meds-nothing. I was previously eating over 2200 calories/day although I never kept track. I haven't gained much more since I gained close to 50 lbs on prednisone in 1999-pretty much stayed the same, regardless of what I did/n't do.
 
They're not working now.

How are you tracking your calories?

What is your waking morning temp? (obviously you're going to have to get back to me on this... taking it for 3 days or so to get an average would be best).
 
My TSH is back to normal as are all of my other hormones due to the meds. I track my calories on paper getting calorie counts from thecaloriecounter online. I watch portion size very carefully as I know my portions before I started watching what I eat were too large. As far as my wake-up temp, I'll watch it the next couple days, but it previously ran low, around 95.6 - 96.0.
 
It would be interesting to see where it's running now that you're supposedly back to normal, wouldn't you agree?

Do you use a food scale?
 
I'd also pick up an affordable, digital food scale. Anecdote and actual research clearly shows that people terribly underestimate their intakes. I'm not saying you're doomed to always using a scale, but for now, it's a good idea to rule out all possibilities.
 
Sorry it took so long to get back about the temperature. 97.7 morning temp. That is higher than it was pre-meds. I'll try to get a food scale next time I hit WalMart.
 
I'd also advise to give it a bit more time. Some people are really lucky and lose steadily. Others (like me) lose it fits and starts. It's not unusual for me to drop 3 lbs in a week, then nothing, then 2 lbs, then 2 lbs, then nothing for 2 weeks and then 3 lbs again. At some point I'll post my weight loss chart that I keep in Excel and you'll see that my downward line is not a nice straight angle, but a series of dips and plateaus. :)

You've made a huge number of changes for your body and it needs some time to get adjusted. One thing that people don't think about is that your body gets USED to a certain level of intake and a certain level of exercise and you have to give it time to adjust.

You should give any program a good 8 weeks to see what's going on before you try changing things up again, otherwise you're just keeping your poor bod in a state of chaos and not giving it a chance to adjust.

7.5 lbs is a GREAT start ... there's no reason to believe that you can't keep going. It just might not be on the terms you want it to be! :) Which sucks, I know, but sometimes you just have to learn to live with it.
 
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