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Weight loss: What the hell am I doing wrong??

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Re: Weight loss: What the hell am I doing wrong??

  • It might be a good idea to vary up your diet frequently.  Try a lot of new foods your body hasn't adapted to processing efficiently.
  • Sorry, I don't know much about diet so I can't really help you there.  I do work out regularly but when it comes to food my motto is sort of just 'everything in moderation'...love me some ice cream!  But maybe you should talk to your doc about switching your BC?  What are you taking now?

    I'm on Loestrin 1/20 (also been on the generic version, Microgestin), so it's a lower dose of hormones and I haven't had any problems with it over the past 4 years--going on and off of it.  (Knock on wood!)  
  • I hate the muscle weighs more than fat thing. It's a pet peeve of mine too, as is blaming weight loss on genetics and crap like that. It doesn't happen as often as people say it does. 

    Which is why I hate blaming my weight loss on anything but my diet and exercise. I am on tri-sprintec right now, which is all I've ever taken. i have to go to my ob-gyn in two months so if going off the pill doesn't work I will have a good discussion with a doctor on everything. 

    My diet is pretty limited due to the fact that where I live has awful produce (I live in extreme cold and very far away from any farms). My breakfast is usually a cup of black coffee, eggs and toast or oatmeal. If I'm especially hungry I'll throw in an orange or some type of fruit.

    My lunch is usually a salad or soup I made. I don't add any noodles and rarely potatoes to my soup. 

    At dinner I often have a piece of baked chicken and some rice, with a side of veggies. I might have a bean based taco meal, or chili or a casserole. Because I save calories throughout the day I really just eat whatever we are making, but small portions.

    If I do snack it will be carrots and peppers, a handful of pretzels or more fruit. Like I said, produce has a very limited availability and it's very expensive. Soon I'll be moving south and I won't have to worry about lack of veggies and fruits, so that will get better as well.
  • mzbdamzbda member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    I'm gonna add in my two cents. 
    OK, stop counting calories and just eat a balanced diet. I never count calories and I eat a well rounded diet. I eat a ton and am always hungry because I taught my body to be that way based on the foods I eat. 
    One thing you need to do is snack, you should really eat every three hours because eating frequently makes your metabolism faster. My trainer says if you aren't always hungry, you're not doing it right. 
    My suggestion is to Google Betty Rocker's Body Fuel System. I follow it for the most part and it's the best meal plan I've ever been on and before you protest, no, it's not a diet. It's a lifestyle. 
    BFS is two e-books, one is a ton of info while the other is a four week meal plan with grocery lists, recipes, meal prep sequences and what not. 
    It is a bit pricey but there are ways to cut it down. 
    A typical day for me is: 8am-green smoothie, 11am- 1/2 cup of quinoa and some nuts, 1:30pm - scrambled eggs, mixed greens and a slice of sprouted bread, 4pm- grilled chicken with mixed greens and finally, 7pm - salmon with roasted brussell sprouts. 
    So, I'm eating a ton of food but it's all nutrient dense food meaning it keeps you full. I don't count calories but I do keep a journal of my food. 
    If you didn't notice, there isn't any sugar, processed foods or high fat foods except for healthy high fat foods i.e. avocado, salmon, nuts. 
    As far as workouts, I workout five days a week for 45 mins a session. I do spinning, body combat, weight training and body weight circuits. 
    I was in a rut myself and I had to tighten up the bad snacking and up my water. I drink 3 liters a day. Also, I meal prep on Sundays because failing to prepare is planning to fail. 
    Hope that is somewhat helpful. 
  • mzbdamzbda member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    Also, cut carbs at dinner. That makes a huge difference because if you are eating rice, casseroles, potatoes, etc at night, that's gonna stick to you and will be harder to lose the weight. 
  • It's awesome that you're doing weight training as part of your routine -- might I ask what sorts of exercises, and at what weight/rep range?  The most effective way to lose fat and build muscle is to lift heavy weights at low reps.  What constitutes "heavy" really depends on your experience level and relative size, but you should be shooting for weights that are challenging in the 3-5 rep range.  Doing an exercise at anything more than 10 reps won't benefit you much.  Some women shy away from heavy weights because they think that will make them "bulky" but that's a huge myth.  As tammym1001 mentioned above, muscle is denser than fat so you WANT to build muscle!  And the more muscle you have, the more effectively you'll burn fat, so it's a cyclical benefit.  Also, you'll want to make sure you're always doing your cardio after your weight training, you'll burn more fat that way.

    As for what sorts of exercises to do, compound movements like squats, deadlifts and bench press give you the most bang for your buck, because they work large muscle groups all at once, but some women find these exercises intimidating.  If you can have a personal trainer teach you good form on each exercise, that's a great way to start out with them.  If you'd rather work up to that, overhead press, curls, rows, lunges (while holding dummbells) are all really effective exercises, though not as much as the compound lifts.

    Finally, as far as diet goes, it sounds like you're on the right track there too with the types of foods you're eating!  It's important to also be aware of the ratio of carbs-fats-proteins that you're consuming, in addition to calories.  Most people eat way too many carbs and not nearly enough protein.  Protein is especially important when you're lifting weights, you need to make sure you adequately replenish your protein so that your body can use it to build muscle.  A good rule of thumb is to eat one gram of protein for every pound of lean body mass -- so for example if you weigh 150 pounds and have 25% body fat, your lean body mass is 112.5 pounds, so you should aim for at least 112 grams of protein per day.  Before I started paying attention to my ratios I realized I was eating maybe half the amount of protein I needed. 
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  • ps - this is the article I read that made me decide to start lifting heavy:
    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

    She certainly takes it to the extreme and is much more disciplined about diet and exercise than I'll ever be, but her transformation is impressive and her photos are great examples of how the number on your scale can be deceptive.
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  • KaurisKauris member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited March 2014
    Inkdancer said:
    When you figure it out, will you tell me?

    One thing I will suggest: take your measurements instead of using the scale. Muscle is heavier than fat, so when I first "lost" some weight, it was actually muscle that I lost from an injury that made me quit dancing. If you're building muscle, your scale number won't decrease much even if you're slimming inches off.
    I'm sorry, but muscle is not heavier than fat. How much does a pound of muscle weigh? One pound. How much does a pound of fat weigh? One pound. Muscle takes up less room than fat. That's they difference. However, you could be still retaining fat while developing muscle, AND you won't see THAT much of a difference until about four months of weight training. You should definitely start to see definition. Sorry, that statement is a HUGE pet peeve of mine because it is completely misleading and we, say it because it makes us feel better. 

    ETA: Sorry, should have read onto the second page before posting. 
  • I started weight training about two months ago. I do it 4 days a week for about half an hour. I curl, bench press, squat and all that good stuff. I do about ten reps, 3 times for each exercise. I usually last until the 7th rep and it takes an enormous amount of will power to do one more. I feel great, I do love how strong I feel. My arms have toned up a lot and my butt looks awesome. I actually have my brother-in-law who used to do this stuff for football help me out everyday. 

    As for cardio, I teach dance 3 times a week and I swim a lot. I hate machine workouts so much. When it's warm I will usually bike about 30-40 miles everyday, that's what I did last summer and I never lost a single pound. 

    Since I've been off the pill my mood has been so much better. This combo  of a long winter, living long distance from my FI and not losing weight was really depressing me. I'm taking a journal of how I feel everyday I'm not on the pill. I'm kind of excited to see what other changes might happen, there are a lot of women who took the pill for years and never realized how much it changed them. I don't know if I trust medical studies of a small group of people where they say weight is not a factor with birth control, or the a ton of women on these weight loss forums that did everything and didn't lose a pound until they got off their b/c. 

    My plan is to try this for a month or two and just see what happens. Then I will either give up and live a happy life being chubby or I will go to the doctor and get this crap sucked out of me. I would really like to enjoy some goddamn ice cream. 
  • Oh, I forgot to say I do an upper body/lower body thing every other session. I guess I really just wanted to ask you guys about your weight experience and birth control. I shouldn't have made the topic when I was so upset!
  • edandy said:
    I am in almost the same boat as you. 20 lbs. over weight (although I would be happy if I could just lose 10), I work out 5-7 hours a week, eat 1,200 calories a day, and........nothing happens! The only difference is that I'm not on birth control. I still can't get the weight to come off no matter what. I take my measurements every week and those haven't changed at all either. I've had my thyroid and just about everything else tested and they are fine. The only thing my doctor could think of is that it might be my stress levels that are causing me to hold onto fat in my tummy area. He said I needed to be less stressed, but who the hell can do that? LOL

    I obviously don't have any advice because I have the same problem, I just wanted you to know that you aren't alone in this and I know how ridiculously frustrating it is. I've wanted to give up a ton of times because I feel like what's the point of doing all this work for nothing? Just keep at it though. Even if you aren't losing weight at least you are being healthy.
    Ahhh good luck. I'll let you know if I ever figure anything out! I was so mad yesterday I ended up just having a bunch of margaritas and I don't even regret having that much sugar. Sometimes we deserve a treat! lol!

    Yeah, I've spent a lot of time being gluten free because my FI has celiacs disease. I don't agree with people who drop gluten to lose weight, or to be healthy. I think it's really stupid. Mostly because I saw him become so sick because he wasn't able to get any nutrients and he lost a ton of weight. This was before they really had any research on it. But, that is a whole 'nother debate that we really don't need to get into, just kinda hurts to people trend diet when he almost died from it. So I know it's not an intolerance because I haven't had weight loss if I go without gluten or if I eat it.

    BTW he's fine now
    I definitely agree that going GF to lose weight is dumb, especially since most food made to be GF (like bread products) have more crap in them! That's great that your FI found out that he was Celiac when he did, my cousin is and I have a friend who is, so I understand what happens when you get gluttened.

    If you eat soups, have you tried looking at your salt intake? Might be worth looking into.



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  • edandy said:
    I started weight training about two months ago. I do it 4 days a week for about half an hour. I curl, bench press, squat and all that good stuff. I do about ten reps, 3 times for each exercise. I usually last until the 7th rep and it takes an enormous amount of will power to do one more. I feel great, I do love how strong I feel. My arms have toned up a lot and my butt looks awesome. I actually have my brother-in-law who used to do this stuff for football help me out everyday. 

    As for cardio, I teach dance 3 times a week and I swim a lot. I hate machine workouts so much. When it's warm I will usually bike about 30-40 miles everyday, that's what I did last summer and I never lost a single pound. 

    Since I've been off the pill my mood has been so much better. This combo  of a long winter, living long distance from my FI and not losing weight was really depressing me. I'm taking a journal of how I feel everyday I'm not on the pill. I'm kind of excited to see what other changes might happen, there are a lot of women who took the pill for years and never realized how much it changed them. I don't know if I trust medical studies of a small group of people where they say weight is not a factor with birth control, or the a ton of women on these weight loss forums that did everything and didn't lose a pound until they got off their b/c. 

    My plan is to try this for a month or two and just see what happens. Then I will either give up and live a happy life being chubby or I will go to the doctor and get this crap sucked out of me. I would really like to enjoy some goddamn ice cream. 
    It sounds like your workout routines are exactly right!

    Hopefully being off the pill will continue to help you.  I was on the pill for a few years in college, and while I didn't notice it affect my weight at all, it changed my mood dramatically.  Going off it was the best thing I did for myself around that time period.

    And, for everything I may have said about diet and cutting down on carbs earlier, I'm still a firm believer that you need to indulge every once in a while.  What's the use in living if you can't enjoy ice cream?!
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  • edandyedandy member
    First Comment Name Dropper 5 Love Its
    edited March 2014
    Yeah, I do believe cutting things completely out is the worst way to diet. Either you are choosing to live without forever, or when you add it back in you'll gain weight back. Instead, I learned portion control and moderation, and when the stores have veggies I eat a lot of those.

    There are def. more calories and sugar in gluten free products. They have to make the food somewhat tolerable to eat! I learned to bake so the poor thing could have a sandwich or a cookie once in awhile without the stores robbing us blind. Ugh.

    I always ask people if they are cutting gluten are they cutting out bread or just gluten? Because that's the difference if you are going to lose weight and be healthy or not. Gluten free bread is so bad for you. The reason many GF people are so skinny is because most of them have no idea what to eat so they just don't eat.

    I was going to rant on and on about gf trend dieting, but I just don't even want to go there. 
  • I am in almost the same boat as you. 20 lbs. over weight (although I would be happy if I could just lose 10), I work out 5-7 hours a week, eat 1,200 calories a day, and........nothing happens! The only difference is that I'm not on birth control. I still can't get the weight to come off no matter what. I take my measurements every week and those haven't changed at all either. I've had my thyroid and just about everything else tested and they are fine. The only thing my doctor could think of is that it might be my stress levels that are causing me to hold onto fat in my tummy area. He said I needed to be less stressed, but who the hell can do that? LOL

    I obviously don't have any advice because I have the same problem, I just wanted you to know that you aren't alone in this and I know how ridiculously frustrating it is. I've wanted to give up a ton of times because I feel like what's the point of doing all this work for nothing? Just keep at it though. Even if you aren't losing weight at least you are being healthy.
    I just want to jump in here and add that 1200 calories or less in a day is actually starving yourself (even if you don't feel hungry). If you eat 1200 calories AND work out or basically do any activity during the day, then your body is retaining fat because it's in starvation mode. Even just living regularly, breathing, minimal walking etc, will burn calories. 

    This confuses many people since they don't feel hungry after eating 1200 calories in a day, and so they think that's the right amount of food. Women should (on average) be aiming to eat about 1600 calories, with few carbs, in a day. 
  • mbross3mbross3 member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its First Comment
    edited March 2014
    I also just want to add my personal pet peeve: muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. 1 lb. of muscle weighs the same as 1 lb. of fat. They are both one pound. I don't mean to offend anyone who has said that, but it drives me crazy. What they mean is muscle is more dense than fat so as you lose fat and gain muscle you may not lose weight, but you will definitely lose inches. If you take your measurements and you aren't losing any inches though then your lack of weight loss isn't from working out too much.
    ...this is the definition of muscle weighing more than fat. Saying 1 lb of anything = 1 lb of something else is obvious. 1 lb = 1lb; it's the size that makes the difference. Saying muscle weighs more than fat is true. As you say, muscle is more dense than fat, that means that a smaller amount of muscle weighs 1 lb and a larger amount of fat weighs 1 lb (if you measure out exactly one cup of muscle and one cup of fat, the muscle will weigh more than the fat). 

    ETA: I'm not trying to call you out or anything, sorry if it comes off that way. I just can't get behind your explanation of muscle not weighing more than fat. 

  • Yeah, it did take me awhile to realize that 1,200 is not enough for a day, especially with my level of activity. Most days I eat about 1,500. I'm not a big eater

  • Go for things you have to make yourself. So no prefab pasta sauce, but make it yourself from real tomatoes and other proper ingredients. Want to eat pizza? Make the actual pizza, and make your own dough. Mash potato. Actually boil potatoes and mash them. 

    Prepared food is the worst. It contains so much added sugar and salt that we really don't need. Look at your food labels, most of your products will contain hidden sugars and salt. I couldn't find mayonnaise without sugar in the US to save my live. Same with bread, it's so hard to find proper bread.

    Cutting more calories is absolutely not necessary, and I fully agree that you should not do any ridiculous diets; that will only have you craving things you 'cant' have. 

  • SonietsjkaSonietsjka member
    5 Love Its First Comment First Anniversary
    edited March 2014
    Double post
  • Yep! I fully believe in eating in a way that is sustainable for the rest of your life.
  • Seriously....add a protein shake! I use Elite Dymatize XR. My son turned me on to this brand. It's slow release. I swear...everytime I cut it out...I lose less weight. I do 8 oz in skim milk, once a day...and the weight loss I gain is much more then without it! Protein burns fat....so give it a try! You can order it online! The vanilla is awesome! I eat between 1200-1500 a day and no "white." The only carb I eat is breakfast...usually oatmeal. Nutrition told me not to cut out carbs entirely (need for energy) so I figure breakfast carb is best,,,I can burn in off during day! :) Good luck....and drink drink drink that H2O!!

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  • Hi I am in a similar boat pretty much permanently in my life... so I thought I'd share a few things I've picked up...

    you might want to consider eating a little bit more? That is a low calorie count, so maybe you need to put more in your body to kick start your metabolism?

    Also- maybe I missed it, but I didn't see too much about water? Try drinking more water.

    Finally- try something different with cardio. I HATE running, but it is the ONLY cardio that makes me visibly lose weight. I could do twice as much elliptical/aerobics/bike and still not see the results I do while running. I've tried and I finally have resigned myself to the fact that I gotta run lol

    Best of luck!
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  • If you already eat sensibly and have cut calories, it's probably time to pump up the gym routine. Start going more often or for longer sessions. Once you start to build muscle, you kick start your metabolism. If you feel like you've plateaued, or hit a wall, or not lost any weight, it's more than likely what most people said- you're developing muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat so your actual weight may not change. You need to increase the intensity of your workouts, either by doing more reps or increasing the weight. If you can do 10 reps with ease, you need more weight; likewise, if you can't do 5 before you start to feel it. then you need less weight. Make sure you're doing cardio warmup (like 20 min), then weight training, then a cardio cool down. You will eventually hit a wall if you never alter your routines.
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