I walked 27 miles in 4 days and gain over 1/2 pound!

[CarrieK]

The nice thing aboutt the Fitbit is that it's a tool that can keep you honest with yourself. I'm not bummed out that I gained 1/2 pound (actually 6/10th of a pound, so a smidge over) because making mistakes is how I learn to change my behavior.

One of the biggest reason for my current 300 pounds is I'm malnourished. Malnourishment affects almost every overweight person, and certainly every morbidly obese person such as myself.  

A dietician friend told me something a while back, that makes a lot of sense. Our bodies know what they need nutrition-wise. Our bodies know, for example that it needs 10 grams of Vitamin C (just using this as an example, not a true life requirement). If you drink KoolAid, it as let's say 1 gram of Vitamin C per serving, but also a lot of sugar calories. You'd have to drink 10 glasses of KoolAid to turn off your body's craving for Vitamin C. Imagine that other vitiamins, minerals and food components (carbs, proteins, fats) are making the same demands. If you're eating junk food, you'll easily consume several hundred calories in junk food as your body tries to find the Vitamin A it needs, that it could have found in a 35 calorie carrot. 

When we eat a diet closer to real food, we don't get as hungry because our bodies are nutrition hungry not calorie hungry, and will be satisfied when the nutrition goals are met. You can find 1500 calories of good quality food that will satisfy your bodies craving for nutrion, or you can eat 4000 calories of junk food to get the same nutrition. Along with the junk food though,you're getting far more of the sodium your body needs, far more fat. 

Looking at my diet and water intake for the week, I see I have cheated all over the place. I've had a hard time maintaining the calories counts and that's because of my underlying malnutrition. I have weighed and meausured by food and drink, but I still make bad choices. I cheated one day and shorted my water intake by about 20 ounces. A cheated all 4 days by not eating the required amount of food, averaging over about 1200 calories a day. I haven't changed my diet other than getting rid of sugar, and so it's obvious that sugar makes up most of my calories and I simply don't like food without sugar. So, getting rid of sugar means that up until now, I've probably eaten 500-800 calories a day in 'real' food—food that is healthy and nutrious, and who knows how many calories in sugary foods. 

Removing sugary food from my diet has been easy in that regard, no cravings or anything, but now comes the hard part of adding more nutrious food in to prevent starvation mode (which I'm likely in right now).

If I continue on, I will eventually lose weight, it will just mean I'm not doing it in a healthy way. 

So many challenges, but like anything, challenges and wrong turns lead the way to better outcomes when you dig deep and try to understand them.

[WendyB]

Im sure you can get it under control. You just need to work on it.

It doesnt matter how many miles you walk. Its more about the food you put in your mouth. You can walk all you want but if you are not eating right you will not lose weight.

[CarrieK]

I agree. It's one of the challenges, but it will lead to a better knowledge of what I really need to do. Weight loss ain't for sissies! (In general, I tend to be a big sissy, lol)

[Tave]

You made an important first step, and that is self reflection on your consumption and deciding to change it for the better.  Like you, I have a huge sweet tooth, and it has been challenging replacing that with more nutritious foods.  

It gets easier over time though, and you ultimately find you can incorporate a moderate amount of what you like and still see results - as long as you can control the portion sizes.  Also, try to find a healthier food that satisfies you the same as the sugar does and ease more of that into your diet.  For instance, eggs and milk or yogurt do the trick with me.  

After a week or two, you will really begin to feel and see a difference.

[Rich_Laue]

Personally i wpuld not worry about a half pound, it could simply be that you have 8 ounces more of water in your body.

[bcalvanese]

I weigh myself every day and weight can vary up to a couple lbs. from day to day. It depends on many factors. How much waste you have in your system, how much water, etc...

You seem to have the right idea with the sugar thing, but you should probably just cut down on it at first, and not shock your system so much. Life style changes are better done over time, and it allows that time to develop habits.

Exercise in my opinion is just as important for long term success. A good fitness level makes your body more capable of using what it needs and getting rid of what it doesn't need. It also makes it better at maintining all the different blood & chemical levels. This allows you to eat a well rounded, healthy, and satisfying diet, and yes, even have a treat here and there.

I always recommend 1 lb. a week, and a combination of exercise and eating healthier.

Good luck.

[CarrieK]

Thank you for the kind words of encouragament. It does seem that ridding my diet of sugar was kind of a shock to the system. I think half my calories came from sugar (and the associated fats). For me, it's all or nothing. If I can go three days without sugar, then I don't crave it anymore. If I have a bite after that, it sets me up for craving and a downward spiral.

I have now lost 10 pounds this week just eliminating sugar and drinking the required water—I don't expect that to carry over every week, nor would it be healthy—it's just that starting gate purge. That's significant because I didn't use to drink so much water (not a coffee, tea or soda drinker, so I didn't have those to fill in for water). I'm struggling to get up to 1500 calories, 1200 seems more doable to me—I don't like the taste of non-sweet food, so that's my biggest challenge trying to like food enough to bother eating it and not feeling frustrated and reaching for a candy bar.

I use the Fitbit to count step and miles, but haven't yet pushed myself to go beyond my everyday habits. I did manage to go an extra block a few days ago, but that wasn't much. As of this writing I'm at 113116 since last Thursday when I started. I hope to work my way back up to the 9 or 10 miles I used to walk daily. I'm almost 300 pounds and I have back issues, so I'll probably wait a bit before pushing myself. I'm very lucky I don't drive so that helps a lot because anywhere I need to go I have to walk. 

[ArmyDudeinAZ]

Here are some things I did to succeed in my weight loss.

I have a huge craving for sugary & fat foods

When I would crave sugars I would eat an orange or greek yogurt

When I craved something chocolatey I would eat a sugar free chocolate pudding.

I used the loseit app (it syncs with fitbit) to keep track and stay accountable for what I ate (It helped me to realize that eating a big mac meal meant I had to work out for 3 hours to burn it off.

I also take a break at work to do a 10 minute walk 3-5 times a day

Invest in yourself & good luck in meeting your goals

[Dominique]

First of all, your profile shows a very good Fitbit start:

It’s simply amazing you have been able to reach so many steps each day, especially given your current weight and if you were previously sedentary. I’m 65 kg (143 lbs) and in order to make walking more challenging, I’ve purchased a 10 kg weighted vest. This allows me to simulate what it would be like to be 75 kg (165 lbs). It’s a lot harder, but I can’t imagine what it would be like to carry an another 135 lbs. I probably couldn’t even do 500 steps with such a load.

That being said, added exercise won’t translate automatically into weight loss if you don’t get your nutrition right. You need to create a consistent and sustainable caloric deficit. At this stage, it’s probably best to focus primarily on nutrition. For exercise, try to select activities that would not put too much stress on your joints (elliptical or rowing would be great for that).

As to your weight gain of 1/2 pound, it’s probably water weight, as @Rich_Laue noted. It’s not uncommon for someone who was previously sedentary to gain water weight in the initial phase when getting for active. If you manage to reach a suitable caloric deficit (via nutrition and exercise), weight will eventually come down.

Also rememer weight loss is not a sprint, it’s more a long-distance race. Your Fitbit "history" is only 10 days long. You should be patient with your weight loss. Just like you didn’t reach your current weight in a couple of months, you shouldn’t expect to lose it that fast. The "biggest loser" approach definitely isn’t the best one. 

[CarrieK]

I agree, the Biggest Loser approach can be dangerous and backfire very easily.

As one gets up in weight, your muscles grow to accomodate the weight gain. There is no way someone half the weight could double up and expect to carry that load. Just as I couldn't wear a 300 pound body suit and expect to manuveur like a person of 600 pounds who had gained muscle that accomodates it.

I have never driven a car, and frankly, don't like them as modes of transportation, preferring to walk. I've been that way my whole life. I underestimated how far I was walking each day for normal everyday errands—grocery store, bank, etc. The closest grocery store is a half mile away, my bank is 1 1/2 miles in the opposite direction. The mall is 3 miles away, my doctor is 4.5 miles away. I thought I was topping out at a mile or two at the most, turns out after consulting Google maps after my first day on Fitbit, that my normal routine is around 5-7. Quire a shock to me, because not only am I tremendously overweight, but I have a very bad back (spinal stenosis) and limp most of the time and felt I wasn't particularly active. Walking is at time excrutiatingly painful but a necessary evil just to survive. As a matter of fact in January my doctor suggested I lose weight and recommended starting off by walking around the block each day. I told her that I walk a mile each day (like I said, I was unaware of my distance until a couple of weeks ago when I started Fitbit) and she said, "no, you don't. You have to be honest without yourself. I mentioned that I had taken the bus to a main road (that turns out to have been about a mile away) and she gave me a look like 'yeah right'. She said "you could barely walk into this office, I don't see how you could walk that distance". I told her the only reason I took the bus that far was because in the early mornings my back is so bad, that it would have taken hours to walk that distance. She then restated that she wanted me to at least try to walk around the block in the evenings, lol. I told her I'd "try", then I walked out of her office, and walked home hahahaaa. Three hours and 4.5 miles later I was too tired too walk around the block. 🙂

So I guess 'sedentary' wouldn't be accurate, but I don't know what would be. I think it's still quite a low activity level over all. 

[Mukluk4]

 Three hours and 4.5 miles later I was too tired too walk around the block. 🙂

---

Can you clarify this statement?  Did it take you 3 hours to walk the 4.5 miles?

[Dominique]

deleted

[CarrieK]

Yes, it took 3 hours to walk 4.5 miles home.

[Mukluk4]

I would suggest taking your fitbit in to show your doctor the data.  Taking that long to walk that distance is probably a sign that you are doing more harm than good to your body.  Reverify your data as that just doesn't seem correct.  

I understand that you don't like cars, is a bicycle an option? 

[USAF-Larry]

The average speed for walking is 5 km/hr, or 3.1 mile/hr.  Walking 4.5 miles in 3 hours is less than 1/2 that speed. That would be extremely slow movement.

[Tave]

Regardless of what the average speed is for walking, the OP clearly mentioned physical challenges she is having at the moment.  So in her case the movement, no matter how fast or slow, is better than no movement.  Let's be a bit more supportive.

[CarrieK]

I have spinal stenosis and sciatica in my right leg, so my ability to walk is often compromised depending on how bad the flare up of one, the other, or both. At 300 pounds it's hard to keep a sustained pace over the course of a distance that far. I'm probably pretty good the first mile but drop off substantially after that. 

I can see the intensity of my walk on my Fitbit now, so it's very plain to see I have more ability at the start and as pain and fatigue take over, my pace slows measureably. I try not to walk anywhere I can't safely walk home from, but with both of the afflictions I mentioned, you often don't have too much prior warning that they're going to flare up substantially. The worst time is when I've sat down to rest—everything locks up and it often takes up to a half miles to loosen up my back enough to continue on. When I've lost enough weight to make surgery safer, I intend to have it done. 

[CarrieK]

I used to ride a bike all the time—loved it. I'd clock in over 150 miles a week, but it's just too hard on my lower back. I don't mind walking at all, though.