Trying...but can't seem to lose it.

[sascas24]

I am not a heavy girl, but have always had self-esteem problems and was always made fun of when I was growing up. I am 24 and 168 lbs and want to get down. I am a member at Anytime Fitness and work out 2-3 times a week and am always on my feet walking around at work.

What can I do to lose the weight? I have been watching what I eat, stopped going to fast food places as much or even stopped all together, been drinking lots of water and can't seem to lose anything. I need help 😞

[LCHFmom]

I am not going to tell you what to do.   I do recommend that you either speak with your doctor or find a nutritionist to work with.  Aside from any potential medical issues that could be holding you back , you are still young and have the opportunity to lose the weight with the right tactics and tools in your toolbox.

There are a lot of choices for “ diet plans” , but foremost,  you need to understand where you are at before you know which path to take in moving forward.  Maybe you can take a week to fully log everything you eat – everything.   Once you are able to see everything in numbers, it’s easier to determine where to go next.    There are a lot of options to choose from.   Some of the list below is more of a diet plan, while others are more seriously taken as lifestyle changes.   I highly recommend you do some research to see what best fits for you.

Calorie Counting – Can hold you accountable to a marked number of calories a day. Really makes you pay attention to what, how much and how often you are eating.   Also provides you a bit of flexibility  in choice foods.

Low Carb -  More strict than counting calories; as far as food choices.  This seriously limits grains, sugars, starches but promotes smart carb choices such as vegetables and limited fruits.  This can be tricky too- as you need to determine where you are at today with carb intake to determine what to do tomorrow.  Everyone is different with carb sensitivities.  I personally cannot eat over 30/day or I stall weight loss.  Others can go as high as 50 and still lose. We are all different.

Paleo – Promotes cleaner food choice, hunter/gatherer; free range and non-GMO animals, fruits and vegetables, and natural ingredients ( nothing processed / prepackaged.  Restrictions include: removal of grains, starches, legumes and dairy.  

Mediterranean-  Primarily plant-based foods; fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts.  Use healthy fats ( olive oil). Meats; fish and poultry recommended, limit red meats. Limit sweets as often as red meat.  Dairy? Low-fat.

My personal opinion is that any diet  program that promotes buying into their products or point systems – is really not interested in YOUR bottom line, therefore I did not include any of those in this list. 

The Mayo clinic has several articles related to nutrition and blurbs on several  diet/lifestyles. This is a good place to start: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-blog/questions-about-nu...

[techman001]

Keep at it kpa1b2, its so important NOT to be overweight. Important issues I've 'discovered' about being obese:-

* No energy

* Sleep apnea increase, which gives rise to heaps of other dire issues like reflux, chest pains

* Accelerated wear on the knees and ankles. I loved walking long distances, but now my left knee is worn because I did a lot of walking while overweight.

* Most chairs, pushbikes etc are only rated to 90 Kg, I was 126Kg and wrecked a lot of my expensive gear, simply by being obese.

That's just a few reasons off the top of my head , to be fit and not be overweight 🙂

Cheers

Terry

(111.3kg today, should be 79kg)

[kpa1b2]

techman, this summer I was diagnosed with sleep apnea.  My dr. says my weight gain is a result of menopause, elevated cholesterol & low vitamin D.  So frustrating.

[techman001]

Kpa1b2, I'm sorry to hear that!

I've only last night received a CPAP machine and masks etc, from the USA. I bought a Resmed S9 Autoset from the USA for about $1000 USD, as the same machine is about $2000 - $2700 here in Australia.

Sleep Apnea, what is it ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sleepapnea/

CPAP Links:  http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/

Where I bought my machine, excellent service and prices: http://1800cpap.com/

Sleepyhead: a brilliant Free Software CPAP software that graphs all the stats: http://sourceforge.net/p/sleepyhead/

Note: only the more expensive 'auto' machines actually log your stats overnight onto a SD card, and Sleepyhead only works with the latest Resmed S9 Autoset. The latest Philips machine requires heaps of mods to Sleepyhead and I couldn't get it working.

So Sleep Apnea is another HUGE reason to keep to our correct weight, because it is a expensive PITA, and should be avoided at all costs if one can.

Hopefully by getting back to our correct weight, we may no longer need a CPAP machine every night.

Cheers

Terry

[kpa1b2]

Thankfully, all of my dr. visits, sleep studies and equipment are covered by my insurance, including replacing different parts every 3 or 6 months.  Having said that, I must stay compliant or my insurance company will make me pay for the machine.  I have to send my home medical care company the SD card whenever the ask for it. After 12 months of being compliant then the machine is mine.

The machine does help with the exhaustion, but I still sleep 10+ hours when I don't have to work.

[Naomi94]

Feel free to send me a friend invite 

[Naomi94]

I am not here to coddle anybody. 

One of the reasons people suffer with weight lose is because other's treat them like children instead of adults. 

[kpa1b2]

Techman, how's the CPAP working for you?

[techman001]

Kpa1b2,

Awesome!

* Night 1: AHI was 16 and the RespCare HYB 500 just wouldn't seal for long at my elevated pressures.

* Night 2: Different mask, a ResMed Quattro FX Full Face CPAP Mask LARGE worked fine and I was astounded to wake up in the morning after about 5 hours deep sleep for the fiest time in years. The AHI was 6. My blood pressure was the lowest Iv'e ever seen it at 121/71 🙂

* Night 3: Last night, another excellent sleep and the AHI was 4.

Looks like it's working ....

How about you, whats your AHI these days ?

Cheers

Terry

[kpa1b2]

My machine doesn't show me, if I search it, it will tell me how many days that I've been compliant.  I think that information is recorded on the SD card and my dr. gets the information.  I notice the difference though.  I don't wake up as near as tired as I use to.  Some mornings I wake up so energized, others not as much.  Those are the nights that I can hear or feel the vent & I have had to squish my comforter down.  Or my head gear is slipping, that seems to happen more after I've just washed everything.

[techman001]

Sleep Apnea and CPAP is a battle for sure, yet *another* reason to never get overweight, and a darn good reason to lose excess weight.

Cheers

Terry

[RAC]

I have been on a cpap for 7 years lost weight and had another sleep study and was told I would still need the cpap. Don't fret it will become second nature just stick with it and don't forger to replace the head gear on a regular basis it makes a big differance. You will feel great with real sleep.

[jandeanne]

Naomi isn't your 'friend".  She's righteous and rude.  I think her point might be, if you are getting frustrated, really pay attention to what you are doing.  It's really easy for our estimates to not fit reality.  I'd suggest getting very specific about tracking your exercise and food and see where you need to adjust from there.  I know it's a pain, but it's helpful if you're not making the progress you want. 

Good luck! 

Remember,Yoda said, 'there is not try, just do or not do'.

[au4all]

---

@sascas24 wrote:
I am 5'9. I have been told by my doctor that I am healthy...so thanks for making me feel like a terrible person.

---

Your reaction is why doctors don't tell patients the truth. You have some less than helpful habits that you can choose to replace with more healthy habits. It has absolutely nothing to do with someone being good/bad.

There have been some scientific studies where people tend to underestimate the number of calories in "healthy" food. It really is calories in minus calories out. Foods containing fats and/or carbohydrates are not evil unless you overconsume them.

[chunt]

I Have been there. I have a doctor who sent me to a nutritionist to make sure I was eating right when they cleared up the medical issue that directly caused 25 pounds of weight gain (hypothyroid). 

As far as food is concerned you have to log everything. I plan on giving my reports to my doctor for accountability on my part and theirs.  The nutritionist I saw told me to eat 70g protein 3 servings of grains/starches and 5-7 servings of veggies and about 2 of fruits a day. 

I got the force tracker last week and started tracking everything I put in my mouth. It turned out I was doing what techman was doing with possibly just eating too much healthy food. I also wasn't drinking as much water as I estimated, and eating more starches and proteins and fruits than I estimated. So it was just way too much calories. 

I did aerobics 3x a week in my house and went for 2 jogs where I ran/jogged (I'm slow)  for about a minute and walked for a minute and a half for 30 minutes.

I think if you log everything and aim for a -500 calorie deficit and eat whole foods, it should help. I did that this week after realising everything I was doing WRONG and lost 3 pounds despite my thyroid not being in  normal ranges yet. 

If you try all of that and track everything and are not losing weight you should talk to your doctor and see if something else is wrong.

Something else to consider too is spacing out your foods. According to this and my nutritionist if you're trying to lose the weight you should eat less than 30 percent of your calories in the evening. 

Sorry this is all very lengthy but I hope it helps and good luck 🙂

[techman001]

I totally agree 🙂

My  Fitbit on-line account calorie counter gave me some choices when I joined, 'lose weight', 'maintain weight' etc, and I chose 'lose weight' with the most aggressive option. I also have my exercise level set to sedentary.

In my case if I follow it exactly, i.e. don't overeat and end up with a balance of zero for the day, I will lose some weight.

If I follow it exactly, i.e. don't overeat and end up with a balance of zero for the day, but burn 550 calories at the gym, that same day, working hard for a hour, I can lose 0.5kg in a day. My graph (url elsewhere in this thread) shows this clearly.

I'm 110.3kg today after blowing it a couple of days ago by eating a 'vegeterian omlet' and a Iced Coffee at a local resturant , and the day before that I had a hot beef roll and $1 of French Fries. As a result of those two days I put on exactly 0.5kg, which I worked off yesterday.

Luckily, I didn't enjoy the hot beef roll and chips as much as I used to, because I think my new diet of fresh fruit for breakfast and vegies for lunch is drastically changing my taste. The beef tasted salty, and the chips while done to perfection tasted like hot crisp salty cardboard. I'm happy with this because as a life long junk food addict, I long to be free of the junk food addiction.

Only 30.8kg to go, but last September it was 46kg to lose 🙂

Cheers

Terry

[techman001]

au4al said,

"There have been some scientific studies where people tend to underestimate the number of calories in "healthy" food."

I sure did, and that was with fresh fruit and vegies! What chance do people have when eating processed food and relying on the nutrition and energy labeling as mandated by law in most countries ?

Sadly we live in a age where food is big money, and most food manufacturers play down the 'bad' ingredients as much as possible.

In Australia we have just had a situation where the government after working on a healthy food website for the last two years, which graded healthy food with system of stars (the more the healthier), pulled the website down after just one day online.

It then transpired that the 'senior advisor and his wife' for the govt minister responsible for the website, were, or used to lobby for the major food retailers in Australia...

With this kind of organised corruption going on, can we really trust label markings on food ?

Cheers

Terry

[algnemes1]

Use the fitBit food log daily.  Log everything that you eat.  I started with a visit to my cardiologists nutritionist.  Use the following guidelines:

- Breakfast @ 300 calories

- Mid morning snack @ 150 - 200 calories.

- Lunch @ 500 calories

- Afternoon snack @ 150 - 200 calories

- Dinner @ 600 calories.

Limit yourself to 1800 calories, 50 fat grams, 40 grams fiber and 56 - 120 grams protien.

I started this eating concept four years ago and went from 225 to 175 pounds in about 9 months.  I maintain arount 175 to 180 pounds by consuming on the average 2200 calories per day.

[algnemes1]

Drink low sodium V8 instead of OJ!

[algnemes1]

Count calories and fat grams in!  Limit to 1800 and 50 per day - it really works.