Joined Apr 2006
Oh no you didn't! Le sigh
Forum Thread
Why am I gaining weight???NO OT if you please.
August 12, 2010 at
03:30 AM
in
Chat
Back in late May/early June I decided to go on a diet. Not only to lose weight but to learn to eat a little healthier since my diet was consistent on a lot of fried foods and soda and junk. I tried NutriSystem and found their food was pretty gross and I couldn't eat it so I am currently doing a Lean Cuisine type of diet.
My menu consists of a Lean Cuisine breakfast, lunch and dinner. They're generally around 230-300 calories each meal. I have a small snack in between each one. Breakfast is fruit snack, and lunch is a Nabisco 100 calorie pack of some type and then my dinner snack is a Skinny Cow ice cream (150 calories, low fat). This puts me at a bit below 1500 calorie intake daily. I drink water all day and the only downside is that I don't have much time to excersize so I only do about 15 minutes a day.
In the beginning things were great and I lost 30 pounds. I am nowhere near my goal and I've slowly started to put back a pound a week or so over the past 3 weeks. I don't understand why my weight is creeping back up and why I'm not continuing to lose weight. I have a lot lot more to go and shouldn't have reached a plateau this quickly and surely shouldn't be gaining it back....
It's really stressing me out, since I started this diet I've been obsessing about my weight and feel like I'm failing somewhere but can't figure out where...Any thoughts would be appreciated so I don't fall off my diet and give up...
My menu consists of a Lean Cuisine breakfast, lunch and dinner. They're generally around 230-300 calories each meal. I have a small snack in between each one. Breakfast is fruit snack, and lunch is a Nabisco 100 calorie pack of some type and then my dinner snack is a Skinny Cow ice cream (150 calories, low fat). This puts me at a bit below 1500 calorie intake daily. I drink water all day and the only downside is that I don't have much time to excersize so I only do about 15 minutes a day.
In the beginning things were great and I lost 30 pounds. I am nowhere near my goal and I've slowly started to put back a pound a week or so over the past 3 weeks. I don't understand why my weight is creeping back up and why I'm not continuing to lose weight. I have a lot lot more to go and shouldn't have reached a plateau this quickly and surely shouldn't be gaining it back....
It's really stressing me out, since I started this diet I've been obsessing about my weight and feel like I'm failing somewhere but can't figure out where...Any thoughts would be appreciated so I don't fall off my diet and give up...
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I put on talk shows and you see overweight people there and they list their diet of 5 pizzas a day, burgers, fries, shakes, gallons of soda and they dont weigh THAT much more than me. I sometimes get to the point where if this is going to be sooo much of a struggle to just be a healthy weight that it'd be easier just to be fat and happy eating what I want.
Just venting..sorry..
It's okay, venting is good.
I know it is frustrating. Remember, then you see people eat 5 pizzas a day, you may not see them exercising 90 minutes every night. Keep in mind that everyone's metabolism is different and because your metabolism is "slow" doesn't mean it has to stay "slow" ....... with a lifestyle change and exercise, over time you can change your system to metabolize food faster, burn calories faster and keep weight off easier ....... then you can "cheat" without gaining weight.
But you have to get there first. Another thing to realize is you don't have to do this alone and it doesn't have to be all work. It sounds like you have a supportive husband, use him. He can make you a salad for dinner while you are exercising. Do you know how many calories you burn during vigorous sex?
If you need to make time? Make time! Cut out television, reading, sleeping late, etc. Get up 30 minutes early, put on some clothes and run for 30 minutes before you hit the shower in the morning. Everything you do will help you lose weight and everything you don't do will help you keep (or gain) the weight you have.
As others suggested don't hop on the scale, ever. Take off all of your clothes and take a photo, once a month. If you see changes you will feel better about the work you are doing and as you lose weight and start dropping dress sizes is when you will be rewarded!
You can do this! If Richard Simmons and that Jared guy did it, so can you.
My guess is that since you are eating a low amount of calories and not getting a lot of exercise, your body is entering a mini-starvation mode and slowing down your metabolism. Remember, our bodies are programmed to horde fat in case of famine.
Another suggestion that weight lifters use when slimming down is to combine exercise/diet, but on one day per week, eat more calories.. Supposedly this helps prevent your metabolism from slowing down.
Exercise: You need it. You find time to sit down and watch talk shows where fat people eat 5 pizzas a day? Well there is an hour you could have been working out. Ok, I know you dont always watch those shows, but you can find the time. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day 4-5 days a week. Stand in front of your TV and do 100 squats, take the stairs, do push ups, walk around your house, walk the dog, walk the husband, do something.
Metabolism - could be dead. Not exercising will do that. Also not eating enough will slow your metabolism down. Are you sure you should only be eating 1500 calories a day? If your body thinks you are starving it will slow down everything to try and keep you alive. I have read that you should multiply your ideal weight by 11 to calculate the amount of calories you should take in daily. But if your ideal weight is 136 (1500 calories a day) and you weigh 200, your body is going to freak out a bit and slow your metabo down. If you are 200lbs, set your daily calorie intake for a 180lb person. Keep adjusting until you hit your mark. Dont starve yourself.
All that being said, you should go to your Dr. and get a check up. You cant battle what you dont know (e.g. thyroid). Maybe your doc can recommend a good nutritionist or trainer or both or at least give you better or more accurate information than you can get from SD
Have you ever been tested for thyroid disease [about.com]? There could be a medical reason why you gain weight when other people don't.
EDIT: After I posted I saw that Marg already said everything I said. Good advice Marg.
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I agree with the people saying don't do the frozen food thing. If I were you, eat a decent amount of fruit, yogurt, or oatmeal for breakfast (breakfast is very important, don't skip it), salad or light sandwich for lunch (don't use a lot of dressing, if you need dressing dip instead of pour on) and a white meat (chicken or fish or turkey etc) with veggies for dinner, beans are really good for you too. Water also is very important. Once you kinda get into that set of standards you can periodically add pork or beef to your dinner to change it up. Snacks should be fruits and veggies, carrots, grapes, berries all tasty. Yogurts good too.
Definitely exercise a lil longer, anything cardio is best, running, biking or swimming (I'm a personal fan of swimming cause it works your whole body, which means you burn calories faster and it's better on your joints). 30 minutes is pretty good and should help a lot. If you can't go somewhere at least do sit ups and push ups and stretches while you're watching tv (sitting up straight even helps).
My mother's a registered dietitian and my dad's a Ph.D in food science, and I have my background in chemistry and some biochem, so I know the food stuff. It takes a while to lose weight and isn't instant like everyone wants it to be and everyone's metabolism is different so what works for one person won't work for another. Def write down your consumption and exercise routine for a month or two and then go see a dietitian or nutritionist if things aren't working out and they'll be able to talk you through it. And don't check your weight every day! Once a week is more than enough!
In order to lose weight, you are going to have to make several lifestyle changes.
Exercise! No diet works without exercise, if you don't break sweat for 30 minutes a day you will have a hard time losing weight. Exercises such as running, skipping rope, sit ups, push ups, elliptical training machines, etc. ...... anything that has you sweating and heart pounding.
Cut out crap in your diet! For breakfast have a
small bowl of plain oatmeal. For lunch have an apple or couple of celery stalks. For dinner have a small steam cooked chicken breast (no butter) or a grilled chicken salad (no dressing) with a small serving of low sodium vegatables. If you getting hungry between meals, have stalk of celery and then exercise 5 minutes longer than normal.
Drink water! Eight (8 oz.) classes of water every day!
No alcohol! Sorry.
Log everything! Write down everything you eat or drink including when and how much. Write down the exercises you do and the length of time devoted to each. Then once or twice a week, review your log and make sure you are not cheating!
Costco has these great pre-cut apple snack pakcs which have been my life-saver on eating fruit.
I also see no dairy.
Instant breakfast in the morning for me has been amazing. I was always starving by lunch and would then overeat. The instant breakfast really kept me full from 7:30 to noon. I would assume that it is the dairy doing that.
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And if you really want to lose weight, you're gonna have to learn to cook and eat at home. Cook from scratch, (fresh fruits/veggies, etc.), stay away from fast food, frozen food and canned food products.
I had to learn to eat differently, not because of a weight problem but because of health problems, and I gotta tell you, I haven't had a restaurant meal in 10 years that compares to meals I make at home.
You can buy cookbooks cheap. Ebay, yard sales, half.com, junk stores .... even borrow some from neighbors/family and copy the recipes. Go online and find substitutes for ingredients that might sabotage your diet.
Food doesn't have to be tasteless in order for you to lose weight.