Post by Teresa on Sept 24, 2009 7:45:48 GMT -8
hi. I wanted to share a discussion I had with a lady in one of my peertrainer groups because she is experiencing a "common problem" that a lot of faithful would-be dieters face.
This is what she shared:
Below is my reply...and as I was writing it, I thought it would be good to share this here as well...
I hope this info will be helpful to some of you. It is a collection of things I've learned over the years from various nutritionists and diet "experts". - teresa
This is what she shared:
I think that is a hard thing. I have totally reduced cheese to almost nothing, meat is about 1 or 2 times a week, lots of beans soups ( I also made the carrot ginger soup from the video. It is super good) and nothing....I am not loosing weight. I don't get it. This is very frustrating, to say the least. Still I feel good and love the health aspects, but I would love to dump about 50 lbs.
Below is my reply...and as I was writing it, I thought it would be good to share this here as well...
If you are not loosing, then there are two variables you might want to experiment with. The first is exercise. I find that if I don't exercise at least an average of 1/2 hour a day, I don't loose. If you are not exercising, you might want to add the to the mix and see if it helps. If you are exercising some, you might want to try increasing it a bit.
The other thing is to revisit how many calories you are consuming. It could either be too high or too low. If you are calories are too high, you won't loose because you are taking in an maintenance level of calorie, not a weight loss level. And you could have hidden calories in your foods where you are consuming more calories than you think you are. For example, I was using fried onion bits that were 45 calories a serving, but the "serving size" was two level tablespoons, and I was using two to three very heaping tablespoons...each each of my "heaping" tablespoons was really 2 level ones, so I was consuming 90 to 135 calories for each 45 that I was counting..and was having this 2 to 3 times a day..for a hidden 180 to 270 calories a day. If you have 3 or 4 of those type of things, you could easily be consuming 400 to 500 more calories a day than you think you are.
But on the other hand, if your calorie intake is too low, then your body might be trying to conserve energy (commonly called "starvation mode" in diet circles). This is where your body thinks there is a food shortage and is desperately trying to preserve your fat store for vital functions like heartbeat, breathing, etc. It will shut down some "non-vital" functions, such as maintaining a suitable energy level, etc. It would rather have you really tired/weak than not able to breathe. The odd thing is that you can be really overweight (with lots of extra fat) and eat what seems like a "reasonable" amount according to the diet book suggestions...like 1000 to 1200 calories per day, and your body can still think it is in starvation mode. So if you think this might be the problem, try experimenting with eating about 200-250 more calories per day..but make them really healthy ones...fresh fruits, veggies, raw nuts; and stay away from the "ugly" calories like refined sugar, animal fat, white flour products and high-calorie empty-nutrition foods (chips, etc). If you suddenly find yourself loosing after a week of this, then you were most likely in starvation mode and need to adjust your daily calorie intake upward long term.
Oh yeah, one more thing that can effect weight loss is water retention. This is usually short term...like 2 to 3 weeks...where you are actually loosing but you don't know it because your body retains more water so the scale doesn't move downward. The best ways to eliminate water retention are to 1) drink lots of water (at least 9 or 10 cups a day) because it flushes the excess water from the system, and 2) stay away from salt and other high-sodium products.
Anyhow, I hope you find the breakthrough soon for weight loss. I do agree with you that you will be healthier if you shed excess weight.
I hope this info will be helpful to some of you. It is a collection of things I've learned over the years from various nutritionists and diet "experts". - teresa