Tuesday, January 24, 2006
SO NOT FAIR
This morning my weight was 208.6!!! That is up by about 14 pounds!!! I was SO GOOD this week. I started out a little rocky, but I have been exercising every day and eating really well (copmpartively). WHY?! I was slowly inching my way down all week - and then yesterday I jumped up two pounds and today another 1/2 pound. Why can't my low point be on weigh in day? This is SO stupid!! I am SO sick of this. Every time I think I am doing a good job - NOTHING!
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7 comments:
You are like me--even when you stick to good eating and exercise it doesn't show on the scale. I had to assess WHAT I was eating. Even though I'd be inside my calorie budget for the day, I was eating too much sugar and too many carbs--even the good kind of both. Keep experimenting. You'll find the combination that swings the scale in your favor.
Did you have that good of a week? You were exercising, which is really good, but there were at least three days when you posted that you ate too much (the other days you didn't post, so I don't know how your eating was), and the problem with overeating is that it doesn't take much at all to mess you up for a long time, which doesn't seem fair, but there it is. But if you need to cut 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week and on three days you eat 500 calories *more* than what you need to maintain your weight, you've set yourself back by almost a week, because 500 calories more than maintenance is 1000 calories more than you need to lose, so there's 3000 calories right there. Did I do the math right? And anyway, the math doesn't mean much because I don't think for a second that the calories to maintain my current weight would actually make me maintain--they'd make me gain weight. The only time I lose is if I keep my intake below 1500 calories a day, and I do best if it's around 1300 calories, which is 700 fewer than recommended to maintain my weight, and that doesn't even take into account the extra 300 I'm burning through exercise! Sheesh. So when I really do lose between 1 and 1.5 pounds a week, it's because I've either not eaten or burned an extra 1000 calories per day, twice what I should have to according to everything I've read.
You probably stopped reading five minutes ago. Too much math.
I don't know what days you are referring to Sarah... After the McDonald's day on Wednesday I have been eating very well. Generally when I don't post it is because I have nothing to report out of the ordinary or I am too busy to post and therefore eat. I pack my lunch everyday - and my biggest problem is eating everything. Even on Friday, my boss brought in bagels - which I didn't eat. So in the past seven days I only was bad once - on the first of the seven days. Over the weekend the only thing bad that I ate was at your house - and even that wasn't bad because I hardly ate anything else all day - and I had a reasonable portion and only one slice of bread.
Keep in mind when you do all of your math Sarah, I weigh half again what you do. To MAINTAIN my weight I am supposed to eat 2600 calories. On my biggest pig out day I was at 2648 according to your calculations. That is 48 calories ahead of where I should be - but I exercised. SO - according to YOUR math, if I ate like that everyday (WHICH I DON'T) and maintain a fairly light exercise schedule (which mine is more than light) I should STILL lose weight. I have been averaging considerably BELOW my maintenance level - so DON'T even tell me I haven't had a good week!!!
Additionally - your math lectures are SO not helpful! Obviously counting calories DOESN'T work for all of us.
The point I was trying to make is that the maintenance calories given by these various calculators (which range from 1900 to 2400 calories for my weight and activity level) are WAY more than needed to maintain--if I ate that, I'd gain, and I suspect the same is true for you since you don't seem to be losing anything using those recommendations. That's why the math helps me--I know from doing it that my "maintenance" calories are more like 1700 per day and that to lose anything I need to cut to 1300 to 1500 calories and burn off another 300 by exercising. When I don't stick to that every day, I don't lose weight. I was suggesting that since you seem to be maintaining at your current level pretty well, you should assume that what you're doing now is your maintenance regime and should cut from your current level to actually lose weight. I know that counting calories doesn't work for everyone, but you seem really frustrated that what you're doing isn't working and I always figure if something isn't working, you should try something else.
I was referring to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday--on all three days you posted that you ate too much. The dinner at my house alone was over 1200 calories.
Amy--I can see your frustration and I don't want you to remain discouraged. I understand where it comes from--I've been on this blog with all of you since Sept and I've just posted my lowest weight yesterday.
#1--your said your period is happening. I know I gain about 2 pounds on the first day, which stinks, because it ALWAYS starts on Tuesday so it ALWAYS nails me on weigh-in day.
#2--we just have to figure out what is going to upset this equilibrium in your body. So if you put into my pyramid what you eat on a regular day and see what that totals up to, as Sarah suggests, that should be your starting maintenance calorie count and just forget whatever it suggests otherwise. My suggested number is totally bogus. Then start subtracting. Ditch any calories you drink except the V8. Fruit juice, even if it's 100% juice, is just sugar. On weightwatchers, one cup of fruit juice is 2 points. A 6" Subway turkey sub on wheat with no mayo or cheese is only 5 points. Consider that ratio--2 1/2 cups of juice = 1 sub? If you want to keep drinking it, mix it half and half with water.
Counting calories stinks, but once you figure out the variable of your starting maintenance number, it can work. In the end, it ALL comes down to counting calories. It WILL work. Expended HAS to be less than what you take in.
#3--I have been using my new treadmill every day but 2 since I got it 15 days ago, and only in the past few days have I been seeing the results from my efforts. I can also tell my metabolism is responding. I have more stamina and I don't get freaky-eat-everything-in-sight-hungry mid-afternoon anymore. Keep up the regular exercise because your body will respond to it. Give it a chance to adjust. How many days have you gone to the gym since you've started back?
#4--You are going to be successful. No excuses. You can take or leave any of my advice except this one. That's just the way it is.
On average I have been doing 1800 calories a day or less. I do count my calories when I pack my lunch.
If I eat less I gain because my body is "starving" and so keeps all of the calories. If I eat more I gain because that is what you do.
I would rather be fat. And I am going to start smoking again because nicotine accelerates your metabolism.
I have been doing five days a week at the gym. I have been going on Wednesdays and on Saturdays - which used to be my skip days. I missed one Monday in the beginning and I missed Friday this past week when I had my party. So - I have been mostly doing six days a week. I haven't gone on Sundays yet. I come out of the gym feeling sick most times - which in the past has always been an indication that I have overdone it. I am up to 37 minutes on the cross trainer. I have increased the weights on all of my resistance exercised (with the exception of the shoulder presses - which I still can't do the full sets at the weight I started on). I also have been working 6-8 hours a week in the DC. That is all physical work and I come out of there more sore than I do the gym.
Even if I drop the standard 2 pounds with my period this week that still puts me at 206.2. That is no lower than I was a two weeks ago - or two months ago.
I drink coffee (with skim milk), water and V-8. Juice is a very rare exception for me. I bought a bottle of grapefruit juice last week and have had 1 8 oz serving from it. I bought a six pack of the apple juices (10 oz bottles)- so I could reuse the bottles for V-8 (the 64oz bottles being cheaper than the little cans). Between Katie and I we have had 4 of them in the past week.
I just went through the pyramid and entered everything I would eat in the course of a normal day, plus some extra (I wouldn't normally have cottage cheese AND yogurt) I gave myself 24 oz of coddee (I normally have 16) - my total was 1670. That included EVERYTHING. I got smiley faces for everything except milk (aparently cottage cheese, yogurt, and milk in a day isn't enough). I did it with sushi for dinner and it was 1770. Sushi I consider my "treat" food. Katie eats exactly the same meals as I do and yet she is still losing - and she doesn't exercise - and she drinks more often than I do!
This has been my problem with diets ever since I started trying them. I don't know if I WILL be successful. I can't quit regardless, because the added bonus to diets failing for me is that I also get to gain about twice what I have lost once I go off the diet. If I had never started dieting 10 years ago I would be about 40 pounds lighter.
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