Yes, but I just couldn’t resist soapboxing on the “all calories being equal” topic, which while not really being what you posted, is frequently bandied about to justify eating “just a little” junk food… Up to 5-10 times a day. (I used to be one of them.)
I need to develop greater resistance to my newfound impulse to proselytize, before I start posting things like, “Are you ready to accept Tom Venuto as your personal fitness savior?”, or promoting sending a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Weight Loss to the Moon for safekeeping in the event of global catastrophe
Well, I’ve just recently hit 218, which is the lowest I’ve ever been in post-adolescent memory, and at 6’0", this means I’m officially no longer obese, according to the BMI.
I was hoping to hit 180 this week but, alas, 'twas not to be. Two more pounds (and, hopefully, just another weeks) until I’m half the person I used to be.
Well I was quite good and only had one small slice of cheese cake, very little beer and only a burger for dinner. All in all, I would say I did well, it being a party and all.
I haven’t posted in one of these threads before, but I wanted to get some advice about my plateau problem.
I’m 50 years old, 5’ 10", and for the last several years my weight has ranged between 230 and 250 pounds. Three months ago I topped out at 250 and started getting into the habit of eating less and exercising more. My goal is 180 by next spring. I made steady progress, consistently losing about a pound and a half a week. Until about three weeks ago.
Since the middle of July the progress has stopped. I’ve been hovering between 228 and 231. Yesterday morning I was 228, and this morning I had jumped up three pounds. And I didn’t pig out yesterday, or anything. The same thing happened a week or two ago.
I know there can be more or less random variations, but this is very frustrating. I haven’t been eating more or exercising less (really!), but I’m just stuck here. It’s like my body doesn’t want to go lower than 228.
I’m not going to let this kill my motivation, but if anyone has any advice or recommendations, I’d be interested in hearing them.
commasense, there are a couple of things you might want to try. For one thing, I have some friends who swear that peppermint tea will jump-start weight loss when on a plateau. Haven’t tested this myself, but hey, it couldn’t hurt.
Another bit of common wisdom is, whatever you’re doing to lose weight, mix it up for a couple of days. IOW, if you’re doing low-carb, eat high-carb for a couple of days, return to low-carb diet, and you should see the scale drop. If you’re doing low-fat, eat high fat for a couple of days. If you’re just doing moderation, pig out for a day or two. The theory behind this is that the body gets “complacent” about a certain method, and needs to be “shocked” back into action.
As for “gaining” three pounds overnight, well, you’d have to eat roughly 10,000 calories in addition to what you need to maintain your body weight, for that to be fat. I’m pretty certain you didn’t do that.
My theory is that the peppermint tea, “mixing things up”, etc. are like hiccup cures: they just give you something else to focus on while you’re waiting for things to change. But hey, what do I know?
This sounds completely counter-intuititive, but I vote for the “shock your body” strategy also – I’ve read about it from several reliable (or what I consider reliable) sources. Also, in general, you should always mix in one or two “high calorie” days a week (meaning to what’s necessary to maintain your current weight, rather than the “calorie deficit” diet; not a “pig-out” or “free-for-all” day) to make sure your body doesn’t decide the deficit is the new norm, and slow your metabolism down accordingly (a.k.a. the “starvation response”).
If you’re hesitant about fiddling with your food plan (like if you’ve weaned yourself off ice cream or chocolate and are afraid of completely falling off the wagon if you allow yourself a few days of “normal” indulgence), you can also apply this shock-and-awe strategy to your exercise routine. In fact this may be what you want to try first. Your body is very good at adapting to exercise.
If you started out with a walking routine (a good idea if you were 250 lbs., and also what I did at 242 lbs.), after 15 or 20 lbs. you should probably throw in some running or jogging in there, or change to biking. Or, if you’ve been walking for the first 10 minutes and then running slowly for 20 minutes, try mixing it to a 5/10/5/10 pattern of walking and running and increasing the running speed. Whenver you feel that your current cardio regimen has gotten “much easier” than it used to be, Increase the difficulty and/or variety of the routine.
Wish me luck please, I go for my blood work today to see if my diet has lowered my cholesterol. My weight was 204 this morning so 35.5 lbs in 3 months. This is great but I really do not want to go on daily medication.
If my LDLs & HDLs are back in range, I can concentrated on just slowly losing another 34 pounds over the next year or two.
Jim, 35.5 lbs. is certainly enough to lower your cholesterol! When I was marvelling at what a 15% drop in body weight has done for me, my PCP told me that a mere 10% drop is enough to make significant changes.
Oh wait – that’s “Primary Care Physician”, isn’t it? (Why not just say “doctor”, unless you work for an HMO?)
And hey, good luck Jim, after all that weight lost I’m sure you’ll get a good report. Keep with the program!
As for me – I’m down to 209.5 lbs., the first time I’ve been under 210 in at least eight years, and closing in on my best-shape weight since college of 200 even. My BF% is now just around 21%… Soon I’ll be under that 20% “overweight” line!
Yesterday I went to a friend’s wedding, and had to put on a suit for the first time in a while. I discovered all my newer suit pants need altering, they’re way too big now, so I reached back into the closet to put on a suit I haven’t worn in nigh-upon nine years! Woo hoo! (The badge on the inside of the jacket says “A&S Men’s Dept.”!)
Well, for me, I have a urologist, a surgeon, and a general doctor. So if I just say “doctor”, it leaves people who know me well saying “which doctor?” So I just got in the habit of saying PCP.
Well, I had a totally sucky, unfocused, off-to-a-bad-start two weeks, but today’s a new day, right?
I’m looking for recommendations for the least-disgusting low- or nonfat salad dressings. I can’t stand most of them. To me, they all have a harsh, chemical taste. I often just make my own vinaigrette with a tsp. of olive oil, but sometimes I’d like ranch or bleu cheese.
Are there any out there that are sooooo wonderful you can’t tell they’re not the full-fat kind? Well, probably not. How about any that are tolerable?
I just got the Lab results. Quicker than I expected. Overall very good news. Yeah Diet and Thank you SDMB Weight loss Club and Others.
The Results:
LDL: 132 from 170
HDL: 34 from 43
Cholesterol: 182 from 241
So now I need to get my HDL up, but everything else is good and much improved.
Have you tried the Just 2 Good line? They don’t suck. I like my salad naked, though.
WhatExit, YAY!
This morning I started as a participant in a year-long clinical study. It’s focussed on people’s emotions as regards food and eating. I carry a PDA and when it goes off randomly 5 times per day (9 am to pm), I fill out a very short survey of about 15 questions. Takes me less than a minute. The people they’re using in the survey are people who have had success in weight loss and hope to lose more weight. I think at 70 lbs (120, really), I certainly qualify!
I loves me some ranch dressing. I mean, I put the stuff on just about everything. What works for me is to get a reusable coffee filter (I think mine is hemp cloth?) and a pitcher or mesh strainer. Take a large container of low- or non-fat plain, live culture yogurt and dump it all in the coffee filter. Let it drain for an hour or so, or if you’re in a hurry put the yogurt lid on top and set a can of beans or something on top to weight it down and press out the liquid. You can make dressing without this step, but it’ll be very watery.
Mix in whatever spice mix you like. You can buy packaged ranch mix if you don’t mind a few extra calories, but what I do is add about a tablespoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, fresh dill, chives, and a healthy pinch of kosher salt and black pepper. Blend thoroughly. You can use it right away but the flavor is much better if you stick it back in the fridge for an hour or two. One container lasts me about a week before I use it up or it starts to get a little funky. It does have a yogurty flavor which I like, but if you dislike plain yogurt might not work for you.
If you count calories you’ll need to refigure the amount in a serving by estimating the volume left and divide by the number of servings in the container, but even still using two tablespoons gives you very few calories compared to regular dressing.
It’s a little extra work but gives me a salad dressing people RAVE about and I never get tired of.
