The Fat Loss TroubleshootThis is your place to troubleshoot your fat loss problems from nutrition to training. This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ultimate fat loss manual. If your results have slowed or stalled this is the place to come for advice for all your fat loss needs.
I don't have any good words of wisdom or advice, I just want to give you my support.
I do have a few suggestions. Read some of RealCdn's journal (if I spelled that correctly.) Look at her diet. I understand you can't eat the quantity due to your surgery, but she eats real food at a higher caloric range, and is losing weight. You can increase your calories with healthy oils also. But until you start weighing your food, you won't really know how much you are eating.
Personally I love technology. I walk most every day for 4 miles or more, it takes me 1 hour or longer. I download podcasts about fitness, nutrition and exercise. Leigh Peele has gobs of stuff online, and I also enjoy The Fitcast (she's on it too.) I couldn't walk without listening to those.
I best suggestion is to stop running, way too hard on your body, and do as much walking as you can. Take a long morning walk and then occasionally take an evening walk.
My GoWearFit has been one of my most useful tools. I have always known there is nothing wrong with my metabolism, but now I can see how much I burn each day. Like Etana said, I burn 60 cals doing nothing, but give me a day with a morning walk, a lot of housework, and an evening walk and I will burn close to 3000 calories. I post my weekly data in my log.
A dieting deficit is a tricky thing as you've noticed. Too low and your body can't handle it, too little and you don't lose. But we can't just be in a deficit day in and day out, or we rebel. Pick a range and stick to it for a while, drop just a bit at time. Sure you need protein, but you need it based on what YOUR body can tolerate, and at a high bodyweight, you WILL lose muscle, as you have more muscle than needed. Don't freak out over it, pick a number you can tolerate and aim for it. I aim for 100g of protein a day and I can reach it. If I aim for 150, I'd have to eat lots more calories and I wouldn't be happy.
I personally eat a higher fat diet than most, but it works for me, and might work for your smaller stomach (unless it's wrong due to the surgery, like intestinal bypass or something, I don't know to be honest.) Too many grainy carbs mess up my stomach, but I still eat some, just not gobs. I get my fat calories from nuts/seeds.
Well, for someone who had nothing to add, I did add my 2 cents.
I really wish you well and I think you should start a log here and make it a goal to become part of the community. Start focusing on nutrition and how healthy you can make yourself, independent of just weight loss. Look at other's food journals to get ideas if you feel stumped.
There is nothing I can't eat except sugared foods or high fat sugary ones. Ice cream and chocolate milk make me dump big time. Try going back on the protocal given to you after surgery-liquids first (I would skip this), soft foods (yogurt, protein puddings, cottage cheese etc), semi-soft foods, soft foods and then solids to get your pouch used to eating whole foods again. Wait about a half hour after eating and then hit the water. Have you been checked for Hashimoto's? The thyroid swings from hyper to hypo and back with this disease. Also PCOS is hard to lose weight with and may take a little more effort but it can be done.
My menu for today (remember this is just me not a suggestion)
Breakfast
2 cups coffee w/half and half
2 egg scramble with 1/4 cup egg whites added with baby spinach & cherry tomatoes
1 slice Trader Joes Sprouted Whole Wheat Bread w/1 tbl whipped cream cheese
Afternoon snack
cantaloupe & maybe an iced coffee w/half and half
Dinner
4 oz 95% lean ground beef mixed with Green Giant Immunity veggies & 1/2 c fat free refried beans
Late Snack
1/2 c F*a*g*e 0% mixed with 1/2 c Breakstones 2% Cottage Cheese & 1 cup strawberries or more cantaloupe
1749 calories and 142 g protein
I aim for my total calories first then try to hit protein grams of 150-200. I am consistently hitting 145 and doing well. If this stops I may need to aim for more since protein & calcium are two nutrients we malabsorb. I wouldn't trust the thinking you are malabsorbing fat calories-it really seems you are not.
There is nothing I can't eat except sugared foods or high fat sugary ones. Ice cream and chocolate milk make me dump big time. Try going back on the protocal given to you after surgery-liquids first (I would skip this), soft foods (yogurt, protein puddings, cottage cheese etc), semi-soft foods, soft foods and then solids to get your pouch used to eating whole foods again. Wait about a half hour after eating and then hit the water. Have you been checked for Hashimoto's? The thyroid swings from hyper to hypo. Also PCOS is hard to lose weight with and may take a little more effort but it can be done.
Yeah, sounds a lot like me -- I tolerate mostly anything, except high-fat/high sugar combo foods (chocolate chip cookies is a big one).
I am very seldom hungry -- except during the night. During the day, if I haven't eaten for a while, I get shaky like my blood sugar is really low, but I'm not hungry. But EVERY night I wake up in the middle of the night starving, even if I eat something protein-based before bed. I wake up ravenously hungry.
And that's hard, because I try to exercise on an empty stomach so I can burn more fat, and it's hard to make yourself do that when you're so hungry. That to me is so weird. It's like my system did a flip-flop after surgery. Before surgery it was the opposite -- I'd get hungry during the day when it was time to eat like a normal person, but never woke up in the middle of the night hungry. Now I really only get hungry in the middle of the night.
I've had a few chocolate protein drinks that have made me dump, too. I haven't been checked for Hashimoto's specifically, but since they've checked my thyroid so many times, I guess they would have picked up on a problem?
I'm so glad I heard about the Gowearfit. I'd never heard of it. I have actually been on a quest to find a metabolism test, and very few medical professionals know about them, although I've read about them online. I haven't been able to find anywhere in my area here in California that offers one. But the Gowearfit is EXACTLY what I need to tell me what my metabolic rate is so that I know EXACTLY where to eat. Because you're right -- that's exactly what's been driving me crazy; two long years of guessing.
Waking up hungry in the night can be a sign of overtraining and/or undereating. Try eating some cottage cheese for your last meal-this is a good slow digesting protein. I would maybe try to switch things up and eat before you walk. Google the myth of fasted cardio. Here's a link to good website of someone who had wls-it has lots of high protein recipes.
Waking up hungry in the night can be a sign of overtraining and/or undereating. Try eating some cottage cheese for your last meal-this is a good slow digesting protein. I would maybe try to switch things up and eat before you walk. Google the myth of fasted cardio. Here's a link to good website of someone who had wls-it has lots of high protein recipes.
Ya know . . . my body may have been telling me all along that I'm not eating enough. My surgeon has thought the pain was from acid reflux -- but I'm not supposed to HAVE acid reflux, because my stomach's not in operation. That would support my theory that I've been undereating. It's aggravating to wake up hungry at 2 am every morning.
I tended to do that during my pregnancies -- my metabolism always ran HOT during my pregnancies (the first week they put me on a special diet during my first pregnancy, the doctor freaked out when I lost 4 pounds), and that's the only other time in my life I've ever gone through waking up starving mid-sleep. Maybe that's what I should have been referencing. I'm not pregnant, though, so I guess it didn't occur to me.
I watched the video about the weighing food. Astounding. I'm so glad I don't have to go out & buy a scale -- mine does change over to grams!! Thanks for your menu! I'm going to try extra fruits to raise my calories; just don't know if I can get it all in, though -- but I'll try.
Read about the fasted cardio, too. I sit here & shake my head. It's so hard to know who's right & who's wrong when everyone is so convinced of their own methods and is saying the other person is wrong. In a sense the article was saying you will burn slightly more fat (but not enough to make a huge difference) in a fasted state -- which makes some sense -- but on the other hand, it also makes sense that you're burning calories, period, no matter when you do it.
I might try Ricotta cheese before bed; cottage cheese & I don't get along.
You have to find what works for you. What you have been doing hasn't been working so what have you got to lose with changing things up? It seems counterproductive to exercise with no fuel for your body to run on especially if you are waking hungry the night before. Try mixing a little fat free yogurt into the ricotta to up the protein and you can even add some protein powder-chocolate is really good. Have you talked with your docs about starting you on metformin? It's commonly used to treat insulin resistance and PCOS.
You have to find what works for you. What you have been doing hasn't been working so what have you got to lose with changing things up? It seems counterproductive to exercise with no fuel for your body to run on especially if you are waking hungry the night before. Try mixing a little fat free yogurt into the ricotta to up the protein and you can even add some protein powder-chocolate is really good. Have you talked with your docs about starting you on metformin? It's commonly used to treat insulin resistance and PCOS.
One of the general practitioners I saw earlier this year prescribed it -- but it was because she didn't have any idea why I wasn't losing weight, and just asked me if I wanted to try it. She said she didn't see anything in my recent test results that warranted the prescription at the time, even though I was diagnosed with it in my early 20s.
I have a one-time prescription for it with probably 10 - 500mg pills left . . . Even if I started taking it again, they wouldn't give me a refill, since my most recent test results don't support my need for it. When I did take it, I didn't see any noticeable results with it, but I may have needed to take it longer, which again I can't do if they won't refill it. My doctors seem to rely only on test results and not on symptoms before they issue any prescriptions for anything. Many doctors take both things into consideration.
I think you said you are going to start weighing your food - my personal experience is that weighing every single thing you eat combined with having a good estimate of what you burn (which you can do by using the formula in Leigh's Fat Loss Troubleshoot or by using the Go Wear Fit device if you are able to spend the $) at least enables you to know what you're taking in versus what you're burning.
As many others have noted, the only way to pretty accurately know what you're taking in is to weigh it - even packaged foods like slices of bread. I use my food scale which I got at Target and cost about $30. It switches from ounces to grams. Then I got to calorieking.com and look up the food in grams so that I can get the calories and macronutrients.
I would definitely check back with your docs on the metformin. 10 doses is certainly not enough to judge if it helps and then your dosage often has to be adjusted. Maybe try bringing it up with the endo who said you were borderline?
I think you said you are going to start weighing your food - my personal experience is that weighing every single thing you eat combined with having a good estimate of what you burn (which you can do by using the formula in Leigh's Fat Loss Troubleshoot or by using the Go Wear Fit device if you are able to spend the $) at least enables you to know what you're taking in versus what you're burning.
As many others have noted, the only way to pretty accurately know what you're taking in is to weigh it - even packaged foods like slices of bread. I use my food scale which I got at Target and cost about $30. It switches from ounces to grams. Then I got to calorieking.com and look up the food in grams so that I can get the calories and macronutrients.
Good luck!
Well, I guess it'll be a while before I'll be able to figure out my burn, either with the book or with the GWF. She doesn't sell the book separately, and I just don't have $77-$100 right now for either tool, so I guess I'm stuck and will have to suffer for a while . . .
Just implement some simple changes. Don't exercise so much especially on an empty stomach when you are not taking enough nutrition in, weigh your foods and get your pouch used to food again. Eat healthy and take walks for your exercise-these simple things might help.
Well, I guess it'll be a while before I'll be able to figure out my burn, either with the book or with the GWF. She doesn't sell the book separately, and I just don't have $77-$100 right now for either tool, so I guess I'm stuck and will have to suffer for a while . . .
I really played by the numbers for 18 weeks, with GWF computing my calories out, and food scale and fitday tabulating my calories eaten. I had an average daily deficit of 875 cal, and I lost practically no scale weight, though I did lose inches.
So I wouldn't bemoan that you can't buy a GWF right now. If you just count the time you walk, and keep a record of that, it should be fine.
That is not to say "it will be fine, you will lose." Many here lose, if not easily, well then regularly on a deficit. Others here have various problems losing fat, and try different things, and not too many of us have solutions, I think.
Right now I am doing 5 VERY low cal days and 2 high carb/cal days and it has been working for me hallelulah! for about 4 weeks now. I also, grudgingly, stopped my Jazzercise aerobics dance classes, and have stopped resistance training, and am just walking, and eating much lower than what "should make rational sense."
But I think some bodies are really efficient (or that awful info that was posted on this thread about fat cells multiplying and then dividing and multiplying again... there's some scary math for ya!...).
I sympathize with all the frustration, the "you're finally ready to lose for good, and it's not happening with all that you are doing right"...
I think what I would suggest is to try one thing for 3-4 weeks, and then if it isn't bringing results modify it a bit for the next 3-4 weeks. Until you diagnose what your particular body responds to. Do not switch around too often, but do not stay doing the same thing for too long either, if it's not working.
It seems like you are on a phase of maintenance and healthy eating to heal your body right now, and that is great. Do not be upset if these higher calories don't make you lose weight. You just don't know what will work, others are in the same boat. Take a deep breath. Celebrate that you don't have a worse disease than fat.
I've been thinking about your posts and something came to mind. Have you been checked for stoma problems? The stoma is manmade and sometimes the surgeon forms one that is too small and stoma restriction or ulceration occurs. I have seen many posts like yours where this has been the problem. Most have the pouch scoped and the stoma stretched.
Okay, now that I have my scale, how do I add the calories, carbs, protein, etc? For instance, the yogurt I just ate said it weighed 170 grams, but when I weighed it, the scale said it actually weighed 181 grams. So what's the formula for figuring out the "real" amount of carbs, protein, etc?
For instance, the carton says that based on 170 grams, it's 180 calories, 1.5 g fat, 37g carbs, and 6g protein. So then how do I know what those numbers SHOULD be, based on the 181 grams it really weighs?
Try using an online food tracker like fitday.com or nutridiary.com. They have foods in the database to choose from and you can also add your custom foods.
I've been thinking about your posts and something came to mind. Have you been checked for stoma problems? The stoma is manmade and sometimes the surgeon forms one that is too small and stoma restriction or ulceration occurs. I have seen many posts like yours where this has been the problem. Most have the pouch scoped and the stoma stretched.
They did the barium swallow Xray, and they said all appeared fine, but one of my endos was supposed to refer me to radiology for an endoscopy where someone can see with the naked eye through a camera, but radiology has never called. I'm going to email my doctor RIGHT now and find out about that! It could certainly be that I can't eat all I'm supposed to be able to eat because my pouch is too small, and my metabolism is running hot, but I'm not feeding it enough. Who woulda thunk it? I just finished 2 scrambled eggs and am eating a small apple now. I'm getting full, but am going to try to get down at least 1/2 this banana sitting in front of me.
I need to do some more research on the effects of the stoma and see what the symptoms of having one too small or having an ulcerated stoma are -- or do you know and have any links?
Try using an online food tracker like fitday.com or nutridiary.com. They have foods in the database to choose from and you can also add your custom foods.
I've been on Fitday since surgery, but I have a question -- Fitday works where it provides a database of foods for you, but of course, we're weighing (according to Fitday a large banana is 122 calories, but weighing it and checking it in Calorie King says that my banana is actually 166 calories). But if I create a custom food -- for example, the banana I'm getting ready to eat is 185g -- how do I put that into Fitday? I could create a custom food, but every banana is a different weight. That would mean I would have to create or edit a custom food every time I eat a banana that's a different weight?
181 divided by 170= 1.06
so multiply all label values by 1.06
180 calories * 1.06 = 190.8 calories
6 g pro * 1.06 = 6.06 g pro
etc.
Or you can just ballpark estimate it. 10% of 170 is 17. If it were off by 10%, it would have weighed 187 g so the difference is < 10%, but closer to 10% than to 5%.
so calories - > 180 and < 180+18 ; protein >6 and < 6 + 0.6
etc.
As far as foods go - you don't make a new food for every weight, that would be silly.
The standard food is for a weight (e.g. 120g). If you enter 240g of said food, the software does the math (in this case would double everything).
The trick is you have to enter it as "240g of food" not "1 each of food".
sheryl - you may also want to check out sparkpeople, I know a lot of folks around here really like fitday, but I find sparkpeople easier to use for exactly this reason. if you look up a banana in their database you can select "grams" and then enter in the precise number of grams your banana is that particular time. Most generic foods are like this, with some exceptions. You can also search items entered by other users, so for name brand things like Fage yogurt, so you don't have to enter them on your own if you don't want to. As with fitday you can create custom foods and save favorite items you eat regularly.
sheryl - you may also want to check out sparkpeople, I know a lot of folks around here really like fitday, but I find sparkpeople easier to use for exactly this reason. if you look up a banana in their database you can select "grams" and then enter in the precise number of grams your banana is that particular time. Most generic foods are like this, with some exceptions. You can also search items entered by other users, so for name brand things like Fage yogurt, so you don't have to enter them on your own if you don't want to. As with fitday you can create custom foods and save favorite items you eat regularly.
Ah so. That makes sense. I was thinking that it would be crazy to customize every food in Fitday, but then if I didn't do that and started ballparking it, that would take away the whole purpose of weighing food in the first place.
I've used SparkPeople consistently since June. Feel free to look at my diet log in my signature. You'll see most items are done by weight (grams usually) and somethings by measuring cups.
Some of the items are custom, I try to get as accurate as possible, and my accuracy is improving regularly.
I'm trying to get more particular about little things, as cups of coffee add up, then a crystal light here or there, an electrolyte drink, my fish oil supplements, and boom, there is another 100+ calories.
Sheryl here's a link to another forum where those with stoma problems have posted about their situation. They also have a woman doc that moderates here-personally I think she has somewhat of a snotty demeanor but maybe she could answer some questions for you.
I also find that it's easier if I put the label serving size as part of the name of the custom food. For instance, "Precious lowfat ricotta cheese, 2 oz." Then when I eat 3 oz of it at breakfast, I put select that custom food and enter 1.5 servings (i.e., each serving is for 2 oz). For your yogurt just put in 1.06 servings - I just remove the tiny extra bit so I'm eating the 170 grams, I suck at math.
Things like bananas are easy because I'm using their database so I can simply enter the number of ounces the banana was and then tell it to update the numbers.
Anyway, good luck and I hope you figure it out. I don't know squat but my first thought was you are overtrained. I hope the diet break and restful activity does the trick for you.
P.S. Was the weight difference for your yogurt just the yogurt or were you weighing the packaging too?
Ah so. That makes sense. I was thinking that it would be crazy to customize every food in Fitday, but then if I didn't do that and started ballparking it, that would take away the whole purpose of weighing food in the first place.
Yes, I use fitday.com and use gram measurement or oz.
So I weigh the 1/2 banana, which is often 85g and enter that in fitday.com ... i have created many many custom foods also. When I do that, I do not call it 1 serving, from the start I enter it as grams.
Not sure if I missed it or not, but when was the last time you took an exercise break? Like a break of a week or two of NO exercising?
Well, I had a break last week for 3 days because I was in Palm Springs. I started back with heavy exercise at the end of July right after I saw my endo. He told me to up my exercise because 3/4 days a week wasn't enough. So I started doing 6. Before that, I think I had taken a break for at least several weeks . . . I was so burned out. I wouldn't have felt burned out if I was getting results, but when you work hard for no results, you end up giving up -- and that's what I did for several weeks.
When I saw my surgeon last fall, he told me the same thing -- (and I quote) -- "Exercise is going to be the key for you." I left his office, did not pass go, did not collect $200, and went right to Walmart and bought a step and videos to start learning step aerobics. I did that faithfully for 3 months with no results.
I started again in the spring of this year, again got no results, took another "fed up" break, and then started again July, like I said. My breaks haven't been because I felt overtrained (even though now I'm getting the picture that I probably HAVE been), but because I had simply burned myself out and was exasperated at working so hard and not getting any smaller.
So to answer your question, I've been going at it hard since July 23 6x week with 3 days of running 30 minutes on the treadmill and the other 3 days of full-body resistance training for 50 minutes and heavy free weights. But about the time I'd take a break, it would seem someone would say something to counter that, telling me to be careful about taking a break or it's harder to go back.
You know . . . I was quite surprised. Lyrica -- bless her heart -- has been a Godsend. She encouraged me to lower the intensity of my exercise, which I started today. Honestly . . . I really didn't even think I'd break a sweat doing an hour of walking today since I've been running for so long. I was quite surprised to find that I did! It was actually harder breathing while walking than it is while I'm running! Go figure. In running, I hit my stride and the breathing is steady & easy.
I did 1/2 an hour early afternoon and another 1/2 hour from 5:30-6p. And . . . it felt good to have sweat, but not to be so tired.
I was telling my husband on my way home from church tonight . . . it's amazing that everything everyone is telling me to do is completely the opposite of what every medical professional has told me. They've all told me to eat less, when I'm really thinking I should have been eating MORE all along.
The only other time in my life I've awakened hungry in the middle of the night is in my pregnancies, where my metabolism runs through the roof! Case in point -- I gained only 11 pounds with my first pregnancy, and gained NOTHING with my second one. As the baby got bigger, I lost weight. Crazy, I know. I was lighter after I had the baby than I was before I got pregnant.
I didn't make the connection -- that I might be hungry in the middle of the night because I'm not eating enough during the day -- but it makes sense. The other thing -- they've all said to do MORE & HARDER exercise. Now I see I really need to be exercising LONGER, but not HARDER.
It could certainly be that I can't eat all I'm supposed to be able to eat because my pouch is too small, and my metabolism is running hot, but I'm not feeding it enough. Who woulda thunk it? I just finished 2 scrambled eggs and am eating a small apple now. I'm getting full, but am going to try to get down at least 1/2 this banana sitting in front of me.
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