LIVIN' LARGE: Minimizing yourself and maximizing your life!When you have over 100 pounds to lose it can seem impossible to get started in the right direction.
So I think I need a restart. For those of you not following the saga at home – I lost about 60 lbs in 2006 and have anywhere from 40-60 lbs left to lose. In December, I took a break from the weight loss and let my weight bump up a couple of pounds (water/glycogen/etc) and then stabilize for six weeks. At least that was the plan.
I’m having trouble getting the weight loss started up again. My weight chart looks like this: ^v^v^v^v^v^v since March 1st – all hovering +/-4 lbs (that's an 8 lb spread). I've yet to get back to my lowest low, much less move on downward.
I tried just being strict and accountable for both eating & exercise as that worked so well last time. Still that ^v^v with no net loss. Since doing what I did last year isn’t getting it going this time, I’m guessing something (or things) have to change. Wiork out, eating, both ...
So you have kept your 60 pounds off. Sounds pretty good to me. I can also identify with wanting the lose the rest. . Anyway good going so far. My panic point is not losing the rest of the weight, but regaining.
I can't remember if your are doing weightlifting (and have increased your lifts) and HIIT. If your are doing these things you may need to check clothing fit and mirror. Adding muscle does terrible things to the scale, and great things for your life.
yes - lifting hard (for me) and doing HIIT when I can - I seem to need more recovery than a 3x week wt + 2 HIIT/wk would otherwise schedule for -
more like 3x in 9-10 days and maybe 1-2 HIIT in same - otherwise I seem to mentally burnout and then stop for 4,5 even 7 days in a row.
I'm thinking I may move resistance/HIIT from "after dinner" to "in the morning" and see if that shakes things up a little - but more ideas are always welcome.
it could be your diet, you've lost 60 lbs so far (and kept it off) which is already an amazing achievement. your body doesn't need the same amount of calories to maintain weight as it used to.
Whats your current training/nutrition plan (reps/exercises/food/time of day)?
food: meat, veg, fruit - more or less according to Protein Power - limiting net carbs to around 40g/day but not a *hard* limit
calories: I logged every morsel for about 10 days using nutribaseEZ (4/8 to 4/19) - average was about 1300 kcal/day - varied from low of around 1100 to high of about 1600 or so.
meals: breakfast, lunch, small snack, dinner
workout timing: generally after dinner - maybe 2100-2200, sometimes start earlier depending on what time dinner finishes.
workout plan: did NROL FL1 at the 1st of the year - last week or two been doing higher wt / lower rep undulating fashion (4x4, 3x8, 2x12) -primarily compound lifts - some HIIT on off days. If I go 3x/wk + 2 HIIT I burn out so I space a little more recovery in there - maybe 10 days for same pattern.
I think I do need to change this up as it isn't getting the results I want to see ...
hmm - guess maintenance for me would be about 10-11xbw in kcal?
let's say I up the avg cals from 1300 to 1800 - that's +500/day - if I've been "holding steady" at about 1300 - is 1800 really maintenance level or not?
My guess - and this is only a guess - is that by keeping calories low your body has adapted to it. I would go to 1600 for a week and see what happens. Keep your activity up too.
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"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
I agree, I think a caloric increase for the week would show you some benefit... something to the tune of +500 calories seems appropriate. Keep us posted on how it goes. Any by the way, great work on your gains so far.
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
Hi Lisa - your maintenance level may be even higher depending on your weight, body composition, level of activity, etc. I think it's a good idea to eat maybe even higher than 1800 for a week (it's only a week!) and then have your last day be a big re-feed to really get your leptin levels reset. Then start dropping your calories again. You body needs regular diet breaks to keep your metabolism up and running. How long were you eating at 1300 cals per day?
who knows - it was a pretty random sample of 10 days of eating not very differently than I've been eating since at least Feb-Mar time frame - I don't have my daily avg from when I was losing all last year except for Oct - but don't have that here with me to compare.
Hi Lisa - your maintenance level may be even higher depending on your weight, body composition, level of activity, etc. I think it's a good idea to eat maybe even higher than 1800 for a week (it's only a week!) and then have your last day be a big re-feed to really get your leptin levels reset. Then start dropping your calories again. You body needs regular diet breaks to keep your metabolism up and running. How long were you eating at 1300 cals per day?
I tend to like what everyone has said so far. Maybe take a week to refeed then settle into a ~1600-1800 plan. Also since you work out late in the evening you need to be sure to have something in that important post-workout time table (like a shake or something, if you're looking for 200-300 calories this is a good place to get em).
I agree with the others that upping the cals would probably help.
You've probably read this already, but see what Leigh says in post #4 (and #19, and just about anything else she posts...) in this thread.
Congrats on the 60 pound weight loss so far. That's a lot of work, and keeping it off is an accomplishment in itself. You know we're here to help in any way, Lisa.
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
well, my week (or so) of eating more is over and its back to the stricter control this week. I found my food log for Oct & Nov 2006 - average daily calories was around 1100 and I lost about 5 lbs in those 8 wks. But my exercise was nothing to write home about in those months.
You probably think 1100 cals (with min 120g pro) is too low, right?
I do think 1100 is too low, you're right. But given where you had been eating, that is why I suggested at least a 500 calorie increase for this week. It is easy to want to be more restrictive. Leigh P had some great comments in the other thread. I remembered you were participating in it some... How many cals do you estimate you were eating this last week?
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
at least 1800 I should think - I didn't log but added things like guacamole, nuts, olives. The last few days I also had some refined flour products which I usually avoided - e.g. I had bagel yesterday for the first time in about a year.
what's wrong with this logic - BMR/RMR calculators give me about 1500 BMR/RMR - using light activity multiplierj 1.375 = 2062 - call it 2100.
500 deficit = 1600, 1000 deficit = 1100.
But I know 1100 a day was resulting in about 0.6 lb/week not 2 lb/week. So this was about a 300/day deficit in practice.
so if returning to 1100 is too low for all you knowing ones to be comfortable with - what's a better plan? Conceptually, I get eat more & exercise more to get the same deficit on more food - but practically - I'm stumped given my actuals.
I would be interested in seeing how you did for a couple of weeks at ~1600 /day. I think the up-regulation might be beneficial to you. You already know that the philosophy of eating such low calories produced diminished results. We don't lose weight in linear fashion along 500 calories deficits. For one, we do a lot of estimating. The true science of the matter is trial and error. If you are looking at say a two week period, what is the worst that can happen? Adjust things based on the results you get in that time frame, either exercise or eating and evaluate your results. By eating at such a caloric deficit for such a long period of time, your body most likely adapted by reducing metabolism.
Just my .02.
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
OK - I'll give 1600 + exercise a trial and report back. I'll work out the numbers this afternoon - I eat virtually the same breakfast & lunch & snacks (if any) every work day and my dinners rotate but are pretty rote as well.
Nothing wrong with rote...many people are that way. I am personally just a big fan of variety. I say this, but I generally eat similar things each day. It's funny though, I have more variety in one day than many people have in an entire week....
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
Glad to hear that the mood is better. Often I think how we feel is much more important than the numbers on the scale. As long as your workouts are improving and you continue to eat healthy, you'll be golden.
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
hard restart needed
Linear Mode
