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.
A little discouraged need a push in the right direction.
Hello everyone, I came across this site while doing a search on Google and found it interesting. I have struggled with my weight for pretty much my whole life. The worst I have ever felt was in 2005 when i weighed over 400 LBS. At that point I had enough and become determined and focused and over a 6 month period dropped my weight to 270 LBS using sheer determination and discipline.
Since then I have teetered between 270-300-300-315-301-330-320, you get the picture. (its frustrating). In The winter of 2006 I was hospitalized and had to have my gall bladder removed and this is probably just a total excuse but since then it appears that I haven't been able to lose weight.
It used to be pretty easy. All I did was stop going out to eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner. i didnt step foot in a gym for the whole 6 months. I just ate better and had a positive attitude and the weight fell off. Since 2006 I've been struggling to get back into my 'groove' and I'm assuming that is never going to happen so in July I joined a gym and started seeing a personal trainer 12x a month and i've been doing that along with a pretty low calorie/low fat diet and I still cannot seem to get below 317 LBS.
This just seems somewhat surreal to me as prior I was able to lose 3-4 lbs a week by just avoiding bad food, now I am beating my ass 3x a week at 6AM plus a couple days of week on my own and all im getting is a little stronger. I realize its good to be stronger, but i'm too old to try out for the Steelers so being an 'inshape' 300+ guy is pretty worthless.
Anyway, I am 29, 320 LBS, I work out at Lifetime fitness. I have a heartrate monitor, I burn about 700 calories with my personal trainer 3x a week then about 500 on the treadmill by myself a couple times a week.
The people at the gym are pressuring me to do all of the tests (rmr/map test) but i'm not really sure that those are reputable or just marketing.
Has anyone ever hit a wall like this before? its really driving me crazy.
I intentionally eat a lot of prepackaged food so I won't have to weigh it.
When I say prepackaged food I mean:
Yo Plus Yogurt
Fat Free 100 Calorie Pudding
Nutri-grain bars
Healthy choice meals
Fruit such as "a banana" or a "bunch o grapes".
The only thing I guess I don't really measure would be stuff like:
Total raisin Bran
Light soy milk
lunch meat (turkey)
99% fat free turkey breast for when i make turkey burgers, etc.
For an entire week i journaled my food for the nutritionist at my gym i ate between 800-1400 calories. it just depended on whether or not I got up at 6am and went to the personal trainer (heart rate monitor usually clocks at 700 when we're done).
The odd thing is that when I was losing weight previously I literally ate the same thing every day.
Nutri-grain bar for breakfast
a frozen meal for lunch
a chicken breast and some canned/frozen veggies for dinner and (the total was between 900-1050 every day) and i didnt work out and I lost 3-5 lbs a week.
I'm super cautious about what I eat and how much of it.
I don't know. I don't see how you could maintain that for any length of time. At 320lbs, you could probably eat 3-4 times that amount and still lose weight. How long have you been eating so little? I'm 195, and I can't eat so little, much less get in a workout.
What do you eat when you aren't watching what you eat?
What is "bad eating" for you that came before the good eating?
Have you been tested by your doctor for any hormone/thyroid issues or any deficiencies?
Anyway, I am 29, 320 LBS, I work out at Lifetime fitness. I have a heartrate monitor, I burn about 700 calories with my personal trainer 3x a week then about 500 on the treadmill by myself a couple times a week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sysad
For an entire week i journaled my food for the nutritionist at my gym i ate between 800-1400 calories. it just depended on whether or not I got up at 6am and went to the personal trainer (heart rate monitor usually clocks at 700 when we're done).
First, I want to say that I've been where you were. My top weight (that I know of) was 407. I lost about 125lbs, gained some of it back and am continuing my loss (at 261 this week). So I do know what it's like to lose your way at times. I do think you can eventually find what you need to do.
However, I suspect that the things you aren't measuring could be throwing off what you think you're eating. Hate to say it but you need to start keeping track of exactly what you're eating. It can be a pain, but isn't it worth it when the ultimate result is weight loss?
Having said that - if you're burning ~700 cals and ~500 cals up to 5 times a week - how do you function if you're still eating 800-1400 cals a day? I know I couldn't on that low a calorie count. I suspect Leigh will come up with some better help than I will, however....
1 - find a way to track your calories, and do so (ie. know where you're starting)
2 - drop some of the packaged/processed items. I'll admit I don't know specifically the items you mentioned but you're likely not getting as much nutrition as you could from some of the following:
Yo Plus Yogurt
Fat Free 100 Calorie Pudding
Nutri-grain bars
Healthy choice meals
Yo Plus - sugar comes before the fruit on the ingredient list (meaning that there's more)
Nutri-grain bars - the filling comes first, and.... FILLING (HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, GLYCERIN, BLACKBERRIES, SUGAR, WATER, APPLE PUREE CONCENTRATE, SODIUM ALGINATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SODIUM CITRATE, CITRIC ACID, METHYLCELLULOSE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL BLACKBERRY FLAVOR, MALIC ACID, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CARAMEL COLOR, RED #40, BLUE #1)
Ack, it's late, I should have been in bed at least 30 mins ago. As I said, I think Leigh will have some fairly good suggestions as well. Good luck!
I don't know. I don't see how you could maintain that for any length of time. At 320lbs, you could probably eat 3-4 times that amount and still lose weight. How long have you been eating so little? I'm 195, and I can't eat so little, much less get in a workout.
I've been eating like this since about November of 2007. When I noticed in May that my weight hadn't moved I got discouraged so i decided to start working out, when that didnt help in July I started personal training, and here I am.
What do you eat when you aren't watching what you eat?
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I don't not watch what I eat, roughly once every 10 days or so me and my girlfriend ~might~ have chinese food or pizza or something but even then I always load up on salad and avoid the actual food.
What is "bad eating" for you that came before the good eating?
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Before I started wanting to live past 35 I would eat McDonald's for breakfast, Chinese food for lunch, and Chilis' Tgi Fridays, Taco Bell (you get the idea) for dinner literally every day.
Have you been tested by your doctor for any hormone/thyroid issues or any deficiencies?
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Yes, he has done all kinds of blood work, etc. He just keeps saying eat less and exercize more. The only thing that is different in me between when I was losing weight before and when im not losing weight now is that:
A) i dont have a gall bladder anymore
and
B) I work my ass of in the gym.
First, I want to say that I've been where you were. My top weight (that I know of) was 407. I lost about 125lbs, gained some of it back and am continuing my loss (at 261 this week). So I do know what it's like to lose your way at times. I do think you can eventually find what you need to do.
However, I suspect that the things you aren't measuring could be throwing off what you think you're eating. Hate to say it but you need to start keeping track of exactly what you're eating. It can be a pain, but isn't it worth it when the ultimate result is weight loss?
Having said that - if you're burning ~700 cals and ~500 cals up to 5 times a week - how do you function if you're still eating 800-1400 cals a day? I know I couldn't on that low a calorie count. I suspect Leigh will come up with some better help than I will, however....
1 - find a way to track your calories, and do so (ie. know where you're starting)
2 - drop some of the packaged/processed items. I'll admit I don't know specifically the items you mentioned but you're likely not getting as much nutrition as you could from some of the following:
Yo Plus Yogurt
Fat Free 100 Calorie Pudding
Nutri-grain bars
Healthy choice meals
Yo Plus - sugar comes before the fruit on the ingredient list (meaning that there's more)
Nutri-grain bars - the filling comes first, and.... FILLING (HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, GLYCERIN, BLACKBERRIES, SUGAR, WATER, APPLE PUREE CONCENTRATE, SODIUM ALGINATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SODIUM CITRATE, CITRIC ACID, METHYLCELLULOSE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL BLACKBERRY FLAVOR, MALIC ACID, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CARAMEL COLOR, RED #40, BLUE #1)
Ack, it's late, I should have been in bed at least 30 mins ago. As I said, I think Leigh will have some fairly good suggestions as well. Good luck!
I appreciate you taking the time to offer suggestions. My point in the previous post when I mentioned that I don't generally weigh/measure my food was that the things that I cook/prepare such as 99% fat free turkey breast, etc I cannot physically eat enough of it for it to possibly be causing me to maintain my weight:
An entire package of the stuff is roughly 14-15 oz.
A serving size is 4oz, with 120 calories and 1g of fat. even if I could roll the entire thing up and slap it on the foreman grill (which i cant) it would "only" equate to 480/4g which while that is a great deal (i hope you see where i am going with this). I eat a lot of foods like this.
Nobody is going to 'gorge themselves' on raisin bran, 99% fat free turkey, etc, and that is why i only keep those foods around.
Thanks everyone for the kind replies thus far, it helps just knowing you guys took the time out of your busy days.
If you plug a normal day into Fitday, for example, where do your macros fall? Just by looking at your diet, it doesn't appear you get enough protein and where's your fat??
First off, I'm sorry you are going through this - doesn't sound like a good place to be.
A couple of quick hits as I'm pressed for time.
Questions:
How do you sleep at night?
Do you feel hungry much of the day?
How are you sleeping?
Leigh touched on this, but getting thyroid and testosterone levels checked wouldn't be a bad thing. Have you ever been tested?
Quick observations:
Diet looks very deficient in calories AND protein. Normally, "low-fat" rings alarm bells but after gallbladder surgery, low fat is actually warranted as far as I know.
Are you open to including more whole, unprocessed foods in your diet? This may make a difference.
If you plug a normal day into Fitday, for example, where do your macros fall? Just by looking at your diet, it doesn't appear you get enough protein and where's your fat??
Grams
Calories
%-Cals
Calories
1,407
Fat
27.2
245
26
%
Saturated
0.7
6
1
%
Polyunsaturated
0.4
4
0
%
Monounsaturated
1.9
17
2
%
Carbohydrate
140.0
548
58
%
Dietary Fiber
19.3
Protein
38.1
151
16
%
Alcohol
0.0
0
0
%
Fat
( 26
%)
Carbs
( 58
%)
Protein
( 16
%)
Alcohol
( 0
%)
Thats actually yesterday, and thats a little higher than usual because i had a turkey sandwich with lunch instead of a frozen meal. normally its probably around 900-1000 cal and 15-20g of fat.
First off, I'm sorry you are going through this - doesn't sound like a good place to be.
A couple of quick hits as I'm pressed for time.
Questions:
How do you sleep at night?
Do you feel hungry much of the day?
How are you sleeping?
Leigh touched on this, but getting thyroid and testosterone levels checked wouldn't be a bad thing. Have you ever been tested?
Quick observations:
Diet looks very deficient in calories AND protein. Normally, "low-fat" rings alarm bells but after gallbladder surgery, low fat is actually warranted as far as I know.
Are you open to including more whole, unprocessed foods in your diet? This may make a difference.
Keep us posted on how you're doing!
Sleep questions:
I sleep as much as I can usually 8 hours a night on the weekend 8-10 and if i had a real bad 'apnea' night i'll sleep until i have to wake up and hopefully not feel even worse when i do eventually arise from my grave.
I sleep anywhere from disasterously bad to fair. I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea but it seems to go away the lighter I get. The treatments for sleep apnea don't really help. They want you to wear a mask which blows air through your nose, I found i had a 'funky' septum so i actually had surgery to get my septum corrected, that didn't help either. So I try to live with it, some days its tough to get out of bed.
-------
Hunger:
Not really that hungry, my mind is very active all the time so if i'm bored sometimes i'll think about eating but im not really hungry. I dont keep poorly nutritioned (in my opinion) foods around so it doesnt really get me in trouble much. When I first started losing weight in 2006 my doctor prescribed this drug called Topamax to keep me from losing my mind from hunger. It works great except its completely scary if you read the various documentation so I don't touch that anymore.
-------
Medical:
I have no problem getting checked out, i have had my sugar and thyroid tested many times by my doctor I do not believe we have ever done hormone tests though and not even sure how that is done. My doctor is kind of one of those Xenical or Bariatric surgery guys. He believes that people cant really do it themselves ( i guess i'm a good example of that since i gained the weight back ) but Im pretty sure he'd give me a lab script for anything i wanted.
Diet:
I wouldn't go to a place which makes me feel inheritly uncomfortable with myself 5 days a week and be posting on this board if i wasnt ready to make changes :-) So sure, i'll try anything once.
Whoa buddy! You are very high carb and super low in protein!!
Well its not actually carbs, its just a crap load of sugar but fitday doesn't have a "crap load of sugar" section. So i put it down in carbs because i thought it was important to ducument how much sugar.
You might want to take this over to the Fat Loss Troubleshoot Forum so more people see this. Do you realize how little protein you are getting? I get that much or more in my breakfast! I think you are going to need a big overhaul on your diet. I'm certainly not qualified to advise; I can only see the glaring issues (ie your lack of protein, way low calories -- 900-1,000 a day?...seriously??, etc). I'll bet Leigh could help you or any of the other nutrition gurus on the forum.
Just as an example, here's my food for today. Now, the 142 grams of protein is what *I* take in....you would likely need more than that. The first thing I do is make sure I am getting enough protein. Then, my carbs and fats make up the rest. I prefer lower carb/higher fat, but that's just me:
I'd say you're not eating enough, however, I wouldn't really suggest eating more of (as you put it) "a crapload of sugar". I'm currently 261-ish and eat anywhere between 2000 and 2300 calories a day. I may eat on the high side, however, combined with the exercise I do (3 days weights, 2 days cardio) I still manage usually a 2lb/week loss. A couple of years ago I was kind of where you were.... eating less and less, working out harder and harder. This works for some, but not for me.
If that's the one thing I've learned is that I need to eat more to lose weight. That may not apply to everyone, but for me it seems to be true. Back in December (at 358) I still started at 1600-1800 calories, with no exercise. Once I added in the exercise though my weight loss was off and on. It's been far more consistent since I raised my calories.
I'm kind of with Jane on the division of calories. I tend to 30% protein and let the other numbers fall where they may. However, in my case, I do that to manage hunger (which is a lifelong issue for me).
Thats actually yesterday, and thats a little higher than usual because i had a turkey sandwich with lunch instead of a frozen meal. normally its probably around 900-1000 cal and 15-20g of fat.
Doesn't fitday subtract your calories burned from your workout from your total calories consumed? There was a reason I stopped using it, and it was something like that but I don't remember the particulars.
__________________
Tom
No "happy hours" makes for a lot of miserable days. - Mahler
You are getting enough "help" from people more qualified than me but just wanted to add that I am 120lbs and lost 1 lb a week on 1800 cals a day. Needless to say something is seriously wrong with what you are reporting if you are as big a person as you say. You will have to tighten up everything to root cause the thing (or things) that is wrong. It is sort of a pain in the ass to dial in the nutrition but it is the only way to become empowered to lose and to keep it off.
My hats off to ya for taking the first step!
__________________
The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
Gotta say I agree with the others; cals seem way too low, protein also. The rule of thumb I believe is 1 gram per body weight (more for guys I think, and can't confirm if it's desired bw or actual). Or at least 30% of cals.
Another good place to track is: thedailyplate.com.
LD is right, the cals don't add up on the graph. Something's up.
Keep us posted, and good luck. This forum is full of excellent info!!!
And here is my experience with weight loss advice from Docs:
Eat less, exercise more. I did that for 1.5 years and managed to lose a whopping 30lbs. 20lbs of that came in the first 4 months or so. The other 10lbs took over a year to come off. I was Sub 1500 cals. In fact, I could not lose steadily unless I went below 1100 consistently. (Which I suck at!)
I weighed and measured and tracked everything. I am anal. I still am!! Of course my food quality was not great at the time...but still it seemed as if the law of thermodynamics didn't apply to me! I was to the Dr a few times complaining that I couldn't lose the weight. I knew something was wrong. I'd lost 72lbs 10 years prior with no problems. This time the same methods simply didn't work.
My last ditch effort before I gave up eating entirely (which would have meant drugs) was to follow the insane advice some crazy body building dude gave me - I started eating more (clean - minimal processed and/or prepackaged foods) and lifting with the boys.
It worked. In less than 6 months I lost (eating more food than I wanted!) what it had taken 1.5 years to lose by starving myself.
The last time I saw my Dr she asked, "How'd you do it?" She made some comment about how her patients don't take her advice, which to me anyway, was repeatedly "Eat less, exercise more." I mentioned how I couldn't lose until I upped calories to about 1800. She looked at me like I had sixteen heads. MY ob/gyn had pretty much the same reaction. Ya know, kind of the same reaction they give ya when you tell them your eating 1200 cals, working out an hour a day or more and not losing weight.
Drs, and most people in general always assume overweight people eat too much, sit around on their fat lazy asses and then lie about it. Sure, OK that's how we got that way - but for some of us, it is not why we stay that way.
Try the eating thing. I know it can be scary - we want to hold on to what we have fought so hard for - but what other choice do you have? Eat less? Exercise more? Drugs? Surgery? Just be sure to up calories gradually. Others may have a better idea as to a safe #.
"Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop people who don’t want it badly enough. They're there to keep the other people out.” -Randy Pausch
I sleep as much as I can usually 8 hours a night on the weekend 8-10 and if i had a real bad 'apnea' night i'll sleep until i have to wake up and hopefully not feel even worse when i do eventually arise from my grave.
I sleep anywhere from disasterously bad to fair. I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea but it seems to go away the lighter I get. The treatments for sleep apnea don't really help. They want you to wear a mask which blows air through your nose, I found i had a 'funky' septum so i actually had surgery to get my septum corrected, that didn't help either. So I try to live with it, some days its tough to get out of bed.
The CPAP machine didn't work for me either so I completely relate to not using that and to the horrible quality of sleep. My apnea has gotten much better but I probably still have some and I remember how tired I was when it was at its peak. There are some non-machine things that can help with sleep apnea.
Anything that encourages you to sleep on your side is good. One trick is to sew a tennis ball to the back of your pajama top. Also there's at least one (and maybe more) pillows designed to encourage side-sleeping. I think mine is called a "Soma" pillow and I got it at a Brookstone store.
It also might help if you experiment with elevating your head so you are sleeping on a slope.
__________________
"Time and patience are the 2 elements that most people don't include in their plans."
-Alan Aragon
"The scale simply tells you how much the earth loves you on a particular day."
-Ogedei (Keith)
Doesn't fitday subtract your calories burned from your workout from your total calories consumed? There was a reason I stopped using it, and it was something like that but I don't remember the particulars.
I think Fitday also subtracts fiber from the calories. (Haven't used it myself so I may be wrong.)
__________________
"Time and patience are the 2 elements that most people don't include in their plans."
-Alan Aragon
"The scale simply tells you how much the earth loves you on a particular day."
-Ogedei (Keith)
1) you need to eat more, just as everyone has said. I started out at 315 on my journey and I was eating 2000 calories a day. You body will thank you as you'll have enough food to fuel the workouts you are doing and to recover afterwards.
2) Get rid of the prepackaged food. The sodium in that food could be part of the problem in that you might be retaining water. But the fact of the matter is that even the weights on the packages could be wrong (I don't think you are overeating BTW if anything you are not eating enough). If time is an issue, cook a roast or tenderlion on low in a crockpot while you are at work. When you get home, divy it up into the portions and throw the extra in the freezer.
I am not a diet nazi by any means, but I do try and make sure that I prepare the majority of my own food. I set up an assembly line process and weigh and measure my oatmeal, chicken breasts, cottage cheese, etc.
I prepackage my oatmeal into little snack baggies. 41 G of Oatmeal, 20 G of Raisins and a 1/2 TSP of Cinnamon. It takes me maybe 15-20 minutes to measure out 7 packets of oatmeal. For freezer foods, I stick to frozen veggies and pull out what I need unless I've got some fresh from my Boyfriend's mom.
Aim for 1G of Protein for the body weight you want to end up with. Fill the rest with Carbs and Fat (don't be afraid of fat, just make sure it's good for you fat like olive oil or avocado).
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
One additional note.. since the OP no longer has a gall bladder fat intake has to be distributed very evenly over the day . There's still bile being produced but you will only be able to process small amounts of fat for every meal and not a lot at the same time.
There's 1 exception: short & medium chain triglycerides that are present in real butter (not a whole lot though) as well as in abundant amounts in coconut oil and of course 100% MCT-oil.
Furthermore.. yep, totally true about how eating more can help with fat loss .. the reason is that your body goes into conservation mode at a too low intake unless you're willing to take it reallllly low. But .. in that case you'll need to eat nearly exclusively protein (which you don't ) and.. NOT do any strenuous work in the gym.. just gentle exercise like walking & moderate lifting (two sessions a week).
A little discouraged need a push in the right direction.
You will have to tighten up everything to root cause the thing (or things) that is wrong. It is sort of a pain in the ass to dial in the nutrition but it is the only way to become empowered to lose and to keep it off. 
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