I will never be fat again

[outofcontrol]

Ok, I resisted, but finally broke down and I'm starting a log. I tried Stage 1 of NROLFW my way, but clearly I need help. I need to get control of my diet. I feel great, but I'm gaining weight, and I'm disappointed when I see my progress pics. I came so far in the last two and a half years, and I refuse to let the weight creep back on.
Here's my before pic from April 2006:

I am 5'2" and got up to 144 pounds when I finally decided to do something about it. I joined Sparkpeople and lost 25 pounds.
Here I am at my goal weight of 120 pounds in June 2007:

Since then I ran a marathon in december. I gained a few pounds during training, and then after the first of the year I really slacked off on weight training and found my weight creeping up slowly but surely. I can still fit into my clothes, but not comfortably anymore. The reason I turned to weight lifting is that I injured my IT band training for my last half marathon. I have been off running for a few weeks and I'm still not completely healed. I found that I couldn't walk or do any high-impact cardio. I plan to try running again for the HIIT part of Stage 2.
Here is the ugly truth- after completing Stage 1 of NROLFW I weighed in at 133 pounds today. I took these pictures and do not like how I look:

Actually, I am pleased with my upper body. I can definitely see progress there. But I have a lot of work to do.

Starting stats:
5/24/08
126.6 lbs.
approximately 27% body fat
waist 27
abdomen 30
hip bone 34
hips 38

4 weeks into the program:
6/22/08
129.5 lbs.
waist 27
abdomen 30
hip bone 34
hips 38

After Stage 1:
7/5/08
133.6 lbs.
waist 27
abdomen 30
hip bone 34
hips 38
chest 34
thigh 21
calf 13
upper arm 10
forearm 8.5

I began the program with the intention of cutting calories as suggested in the book. That only lasted a few days because I was way too hungry. I did start tracking my food again, and most days I eat around 1800 calories. I am trying to eat the recommended amount of protein and follow the meal timing requirements. But clearly I am eating too much. If I am totally honest, I admit that I eat a little too much chocolate at work, a few too many handfuls of potato chips while I'm eating dinner, and definitely too much alcohol. I have a glass of something almost every night with dinner. My mother-in-law lives with me, need I say more?
I have to make a commitment to this if I want to see results. I cannot stand the thought of buying clothes in a bigger size. I do not want to gain back all the weight I lost. But I am so afraid of being hungry. I love to eat.
So here's what I need to do.
1. Log every bite of food.
2. Make a serious attempt to stay under 1500 calories a day.
3. Continue eating high protein.
4. Kick ass at the gym.
I did stage 1 at home and quickly outgrew my standard bar and plate set. Monday morning I start at the gym.

[realcdn]

How is your tracking going with food. I asked that because you talk about:

few too many handfuls of potato chips

Snacking can be a big problem. Okay, I admit I'm a little compulsive, but I weigh most of what I eat. And if I don't weigh I do measure, carefully. It can be an eye opener when you really dissect your tracking and find out that you're not really eating what you think you are. How many calories in a handful of chips.

Oh, and you don't get a lot of bulk with chips and chocolate....

[SpacecityPaula]

Hi and welcome to the board.

Okay the fact that your measurements are the same but your weight is up suggests that maybe you replaced with fat with muscle. Lean muscle takes up less space than fat. Did you take pictures before you started Stage 1 of NROL4W? if so would you mind sharing them?

Anne hit it on the head in that Chips and Chocolate are not going to help your diet. And while a little alcohol is okay once in a while, alcohol every night isn't going to help you reach your goals. You are already planning to weigh log your food, I'd suggest weighing it in grams to get a more accurate picture of your food intake.

That being said, you need to decide what you goal is. Do you want to get rid of the fat or do you want to improve your musculature? You haven't said how new you are to lifting weights. But if you are relatively new to lifting you may be in that period where you can improve your physique while losing fat.

That being said and having done Alwyn's Programs... You will not be able to do NROL4W and eat 1500 calories a day. You will bonk and you will eat because you are trying to support the lifting he prescribes in his program. There are several of us on the board who love Alwyn's Programs but they don't particularly like us and they are just too metabolically taxing when you are trying to cut weight. So if you are looking to lose weight, you might want to try another program. If you are looking to improve your physique, you will have to eat to support the lifting in Alwyn's programs.

Can you post examples of your daily diet so we can see what's going on? That way we can provide more feedback on how you might improve your diet so you can better meet your goals.

[realcdn]

Duh - I should have said welcome as well. Sorry - and welcome.

[outofcontrol]

Thanks to both of you for the welcome. I try to log my snacks, and I do know the portion sizes by now, but lately I have gotten lazy and will have a few things extra that I don't track. Even with that, I would bet I'm under 2000 calories a day, so I am surprised at the amount of weight I've gained. Throughout Stage 1 I decided not to worry and just keep eating, but it seems like from what I read here, I am just eating too much. I would love to think that I could continue on 1800 calories and everything would turn out ok. I guess today I am second guessing my decision not to cut calories and began to worry that I've been fooling myself. My original goal was to gain back the muscle I've lost in the last 8 months. Before my marathon training I was 120 pounds with 24% body fat. I was doing running-specific strength training and some body pump type classes at the gym. This is my first time lifting heavy free weights. I thought the fat loss would slowly happen on its own if I got my muscle back and continued to eat at maintenance level. So if 1500 is going to be too little, what is the right amount? Should I continue with 1800 but eliminate all junk and alcohol? Is quality really that much more important than quantity? My normal day is 4 oz. of protein juice smoothie pre-workout, protein shake for breakfast after workout, cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit for snack, salad and leftovers for lunch, Cooking Light recipe for dinner. Non-workout days I eat whole grain cereal for breakfast. I try to have several servings of fruits and veggies. I log on Sparkpeople:
OUTOFCONTROL's Shared Food Tracker - Saturday, July 05, 2008. I haven't been tracking the last few days.
Oh, and my avatar pic is a couple of weeks before I started NROLFW. That was the day after my ill-fated half marathon. I think my waist is a tiny bit thicker now, and my arms and back more defined, but otherwise no difference.

[missjane]

Are you weighing ALL of your food or eyeballing your food?

[realcdn]

I always hesitate to guide people on how much they should eat. Mainly because I'm never sure that I'm at the right levels. Whatever level you decide to eat at it can be important to fill those calories with higher bulk/lower calorie items. You should feel less hunger eating those types of foods. I always think of some of the following as 'avoid' foods.

- alcohol (high calories, no bulk)
- snack foods (chips, candy, chocolate)
- pre-made items (frozen dinners)

Having said all that, I have the occasional drink myself. I also take multi-grain tostidos (and not baked ones) with my homemade chili. And I'm working on remaking my chocolate zucchini cake recipe to something that will work into my plan. So take what I say with a huge grain of salt. If you're sure that you've been eating consistently at 1800 and not seeing the progress you wanted then I'd first suggest that you try switching out some of your choices first. Do that for a couple of weeks, then considering lowering the calories. If you've switched over to higher quality choices you might have an easier time with lower calories.

[outofcontrol]

Originally Posted by missjane

Are you weighing ALL of your food or eyeballing your food?

I measure all my portions for cereal, milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, and things like that. For lunches and dinners the meals are divided into servings, and I follow those. I know that the lazy extras could account for several hundred calories a day.

[SpacecityPaula]

I did not know you could share your logs on Sparkpeople. Must learn how to do this!!!

[SpacecityPaula]

Went and looked at your shared sparkpeople and it looks pretty good. You've got a good ratio of C/F/P. At this point, I'd say track and weigh everything (in Grams) for a couple days and really see where your calorie levels are at.

Based on what I've seen in your logs, I do the following. On the Lifting days, I'd try and ditch one of the protein shakes for more solid food. I'd also probably get rid of the Lean Cuisine meals, the granola and Kashi. For the Granola and Kashi, I'd sub regular oatmeal with some cinnamon added to it with a bit of milk. For the Lean Cuisines, I'd cook up a bunch of chicken/Fish and just preportion it for the week and pair it up with some frozen veggies. Both of these things will get way more nutritional bang for your buck and it'll help with your satiety.

[outofcontrol]

Thanks for the suggestions Paula. I started out eating a bigger breakfast after lifting, but as the workouts got more difficult I didn't feel like eating at all, and the shake was all I could get down. I do try to eat real food for lunch, this past week was heavier on the Lean Cuisines than normal. I will probably finish off the Kashi, granola, and Clif Builder's bars that I already have, and then transition into these ideas.
To share the Sparkpeople food and exercise logs, go into edit your Sparkpage, and in the top right, next to the colors, there are boxes to check.

[SpacecityPaula]

Originally Posted by outofcontrol

Thanks for the suggestions Paula. I started out eating a bigger breakfast after lifting, but as the workouts got more difficult I didn't feel like eating at all, and the shake was all I could get down. I do try to eat real food for lunch, this past week was heavier on the Lean Cuisines than normal. I will probably finish off the Kashi, granola, and Clif Builder's bars that I already have, and then transition into these ideas.
To share the Sparkpeople food and exercise logs, go into edit your Sparkpage, and in the top right, next to the colors, there are boxes to check.

I found it

I wasn't crazy about SP at first, but I find I'm liking it more. I like that I can import other people's food (I always double check the figures though before I do to make sure I'm importing the right thing) and then edit it so that it does things in grams.

[outofcontrol]

I did weigh this morning and was 2.6 pounds less than yesterday, so part of the gain was just bloat. That confirms my reasoning for weighing every day like I used to- I was always afraid my weigh in day would happen to be the odd heavy bloated day. So I have gained 5 pounds in Stage 1. Not terrible. I need to transition from eating like a distance runner to eating like a weight lifter.

[frogguruami]

Hey, Just wanted to pop in and say hello.

I am glad you decided to join the challenge!

[realcdn]

Originally Posted by outofcontrol

I did weigh this morning and was 2.6 pounds less than yesterday, so part of the gain was just bloat. That confirms my reasoning for weighing every day like I used to- I was always afraid my weigh in day would happen to be the odd heavy bloated day. So I have gained 5 pounds in Stage 1. Not terrible. I need to transition from eating like a distance runner to eating like a weight lifter.

I like the daily weighing for just that reason. I can live with the ups and downs but it's nice to know when the jumps are artificial. I'm like you this week, dropped 2.2 pounds in 24 hours. So I know it was water. I did know it was water and drank more yesterday to specifically see if I could get rid of it. Vain person that I am, my weekly weigh-ins are Sunday and I wanted to get rid of the water. Although it did make me realise that as the weather warmed up, and I was outside more, that I should be drinking more than I usually do.

If nothing else I feel better with the bloat gone - no sleep marks that take too long to fade. Hope you're feeling better as well.