weight loss frustration! page 2

[RJPants]

Thanks for all the replies! I am a 23 (24 on the 24th! yay golden birthday!) year old female. I was chubby as a child, and a size 22/24 since high school, I can't really remember when I hit that size, I've always been big. I lost a little bit of weight with weight watchers a few years ago and got down to around 270, which I think is my lowest "adult" weight. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, which I know hinders weight loss as well, but I am fortunate enough to not have any other health issues. No diabetes or anything. I've had my thyroid tested a few times, and it's fine as well. Eating really fatty foods doesn't make me feel great, veggies with meat makes me feel the best I think. I am a huge fan of chicken caesar salads. Lately I have been having a lot of sleeping problems. I could sleep the whole night and day away. I had several sleep studies done, and they found no problems what so ever to explain my excess tiredness. That's part of the reason why my mom convinced me to try the primal blueprint, since everyone says it helps with energy. So far it actually has! I have been feeling better since going primal, at least with the sleep factor. My biggest temptations are things like pizza, donuts, cookies, chocolate milk, pop. Right now I have been wanting fruit a lot, but after reading the forums, I'm giving a week with no fruit a try to see if it makes a big difference. I have been surprised by my lack of really craving carbs, most of the time it's worse at night. I am trying not to have an all or nothing mentality, but knowing myself, I worry that giving into one bite of a donut, or pizza, or anything like that will lead to many more bites. I feel a little like an alcoholic giving up booze. I'm worried that one "drink" will put me spiraling out of control. In the future it might be easier, but right now, I just want to stay away from grains and sugary stuff all together. I have found some recipes for primal brownies and my mom has made some primal cake, which helps with the cravings for the non-primal stuff, like non-alcoholic beer to an alcoholic. It's not quite the same, but it'll do? I don't really know since I don't like beer and am not an alcoholic, haha.

I wrote that and went shopping and forgot to post it, so i'm adding more now!

Today I've been thinking I might add some fruit back in, I just feel like I'm not as happy the last few days without being able to eat fruit, maybe not as much as i was before, but if i'm not happy with what i'm eating it's not gonna last right? I've never been good with figuring out if i'm losing inches or anything, since my clothes are all kind of baggy, and get tighter in the wash, and stretch out again. Should I actually measure? I know going primal is making me feel better, I have more energy during the day, and feel really good about what i'm eating (except for the whole not having fruit thing) I feel much more in control of what is going in my body. For my "calorie counting" I'm not really doing it to count calories, I don't really pay attention to the calorie number, but I'm trying to account for my intake of carbs, and it's an easy way of writing down everything I eat.

[ElaineC]

I've been eating fruit like crazy the last few weeks, especially strawberries and oranges, and so far the weight is still coming off, slowly but surely! Every once in a while I'll write down everything I eat just to make sure I'm on track, and even on "bad" days I'm still below 150g carbs / day. For the first couple of months I tracked everything though. It took me ages to finally let go and trust that this was working. Feeling better and having more energy did more for me to believe Primal was the way to go than anything.

[Aly]

I think calorie counting is good for the first couple of weeks after going primal. I found it helped me learn the macronutrients in whatever I'm eating. For example, I would have never guessed how many grams of carbs were in broccoli and green beans before I started calorie counting. After about three weeks of strict calorie counting, I began to neglect my FitDay account because I started to have a good estimation every day of my intake. But one thing that a handful of primal folk with shun me for asking:

Are you taking in more calories than your expending?

Estimate your daily intake and then your expenditure. Make sure there's a deficit. If there isn't, it's pretty much impossible to lose weight no matter what you're eating, although there are more factors than just calories here. You were right for tracking your carb intake. Mark suggests that 30-100 grams of carbs daily will result in weight loss, albeit, the closer you are to 100 grams, the slower your weight loss will come. So it isn't surprising that 80g of carbs every day is resulting in moderately slow weight loss (although two pounds a weeks is pretty decent.)

I think what you need is patience. Five pounds in two weeks is pretty great, actually!

[ShannonPA-S]

As someone who used to weigh 300 pounds too..... I understand your frustration.

Let me tell you, I had a gastric bypass which is how I lost my first 120 pounds. I've lost the last 20 by changing my eating habits and going primal. Even with having barely any food at all some days your body just doesn't let go of weight. It would happen for me that I wouldn't change and then one day I'd suddenly be down 5 pounds. Bodies are weird. Don't get discouraged.

I would advise against calorie counting. I do advocate journaling though. Write down what you eat, the amount and when. But no calories. Be accountable for the lifestyle and the behaviors that have gotten you to that point. If you're eating like you're SUPPOSED to, you won't have to worry about calories. I know it's hard because you want to see progress. But that's a diet mentality. Get out of that or this will never stick for you.

Focus on sticking to the plan really hard for a couple of weeks and then weigh and measure inches. Repeat. Keep moving!!

Good to see another WLS person turning to primal.

I totally agree about the calorie counting though...not very helpful for me at least (especially if you're not eating refined, processed foods). But journaling foods and even feelings can be helpful, especially if you have a tendency to sabotage yourself or eat emotionally. Some people find it helpful, though.

[ShannonPA-S]

You are a hot gramma now! Totally awesome!!

[RJPants]

thanks for all the feedback! i had written a really long response but I guess it didn't post. I am a 23 (24 this month) year old female, and I have been heavy all my life, so I'm sure my metabolism is pretty shot. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, but other than that, have nothing "wrong" with me. For the last year or 2, my sleep has been ridiculous. I was able to sleep all day and all night, and was just tired all the time. I did 3 sleep studies, and they never found anything wrong with my sleeping, I don't even have sleep apnea, which I just assumed I had. The only thing left for a reason to my sleep problems seemed to be my weight or diet. My mom finally convinced me to try the primal blueprint diet, and since I "went primal" My sleep has been a heck of a lot better already, in general I have more energy during the day, but still seem to be able to sleep at night (though I do take sleep medicine every night) Today I ate a bunch of fruit, even though I decided I would give up fruit. The last few days' eating has sucked without fruit. I feel good eating fruit, and that's been my biggest craving as of late. I think I might need to lay off the dairy more, since that seems to be the only thing left causing me stomach aches. I think I'll put the scale away for a little while as well, and see if I can be a little more sane without it.

[RJPants]

also I wanted to say that I'm not so much trying to count calories, as track what I eat, and the amount of carbs specifically. I do see the calories, but I try not to worry about it, though my aim is for roughly 2000 calories, but sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, for me as long as I can keep my carbs somewhere around 80, I'm happy. I should write down what I feel along with what I'm eating, that is a good idea!

[Lily Marie]

I don't limit calories, but I do have a limit for protein(90g) and carbs(50g) - which makes my calories end up being about 1500. That makes me full all day on just 2 meals. Once you find your groove, Primal is awesome!

[RitaRose]

One thing I've personally noticed is that the foods I crave tend to be the foods I need to either eliminate or cut back on. I know some people have found it the other way around, but maybe my body is still fixing itself and doesn't get healthy signals yet.

Anyway, I had a little bit of milk last week, and then I had a little more... and more. I kept drinking more and more until I finally was having something like 3 large glasses a day. Yeah, a bit much. I cut out all milk completely starting yesterday morning and I haven't been craving it at all today, plus my weight loss started up again.

Maybe it's the same with fruit for you.

[ShannonPA-S]

One thing I've personally noticed is that the foods I crave tend to be the foods I need to either eliminate or cut back on. I know some people have found it the other way around, but maybe my body is still fixing itself and doesn't get healthy signals yet.

Anyway, I had a little bit of milk last week, and then I had a little more... and more. I kept drinking more and more until I finally was having something like 3 large glasses a day. Yeah, a bit much. I cut out all milk completely starting yesterday morning and I haven't been craving it at all today, plus my weight loss started up again.

Maybe it's the same with fruit for you.

Rita, that is an interesting observation. I think it's true that sometimes what we shouldn't eat, we crave. That is true with me and iced lattes. Nothing but milk and espresso, but I really don't need the milk or the espresso. Yet other times I really do need some of the stuff I crave. Lately I've been craving clams and I just found out they are super-high in iron, so it was my body's way of getting me to eat iron (I'm anemic). I do think the more messed up one's body, though, the more likely it is lying to you. My screwed up body used to crave fries and chips and such, which I knew was totally wrong.