Not for me? page

[jbledsoe42]

First a little background...

January 201,1 I decided enough was enough and from January 2011 until Aug 2011, I lost 35 pounds through exercise and basic calorie counting. Then the weight loss stopped even though I was still trying hard to lose.

Needing to still lose 35-40 pounds, some dear friends who have had amazing success with eating primal and the Primal Blueprint talked my husband and I into trying it. We started March 2012. I lost 10 pounds the first two months, and then stopped. Starting in July the weight (and inches) started coming back and as of this morning I have officially gained back all of the weight and inches I originally lost switching to the diet. I haven't been cheating and have continued to work out through the diet transition.

I am active, going to a yoga class twice a week and at least 3-4 other days in the week are filled with jogging, Zumba, hiking, biking &/or swimming. I drink tons of water.

I'm at a loss and am beginning to think maybe this isn't for me.

Can anyone offer any advice?

My eating usually consists of
Breakfast: two eggs, sometimes banana
Lunch: left over meat from dinner, fruit (usually apple and almond butter)
Dinner: meat and tons of veggies
Snacks: bananas, nuts, seeds, carrots

[canio6]

Perhaps your calories have creeped up on you. I know it happens to me if I am not careful. Paleobird has a long thread somewhere about calorie counting revisited and some suggest that for some, especially women, counting calories even while primal is important. Nuts, nut butters etc are easy to overeat for many.

Also, and this is a small thing, you refer to this as the 'caveman diet' which it is not. Have you read the Primal Blueprint? If so great, if not please read it as often going by what friends say is not the same as doing it correctly. I know this from experience as the friend who turned me onto Primal told me what the way of eating consisted of and then I read the book and they were not the same.

[palebluedots]

I make it a habit to always weigh and measure what I eat, and I definitely have to limit things like nuts. I also nixed bananas entirely, and now eat berries or other fruit instead. Have you tried tracking what you are eating in a program like Cronometer? I like that one because you can see if you're getting all your vitamins and minerals too.

But yeah, if you're eating nuts liberally (especially nut butters), and snacking throughout the day on things like bananas, those could be the source of the problem. If you can track exactly what you are eating for a couple of weeks, it will be a lot easier to identify the problem areas though. :-)

[jbledsoe42]

Ooops! Yes I have read the book and sorry for the misnomer. I was wrestling my toddler and obviously not focusing completely. It has been corrected

I use myfitnesspal.com to track my food and I eat about 1200 calories a day (a little more if I get a lot of exercise). I will check out Paleobird's post if I can find it. Thanks!

Oh and I am on thyroid medicine but just had an appt and my count is good.

Any more advice would be great! Thanks.

[jbledsoe42]

Yeah I do eat bananas and nuts often. I'll try to cut down

[ciavyn]

Just my $0.02...but 1200 isn't even your BMR. You aren't eating enough, and yet according to your first post, you are pretty darn active. You have told your body what it is getting every day, and it has to figure out a way to get you through all that activity, on less than what you need to just lay in bed and breathe. It can't afford to burn any more fat stores than absolutely necessary, because it doesn't have any extra coming in to fill it up. My first suggestion would be to up your calories via more fat, and an increase of protein, cut the sugars completely, and then examine what areas in your life may be stressing you out, if any. But a diet of 1200 calories is way too low for pretty much any healthy person, especially for someone as active as you are.

[sbhikes]

My eating usually consists of
Breakfast: two eggs, sometimes banana
Lunch: left over meat from dinner, fruit (usually apple and almond butter)
Dinner: meat and tons of veggies
Snacks: bananas, nuts, seeds, carrots

Maybe try shaking it up for a while. Do something drastic. Here's my basic meal plan:

Breakfast: fatty meat (not too much, often organ meats)
Lunch: fatty fish (canned salmon) or macadamia nuts (one large handful)
Dinner: meat, vegetables
Snacks: none

I've been able to keep off some recently lost weight with this. I have been on a very long plateau and it looks to me like the only way I can lose weight now is to get out of my normal routine and go backpacking with relatively low carb backpacking food, basically force my body to use its fat stores. I can't seem to accomplish that in daily life very well. But I can keep it off. So I'm hoping to do that from time-to-time to nudge the weight down and use the stable periods to reinforce these new lower weights as new normals. It's worth a shot. I have no idea if this will work.

[Forever Young]

I don't see a weight training program on your list nor do I see a sprint type workout. These two things are the fountain of youth. They promote fat loss, a leaner better body composition and make one look and feel younger in general. There is nothing wrong with the other things you are doing. They would most fall into moving, regularly though.

Also, your thyroid is a huge issue!! Having your number in the normal range in many cases means nothing. How are your symptoms? You are clearly having trouble with weight. That is a major symptom. Do you see a doctor that REALLY understands the thyroid or did he or she simply put you on Synthroid? Good thyroid doctors are VERY hard to find. Most know little and get little or no results while their patients suffer endlessly.

[quelsen]

remove completely all fruit.

moderate starchy vegetables 2- 3 meals max

balance the calories lost from above with fat and protein.

see results

[PrimalJes]

Try upping your calories to 1600-1800 per day and see what happens! I was just reading about how going too low-cal will prompt your body to store all it can. Upping your calories can make all the difference!