help..... getting discouraged
(27 posts) (17 voices)-
tracibee
MemberI have started eating all fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and nuts for 2 weeks. I am getting discouraged as I have only lost 3 lbs. I have not had any starches, breads, grains and sugars since day one. I have just been going off the website but ordered the book just the other day. Any advice for me to keep me going?
Posted 6 months ago # -
Wendy1
MemberHi, Tracibee,
I'm new, too, so I am probably not the one to really give advice, but I'm sure others will respond, too. I can give support, though!! Sounds like you are doing well -- do you think it would help to log your food on fitday and see what kind of ratio of fats, protein, carbs you are getting?I am on day 13, and have not lost much weight yet(even less than your 3 pounds) but can feel my body changing for sure. I have pants and shorts that are fitting better/differently, and can visibly see a more defined waist and neckline.
Two ideas that I am going to try next: having a few days of just meat and veggies and eggs (cutting out fruit and dairy, which I'm eating quite a bit of right now) and then having a few days where I fast for either one or two meals. Those might be things for you to try?
Also, how/ what kind of exercise are you doing?
Keep it up, and don't get discouraged!!!
-Wendy1Posted 6 months ago # -
Catalina
MemberYou're doing great!! Mark talks in the book about losing 1-2 pounds a week, and you're right in there. And, in addition to losing weight, you're making yourself extremely healthy. I know it seems like a long road at first, but you can do it--my experience has been that the weight loss stays consistent. (I've lost 12 pounds in about as many weeks--and that's a happy thing!) Keep coming back to the forum and staying involved. . .you'll get to where you want to go, and if you ever stall, folks here can help you take a look at your foods and exercise and suggest adjustments. The more you do it, the more you'll enjoy the food you're eating, too.
Posted 6 months ago # -
cc40
Member"Any advice for me to keep me going?"
It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Feel confident because there has already been a change. I'd also suggest fitday or daily plate to start tracking your food intake. It made a huge difference for me to have tools like that. Keep up the great work.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Griff
MemberKeep your intake below 50g of carbs for the first few weeks at least. I'd bet you're eating starchy vegetables and too much fruit. Stick to leafy greens only, and no fruit for a few weeks - remember, when Grok found fruit it was an occasional, not an everyday, thing.
Posted 6 months ago # -
DaveFish
MemberTracibee 3 lbs in two weeks is actually not a bad result. On many diets you might lose more weight in a shorter period of time but it is mostly water weight and not body fat.
Also your body is going through an adjustment phase and you might see weeks with small changes on the scale and weeks with big changes. My advice, stay off the scale! Let weight loss be a side effect of getting healthy, vibrant, and strong.
Posted 6 months ago # -
chocolatechip69
MemberI am too a little discouraged as far as weight loss goes. I started two months ago with a weight of 120lb. I lost 3 lb in the first week, but then slowly but surely started to go up. Today I weighted myself and I was 125. I don't work out THAT much, so I really don't think it's a muscle weight. I'm confused.
I used to eat dairy, raw and organic, but now I cut it out completely to see what happens. I get 1-2 servings of berries or fruit a day. Mostly it's blueberries with ocassional peach.
I consume anywhere between 1,550 to 1,850 calories a day, give or take, and my breakdown on average is 50-100 carbs, 80-120 g of fats, and 75-120 g of protein. I eat free-range meats and cage-free eggs every day, and consume a lot of coconut oil, lard, and butter.
I walk pretty much every day for about an hour, do 1 day of weight lifting, one sprint a week, and usually go hiking on a weekend. What in the world is going on with my body and why is it moving the opposite direction?:) I don't have that much to loose but I certainly don't want to weight more than I did when I was eating crap.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Griff
Member@chocolatechip: That could easily be muscle gain. I would suggest restricting carbs down below 50g a day and avoiding fruit for a while. Also, use Ketostix to check to see if you're in ketosis.
Also, I'd avoid the scale except on a once-a-month basis. Any more than that and it's like checking your stock prices every day; it becomes meaningless.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Ecala
Memberchocolatechip-- you sound like you're in the exact same boat as I am! I started at 120 and gained weight. Stalled at 124 - it would not budge. I too cut out the dairy - and then I cut out the fruit. Nothing would happen.
Then I figured it out. Too many nuts! I cut the nuts and dropped 2 lbs.
Posted 6 months ago # -
DaveFish
MemberChocolatechip, scale weight doesn't tell the whole story and can be very misleading. A better indication is how your clothes fit. Measuring your body fat percentage, though not as easy to do as stepping on a scale, is a better indicator of your health and fitness than a scale number.
By the way those scales that also measure body fat percentage can be wildly inaccurate.
Posted 6 months ago # -
chocolatechip69
MemberDaveFish, unfortunately my clothes don't fit very well:) That's how I even noticed that my weight was going up.
Ecala, I can't say I eat that many nuts. I'll try that approach. I do have a tablespoon of nut or seed butter every day, but not whole lot on top of that. I will have to try to take that approach and see what happens. It would be very helpful to figure finally figure out which foods my body reacts to in this way.
Griff, these are all valuable points and I will try doing that. But my whole disappointment with weight-loss alone stems from the fact that I stopped eating grains and sugars and I guess I thought just that along would help me drop some lb. Well, I ended up gaining:) Other than that, I feel great and not planning on going back at all.
Posted 6 months ago # -
I agree that it sounds like you're doing well. 1 pound per week is a very reasonable, safe rate of fat loss. Remember, it's FAT loss you're after, not WEIGHT loss. If you're losing fat but gaining muscle, your weight may not change much even though you're shrinking and getting healthier. Scrap that scale and focus on how your clothes fit and how you feel. :)
Suggestions:
I'm not on the fruit-is-evil bandwagon, but it does make sense to me to limit it to 1-2 pieces per day if you're trying to lose fat. (Less fruit means lower sugar/carbs, assuming you're replacing it with dietary fat or protein.)
Also, add in some strength training if it's safe for you to do so. You'll be amazed how your metabolism races as you build muscle. Bodyweight training is great: a few pushups, some squats, lunges, pulldowns, etc. Just do what you can manage. If you can only do two "girly" pushups in a set to start with, that's perfectly fine. Just keep doing them, and within a few months you'll be banging out 15 full pushups and looking hot! ;)
Posted 6 months ago # -
OnTheBayou
MemberRecord you food intake. You don't know what you are doing until you do that.
Certainly nothing wrong with 1.5 pounds a week! Especially if you aren't fat to begin with.
Ditch the fruit. Even a plum a day sort of killed any weight loss for me. It's the sugars, especially any fructose.
Don't over exercise. (A common theme for not getting results.) You body will keep the fat in reserves and make you eat more.
Your mileage may vary from mine, but those are my hard earned lessons. I've lost 45 pounds since the end of April. Now seeing 238, 239 on the scale. Woo hoo!
Posted 6 months ago # -
OnTheBayou
Member@maba The only pics I have are generic family snapshots from whenever. No new ones to date. Someday I will, though.
@chocolatechip, that's a lot of calories if you are trying to lose weight. It's what I eat, and unless you are 240 pounds, that's a lot. Did I mention that's a lot? Try to keep the carbs under 25, ditch those high calorie nuts. Also that's a lot of fruit and berries for weight loss. When I ate fruit, no weight loss. There is a LOT of sugar in there, and although the fiber helps slow the process, there is still some pretty good, I mean bad, insulin response taking place. Insulin is not your friend.
Posted 6 months ago # -
chocolatechip69
MemberI still can't wrap my head around this though. I used to eat cereal for breakfast every single day, take under 35 g of fat, eat tons of fruit and dairy and be at 120lb, but now that I cut all the bad stuff out I'm actually gaining. I'm not complaining. I'm just trying to understand.
Posted 6 months ago # -
chocolatechip6,
You sure you're not gaining muscle?
You could theoretically (even if you're not working out much) be resetting your hormonal levels and having a higher protein intake.
That may naturally increase your lean muscle without you doing much exercise.
Another theory to throw into the pile,
-SeanPosted 6 months ago # -
Tracibee,
You are losing 1.5 lbs per week, that is a very nice rate of fat loss. Please do not be discouraged. You have made the most important step by giving up sugar, grains and starches. Personally, I have found that I do better with very limited fruit. This is not a diet, but a major lifestyle change. Just keep going, weeks will pass and you will continue to lose fat. Also keep in mind that the scale only measures weight, not muscle and fat. So if you are lifting weights and sprinting, you are likely to put on some lovely muscle. If you lost four pounds of fat and gained one pound of muscle, the scale would show a loss of only three pounds. You can also use a tape measure to gauge fat loss. Keep up the work work. I know you can do it!
Debra
Posted 6 months ago # -
Sir Grandma
MemberI'm not a huge loser either (no comments from the peanut gallery, I'm talking about weight). In the last 2 months I have lost at most 3 lbs, but my waist is 2 inches smaller. I don't do strength training, only some walking and some work around the yard (a handful of times in the last 2 months). That works for me.
By the way during that period there were days when my weight was up +4. So if you measure your weight only periodically you really don't get a sense when you weight is high due to daily variations or you have put on a weight that you are keeping. I know some people are against it, but I am for the daily weigh-in.
Posted 6 months ago # -
hannahc
MemberBut sir grandma, there are so many good comments to throw from up here ;)
I'm a daily weigher, I would have a harder time with weekly weigh ins personally. I have days where I'm up say a pound or 1.5 even, and I'll be able to think back to what/how much I ate the last couple of days and just know that apparently it all hasn't >ahem< processed yet. If I weighed in at a low day one week, then at a high day two weeks later I'd be more swayed emotionally by the scale than just taking it purely as information to be processed on a daily basis. I'm mostly just maintaining weight wise, but I do think doing super low carbs (I'm keeping them under 20, ideally under 10 for now) is melting some fat off my belly, there's less to pinch :) Slow and steady is the way to go, Biggest Loser style weight loss simply isn't feasible for real people.
Posted 6 months ago # -
OnTheBayou
MemberWhat's this "peanut gallery" thing you mention, grandma? (Roll eyes....)
Do a search for "Lean Body Mass Calculator." All the ones I've seen use the same format and calculator program. Us of this ( and I forget who suggested it to me a couple of months ago here) will make sure you aren't losing LBM during a diet.
I've lost two inches in the waist since I started this, and probably two before I started the LBM recording.
Daily weigh-ins, absolutely. You take the bad ones with the good, but the latter will be more frequent.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Sir Grandma
MemberWell, I figured making the assertion on the internet that I am not a loser seemed like an assertion that was bound to be challenged. :)
Did you aim the LBM calculator comments to me? I'm not really interested. But I did look for some calculators as you suggested. One was just based on height and weight that seems as useless as BMI. Others included waist and neck measure, that sounds better, but whatever. As long as the ladies can't take my eyes off me on my daily walks, I'm good :)
(There I go opening myself up for ridicule again; as if my screen name weren't enough)
Posted 6 months ago #
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