I so admire the people who can keep weight off without logging food. How much more convenient life must be without having to write it all down! But I'm not one of them.
Rarely can I let junk food in the house. It's just to hard for me to keep my mitts (and tongue) off of it.
I've had people question and challenge me on both of these issues. In years gone by I have let others bully me into bringing foods that were not in my best interest into my home when I knew I wasn't strong enough to resist them. I've also felt ashamed that I planned to log my food even after I lost my weight, despite knowing it would help me to maintain, because someone told me that wasn't a realistic way to live.
But not anymore: These are two limitations I've had to acknowledge and respect about myself.
I have a friend who does what is necessary to keep her body fat at a healthy level when she pays a trainer/coach to help her. It's something she has to work into her budget to stay successful. She's not weaker than anyone else. Quite the opposite: She is strong enough to recognize and respect her own unique needs and then implement them.
Another person I know has to to to Weight Watchers meetings and weigh-in on a weekly basis in order to not gain her weight back.
Some do best avoiding restaurants; others can't stay home because they eat out of boredom. Some do best if they plan their meals ahead, while others will rebel and overeat if their foods are strictly dictated: They do better with a little (or a lot) more give in their eating plan. Still others do better if they avoid things like white flour or sugar all together, while there are those who find success when they can indulge a little from time to time.
Your picture of success will not look like that of anyone else. This is a good thing and as it should be. You have to be true to your personality and respect your own limitations. Maybe these boundaries will change with time. Maybe they won't. But for lasting success in the weight loss and fitness game, you are going to have to be honest and true with yourself about what works for you.
If someone else doesn't like it? Well....... Let them eat cake........
Or not......
Showing posts with label back sliding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label back sliding. Show all posts
Friday, December 28, 2012
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Moving Past a Weight Loss Plateau
Stuck? Can't get the scale to move? The information in this blog might help you. These are also excellent techniques to apply even if you aren't plateaued- This information is good for everyone to know. I'm a firm believer that knowledge is power!
The very first thing you want to do is be honest with yourself about what you are eating. Are you slipping extra food in there you don't acknowledge? Pretending that cookies are 25 calories a piece? Drinking sugary drinks with the theory that since they slide down so quick the calories don't count? If this is the case get real with yourself, then read.
The next thing you want to do is determine your BMR. I used to do this by an actual mathematical formula, but then I found this web site (there are other BMR calculators online, but this one is my fav because it has other numbers you need on there, too): http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm Simply enter in your information and then select "Basal Metabolic Rate" (that's what BMR stands for, by the way) in the drop-down menu. BMR is approximately the number of calories that you would burn if you were to just lie around all day. This is a number you do NOT want to go under very often.
Next, choose the drop-down option in the box that has the amount of days/intensity you exercise. The numbers that come up below will give you maintenance, weight loss, and extreme weight loss. Here's one place where I have a beef with this site: The "extreme weight loss" number is almost always less than your BMR. Forget that! For max weight loss, simply bring your caloric intake down to your BMR number. The biggest..... no.... scratch that.... The SOLE cause I've seen of stalled weight loss in a reduced-calorie diet is people eating less than their BMR. When you eat too little, your body slows down it's metabolism in an act of self-preservation in case you should suddenly become comatose. If you raise it to just above your BMR you will actually burn more calories than the added number you are consuming. People have a hard time believing me on this one, until they actually start DOING it. Then they are simply amazed!
The next thing you want to do to maximize your weight loss AND preserve muscle is be careful to get enough protein. I've found a fairly safe and effective ratio for someone is a split of about 40% of calories from each protein and carbs and 20% from fats, most of which you want to be healthy fats. This is pretty easy to figure out if you remember the following things:
- Both Protein and Carbs have 4 calories per gram
- Fat has 9 calories per gram.
(By the way, I cover this information in my blog "Carbs, Fat, Protein" here: http://itallmakesadifference.blogspot.com/2010/03/carbs-fat-and-protein.html)
So, let's say your BMR is 1450 calories and you decide that, to be safe, you want to come in at around 1500 calories a day. (Trust me, the extra 50 calories won't matter to a hill of beans in the big picture of weight loss, and since everyone is an individual and the BMR calculator is approximate I always advise to raise the amount slightly just to make sure you are getting enough.)
All you have to do is multiply 1500 by .4 to know how much 40% is of your calories- in this case it is 600. Divide this by 4 (the amount of calories in a gram of both carbs and protein), and you come up with 150. So on a 1500 calorie diet, you want to get about 150 grams of each carbs and protein.
The remaining calories, then, will of course come from fat. (Or you can multiply 1500 by .2 for 20%, but I find it's easier to just work with the remaining calories.) At any rate, by either method the answer for a 1500 calorie diet is 300 calories from fat. Simply divide 300 by 9 (the amount of calories in a gram of fat), and you get the grams of fat you want to shoot for in a day. In this case, it's 33.33. For simplicity's sake, lets round this up to 35. (Yeah, I know that's about 15 more calories a day, but it's no big deal!)
So we have determined that someone on a 1500 calorie diet is going to aim to get in a day:
- 150g protein
- 150g carbs
- 35g fat
Try as much as possible to get an even amount of carbs and protein within each meal, and try to make as much of your fats as possible from healthy/natural sources (the fats in your meats, olive & canola oils, avocados, nuts, etc.). This will, of course, require tracking your foods. There is a pretty good free on-line tracker on sparkpeople.com that breaks down the macro nutrients (protein, carbs, fat). You have to make an account to use it, but I've found it invaluable.
It's an interesting way to eat that requires some adjustment. You will find that things like french fries will very quickly throw your numbers way out of whack. You will start to determine if eating something like chocolate cake is worth it to you to feel bloated and see a rise on the scale the next day (it's the carbs, and they'll burn off quick enough once you go back to your exercise and the 40/40/20 way of eating- I cover this in my blog here: http://itallmakesadifference.blogspot.com/2010/05/unexplained-gain-is-nothing-to-sweat.html). You won't look at food the same after eating like this for a while, and in my opinion that's a good thing.
I'll be honest: Most people have an easier time raising their calories than they do raising their protein and lowering their fat. Why? Because it requires truly changing the way they eat, and folks love their carbs. But if you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep looking like you've been looking.
It's your body. It's your choice. But now at least you have the tools to make a difference.
The very first thing you want to do is be honest with yourself about what you are eating. Are you slipping extra food in there you don't acknowledge? Pretending that cookies are 25 calories a piece? Drinking sugary drinks with the theory that since they slide down so quick the calories don't count? If this is the case get real with yourself, then read.
The next thing you want to do is determine your BMR. I used to do this by an actual mathematical formula, but then I found this web site (there are other BMR calculators online, but this one is my fav because it has other numbers you need on there, too): http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm Simply enter in your information and then select "Basal Metabolic Rate" (that's what BMR stands for, by the way) in the drop-down menu. BMR is approximately the number of calories that you would burn if you were to just lie around all day. This is a number you do NOT want to go under very often.
Next, choose the drop-down option in the box that has the amount of days/intensity you exercise. The numbers that come up below will give you maintenance, weight loss, and extreme weight loss. Here's one place where I have a beef with this site: The "extreme weight loss" number is almost always less than your BMR. Forget that! For max weight loss, simply bring your caloric intake down to your BMR number. The biggest..... no.... scratch that.... The SOLE cause I've seen of stalled weight loss in a reduced-calorie diet is people eating less than their BMR. When you eat too little, your body slows down it's metabolism in an act of self-preservation in case you should suddenly become comatose. If you raise it to just above your BMR you will actually burn more calories than the added number you are consuming. People have a hard time believing me on this one, until they actually start DOING it. Then they are simply amazed!
The next thing you want to do to maximize your weight loss AND preserve muscle is be careful to get enough protein. I've found a fairly safe and effective ratio for someone is a split of about 40% of calories from each protein and carbs and 20% from fats, most of which you want to be healthy fats. This is pretty easy to figure out if you remember the following things:
- Both Protein and Carbs have 4 calories per gram
- Fat has 9 calories per gram.
(By the way, I cover this information in my blog "Carbs, Fat, Protein" here: http://itallmakesadifference.blogspot.com/2010/03/carbs-fat-and-protein.html)
So, let's say your BMR is 1450 calories and you decide that, to be safe, you want to come in at around 1500 calories a day. (Trust me, the extra 50 calories won't matter to a hill of beans in the big picture of weight loss, and since everyone is an individual and the BMR calculator is approximate I always advise to raise the amount slightly just to make sure you are getting enough.)
All you have to do is multiply 1500 by .4 to know how much 40% is of your calories- in this case it is 600. Divide this by 4 (the amount of calories in a gram of both carbs and protein), and you come up with 150. So on a 1500 calorie diet, you want to get about 150 grams of each carbs and protein.
The remaining calories, then, will of course come from fat. (Or you can multiply 1500 by .2 for 20%, but I find it's easier to just work with the remaining calories.) At any rate, by either method the answer for a 1500 calorie diet is 300 calories from fat. Simply divide 300 by 9 (the amount of calories in a gram of fat), and you get the grams of fat you want to shoot for in a day. In this case, it's 33.33. For simplicity's sake, lets round this up to 35. (Yeah, I know that's about 15 more calories a day, but it's no big deal!)
So we have determined that someone on a 1500 calorie diet is going to aim to get in a day:
- 150g protein
- 150g carbs
- 35g fat
Try as much as possible to get an even amount of carbs and protein within each meal, and try to make as much of your fats as possible from healthy/natural sources (the fats in your meats, olive & canola oils, avocados, nuts, etc.). This will, of course, require tracking your foods. There is a pretty good free on-line tracker on sparkpeople.com that breaks down the macro nutrients (protein, carbs, fat). You have to make an account to use it, but I've found it invaluable.
It's an interesting way to eat that requires some adjustment. You will find that things like french fries will very quickly throw your numbers way out of whack. You will start to determine if eating something like chocolate cake is worth it to you to feel bloated and see a rise on the scale the next day (it's the carbs, and they'll burn off quick enough once you go back to your exercise and the 40/40/20 way of eating- I cover this in my blog here: http://itallmakesadifference.blogspot.com/2010/05/unexplained-gain-is-nothing-to-sweat.html). You won't look at food the same after eating like this for a while, and in my opinion that's a good thing.
I'll be honest: Most people have an easier time raising their calories than they do raising their protein and lowering their fat. Why? Because it requires truly changing the way they eat, and folks love their carbs. But if you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep looking like you've been looking.
It's your body. It's your choice. But now at least you have the tools to make a difference.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Here I am..... AGAIN!
Okay, I have a big confession: As of this morning I am at 160.4 pounds. This is about 3 pounds over where I was allowing myself to be for the purpose of muscle gain, 8 pounds over the top of where I would like to "normally" be, and 12 pounds over where I would truly like to hold my weight on a permanant basis.
There is a bit of a history to this: I started German Volume Training (you can read about it here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis13.htm ) almost 6 weeks ago in an effort to gain some muscle in my legs, chest, and delts. I was only going to do this for 6 weeks, so this is the last week. At any rate, bodies tend to gain muscle better when they are carrying a little extra weight, so I made the choice to allow myself to hover around 157. My plan was, and still is, to get through the training, then take a week off and start working on losing the weight in fairly short order. I had it worked out so that I could still weigh at Weight Watchers once a month, but had time to get down to my goal weight before I had to do my October weigh-in. Or so I thought. The thing is, I gained 3 pounds more than I had intended, and I'm having a real issue with getting it off. 3 pounds may not sound like a lot, but when you add it to the original planned gain, I'm getting off into some dangerous (for me) territory, here.
I know another part of the reason I am at this weight is because of PMS bloat (Sorry to any guys reading this), but the truth is that this isn't a good enough excuse, because my "normal" weight should be low enough to give wiggle room for this.
The fact is that the REAL reason I am up higher is that because I have let myself have a little too much of this here and that there, and it's adding up. And I've been eating more carbs lately, which really holds water and makes me look a lot "fluffier".
And I love baking! I've started doing that again. Of course, I always want to eat what I bake.....
It also hasn't helped that I have been struggling with finding a goal right now. I made the decision not to do figure competition, which I blogged about last. So I lost that goal.
Then I thought I'd found a photographer to do fitness photos on my 44th birthday, but he started showing signs of not being very reliable, and was going to charge me a pretty penny. (As a friend of mine said "That's a lot of cheese for 2 hours of time in front of the camera!") I felt uneasy about using him for my photos.
So I've been a bit adrift, not feeling anything looming over me as far as a goal.
Regardless of the excuse (and these are all excuses), the fact is I am simply too heavy right now. It not only shows on the scale, but also in the mirror.
So I'm back to the old grindstone of being in weight-loss mode.
I guess for now, weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers will have to be motivation enough. And next week I WILL BE weighing in, regardless of whether I have to pay dues for being over my goal or not. With WW the highest I can be is 157 (dressed, or course). So unless I lose about 5 1/2 pounds in the next 5 days, I'll be shelling out $12 in dues next Tuesday.
Yay.
Additionally, as much as I would like to work with a nutritionist again, budget won't allow it, so I'm on my own. It's a LOT harder to self-diagnose than it is to help others, I am finding. But I'm giving it a shot......
Here's my game plan:
- Keep up my lifting and cardio. Honestly, it'd be hard to do much better in this department than I already am. Lack of exercise is NOT why I am where I am. Diet is.
- I'm going to clean up my food choices. Refined carbs are going to all but leave my diet.
- I'm back to a minimum of a gallon of water a day. Water. Not unsweetened tea w/ Splenda. Water.
- I will continue to log my food by writing it down in my WW Journal.
- I will go back to weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers, and will continue to do this every week for eternity, as well as continue to stay for the meetings.
- Daily weigh-ins at home until I am down to where I want to be, and I will daily change my weight on the tracker here on Spark to reflect that number.
So here I am, a little back slidden, but not defeated.
Onward and up......er....... DOWNward!!!!!!!!
There is a bit of a history to this: I started German Volume Training (you can read about it here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis13.htm ) almost 6 weeks ago in an effort to gain some muscle in my legs, chest, and delts. I was only going to do this for 6 weeks, so this is the last week. At any rate, bodies tend to gain muscle better when they are carrying a little extra weight, so I made the choice to allow myself to hover around 157. My plan was, and still is, to get through the training, then take a week off and start working on losing the weight in fairly short order. I had it worked out so that I could still weigh at Weight Watchers once a month, but had time to get down to my goal weight before I had to do my October weigh-in. Or so I thought. The thing is, I gained 3 pounds more than I had intended, and I'm having a real issue with getting it off. 3 pounds may not sound like a lot, but when you add it to the original planned gain, I'm getting off into some dangerous (for me) territory, here.
I know another part of the reason I am at this weight is because of PMS bloat (Sorry to any guys reading this), but the truth is that this isn't a good enough excuse, because my "normal" weight should be low enough to give wiggle room for this.
The fact is that the REAL reason I am up higher is that because I have let myself have a little too much of this here and that there, and it's adding up. And I've been eating more carbs lately, which really holds water and makes me look a lot "fluffier".
And I love baking! I've started doing that again. Of course, I always want to eat what I bake.....
It also hasn't helped that I have been struggling with finding a goal right now. I made the decision not to do figure competition, which I blogged about last. So I lost that goal.
Then I thought I'd found a photographer to do fitness photos on my 44th birthday, but he started showing signs of not being very reliable, and was going to charge me a pretty penny. (As a friend of mine said "That's a lot of cheese for 2 hours of time in front of the camera!") I felt uneasy about using him for my photos.
So I've been a bit adrift, not feeling anything looming over me as far as a goal.
Regardless of the excuse (and these are all excuses), the fact is I am simply too heavy right now. It not only shows on the scale, but also in the mirror.
So I'm back to the old grindstone of being in weight-loss mode.
I guess for now, weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers will have to be motivation enough. And next week I WILL BE weighing in, regardless of whether I have to pay dues for being over my goal or not. With WW the highest I can be is 157 (dressed, or course). So unless I lose about 5 1/2 pounds in the next 5 days, I'll be shelling out $12 in dues next Tuesday.
Yay.
Additionally, as much as I would like to work with a nutritionist again, budget won't allow it, so I'm on my own. It's a LOT harder to self-diagnose than it is to help others, I am finding. But I'm giving it a shot......
Here's my game plan:
- Keep up my lifting and cardio. Honestly, it'd be hard to do much better in this department than I already am. Lack of exercise is NOT why I am where I am. Diet is.
- I'm going to clean up my food choices. Refined carbs are going to all but leave my diet.
- I'm back to a minimum of a gallon of water a day. Water. Not unsweetened tea w/ Splenda. Water.
- I will continue to log my food by writing it down in my WW Journal.
- I will go back to weekly weigh-ins with Weight Watchers, and will continue to do this every week for eternity, as well as continue to stay for the meetings.
- Daily weigh-ins at home until I am down to where I want to be, and I will daily change my weight on the tracker here on Spark to reflect that number.
So here I am, a little back slidden, but not defeated.
Onward and up......er....... DOWNward!!!!!!!!
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