[sparrow1]

Hi - Does anyone have the same problem as I do?

I have 30 pounds to lose. I have tried every diet under the sun - most recently, Atkins, Weight Watchers and LA Weight loss. In every case, I lose about 6 pounds in the first 3 weeks and then nothing afterwards, for months and months. During the same time period, my friends have lost between 20 and 40 pounds doing the same diets. After about 6 months, I become demotivated and go off the plan, gaining back everything in about 3 weeks! It is SO frustrating. If any of you have some bright suggestions for keeping motivated I would love to hear them.

BTW I exercise fairly vigorously, for 30+ minutes a day and do a little resistance training too. As you will see from my sig I am on a number of meds that certainly contribute to the problem.

At the moment I am low-carbing, drinking my water, and diarizing everything. But it is early days, and I am concerned about the long term when pounds won't shift. If any of you have some bright suggestions for keeping motivated I would love to hear them.

Thanks.

[camjen1]

Have you ever thought to increase your calorie intake when you feel that you are plateauing (sp) and then decrease it again after a week or two?

I think the body adjusts to the amount of calories you eat by not burning as much. If you increase calories your body adjusts again and this way you can kind of trick your body to burning more calories again.

How many calories are you taking each day if you don't mind sharing?

[sparrow1]

Originally Posted by camjen1

Have you ever thought to increase your calorie intake when you feel that you are plateauing (sp) and then decrease it again after a week or two?

I think the body adjusts to the amount of calories you eat by not burning as much. If you increase calories your body adjusts again and this way you can kind of trick your body to burning more calories again.

How many calories are you taking each day if you don't mind sharing?

Yes Camjen1 - I have tried increasing calories, decreasing them etc. I am 5', weigh 155 pounds, aged 64 and active, so the calorie calculator tells me that I should be on 1370 for fat loss.

Thanks for your suggestion though and when I get to that plateau again, I will try it again. (I must be addicted to hitting my ahead against a brick wall )

[Who?]

At the risk of calling down a firestorm, if you are eating 1370 and not losing weight, 1370 is too much. Try 1200 for a couple of weeks. Shifting calories around, eating more of this, less of that but keeping total intake constant is futile, in general. Eat less to lose weight.

My personal feeling is that it is an equilibrium process. Increase intake, weight increases to a new equilibrium, decrease intake, it decreases similarly. All else seems to be nonsense at best.

[owlyn]

There is only one diet that is guaranteed to work for everyone- the ELEM diet: Eat Less Exercise More.

If you are not losing weight, then you are either eating too much, not exercising enough, or both. If you can, up the daily exercise to at least 40 minutes. I've discussed this elsewhere, but the idea is that during the first 20 minutes of exercise, your body starts releasing glucose from the liver, so the first 20 minutes of exercise will likely cause a weight gain. The next 10 minutes tends to even things out. So, at the 30 minute point, you are breaking even. After that, you start to lose weight. 40 minutes isn't bad, more is better. It could just be walking.

Also, as with calories, I think the body also gets used to a certain amount of exercise. So, after a spell, the same amount of exercise doesn't produce results. At least that happens with me. I either up my exercise time (in nice weather, as I will walk outside instead of on the threadmill), or take a break for a few days (during treadmill season), and watch what I eat a little more closely.

[sweetcheeks]

ok so does this calorie thing your using tell you to maintain your weight at 1870? then its deducting 500 calories for fat loss??

maybe its because your not fat, your muscle and your excercise is just helping to keep you toned??

thats what ive hear is that if you excercise regularly, you may lose the fat but gain muscle??

its also harder to lose weight when your not that big to begin with.

for instance, i weight 294, thus its easier for me to lose 144 lbs than it is for a 155 lb person to lose 10.... just my experience


but as a suggestion(which you may have already done) get the calorie limit of what it takes to maintain your weight, then deduct 500 calories (this is what i do and its still working 6 months later)

also its not healthy to lose more than a 1 to 2 lbs a week, so if you see 1 lb loss, thats great dont beat yourself up over not losing 5
good luck

[sparrow1]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions about ways to lose weight. Needless to say, having been on so many supervised programs, I have tried them all. In th past I used to excercise for about 1 hour in the gym 4 days a week. So the only thing I haven't done is spend more than 1 hour exercising. So I will work my way up to that even though I absolutely loathe it. My new Gazelle is helping make it a more bearable experience.

But what I really need are suggestions on how to keep motivated when I reach that long plateau in a few weeks.

Thanks again - I appreciate your replies.

[barbarac]

I don't care what anyone says about pushing away from the table, or lowering you calorie intake. Yes that would help, but I also have a great deal of trouble with weight since on insulin and in particular the pump. This is the 2nd time on a pump and I had the same trouble last time. I can't cut back a whole lot and still have a healthy diet. I am watching what I eat and steadily gaining--not a slow gain either.