Am I Doing Too Much?

K

kjones6670

New member
I have been dieting since Christmas religiously and have only lost 11 pounds. I currently weigh 12.10 and am 5ft 4 so am quite over weight. I have been running on a treadmill for 45 minutes 6 days a week and eating around 1500 calories.

I have noticed that my eyesight has started to go funny - am having trouble focusing. I noticed this before when I was dieting do you think it could be related?

I am concerned that I might be doing too much exercise - can anyone give me some advice?

Thanks
 
Hi. I've removed your duplicate post. Please don't cross post. It's enough to ask your question in one location and it keeps all the answers in one place. Thanks. :)

As far as your question, I'm assuming your weight is in stone? At 12st (168 lbs) you're not really all that overweight. Moderately so - but not morbidly obese. 1500 calories should be a reasonable amount of food. Of course it depends on WHAT you're eating as well. Nutrition is important and eating 1500 cals of junk food could have a negative effect.

That said, if you're having vision problems, I'd strongly suggest going to visit your doctor. That's something that we really aren't qualified to diagnose here.
 
if you didnt have a healthy diet to begin with it is very easy to become malnourished when you cut back on calories. most people already dont get enough nutrition even when they eat a lot so when they cut back but dont change what they eat they can get problems so make sure you are eating healthy including healthy fats.

the amount you are exersizing sounds good to me. people have done more then that and still benifitted so it shouldnt hurt you unless there is something else wrong.

and like said above see a doctor. take care
 
Are you getting enough water and sleep? I think that would be a factor too. I don't think you are exercising too much though.
 
Yes, please go see an ophthalmologist immediately. There are many serious health problems that can effect your vision, including diabetes and your change in diet might be related. Do not hesitate. Your health and eyesight are to important to gamble on. Better safe than sorry.

I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I work in an ophthalmologist office, which is why I felt the need to stress what others have all ready suggested.
Take care of yourself and I hope it is nothing serious.
 
I'd like to throw back the question to you: do you think your doing too much?

We all have different lifestyles, different comfort thresholds, different limits, what feels fine for one person may not feel fine for another.

Exercise should be do-able, should not be something you dread, fear or loath, if it is you need to rethink and find another way to get the exercise you need without the same degree of fear/hate/loathing that you'd otherwise have.

I think variation, communication with others and seeing results are key motivation components, if your not getting enough fromn what you do you start to question it, start to doubt it, make sure your getting what you need from your exercise
If your worried your doing too much as a result of the reactions your getting, do def. get these checked out, if what your doing does not feel too much, you enjoy what you do and don't want to change, make sure you speak to your doctor about this, it could be they have some ideas on how to change things (assuming it is your exercise) so that you can carry on with what you do, it could be as simple as taking an additional rest day or even a nutrient you are low in. Hope you get somewhere with it all.
 
It doesn't seem like too much to me, strictly speaking from an exercise point of view. I started taking a multivitamin when I lowered my calorie intake to help out. As well I ended up taking calcium and magnesium supplements.

However vision problems could mean something serious so take the others advice on that. Do not delay.
 
Post an example of your daily diet. I would be interested in looking at what exactly you are eating in that 1500 cals. It certainly isn't terribly low, but if it is not a decent one, that could contribute to your lack of weight loss.

DEFINITELY see a Dr. about the problem, unless you are only referring to getting dizzy from all the running with a low calorie diet, but I would say to go ahead and see the Dr. anyway. You do not want to take a chance with your health.

Are you running 45 minutes on the treadmill first thing in the morning before eating anything?

Really need more information here.
 
Thank you for all of your replies. I am still doing what I was doing before. My eyes have got a bit better but am still not really losing any weight. An example of my daily food intake is:

Breakfast: Porridge with skimmed milk and a banana
Snack: 3 x Go Ahead Biscuits
Dinner: Soup or Rivita with cottage cheese
Tea: Weight Watchers meal and loads of veg or fish, potatoes and veg
Snack: Fruit and Muller Light yoghurt

I vary exercise times, sometimes in the morning before I eat and sometimes when I get home from work before tea.

I would still appreciate any advice that anyone can give me.

Thank you
 
I would err on the side of caution with health issues and have a checkup but that's up to you.

Outside of that, if you are not already doing it, get a food scale and carefully weigh and track what you eat and drink for a week or so and make sure you're not off on your calories. It's VERY easy to be eating more calories than you think, even of good foods. If you're taking in too many calories, you'll just spin your wheels to the point that you think "why bother anymore?"

If you're exercising and being strict with your diet and still not losing, something is going on. "Estimating" is often the culprit.
 
I'm estimating, but I see more than 1500 cals there:

Breakfast: Porridge with skimmed milk and a banana (~350 cals)
Snack: 3 x Go Ahead Biscuits (175 cals)
Dinner: Soup or Rivita with cottage cheese (no clue - "soup" could be anything from ~150 cals to over 700 cals ... but cottage cheese is about 150 cals a serving, so estimate ~500 cals)
Tea: Weight Watchers meal and loads of veg or fish, potatoes and veg (~500 cals)
Snack: Fruit and Muller Light yoghurt (~250 cals)

So just estimating, I'd say that's around 1775 cals. That's assuming you're sticking strictly with single servings and not accidentally eating more than a serving. That's where weighing is crucial. (Watch this video and you'll see the difference between eyeballing, weighing, and measuring: )
 
I still have to stress that should see a doctor, even if it's just your normal physician. Any sign of vision change could be a serious problem, even if you feel it's getting a "bit better". Something is going on with your body. Hopefully you just need glasses, which is still a pretty good reason to go see an eye doctor! LoL
 
I did go and see a doctor and she said to eat more and exercise less!! Never thought I would hear a doctor say that! Eyes are a lot better still not exactly right - I do wear glasses for looking at the computer screen. I will persevere and see how I get on. Have now lost a stone in 9 weeks so I suppose thats not too bad. Am going to start taking some vitamins in case I am not getting enough.

As for eating too many calories I personally dont agree with the estimation. I am also burning off at least 500 calories a day so dont think I am consuming too many calories in fact someone told me I was not consuming enough!
 
As for eating too many calories I personally dont agree with the estimation.
Click to expand...
You personally don't agree with it? Or you've weighed/measured/logged and KNOW FOR A FACT how many calories you're eating?

I'm sorry, but unless you've actually taken steps to know how much you're eating, then you just don't know. This isn't an "opinion" type of thing - the numbers are the numbers.

Now how many of those numbers you should eat is variable, but saying "I'm pretty sure I'm eating X amount of calories" is useless.
 
Well I weigh my porridge in the morning and with the banana its 250 calories.
3 x Go Ahead biscuits = 150
Soup = 150 calories or 4 x crisp breads and cottage cheese 300 calories
WW meals are normally about 400 calories plus veg
Muller light yoghurt 50 calories and one piece of fruit

I have rounded it up to around 1500 to take into account for the veg, gravy and a couple of cups of coffee (made with sweetener not sugar)
 
Just curious, how are you arriving at the 500 cal number, the treadmill? Or do you use a heart monitor?
 
kjones6670 said:
3 x Go Ahead biscuits = 150
Click to expand...
I'm not trying to harp on anything here ... but ...

The GoAhead website says that the biscuits are 58 cals each. 3x58 is 174. That's 25 cals more than you list. I realize that doesn't sound like much, but if you're making similar judgments on everything you list, then it's very possible that you're eating 200, 300, or more calories per day than you think you are.

It's VERY easy to underestimate calories. I've done it myself many many many times.

The porridge and banana - I don't know what kind of porridge you're eating, but if it's oats, a single serving of oats is 150 cals, plus 110 for a banana = 260 cals. Again, not *much* more than your figure, but add that 10 to the 25 from the biscuits ... etc.

Then rounding up 100 or so cals to allow for gravy and veg - again, veg aren't much, maybe 25 or 50 cals, but you eat 3 servings of veg and don't count them and suddenly you're talking anywhere from 75-150 cals that you're not taking into account. And gravy? EXTREMELY calorie laden. A basic brown gravy has about 50 cals a serving due to the butter/oil and flour content.

Like I said, I'm not trying to harp - but if you're not losing weight, then you're most likely not eating 1500 cals a day.
 
kjones6670 said:
I have rounded it up to around 1500 to take into account for the veg, gravy and a couple of cups of coffee (made with sweetener not sugar)
Click to expand...

I just felt the need to point out that coffee with no cal sweetener in it shouldn't have any calories.
Obviously this isn't underestimating like the rest of your day might be, but it does bring a good point that using fitday or some other website to help track would probably be useful to you.
 
I understand what you are saying but I just keep getting contradicting advice from people. One minute I am eating too much, the next not enough. I have checked my porridge and it is 145 calories including the milk cause I weigh it out using the scoop they provide. You are right about the biscuits. I checked the veg and for 100g it was only 24 calories and I dont have 100g and I only have a spoon full of gravy but did not realise it was fattening so will be looking at a more healthy option.

In answer to your question, I use the treadmill to tell me how many calories I am burning. I admit this is not exact but I read on the internet that for 10 minutes running you should burn 100 calories and I usually run for 45 minutes and walk for 15 so I think 500 calories is about right.

Is a stone weight loss good for 9 weeks or should I be expecting to lose more?
 
kjones6670 said:
I have checked my porridge and it is 145 calories including the milk cause I weigh it out using the scoop they provide.
Click to expand...
If you are using a scoop, whether its an actual measuring cup or the one they provide you (which is probably worse because they want you to eat as much of your product as possible) , that is not "weighing" your food. That is measuring and not even close to the same.
You should watch this video to get an idea of what I'm talking about

(Since that video is a topic in a sticky I think it's okay to post here.)

Buying a good food scale was the best weight loss tool I ever invested in.
When I checked my ground flax seed scoop (provided) vs. weighing out the product, wasn't even close to the same in grams.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top