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AliasKETT

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I'm 19, (female) 5'11 and weigh about 238 currently. My immediate goal was to lose another 20 and the final goal is between 180 and 190. I lost about 50lbs already, I'm not really sure how because I wasn't trying at all. One day I weighed and the major decrease in my weight is what motivated me to go all the way with this. (I have wanted to for awhile but have had various issues.)

So, about a month ago I completely quit drinking anything BUT water. Which is saying a lot because I was the type of person to easily go through at least one, if not two 2 liters of soda a day. (Not even the caffeine free.)

I've never really been an over-eater, my weight had a few different factors. But I did cut down my calories as well just to make the change full circle.

Then about 3 weeks ago I started using a stationary bike for 30 minutes at least 3 times a week, sometimes 5 times a week.

Then two weeks ago I started using my dad and brothers Bowflex home system.. three times a week. (I've only missed one day thanks to a killer migraine.)



To my very, very frustrating point..

In the last month, since I've stopped drinking soda and have started the activities... my weight hasn't budged!!! Maybe just a couple ounces if anything.

Am I doing something wrong?!?!?!? This is so frustrating and it's honestly discouraging me quite a bit. Should I add something to my plan?? (I did decide to start walking daily.. since I have nothing but time lately.)
I'm also considering a 'body detox' system.

Any ways.. any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

I've read some of your stories and have seen quite a few of the before/after pictures and you guys are amazing!
 
It's hard to say what you're doing "wrong" (wrong being so subjective) without having more details.

What EXACTLY are you eating? Are you weighing what you eat? How are you determining how much to eat?

I think that's probably the most crucial part of the process. 2 liters of soda is a HUGE amount of sugar and calories and I can see how just cutting that out would make an enormous difference in your weight. But at this point it's possible (I'd say highly probable) that the rest of your diet needs to be adjusted in order for you to lose more weight.
 
I started counting calories. I try to stay at or under 400 calories per meal. Breakfast varies from just plain scrambled eggs to the carnation instant breakfast. Lunch, maybe a sandwich or a salad - if I even eat lunch at all. Dinner depends because I HATE cooking. Sometimes it's just as simple as a frozen dinner thing.

And there also are days, thanks to a medication that I'm taking, that I can't handle eating at all.


Any way.. any suggestions at all would be great... I'm all ears here.. and thank you in advance!
 
My first suggestion would be that you're not eating enough. 1200 calories is not anywhere near enough for someone of your height and weight, much less someone who is that size and working out in addition.

Whether you hate cooking or not, you need to find a way to prepare healthy meals that fuel your body. I understand that not everyone likes to cook. But you know .. not everyone likes to get up and go to work in the morning either, but we do it because we have to earn money to pay the bills. ;)

I suspect by eating so little food, you've slowed your metabolism to the point that you're not going to lose any weight right now.

The idea here is to eat as MUCH as you can of HEALTHY foods, while still losing weight. The more you reduce your calories, the more you slow your metabolism .... which means eventually you bottom out and simply aren't going to lose more weight until you start to physically starve.

At your weight, I'd START at around 2500 calories and see where that gets you. Begin to lower it from there if you find you're not losing weight. But give it 6-ish weeks to take effect and for your metabolism to recover from the damage you've done it by underfeeding yourself.
 
Wow. I had absolutely no idea that it would hurt my body.

Thank you so much for the information! :D I'm going to incorporate that change as soon as possible.
 
KaraCooks said:
At your weight, I'd START at around 2500 calories and see where that gets you. Begin to lower it from there if you find you're not losing weight. But give it 6-ish weeks to take effect and for your metabolism to recover from the damage you've done it by underfeeding yourself.
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While I normally agree with everything you say, I think your starting number is off. At her ideal weight while being 4 days at the gym active her it lists as maintaining at 2500 calories. Not losing. Even when plugging her current weight in I have under 2500 to lose.
I would personally start at around 2000-2100 calories per day and go from there. MORE importantly however is what exactly is your diet? When I hear "i'm eating healthy" 95% of the time they are not. Give me your typical daily consumption of food and that would go a long way imo.

Also, plateaus are VERY common. Anyone can lose weight in a month or 2 simply by making simple changes. It's after that is where the problems begin. Simply put, your body has adapted to the changes you've done. Which means you need to change your routine further. Meaning exercise more, or MORE INTENSELY. I would strongly advise the incorporation of weight training to your routine as once you get skilled with the basics of weight training, it's a much greater calorie burner per time spent than cardio is. Also start ramping up the cardio. Get your heart rate above 85% in bursts of sprints. This changing of training should help shock your body again.
 
While I normally agree with everything you say, I think your starting number is off. At her ideal weight while being 4 days at the gym active her it lists as maintaining at 2500 calories.
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At her ideal weight of 190, I get a slightly higher number - around 2800, but yeah, close. But at her current weight of 238, I get a maintenance of 3570 calories. 30% off of that is 2499.

I think at her current weight, it might be splitting hairs ... 2000 or 2500. I always like to start off higher and then work down, but even so, 2000 calories is still reasonable and far healthier at her current weight than 1200. :)

MORE importantly however is what exactly is your diet? When I hear "i'm eating healthy" 95% of the time they are not. Give me your typical daily consumption of food and that would go a long way imo.
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Totally and 100% agree with this. What you eat is as crucial as how much you eat, IMO.

Also, plateaus are VERY common. Anyone can lose weight in a month or 2 simply by making simple changes. It's after that is where the problems begin. Simply put, your body has adapted to the changes you've done. Which means you need to change your routine further. Meaning exercise more, or MORE INTENSELY. I would strongly advise the incorporation of weight training to your routine as once you get skilled with the basics of weight training, it's a much greater calorie burner per time spent than cardio is. Also start ramping up the cardio. Get your heart rate above 85% in bursts of sprints. This changing of training should help shock your body again.
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Also agree 100% with this. When I added weight training and HIIT to my routine, it kickstarted me out of a plateau. I have recently changed things up again by adding in the 5k training as a form of interval training and by switching up my weight plan ... and again I'm seeing results. I also raised my calories to accommodate the extra training for the 5k - and although that's counter intuitive, by eating more, I started losing again.

Our bodies are complex which makes the whole losing weight thing tricky sometimes.
 
If you're lazy and you don't like cooking dinner, there are a lot of healthy restaurant food.

I do a lot of cooking but lately, for the past few months, I've been eating out a lot. I'm very busy, so I'd rather not spend the little free time that I have in the kitchen.

For example, a typical dinner for me would be a regular turkey sub on whole wheat from Quizno's, with no cheese and no dressing. Quizno's has some excellent high quality meats so dressing isn't really necessary.

Combine that with a cup of turkey chili and you get a quite satisfactory meal that contains 580 calories, which is extremely good in my case, because it keeps me full for a while.

Alternatively, I can go to Nando's (a chicken restaurant) and get 2 skewers of chicken kabobs and a side of rice. Total calories in that meal: 623. If you don't have those restaurants in your city, I'm sure there are other very similar ones.

Occasionally I do get some Vietnamese style grilled chicken/beef and some steamed rice on the side. I don't know what the nutritional information for that is (since it's a family-run type business, not a chain), but I grossly overestimate the calorie content, just in case. The steamed rice probably comes to 180 calories, and I would put 400 calories for the chicken (which is probably excessive), and maybe 600-700 for the beef. Of course I could be wrong, but I tend to compensate for any calories that are unaccounted for.

This may seem like a long useless rant, but the point is that it is possible to eat healthy if you don't want to cook. Just be prepared to pay a lot and limit your options.

Good Luck!

I realize that eating deli meats for a majority of my meals may not be the best idea...I try to mix it up as much as I can, but sometimes laziness takes over :/
 
A problem I had last year when I was trying to lose weight was I dropped from 233 to 210 but couldnt get below that. It eventually upset me to the point I gave up. What I hadnt taken into consideration however, was that alot of the new excersize I was doing was developing muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. So in retrospect (because I remember how much more physically capable I felt after a month of weight training) it wasnt a matter of me not losing weight, I was losing fat, but building muscle. The scale ultimately doesnt account for things like that and I was viewing the total # as the end all be all of my success. Not a mistake I intend to make this year however :).
 
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