Making myself crazy, need fresh eyes.

[doktorj]

Hi all!

I am posting after digging for a while thru the board and stickies. I am 35 and looking to loose about 50lbs. I am 5'6" and currently between 198 and 208 depending on the day.(i know the range is baffling to me too!) I have lost about 12lbs in the past 4-5 months. I am eating anywhere from 1700-2300 calories a day and I am an organic and whole foods girl. I do not consume wheat or dairy more than once or twice a week because they seem to both stall any attempts I make at weight loss over the years. I also seem to feel more energy and less foggy headed without them. I am a chiro so I have a lot of background in the nutrition and the biochem/physiology stuff but the research changes so much I try to keep it simple. I just stick to basic idea of getting the right fuels, in proper ratios and amounts as far as eating goes, anyway. I think I am doing okay there...but I am not sure of anything anymore.

Just looking for some input to stop feeling so crazy and frustrated with my efforts at reaching my optimum level of looking and feeling good.

I have been gradually increasing my exercise from 2-3 intense yoga classes a week to currently doing 1.5 hour canyon hikes 3-4 times a week, yoga and pilates 3-4 times a week, and then resistance training using different methods without a gym and minimum access to weights, i.e. push-ups, dips, pull ups, dumbbell exercises and medicine ball stuff, etc.

I also do some form of mild yoga at least 20 minutes a day to stay loose between patients since I am working hunched over them all day. I lug and tug on people all day and circle the approx. 10,000 sq. ft office like a shark since I figure a desk would entice me to sit around and be lazy.

Anyhow, I am plum exhausted lately and cannot sleep at all. I lay in bed and ache all over. I have been at this for about 5 months and this fatigue and ongoing achiness is really making me feel despondent. I have not seen the weight loss I would like by any means and I feel like I am losing ground as far as how I felt even 6 weeks ago in my ability to finish my workouts or give it my all during them. Now I seem to have stalled or gone up in my weight and I have increased in inches a bit in certain areas. Everything seems to be backsliding to me and I am getting panicky about it.

I have never exercised to this extent before, but I have always stayed active at work and around the house. I really find it hard to believe that the extra exercise I have added, which is relatively normal for a healthy person my age, could be making me so tired. I have been checked over and I am freakishly healthy as far as blood tests and vitals go. The doc asked over the phone if I was a runner because my HDL was so good. I said he must have forgotten what I look like!

Anyhow. Is it possible I am overtraining? I am verrry irritable and moody lately. I have been sick more often, too. But I just got married and moved to LA so it could be transitioning, as well. I know this was a long post and rambling but I have been getting so little sleep lately that I barely make sense. I am just anxious to figure out where I am going wrong so I can back on track. This is the first time I have really been committed to getting better physically and doing so by putting me first which I finally realized was the key. My new husband and new location both help tremendously with me pursuing what I want first, and now that I have wised up, I don't want to loose my enthusiam or my momentum.

Thanks for any input or advice! Hope to become more coherent soon...

J

 

[allyphoe]

between 198 and 208 depending on the day.(i know the range is baffling to me too!)

Not sure what you're baffled by. 2.5% of body weight up or down (so 5% from the low point to the high point) isn't an unusual amount of random water weight fluctuation, even if you're maintaining. If you're losing at ~.75 pounds a week, and you've got a 10-pound range over a month, 3 pounds of that range is weight loss, so doesn't count.

I am eating anywhere from 1700-2300 calories a day

The top end of that range may well be at (or even above) maintenance for you. Based on your loss over the last few months, you've got about a 375-calorie-per-day deficit on average.

I personally am a fan of weight loss via diet, rather than exercise, because in my experience, exercise does not burn nearly as many calories as I wish it did. If you wanted to fiddle with your calories, maybe consider shaving 100 off the top end of the range?

I have no way of knowing what your situation is, but if it were me posting exactly what you did, I could expect things to turn around within a week or so. At least, when I've posted similar "help, I'm miserable and getting nowhere" posts, things have invariably turned around within a week or so. Hang in there. If you feel that cutting back on your exercise (which sounds like a lot to me, but like I said, I hate exercise) would make life easier, then cut back. You can always add it back more slowly later.

 

[lynn40]

I think you are overtraining. I'd cut down on the exercise. Exercise should make you feel refreshed, give you more energy rather than less.

Also, I agree with Allyphoe about dieting being the more important part of the weight loss equation than exercise. (I believe exercise is important for maintenance, but I think that diet is more important for losing). Why don't you try 1800 per day? Even better yet, try zig-zagging your calories, i.e., instead of eating 1800 per day, eat 12,600 calories per week (1800 x 7), varying the daily calories. I've heard that doing that helps to bust a plateau.

Good luck to you!

 

[doktorj]

Thanks for the helpful ideas, y'all!

It makes sense about the calories. I was just too frustrated over the last few days to have reasoned that out, even though I should know better. I really like the zig-zag idea with a weekly limit in mind. Never thought of it in that way, before.

Also, I read a bit more on overtraining, and it does seem that I may have slipped into a mildly overtrained state. I took two days off from everything and only did some upper body resistance work on the third day. I slept a bit more than usual too. I feel a bit better already.

I just need to arrange my workout schedule more carefully so I am not getting overworked in similar areas without recovery. For example, I have had several times where I have decided to go to drop in for an intense group class, and it just happens to be a day when the instructor wants to focus on tons of lunges, plies, and other glute and leg work and lucky me just did 90 min. of canyon hiking and climbing the night before. I need to make sure I alternate those types of things a little better, instead of just going on the spur of the moment.

I got to this point because I wanted to build good workout habits and fitness hygeine. I have been practicing yoga weekly in some form for about 10 years, but I really wanted to make being active nearly every day an intuitive part of my life. So I decided to made a point of hiking at least 3-4 times a week at the many canyons and trails here in the Hollywood Hills, plus I have a couple of standing yoga classes I attend each week and then when I hear about any kind of new fitness class or find a new studio, I just push aside any errands or plans for a couple hours and drop in to check it out. So the classes and hikes were adding up, and I was doing some resistance training at home also, to maintain muscle mass, especially upper body.

Anyhow, it looks like I need to honor my body's limits a bit and ease up on some of the exercise. At the same time, I think I will re-evaluate the way I have been tracking my intake and also reign the amounts in a little. I am feeling better just having some clarity on all of this. I may start keeping a log of my progress here as well. Thanks again for the words of wisdom and encouragement.

Namaste,
J