Fitness/weight rant and questions

[optimusmog]

Ok, I would never have thought I'd be saying this 10 years ago when my Crohn's meant I was skin and bones and looked like a walking corpse, but I can't lose weight and it's frankly infuriating. I'm not a big person, I'm just not where I want to be, at 5'5" and 144 pounds. Oh boo hoo, I know, what a great tragedy on a site where people are having real problems. But I bust my f@#king butt every day to take absurd care of what I eat, and exercise no matter how horrid I feel, and this just sucks, and I want to harness the hive mind of all you tough people to help me. Because I'm at the end of my rope.

I eat whatever I can tolerate along the healthy spectrum. Seriously. This isn't some "I don't know why I can't lose weight, I only eat 5000 calories of cookies once a week" bull. I use a ridiculously meticulous program on my phone that calculates my caloric intake and tells me stuff like "eat 5 grams of fiber for breakfast" or "include more protein tomorrow." I weigh my damn food on a digital scale to make sure I'm not overestimating portion size. I am a fish-etarian (I'm sure there's a better term) and I try to eat 30% of my calories in protein every day. I don't eat white sugar, or really any sugar that isn't, you know, a part of a piece of fruit. I eat, right now, about 1400 calories a day. Blah blah blah diet talk is boring. I eat like a boring person is the upshot here. I miss cheese is another way of putting it.

Meanwhile, I exercise 5 days a week. I run 3 days a week (4-9 miles of intervals because I have freaking asthma on top of all of this) and do 60 minute weight training circuits 2 days a week. On my off days I like to work in casual calisthenics because, you know, why not. A few times a month I meet with a boxing trainer for 90 minutes and we do padwork, footwork, and I hit the heavy bag. Some days I am about to gnaw off my own arm from hunger, especially when I've run a lot or done a great deal of weight training, or after boxing. When I snack, I eat boring crap like unsalted roasted almonds, and I stay within my 1400 calorie allotment. So please don't tell me "well sweetheart, it's just calories in, calories out" or I will literally reach through the internet and slap you and then steal whatever you're eating.

I have been doing this with a vengeance since I got out of grad school in March with a couple of breaks (when I missed 2-3 days at the gym in a row) when I was on the verge of hospitalization. The scale has not BUDGED. And don't tell me "well your clothes must fit better and blah blah," ********, they do not. The calorie tracking app on my phone has a place to enter measurements for tracking - waist, thighs, hips, biceps, neck, chest. The one thing that has changed since I started tracking my measurements in May is that my flipping biceps have gotten bigger. Oh, glorious. I'm as flabby as ever and now I have giant strongman arms. How feminine!

I spoke with my GI doc about my concerns and, if anyone in my shoes has been there you can predict this, she gave me some condescending **** about how she'd be worried if I did lose weight because it would mean I was REALLY sick because obviously shitting blood 4 times a day means I'm just fine (sorry, that was gross). Followed by "well it's just calories in vs. calories out." Let me tell you how dangerous it is to speak in a patronizing fashion to someone who has been boxing for 8 years, and apparently has GIANT ARMS now. The upshot is that I strongarmed (ha) her into checking my thyroid, and it's fine. So, I'm just a fat lard = moral of that story.

I'm sorry for the rant. What I am looking for is help or advice if you have any. Thank you and have a nice day.

 

[KayleighMeek]

I'm sorry you have been going through a horrible time. I have been in a similar position to you I have gone from being underweight to within the healthy weight range but not feeling comfortable and wanting to lose weight. I have really struggled and have never had to try do hard to lose weight I the past,
I competly understand how infuriating it can be. What meds are you on at the minute could that be making it harder for you to shift the weight?
For me I found counting calories didn't work for me at all I just could lose it I am now on a high protein low carb diet and I have lost some weight.. Finally but it is still tough. I measure myself with weight and inch loss as sometimes the inch loss can be greater than the weight loss. Sorry I havent been much help just wanted you to know you aren't alone in being a chronie trying to lose weight x

 

[Irene3]

Hi, with all your weight training and boxing, at 1400 calories of good food, so I'm guessing a fair bit of protein, it sounds like youv put on a lot of muscle in areas like your arms, but not shifting weight in others. Have you thought of targeting areas such as gut, butt with pilates? A long time ago, I read somewhere, that 10-20 min of pilates, is more effective in firming areas, then weight lifting, aerobics etc. I truly believe this. I once lost 5kg in one week (way under ate at 450cal per day), doing just pilates. There's also when you work out and eat to take into consideration. Sometimes the more you work out, the more your body desperatly clings to it's fat stores. They say eat within 2 hours of working out, but it's bull in my opinion. Max a half hour. But if you've just done a heap of weights, you'll pack on muscle, if you target your specific areas, until the repetition hurts, and eat straight away, your body burns fat. Im only about to start eating healthier, and want to do a bit of pilates, but if I just have 2-3 less sustagens a day, and have one right after I do housework for eg, my body burns fat. But I mean, right after, not an hour later. From 61.4, to 59.9, in 5 days, no excersize, just doing that alone. I don't want to lose too much, so I will do cardio and not just a heap of pilates, but I say if you try it that way, you will deff see results. Best wishes, post in a week or two after trying it. I'd be surprised if you havnt lost minimum a couple kg.

 

[Beach]

I wish I had your energy levels! Twice at the gym a week, plus a little bit of tennis is about all I can handle, and I sometimes wonder about that!

As for loosing weight, it is nice that there has been a number of articles of late questioning the old wisdoms of weight loss - exercise more and calories in/calories out. Seems calories count, but there is more to weight loss than just that.

I've been reading a number of people having success loosing weight by avoiding wheat and other grains. And as funny as this sounds, increasing your saturated fat intake might help with shedding pounds too.

You might find some helpful weight loss tips on the Swedish diet doctors sight, Dr. Eenfeldt's. Recall this bit about eating more butter and loosing weight.

"Butter, Obesity and Eenfeldt’s Law"

http://www.dietdoctor.com/butter-obesity-and-eenfeldts-law

& Dr. Davis's wheat belly sight has many testimonials about weight loss, along with additional tips.

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Optimus, I can relate, I've been through the same thing. My initial thought is, you actually might want to eat a few more calories and see if that helps any. With such a low intake of daily calories (1400 is pretty low particularly if you're exercising regularly), your body might be going into starvation mode where it holds onto all the calories and weight. Increasing your calorie intake might shake your body out of this mode. That seems to be what happened with me too. I hit remission and gained all my weight back and then some, and the weight I gained latched on to unflattering areas (particularly the tummy area, and also hips, thighs and booty). I started exercising regularly - no weight change although I do fit into my clothes a little bit better. So I started eating smaller amounts of healthier food and still no weight change! So then I decided, screw it, I'm still going to exercise but will eat what I want, how much I want, when I want. And oddly enough, that's when the weight slowly started budging. I lost one lb per week for the following 3 weeks. The rate of weight lost has slowed since then, but I've gone from about 140 lbs to 135 over the past couple months.

I don't know exactly why that worked, but I suspect it has something to do with my illness/ability to digest means I need slightly more calories than the average person (even though I'm in remission, the disease has likely done damage or scar tissue or what have you that affects my ability to digest food even when I feel okay). My metabolism is probably forever screwed up from being ill & being on steroids. And even though I'm in remission, my blood work shows that I'm still just above the threshhold for being malnourished, so eating more makes sense there too so that I don't dip below that threshhold. Plus, anyone who exercises regularly, illness or not, needs more calories to feed the muscles and recover faster and all that. So, very long story short, try increasing your calorie intake and see if that makes a difference! It did for me.

And as far as seeing your arm muscles but not seeing them anywhere else? That describes me pretty well too. My arms & back are looking pretty toned, but my stomach still has flab covering my muscles. I've been working a lot on my abs, so I know I have a nice 6 pack underneath the flab! Ha ha. If you're able to lose the weight, I'm sure you'll see muscles appearing in other areas. Let me know if you figure that part out because I'm still working on that one myself!

 

[scoutfinch]

First, I thoroughly enjoyed your acerbically funny post. Second, the term you might be looking for is "pescatarian". Third, I think Cat-a-Tonic's theory about a too-low calorie intake may be right. Have you thought about consulting with a nutritionist?

 

[kiny]

When you constantly stay on a set amount of low calories, your body lowers metabolism and it starts saving food, it's a primal mechanic, it thinks you're going to starve, which means it will hold on to anything you eat. That's why they invented the zig zag diet, look it up, it changes calories from day to day to prevent starvation mode.