Okay, my turn to feel really discouraged
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Okay, my turn to feel really discouraged
| Thu, 03-25-2004 - 11:35am |
In the last two weeks I have lost NOTHING...and in fact my weight has crept up back to nearly where I started a month ago. I have been trying to ignore the scale, but I see no difference in measurements or how my clothing fits, etc. This has long been my struggle - inability to lose no matter how "good" I'm being. I have been eating very healthfully - checking labels etc - and keeping my calories around 1700 (calculated by me to be optimal for losing weight, and COFIRMED by my doctor!). I've been working out with weights on alternate days, and doing 30-60 minutes on the exercise bike the others. Note that this is MORE exercise than the usual suggestion for people who have been utterly sedentary. I thought that I'd be able to lose weigh sensibly now that my thyroid is under control - but I'm quickly becoming demoralized. So of course last night I ate a big bag of potato chips and cut my workout to 15 minutes *sigh*. Today I'm trying low-carb; even though I know from past experience that the loss is mainly water in the first week or two, I guess I'm hoping to "jolt" my body into waking up. I don't know what else to do - really, I'm ready to go ask about gastric by-pass surgery, but I'm pretty sure I'm not a candidate for it.

Since your dr. is helping you with the calories and amount of exercise i'd go back and see if it has to be altered. Good luck =)
VISIT BLAKES SITE
while it's targeted toward Atkins, it's a very interesting article. It may give some hope to those tempted to give up!!!
STALLS -- WHY THE SCALES CAN LIE
A biologist at Berkeley shared something very
revealing on the lower-carb BBS system about 4 years ago
that helps us all through the erratic weight
fluctuations you invariably encounter: Fat cells are
resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want
to give up their actual cell volume. Over a period of
weeks, maybe months of "proper dieting", each of your
fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of
the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat
cells themselves, stubborn little guys, replace that
lost fat with water to retain their size. That is,
instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of
fat in the cell, they stay the same size! Result - you
weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some
scale weight, even though you have actually lost some
serious fat.
The good news is that this water replacement is
temporary. It's a defensive measure to keep your body
from changing too rapidly. It allows the fat cell to
counter the rapid change in cell composition, allowing
for a slow, gradual reduction in cell size. The
problem is, most people are frustrated with their
apparent lack of success, assume they have lost
nothing, and stop dieting.
However, if you give those fat cells some time, like
4-6 months, and ignore the scale weight fluctuations,
your real weight/shape will slowly begin to show. The
moral of the story - be patient! Your body is changing
even if the number on the scale isn't.
> PATTERNS OF WEIGHT LOSS
> Common patterns of weight loss from tracking a lot of
> people who become assimilated into the lowcarb
> lifestyle (hehe...resistance is futile!) a pattern
> emerges.... the 2 week induction is pretty
> heady...weight lost just about every single day,
> enormous and unbelievable amounts of weight loss are
> reported. This is often followed by complaints that
> weight loss "stalls" or that the rate drops to only 1
> pound per week.
> Many people just don't know that fat-loss ...the
> actual goal when on a weight-reduction" diet, is
> rate-limited. In other words, the human body has
> factors that prevent more than a certain amount of
> fatty-acid release from storage...and even more
> factors that prevent those released fatty acids from
> being used up instead of stored back into the fat
> cells.
> A priority of the human body is survival. Anything
> that threatens its survival results in the cascade of
> events to maintain the previous status quo. Water
> fluctuations are one way the body does this. OK...so
> you done good on Atkins' during induction...lost 10
> pounds the first 2 weeks. Maybe 7 the first week and 3
> the second. But, whoa!Weeks 3 and 4 there is NO loss!
> And weeks 5 and 6 is only 1/2 pound each!
> So... what gives? Initially, the body jettisons the
> water attached to the glycogen stores that we
> diligently deplete to get into ketosis...this accounts
> for about 3-5 pounds of water. In addition, muscle
> stores of glycogen are not being replaced when
> used...which will account for the rest. All in
> all...MAYBE 1/2 pound of fat was metabolized during
> the first week... and MAYBE 1/2 pound of fat was
> metabolized the 2nd week. Of that 10 initial pounds,
> only 1 pound was fat and 9 pounds water... The body
> senses this lack and sirens start shrieking: Warning!
> Warning! Losing water... new thing...got to get back
> to the status quo! Brain tells body to produce and
> release that vasopressin antidiuretic hormone....more
> water is retained, and no weight loss noticed. Fat
> loss is still occuring, MAYBE even 2 pounds per week,
> because ketosis is firmly established and appetite
> supression is in effect...but water retention is
> hiding that continuing fat loss. The body is
> preventing dehydration with this mechanism, and that's
> a *good* thing.
> >From the perspective of the scale, it can be
> discouraging. Which is why the mantra: Water retention
> masks fat loss (repeated frequently to oneself ) is
> helpful. Water retention will mask ongoing fat-loss
> for as long as the body retains the water. We can
> combat this by drinking more water...but we aren't
> going to totally overcome this mechanism during the
> initial water-loss phase of the Atkins diet. By weeks
> 5 and 6, things start to get back in balance, and the
> scale will begin to reflect the true fat-loss...which,
> as mentioned before is rate-limited. Individuals vary,
> but max weight loss runs about 2 pounds per
> week...under extremely optimal conditions... or 1% of
> body weight (whichever is the lower number).
>
> So don't use the scale as an excuse to undermine your
> progress. Even when the scale is in a stall, fat loss
> can be occuring.
> We've been told over an over again that daily weighing
> is unnecessary, yet many of us can't resist peeking at
> that number every morning. If you just can't bring
> yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should
> definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that
> influence it's readings. From water retention to
> glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily
> weight fluctuations are normal. They are not
> indicators of your success or failure. Once you
> understand how these mechanisms work, you can free
> yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom
> scale.
>
> Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal
> fluctuations in the body's water content can send
> scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don't
> understand what's happening. Two factors influencing
> water retention are water consumption and salt intake.
> Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the
> more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly
> dehydrated your body will hang onto it's water
> supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number
> on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink
> plenty of water.
>
> Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water
> retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over
> 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat
> between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it's
> easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance.
> You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in
> salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food
> doesn't have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium.
> A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly
> four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts,
> 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The
> more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is
> to have a high sodium content. That's why, when it
> comes to eating, it's wise to stick mainly to the
> basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and
> whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned
> foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.
>
> Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to
> menstruation. This is very common and the weight will
> likely disappear as quickly as it arrives.
> Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by
> drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise
> program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a
> minimum.
>
> Another factor that can influence the scale is
> glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of
> stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the
> liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This
> energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it's
> packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it's stored.
> Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you
> fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen
> supply shrinks you will experience a small
> imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will
> restore this fuel reserve along with it's associated
> water. It's normal to experience glycogen and water
> weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no
> changes in your calorie intake or activity level.
> These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss,
> although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic
> weigh-ins if you're prone to obsessing over the number
> on the scale.
>
> Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about
> the actual weight of the food they eat. For this
> reason, it's wise to weigh yourself first thing in the
> morning before you've had anything to eat or drink.
> Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the
> scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in
> your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a
> huge dinner is not fat. It's the actual weight of
> everything you've had to eat and drink. The added
> weight of the meal will be gone several hours later
> when you've finished digesting it.
>
> Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store
> one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more
> than your body is able to burn. In other words, to
> actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it
> would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This
> is not likely, in fact it's not humanly possible. So
> when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest
> easy, it's likely to be water, glycogen, and the
> weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500
> calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose
> one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more
> than you take in. Generally, it's only possible to
> lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a
> very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop
> 10 pounds in 7 days, it's physically impossible for
> all of that to be fat. What you're really losing is
> water, glycogen, and muscle.
>
> This brings us to the scale's sneakiest attribute. It
> doesn't just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water,
> internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that
> doesn't necessarily mean that you've lost fat. In
> fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you've
> lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to
> celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue.
> The more muscle you have the more calories your body
> burns, even when you're just sitting around. That's
> one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat
> considerably more food than the dieter who is
> unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.
>
> Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat
> and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is
> like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one
> pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of
> gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky
> feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The
> problem with the scale is that it doesn't
> differentiate between the two. It can't tell you how
> much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how
> much is fat. There are several other measuring
> techniques that can accomplish this, although they
> vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold
> calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various
> locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater)
> weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your
> lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and
> bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which
> your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.
>
> If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently
> zapped just doesn't appeal to you, don't worry. The
> best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very
> own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do
> your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your
> muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements
> of success. If you are exercising and eating right,
> don't be discouraged by a small gain on the scale.
> Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to
> happen and take them in stride. It's a matter of mind
> over scale.
you are so right..thyroid problems suck and bit the big one!!
uhmmm can we say suck?
Keep up the good work! I know you can do this!!!!
Judy