What did I do wrong????

[Carolyn R]

Okay, those of you who have lost weight - please critique my week and tell me what I'm doing wrong!

My mom and sisters and I made a pact to lose weight together. Weighed in last Tuesday. I spent the week exercising (30 minutes of vigorous walking 6 out of 7 days), eating well, and NO desserts.

I stepped on the scale expectantly this morning...and nothing. Weight stayed EXACTLY the same.

I am so discouraged. It makes me feel like geez, why did I work so hard and not eat any of the things I love if I wasn't going to lose weight anyway???

A typical day of eating looked like this:

corn flakes with skim milk
banana
coffee w/ 1 tsp sugar and a dash of whole milk

lean meat on whole wheat bread
spinach
low-fat yogurt
strawberries
skim milk

granola bar
diet soda

homemade chicken soup w/ tons of veggies
applesauce
whole wheat bread/all-fruit jelly
skim milk

I really felt like I ate well. I tried to keep it low-fat, but at the same time not deprive myself so my metabolism shut down.

So why no weight loss? Any insight/ideas? Please feel free to be brutally honest...I SO want to lose weight and any opinions would be welcomed.

[Avani]

My opinion would be the bread at every meal. The cereal for breakfast/bread for lunch and dinner is overkill. I would have a salad for lunch and soup for dinner but no bread. Also applesauce plus jelly at dinner is alot of sugars. Try to keep it more balanced like an apple after dinner and just that. Good luck!

[corrie43]

I was goin to say the same thig.. Too many carbs/sugars

Try whole wheat toast spread with coconut oil and peanut butter insteadf jam,

Sandwich thins are only 100 calories in come in whole wheat.

Lose the granola bar and hav nuts and cheese or carrots and hummus instead a protien with a fruit or veggie..

Also some times when beginning exercising you retain water. Try doing those changes and next week I bet you lose 3 pounds or so.

[Nemesis]

When trying to not be hungry, fat is your friend. I would not try low-fat anything except maybe milk and dairy products.

I agree about the breads/carbs, too.

[eastkygal]

I also have to say that fat is your friend. From what it looks like to me, there are too many carbs in the form of grains that most likely aren't prepared in a way that is friendly for digestion. Also, the low-fat foods IMO aren't real food, and should be avoided. No diet sodas either.

I lost 100lbs. and I have kept it off for almost 2 years now. I did so by eating a Traditional Foods diet. There is a forum here on MDC for TF. I didn't "diet". I never felt deprived or hungry. It really has been so simple I always feel like sharing it with others. The hardest thing in it for you might be the sugars. You don't eat any refined sweets. Only use natural sweeteners and then sparingly. But, if you eat enough of the right kinds of fats, your body won't crave the sweets like it does now.

It is all finding what is right for your body. Look at Eat Fat Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Also Real Food by Nina Planck is good.

[bcblondie]

Think of it this way. A pound of fat equals 3500 calories. If you were under by 500 cals every day for a week, you'd still only lose a pound. And if you happened to have an extra pound of water weight on you at teh time, or ate later in the day the night before you stepped on the scale, you might not see that pound you lost. But it's there.

I say you're doing great, and keep it up. Don't punish yourself too much or you'll get sick of it and quit. Keep doing this maybe 3 more weeks and I bet you'll see some change.

[nola79]

I think it's too soon to tell. It took me a good 3 weeks to start seeing weight loss once I started actively trying.

I second the idea of salads for lunch, though. Makes a big difference.

[RosemaryS-F]

Hi there! I'm going to put my input in this color

Originally Posted by Carolyn R

A typical day of eating looked like this:

corn flakes with skim milk
banana
coffee w/ 1 tsp sugar and a dash of whole milk
Okay, I'm not low carb and I have gotten to my goal weight, so you can eat carbs and get there, but corn flakes have not got enough fiber in them to do you any favors. If you're going to continue to eat carbs, which personally I would since it sounds like you are naturally drawn to them, you must incorporate fiber in with them. And bananas are just more carb with very little fiber. There are excellent breakfast cereals out there now with fiber, such as the Kashi go lean crunch. Protein in there too! And if you're going to add a fruit, I'd do a berry because of the lower calorie count. Can you try to drop the sugar? Or put in a teaspoon of something with a lower glycemic index, such as agave? And measure the dashes of whole milk. They add up!

lean meat on whole wheat bread
spinach
low-fat yogurt
strawberries
skim milk
It's dawning on me that I have no idea how much of anything you are eating. I mean, in and of themselves, these foods are fine. BUT! Anything in large portions will cause you to stay at the same weight. You must measure. Joining SparkPeople.com or FitDay.com will help you understand how much you should be eating, and they are free. I have a food scale and especially when I was starting out, I would put my meats on the scale so I knew, ok, that's 4 ounces and is x number of calories. Oh, and deli meats are super high in sodium, so always ask for low sodium versions if you are using those.

granola bar
diet soda
You could do better for this snack; what kind of granola bar was it? They are sooo well marketed to make you think that they are healthy, but they're mostly just sugar, sugar, sugar.

homemade chicken soup w/ tons of veggies
applesauce
whole wheat bread/all-fruit jelly
skim milk
By now, you've had sugar with each meal. The jelly is too much. It's adding too much in empty calories to your day, even though it is all fruit. There's tons of grams of sugars in there. Try something like a teaspoon of pb for some fat/protein and the same number of calories.

I really felt like I ate well. I tried to keep it low-fat, but at the same time not deprive myself so my metabolism shut down.

So why no weight loss? Any insight/ideas? Please feel free to be brutally honest...I SO want to lose weight and any opinions would be welcomed.

Once again, I would join a free online weight loss site.

[SugarAndSun]

I lost tons of weight after ds2 was born. I ate/eat mostly veggies and fruits. Eat unprocessed food... forget bars, flakes, etc. They will leave you hungry and are easy to overeat. I'm the same weight I was pre-kids and have been in the same 5 pound range for 3.5 years.

Try:
Blended or fresh fruit for breakfast
Salad for lunch -- add some kind of whole grain salad instead of dressing
Dinner -- brown rice with fresh avocado and tomato on a bed of greens

All super easy -- yummy -- and healthy!

Check out Fuhrman!

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by eastkygal

I also have to say that fat is your friend. From what it looks like to me, there are too many carbs in the form of grains that most likely aren't prepared in a way that is friendly for digestion. Also, the low-fat foods IMO aren't real food, and should be avoided. No diet sodas either.

I lost 100lbs. and I have kept it off for almost 2 years now. I did so by eating a Traditional Foods diet. There is a forum here on MDC for TF. I didn't "diet". I never felt deprived or hungry. It really has been so simple I always feel like sharing it with others. The hardest thing in it for you might be the sugars. You don't eat any refined sweets. Only use natural sweeteners and then sparingly. But, if you eat enough of the right kinds of fats, your body won't crave the sweets like it does now.

It is all finding what is right for your body. Look at Eat Fat Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Also Real Food by Nina Planck is good.

I second this advice. I've done a lot of different diets from ultra low fat vegan (McDougall) and Eat to Live (Fuhrman) to very low carb, but dieting made me so this year I stopped trying to follow a plan and just started eating real food. I've lost 24 pounds since January (still have 10-15 to go).

My meals have a lot of fat in the form of butter, cream, coconut oil, and fatty meats. Grains are mostly sprouted bread (Ezekiel) with plenty of butter and jasmine rice. I have eggs cooked in coconut oil almost every morning and put coconut oil and full fat yogurt in smoothies with frozen berries. Dinner is usually meat (steak or chicken with the skin), salad with homemade full fat dressing, steamed veggies with butter, and roasted potatoes also with butter (or mashed with butter and cream). Lunch is leftovers. Snacks - I don't feel like snacking much, but I might have a salad or some sprouted toast with butter or some cold leftover steak.

One thing about the fat: Avoid vegetable oils like soy, corn, and canola!

Other things that have helped: Drink only water and don't eat after dinner (which really is not hard to do if there's plenty of fat in the meal). I do not track calories - just eat when hungry and stop when full but not too full.

[FoxintheSnow]

Has it only been one week? Sometimes it takes longer to notice a difference. If you are losing 3500 calories a week, you will lose weight. Make sure you are weighing in the same time of day. I weigh in every wednesday morning, after I pee, before I eat or drink anything.

You have to think about weight loss as a long term thing or you will get discouraged and give up. Weight doesn't come on quickly, so it shouldn't come off quickly.

[Carolyn R]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice and encouraging words!

I've been starting to cut out some of the sugar/carbs that were dominating my diet, and got some almonds for snacking.

I was able to find one of the books recommended, and the library can request the other two for me.

I also have added a workout video to my daily routine, because it felt like the walking I had been doing every day just wasn't cutting it. I've been walking for years, and it seems like if I am now expecting my body to lose weight, then I may need to "jumpstart" my activity level.

The theme I'm seeing come through in a lot of the responses is eating fats. I'm assuming that some of the books I'm getting will clarify this also, but could anyone tackle explaining why eating whole milk, fatty meats, etc can help with weight loss? It seems so counterintuitive, especially with all mainstream media, etc touting low-fat, calorie-free, and so on.

That being said, I will say that I HAVE noticed that if I eat some fat in the form of whole foods, I don't crave sweets nearly so much.

And I do realize that this is going to take time. If I am only losing a pound or two a week, it will take me a good part of a year to get to a healthy weight. It feels great to have started; I'm already feeling stronger and more dedicated to making this a lifestyle and not just a "diet."

So again, thank you!

[lil_earthmomma]

Originally Posted by Carolyn R

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice and encouraging words!

I've been starting to cut out some of the sugar/carbs that were dominating my diet, and got some almonds for snacking.

I was able to find one of the books recommended, and the library can request the other two for me.

I also have added a workout video to my daily routine, because it felt like the walking I had been doing every day just wasn't cutting it. I've been walking for years, and it seems like if I am now expecting my body to lose weight, then I may need to "jumpstart" my activity level.

The theme I'm seeing come through in a lot of the responses is eating fats. I'm assuming that some of the books I'm getting will clarify this also, but could anyone tackle explaining why eating whole milk, fatty meats, etc can help with weight loss? It seems so counterintuitive, especially with all mainstream media, etc touting low-fat, calorie-free, and so on.

That being said, I will say that I HAVE noticed that if I eat some fat in the form of whole foods, I don't crave sweets nearly so much.

And I do realize that this is going to take time. If I am only losing a pound or two a week, it will take me a good part of a year to get to a healthy weight. It feels great to have started; I'm already feeling stronger and more dedicated to making this a lifestyle and not just a "diet."

So again, thank you!

Here's a great resource for eating healthy fats:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/

I've lost 60 lbs since going primal. Any lifestyle where you get bacon, butter and cream can't be THAT hard to follow!

this is another good one about fat:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fats/

And there's a book called Good calories Bad calories that's suppose to be good, but I haven't read it yet!

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by lil_earthmomma

And there's a book called Good calories Bad calories that's suppose to be good, but I haven't read it yet!

Yes, very good book! It also explains why the 'calories in, calories out' theory of weight loss is not all it's cracked up to be.

[SugarAndSun]

I'm totally into fruits and veggies, but I think much of what we have all found success in can be summed up as EAT FOOD, not food products! Great book too!

[Nemesis]

I agree. Eating healthy fats help you stay full longer, slow the absorption of sugars in foods, and help you have less food cravings in general.
If you are challenging your body with exercise, you'll also need fats to recover. Not getting enough fat can put you at a higher risk for injury if you're exercising a lot (or a lot for your current fitness level).