DESPERATELY needing an answer! RANT RANT

Hi, I thought of you when I read the post from at the top "Introducing Myself."  See what she says about working out and calorie intake.  It might illuminate some things for you.

I know better than you can imagine how frustrating this whole process is.  I have been the same weight for over a year now, and even though it's a sight better than when I started, I still felt like I wanted to be somewhere else.   It's a process, albeit a frustrating as hell one.  But in the end you will be a healthier happier you, and believe it or not you will also be smaller.  It's just a matter of taking big deep breaths, ignoring the numbers on the scale and focusing on the reason WHY we want to lose weight. Good luck and keep us posted!

My metabolism is screwed - just like yours.... in order to fool it into thinking there is plenty and it is ok to lose weight I have to feed myself every 2 hours. I get up at 6:30... arrive at the office at 8:30 and that is when I start eating.... I eat between 100 and 200 calories at a time...  8:30, 10:30, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 that is 8 meals a day!!! I challenge you to try this approach.  eat something every 2 hours while you are awake. I am a bit bothered about how you speak of 1300 calories as if you just tore through a buffet.  I agree with the others, you need to be eating more and you need to be eating more often. oh and the coffee.... cut back.  Your body is using the caffiene for energy first...  not calories... and you really need to measure the cream.  If you are not measuring it and logging it in fitday then you arent being honest with yourself in your food diary. measure EVERYTHING. this will turn around for you.  You just need to keep tweaking it.

Yanno.. no matter how much I know this and have explained it to others, it helps a great deal to have someone else remind me that I have to eat small amounts and often.   I do have to copy all of the info on the creamer and put it in fit day and figure out how to do what Bert says about the log.  I feel kinda funny about it.. like it's bad enough I'm burdening people who are going through their own struggles but I'm greatful that people are willing to help... really I am... I want to address the person who is working with a trainer. I'm interested to know what your trainer has you doing.  I'm seriously hoping that most of your work out is cardio with weight training being low weight and high reps. kinda running from machine to machine and keeping up a swift pace.  Not all trainers are experienced at working with people who need to lose vast amounts of weight and as innocent as it is... some of what they can be having you do is a mistake. When I was about 155 lbs I worked myself up to 180 lbs.  The same thing happens to a person who needs to lose weight too.  The key thing to remember is that muscle weighs more than fat and takes up less room, so it's natural to see either a small loss or even a gain when working with weights.  There are benefits yes.... ... muscle burns fat.. that's the bottom line.  The biggest muscles you have in your body are your legs... use 'em to burn if you can.  Before ya think "practice what you preach".. that's what I'm doing by using the bike as cardio.  I have a lot of problems with my hips and legs so I'm doing what I can.....  (from a woman who used to press 575 on these legs).  I have a couple of torn acl's one meniscus has been removed and the other one is tearing (I can feel it), but I thank GOD I built up what I did when I did because using those leg muscles are the best thing I can do to burn.  At 300 lbs, nothing on me hangs....  honestly I'm surprised but I understand why... I still have quite a bit of definition ..especially my triceps (which are obviously cut), my calves are still cut and I still have the teardrop and swoop in my thighs..and my forearms are still hard as a rock.  This is why I haven't attempted weight training yet. I want to lose and I already have too much muscle for a woman from preparing for competitions. Are you doing low weights and high reps?  How are your legs..  do you have any previous weight training experience?  If those legs are muscular, they're gonna burn the fat.. if not, it might be a good idea to get those muscles built with some leg presses.  I'd NEVER IN A MILLION years recommend you do what I did... but a little bit higher weight on the legs will give you more to work with in order to burn. I am definitely not trying to derail what your trainer is doing with you... I just want to caution you to choose your trainer wisely.  When I put on all this weight, I changed trainers to someone who works with people who need to lose weight and have injuries.  I should have never given it up but I was exhausted with work and home and couldn't drag my butt to the gym at 5:30am anymore.  I'm so VERY tempted to hit the gym but I know I'll head for that bench.  I used to do 3 sets at 185 then one set at 225 on the negatives and my chest was... um.... BIG..  I'm kinda glad that it's softened and I'll never do that again. When you told me how many calories your trainer wants you to eat, it set off an alarm with me.  A healthy bodybuilder does need to eat a phenomenal amount of calories (I did it too) to keep building.....  lots of sweet potato and brown rice and chicken... especially after a work out.  When you work a group of muscles you are actually causing little tears in them, and eating protein within an hour after working out is standard practice to feed those torn muscles.  As the tear heals it causes what is literally scar tissue which is what makes them look bigger.. and on and on and on.  This is why you never work the same group two days in a row...  your muscles need recovery time... but this is how a BODY builder eats and trains... it's different for someone who needs to lose a lot of weight though. I don't mean to be talking out of turn here... I don't want to be out of order...  but that's a lot of working out to burn that many calories which makes me think you're working like a builder..  I don't mean to upset you at all and you can tell me to shut up.......  it's just that I feel real concern here.  I don't know much about much but I do have a lot of experiene in this particular arena.. Forgive me if I'm outta line here. Lori

Lot to answer. I work out 6 days a week, 5 at the gym as it's by my office.  I see my trainer 3x a week.  All workouts are 60 minutes.  With my trainer I do one upper body, one lower body, and one all over body workout.  I never do more than 3 sets of 20, if I can.  I do heavy lifting.  Cardio and light weights are not going to lead to serious weight loss.  I do a ton of core work, which has whittled my middle to sexy (YEAH for me!)  On my cardio days, I was doing the treadmill, worked my way up to the arc, could originally barely do 2 minutes, now do 30 on the arc and 30 on the treadmill, and will be soon doing mostly the arc on cardio days as its an all over body workout.

Food wise, I have for the first time in my life become free.  I can have sushi and not gain 3 lbs.  My weight is steady day and night each day, even with loss.  My BMI has improved so much I am astounded (what 310lb woman has a BMI of 46???)

I measure everything and account for it in Fitday. I have full faith in my trainer--he went from 380 to 205 and is amazing.  I chose him specifically for his skills and experience.  And while the calories are now high, I am doing everything they say, giving it its due diligence.  After eating 1200-1500 calories and staying fat for the last few years, it's proven that that doesn't work for me.  I'm now exploring this and seeing great progress. It's not about the scale--stop focusing on that.  Use it as a guage of progress and not to determine how you will feel about yourself that day!

As for my previous experience, ....Nothing but the core work and intensity level is new to me. I've been active and workout since childhood so much of what you wrote was old hat for me, though not 100% accurate.  But I dieted my way to fat and that stopped this summer when I startedwith my PT.

"Cardio and light weights are not going to lead to serious weight loss. " What is your definition of "serious weight loss?" "My BMI has improved so much I am astounded (what 310lb woman has a BMI of 46???)" Every 310 pound woman that is the same height as you.

Sorry, but wrong.  Just using height and weight for BMI you'll get an inaccurate number, but accounting for muscle and bodyfat will give you the most accurate number.  Heigh and weight, it wou;d be ~51, not 46. As for serious weight loss, I mean 100 lbs without regain.

BMI is defined as a ratio of weight and height.  If you are taking other factors into account, you are definitively not using BMI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index "Body mass index is defined as the individual's body weight divided by the square of their height. The formulas universally used in medicine produce a unit of measure of kg/m²."

Bodyfat versus body mass.  I'm not going to get into a debate....

perhaps she means her body fat percentage????  that would make more sense...  167.4 lbs of normal person under 142.6 lbs of fat???   BMI is what BMI is...  body fat percentage CAN change without weight change.   ya think maybe???

I'm going to challenge this as well.

I lost 68 pounds doing precisely that, in just over 4 months. Three pounds weights, short walks (a mile or less) and water aerobics to get my heart rate up.  Seems to me that's pretty serious. And I did it while eating 1300 calories a day and felt very well during the process. Blanket statements don't work in weight loss. Too many variables to control. Not every 310 pound woman physically CAN do more rigorous exercise...no need to discourage them unnecessarily. There's many approaches-- you find what works for you.