Ok vets - time to help me out

If I may be so bold--can you share with us all? I will be seeing a new specialist next month for nutritionals so I need to gather as many tools as I can and see how that will help me when I go see her :)

Of course! I just don't want to **** anyone off since it's not a beriatric specific plan.

My doctor told me nutrition is 85% of it then my ob/gyn said no way. I asked the sports nutritionist and he said with PCOS and at my age and with certain factors, nutrition may be 35% of it. He told me to reverse my meal plan. Most carbs in the morning, eat as soon as I wake up, then no carbs after a certain time unless I'm exercising. When I get the whole plan, I'll post it. I'm also taking it to my dr next thursday to see what he thinks. I told my nut and she said if I'm looking to weight train 3 times a week and do cardio 3 days, then go for it, she's interested in the results as well. I've not lost much during my "honeymoon" so this will be a telling set of data for her to ovbserve as well.

 Well - depending on the day - I go back and forth between just simply wanting to reach some magic number (ie my 6 week attempt at low cal/low carb) and wanting to train for performance. I guess I posted this to begin with to see if there was a happy medium...but maybe there just isnt. Actually - I had the happy medium when I was losing 5-7 lbs/month but then I got greedy. 

I'm going to go back to that - and If i'm eating too many carbs, at least my boss and my clients will thank me, even if my fat cells don't. Eventually, once im post PS - my next gift/reward to myself for surviving that process is a body scan and working with a trainer/sports nutritionist, so that maybe one day I'll join the ranks of the athletes and have a better understanding of what *I* will need to do to maintain. 

My path is just a little more twisty and windy and not as clear as other's - so be it for now. 

There was a woman in the gym yesterday who has lost 60 pounds in 2 months. She was, granted, a larger woman but that's double my loss in 6 months. So I decided I'd listen to their plan and weigh it against what I have heard. I do think that there is a period that you can "watch the fat melt" but I was never that person and you are probably out of that timeframe too, being a year out.

Losing 220 pounds aint no joke. That's a HUGE accomplishment. I can imagine after so long of staying the course, it would have to become mentally exhausting.  My (again non vet advice, just human observation) is don't beat yourself up for that. Most people don't have the nutsack to lose that much weight. You have already set yourself out as a huge overachiever, success story. You're one of those people that other people look at to see an example of what success looks like. It's normal to get drained after doing something so demanding for so long. I think you have to do what works for you long term. Don't get discouraged by the backlash of seeming "Do low carb, duh" Most of the people, in my humble estimate, haven't lost 220 pounds and don't have the right to condescend someone who has. This is a journey and if you are tweaking your carbs, good for you for thinking it out.

*kisses*

 I had my time where I ate 100-200 g of carbs and still watched the fat melt off. But I was also 400 lbs at that the time and a walk to the bathroom took a whole lot of energy. I realize I am not that person anymore and I cannot eat 200 g of carbs unless I'm going to sit on my bike all day. But, Ive never been strict with carbs - it just wasn't part of my approach and mostly because I knew when I started, I couldnt' starve myself for 6-9 months and get to goal. It has taken me two years to get to this point, and while I might ***** and moan because I want to be at goal or my WL is slow, I'm continuing to lose with more carbs than most. But I also realize that I got to a point where I was eating too many carbs. So, I just had hoped that there was a middle ground. 

I suppose I was a little overly dramatic with this whole thing and overly sensitive...but it just seems like its all or nothing around here - people who dont care about counting carbs at all or people who live and breath by a bright red line,never to be crossed. 

I've thought about this some more and have a suggestion... should be easy to try for a few days and if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. SO let's say you are going to target 1000 calories or so, with at least 100g protein and maybe 60g carbs. What if you concentrated those carbs around your workout? Like 20 before and 20 after and then the rest scattered through the rest of the day. My runner friends all tell me to have a mix of carbs and protein around my run. I hate eating before I run so I do it right after. Sometimes a protein bar. Sometimes peanut butter. Sometimes a scrambled egg and a piece of sprouted bread.

 Yes - I think this is whaat i'm going to do - I need to eat some carbs for breakfast so i can actually focus throughout the day before I get fired from my job lol. And a small snack sometime before I work out. I'm going to aim for around 60-70 g of carbs on days i expect to have a heavy workout, and maybe 50-60 on other days. But, i'm just going to keep detailed logs of when/what I eat and see if I can find some trends that work :)

How about testing what is a good carb level for you go from 40 carbs one week then 50 the next week and so on and increase it by 10 or even 5 a wee****il you find what is the right number for you. It could be that on the days you exercise you need a few extra carbs and the days you are not stay to a comfortable low and you can find that out if you test your carb levels and find out how many you need to function right.
You can take my advice with a grain of salt but everyone is differnt.

Allison,

I think you're at the point where seeing an exercise physiologist would be very beneficial.  My program included one which was fortunate. It may cost you some out of pocket, but it ultimately could save you money and heartache trying to 'figure it out' by trial and error.   Have your RMR tested through the 10 minute breathing test. You fast for 4 hours and then breath into a tube for 10 minutes.  It measures oygen in- CO2 out to determine how much your'e acutally 'burning' at rest and your Resting (not basal) Metabolic Rate.  Additionally, I would have a body-composition analysis done via DEXA scan, bod pod, or water testing.

You're very fit, and you may have a lot less 'fat' to burn than your weight might indicate.  As a general rule, someone who exercises the way you do should be eating 2/3-1g of protein a day for every pound of body weight (or if you'r elosing, your target weight).   I don't know how you could do that and stay under 800 calories very easily. If you're going to eat carbs, don't start your day with them, eat them mid day and ahead of workouts.  Carbs early can ramp up carb cravings for the whole day and carbs late lead to evening noshing. 

If I still lived in SoCal, I'd go to UCLA to get tested.  I have a lot of faith UCLA. I had my eye surgeries done at Jules Stein, there, and saw a wonderful endocriniologist at the medical center when we lived in the area.

 I intend to do this once I'm settled but in reluctant to do it do close to plastics when I imagine I'll be pretty sedentary for an extended time after and my body composition will
Be changing. I'm glad to know UCLA does it though - that will give me a starting point. Thanks :)