Newly Qualified to Post Here!! Hello!

Hi everyone! I've been lurking here for a while. My one year anniversary was late this past October. I'm starting to hit a bit of a hard patch and want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a huge problem. I'm starting to plateau at a pretty good loss and at about 13 months out. What concerns me is that I'm not losing. Here's why I'm concerned: 1. Exercise is high: I'm working out consistently 6 days a week - for at least an hour [2 days of weights - one with a personal trainer (both usually followed by a third of a mile swim), 3 days a week of jogging (14 miles per week total), and one day with a long swim (one hour and usually about 1.1 - 1.2 miles). I just ran a 5K yesterday. 2. Calories are generally in a range of 1600 - 1800, with good balance (per my nut) of protein (min 120+ g per day = roughly 38 percent), carbs (usually about 40% of total calories) and fats (generally between 20 and 30% of calories, with sat fat grams at about 11). I have no idea how many calories I should be eating given the amount of exercise I'm doing. Oh and I'm very tall - 5'11". 3. I track both exercise and calories religiously on fitday.com (except when I'm traveling and without access to the internet). This is because I need the accountability. If I'm not accountable, I tend to have amnesia about what I eat. 4. Still eat protein first, chew 32 times (I count) and then add vegies and fruits before starches. 5. I weigh every day to make sure that I catch any bad trends. So far no weight gain and I'm within a 3 - 4 pound range of my lowest weight. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong so I haven't been losing and I guess I didn't realize how much it bothered me. Lately it's led me to a few bad nights of eating. I think stress and lack of light this time of year are also contributing. But this weekend bothered me when I saw some bad habits creeping in. I had 2 nights where I ate even though I wasn't hungry (grazing) and it "felt" like binging. Luckily I don't keep any really bad foods in the house, so it could have been much worse than it was (mainly nuts, whole grains, some string cheese and pickles). But I don't like the way I felt when it was happening. I forced myself to track it on fitday.com as ugly as it was (last night I hit 2600 calories). So far no weight gain, but if I keep up this way I'm worried. Anybody have some words of encouragement? Why am I not losing when I do the right things? Sorry for the length of the post, but I've lurked enough to know that you get better response when folks have the full facts. Thanks everybody! Sandy 343/191/172 (my personal goal) PS shout out to Nowhereman, Papahotrolls, Jay - you may not remember email exchanges with me over a year ago, but I so appreciate the straight forward advice you gave me when I was considering all of this and the no nonsense way you continue to advise folks. It may not make you snuggle and popular, but it makes you appreciated!

YAY ILLINOIS. I lived in Rockford, IL my whole life until college! I hit a 6mo plateau so I have no idea what advice to give you. I am in the same boat.

You mean you've been on a plateau for 6 months? That's rough. I see up the board that you are trying to get back on track and I wish you luck! Sandy

Yup! I just checked ( I weigh in every monday since before surgery) 6 months ago to the day I weight 194. Today I am still at 194. It sucks!!!

Welcome Sandy!!! It sounds like you're doing all the right things, so I'm not sure what advice I can give??? Have you tried changing things up a bit just to see if it kick starts anything?? I understand the stress eating! I am definitely an emotional eater and I have found myself in similar situations as to the one you've described. I've found the important thing is to gain back my self control as quickly as possible! I never feel good physically or mentally when I do that and in the long run I'm only hurting myself so why oh why do I do it??? I have no idea, but I am thinking about finding a therapist to discuss this issue and see if they can shed some light on the subject! Good Luck to You! Tracy B 328/150 5'9"

Thanks Tracy. It's good to have some perspective about feeling out of control and what you might be doing right. It's why I keep coming back here. I've been seeing a therapist too - intermitently and it helps if you're honest in your therapy. I need to get back there, but my last assignment involved signing up for some online dating and I wasn't ready to go there yet. Good luck to you too. Sandy

First off - let me congratulate you on how far you've come!!! One hundred, fifty-two pound loss is just incredible!! I checked and your BMI is 26. To be under 25, you'd need to get to 179, so your personal goal looks reasonable for your height. However - depending on how long you've been overweight, you may not actually have much in the weight of excess weight to lose. If you were overweight your whole life, you probably have heavier bones, and a lot of excess skin & connective tissue. I've seen estimates that for every 100 lbs you have to lose, that you have about 6-8lbs of excess skin & connective tissue that existed just to keep that fat/flesh alive. Based on those estimates, you have about 9-12lbs that you're carrying around as a tribute to your former obesity. 191 - 12 lbs = 179, so you may actually already be done. --BT

Thats interesting about the 6-8lbs of excess skin~I've never heard that and I always wondered about how much extra skin pounds I'm carrying around! thanks for the info! Tracy B

BT, Thanks for the information. It's interesting and something that never even occurred to me. I definitely have some extra skin, that's for sure. I've been overweight for much of my adult life (the last 10 years MO). But I think I was never as fat as I felt, if that makes sense. Looking back on it I was mercilessly teased as a child and I was plump, but not as fat as I felt. I weighed 186 in high school when I was on badminton team and thought I was huge. Maybe part of it was actually just because I was so dang big - I mean tall and not willowy - and so much bigger than all the other girls? So, don't know if I was big enough long enough to have affected my bones and connective tissue. Maybe I should get a body fat test done? Also toying with metabolic testing that my health club does - to determine optimum exercise and calorie levels. Anybody know whether that stuff works on us with our rerouted plumbing? Thanks again! Sandy

" But I think I was never as fat as I felt, if that makes sense. " That makes perfect sense. I thought I was grossly overweight when I was in 7th grade. Yet I walked to and from school (total of 20 miles a week), and was barely 7 lbs over what is NOW my goal weight. I was 135 then, and 128 would put me at a BMI of 25. Back then I thought I was supposed to be under 100 lbs. Maybe if I'd realized that 7 lbs was all I had to lose, the mountain wouldn't have looked so high and perhaps I would have made it? Who knows. --BT