xpost: What I'm learning about my body

Good Morning!

I was just going back through myfitnesspal .com to see my food for the last week.  I'm trying to see what had me drop some weight, then go up a bit and maintain there.  A bit is only up 1/2 pound, but it's up.  I started eating Atkins style on January 10th, keeping carbs under 25 (on a high day).  Since then I've dropped 6-7 pounds, depending on the day.

So what seems to be true for me, and I've seen this in other weeks is that I need to keep my calories under 700, carbs under 25,  with a minimum of 60-90 minutes of exercise for several days in a row to let go of a pound.  I dropped 1 pound on Saturday but I had three workouts on Friday.  (walk 3+  miles outdoors, 1 hour yoga class, Couch to 5K for 30 minutes)  My calories for several days were under 700.  Ok, so that gives me an idea of what it takes for me to let go of a pound or even ounces.

I've been eating 700-800 calories since then and I can't get that 1/2 pound back off that I was up on Sunday.  I've exercised daily.  Yesterday I walked 6 miles and was so hungry that I ate 928 wholesome calories.  Still up that 1/2 pound.

I've read about some surgeon's recommending staying between 600-800 calories to get to goal but I know that my calories in months 10-11(holidays) crept more to 900-950 and the weight loss completely stopped for me. Didn't lose a pound.  Went up and down 2 pounds depending on how many carbs I ate the day before.

My surgeon doesn't give calories/protein/carbs goals.  He just says eat protein first, then a little veggies with one meal, fruit with the other and I can have a slice of whole grain bread or potatoes etc with the meal.  No protein supplements, no snacks.  I haven't done a good job sticking to that plan.  I don't eat the grains or starch or the fruit and sometimes I have protein pudding and sometimes a snack of protein in the afternoon.  I've been known to occasionally or eat a protein bar, which I haven't had since January 10th when I lowered my total carbs to under 25.

So this post isn't about judgement of myself.  This is just me analyzing my reality with my food/exercise and how my own particular body responds.  My protein has been low this week, so I'm going to focus on pounding the protein this week to see what difference it makes.

Have you made any cool discoveries about your body?

You have been much more analydical than I ever will be.  However, I can't imagine that you have to keep your calories that low to keep losing.  I know your level of fitness changes and you have to keep uping your exercise but you are doing a bunch and your calories are really low.  When does your body stop losing and think it is in starvation mode?

My calories aren't a lot higher than yours but I don't do hours of exercise either. 

I do know that I stopped the crazy bouncing and started losing again when I cut the carbs seriously.  I've gotten close to 30 maybe 3 days in the past month.  At Curves yesterday in the last month since I reduced carbs to mostly under 20, I have lost 7 lbs and 9.5 inches.  It was a great month,

"When does your body stop losing and think it is in starvation mode?"

Never.

It's a myth that, if you keep your calories low, you will stop losing weight. In all the studies that have been done on starvation, even though metabolism did drop on a starvation diet, the subjects all continued to lose weight. Now, other bad things happened to them like having disordered eating and losing muscle mass, but not losing weight wasn't one of them.

Because of the law of conservation of energy, you can't not lose weight if you operate at a calorie defici****er retention might cause that loss to be hidden from the scale for a while, but the energy you spend has to come from somewhere so, if you don't supply the calories from food, the body will break down your tissues to get it.

Marie, you kept your calories low during your losing stage, didn't you?

Yes and no...

As my activity levels went up, my surgeon had me increase my protein and that did cause my calories to go up though not nearly as much as my calorie burn through exercise. I trained for my first couple of triathlons on 700-900 calories a day though. But when I started training for the Half-Ironman, I went up to 1200 and then 1600 when I got to my lowest weight and kept losing.

Here is what I ate and how much I exercised and how much I lost each month for the first year:

http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.com/2010/07/calories-protein-carbs-exercise-weight.html

I think you are in a different place than I am though because of the thyroid. Maybe it's time to adjust the meds again?

I'll take a look at your blog Marie. I've read it all before, but not for awhile.

Price, that was a great month for you.  Congratulations!!

I have found that my body hates me and have realized that I was truly right when I said I cant lose weight before surgery.
I have cut carbs to under 20 a day, upped protein to over 60 a day and keep my calories under 800. This is very easy lately because my gall bladder has decided to be mean to me too.
I have not excercised except for some walking, so yes I need to increase that bt hopefully as soon as I find out what is going on with my side all will start dropping again....

Stacey, I went through a big plateau at six months too.  It took me from month 6 through almost month 13 to shed 20 pounds.  I promise that it will all start moving for you again.

I hope they figure out your GB soon!

From messing around with calories and exercise for years ... I figured out about what you know ... that I have to keep the calories below 800, and the carbs low (keeping the carbs low, makes keeping the calories below 800 easier) and I need to exercise everyday and weight bearing exercise helps (I rode 10,000 miles one year on my bike and only when I added in running did I drop any weight) .... And intensity in exercise (running) or spin class (on the bike) help ... I'm still trying to figure out how this all works post surgery (I had greek yogurt in a protein shake yesterday and set off the munchies, too many carbs too close together)  .... I've had 5 million glucose/insulin tolerance tests and my levels look great :-(