Help! I gained 2 kg!!

I don't know how it happened. I've been more careful than I ever was, really! I've cut out anything outside my core diet of protein+veggies. I'm even replacing some of my coffee "treats" (I've been drinking my own concoction of low-fat low-cal cappuccino since Day1) with sugar-free green tea. My reward? Instead of losing, I've gained! Two kilos to be exact, an impossible feat on less than 1000 calories per day! But then, I'm GOOD at these types of impossible feats. I managed to gain 30kg in 2 months back in 1990 during an MS attack.
Well, I'm not currently taking corticosteroids, which were the culprit back then, and I'm at my wit's end trying to figure out what's going on. Please help! Any suggestions are wecome.

Amalia

Oh no! Can you list out what you are drinking/eating each day? I may be able to see something amiss. I'm so sorry this happened to you!

Thanks for your reply, sublimate. OK, here is a rundown of my food schedule for the past month or so:

Breakfast:

coffee, meds and water, 2hrs later a boiled egg and/or some luncheon meat and cheese, a rusk maybe.

Lunch:

chicken or beef or fish and a salad

Dinner:

same as lunch

Snacks

protein drink, coffee, tea, a couple of pieces of cheese or ham, some fruit or fruit salad (rarely)

no more than 2 pieces of rusk per day, low-fat cooking, no sugar at all.

Where I went wrong before was in eating nuts for a snack - a trigger food for me - and if chips fell into my hot little hands they didn't have a prayer! I've been avoiding these bad, bad, bad foods like the plague!

Amalia

It sounds like you are like me.. you are super sensitive to carbs and even just small amounts will make you gain water weight and eventually fat weight. This is why I end up making all of my own foods and having them with me at all times.

If you look at my recipes you'll see they are designed to be very low in calories and carbs and be very filling. They are also very "clean" recipes with low sodium. They are so militant because nothing but the most militant diet gets my body to move on the scale.

Have you ever tried any of my recipes? Please give them a try, I think they will really help you, and they are so healthy and low cal you can eat 4-6 cups a day and still be in a good calorie range. I see a few things that you are eating that for me would be problematic.

I realize that you are probably not eating them all the time or in such small amounts that it seems like it should not be a problem, but it would be a problem for me. Luncheon meat and cheese tends to be full of chemicals and sodium.. both of which for me would cause water retention and easily several pounds of water weight.

I'm not sure how you are preparing your meats or your salads (which kind of dressing?) but there is a potential for sugary sauces or spices to be used, and high sodium dressing. This all would cause weight fluctuations for me, in the wrong direction. My body is incredibly sensitive to those things, and I suspect yours is too.

In addition it may aggravate your MS. I would not be drinking protein drinks at this point.. I would be trying to get your food from real meat at this point. What is the carb content/brand of the protein drink you are drinking?

The rusk would be WAY too many carbs for me and I would not lose, even if I was only eating small amounts. Ditto for ANY fruit.. I can't eat any fruit.. my body is too carb sensitive. More lunch meat or cheese would be too much sodium.

I know it may seem like calories are the only thing that counts and that with such low calories you should lose, but the quality of the calories really count too.  Even if I keep my calories super low if my food quality is bad and includes too many carbs, processed foods, chemicals and sodium I will not lose.  Also if I don't drink enough fluid I will not lose.

The quality of the food you eat effects the hormones that are in your body, and those determine HOW your body uses the calories you take in.  

I think you will see better results if you try some of my recipes or something similar, where you are controlling all the ingredients, with minimum sodium. If you make your recipes well, you can eat them frequently so when you feel like snacking, have some more of my chicken salad recipe instead of the nuts.

As you know, nuts are a trigger for me too. It's hard for me to determine some times whether I should cut them out and feel deprived, and then later set myself up to fall off the wagon, or allow them in. At times I have been successful when I have had a day where I have pretty much nothing but chicken salad all day, so my calorie count is low, and then have a measured amount (1/2 cup) of raw, unsalted cashews at the end of the day when I want it the most.

The key to make the nuts less damaging, is to a) limit the amount mindfully before I start eating, b) have them raw (unroasted), c) unsalted so I don't retain water and d) only once a day after keeping my calories low with my other recipes.

I also have found that I can manage my cravings better if I keep hydrated, so I force myself to drink a 16oz bottle of water between meals. Until I finish the 16oz I don't let myself eat. This really helps me out.

I do eat frequently and have found that I can manage some of my tendencies to want to eat nuts and cheese if I just force myself to eat one of my recipes even when it's not what I want.  At least I get food in and then I'm full and there is no room for something bad.  I don't always manage it, but these strategies help me do it more frequently and be in better control.  Having food cooked and ready to go is necessary because when that urge to eat something bad hits, I need to have a healthy choice ready while my will power is weak.

When I do these things I lose steadily. When I run into problems is when I allow myself to eat cheese, when I don't measure and start eating nuts or cheese mindlessly, when I eat other people's cooking, etc. I don't do this perfectly and some days are better than others. The last month has been incredibly stressful for me so I've had a lot more not so great days than great days.

But a great day for me would be doing all of the things I said.. eating nothing but one of my recipes all day, then ending the day allowing myself a measured amount of raw, unsalted cashews (still keeping my calories low since I've saved a bit from the lower calorie recipes)... that makes the very regimented way I have to eat a bit more palatable for me and makes it less likely that I will fall off the wagon. I know this all sounds incredibly strict and it is.. I wish I did not have to eat this way.

I wish I didn't have to be so strict.. but with some of my strategies and recipes I have discovered ways to manage to do this more often than not (barring major stress which makes it not go as well) and lose steadily. Please give it a shot, and let me know if I can help. I have waded these same waters and am happy to help you negotiate them as well.

Hope that helps.. hugs...

Thank you so much for your valuable advice. It IS possible that the weight gain is water as I haven't been too careful about the sodium in my diet. Your recipes sound wonderful and I'd love to try them, however, I do have a couple of problems with them. First, I can't find all the ingredents locally. For instance, "pico de gallo". I looked up the recipe for it and it sounds a lot like one of the salads I make with avocados, so I guess I can substitute. The second problem is that it's not easy for me to cook. I have a lady that comes in three times a week who does most of the housework and cooking with my directions. We make everything from scratch and don't usually take shortcuts, most of the ingredients I use are not pre-prepared. That helps with cutting sodium down, but on the other hand, I use salt and spices liberally, so it adds up.
I'm afraid that cheese and cold cuts are a main staple for me for both breakfast and snacks because they don't need any preparation. If I have to cut these out, I don't know WHAT I would eat, since I have no one to prepare food for me on a regular basis... I live with two  men (my husband and my brother) who consider it hard work to even make a sandwich for themelves! Plus, they eat HUGE amounts of food, so anything we prepare ahead of time disappears fast. Anyway, these are my day-to-day problems, I didn't mean to burden you with them.
Today, I'm half a kilo down, so I'll pray it's water weight and keep going.

Amalia

Well first of all, none of my recipes need to be made EXACTLY a certain way.  I often make the chicken salad and throw different veggies in there.  The point is to bulk up the chicken or tuna salad with veggies so it makes you fuller on less calories.  So you do not HAVE to have pico de gallo.. you can substitute with other things. Secondly, pico de gallo is just chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro; nothing fancy.  

If you can't cook frequently then you definitely need to cook in bulk when you have help, and that's what I do anyway since I don't have time to cook six meals a day (that's how often I typically eat).  So for example yesterday I put 4 large chicken breasts on my george foreman, and while those were cooking I chopped up veggies.

I use a little mini electric food chopper to give me a fine dice.  So yesterday I took several cucumbers and chopped them into large chunks, then one by one put the chunks into the food chopper and got a bunch of finely diced cucumbers.  I did the same thing with carrots and spinach and cilantro and parsley in my food chopper.  

I just chop it roughly and then put it in my food chopper to finish the job and give a nice fine dice.  Then by that time the chicken was done cooking, so I cut that into large chunks, then put that through my big food processor to give it a fine shredded quality.  I threw everything into a huge bowl while I was working on it, then lastly mixed in greek yogurt and lemon juice and sea salt.

I made enough of it that it will last me for three days.  You could make even more when your helper is there.  I don't know if you are able to buy meat that is already cut up for you or veggies that are already cut up for you, but if you can, that is so easy to throw stuff like that in the crockpot to make a soup, I bet you can do that yourself.  

You just get a bag of broccoli florets, chicken cutlets, some dried herbs and a can of low sodium chicken broth.  Very little preparation.  I am an extremely lazy cook.. I hate to spend time chopping, dicing, stirring, etc.  So if you tell me what specifically is too time or energy consuming, I can give you tips on making it easier.

Can you get ground turkey?  You can throw that in the crockpot with some cumin, tomato sauce and chili powder, and have turkey chili all day.  If you can buy already cut veggies of any kind like cut greeen beans, you can throw those in there to bulk it up.  These are easy things that you can probably do, or your helper can do it for you in large quantity, so you don't have to rely on processed meats and cheeses.

I can relate to everything being challenging.  When I was nearly 400 pounds I could barely stand for more than 5 minutes at a time, and I did learn how to cook things that took me no longer than 5 mins of prep time.  So I know it can be done.  You can also have your helper boil you a pot of plain boiled eggs to snack on.  Scrambled eggs are easy to make.  Again there are many things you can make that are easier on you.

I realize how challenging it must be for you, which is why I think that you have to look at these things as puzzles you solve.. use creativity and wit to find ways to make these challenges something you can overcome. I do not think this is the time to just ignore it and hope tha****er weight goes away.  I also think the rusk and fruit and such have to go. :(

Good luck!

OK, the rusks go. The fruit will go, AFTER I eat the strawberries I just bought! LOL
Reading your post, it occured to me that if I were capable of sticking to a diet long term, I wouldn't have needed WLS *sigh*

Unfortunately there is no WLS that can change your need for good quality food.  Your body still needs plenty of protein and vitamins and still has zero need for the carby foods.

This WLS *only* changes your portion sizes, and for some lucky people the appetite.  It's NOT easy, but you have had some help with your tool so far, and now it's much more about you and your choices. I don't do perfectly every day, but every day I work on it and try to do better. 

I analyze what I am eating and what could be improved.  I try to figure out what strategies I can use to make those improvements by analyzing what the root cause of my bad choice was.  Some things are easier than others. 

For example it's not so easy for me to not have cheese in the house because my son eats it.   But I have found that if I only keep shredded in the house it's not much of a problem as if I have block or slices. I'm not interested in shredded so much.  It took a bit of figuring out to determine that.

Or I found that raw unsalted cashews were something I could portion out and eat within certain boundaries, while roasted salted cashews are crack for me.. I do not keep those in the house.  Or sometimes I have to keep things where I won't see them.  I'm still a work in progress but I've come pretty far with a TON of work.

I was NOT able to change my relationship with food overnight.  It took many years of time and work before I was able to look at food and be apathetic.  For me these days as long as I'm not hungry and my food isn't gross and is healthy I don't really care what I eat.

So just keep working on the emotional/psychological part. Maybe you can read some of the books Brandilynn recommends.  This is the hard part.. making those good choices.  Sometimes it helps to have good recipes and for me it really helps to have food ready to go, because I only have so much will power.

How is your fluild intake,? and is the weather getting warmer?  I can gain water weight when it gets warmer.  Keep the fluids up. 

Are you adding artificial sweetner to your tea?  you might want to try to stick with plain green and herbal teas and see if that helps with fluid retention.

 

My fluid intake is fine, I'm a big drinker. Yes, the weather is getting warmer but not hot yet and yes, I do add artificial sweetner to my tea, but I can't drink it plain :(

Amalia