Not quite adapting to the transition

Howdy folks -

Highest weight:  310
Starting weight:  280
Goal weight:  160
Current weight:  157
Height:  5'10"
Sex:  Male

Soooo I hit my goal weight 2 or 3 weeks ago, fanfare, fanfare, and started trying to ease into maintainence.  I'm eating a little more... but still really on my strict high, high protein food.  I "cheat" on the weekends and have some wine mixed with chips and salsa (the horror) but never really stalled out that much and still got to my goal weight in 8 months.  Regardless, I've been "eating" breakfast sometimes when I used to just drink a protein shake.  After I exercise now, I'll have 100 or so calories of protein in addition to my regular intake.

The problem is... I'm still slowly losing.  I'm done to 157, or 156.5, which puts me 3 or 3.5 pounds under goal.  Not horrible, but I'm still trending down. And I'm starting to get juuuuust a bit boney on my upperbody.  Thin arms, rib cage,

I'm kinda afraid to eat more though.  Logically, I know I need to, no problem.  But if that scale gets above 160 ever again, I'm worried I'll feel like a failure.  It's "safe" to stay on my diet in a certain sense. 

I am increasing calories a litle - like instead of eating plain tuna, making a reasonable curry tuna salad, but I think with exercise it's still not enough calories.  Did any of you fear like this?  How did you overcome it?

Congrats Ruggie on having Cirangle Syndrome. This seems to happen to many of us. It did to me and I ended up15 lbs below goal which dr. thinks is ok. But it was hard to stop.

DO NOT go eat sugar and junk, but you know that. Eat more of higher fat healthy items like nuts, peanut butter and such. I even did 1% milk for awhile at dietician's suggestion.

Right now you are still very much restricted by tummy. It will change over the next year or so ever so gradually until you can eat greater amounts. Don't be anxious to try to gain weight or eat junk. Just patiently nibble at the almonds and cheese and such things and you will do fine. I got panicked at my continued losing but it bottomed out and now I could easily gain if I didn'****ch it. Keep food journaling and you will find your sweet spot of calories. You are probably going to end up about doubling your caloric intake and you can't up it that much all at once.  Read older posts on the maintenance group and you will see several examples of people with the same issue.

So have some cheese with your wine.

Diane

Hi Diane -

Thanks for this.  Think I needed to hear it.

 
Hey Ruggs.....

Here are some thoughts......things you probably already are aware of....

You have other components to work with....it's just not calorie based.

If I'm reading into your situation correctly..... several things are happening right now that effect your body weight.

Kinda the perfect storm so to speak.....your at a crossroads....

- Your body weight is in a narrow range of normal.
- Your body is/has adjusted or adjusting from massive WL and is resetting/establishing to new set points.
- You have added your 5K training.
- Your body is a very officiant fat burning machine right now.
- Your metabolism must be pretty jacked up with the added training.
- Your a young guy and have the advantage of being on the good side of youth. Far less years of rag tag damage to your metabolism.
- Your going to have a larger range of defining tolerances by adding a more varied spectrum of foods than some of us elders.

In a nutshell......You have a better chance to lean towards a "Normal" diet.

So, yes..... Caloric intake as well as carbs and fats can be adjusted. I gradually upped my carbs to less than 80 grams from the WL number of 40. I think I could even go higher and I do on occasion, but 80grams seems a good baseline for me right now. I'm full fat on most everything that taste better. Even Half and Half and Whole dairy seems OK for me.

Some foods you may want to try adding..... (don't know if you've tried any of this)

- Full fat Mayo (Mayo & Sriracha is my default sauce when something needs quick lube and flavor) nuts, avocados, fattier cuts of meat.

- Higher carb veggies, limited whole grain breads (open face sandwich) limited whole grain pastas, limited brown rice, Steel Cut Oatmeal (I'm gonna try this myself)

- I still do protein shakes on occasion and they are MUCH MORE enjoyable with frozen fruits added to the blender.

So...your just finding your balance by adding calories, carbs, fats and fiber.

Also, you may want to contact Macmadame on this subject. She has the athlete thing down and knows how to adjust your diet from when your training and not training.

You have good problems !!!

frisco

Hey Frisco -

I guess you're right about the perfect storm in a sense!  Thanks for the advice.  I'll also see what MacMadame thinks.

Aside from the helpful suggestions above, complex carbs like sweet potato, steel cut oatmeal (yummy) and healthy fats are your friends. Since you are running, you need to fuel your workouts with some complex carbs. Since I am well into maintenance, I sometimes have oatmeal or sweet potato a few times/week. I love some avocado and a little almond butter.  Since you are young and male, your calories and carb intake will be higher than some of us small petite people. Adding another protein drink with 1% milk would be good, as well as 2% Greek Yogurt. Some berries would be great.

Eventually, your weight will redistribute and some of the boniness will decrease. Weight training would help to add a layer of muscle.

The fear of adding in calories and gaining is very normal. I think we have all gone through this.

I run and lift and have found that I also need some complex carbs in order to make it through longer runs. Anything longer than 4 miles and I can really feel it if I've been really restrictive on my carbs. This is something you will have to play around with.

Once your body adapts to burning fats and not carbs during your workouts, it does get easier but getting over the hump sucks!

If you want to add some calories, but not volume then you'll have to experiment with the healthy fats. I prefer to add some canned coconut milk to my shakes, eat guacamole and nuts.

Jen

If you were to go back to the post I made when I first reached goal you would see that I shared your exact same worries.  I had gone down all the way to 101 lbs. and that was starting to scare me a bit. Dr. Cirangle was never worried about it.  He told me to just continue to add in the calories through fats and some complex carbs until the weight stabilized.  If I knew then what I know now, I would not have panicked.  It really does work out in the end, you are not going to starve.  I bet a little over a year from now, you will be saying these same words to the next Dr. Cirangle patient.  Do what Frisco told you to do, he's right on as usual.  Don't feel the need to do anything drastic, your weight will eventually stop going down and might even start to bounce around a little bit.  All part of this strange journey. 

Hi Elina -

I'm sure you're right!  I think I'm just thick headed and need to hear things I already "know" sometimes.  Reassurance? 

I won't do anything drastic.  Thanks for replying :)

Same song, different verse here. And my body is messing with me: every time I up calories my weight stabilizes and bounces in a tight range for a couple of weeks, then the losing starts again. Making me nutz. Like you, I think I'm starting to look too thin.

I've upped calories again and stabilized for now - been bouncing between 158 and 159 for the last two weeks - but I don't trust it yet. Played this game before.

Things I've been doing:
Nuts, seeds and nut butters - I have become a nut & seed butter nut! Natural peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, cashew butter (they should bottle that in Waterford crystal as expensive as it is). Then maple almond butter, honey peanut butter...

My latest find is Vermont Peanut Butter, which comes in all kinds of flavors: http://www4.netrition.com/vermont_pb.html

Milk and yogurt in 2% instead of non-fat/skim.

Full fat mayo in the tuna salad

Don't be afraid of healthy fats - they will do less to trip you up than simple carbs. I have added fruit back in, but not much else high in sugars. Carbs still running comfortably under 100 a day.