STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Yikes. I have no idea what to say....

I was initially feeling like you know, not every program works for everyone. I know I have tried other "diets" that rocked for others & didn't work for me - but you have done WW before & lost weight, right?

I don't mean this ugly so please don't take it that way, but are you journaling? Are you sure you are eating within your points? I guess I say that because I haven't been & even though sometimes I think I'm doing good, I'm forgetting about the extra XX that I ate & that adds points. But iirc you've been posting your daily menus & it doesn't seem like you are going over points. and you have been exercising. It seems kind of soon for you to "plateau". If you don't mind me asking how much you are trying to lose? Like how far you are away from the high end of your goal weight? I only ask because I know I have lots to lose & have lost 17 which sounds like a lot, but for other people in our email group with not nearly that much to lose 3-5 pounds is a lot.

So I'm no help other than asking you tons of inappropriate questions....

actually you said you've been working out alot and everything - have you tried measuring your inches? it's possible that you are getting slimmer but just producing more muscle mass, which obviously weighs more than fat does.

have you been eating many fruits and veggies?  i also find that if i can pack these in as much as possible it somehow helps me lose weight and makes my skin look better (not that i'm good about DOING it all the time, but when i do...)

i make myself eat a banana or berries at breakfast nowadays ...
i try to eat a big salad with lotsa veggies (this shopping trip i got what was on sale - grape tomatoes, sprouts, orange peppers, radishes)
sometimes i snack on radishes and tomatoes
i try to have a glass of v8 a day (full serving of veggies)

i noticed you eat peanut butter alot in the morning - maybe incorporate a banana, and add a salad to your SB wrap?

otherwise the only thing i can think of is what laken said - be sure you're being very specific with what you take in, and keep track of it - no fruit juice!  it's sooo high in calories and sugar, no sodas, etc. (i'm sure you know this though)

Hermione wrote:

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actually you said you've been working out alot and everything - have you tried measuring your inches? it's possible that you are getting slimmer but just producing more muscle mass, which obviously weighs more than fat does. have you been eating many fruits and veggies?  i also find that if i can pack these in as much as possible it somehow helps me lose weight and makes my skin look better (not that i'm good about DOING it all the time, but when i do...) i make myself eat a banana or berries at breakfast nowadays ...i try to eat a big salad with lotsa veggies (this shopping trip i got what was on sale - grape tomatoes, sprouts, orange peppers, radishes)sometimes i snack on radishes and tomatoesi try to have a glass of v8 a day (full serving of veggies)i noticed you eat peanut butter alot in the morning - maybe incorporate a banana, and add a salad to your SB wrap? otherwise the only thing i can think of is what laken said - be sure you're being very specific with what you take in, and keep track of it - no fruit juice!  it's sooo high in calories and sugar, no sodas, etc. (i'm sure you know this though)

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I should probably work on getting more veggies in. I usually get most of my servings in a day but I guess it can't hurt to get more. I'm not so big on salads (but I can definitely start incorporating them in) but I eat a bit of fruit in the evenings. Maybe I'll add an apple mid-morning and mid-afternoon or something. Or a banana or carrots and hummus (which I eat at home regularly).

I should get a little fridge here at work so I can just keep stuff in it like at home. Ha! Imagine a mini-grocery store, right in my office.

Oh and I never drink fruit juice or soda (except diet) or anything like that. I'm not a sugar junkie, so that's not really an issue. Pasta on the other hand...

Maybe it's like Dizzy said, maybe everything's just going really slowly at first and it will pick up in the next few weeks. I'm going to stick with it and everything, because I like feeling in control, but something better start happening!!!

:(  you poor thing - i know how discouraging that can be.  talk to your leader, but it sounds like you're doing well!  maybe he/she can encourage something to "kickstart" your weight loss?

p.s. - i was pretty serious about WW a year or so ago, and i found i never lost weight very fast when i was drinking diet soda, though it was no sugar or calories, fyi - you might just try cutting that out if you can.

-- Edited by Hermione at 12:44, 2006-04-13

here's an article worth reading.

http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/weight/scale.htm


Why the Scale Lies

We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.

Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.

Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.

Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.

Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.

Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.

Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.

This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.

Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.

If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.

Sounds like you are doing a great job!  Sometimes it just takes longer for results to show... I've noticed this in my attempts to lose weight post-college. 

I totally agree with everything shopgirl82 said.  Its true that if you aren't eating enough your body clings to the food you do eat - our bodies haven't evolved as fast as our minds and technologies.

Hang in there - and definitely take some measurements!

(((hugs))) That's so frustrating!! The other girls all had really good advice, but I'll add:

watch the sodium. The SB meals have a ton of it, as does diet soda.

try and get more veggies. If you don't like salad, how about soup? or add veggies as filler in you dinner (ex, we made beans and rice the other day and threw some sorn in the stretch it out and add some nutrients)

take your measurements. If you're working out that much, you may have just gained muscle, which is heavy but take up less space then fat does. You may have gtten smaller without losing weight.

also- you eat your flex points, but what about your activity points? you might want to try eating them if you don't already.

-- Edited by ILoveChoo at 13:18, 2006-04-13

blubirde wrote:

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shopgirl82 wrote:

My boyfriend and I just got in a huge fight (okay, not huge and not really a fight but I feel like shit) over this exact issue. I was bitching to him about being nervous going to the Farm today (that's what my friends and I call WI at WW) and instead of offering support, he goes on and on about how I haven't actually been "working my ass off" like I said and should step my workouts up.
And maybe he's right but geez, I've only recently gotten into the habit of working out minimum 4 times a week. One thing at a time, right? Or maybe I'm just making excuses, like he says. I don't know anymore. I just wish talking to him about this was like talking to y'all. Y'all have tips and encouragement. He corrects me when I say I've been working hard and tells me not to complain. Ugh.
I'm off to the farm now, wish me luck!

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boys i swear just don't get it. my bf just lost like ten pounds eating dessert every night, fatty meals that clients pay for for lunch, etc... they just don't understand. meanwhile, i go to the gym very frequently, am on my feet at work, then he just doesn't get why i'm too tired to go the the gym when i get home. hello?! i don't have a desk job, plus, i lift weights (people) at my job!

they freaking don't get it.

blubirde....you make him workout WITH you (the fun way).

You should skip CARBS at night and eat fruit for breakfast... Avoid Sugars, except Fruit. Eat as much Fruit and Veggies as you want.  Work out like normal but Diversify the workout so you aren't always doing the same routine and set goals that you can and will reach at the gym.  I would also not drink any alcohol fro a few weeks.  If you do those things you .... I promise ... will lose weight! My boyfriend lost 20lbs. and he wasn't even fat! Also remember muscle weighs more than fat, but when you increase muscle you decrease fat.

-- Edited by lollipop at 14:19, 2006-04-13