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Post by loveshoes on Oct 1, 2012 12:18:29 GMT -5
Hi Ladies!
I’ve been MIA for awhile, just been busy with life and haven’t had much time for anything fun. So I’m really bummed out. I have been working out like a crazy person for 1 year. My goal when I started the Gluten free eating etc was to increase my overall health and hopefully drop 10 lbs that came back on after I got sick and went back onto the pill continual. My workout plan consists of the following: Monday – Friday 45 min step aerobic work out, wearing a 12 lb weighted vest AND holding 2 lb hand weights. Once that’s done, I run on my treadmill for 10 additional minutes. Weekends are a 6 mile brisk walk to my local forest preserve of which the terrain is a gravel/sand mixture so no easy pavement walking and there are quite afew inclines so it’s a really good work out. I am religious about this stuff, don’t cheat. I never miss a day. My diet includes steel cut gf oats with some flax/banana/almond milk for breakfast. Lunch is a salad with measured dressing so I’m not using too much, mid afternoon snack is a greek yogurt with UDI’s granola and some honey. Evenings might be my problem, I tend to like to have a potato in the microwave with some sour cream. I know the endo diet says no dairy but that is the 1 dairy along with the greek. I’m not eating junk, no soda, lots of water. I reallly try NOT to weigh myself but I saw my gyno for my annual and seeing her weight me on the scale really bothered me. I haven’t lost 1 freaking pound during all of this working out! Not 1!~ Mathmatically, this just doesn’t seem right to me. Yes, I know the pill can cause some issues with weight loss ability but come on, with all I am doing, this just doesn’t even seem possible. I’m going to see my regular dr. in afew weeks, wondering besides a full hormone panel to check, what other specific tests should I have run? I know thyroid is important though I’ve had it checked a million times with no findings. Karen – if you read this – I know you’re the guru with the thyroid stuff,and you’ve mentioned before that you need a complete panel and not just a T something, can you please let me know? I already take vitamin d3 but I’m having that re checked as well. Can you ladies think of ANYTHING I’m missing here? I don’t need to drop a lot of weight, I only wanted to loose 10 lbs to get rid of my belly fat, I’m thin everywhere else but this belly just annoys me. Help ladies! What am I missing here? I also don't suspect it could be PCOS because when I was trying to get pregnant, my periods were plus or minus 1 day right on schedule from what I know with PCOS, that wouldn't be the case.
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jaye
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Posts: 165
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Post by jaye on Oct 1, 2012 17:43:23 GMT -5
Hi Loveshoes.
You might not like what I'm gonna say but this is just coming from my perspective - my opinion and all that. Take it or leave it.
Fat loss is not gonna happen if you keep your insulin jacked up (which is what your diet looks like). Your body cannot access its fat stores when insulin is high because insulin puts your body in fat-storage-mode.
I can't remember if you are vegetarian for religious/ethical reasons. If not, maybe try to eat lower carb meals focusing on good quality fat and protein. Try not to snack if its not too stressful. If it is, snack on low-carb goodies like hard-boiled eggs.
This is very secondary but you might try getting some weight or resistance exercise into the mix. I do pushups, squats, or planks until my muscles fail about 1-3 times a week. Muscle needs to be fed so you use more energy just doing nothing when you have larger muscles. However, building a little muscle may mean that your weight stays the same even though you are losing fat.
I have a dear friend who has been trying to lose her baby weight (a lot of it) for 2 years! She has been an exercise addict! But she didn't make any progress until she started eating like how I describe above. She is now down almost 30 pounds in the last 6 months or so.
Hope this helps. -J
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Post by omaklackey on Oct 1, 2012 20:14:00 GMT -5
I would be more inclined to think it was due to your hormones than diet. In spite of what people think, you should lose weight if you are exercising and eating healthy. I have the same issue and I keep hoping once I get my hormones figured out I will start losing weight again.
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Post by Karen on Oct 1, 2012 20:22:56 GMT -5
I tend to agree with Jaye - and a bit with Omak. Insulin is very much a hormone, and when that's out of whack, so is everything else. At first glance, it appears you're over-exercising and not getting enough nutrition. Forget fat and calorie-counting - your body needs to feel like it's getting the nutrients it needs to thrive. It's certainly working for me and a lot of other people I know.
Marketing companies and the media tell us we need to do certain things in order to lose weight, but if it's not working for you, don't you think you should consider a different approach? What if they're wrong?
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Post by loveshoes on Oct 1, 2012 20:25:47 GMT -5
Perhaps I'm missing somehting Jaye, I'm gluten free and follow the endo diet for the most part, where is my insulin jacked up besides from eating a potato which isn't daily? I have a potato maybe 3x a week and then sometimes no dinner or other times just cereal depending. I don't like to eat late at night so if something comes up and I get busy, I'll skip dinner, not a big deal. I eat very few processed foods and stick to the permieter of the grocery store eating fresh. I'm not anti animal, I don't digest beef well but I eat mostly chicken/salmon. As far as the resistance training, if the 12 lb vest isn't going to give me resistance into the mix, then I can't do much more so I have the weights covered into the mix. The flax covers the healthy omegas as well, again very healthy. My best guess is perhaps the resistance with the weighted vest and step aerobics might have built more muscle. I don't know. It's still a math equasion but I know I'm not cheating, eating healthy and doing way more cardio than anyone I know, surely I should have seen some results on the scale even though I do realize that the health benefits internally are amazing. Omak - can you suggest what hormone panels or thyroid panels I should note to request? I was thinking for sure check testosterone, progresterone, estrogen. I'm also going to have vitamin d and b12 checked. Not sure on the thyroid, I think it's t3 and t4, are there others?
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Post by semicolon on Oct 1, 2012 20:27:43 GMT -5
Wow, and I thought I was good on exercise! Maybe you actually need a day off for your muscles to recover. My only thoughts are to add some more protein.
More importantly, do you feel good? Do you have any reason to think your metabolism might be off?
I am fine with my weight, but I do know it almost doesn't change even when I'm in training for a long race or not. Sometimes I wish I could have a nice flat stomach but I know that went out the window several surgeries ago!
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Post by loveshoes on Oct 1, 2012 20:43:24 GMT -5
Yeah, I feel great. I'm going to try laying off the carbs and see what happens.
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Post by loveshoes on Oct 1, 2012 20:45:53 GMT -5
is there a test I can request to check my insulin levels at the doctor? I"m pretty sure that's part of the standard blood panel right? Hmmmm I think it's usually normal. I have NEVER ever had an issue loosing weight in the past. I'm sticking to the 5 meals, eating fresh, following the rules, I'm totally not starving myself but I'm also not eating junk and cheating with cookies or sweets either. I don't feel like I'm going anything to sabbotage my plan so something is off....gotta find what.
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Post by semicolon on Oct 1, 2012 21:17:07 GMT -5
A regular blood screen should do your blood glucose, either fasting or not. My husband has diabetes and it is remarkably easy to test your blood sugar (and that is one of the first things they would notice if it's off). But if it's not clinically high or low, what you are eating could be making swings within that range that your body adjusts to.
I'm writing this, but reading the post right before I posted makes me think you aren't eating enough (like dinner). If I skip a meal...well, I never skip a meal so I can't even imagine not eating dinner. I would accidentally kill someone (and then probably eat them).
Any way you slice it, you're frustrated and that sucks. But I'm glad you physically feel good and have the energy and will power to keep your body moving!
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jaye
Full Member
Posts: 165
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Post by jaye on Oct 2, 2012 7:39:48 GMT -5
Perhaps I'm missing somehting Jaye, I'm gluten free and follow the endo diet for the most part, where is my insulin jacked up besides from eating a potato which isn't daily? I have a potato maybe 3x a week and then sometimes no dinner or other times just cereal depending. I don't like to eat late at night so if something comes up and I get busy, I'll skip dinner, not a big deal. I eat very few processed foods and stick to the permieter of the grocery store eating fresh. I'm not anti animal, I don't digest beef well but I eat mostly chicken/salmon. As far as the resistance training, if the 12 lb vest isn't going to give me resistance into the mix, then I can't do much more so I have the weights covered into the mix. The flax covers the healthy omegas as well, again very healthy. My best guess is perhaps the resistance with the weighted vest and step aerobics might have built more muscle. "My diet includes steel cut gf oats with some flax/banana/almond milk for breakfast. Lunch is a salad with measured dressing so I’m not using too much, mid afternoon snack is a greek yogurt with UDI’s granola and some honey. Evenings might be my problem, I tend to like to have a potato in the microwave with some sour cream." Oats, banana, and almond milk is a carb breakfast. Salad's good but the dressing might be sweet and maybe add a protein (if you don't already). yogurt, granola, and honey is a carb snack. What I'm saying is try some salmon patties with eggs for breakfast, salad with protein and no sweet stuff for lunch, no snack and then have a balanced dinner. What I'm saying goes against conventional wisdom. I don't believe CW because I've only seen people really succeed in weight loss (keeping it off) when they go against it. It makes sense to me, too, because I come from an ecology background - I know that people in the wild (most of the time people have been on earth) had easy access to unprocessed meats, vegetables and fruit - not nut milk, grains, processed dairy, etc. Honey would have been an occasional treat, not an everyday or every week kind of thing. Besides, I don't trust the medical community to have many answers for my endo. They are just as misguided when it comes to diet. Dr.s really don't get much nutrition training. The 12 lb vest is great for helping build your bone density while you walk. But It's not gonna build much muscle, same with cardio. You actually need to lift heavy things to build muscle. I don't mean weights necessarily - I lift my body weight. That's great that you can skip a meal and not feel like you are gonna die. That is a really bad situation. I also wanted to mention that all that working out is fairly stressful - raises cortisol which puts your body in an energy-protection mode. Not getting enough sleep and stress can do the same thing. Whatever you decide to do, I wish you luck!
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jaye
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Posts: 165
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Post by jaye on Oct 2, 2012 7:51:32 GMT -5
is there a test I can request to check my insulin levels at the doctor? I"m pretty sure that's part of the standard blood panel right? Hmmmm I think it's usually normal. I have NEVER ever had an issue loosing weight in the past. I'm sticking to the 5 meals, eating fresh, following the rules, I'm totally not starving myself but I'm also not eating junk and cheating with cookies or sweets either. I don't feel like I'm going anything to sabbotage my plan so something is off....gotta find what. Loveshoes, I just noticed your response hidden in Karen's quote. This jacked up insulin isn't really something you can get a test for. You can test it but it just gives you a snapshot of a single moment. The issue is that everytime you eat a carby meal your insulin has to respond. The more times a day you do that, the more your insulin is floating around the body telling your cells to suck up the extra energy. When the cells are sucking up the energy to use or store, they cannot use the stored fat your body already has on hand. The 5 meals a day thing is part of the problem; Your body is always busy digesting and that includes sending insulin out to do its thing. Maybe try 3 meals a day, no snacking.
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Post by loveshoes on Oct 2, 2012 7:57:44 GMT -5
I’ll have to research this more. With the endo diet, things are very limited as it is, I thought based on everything I know, my diet was excellent. I also read that you should have more frequent meals thru the day to keep your metabolism going, the 3 meal thing no snacking wasn’t so hot. I’m even more confused than ever now. If I’m hungry, I’m going to eat – I always do and select healthy stuff. Thanks for the input.
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Post by loveshoes on Oct 2, 2012 8:37:00 GMT -5
I also really feel that I"m following the new nutrition guidelines eating mostly greens and fresh, there is no way any of that can be bad. I also wanted to clarify, I am in no means starving myself, or depriving myself of food, I cut out the basics of the foods that are restricted on the endo diet anyways, sugars, coffee's processed foods, all are bad anyways so I"m doing a very good thing for myself. I'm just frustrated, my work output should definately have helped me trim the few pounds I wanted to loose.
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Post by loveshoes on Oct 2, 2012 11:23:38 GMT -5
Hey Karen since I saw you read my post, would you please tell me about the thyroid tests to ask for since you know this area best? I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!
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Post by omaklackey on Oct 2, 2012 12:36:45 GMT -5
Loveshoes, I really think your diet is fine, I would be much more concerned about the Insulin, Thyroid or hormone levels. With what you eat and the amount your working out you should be dropping pounds regardless of any new fads in weight loss, or the endo diet or anything else. Working out should have caused you to at least start losing. One thing though is muscle weighs more than fat. If your doing such a great job working out, you may have traded in your fat for some muscle! AND that's a good thing!! My friend reminded me of that when I started walking. Also if you really want to see some change take some measurements. Arms, legs, thighs, belly, breast, chest, waist etc. and then you can really see the changes your body is making even without dropping weight. Please don't give up though! You are doing fine and I wish I could be as thorough as you!
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