[Gizmo]

In the first couple of months after being diagnosed I lost 20 pounds. But for the past few months I have been stuck. I have read Beefy's guide to weight loss. He says if you get stuck, shake things up by eating more, then cutting back down. I tried that and it didn't work for me. While reading through old posts, I came across this one:

I lost weight eating around 20 total per day and am now slowly adding them in while watching my meter. The scale is irrelevant for me at this stage. I'm at my goal weight and now eating about 30-40

Maybe I am eating too many carbs, although I try to keep it between 20 and 30, I haven't been real exact with my counts because almost all of my carbs come from veggies low on the glycemic index like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, I haven't been measuring them.

I am 67, and have a dislocated zyphoid so when it comes to exercise I can't bring my hands/arms above my shoulders or lift anything heavy, like weights, or I end up in extreme pain, but I do walk on the treadmill 20 min. per day.

After reading Patdart's post, I am curious to know what food made up the 20 carbs per day, whether or not you measured your veggies. And any other help from anyone would be appreciated.

 

[Patdart]

What post and I'll try to be more specific about my diet. Just ask...

 

[Shanny]

This one, I think, Pat . . . http://www.diabetesforum.com/diabet...g-type-2-without-medications-4.html#post44407

 

[Gizmo]

I went to the Atkins website as Pat suggested in her earlier post and did some reading. I will try measuring and counting carbs and see how it goes. Looks like I might have been eating some of the wrong veggies.

 

[jwags]

Weight loss is a very individual thing. After I had my kids it seemed I was always on some kind of diet. Some worked , some didn't . The one thing though that was constant was plateaus. It happens to most of us. Sometimes the plateaus last 6 months or a year. Over 10 years I have lost almost 80 pounds but it did not come off all at once. It came off in dribs and drabs. I also do low carb diet, mainily to manage my bgs. I stopped losing weight around 8 months ago and am on a long plateau. I usually exercise at least an hour or day or more. Usually I walk 4-5 miles a day and on weekends I hike 8-10. I am almost 61 and it seems my body decides it likes a certain weight and fights against further weight loss. I would write everything down that you put in your mouth and look at the snacks, especially the fats and proteins. Even though they may not raise bg they may sabbotage your weight. I think in Dr Bernstein's book he says to cut back on protein if you weight loss is stuck.

 

[Gizmo]

Sometimes the plateaus last 6 months or a year.

Yikes!!!!!

 

[wdmama]

I'm kind of in the same place, but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm nursing. They always say that it helps lose weight, but plenty of women actually hold onto their weight because the body wants to keep it's fat stores in case of famine, so she can still feed her baby. I lost 30 pounds WHILE pregnant, but since having him, I haven't budged, even though I've lost inches.

My situation is different, but I just wanted to commiserate on not losing.

Oh, and I also think that it may be my thyroid. My OB cut me back from 3 grains to 2.5 grains, and my Endo wasn't too thrilled about that. That's also about the time the weight loss completely stopped. So, we'll see what those levels come back as. If I go back to 3 grains, I'll probably start losing again.

 

[fgummett]

How do you look? How do you clothes fit? Do you have any old photos to refer to for comparison?

I wish I had taken baseline measurements before I started losing excess fat mass. It does move around -- possibly even with the seasons. I have gone many months with no shift on the scales but still taking in my belt a notch at a time.

 

[Gizmo]

How do you look? How do you clothes fit? Do you have any old photos to refer to for comparison?

I don't really understand your post. Are you wanting me to post photos of myself before and after I got fat? If so, how could that help? I'm 5' 4 1/2" and weighed 120 or less until I turned 50. I gradually went up to 222 and after low carbing am now at 198, so my clothes are a little baggy but not a lot.

 

[Shalynne]

I don't really understand your post. Are you wanting me to post photos of myself before and after I got fat? If so, how could that help? I'm 5' 4 1/2" and weighed 120 or less until I turned 50. I gradually went up to 222 and after low carbing am now at 198, so my clothes are a little baggy but not a lot.

I'm not Frank, but I'm guessing he suggests you take photos for your own self-reference, to better gauge your own progress.

I've also been through "plateaus" where weight refuses to budge, but my clothes sizes change ... usually for the (ever-so-slightly) better.

 

[Gizmo]

No, I'm not losing 'inches'. After losing those 24 lbs. I'm at a standstill. I have to eat leftovers today, but starting tomorrow I will try using the carb counts that Atkins suggests and will measure everything and count every carb. I'll try 20 carbs per day, cross my fingers and hope for the best. If that doesn't work, guess I'll have to eat even less carbs than that.

 

[Shalynne]

I'm dealing with a total plateau, too. I can't really cut enough carbs to make a difference, since I eat very few to begin with, and am far too wimpy to cut out fresh veggies.

So I'm gonna look at my protein vs. fat intake. I suspect I'll need to reduce the protein.

 

[jwags]

Can you tell us what you normally eat in a day. If I cut my carbs too much it doesn't necessarily lead to more weight loss. It is a fine balance that you have to find that works. There are lots of low carb foods that will add weight on if you are not careful. Most of them are snack foods like nuts , cheese, low carb ice cream. The other thing is to make sure you fire up your metabolism. This will burn more calories. If you cut calories too low your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolism slows down. I nursed all my 5 children for at least 18 months - 2years. I kept most of my weight on until I stopped nursing because I am sure my body was preserving fat for my babies. Our bodies sometimes will prevent you from losing weight. Sometimes you have to trick it. Interval training usually works sometimes, as does mixing up your meals. Start eating dinner for breakfast or lunch for dinner. If you do 3 meals, try to do 6. If you exercise at night try to do it first thing in the morning. This will shake up your muscle memory and force metabolism to reboot itself.

 

[Gizmo]

There aren't a lot of exercises I can do because of my zyphoid, I am not supposed to raise my hands/arms above my head/shoulders, and if I lift like 4 pounds or more, the zyphoid pops out more and starts giving me pain. So right now my exercise is the treadmill 20 min. per day, but some days, like today, my hip hurts too bad to walk on it.

When I get up I eat less than an ounce of cheese, maybe half an hour later I have coffee with a dash of heavy cream. Most days I cut up beef and cook cabbage, onion, celery, carrots, and a can of green beans and eat a small bowl of that when I get hungry during the day. I cook a meal for DH, usually beef, pork or chicken, a low carb veggie like green beans, a tossed salad with spring greens, tomatoes and cukes, with mayo for salad dressing, but I usually don't eat salad very often any more 'cause I'm sick of it. Before bed I eat less than an ounce of cheese. Counting the morning and evening cheese, I eat 5 or 6 times per day.

 

[smorgan]

In my experience you can't just look at carbs. Check your macronutrient balance by looking at all three. Note that looked at this way, changing any of them changes all of them. We need to be more cognizant of the fact that if, for example, you just cut carbs and change nothing else, you have INCREASED the portions of both fat and protein in you diet. If you are eating very low-carb and not losing weight (assuming you should be), it is usually one of two things:

1) you're eating too much protein - without changing anything else swap some protein calories for some fat calories and that should do it

2) You're just 'stuck' (real or perceived) - try a "fat fast" (I think Atkins recommends this, too), basically macadamia nuts and cream cheese or equivalent for a few days. This has been known to break the log-jam and re-start weight loss.

I went from 200 to 174 and now it just stays there pretty much no matter what I do. I take that as a message from my body and I accept it. I think this is my "right" weight and I'm not going to fight it, even though my original goal was 165.

Remember that statistically as a group the "overweight" category live longer than the "ideal" one!

 

[Gizmo]

I went from 200 to 174 and now it just stays there pretty much no matter what I do. I take that as a message from my body and I accept it. I think this is my "right" weight and I'm not going to fight it, even though my original goal was 165.

But you are only 9 pounds away from your goal, I am about 60 pounds away, and do know that 198 is not a healthy weight for me.

 

[wdmama]

I nursed all my 5 children for at least 18 months - 2years. I kept most of my weight on until I stopped nursing because I am sure my body was preserving fat for my babies. Our bodies sometimes will prevent you from losing weight. Sometimes you have to trick it.

LOL, not what I wanted to hear since I nurse for an extended amount of time as well. Oh well, it's worth it to give my baby the best. I can continue to eat healthy, add in different types of exercise, etc. I don't want to restrict my diet too much, b/c that can affect supply. And then when he weans, hopefully it will all pay off.

 

[jwags]

I was always thin until I started to have kids. My last baby was born when I was almost 39. I kept extra weight on with each one but a lot with the last one. Losing weight in your 40's is the pits. I think it was right before my 50th birthday I decided I hated my body. I exercised and played tennis several times a week but running 5 kids to all their activities and sports took a toll on our meal schedule. I am 5 foot 3.5 inches and at my heaviest was pushing 200. Since I was all muscle I didn't look it but I wore tennis sweats all the time. I tried a lot of different diets. I think the South Beach was the most effective. The weight came off in 10 or 20 pounds units and then I would plateau. It took me over 6 years to get down to 148 and that is when I was dx'd with diabetes. I was really bummed out. All this hard work to lose the weight and get fit and then I get diabetes. My doctor told me maybe I should lose more weight or exercise more. You can imagine what I thought about that. I was already exercising for 2-3 hours most days. Although I thought my diet was healthy, I ate vegetarian and ate tons of fruits and grains. So I totally went low carb and cut out a lot of cereals, breads, quinoa, bulgar and barley as well as all flour. My weight loss started again and before I knew it I was 138. I plateaued for a year or so and then dropped to high 120's. I then upped my metformin to the maximum and lowered my carbs and was able to get to 112. But I looked terrible, I looked like a skeleton. So I had to raise my carbs to gain some weight. I am now 118-120 and I look a lot smaller. I am in a size 2. So have patience it will happen. Plus slow weight loss is usually the best kind.

 

[Francois]

Just an observation from my side... I've lost 27 kilos on a low carb, low fat, low proteien diet and then got stuck for 2 years. Then I decided to do Atkins but I got terrible cravings and picked up 10kg in a short space of time whilst on Atkins! On my low fat, low carb, low protein diet I ate mainly nuts, coconut oil, flax oil and fish oils for fat, fish, chicken and soya for proteien and low carb veggies and berry fruits. The moment I started with Atkins I went overboard with red meat and animal fat and the more I ate it the more I craved it...with the kilos just stacking up again. Now I am back to my old diet and I've dropped almost 3 kilos already within 10 days with virtually no cravings. For me personally it seems that the low everything diet works better for me.

 

[Gizmo]

Just an observation from my side... I've lost 27 kilos on a low carb, low fat, low proteien diet and then got stuck for 2 years. Then I decided to do Atkins but I got terrible cravings and picked up 10kg in a short space of time whilst on Atkins! On my low fat, low carb, low protein diet I ate mainly nuts, coconut oil, flax oil and fish oils for fat, fish, chicken and soya for proteien and low carb veggies and berry fruits. The moment I started with Atkins I went overboard with red meat and animal fat and the more I ate it the more I craved it...with the kilos just stacking up again. Now I am back to my old diet and I've dropped almost 3 kilos already within 10 days with virtually no cravings. For me personally it seems that the low everything diet works better for me.

I don't eat soya or berries, and I do eat beef and pork because I don't like soya or fish much at all, and get tired of eating chicken, but other than that, I eat pretty much the things you suggest.

I tried going the low everything diet several times through the years, my body thinks I am trying to starve it and holds onto the fat. As it is, I only eat when I'm hungry and just little dabs of food, maybe the problem is I am eating too little. Guess I need to do some experimenting.