[SandraO]

I have been really careful about what I am eating ie. low carb/high fat, with lots of veggies, meat, a few nuts here and there and cheese. I am using cream instead of low fat milk in my coffee and I have started exercising which I didn't do much of before.

I have been on Met for 3 weeks now and with the meds and the diet changes I have seen my morning fasting number go from 286 down to the 150 range (I know that's still not low enough but it's a start). But what I am not seeing is any weight loss. I have lost 1lb in three weeks with all of these changes.

I started riding my bike for an hour and last Friday I ran into a patch of gravel with concluded with severe "road rash" and several bruises to my legs, so that ended the bike riding for awhile. After that I started walking instead. I walk until I am feeling like I've had enough. It raises my cardio levels and when I start to feel pooped I head for home. My dogs are loving it!! lol.

But how come no weight loss. I am really careful about portion control, as well and am drinking at the minimum 64 oz. of water per day with only two cups of coffee in the morning with my breakfast.

Any ideas?

 

[Patdart]

You are on the way, congratulations! Watching my ketones helped me as well as being very careful about my veggie choices...green ones only...I thought I might turn green with all the green ones I ate.

 

[moon]

The only questions that occur to me are: how much do you need to lose? How many carbs are you eating/day? How many calories? With calories you could be eating too few or too many. Here's a site where you can calculate your Basic Metabolic Rate.

BMR Calculator

Hopefully Beefy will weigh in. I view him as our resident physiology expert when it comes to this issue.

I can speak only from my experience. I began losing about 2 lbs/wk but then I'm far from goal weight. I did go a few weeks without losing but stayed the course and one day the scales showed a 4-lb loss. Maybe the loss will show up soon?

Personally I eat about 50 carbs/day, not enough for ketosis but few enough that I'm losing without counting calories, though I know calorie-counting is in my future as I get close to goal.

 

[jwags]

My only thought would be that maybe you are not eating enough fat calories to keep you in Ketosis. For many people if they are cutting carbs and calories their body will fight back and hold onto the weight. It took me awhile to get myself around the fact that I needed to eat more full fat beef, full fat sour cream, heavy whipping cream, Coconut Oil and nuts. Can you give us an idea of what your daily meals and snacks look like?

 

[SandraO]

Okay, here goes for an example of what I eat in a day.

Breakfast

Cup of coffee with whole cream and 1 packet Splenda
2 poached eggs
1/2 whole wheat english muffin
1 slice cheese melted on eggs
(my version of eggs benny)

Snack

Turkey pepperoni stick

Lunch

Either a salad with greens and shredded cheese, sometimes accompanied with a grilled chicken breast (4 oz.) or sometimes leftovers from supper the night before

Afternoon snack

4 oz. yogurt with berries

Supper is 4 oz. of meat with veggies, whether it be cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, green beens, etc. and a salad with full fat dressing 1 tbsp.

Bedtime snack

Yogurt sprinkled with ground pecans and a slice of cheese.

With this I am drinking 64 oz. of water per day at the minimum.

This is an example.

On Saturday, hubby and I went out for lunch and I had a steak sandwich (didn't eat the bread) served with sweet potato fries (which I ate about half) and my numbers that day were the best I have had. Go figure!!

 

[foxy]

Sounds good to me Sandra.
I am doing a very old version of Weight Watchers where everything is in portion sizes and usually weighed but am combining it with calorie counting. So far I have lost 30lb since April 2010 and hope to lose another 28lb at least.
Can't do any exercising as I am disabled so at least you have that in your favour.
All the best to you in your endeavour....

 

[ThoseBackPages]

Drop the bread and Cut everything but your water intake in half. 4oz of food per meal is a lot of food if you are serious about losing weight

 

[beefy]

Drop the bread and Cut everything but your water intake in half. 4oz of food per meal is a lot of food if you are serious about losing weight

I agree with dropping the bread, unless you're exercising for at least an hour starting about 45 minutes to an hour AFTER you eat it.

Regarding portion sizes and overall calorie intake, it's really going to depend on your metabolism. I probably eat three times what most 'dieters' eat, and am still slimming down and improving my blood glucose and my lipid profile.

Regarding weight loss and low-carb lifestyle: Bear in mind that even when eating low-carb you STILL need to ensure a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. A 500 calorie per day deficit should work out to 1lb per week. BUT that being said, we ALL need to ensure we get a minimum number of calories in order to 1) keep our energy levels up, and 2) keep our bodies out of 'starvation mode'.

Start with a calorie requirement calculator like this one. Enter your sex, age, weight and height, then enter the number of hours at each activity level (check the descriptions and don't over-estimate your activity...) and press the 'Calculate' button to get estimates of both your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, the number of calories you consume just staying alive, even if in a coma...) and your calorie requirement when your activity level is factored in.

The BMR # is very important... you do NOT want to go much (if any) below this number for your daily calorie intake, as doing so will cause most people to go into 'starvation mode' where the body protects it's fat stores. You want to burn fat, not store it. Exercising while taking in LESS calories than your estimated BMR usually causes a loss of muscle tissue, and very little fat loss.

When I enter my information for today I get a BMR of 2153 Calories, and Activity of 2400, for a total requirement of 4553 calories.

(Granted, in my case the BMR estimation is off: Because I have considerably more muscle than most 45yr old males of my height and weight, my BMR is going to be higher... Only proper physical testing can accurately calculate this, but the calculators aren't terrible for most people. )

Based on my own calculations (based on my known BMR and my figures for caloric expenditure) I actually burned through about 5,300 calories today. My intake was approximately 3400 calories. This is a net deficit of 1900 calories today. Most days I'm about 1/2 that lately, still trying to see a weight loss of at least 2lbs per week though. I'd like to hit about 11-12% bodyfat ideally. (I don't care so much what I weigh, as I do how I look.)

OK, back to the daily intake/requirements issue... Because my caloric intake is WELL ABOVE my BMR, my body knows it's not starving. Also, I keep quite low carb (I eat ~100g of carb per day including fiber... anywhere from 70 to 90g once you subtract dietary fiber, which is very low for the daily calories I eat...) which helps keep me in a state where my body uses fat for fuel. (To be honest, I will burn some muscle, we all do when exercising to the lengths I sometimes do, but it's minimized now by my diet...)

So basically, what I'm saying is ensure you get enough calories to fuel what you do. And exercise is one of the BEST things you can add once you get the diet happening. The people who are doing 1hr + of daily exercise pretty much ALWAYS put up the best numbers. Eric, aka TheBackPages is just one example of that. He walks SEVERAL miles day, rain or shine it seems... eats extremely low carb, and has GREAT numbers.

I'm so sorry to hear about your road-rash incident... but glad to hear you kept going by walking! Keep it up, it's vitally important to losing weight.

Good luck!