Comments on: Sigh

By: mjf

mjf — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:19:59 +0000

first off, congrats to sasha on working hard to live healthy! i just quit smoking about 6 months ago after a little more than 10 years, and even though i knew better i still tried to distract myself with food. mission accomplished! now onto the next item on my self-improvement list (sigh)…

i’m not qualified in any way to give advice on weight loss, especially for someone who’s diet is so different from mine, so i can’t say what you should do. but since many of you seem to be pretty well informed, can anyone explain the whole “18 days” concept? something about if you’re dieting your metabolism reaches a plateau, so every 18th day you should break the diet to shock your body’s metabolism? heard this from an ex-professional football player/personal trainer, but not used to taking advice from a football player seriously. anyone know more about this?

By: kris

kris — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:22:51 +0000

People keep saying weird things like eat MORE and you’ll lose weight. Losing weight isn’t difficult, it just takes time to get in the right routine. You need to be in good cardiovascular shape before jogging will help you burn fat. Whatever you eat, cutting calories will always help you lose fat, but it may take some muscle with it.

Eat at least 1/2 your body weight in protein per day. Before and after exercising eat “quick digesting” carbs (like fruit) and within 20 min after exercise eat some sort of protein (about 20 g). Eat healthy in all the ways that people suggest (i.e. no white breads, no candy or cake, no unhealthy foods, balanced diet with enough nutrients).

And cut down what you eat for each meal until you start losing weight. You are going to be hungry alot for a couple of days or a week, but your body will adjust. Every time you reach a plateau, cut more calories (not counting calories from fruits or vegitables). I think if you get down to between 1300-1500 cal/day you’ll see results.

By: whitney

whitney — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:26:33 +0000

good fats level out your blood sugar, so you should be eating more of those.

and you may have a glucose intolerance. stop eating whole grains and stick to fruits and veggies that are low glycemic.

i have a really strong glucose intolerance and when i went to a nutritionist she had me on a diet a lot like yours and i didn’t lose a pound but as soon as i started cutting out sugar and carbs (a recommendation by a healer my aunt goes to) and anything that would raise my bloodsugar I lost about 80 pounds in 4 months.

By: Wendie

Wendie — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:22:24 +0000

Yes muscle weighs more than fat but I don’t think you could build THAT much muscle in 3 weeks.

By: sparks

sparks — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:42:45 +0000

muscles weighs more than fat, focus on how you like your body when you look in the mirror and not what a scale says, good luck!

By: Wendie

Wendie — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:12:52 +0000

I’m telling you, less sodium and 300 more calories a day.

By: docheindeldvm

docheindeldvm — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:11:26 +0000

Ditto to the sodium comments. Go see a dietitian or nutritionist. :)

By: Indigo

Indigo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:06:45 +0000

Wow, that is alot of sodium. The recommended intake is 1,500 to 2,400 mg a day. I know I would swell up like the good year blimp if I ate that much salt!

By: Audra

Audra — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:06:44 +0000

I also wonder if you’re eating *enough* calories…. Are you accidentally putting your body into starvation mode?

By: fancypantsftw

fancypantsftw — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:34:58 +0000

Considering how long this has been going on, and the drastic change in your diet, I would just suck it up and see a dietitian or nutritionist. I mean, this is what they do for a living, right? Veganism is great, but you have to be INCREDIBLY careful about what you eat or you can end up with some major deficiencies - that’s one of the reasons it’s so hard to stick with in the long term. A nutritionist can analyze your food diary (based on what you are eating and the amounts, not the calories. usually they need two weeks, including vitamins, water and other liquid intake) and tell you how many calories you need, how many you are actually consuming and what you should be eating to get the weight off.

Honestly considering you upped your exercise and changed you diet at about the same time, it could be you’re not eating enough for your increased activity level and your body is in starvation mode and holding on to every last gram of fat. Remember, your diet is high in fiber too and fiber blocks some absorbtion of calories (by moving it all out faster) and so you may not be getting as many functional cals as you think you are.

Go see a nutritionist, silly, they know waaaaaay more than your goofy readers!