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I started a thread last year that I wanted to lose 10 pounds by November 2011. That was in September I think. Well here I am again, still wanting to lose 10 pounds. Why is it so hard? I have been exercising 4 times a week (running 3.2 miles) I eat sensibly...typical day Breakfast - Oatmeal with a little fruit and soymilk, lunch - spinich salad with vegetables, low fat dressing and 5 or 6 triscuit crackers with turkey, dinner - tilapia taco (low carb tortilla), tomatoes, lettuce. Mid morning and afternoon yogurt,fruit or lowfat granola bar. I drink plenty of water and no fruit juice, just a unsweeted drink mix with Stevia. The only thing I do wrong is occassionally I might have some frozen yogurt or a candy bar and I haven't incorporated strength training into my exercise program.
What are some things that have worked for you? What am I doing wrong? What additional tips would help me? Any thoughts appreciated.
I started a thread last year that I wanted to lose 10 pounds by November 2011. That was in September I think. Well here I am again, still wanting to lose 10 pounds. Why is it so hard? I have been exercising 4 times a week (running 3.2 miles) I eat sensibly...typical day Breakfast - Oatmeal with a little fruit and soymilk, lunch - spinich salad with vegetables, low fat dressing and 5 or 6 triscuit crackers with turkey, dinner - tilapia taco (low carb tortilla), tomatoes, lettuce. Mid morning and afternoon yogurt,fruit or lowfat granola bar. I drink plenty of water and no fruit juice, just a unsweeted drink mix with Stevia. The only thing I do wrong is occassionally I might have some frozen yogurt or a candy bar and I haven't incorporated strength training into my exercise program.
What are some things that have worked for you? What am I doing wrong? What additional tips would help me? Any thoughts appreciated.
When I look at someone's list of menu foods, I look at the "types" of foods they're eating and translate it. Here's what I see you eating:
Breakfast: Carbs with a little fiber, sugar, and processed, artificially flavored white liquid. No fat, low calories.
Lunch: Fiber, some vitamins and minerals, carbs, a little protein, minimal fat, low calories.
Dinner: Some protein, a tiny amount of fat, and negligible vegetable-type nutrition.
Snacks: sugar, carbs, sugar, carbs.
Indulgences: sugar.
What I think you can improve on:
Breakfast: If you're eating instant oatmeal, stop. If you're not lactose intolerant, ditch the soy milk and drink either normal whole milk, or 2% milk in your oatmeal. If you're lactose intolerant, make sure that soy milk is UNflavored and UNsweetened. Not sweetened with stevia, not sweetened with low-calorie sweetener. You're consuming too many carbs, not enough healthy fats, and I'm not seeing much protein either. And too few calories overall, except for the candy, which is "empty" calories that exist just to pack on the pounds and raise your blood sugar levels.
Lunch: Have that turkey on a slice of whole-grain wheat bread, instead of crackers. Get rid of the "low fat salad dressing" and use olive oil and vinegar instead.
Dinner: Add another main vegetable, such as string beans, broccoli, zucchini, half of a baked potato (including the skin) with shaved parmesan cheese (instead of butter/sour cream). Also, you can do better in your choice of fish; tuna, salmon, any kind of "steak" fish. For white fishes, try halibut if you can find it in season (never get it previously frozen), cod, or flounder.
For your snacks, try mixing your own trail mix of almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds, and have a couple tablespoons of that mix once or twice during the day.
The things I'm suggesting, are to give you more of a variety of foods, more quantity of foods, with less sugar. Remember, sugar doesn't contain any fat so "fat free" and "low fat" can still pack on the pounds. Flavored yogurt typically has lots of sugar in it, even though it's naturally low-fat.
When you eat fruit try to stick with lower-sugar content fruits with high nutritional value, such as berries of all kinds and watermelon. Citrus fruits should be minimal - a couple tangerines per week, maybe a half red ruby grapefruit for dessert after lunch one day, that kind of thing.
Don't avoid fat; just avoid overconsumption of it. A couple teaspoons of olive oil in a daily salad is actually GOOD for you, and much -much- more nutritionally dense than low-fat bottled crap.
Weight Watchers for nearly 4 years, Erica, a marketing coordinator, came within 3 pounds of her goal weight last summer, then grew complacent and lost much of her progress.[LEFT]
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It's hard to lose weight if you're 12% body fat and lean already. You don't give us your height & weight stats.
For me, I was 5' 4" around 163 lbs, lost 7.4 lbs in 5 weeks of bike workouts; hit a weight loss pleateau and stopped exercise, but I ate for weight maintenance. Resumed exercise 2 weeks later and in 9 total weeks / 436.46 miles of biking I lost 10.2 lbs. Now I'm at 152.8 lbs.
I would like to go to 145 lbs, any lower is a bonus.
The first problem I see is that you're not eating nearly enough calories! It seems like you are starving yourself and that will definitely slow down your metabolism and cause your body to store fat. You also want to incorporate some form of strength training to build muscle as having lean muscle will increase your metabolism and melt away the fat. I'm a fitness coach and can guide you in the right direction if you would like. PM me and we can create a detailed game plan and keep you on the right track
Start doing some resistance training. Working with weights and your own body weight will increase your muscle mass and in turn up your metabolism. Do not be afraid of getting bulky, it wont happen. It is really hard even for the most dedicated women who lift weights to have big muscles.
If you limit your session to 25 minutes and lift light weights, you will not be as hungry.
You will also waste 25 minutes of your time.
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