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I had my 2nd child back in December and I haven't been able to lose any of the weight I gained. Before pregnancy I was between 128-135 always somewhere around there. I gained 60lbs during my pregnancy about the same as I did with my first born. I currently weigh 186 the biggest I've ever been in my life. I didn't breast feed with either child but after I had my son (he's 3 now) I seemed to lose the weight pretty quickly. Not the same this time around. I downloaded the myfitness pal app and it says I should only eat 1200 calories a day which is pretty hard since I always eat under that amount. I've never been a good eater. I usually don't eat until lunch time and sometimes much later. I'm not a breakfast person, I don't eat a lot of junk, I'm not big on sweets, and I don't care for fried foods. I'm interested in trying detox waters and I've ordered my waist trainer. Despite having a sedentary occupation I have been working out 2 times a day for an hour 5 days a week but I must be doing something wrong because I still haven't lost much. Does anyone have any suggestions of what else I may need to do to improve my fitness journey. Oooh and I'm 26 years young and 5'4 if that helps.
I had my 2nd child back in December and I haven't been able to lose any of the weight I gained. Before pregnancy I was between 128-135 always somewhere around there. I gained 60lbs during my pregnancy about the same as I did with my first born. I currently weigh 186 the biggest I've ever been in my life. I didn't breast feed with either child but after I had my son (he's 3 now) I seemed to lose the weight pretty quickly. Not the same this time around. I downloaded the myfitness pal app and it says I should only eat 1200 calories a day which is pretty hard since I always eat under that amount. I've never been a good eater. I usually don't eat until lunch time and sometimes much later. I'm not a breakfast person, I don't eat a lot of junk, I'm not big on sweets, and I don't care for fried foods. I'm interested in trying detox waters and I've ordered my waist trainer. Despite having a sedentary occupation I have been working out 2 times a day for an hour 5 days a week but I must be doing something wrong because I still haven't lost much. Does anyone have any suggestions of what else I may need to do to improve my fitness journey. Oooh and I'm 26 years young and 5'4 if that helps.
What -are- you eating, and in what portions, with what sauces, at what times during the day? Including snacks, and juices, and how much water are you drinking? What kind of exercise are you doing? At 5'4", 186 is pretty significantly overweight. Myfitnesspal also helps you keep track of your protein, carbs, starches, and some other stuff as well, and makes recommendations. You have to be 100% truthful when you plug in your food and exercise for the dayor it just won't work for you.
Since I don't eat breakfast I usually take my lunch break between 11-1. Lunch is usually something small that leaves me starving like a fruit salad, sandwich, or one of those lean cuisines (majority of the time). I drink water majority of the day. Sometimes I'll get a Tea from McDonald's or McAlister's or a Sierra Mist. Snacks are usually a granola bar or yogurt (which I hate) and a fruit usually between 2-4pm. Dinner is always a meat (baked or grilled), vegetable, starch/grain usually between 5-6pm. The only exercise I have been doing this far is walking. I walk on the treadmill in the morning at 6am for an hour. After dinner I walk the track by my house which is usually at 7pm for an hour. My last snack is usually a fruit and a large glass of water with no ice or another lean shake.
So sorry you are having a hard time losing weight....just a couple of observations - you are eating quite a bit of sugar, too many processed foods and not enough raw/cooked vegetables. Fruit salad is not a well rounded lunch, yogurt other than Greek yogurt is quite high in sugar/carbs - even if it is plain....sandwiches can be quite caloric especially if you are using mayo or eating things like tuna salad or chicken salad which both have lots of fat/calories because of the mayo - and how about that bread - is it high in fiber, low in calories? Are you eating cheese on that bread? Lean cuisines are full of sodium, high processed and simply not enough for a meal unless you have a salad to go with it....you need volume and some protein to feel full.
A better choice for lunch: A big green salad (spinach, baby greens, thinly sliced kale, thinly sliced purple cabbage) filled with radishes, thin slices of purple onion, sliced colored peppers, sprouts, cucumber, steamed chilled green beans or broccoli, 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans, 3 to 4 ounces of broiled chicken or salmon....I usually don't eat dressing but if I feel like having some, I will mix 1/3 of an ripe avocado (mashed) with a little non-fat Greek yogurt along with lots of spices and have that for dressing - or use 1/4 cup of hummus for dressing. This will make you feel full because it has bulk, a variety of nutritious foods, etc. Eat a whole apple of dessert.
Your snacks are full of sugar and again not anything substantial - and you are eating lots of processed foods - skip the granola bar and yogurt - eat 1 tablespoon of peanut butter and a small apple or 1/2 a banana and a glass of water. Sometimes I eat 4 or 5 stalks of celery with a little hummus of salsa.
There was a recent study done showing that those who eat nuts on a daily basis weigh less and have smaller waistlines than those who do not eat nuts....I eat lots of raw nuts and seeds every day - I have peanut butter every day (freshly ground from Whole Foods).
There is a reason you are starving at lunch time - you aren't eating breakfast or a healthy lunch. Eating breakfast is very important - especially when you are trying to lose weight - whole grain oatmeal is very filling - sprinkle it with a couple chopped walnut halves, a few raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds, use Stevia for the sweetener and almond milk (the 30 calories a cup variety)...you will be full and will not be so famished at lunch time. Don't eat boxed cereal of any kind.
Are you drinking diet Sierra Mist or the sugared variety? What are sweetening your tea with sugar?
Change up your dinner habits - when I was losing weight (80 lbs 2 years ago which I have kept off), I made dinner my smallest meal not my biggest - I bought a Vitamix and made a green smoothie for dinner every night - if I was hungry afterwards I shelled a few pistachios and ate them along with a cup of herbal tea. I went to bed early in part so that I would not be tempted to snack - sometimes I would go to bed a bit hungry (never starving) but I never woke up hungry - funny how that works.
You are spending 2 hours walking each day or 1 hour each day? As you lose weight, you will be able to step up your exercise routine - adding small handweights, doing 3 sets of 4 or 5 exercises, yoga, stretching, sit-ups - this has all helped me to tone up after losing so much weight and helped in the weight loss process as well as maintaining my weight loss.
Lastly - if it is at all possible - find a different job - sitting all day is a killer, literally. What else could you do to earn a living that does not involve sitting all day? I could not/would not do that - be motivated to figure out how to change your lifestyle. Think whole, fresh foods, lots of fresh vegetables both cooked and raw - beans, nuts, legumes, whole fruit (one piece not a fruit salad), minimum of bread, be aware of how much sugar you are eating.
In the end of your last post OP, you say you have "another" lean shake. But you don't mention having ANY lean shakes in the rest of your post. As Cattnap says, you're eating mostly sugar. There's very little in your diet that contains enough nutrition for your body to *efficiently* process.
You say sometimes you have this, often you have that, mostly you have that, sometimes you have this or that...I was asking for you to be specific, and you returned with incredible vaguery.
This indicates to me that you're trying to dodge your own responsibility in your health. "A sandwich" means absolutely nothing, and hopefully you know this. If you don't know it, then you need to consult with a nutritionist. "Sometimes" also means absolutely nothing. "a lean shake" means absolutely nothing." There is nothing that you're mentioning other than the Lean Cuisine that can give anyone even the slightest hint into your dietary choices.
You also say your exercise is "walking." How much, at what speed? That's what I meant by "what KIND" of exercise. Are you doing high-aerobic speed-walking on an outside track for three miles a day? Or are you walking through the mall while eating a high-fructose corn syrup and chocolate oat granola bar?
You shouldn't need to be answering ME. You should be answering YOURSELF. You are the one who wants to know why you're still 60 pounds overweight after having given birth five months ago. You need to take responsibility for your choices. You're barely skimming through myfitnesspal because if you were actually paying attention to it, you'd see that you are eating mostly carbs and sugar, not getting nearly enough exercise to maintain health, and are lacking severely in a whole lot of nutrition that a healthy body requires.
Eat breakfast. NOT eating breakfast isn't working for you. Have an egg. Not fried. Poached, boiled, broiled, baked, scrambled with just enough butter or oil to keep it from sticking to the pan (should be less than a teaspoon).
Get rid of the granola in your house. It's mostly sugar and starch. Replace it with celery and UNsweetened peanutbutter.
Use the Lean Cuisine stuff once in awhile if you need to; it's portion-controlled, inexpensive, and convenient. I get that. It's also loaded with sodium and doesn't have enough nutrition to make for a healthy meal. So the words "mostly" and "Lean Cuisine" should never occur in the same sentence. Replace the "mostly" with "one or two out of my 21 weekly meals" and you'll already be ahead of the game, compared to where you are now.
ADD salads to your diet. Have a bowlful of greens every day, but no iceburg. Try spinach, or baby spinach, endive, romain, red-leaf, wild field greens, etc. etc. Toss a few grape tomatoes in there. Add a teaspoon of roasted UNsalted sunflower seeds, maybe a tablespoon or two of feta cheese. Don't buy dressings. You need only olive oil and vinegar, or olive oil and lemon juice (don't squeeze lemon juice directly onto feta cheese).
It looks like calories are only a small bit of your problems. You're not eating enough calories, but you're also eating primarily calories that exist to completely sabotage your attempts to get back down to a healthy weight.
Thank you both so much! This is my first diet ever and I had no idea about a lot of the things you mentioned. I most definitely need a nutritionist and it just so happens I'll be meeting one next month. A Whole Foods was recently built in my city and I will definitely go today and get a few of the things you guys mentioned. I've tried eating breakfast in the past but it's always made me feel nauseous. I walk 2 times a day an hr each. I hate that gym memberships are so expensive but it looks like I most definitely need one. There is a gym in very interested in. Have either of you ever heard of Courthouse Gym?
You don't need a Whole Foods and you don't need a gym. You need the produce section of your local supermarket, and you need "body-weight resistance training" exercises, in addition to walking. If you're walking twice a day, for an hour each time, you could try doubling the speed of your walks, and cutting the time in half. How long it takes to walk means absolutely nothing if you aren't paying attention to how far you're walking during that time. A walk on flat land at 2.5MPH for an hour isn't going to be very helpful to you as far as getting FIT is concerned. A walk up and down even little bitty hills, at 3.5mph for a half hour will challenge your cardio-vascular system and work your muscles.
Resistance training using your own body-weight would be things like pushups, situps, stomach crunches, squats, planks. These are considered "core" exercises because they work on the part of your body known as the "core." This will strengthen those muscles, which can help give your -appearance- a boost, while you are eating healthier foods to lose the weight.
If you really need frozen foods, get frozen vegetables, without sauce. Steamers they're called, and Birds Eye and your supermarket's brand and Green Giant and a few others all make a version of them. Personally I love steamed broccoli, with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a smidge of oil. Or you could sautee some sliced mushrooms with a small pat of butter and mix that in with the steamed broccoli. You could even toss in a few chunks of leftover chicken meat (no skin, I prefer the breast), and turn it into a main course meal.
Another thing you could add to your menu is a small piece (1/4 pound, aka 4 ounces) of salmon every week. Broil, bake, grill, or even pan-sear it, and keep it simple with nothing more than a little dill weed and lemon juice for seasoning. Has fats that are very healthy, and protein, and it goes great with a side salad.
Also, if you like chicken, you could always buy an already-roasted ready-to-serve rotisserie chicken from your supermarket or Costco or BJ's or Sam's club. For usually under $10 you can have a week's worth of lunches out of that one chicken. Again - with a side salad.
You should have at least one side salad every single day, with only oil/vinegar or oil/lemon juice for dressings. No bacon bits either. Other raw veggies in the salad other than the greens are fine, the more colorful you can make it the better.
I agree that you don't need to shop at Whole Foods or to go to a gym to lose weight. I think body weight exercises are great. As far as I'm concerned, I want to complete the most effective workout possible in the smallest amount of time. From the research I've done, that means sprint workouts 1 to 2 times a week and resistance training 2 times a week.
For the sprint workouts, I warm up by walking for about 5 minutes. Then I run as fast as I possibly can for 20 seconds, then walk again until my heart rate recovers, repeat that 4 to 6 times. It takes me less than 20 minutes. For resistance training I often do an intro cross-fit workout:
Run 400 meters
50 squats
40 sit-ups
30 push-ups
20 squat thrusts
Run 400 meters
I do the above workout for time and try and beat my previous time each time I do it. It initially took me around 18:00 but now I'm down to 15:40.
For food, whole foods (not the store) are key. If it has a label, you probably shouldn't eat it. I personally avoid most grains, especially wheat. For breakfast I have eggs scrambled with vegetables. For lunch, large salad with tuna/salmon/chicken and for dinner meat and vegetables. www.paleomg.com has some tasty recipes. I like www.marksdailyapple.com as well. But the main jist of it is, the more natural foods, the better.
Maybe you should track what you are eating. Breakfast is the important meal in our day so, don't skin it. Eat breakfast everyday and don't starve yourself. You can eat 5 small meals per day and try drinking infuses water it is good for our digestion. If you want to lose weight you can do Pilates or yoga. It is good for losing weight.
I suspect if you got a digital scale and a proper 1800 or so diet hoing , you'd be on your way. It might take a year, baby weight is slow going.
Attempting to eat too little is likely causing you to overeat at other times, blowing your deficit. Good luck
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