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8 ounces of diet coke contains 28 grams of sodium. So one can (12 ounces) of diet coke would be 42 grams of sodium.
That means one can of diet coke per day, will give you around 9.2% of your total maximum intake of sodium. This means, if you drink 12 cans of soda per day, or two 2-liter bottles per day, then you are consuming your max amount of sodium allowed for the entire day and cannot have ANY sodium in your food, at all, without going over that max.
So - you can either drink soda, or you can eat food.
Since high sodium is one of the culprits of high blood pressure and your physician has TOLD you to keep the sodium levels down, you can either drink soda, or you can eat food.
As for "I can't help" that prepackaged foods are high in sodium, that's true. You can't help it. But you can help what you stuff in your mouth. You've posted that you've spoken with your mom already, and she's agreed to provide more healthy foods for you, and you claim you're doing the cooking.
You're an adult. You can BEHAVE like an adult, and take control of your own mouth, or you can give that control up to mommy, and stop complaining about being fat and having to take high blood pressure medicine. Those are your ONLY choices.
You're never supposed to stop exercising or eating sensibly.
I don't stop exercising, I stop exercising an hour a day. I don't stop eating sensibly. I stop dieting (as in eating less than 1000 calories a day) I stay under 2000 calories. Unfortunately, I still gain. Loss only happens if I go low carb or stay uner 1000 calories a day and exercise an hour a day. I cannot stick to both long term. Apparently, my metobolism runs very slow.
I do not experience the increased metabolism that many people do from exercise. Mine only increases during the exercise. I don't get the residual. I worked with a physical trainer for a year trying to lose weight. All I did was gain muscle. He put me on a low carb diet, which worked but my doctor says my kidneys can't handle it. One kidney is only partially functioning due to a kidney infection when I was a teenager. She says I can't risk the other one.
For the most part, my metabolism just slows down if I restrict calories. That's why I have to have that hour a day of exercise too. Until I get below 1000 calories AND exercise an hour a day I just don't lose. Then my body thinks it's starving and will release fat. Unfortunately, a side effect of convincing it it's starving is it wants to put the weight right back on once I start eating normally.
I fear my younger daugther is going to be like me. The girl hardly eats now and can't lose weight. She's just tired all the time because she doesn't eat.
I know there's no advice for me here. I just posted to show that we're not all created equal. I had to laugh at the poster who said that the difference between successful dieters and unsuccessful is successful ones don't make excuses. Of course not, they don't have to, they're successful dieters. If you're successful, you don't reason for excuses. Excuses are for those of us who can't lose weight. I wish I wasn't one of them.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 11-27-2011 at 08:36 AM..
So Ivory, you are considering only two possible options, in what I'm reading of your post:
Lose weight at 1000 calories, regular exercise, and low-carb.
Gain weight at 2000 calories, regular exercise, and not-low-carb.
So what about considering:
Maintain weight at 1500 calories, regular exercise, and modest-carb.
Lose weight til you're satisfied that you're where you want to be, then add a little this and a little that over a lengthy period of time, and monitor what goes on with your body. If you start gaining, cut back. If you are maintaining, then keep doing whatever you're doing because it's doing what you want it to do.
So Ivory, you are considering only two possible options, in what I'm reading of your post:
Lose weight at 1000 calories, regular exercise, and low-carb.
Gain weight at 2000 calories, regular exercise, and not-low-carb.
So what about considering:
Maintain weight at 1500 calories, regular exercise, and modest-carb.
Lose weight til you're satisfied that you're where you want to be, then add a little this and a little that over a lengthy period of time, and monitor what goes on with your body. If you start gaining, cut back. If you are maintaining, then keep doing whatever you're doing because it's doing what you want it to do.
I don't lose weight until I get below 1000 calories. 1500 wouldn't work. My metabolism just slows down as I go below 2000 calories.
The physical trainer had me on 1800 calories a day, at first, and dropped me to 1500 calories when I didn't lose weight. When I still didn't lose weight, he put me on the low carb diet that my doctor nixed. THAT worked. Too well. The reason I saw my doctor was that I lost 15 pounds in two weeks and wanted to make sure the diet wasn't hurting me.
Seriously, all that happens when I cut calories is I get tired, until I cross 1000 calories, then I start to lose, slowly but I'm still very tired. Interstingly, I'm not tired on a low carb diet. I think it tricks my system. My body doesn't think it's starving because I'm actually eating higher calories but it's burning fat for fuel not carbs.
Karma's a *****. I remember a girl I went to high school with claiming she was like this. I didn't believe her. I thought she must have been stuffing her face when no one was around.
Slight reductions in calories don't work for all of us. They don't work for me.
Ivory, that really sucks! It does sound like a problem a lot of women face. I know my mother has the same issues.
Some thoughts (that you may already have had)...
#1 - Almost any time you reduce calories, you slow your metabolism down. I mean, that just makes sense. Your body is an efficient machine. It will do what it has to in times it perceives it is being starved. Honestly, the best thing is usually to keep at a normal caloric intake (1500 ain't bad) and eat 6 times a day. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes when your body starts to learn that it can readily and reliably expect food every 3 hours. Remember, though...it takes it a while to learn to be this way.
#2. One of the biggest problems with exercise is that people think that time in is what is important. It's intensity. Unless you run 10 miles a day, you have to have intensity. Invest in a heart rate monitor. Do the experiment (provided you're cardiovascularly fit enough to do this - don't give yourself a heart attack)...put in all your info (height, weight, etc) and wear it during your normal exercise. It will track your max HR, your average HR, and your calories burned (much more reliably than the machines at the gym). Then, the next day, change your workout. Do intervals of absolutely breath-stopping choking intensity (I mean, like you want to die within 15 seconds)...let's say...1 minute moderate, 30 seconds insane, 1 minute moderate, 30 seconds insane...
You know that doing that for just 6-7 minutes on the elliptical machine, I burn over 100 calories? AND for a while after that, I keep burning at that rate...even if I'm just walking around, getting water, etc? My mother works out for an hour and is lucky to burn 300. In an HOUR. I am sad if I'm not closing in on 1000 by then (that's cardio and weights).
#3. I think putting on muscle can only benefit you. It takes up less space than fat (so you look trimmer regardless of what the scale says) and it burns calories all day long for you.
Ivory, that really sucks! It does sound like a problem a lot of women face. I know my mother has the same issues.
Some thoughts (that you may already have had)...
#1 - Almost any time you reduce calories, you slow your metabolism down. I mean, that just makes sense. Your body is an efficient machine. It will do what it has to in times it perceives it is being starved. Honestly, the best thing is usually to keep at a normal caloric intake (1500 ain't bad) and eat 6 times a day. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes when your body starts to learn that it can readily and reliably expect food every 3 hours. Remember, though...it takes it a while to learn to be this way.
#2. One of the biggest problems with exercise is that people think that time in is what is important. It's intensity. Unless you run 10 miles a day, you have to have intensity. Invest in a heart rate monitor. Do the experiment (provided you're cardiovascularly fit enough to do this - don't give yourself a heart attack)...put in all your info (height, weight, etc) and wear it during your normal exercise. It will track your max HR, your average HR, and your calories burned (much more reliably than the machines at the gym). Then, the next day, change your workout. Do intervals of absolutely breath-stopping choking intensity (I mean, like you want to die within 15 seconds)...let's say...1 minute moderate, 30 seconds insane, 1 minute moderate, 30 seconds insane...
You know that doing that for just 6-7 minutes on the elliptical machine, I burn over 100 calories? AND for a while after that, I keep burning at that rate...even if I'm just walking around, getting water, etc? My mother works out for an hour and is lucky to burn 300. In an HOUR. I am sad if I'm not closing in on 1000 by then (that's cardio and weights).
#3. I think putting on muscle can only benefit you. It takes up less space than fat (so you look trimmer regardless of what the scale says) and it burns calories all day long for you.
Interesting. I have not tried eating more frequently except when I was on the low carb diet. Then the trainer had me eating, exactly, the same amounts of food at exactly the same times every day. He said that my body would come to expect to be fed and wouldn't drop into slow mode. I've never tried it on a non-low carb diet. I always assumed it was the low carb part that worked.
I agree on looking better with muscle. Weight training also doesn't tire me out the way aerobic exercise does. I can weight train every day.
Eating 1000 calories and then exercising for every day for an hour is a recipe for failure on a couple of different levels. 1000 calories is not enough to eat even if you are not exercising. Your body may initially lose some weight but then it is going to switch gears and hold onto the fat because it thinks it is starving.
Do some more research. Starvation mode does not take effect until you are ... actually starving. Fat people don't go into starvation mode. The RATE at which you lose per unit of calorie deficit can go down though.
Do some more research. Starvation mode does not take effect until you are ... actually starving. Fat people don't go into starvation mode. The RATE at which you lose per unit of calorie deficit can go down though.
For me, I don't lose with a deficit until I get down around 1000 calories. My body just adjusts my metabolism. Catch 22 for me because my body can't adjust my metabolism up (I'm hypothyroid so I have a set maximum) if I over eat but can adjust it down when I try to lose. I think once I get around 1000 calories, my body is producing zero thyroid hormone and I'm just operating on the medication I take. I'm partially functioning with my body providing about 25% of the thyroid hormone I need.
I'll have to disagree about stavation mode. It seems the less I eat, the stronger my body holds on to what it has AND the faster it gains once I resume normal eating. I can go from a 1000 calorie a day diet up to 2000 calories a day (less than maintenance according to the calculators) and I will gain for several days before my metabolism readjusts.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 11-27-2011 at 01:04 PM..
Do some more research. Starvation mode does not take effect until you are ... actually starving. Fat people don't go into starvation mode. The RATE at which you lose per unit of calorie deficit can go down though.
Maybe starvation is too strong of a word. But you need calories to burn calories. If your body does not think it is getting the right amount it will slow down the metabolism down. 1000 calories is not enough for healthy weight loss especially if you are exercising as well.
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Excuses are for those of us who can't lose weight. I wish I wasn't one of them.