Does it take time for your diet to "kick in"? Long...

[Dela]

Sorry, long, but frustrated.

I really think sometimes I just can't lose weight, I read stories about people just eating healthier and working out and they drop 8 or 10 pounds a month easy, I want that story to be mine. I recommitted to frequent workouts 2 months ago, and completely changed my diet exactly 1 month ago and I have lost 3 pounds in 2 months. There has been some inches lost, and according to the tanita scale at this place I train I have lost some fat, but I don't really have a lot of faith in those scales, I always read mixed reviews on them.

I have been following the primal diet by Mark Sisson, with literally just 1 cheat this month (I shared a flan for dessert). This diet is meats/fish/seafood, fats, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, limited dairy. And I have been limiting the dairy to half/half in my coffee daily (no more than 2 Tbl./day) and small amounts of butter for cooking some days, I reserve eating cheese for those times I am out and it's in a salad or eggs, I would say I have had cheese 3 times this month. I don't eat a lot of nuts either, I would say about 4 whole walnuts a day and/or a pack of 100 calorie almonds.

I am at the end of my fifth week of the Turbo Fire rotation, I have not missed a workout, the only substitutions I do are for the Sculpt, Tone, and Stretch 40 dvds, I don't like them. Instead I do 2 30 minutes circuit workouts with cable machines, and try to add a third weight routine like from KCM, and I do Cathe's STS stretch and Core workouts for the stretch and core day. After next week, I am dropping the cable circuit, and going back to all DVDs for weights too, the cable workouts I am not finding very effective.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? And maybe it just takes a few months or more for your body to really start responding and dropping weight? I really hope there are some similar and encouraging stories out there, I don't know what else to do, and I am not happy with how I look and I truly believe I am doing a lot to try to change.

 

[mom418]

i think the most immediate results happen in the first few days/weeks. water loss ect. and the biggest change is if u are a couch potato like me and very over wt then get very active, one or more hrs of w/o a day or even 2 w/o sometimes. but thats a huge diff. in metabolism.
ex. bmr 1700 cal, very active one hard w/o a day TDEE is close to 3,000. but i'm big, i burn cals just washing dishes. and have little muscle. so when i get more muscle and suddenly go all out in exercise and eating less. then my body has this big change, at least at first. but it looks like you've already been w/o regularly and have significant muscle. i don't know your wt, but since you were already active it's harder i think for you to make a big change. i'm not saying u should be a couch potato, maybe you're just comparing to the wrong people.

my mom is around 150-170 lbs. shes got some muscle and works out reg. when she wants to lose wt. she can't expect to lose 5 lbs in a wk. she's smaller, she burns less cals than me doing the same activity and her body has adapted to exercise.

so maybe you need to adjust your expectations, i don't know if your wt loss is too slow or not. but i have heard that losing it slowly with life style changes is much healthier and long lasting than quick wt. loss.
u may also want to focus on other goals. do you feel stronger? did you improve your time running ect. change up your w/o to challenge and surprise your muscles so its harder for them to adapt.
maybe its time to do some fun life experiences, try to do something you thought you couldn't? that could be river rafting or taking a painting class-something not related to your body but makes you mentally happier. or maybe you're being too strict with your diet. i don't know. i hope some of that helps.

 

[CLango]

Here are a few thoughts and questions.

How much weight do you need to lose? The less weight you have to lose, the longer it is going to take. So if you are looking at trying to lose 15 pounds or so (or less), I think losing 3 pounds in two months is actually really good. If you have alot to lose, then there may be other factors slowing down your weight loss.

You indicated that you just started being consistent with your workouts two months ago. Does this include the strength training portion of your workouts? I know that whenever I switch up my workouts (especially strength training workouts, even if I've been doing some for of strength training consistently for awhile), I usually retain some fluids for about three weeks. It is a pattern I find very frustrating....but also very consistent for me. So I wouldn't be surprised if your weight loss during the first month may not have been slower due to introducing consistent activity into your daily schedule.

You also indicated that you had just changed your diet a month ago. Little story about me here, but I lost about 50 pounds last year. When I started on my diet (the food portion because, for me, the exercise pattern stayed the same), I didn't lose an ounce for the first two weeks, despite some pretty drastic changes to my eating habits. The third week I lost a pound. I was frustrated too! But the good news is I started losing 1-2 pounds a week very consistently until I lost all of the weight.

In other words, don't give up out of frustration at this point!

That being said, I think you are doing yourself a bit of disservice because it sounds to me you are somewhat dismissive of the fact you've lost inches and body fat. That, right there, is WAY more significant to me than anything a scale will ever tell you. A scale is a handy and easy guide, but it really isn't a great indicator of health or fitness. Those other two methods of measuring are, so I would recommend that you not see them as less significant than the number of the scale....because they aren't.

Regarding the diet, the one thing I have struggled with is finding a happy balance in my eating habits after going on a somewhat restrictive diet. I've managed to maintain my weight loss, but it hasn't always been easy. So if you are finding your diet TOO restrictive, you may want to re-think it to introduce some more balance as that will hopefully help you maintain your weight loss for the long haul. I find counting calories works best for me instead of following any strict program. That way if I want a glass of wine or two, I just fit them in my calorie count. I eat healthy 80-90% of the time, but there are those days........

Finally, congratulations on what you are doing for yourself! It isn't easy and it sounds like you are doing a great job on really trying to make this work for you.

 

[bonvivant]

Do you track what you eat/count calories? If not, start there. Sometimes we think we're eating at a calorie deficit when we're really not. Track what you're eating now, then analyze and make changes. In addition to Turbo Fire, you might want to include some lower intensity workouts. In my experience, variable intensity can help you get results. Good luck and be sure to track everything. When you get stuck, it's easier to look back and see what can be changed to keep bringing results than it to try and guess what's wrong.

 

[Dela]

Wow, thank you for such detailed answers and sharing your stories. these responses are great and helping put all if this into the correct perspective.

I would love to lose 20 pounds from where I am at now, but would be extremely happy with just 10, neither of those losses would make me super thin, but I know I would be happy in that range.

mom418, you have a very good point about other goals, my cardio endurance has increases greatly over these past few weeks, and I am again starting to get that "I feel strong" feeling after workouts, instead of that "thank goodness it's over" feeling . Funny you mentioned other activities, I was looking into a cooking class for next weekend at a school near me, of course with me, it's food related, but it will get me into something new, and maybe meet some people outside of my normal activities.

Clango, thank you for your words of encouragement and perspective. You are so right about giving more credit to the inches and fat lost, and I am always saying out loud how much that matters to me, but then fall into the same thought traps about how the scale means everything. And thanks for sharing your experience when you changed your diet, hopefully I will follow a similar path as you did! And congrats on your awesome weight loss!

To answer the weights question, I did change my weights from an STS rotation (with little cardio) to cable machines, and recently added in a kelly coffey meyer 30 minutes routine. After next week, I'm losing the cables, and want to bring back some heavier Cathe weight routines again in addition to the Kelly dvds with weights.

Thanks Bonvivant, I have been writing all my food down, but not adding up the calories. I should go back and see what my numbers have been. This style of diet works well for me because I don't have to focus on the calories, and I find I'm not as hungry all the time. I almost feel like I'm afraid to know the actual calories I'm eating, hard to explain why.

Thanks again to everyone, I appreciate your insight and comments more than you know.