Thread: Stuck for 5 months - no weight loss -HELP!

Originally Posted by Ginger1961

It feels great too! I don't have my journal with me here at work but I did a quick calculation and I would venture that I'm in the vicinity of 250g of protein, 160 g of carbs and about 70-75 g of fat. I'm thinking my cals are up around 2400-2500. That's about a 1200 or so calorie increase. I hope that's okay. I am never hungry and I don't think i can possibly eat more food. If you think I need to add I'm going to have to do it through oils or something.

Maybe I misunderstood your earlier posts but I though the idea of me increasing my cals was going to result in a small weight gain. I was prepared for it but am I to assume that this will drop off after some more time? I'm a little confused I think.

PS - yes there are days where I'm quite sore. Had to take ibuprofen.

My bad - I forgot you were getting away from weight loss for a while. Now, at your size (you're around 130 lbs as I recall) your protein need not be this high. Usual guidelines are 1-1.5g per pound LBM (sometimes as high as 2g per pound LBM, particularly for very strenuous sports or for weight loss) and you are likely carrying around 100 lbs lbm, so aim your protein at around 150g per day, ballkparkish. Fats look good, cals are a bit high - you're going to gain too fast after dieting hard all this time. Maybe dial it back to about 2000 calories a day for a month, see what happens to your body as things settle down.

Sound okay?

You know that seems way more reasonable. I completely misunderstood or misread your emails back when you asked me to increase my cals. I was sitting around 1400 cals a day and I thought you suggested to increase my cals by 100 each day for a week and then increase by 200 cals for the second week. In my mind that translated to 700 cals a day the first week increase and then 200 cals in total for the second week which would be about 900 cals...increasing me to 2400 cals. Yes, your right I'm sitting around 129 right now. 1800 cals is relatively comfortable for me. A range I don't have to think about eating constantly. 2400 was a lot of work. So i'm dropping back today. What should I be looking at here as far as changes in my body and weight? I know I should not get hung up on the scale and I do want to fill out a little bit but at the end of the day I'd like to be sitting around 120-125 range and not have flabbiness on the tummy region. Like I said I am seeing definition and growth for sure. That part is quite exciting to me. I definitely don't want to go up in size in clothes and stuff as I just bought an entire wardrobe. I'm sorry if a seem a bit slow to catch on to this stuff. I'm trying. One other question: in your post yesterday you mentioned that inflammation can cause a weight increase...how does that work?

G

I meant 1500 a day for a week, then 1600 a day for a week, etc. until you noticed weight gain.

Pay attention to the scale. It will tell you what you need to know - women gain muscle so slowly, it won't show up very fast on the scale. You might, if you're lucky, gain a pound of muscle in a month while bulking. You're unlikely to gain even that much once you've been training for a while. If you put on five pounds in a month, you can pretty much count on at least four of those pounds being fat.

Inflammation holds water. Water's heavy.

Stupid on my part. I should have known there was not a chance in hell you would tell me to increase cals that quickly. Anyway, considering how much I was eating, it's a wonder I only gained 4 lbs. Anyway, no big deal. Shouldn't take too long to get rid of and let's face it, with how hard I was going at for so long, my body enjoyed the food.

Off I go again. Talk soon.

Quick question. I'm really struggling with some major water weight lately. I noticed that I went up way more than I normally do during "girl time" and it doesn't seem like a lot of it came off afterwards. I took those few pounds off relatively quickly from my post above - again must have been water - pulled back on the cals and within a few days gone. Then came "tom" and of course back on it came. I'm sitting around 128 but i'm as puffy as ol heck. I'm drinking about 3 litres a day same as usual but I have to say, it's super uncomfortable. I can tell from my rings on my hands and the feeling in my feet. I really have not changed all that much in my diet and I don't eat salt or anything with a lot of sodium content. So what gives? Could this still be inflammation? I thought by now things would have settled. Thanks for your input.

Double your water. Leave salt intake normal but double your water.

It'll drop.

Meanwhile, are you on O.C.?

Thanks Built - I will do that for sure. What's O.C.? Sorry, I'm not up on all the acronyms. Another point of interest, I've been super super thirsty. Increased my squat weight another 5 lbs too. Can you tell I'm very pleased with myself?

Oral Contraceptives.

Nope. Nothing.

Built - tried to send you a PM with a little more information that is too much info to plaster on the board but it wouldn't go through.

G

Try again. PMs were full.

Sent it.

Originally Posted by Built

Oral Contraceptives.

OC = BC = Oral Contraceptives = Birth Control




Gotta love acronyms.

And you know, I was sitting here for a good 20 minutes before I sent the response, defeated, because I couldn't figure it out. I was thinking of every possibility, but not that. I've never taken them in my life, so I guess this is why I wouldn't even go there. You can't imagine the stuff I was coming up with to figure out OC. Some how, my mind went to big paulie and little paulie. LOL

Okay, good. OC do the Devil's work to a woman's body.

From your PM, my mind went back to the question I asked in the first page of this thread about gluten allergies. I agree w/ Built to up your water - when I'm in contest prep I normally drink 2 gallons of water /day. I don't know if you're consuming any wheat or gluten products - for shits & grins you might drop those if you are and see if it makes any difference. I know many people spend years wondering why they always have a little pooch of stomach bloat and occasionally have a hard time clearing out.

Another thought is if you're eating a lot of broccoli, cauliflower or similar leafy greens - Digestive Enzymes will help w/ digesting -- some people experience a lot of 'backing up' w/ lots of broccoli - broccoli and similar veggies have a sugar that we don't have a natural enzyme to digest, so a lot of it can end up causing discomfort.

And last thought is if you're getting enough fiber to keep stuff moving.

But start w/ the increase in water intake.

Sassy,

I'm starting to lean that way myself (gluten allergy) - it could def explain why I do so well on Atkins. I'm going to try it for a while and see what happens. Can't hurt. I'll keep the water going for sure. There is a shop in my neighborhood that has a wide variety of gluten free products. Actually, someone at work just mentioned a few days ago that they have a gluten free bread (gasp) that has only 40 calories in two slices. One of the ladies from the local Y took the bread to a weight watchers meeting and they subsequently sent it off for testing. Came back that the claims of the business were absolutely valid. NO gluten and 40 cals per two slices. I may check it out.

I'm def getting enough fibre and I don't eat broccoli or cauliflower.

Thanks for the input ladies. You both rock!
G

Built/Sassy
Help! My friggin' scale keeps creepin' up. How far should I let this go? I'm trying really hard not to freak out but I'm up to 131 now. I've gained about 6.5 lbs. I was 124.5 when I started. Should I make an adjustment and if so what; or do I ride it out? I'm sitting at about 1600 cals a day. I cut back a bit last week just in case what I thought was water weight, was in fact fat. I doubled my water like you suggested. Saturday I cut out the gluten and I must say, I'm feeling pretty good from that. My rings have loosened up on my hands but yet the scale is going up. None of this is making any sense to me and I can't help but feel like I may be going backwards.

How long have you been at 1600 cals a day?

BTW .. it sounds like its a good thing the water retention is getting under control! Is it tracking pretty consistently w/ that time of the month or other factors? (For future reference...)

Built,
I'm into my second week with 1600 cals. FYI - I'm up another pound today 132. Here's the fuckin' kicker. I just took my measurements - Not one change up or down. So if I've gone up 7.5 lbs where the hell is it?

Sassy,
The water weight went up during girl time but didn't come back off. So I guess that was consistant. Right now I'm mid-cycle. Day 15. I've heard that some women do gain as much mid-cycle as they do at the end with their periods. I don't know maybe that could be it. Jesus at this rate...I'll be up 5-7 lbs for three weeks out of the month. Crap it sucks being a woman and dealing with all these variables.

As far as the gluten issues go, I really think you were on to something there. I completely forgot to mention the stomach issues I've had in the past. I was on nexium off and on. Almost daily I've dealt with heardburn and stomach acid issues but it was such a regular part of my life, I didn't view it as something of importance. I guess almost like it was normal. Anyway, I've not taken one antacid, nexium not a pain of an stomach ache since the last three days since I cut out the gluten and wheat.

I was thinking about dropping the cardio again for a week, just walk, keep up my weight training, leave the cals at 1,600 or so and see what happens but I didn't want to change too many things. Thoughts?
Ginger

Built / Sassy:

I think I have it under control. I dialed my cals back to 1600, eased up on the cardio for 4 days then added some some outside running, alternating between sprinting and power walking at 4 minute intervals for 35 minutes and am back down the scale. I'm sitting around 127 today. No fluid issues at all. I think I have to be really careful with my cals like you said Built because I've been restricting for so long. I was also doing morning cardio on a spin bike for 35 minutes 6 days a week. High intensity. Heart rate was peaking at 165 -167. At 42, I imagine I'm not far from maximum. Most likely stressing my body. So pulling back on cals and cardio seems to have me settled-I feel more like myself. I was getting a little uncomfortable although I couldn't find the extra weight with a tape measure. I've got to see if I can find somewhere that does body fat testing around here. I'll keep in touch.
Ginger

Hey, sorry I missed your earlier post - I'm glad you're feeling like you have this under control now.

Glad to hear - it takes a little bit of time for the right program to settle in - its hard when you're watching for it. ITs also ultra-frustrating when you're trying so hard.. and its actually too hard. You can work your body hard, but to keep going you need to cycle it in driving phases and then recovery phases. "Periodization"!