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Mar 2019
1:55pm, 5 Mar 2019
3,790 posts
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jennyh
Thanks all - sorry for whinging, I’ve just been feeling a bit down lately for all sorts of reasons, and I think it all got a bit too much.
That’s a good idea SW - trying reducing one thing at a time - I will give that a try. I will really try to get back out of the habit of daily weighing as well.
I don’t think having not been able to run for 3 weeks has helped (either my weight or state of mind). Hoping to do a test mile on the treadmill tonight.
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Mar 2019
2:42pm, 5 Mar 2019
8,713 posts
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geordiegirl
Jenny I am sorry that I didn’t pick up your post earlier, I basically wrote my post got tied up with other stuff and posted it when I remembered, which then crossed over with yours so I missed it.
Firstly I have been (am there now to a large degree) myself, I have been struggling like mad to lose an ounce of weight, if I do lose it it comes back on quicker than it left me. It is so frustrating and soul destroying when you are trying your best to exercise, eat healthy, deprive yourself and still cant shift an ounce.
I have been in a turmoil with this for a good couple of years, I joined a group on FB which is mainly focused on weight & strength training (as I was trying to do more in this area myself) from there taking advice on eating more protein, increasing cals as I am a lifetime dieter who instictively cuts cals if I try to lose weight, so switching to full fat items (cheese, yoghurt, butter, nuts, avocados etc) and cutting carbs. I’ve been focusing on getting my carbs from vegetables & cutting rice, pasta, potatoes to a minimum. No change weight wise but over time I’m getting slower, struggling to get round a long run and with marathons coming up this isn’t ideal.
I bit the bullet a couple of weeks ago when I found out about a nationalist she is a marathon runner, pretty much my age (she is 51, I’ll be 50 later this year) and during our chat I discovered she had been me a few years ago. So I handed over my cash and took the plunge. The first few days I had to do my food diaries but not change anything, as borderline obsessive I gave her 11 days of diaries and we had our first chat on Friday. I have blogged about it for my reference but as an overview:
For runners we need more carbs, not protein. Carbs fuel our body they are the wick to burn fat (her analogy with a candle the wax wont burn if the wick isn’t lit) protein we need post run to repair muscles, in weight/strength training protein is more important.
I was eating too little for the most part, some days 1100 – 1400 cals with some significant calorie deficits if I'd been running. I had 2 days around 2000 cals, 1 because I had been out for food and drinks, the other because I had a few drinks and not the best food choices. So I have to eat consistently at 2000 cals, if I exercise I don’t eat more but equally I havent got to eat less if I’m not exercising – I’m struggling with this but working hard on it. It is nice to think I’m hungry 'what can I have' my instinct is still to reach for a packet of crisps but the fruit & nuts is helping.
I have to increase my carbs, reduce fat, currently protein is ok (for ref she has me at 60% carbs, 20% fat and 20% protein I can tweak and have more protein on post run days for muscle repair)
I have to drink more water especially when I'm running.
I needed to have more veg which shocked me but rightly pointed out some days I didn’t have much whereas other days I had lots, and need to eat fruit – this is to get a good balance of nutrients.
The thing I’ve heard lots over the years about stress causing fight or flight mode, restricting calories and nutrients, not sleeping properly and too many toxins (sugar, alcohol, bad fat) on top of a lot of exercise stresses the body so it hangs on to the food it gets as fat. Your body is busy fighting the stresses and cant process the food properly and it lays as fat.
I am only a week in, I have a 4 week booking with her so there is a long way to go, but I am doing as she asks. I’m replacing the garlic bread I’d have tonight with homemade bruschetta, butter on my bagel for low fat cream cheese, crisps for nuts and I’m eating fruit. I’m making sure I have vegetables every day and drinking so much water I will be increasing my step count 10 fold.
Think what I am trying to say is don’t be tempted to cut calories, look at your diet overall, I gave her daily diaries she put them into a weekly view and to be honest it shocked me I thought I ate a lot better than I do. We get so many conflicting bits of information its nice to have someone focusing on me and my needs and helping me be better. I am putting a lot of hope on this and I know it wont be a quick fix. Ultimately being healthy is the most important thing for me and I feel this is a life change I need.
Take care xx
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Mar 2019
4:53pm, 5 Mar 2019
8,053 posts
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Mandymoo
GG thanks for sharing that - a lot of it made sense
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Mar 2019
4:59pm, 5 Mar 2019
11,930 posts
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Rosehip
Oh, Jenny it's bloody hard, isn't it 
You are about the same weight and body composition as me.
I'm also finding it really hard to lose consistently and very easy for the weight to go straight back up again.
When you say your fat% is going up so much - have you done the maths? have you eaten enough to put on an extra 2+lb of fat? I actually think that's unlikely 7000 +extra calories is a lot of extra food.
For me, my weight only goes down consistently if I drink enough - it's not true it has to be just water, but best low or calorie free fluids - and water is cheapest. This especially true when I'm running more.
I can see a gain of 3 lb on the scales after a long run
I can see a gain of 3lb on the scales after a salty meal - even if it's not over cals.
I seem to have a fairly tight sweet-spot calorie wise that I'd slowly tuning in to.
Too few cals makes me lethargic, move less generally and don't lose weight - or if I do it's just emptying my glycogen stores and one carby meal puts it straight back on.
At the moment I'm logging on MFP, linked into my fitbit and aiming for 1lb a week - I usually go slightly over and so I lose a bit less.
Using the fitbit means I get extra cals for every mile run or walked etc and I'm actually averaging about 2000/day.
If I eat much less than that I don't lose and actually am pretty hopeless at getting stuff done. At about 2-2200 I have enough energy for the day and to run pre-breakfast.
I think we're all individual and it takes a lot of self-research to find out individual sweet-spot. For some people the carb-fat balance is in one direction and others the other. I think I work best on a little more fat and a bit more protein to keep me feeling full
so more like 50-25-25 or so.
disclaimer - this is N =1, results may vary. weight can go up as well as down
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Mar 2019
6:48pm, 5 Mar 2019
3,892 posts
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Sweetie
Hi Jenny, sorry you're having such a rough time, I really feel for you.
One thing I have noticed though is that you're stressing over body fat % and I really would encourage you to just completely ignore that figure. The scales sold for use at home for body fat measurements are notoriously inaccurate, I am astonished they are legally allowed to sell them TBH and most typically they overestimate body fat - by 5-10% in some studies, so really just take it with a pinch of salt and stick to more objective / reliable measures.
I hope your test mile goes well and you're back out running again soon.
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Mar 2019
9:59pm, 5 Mar 2019
4,163 posts
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Fragile Do Not Bend
Jenny, I know just how you feel, it’s so depressing when you feel you are doing everything right and it’s not working.
I’m probably going to sound like a Slimming World evangelist saying this, but it’s the only thing I found works for me. I lost weight with them before, stopped going and maintained my weight for a few years, then lapsed back into old habits and put a fair bit back on again. So I’ve joined again.
It’s not a fad diet, it’s the usual heathy eating principals but I find that following the SW plan makes the whole process of eating healthily less complicated and easier to follow.
Also a big thing for me is going to a group, the weigh ins really focus my mind because I don’t want to have to admit to having gained weight! It’s going to depend on what sort of person you are whether this works for you though.
Down sides of course are having to pay for the sessions and all the clapping can get pretty annoying 😀
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Mar 2019
11:21am, 7 Mar 2019
3,797 posts
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jennyh
Thanks all for sharing your advice and experiences – GG, your post made a lot of sense – I think what you’ve said about the fight or flight mode and the body hanging on to the fat when you are restricting calories and exercising makes sense (I used to find it really frustrating that I was doing higher mileage than the majority of the girls I run with, but was so much heavier – I do think a lot of them are just naturally thin, and I also think some of them severely restrict their calories, but that’s another story).
Rosehip, I agree, it is hard isn’t it? I think you’re right – I haven’t had an extra 7000 calories – especially as some days I’ve been way under – so I think you’re right that it is unlikely to be the case that I’m eating enough to put on that much weight. I do normally drink a lot of water, but I think what I’ve found when I started tracking my water intake (which I need to start doing again) is that I need quite a lot over the recommended minimum to be properly hydrated (even on days when I’m not running). I suffer from migraines (thankfully not as frequently now as I used to), and one of the main triggers for me is dehydration, - I think it seems to follow a pattern that when I’m stressed I don’t drink enough, I also sometimes struggle to drink enough after a long run or a hard run. It’s funny that you said you can see a 3lb gain on the scales after a long run Rosehip, as I get that to – whereas if my husband weighs himself after a long run he generally shows a loss. I go through phases with tracking on MFP – I can get a bit obsessive about it, which isn’t always a good thing – but I do think I need to work out what sort of calorie range works for me.
Sweetie – good to know about the body fat measures on scales – although I think just the fact it was an upward trend from what it was normally was a bit disappointing, but I think I need to stop obsessing about it, and just focus on making small positive changes.
Fragile, I did try SW before, but the online version, which I stopped as I wasn’t really getting on with it, and it seemed a bit expensive. All the groups local to me are either when I’m in work, or on our running club nights – I think I’m also not really sure about going to a group, as I’m a bit socially awkward at the best of times. I do think the principles of it make sense though – I think I really just need to get more organised with my meal planning and increase my fruit and veg intake – the getting organised thing has been a bit of a struggle as work and everything else has just been so hectic, but I just need to find the time to do it.
The test mile went well – felt a little weird, but I think that was partly down to running on a treadmill, partly down to running a bit slower than usual, and partly down to having not run in nearly 3 weeks. That was Tuesday night, went back to my sports massage guy last night and he was really pleased with how much better it was – he’s suggested I go out and run for a mile, walk and stretch for a bit and if that feels okay, run for another mile, walk and stretch and again if it feels okay do another. Then next time increase to 1.5 to 2 miles each time, he seemed fairly confident that I should be okay with this, and said that after two to three sessions of this I could start running without stopping and start building my distance back up, so I’m going to try an outside run tonight and hope all goes well.
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Mar 2019
3:09pm, 7 Mar 2019
11,951 posts
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Rosehip
That’s good news Jenny, I hope the weather is kinder wherever you are than it is here
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Mar 2019
10:56am, 9 Mar 2019
33,181 posts
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Lip Gloss
STS again this week pesky half pound doesn't want to shift so this week I will try a SP week - well Monday to Friday anyway and see if it makes any difference.
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Mar 2019
11:17am, 9 Mar 2019
11,961 posts
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Rosehip
I'm a surprise 1/2lb down (I was up 4 after the half on Sunday and over-refuelling) but it had gone by Weds and the slight loss has stuck since Thurs so I'm taking it.
knee is a bit niggly, weather looks like it will be pants and husband is at home and in DIY mood - so no long run (possibly no run at all ) this weekend. I shall have to be a bit more careful with my choice of Sunday food than usual.
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