Impasse

I'm a 19-year-old male, five-foot-ten. Five months ago I weighed about 235
lbs, but I've managed to slim down to 181 lbs by exercising and reducing
calories. Only problem is, I have not lost any weight whatsoever this month.
I hit 181 in mid-May and have been hovering there ever since. Anyone have
any advice? I'm eating 1000-1500 cals/day and walking 4 to 6 miles a day, 5
days a week.

"Ignoramus11028" wrote in message
...

How did you arrive at your 1000-1500 calories per day number?

I suspect that it may be wrong.

i

I am basically a lacto-ovo-vegetarian these days. Here's what I had today,
which is a pretty typical menu for me:

---Breakfast:
One cup of coffee with about 2 oz of skim milk in it (21 calories) and 1
packet of Sugar Twin (1 calorie)
One medium-sized apple (125)
1/2 cup All-Bran cereal (280) with a splash of milk (30?), not enough to
cover all the cereal - I don't like All-Bran when it gets too mushy.

---Lunch:
Half a whole-wheat pita (80) stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes & green
peppers - about 1 cup of veg. in total (50?)
One can of Diet Coke (1)

---Dinner:
One Boca veggieburger (130) on a white-bread bun (110) with a tomato slice
(15?)
about 2 1/2 cups of fresh garden salad, with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers &
carrots, no dressing (150?)
Two glasses of water

---Snacks:
3 large dried prunes (69)

It's now after 8PM and I calculate that I have consumed about 1,062 calories
today. If I'm wrong, please tell me. I go by this chart:
http://www.caloriecountercharts.com/chart1a.htm

"Ignoramus11028" wrote in message
...

That's impressive! You are indeed eating very little...

You are not binging once a week or anything like that?


Depends on your definition of binging. There's never any fatty food around
the house...but sometimes if I'm feeling stressed, I'll gorge on fruit or
vegetables...I know it sounds bizarre, but I can eat upwards of half a pound
of carrots at one sitting. Now that you mention it, I probably should work
on getting rid of this little habit.

If so, then I think that you are dieting quite severely, so, I cannot
say why you would stall for so long. I am sorry if you mentioned this
before, but can you change you exercise routine a little bit?

Well, lets see, today I did 4.5 miles on the treadmill and 6 sets each of
bench-presses at 80lbs, dumbell curls, and situps. I guess I could add
pushups or something, or dust off my bicycle and take it for a few spins
around the neighborhood.

"Aaron" wrote in message
news
I'm a 19-year-old male, five-foot-ten. Five months ago I weighed about 235
lbs, but I've managed to slim down to 181 lbs by exercising and reducing
calories. Only problem is, I have not lost any weight whatsoever this
month.
I hit 181 in mid-May and have been hovering there ever since. Anyone have
any advice? I'm eating 1000-1500 cals/day and walking 4 to 6 miles a day,
5
days a week.


Your caloric intake seems a little low for your weight and exercise. Many
in the group recommend 10 x current weight as the amount of calories needed
to lose weight. Your body may be reacting to the low amount of calories and
hanging onto every ounce of body weight it can manage. You might try adding
a few calories to your daily intake or do a refeed day to see if this starts
the weight loss again.

Beverly

"Ignoramus19080" wrote in message
...
In article , Beverly wrote:
Your caloric intake seems a little low for your weight and exercise.
Many
in the group recommend 10 x current weight as the amount of calories
needed
to lose weight. Your body may be reacting to the low amount of calories
and
hanging onto every ounce of body weight it can manage. You might try
adding
a few calories to your daily intake or do a refeed day to see if this
starts
the weight loss again.

I would like to know if there is any clinical evidence that eating
less could cause slower weight loss.

i

Do a search on starvation mode or refeed.

Lower calories - lower metabolism - slower weight loss. You'll find many
references to studies on this subject.

Many in the group have seen an end to a weightloss stall after a refeed day.
My leader at the WW program normally recommends eating at the high end of
your points range for a couple days when a stall occurs. It's worked for
many in the group, including myself.

"Ignoramus19080" wrote in message
...
In article , Beverly wrote:

"Ignoramus19080" wrote in message
...
In article , Beverly wrote:
Your caloric intake seems a little low for your weight and exercise.
Many
in the group recommend 10 x current weight as the amount of calories
needed
to lose weight. Your body may be reacting to the low amount of
calories
and
hanging onto every ounce of body weight it can manage. You might try
adding
a few calories to your daily intake or do a refeed day to see if this
starts
the weight loss again.

I would like to know if there is any clinical evidence that eating
less could cause slower weight loss.

i

Do a search on starvation mode or refeed.

I did a medline search for starvation mode, it turned up 116 articles,
none of which were relevant. A search for refeed turned up 49
articles, non eof which were relevant.

Lower calories - lower metabolism - slower weight loss.

Please note that low calories also mean a higher calorie deficit. It
could quite possibly be more than the amount of calories not burned
due to slower metabolism.

You'll find
many references to studies on this subject.

I would be greatly interested to find them. There is a lot of people
and websites that talk about "refeeds", but I have not seen references
to actual controlled studies.

Many in the group have seen an end to a weightloss stall after a
refeed day. My leader at the WW program normally recommends eating
at the high end of your points range for a couple days when a stall
occurs. It's worked for many in the group, including myself.

Since weight loss can be delayed and occur a few days after calorie
deficit, the relation of refeed and weight loss could be
coincidental. Short of a controlled study, personal evidence is
"interesting", but not convincing.

There were quite a few dieting concepts that did not withstand
scrutiny once controlled studies were done.

So, I would like to see references to controlled studies and not just
websites and personal testimonies.

I also searched medline for "rate of weight loss calorie intake", and
again this search turned up 101 articles, none relevant.

I am not saying that "refeeds do not work", what I am saying is that
there is not evidence towards that that I have seen, so far.

i

You'll have to do your own researchg I'll stick with what works for me
and many others.

Reading research papers is not my cup of tea.

Beverly

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 08:08:02 -0400, "Beverly"
wrote:


"Aaron" wrote in message
news
I'm a 19-year-old male, five-foot-ten. Five months ago I weighed about 235
lbs, but I've managed to slim down to 181 lbs by exercising and reducing
calories. Only problem is, I have not lost any weight whatsoever this
month.
I hit 181 in mid-May and have been hovering there ever since. Anyone have
any advice? I'm eating 1000-1500 cals/day and walking 4 to 6 miles a day,
5
days a week.


Your caloric intake seems a little low for your weight and exercise. Many
in the group recommend 10 x current weight as the amount of calories needed
to lose weight. Your body may be reacting to the low amount of calories and
hanging onto every ounce of body weight it can manage. You might try adding
a few calories to your daily intake or do a refeed day to see if this starts
the weight loss again.

Beverly



I'd agree with this... and sometimes adding some calories WILL start
the weight loss. I'd try upping your calories to1600-1800 for a week
and see what happens. Or at least eat a couple meals a week at that
level.

Aside from that, stalls are not abnormal when it comes to weight loss.
I think they are sometimes like a body's adjustment period... and
eventually, one usually does start losing again.


Cynthia

Hark! I heard Ignoramus19080 say
in :

Your caloric intake seems a little low for your weight and exercise.
Many in the group recommend 10 x current weight as the amount of
calories needed to lose weight. Your body may be reacting to the low
amount of calories and hanging onto every ounce of body weight it can
manage. You might try adding a few calories to your daily intake or
do a refeed day to see if this starts the weight loss again.

I would like to know if there is any clinical evidence that eating
less could cause slower weight loss.

I'm with you on this IG. A greater caloric defecit will cause increased
weight loss. However, I think the main reason for increasing the calories
is to increase the will to continue with a particular diet. A human can
only stand so much temptation before it has to feed itself more calories.
This is basic survival instinct. Limiting your calories to a very low
number gives you a very narrow window in which to get all the nutrients
your body needs to remain healthy. Also, if you weigh yourself every day,
you will notice weight fluctuations that can't be explained by what was
eaten the previous day. You have to see a trend and look at what you've
been eating and what your activity level has been for the past several
days.

Personally, I prefer to increase the caloric defecit through exercise
rather than eating less.

Phil M.

--
"Do, or do not. There is no try." -Yoda

Hark! I heard "Phil M." say:
Hark! I heard Ignoramus19080 say
in :

snip

Uh-oh, time for a new intro line...


--
J.J. in WA * 275/234/1??
(COLD to HOT for e-mail)

One dark day on Usenet, (byakee) said:
Hark! I heard "Phil M." say:
Hark! I heard Ignoramus19080 say
in :

snip

Uh-oh, time for a new intro line...

I meant for me, not Phil... :-)


--
J.J. in WA ~ mom, vid gamer, novice cook ~
(COLD to HOT for e-mail)
"Why do my knees feel like the wanna tear up?"
- Carl, ATHF