help?

[Paintballer01]

I have been working my ass off every day not eating bad things working out for about 2-3 hours a day but i cant seem to loose weight i staying at 250 is there anything i can do???

[abrannan]

Paintballer01 said:

not eating bad things

Define, please? Take us through a typical day, meal by meal, with as much detail as you can. (amounts, timing, brands even)

How many calories are you eating per day? If you don't know, that doesn't bode well for your weight loss.

[Paintballer01]

A typical morning is a bowl of cereal (Special K) or a biscuit sometimes nothing, for lunch I eat something like a bannana, for dinner i have either a sub or salad or something in that area.

[abrannan]

That's as much detail as you can manage? You can do better. But offhand, based on what you posted here. You aren't getting near enough calories. Of course, I also doubt that that's all you're eating day after day.

Lemme give you an example of what I'm looking for:

Breakfast (7:00 am +- 15 minutes):
1 Cup (Measured) Special K cereal
1/2 cup (measured) skim milk
1 Tasty Kake blueberry muffin

Lunch (usually around 11:30am):
1 medium banana

Dinner (6:00pm):
Subway 12" Roast Beef sub, with cheese lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, horseradish sauce
Medium diet Pepsi


Notes: I'm usually sluggish mid-afternoon, and ravenously hungry by the time I get to dinner. Occasionally I'll throw back an entire medium sized box of Cheeze Nips in the evenings while watching TV

We can help you troubleshoot your diet, but, to quote Jerry Maguire "Help me help you". I can't act on zero information. If I could snap my fingers and magically make you lose weight, I'd a) do it and b) be a millionaire. But until my latent psychic powers manifest themselves, you've got to give me something to work with. It may sound harsh, but it's true.

So here's your homework: Start a food journal. For at least a week, preferrably a month, keep a notebook with you and keep track of everything that goes into your mouth. Log time, food eaten, quantity of food (measure if you can, check some of the diet sites for good eyeball measurements if you can't), and most importantly how you're feeling(energy level, emotion, etc) at the moment you're eating. Also log the exercise you're doing (some level of detail, amount, type, maybe heart rate, and defintiely how you're feeling when you're exercising). Then, once a week, go to a calorie count website and get counts for the food you ate for that week.

You're 250lbs so I don't want you going below 1300 calories per day to start with.

[frantep16]

My guess is you're not eating enough. And definitely not enough protein.

There have been previous posts about how your body reacts to not enough food by going into "starvation" mode and conserving every bit of fat to deal with the "famine" conditions you're encountering.

But I agree with abrannan, it'll be easier to help you when we know your patterns in more detail.

[havix]

abrannan said:

If I could snap my fingers and magically make you lose weight, I'd a) do it and b) be a millionaire.

Actually, I would guess billionaire...but I guess people will get the point .

[abrannan]

havix said:

Actually, I would guess billionaire...but I guess people will get the point .

Nah, I've always had a problem with pricing my services too low. Plus, there's a point of diminishing returns with money. Once you've got X amount, there's really not a whole lot of difference in what you can do with it.

[Paintballer01]

Ill do that. I never thought some one would tell me im not eating enough.

Ok today what i ate.

Breakfast : Nothing
Lunch: Tendercrisp Bacon Chedder Ranch ( I know thats bad but i got discusted with myself not going down a pound)
Dinner: About 1 cup of speghetti sauce and 2 Peice of Toast.

[xstatic]

Did you drink anything??? Perhapse have fries with that sam-ich?

[frantep16]

You've probably heard this before, but MOST importantly, EAT BREAKFAST! You've got to get your metabolism started. It's probably sluggish because you are not giving your body fuel in the morning, so it thinks it needs to conserve.

And yes, it doesn't sound like nearly enough food to me. While I personally have some issues with the new food pyramid, you can look at it as a starting point for you. Look at all of the food you are missing in a day. You need LOTS more fruits and veggies. Some more protein, and more whole grains. For a balanced diet, for each meal, you should fill up a dinner plate so that half of it is veggies (but not high-starch veggies like corn or potatoes), 1/4 is protein, and 1/4 is carbs (whole grains are best, like brown rice). If you want, the veggies part can be 1/2 veggies, 1/2 fruit.

Try eating more food, but just be really healthy. Not more junk food.

[abrannan]

Most raw vegtables (and steamed, too) have so few calories that you can completely stuff yourself and still be fine in the calorie department. It's very hard to eat too many vegetables. I've been trying to shift my own thinking about food to a main course of vegetables with a side of meat/other protein, rather than the other way around.

But yes, it cannot be stressed enough. YOU NEED TO EAT BREAKFAST. Get yourself some yogurts, eat some eggs and low-fat breakfast meat (canadian bacon or turkey bacon). The protein will help maintain a more steady metabolism level throughout your morning, you'll have more energy, and you'll get your body moving so you can burn calories.

Yes, if you keep eating your body will eventually adjust, and realize that there's no shortage of food, and release the fat stores it's been clinging to. But that's after it cannibalizes most of your muscle mass and drops your metabolism as low as it can reasonably take it. But until that happens, you'll just find yourself as dissatisfied with the food you're eating as you are now, and you'll be tempted to cheat and eat more near 1000 calorie Tendercrisp bacon cheddar ranch sandwiches. Frantep has laid out some great ground rules for portion sizing. Give them a try.

[Paintballer01]

Thanks Guys for the Ideas

Today i Ate:

Morning: 1 Cup of Special K, 1/2 a cup of 1% Milk
Lunch: 3 Chickin Tendors ( I am working so all i can get my hands on is chicken)
Dinner: 6 Inch Chicken Terriaki Sub
Tomattos
Lettuce
Pickles

How does this sound to you,

Breakfast: 2 Piece of Turkey Bacon
I cup of yogurt

Lunch: 1 Can Vieners
1 Bannana

Dinner: 1 Meat
1 cup yogurt
1 cup strawberries

[GeminiJoe]

Hello

i'm new here, but I was in a similar situation. I would severly limit my calorie intake, and while that may work for the first week it does nothing for long term weight loss.

If you really want to jump start you metabolism and get on a proper diet, i suggest you read this on eating 5-6 healthy meals a day about every 3 hours.

www.fitfaq.com/six-meals-a-day.html

I've taken some of this and it has realy worked so far, i lost almost an inch of my waist in a week . It doesn't mean you have to eat a full meal every three hours, but small portable snacks work great

I also started keeping a journal, adding what i ate and at what time, for instance, yesterday....

9am-Low Fat Yogurt and 2 poched eggs w a slice of whole grain toast

12pm -Turkey wrap

3-pm Some pistachios and a can of v8 juice

6pm - Salad with light dressing, Steamed Brocoli with low fat cheese, 2 Pork Chops

9pm -celery with peanut butter, whey protien shake (after workout)

One of the hardest parts is finding heathly snacks to eat every 3 hours, but it is key. Some sugestions I have is peanuts, trail mix, proiten bars/shakes, banana's, etc. Just a little bit will keep it going ;D

Good luck!

[frantep16]

GeminiJoe, sounds very healthy!!

Paintballer, sounds better, but still need more veggies.

[Paintballer01]

Hey I finally got down under 250 infact i am 246. Thats a 39 Pound weight loss all together. Ok ill let you know what im eating may not be healthy but its working.

Breakfast: Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

Lunch: same as breakfast

Dinner: A big juicy steak.

[ThallyGally]

Yummy steak *drools* lol. If you cut your eating in half, not cutting calories or anything does that help at all? Or do you actually have to cut calories in order to lose weight faster? I've cut my servings in half and I haven't seen results, I'm not discouraged or anything I was just wondering if I should cut calories instead.

[abrannan]

It can help, but it can be harder to maintain than changing your diet to a lower calorie diet, particularly if you're eating calorie dense foods.