Paula's South Beach Cafe

[maltby_gardner]

I am very, not frustrated exactly, but perplexed, I guess would be the better word. It looks as though I am wrapping up May with a 1.5 pound loss. I eat on plan. I watch my portion sizes. I exercise, either cardio or weights, everyday. Not sure why the weight is coming off so slowly.

It has been years (possibly even decades) since I've weighed significantly less than my current weight, so there may be set point issues involved, but I'm not sure what to do. I'm not complaining, I mean, a loss is good, but I would prefer not to wallow around in P2 for a couple of years losing 15 or so pounds.

Got this in my e-mail today and it seemed timely. I wish it weren't just a tease, but the concept of not "doing what you've always done and expecting different results" makes sense to me.

Quote:
QUESTION: Dear Tom: I’ve been going to the gym for the past year now, but I have only lost 2 pounds. I eat about 1800 calories a day and I do 3 cardio and 3 weight training sessions a week. I am 5 feet 5 inches and 128 lbs. I would like to be at 120 lbs.

To lose 8 more lbs isn’t a lot to ask, but I’m really frustrated. I’ve been VERY persistent, and I rarely cheat except once each weekend, but at this rate, it will take me another 4 years for me to reach my goal! Please help!

Vicky

P.s. I love reading your emails for their usefulness and honesty.

ANSWER:

Don’t worry, it won’t take another 4 years! In fact, you can reach your target wt. within the next month if you start getting feedback, charting results and making some strategic changes to your program.

First, it’s important that you understand how a year could go by with almost no progress.

Have you been doing the same nutrition, same calories, same cardio and same workout for the entire past year with no changes? If so, then you shouldn’t be suprised if you’ve continued to get the SAME results (very little).

If you do more of the same, you usually get more of the same.

Caloric intake, for example is not something you calculate once and then never pay attention to again. Calories have to be calculated and customized for each individual in the beginning and then adjusted continuously in “real time” during the course of a fat loss program, based on actual results.

Just because you start at 1800 doesn’t mean your caloric intake should stay there. Calories may need to be increased or decreased depending on whether your goals, your body weight and your activity levels change and based on your weekly progress (or lack of).

Which brings me to another point. I am a huge fan of using progress charts. There is a saying in business management and sports coaching:

“What gets measured gets done.”

When you start “keeping score” and tracking performance right down to the numbers, it’s almost miraculous how this awareness of how you’re doing translates into improved results.

When you track your body composition results every week, if a week or two goes by with no results, then you don’t continue with more of what got you no results, you change some variable in your program immediately!

An old Turkish proverb that says,

“No matter how far you’ve traveled down the wrong road, always turn back!”

Of course, you don’t have to throw out your entire program, you can simply “tweak” ONE or maybe two variables within the same program.

Also, when you measure, track and analyze muscle versus fat (body composition), instead of just scale weight, you might even discover you’ve gained some lean body mass and this offsets the drop on the scale (which means it’s possible you made more progress than you thought).

Now, back to the calories. To break a plateau, you can take a reduction in calories, or an increase in activity, either of which will create a deficit if you are currently in energy balance, or increase your existing caloric deficit.

1800 calories may not provide a large enough deficit for some women, and in fact, the majority of women your height, weight and activity level usually are losing fat safely and successfully on 1500-1600 calories per day. (for men about 2200-2500 calories, avg.)

At the end of the day, fat loss boils down to calories in versus calories out, so if you plateau, you may need a simple calorie reduction, provided you don’t restrict too low for too long (which tends to trigger your body’s “starvation response.”)

As for your cardio program, 3 days a week of cardio works for many people, but usually, I would consider three weekly cardio sesssions a maintenenance workout or at best a starting point for beginners,NOT a “maximum fat loss” program.

Example: this week, you could increase your cardio from 3 sessions to 4 sessions. If you combine the decrease in food intake with an increase in calories burned through activity, that will almost certainly get you burning fat again.

If it does, then stay with 4 days a week of cardio. If not, the next week go up to 5 days a week. Repeat this simple “feedback loop” process as many times and for as long as necessary.

Also remember that more (often) is not always better. You can also increase the intensity and get more calories burned in same amount of time. This feedback loop process can be used to make decisions about your training intensity, duration and type, as well as frequency.

Whichever strategy you choose to break the plateau, remember Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity:

“Insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Although this seems like common sense to some people, what happened to you is really quite common because it does appear that you’re doing everything you’re “supposed to be doing” with perfectly good intentions.

You have have all the key elements there: You’re exercising (weights and cardio). You’re watching your nutrition, and you’ve been disciplined and consistent in following it.

The trouble with many popular programs - even good ones - is that they are too dogmatic. Their entire program may revolve around “X” number of calories, “X” days per week of cardio and “X” days a week of weights….

And you’re not allowed to “tamper” with that “holy grail” formula.

I can understand the rationale for a simple diet and exercise prescription for a beginner in order to not confuse them with too many choices, but what if it doesnt work after a month, three months, six months, A WHOLE YEAR? What if there are no options, what then?

In NLP, there’s a principle, (borrowed from cybernetics), called The Law of Requisite Variety, which says,

“The person with the most flexibility is the person with the most power and the greatest chance for success.”

You need to know what to do when you’re not getting results… you need options and choices for breaking plateaus, and that’s important because plateaus happen to everyone - including me.

Some people think that hitting a fat loss plateau means there’s something wrong with them. But plateaus are natural and normal. In fact, you could look at it this way:

Hitting a plateau means your body is healthy and your body is functioning normally, because normal function of the body is to adapt effectively to stress, to protect you and to maintain homeostasis.

Exercise is a stress. Dieting is a stress. It’s natural for your body to adapt to them. When you adapt, you must place a new “positive stress” onthe body if you want continued improvement.

If you want to learn more details about how to change your program to break plateaus and make continuous progress as fast as safely possible, then I recommend you take a look at Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM).

BFFM has flexibility, feedback and performance tracking built right into it. Chapter 4 in BFFM teaches the “BFFM feedback loop method”, and shows you how to chart progress and adjust your diet and workouts on a weekly basis, to keep you making progress or get you back on track if your progress stalls out.

There is no reason to allow even a few weeks, let alone an entire year to go by without results. But you can’t expect to get different results if you continue doing more of what’s not working.

Keep after it! Be persistent… but also be flexible!


That gets me thinking. Obviously, I'm not at a plateau, I am still losing, albeit slowly. But it seems like I'm not getting a very good return on my investment. It's very difficult to add muscle faster than you lose fat, but I still think that may account for part of this slowdown. I have added visible muscle (especially my glutes!). But I don't think that's the whole story.

What to do?

[maltby_gardner]

Something unusual happened today while I was working out. It was an easy day today, so all I was doing was a nice, easy walk at 3.2 mph on a 3% incline, and coming up on about 27 minutes, all of a sudden my blood sugar just tanked! I thought I was gonna pass out. I got off the treadmill, went upstairs and had a slice of bread with peanut butter, then ate a piece of chicken and had something to drink. Not sure what was up with that. I ate pretty much the same kinds and quantities of stuff that I usually eat and it's not even like I was working hard, just a nice, easy walk. Weird.

[maltby_gardner]

Completely lacking in motivation to exercise and I fear my small supply of self-discipline is being depleted...

[Backhoegirl]

Greetings and Salutations Paula's Journal!!

I KNOW about discouragement from the scale Paula...I started running in February and have eaten mostly beachy in that time and I only lost 2 pounds two weeks ago and then found 1 of them again this past weekend...I mean thats MONTHS of no loss. But I have stuck with the exercise knowing that even if it doesnt shed the pounds Im much healthier and happier for it. And eventually its gotta work right?

One thing I can reccomend is do you measure? I measured when I started the Couch to 5k in February and while I didnt lose any weight I lost 5 inches doing it!! so i guess i traded some fat for muscle..ill take it. So far Ive lost 6 inches total over my body and thats pretty cool even if the scale doesnt give me any love. sometimes we see results in other areas. I also have clothes that didnt fit that i can wear now even though i weigh the same darn thing. And of course my fitness level is 200% better and I believe ive made the fitness change for life.

Stick with it Paula!! 1.5 pounds in a month is nothing to sneeze at and please see that maybe you have gained muscle mass. You might have lost 5 pounds of fat but put on 3.5 pounds of muscle or something.

I dont know if you record your food anywhere but maybe you need to really shake up your food. I know in the past sometimes ive lost weight on weeks where i ate more carbs than typical just becuase my system was in a rut. Im not suggesting to eat cake but maybe add a serving of whole wheat pasta (or take it away completely and see what happens) sometimes its good to show our body a curveball!!

Keep up the exercise Paula we expect reports in the C25K thread!!!!

[maltby_gardner]

Thanks, I needed a pep talk. I still feel discouraged, though. My C25K workouts aren't going that well, even though I backed up to week 1. Probably partly due to the hot weather we had, which makes my ankles swell, which restricts the circulation in my legs and feet, which leads to fatigue and muscle cramping. Plus with the edema, it's really ugly on the scale. I know it's water weight when the scale inches back up, but it's still very discouraging.

Technically, is should be pretty hard, especially for an old broad like me, to gain muscle faster than I'm losing fat. Although I have added visible muscle, especially in the big muscles of my rear and thighs. I do measure and I have lost a ton of inches, 6 inches on the "big three" from January 1 to May 1. I haven't measure yet for June...been too discouraged.

I'm trying to decide what to do about my food. Grains are problematic. Wheat is out; I know for sure that I react poorly to it (heart palpitations). After that, what is there? I love white rice, don't particularly care for brown rice; oats are okay, but it's not like I can serve them with dinner. No pasta; I tried brown rice pasta and it was disgusting. The same sandy texture as ww pasta, but tasted even worse (imagine my surprise)! I tried quinoa yesterday and that was fine, but it's pretty bland. I guess if I want to eat that, I'll have to find some recipes (I HATE TO COOK!). I'm closer to giving up grains completely than anything else. At this point I'm like, if I can't have what I really want (in terms of grains) why bother trying to eat stuff that I don't really care for? By the way, don't ever bother trying brown rice tortillas. They taste okay (not good, mind you) but they have a texture very like plastic!

I don't record my food anywhere; it seems to me that obsessing over everything that goes in my mouth cannot possibly be the way to have a normal relationship with food!

I just went back and read what I wrote here and I sound like a whiny brat! It's how I feel right now, though. I'll be doing a C25K workout today, keeping my fingers crossed at this point that it doesn't suck, because if it does, it will be very difficult to give it another go on Wednesday.

[p_wreath]

Hi Paula,

I came across your journal and realized you were the same person from the C25k thread that was so encouraging about what I consider to be my slow pace.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate that email about plateaus and the feedback loop. I too am feeling really discouraged about what my scale says so I can understand how you're feeling. But I agree with BHG, 1.5 pounds in a month is definitely something to be proud of!!

I hope your day goes better.

[ladybugnessa]

I just went back and read what I wrote here and I sound like a whiny brat! It's how I feel right now, though. I'll be doing a C25K workout today, keeping my fingers crossed at this point that it doesn't suck, because if it does, it will be very difficult to give it another go on Wednesday.

hey hope you don't mind the intrustion...


it's YOUR journal.. whine away!

[Love2paint4you]

I just went back and read what I wrote here and I sound like a whiny brat! It's how I feel right now, though. I'll be doing a C25K workout today, keeping my fingers crossed at this point that it doesn't suck, because if it does, it will be very difficult to give it another go on Wednesday.

hey hope you don't mind the intrustion...


it's YOUR journal.. whine away!

Absolutely! Hang in there Paula. Remember that the tortoise wins.

[Backhoegirl]

Hey Miss Whine, Im not sure how tall you are but Im 5'2" and I weigh 152 pounds so thatll be just about enough out of you...just kidding! you aren't whiny Paula, just discouraged. We all get that way sometimes (and by sometimes I mean at least once every 24 hours!)

The food situation sounds problematic..do you eat a lot of beans? i love beans and think they are the super SB food! since you dont eat wheat, what about sweet potatoes? wild rice? green peas are even a starchy food allowed back in P2 (1/2 cup), popcorn (3 cups!), and of course I dont know what you eat for breakfast but eating oatmeal every day is so good for you...

Thats so great about the inches Paula! KEEP it up. YOU CAN DO IT!!

Good luck on the Couch to 5k workout tonite...I wonder if youre feeling in the back of your mind like youve been doing the same workouts forever (C25K) and you are sick of not moving forward? I know you arent excited about getting out of doors but maybe you need to switch it up. go for distance instead of time. I know i always feel awesome when I go a further distance than ever before. plus it pushes you a bit becuase youre like "ok if i set the treadmill a little higher ill get there faster" whereas couch to 5k you know you have to run a set number of minutes...just a thought

I know youll find the balance and were all here rooting for you (and kicking you in the butt when you need it!)

[maltby_gardner]

Yea! I'm all excited now, because lots of people dropped in unexpectedly!

Thank you, Nessa and Barb, for permission to whine!

Heidi, thanks for the encouragement.

Backhoe, I read in the runner's thread about your 5K, you husband sounds like a gem, hang on tight to that one!

I'm feeling better now, not sure why. Maybe because Mr. Crabbypants left for work.

I just remembered, Jennifer has a violin lesson tonight. That is going to make it "very challenging" to get in my workout. I should have done it this morning.

[ladybugnessa]

I do so love unexpected company!

[maltby_gardner]

Okay! Violin teacher's dog is in the hospital...no violin lesson tonight! More time to exercise!

[Backhoegirl]

woohoo!! get runnin'

[maltby_gardner]

Okay, I did Week 1, Day 1 AGAIN! I hadn't actually run at all since last Wednesday, and boy, you should have heard my legs and feet..."Hey! What's up with this? We thought you stopped that $%!*!" Even though I still walked every day. It is just not the same. It. Is. So. Not. Worth. Skipping. Days.

But cardio wise, I was good. I finished the whole workout jogging at 5.0 mph and walking at 3.2 mph. Easy walk and weights (legs & glutes) tomorrow , C25K again on Wednesday.

[maltby_gardner]

I need to remember when I do weights today to take it fairly easy, I don't want to be tired or sore for C25K tomorrow.