KayFrench68's Journal, 20 February 2018

Definitely not eating enough! Stick to around 1500, make sure you fill those calories with healthy foods. Eat before exercise and try not to eat late. 

Thanks Yasmine ❤️ 

Watch out for those super sweet treats, your magnum mini will do all sorts of things to you both psychologically and physiologically. Ask yourself if having that burst of refined sugar is likely to set up feelings of guilt and remorse after the pleasure of eating it? I'm not saying that you don't deserve a a treat I'm just asking if you could have chosen a different treat? I'm a fan of dark chocolate these days partly because of the pleasure in eating a square but also I know that it has a melatonin benefit which helps with stress relief, well being and sleep. Now let's consider the physiological. Processed, high glycemic carbs cause a spike in insulin which immediately turn off your cells ability to burn fat. It's not the amount of calories consumed that you want to limit, it's how your body responds to them. Develop your understanding of this process and find ways that fit in with your exercise preferences which allow you to burn fat for longer periods of time. Most people will recommend intermittent fasting and a low carb/slow carb diet for this. I suggest that you research plenty and make the choices that make sense to you. Stick with it, measure & celebrate you wins (they feel great). When you plateaux, remember that your body is just trying to protect itself by slowing down your metabolism in response to scarcity of resources that you are giving it, work with that rather than getting frustrated by it and another win will be your reward soon enough. To put this into context, I was 18'2" last August and today I just dropped to 14'11". I seem to hit a roadblock every 2 or three weeks and I never lose more than a pound or two in a single week now that I don't have so much retained water. I just have to keep going and have faith that I'm making informed choices. Good luck Kay, you are doing well. 

hi Kay I've had a similar problem in the past, every 4th day consume an extra 1000 calories of good whole foods (protein, good carbs, good fats). This tricks your body and makes sure you don't go into starvation mode. Also incrwas your water intake as 60-80% of our body is water, we need this to be at the right level for our metabolism to tick. I aim for 3 litres spread throughout the day! good luck with the fat loss and remember weight is muscle plus fat so you may be getting healthier even though the scales may not say it. keep going mate ! 

I see you're generally eating 60-80% RDI which I would imagine is great. I usually eat between 50-60% RDI (except for my treat days) and it's working fine. You're only about 400-500 calories short of RDI which I thought was recommended for losing 1lb a week? Maybe it's not the calorie intake that's the problem? 

ebikeevangelist Thank you for your wise words. There is very little food that I crave including sweet things, pastries or cakes. I don't have much of a sweet tooth so don't really feel guilty when I do indulge. I will watch carefully in the next few weeks my intake and up the consumption of the healthy stuff I eat already. jaz000 Extra water, yes that is one of my biggest faults not drinking enough. Thanks for reminding me. x 

I would advise you to switch to a low (or lower) carb diet. This will get your body to tap into your fat for energy and ergo lose weight. Eat less than 50g of carbs a day. The rest of your calories can come for fat or protein (your weight is 72.9kg so I would advise eating protein at a ratio to 1.2 to 1.5 grams relative to your weight i.e. 87kg to 109kg) to avoid unnecessary loss of muscle which is very very bad in the long term. Have a reasonable deficit between 200 to 400 calorie deficit. I do it for 13 days then on the 14th day I go back to a regular diet and eat at maintenance or perhaps a bit more than maintenance. When I first started dabbling in dieting, I tried what you are doing now and I lost barely anything. This diet would mean that all your meals will drastically change and you will feel groggy for a few days while your body gets used to running on fat and ketones (the by product produced when fat is used as the primary source of energy). Drink plenty of water. Have a reasonable amount of veg with meals to get some vitamins, minerals and fibre. Do HIIT training in the gym, not a 30 min session at the same pace. Drink a cup of coffee in the morning to suppress your appetite. You should be able to lose 4 kilos in a month or so. Good luck :) 

Gees I am having the exact same problem. Determined commitment to the food calories and exercise, and I'm bumming around the same 4/6 lbs of weight for two weeks. I am also sub 1000 most days except Fri/Sat which I have my full RDI . I read somewhere too about plateauing if you eat too little, but honestly I just wasn't even hungry at all .. and basically I eat based on hunger. When I tried to up my intake a couple of times last week .. I just felt sooo uncomfortable. Its difficult to know what to do? Saaywar that's interesting what you say .. I struggle to keep carbs below the 85g mark especially when adding in lots of veggies and salad ! To keep my muscle content I pretty much strength train every day in short bursts. I don't know how to get my Protein over 35g it would seem pretty impossible ..lol But I'm going to try take note. 

@Bandraid - Looking at your weight logs, your problem might be that your body needs a break from being in a caloric deficit. Having a 'diet break' allows your body to reset and restart it's normal functions. I did a low carb diet for 2 and a half months and towards the end of it my weight loss started flat lining so I just went onto a regular diet but at maintenance instead of deficit for two weeks. Then continued the low carb diet and the fat loss continued. As I said above, I only have a deficit for 13 days out of 14 so I am not stressing my body out too much but after a while it runs out of mojo. Take a break for a week or two then get back on it and you'll be at your goal in no time.  

Thank you for your advice folks