You gotta let that knee heal.

When it's healed, THEN you can move on.

Yeah, it's just taking a LONG, LONG time. It was injured some time in February.

Not sure if you know this, but trying to lose weight while eating less is damn near impossible.

Losing weight depends on how much of your daily caloric intake your body keeps on as fat stores. If you Exercise a lot, but eat a very minimal amount of food, then your body is scrambling to sop up as much of those calories into storage as possible to make up for all the energy you're spending. Thus, when you are trying REALLY hard to lose weight and eat less, you'll invariably fail at one or the other.

What the trick, supposedly, to losing weight is, ironically, isn't eating less. It's eating SMART.

I've seen a lot of science to the facts I'm presenting, and if you go read up on them (I'll try to find you links), you'll see what I mean.

If you want to get down to say 170 pounds from where you are, your NET calories for the day need to total 1700 or so, maybe a little less. That's also counting all the calories you burn from exercise and activity. So if you do, say 900 calories worth of burning when you exercise, that day you need to eat 2600 calories or so in order to prevent your body from damaging itself and slowing your progress. It's easy math, but it's a bitch to keep track of. Takes more dedication than I usually have.

In addition, there are some loose rules to follow as well, such as cutting out Simple Carbs, limiting your snacking, eating more fiber and more antioxidants, and the like. Multivitamins help out in multiple ways too, in case you're not getting all the basic minerals and stuff you need.


I really hope your knee starts doing better, and that you can start feeling better in general. Don't starve yourself! Your body needs those nutrients to repair itself! <3

Yeah, that seems to be the balance that's getting me. If I eat under 2600 a day, my knee starts to get worse. But unless I eat under 2100, I don't lose any weight. =(

Agreeing with Legion here, it sounds like the problem is your knee being injured, and everything else is just a side effect of that. It also sounds like you're not dieting right. My brother has had phenomenal success with the Palio diet, so I can personally suggest looking into that and seeing if it's possible for you.

*sigh* It's just taking forever.

I don't have advice, but I wish you luck!

THanks!

Maybe try to find some kind of upper body exercises you could do?

Also, what reasons has your doctor given for you needing to lose weight for the hormones? Because that's sounding a bit bullshitty to me...

Oh, she's not saying I CAN'T have them. It's more just that it's easier to lose weight as a guy than a girl, so it makes more sense to try to take on the weight as a guy, THEN transition to girl.

Ah, that makes sense then. Though it also occurs to me now that hormones might have a stronger effect if you weigh less. *shrug*

You shouldn't be limiting how much food you eat, so much as controlling what kind of food you eat. If you want to lose weight, first off you have to commit to a lifestyle change. Your body would very much prefer to maintain its set weight, so any chance it gets, your weight will rebound.

To actually succeed in lowering your weight, you need to do two things. First, you need a healthy diet that satisfies your bodies full needs, and does not include anything unhealthy or fatty. Do some research on this and make a list of things that you can eat and can't. Then figure out how many portions of what you need. Finally, commit to this dietary lifestyle for the rest of your life. This doesn't mean that you have to keep the same menu for the rest of your life, just that you maintain the same levels of intake and continue to avoid problem foods.

Second, you need to get into a regular exercise routine. This part is a fair bit easier to do, but be sure you don't over tax your body, or do more work then you're taking in in calories. If you can't exercise your legs due to injury, consider getting some weights or doing sit ups. You don't have to bulk up here, mind you, so feel free to do slow burn or general full body exercises (like swimming).

Unfortunately, I've got a few restrictions that are making it hard to be flexible with my diet. I was a vegetarian for like 20 years, and my iron and protein levels are critically low, so I'm working to repair that first and foremost. Also, though, I can't eat meat without gagging, which makes it very difficult to get a good source of protein in. That said, being unable to eat meat, trying to restrict carbs, and keeping my fat low leaves very little room for me to actually get the calories I need while still staying healthy.

Well, if you're having trouble eating red meat, there is blood. THE best way to get iron into your body since it's already processed into hemoglobin, and it is literally flooded with the proteins your body needs to survive. I know there are some tribes in Africa that subsist entirely on the milk and blood they harvest from their cattle (they don't actually kill the bovines).

Other iron sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron#Health_and_diet

o.O The problem is that the idea of eating flesh creeps me out. Concordantly, the idea of drinking blood is just as gross to me. Sorry!

Well like it or not, that's how your body normally regulates its ability to effectively transport oxygen in your blood.

I know the feeling. My body doesn't want to be all slim and athletic even though my brain insisted on it.
They had a huge argument and now they're not on speaking terms any more... *sigh*

Wishing you luck getting around that there.
But go easy on your knee though. Probably best to wait till that's completely healed first.

Yeah, but it's been months, MONTHS!

Well... bummer.

Good luck working out a solution then.

Thanks!

Lots of amateur advice here, but I'll toss in my two cents - weight loss in calories in vs calories out. Increasing calories out AND decreasing calories in might be putting yourself into a starvation mode where your body saves everything it can. You might be hitting it too hard. Maybe just eat a decent amount and work out, see if you lose a pound or two over the next week or so. Don't kill yourself and don't expect it to happen overnight.

Well the frustrating thing is that I did lose two pounds last week, and then, with no change to the routine, gained them back over the course of the week.

Here's advice:
Talk to your doctor.
Don't ask a bunch of people sitting at their computer.

I have, but following the doc's advice has me in stasis. I'm collecting viewpoints to maybe brainstorm a factor that neither she nor I have thought of yet.

Might want to consider talking to a dietitian, then.

That's my doctor, actually. Been meeting with a nutritionist for the past few months.

Ah, well, I heard doctor and thought regular physician. But yeah, I doubt I have anything of mention that could help. Sorry.

There's an important distinction to be made here: Dietitians and nutritionists are not quite the same thing. The main difference being that dietitian is a regulated profession while nutritionist isn't. This means that anyone can call themselves a nutritionist and they might not really know what they're talking about[1].

Now, I will point out that many Registered Dietitians will also identify themselves as nutritionists. They also generally don't mind if you ask about that, as it shows that you care about the advice you are getting.


[1] Certification doesn't mean anything either. One guy was able to get his dog certified as a nutritionist by one of the groups that does it.

That's fair, though if my University is confident in her ability to teach classes in nutrition, I'm confident in taking nutritional advice from her. (Also, I can't really afford anything else with no insurance.)

Don't be too sure: I've see college/university level courses taught by people who prescribe homeopathy and acupuncture, neither of which actually does anything.

Again, no insurance. University clinic is all I can afford.

MrKrampus be right, talk to your doc. If your knee is still healing, keep to only the exercises that the docs recommended for your leg, otherwise you'll end up doing more damage to it. Pinched a nerve 10 years ago in weight training, still bothers me on really cold days to this day. As for diet, yea, I can't help ya. Been on a steady march up since high school, 160 to now 185. Only way I've lost weight now has been from a career change this year. Went from landscaping to fry cooking, having a neck again lets me know what I've actually lost, lol. Good luck with everything, and keep up the good artwork!!

Fortunately, I'm only about 8 pounds heavier than I was in middle school. However, that does mean I was a fatty-fat-fatty in middle school

Also, have your doc check your cholesterol, blood sugar levels, electrolyte levels.

I weigh significantly more than you, but because all of those are normal-to-low and I'm not eating junk food, it's actually unsafe for me to eat less.

Those are all checked. Sugar is fine, cholesterol is slightly higher, but on the mend. Iron was my biggest problem, and I'm working to fix that.

um it really is. the human body preffers to be on the hefty side because that way if something goes wrong (injury sicknes supper was a little to fast) it has a buffer to work with before things become life threatening.

If only my body could give me an itemized list of what it needed, I'd be more than happy to give it all the materials it needs to fix the knee.

i feel the same about my health issues if it helps.