Running in Place
A little bit frustrated right now.
Well, OK, I am very frustrated right now.
As I look at my calorie log, I am still maintaining 1600-2000 calories a day, averaging 1700 a day. I am very careful about logging my food, cheating to the high side if I m not sure of the serving size…
My activity level is staying high, 3500-4000 calories a day burned, averaging 3700.
Yet my weight has stagnated again. I have hovered between 255 and 252 for a week now and it is bothering me.
I have been through this before of course, several times since I began this Journey. I just keep doing what I am doing; maybe tighten up on the calories and the weight starts to move again. Still…. It is frustrating…
I am still committed to getting to the 245+ pound range before the wedding we are attending May 5. Somewhere between 245 and 249 will be fine but I was really expecting, given the level of activity, that I would have a shot at the low 240 range…
Today the weather gave us temperatures in the high 80′s and that is very unusual for this area this time of year. It is fairly low humidity so that made it tolerable. I hoped to have time to do some walking in the plant today but it was not to be. The Younger and I took a nice walk through town instead of dealing with the monotony of the track. Nearly three miles and the hills of town served as the bleachers for me tonight. A really pleasant walk.
I expect that my weight will start to move again soon and when it does it will be a rush of loss… At the end of the last period of stagnation, I lost 10 pounds in 6 days.
Strange I know.
Why Don’t I call it a Plateau like Everyone Else?
I do not use the term plateau. In my mind, it does not describe what is really happening. For me it is stagnation, a lack of movement. I like the negative sound of the word stagnation. To me, it denotes something that one can change by action that is more aggressive.
To my ear, plateau sounds like something inevitable, outside of my control. I will not accept that the weight loss stopping is inevitable or out of my control. If the weight loss stopping is inevitable and outside of my control, then (my mind says to me) weight gain is inevitable and outside of my control. That I simply will not accept.
Dreaming about Dreams
I sit sometimes out on the back deck of my home and I think about the things that I want to happen on this Journey. I guess you can call it Daydreaming. I dream of how I will look at 210 pounds. Will I look like a scarecrow? I think about how it will feel to ride a 100-mile bike ride at the age of 51. How will it feel to run a 5-K, maybe even a 10-K for the first time in my life? I even have little dreams about going in to the store and buying clothes and enjoying the experience because there are so many items in my size to choose from… I love the idea of a 36 or 34-inch waist. I love the idea of Large-Tall sized shirts. I love the idea of not being embarrassed to wear a swimsuit with no T-shirt… I love to imagine the feelings of being lean again…
I went to a bike shop on Saturday the Younger one. I needed a new helmet, as the old one was not very comfortable… An interesting thing happened. The young salesperson was glad to talk performance-oriented bikes with me and show me the good stuff… In the past, I was sort of short-changed. A big fat guy looking at racing bikes… Now it doesn’t seem so absurd… Now I can add those bikes to my list of dreams…
Dreaming about dreams… These I can make happen.
Taking control
When the weight stagnates, it pushes those dreams back. I am not ready to accept that at all.
I am cutting the calories back to 1500 starting today, pushing the walks to 6 miles starting tonight. This is in my control.
This is how I push past the stagnation, how I break the dam and getting the weight flowing off again. I push the body and I revise the plan. I make the body respond to the challenge. I will eat a little less, I will work a great deal more.
I could be patient, keep the plan unaltered and allow the stagnation to break on its own in its own good time. I am not going to do that. I am not interested in patience. I am interested in pushing myself to places I have never been. I am not willing to be passive on any part of this Journey.
Life is a spectator sport. It is a full contact, full-participation activity. I am not going to watch. I am going to participate with all that I have.
Peace
April 16, 2012 at 7:56 pm
Mark, I know how frustrating it is not to lose weight. Yesterday I had a good food day and I walked 4.5 km. This morning when I weighed myself I was up 1.5 pounds. Over the years I’ve learned that I can’t give in to these disappointments on the scale. One thing that I’ve learned about myself is that my weight is affected by my stress level. If I keep moving forward I know that eventually that weight gain will come off and the weight loss will start again. I’m sure you know that muscle weighs more than fat and I can’t help but think that with your rigorous workout regime you’re developing some very powerful muscles. Keep moving forward! I enjoy your blog.
Carol
April 16, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Thank you Carol, I appreciate it!.
April 16, 2012 at 7:59 pm
I think you are obsessing about WEIGHT as opposed to SIZE at present. Muscle weighs more than fat, and you are clearly getting much fitter. So…? This wedding is an important goal – but as I understand it, it’s a goal because you want to fit into your appropriate wedding day suit. Does it fit now? Because fitting into old/new clothes is the best indicator of the diet working, not the numbers on the scale. Good luck!
April 16, 2012 at 8:15 pm
ThankS!
April 16, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Dude, you are getting dangerously close to not consuming enough calories, where the body starts cannibalizing more than fat. You do not want this to happen. It sounds completely counterintuitive, but you probably need a few hundred more calories to jump start weight loss again.
April 16, 2012 at 9:38 pm
I understand that. The threshold is about 1200 calories. At 1500 I should be fine.
Thanks for the concern and the advice. It is very much appreciated.
April 17, 2012 at 7:33 pm
I agree – and those threshholds are NET not gross. You are saying you are -2000 a day or some such.
Also – whatever you call it, you’re going to have start dealing with longer periods of stalls. The more you lose, the harder it is to maintain pace, and the more sensitive you become to sodium, stress, illness, minor imbalances etc. I’ve gone sometimes 3-4 weeks with limited movement then to have a sudden drop. Just plug away for a few weeks before doing anything radical.
Stalls are frustrating because they can mean any one of several things:
1) you need to shake up your fitness routine – your body has become too efficient at the current one and you are not burning what you thought
2) you need to shake up your food – as you drop weight you drop your calorie requirements
3) check you are being accurate about recording and/or quality of food
4) nothing at all – keep doing what you are doing
the frustration is that you rarely know which it is up front and you need to keep from doing anything radical just to keep the weight loss train moving.
April 16, 2012 at 11:47 pm
I haven’t had a problem with weight before but I know what it is like to plateau in anything and it is very disappointing. I found that I can’t stagnate at the top of the plateau, I switch things up looking for a way to overcome.
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April 17, 2012 at 7:07 am
I think Lee has some great insight. I was actually just reading an article just before easter about the “plateau” or stagnation as you call it (which I have to say, I really enjoyed your reasoning for it, and it makes a lot of sense. It’s a word I may adopt myself.) Basically, the article was talking about your body creating new “ideal weights” for itself as you lose weight. Your body readjusts the way it does everything, and starts to work doubly hard trying to stay at this new weight that it likes. For you and me, having this happen at 250lbs may be frustrating, but your body is saying “hey, you used to be 300lbs…I like this new number…I can do this!” One thing the article suggested was actually right along Lee’s lines: increase your caloric intake for a week. That doesn’t mean eat junky, just eat more. Your body will start getting used to a higher caloric intake, so when you do cut it back down the next week, it pumps right back into weight loss gear.
I’ve said it before, I’m not a medical professional- but it definitely went against most of what I thought I knew, and might be worth looking into and at least reading around a little bit! I’m glad you are dreaming your dreams- I know if you keep up with all of this hard work, they’ll all come true in due time!