I think I have hit a weight loss wall. It might be a bit early to start complaining, but after such heady weight loss, I haven’t lost a gram in the past four days, despite essentially doing the same as I have been for the past 7 weeks.
The week started out so well. In the first 3 days I had lost 2.1 kg, and I was thinking that I was creaming it in the weight loss dairy. But then it just stopped. To the point that I thought my scale was busted. The today I have put ON 500 grams. Come-on!
I think I have hit the bottom range on my “set-point”.
I watched a very interesting, enlightening, and thoroughly depressing TED talk the other week on weight loss. And it revolved around how our brain has an idea of what weight range we should be, and when you move outside that range your brain employs an entire range of tools to make sure you get back to where it thinks you should be, even if that subconscious ideal is not a healthy weight.
What makes it worse is that although you can adjust the set-point UP, it is very unlikely you will ever set it DOWN. So my brain has decided I need to be this weight and now that I am daring to venture outside that range it is fighting tooth and nail to stop me. I now think that the drop in my resting heart rate (from 70+ to 56 bpm) has less to do with fitness and more to do with my metabolism tanking.
It’s also probably why I am thinking about pies all the time as well. I think I am even hallucinating the smell of pies. And nachos (go figure). Oh, and grilled cheese on toast. Man, this is making me hungry.
In non-weight loss news, I saw my doctor this past week as he wanted to check my blood-pressure again. And it was perfect. He was pretty thrilled with my weight loss and activity levels. So that is good to know. Besides being a fat bugger I am in perfect health.
My walking this week has been pretty good too. I got up to the gardens 4 times this week, and went for a 10 km walk around the bridge circuit on the Hutt River. So at the beginning of week 20 I have walked a total of 471.9 km in 110 hours 53 minutes.
Hi Jordan,
Looking at your hyper exercise strategy it seems like you have done well not to have more injuries than you have done. Obviously you are happy to invest the time to cover the distance but the secret to long term success is having a sustainable strategy.
Like you I have lost a lot of weight from serious exercising. In my case I did a 40k cycle ride each day for 3 months and sometimes extended that out to 60 or 80k. I was riding 280 km per week at least. That got me spectacular results but over the years since then I have yo-yoed up and down.
What I didn’t understand then and have only recently begun to understand is that most of the benefit of exercise comes in the first half hour each day. After that you run the risk of just getting more hungry and potentially exercise related injuries.
The other recent learning is that your metabolism won’t necessarily be the same as everyone else’s. What that means is that for years we have assumed you can do a balancing equation of calories in – calories expended.
That doesn’t take account of hormones and individual metabolism. From blood tests and other diagnostics I’ve learned that I am more sensitive to sugar and carbs than other people.
This may not be the case with you – but it is worth testing for as insulin is hormone and that knowing more about that is very important.
What has become apparent to me is that what I eat ( or don’t eat) has a much bigger impact on my weight than the amount of exercise that I do. As you age your metabolism does change and if you are close to 40 you are due for another change up.
Anyway – I recommend having a look at http://whatthefatbook.com/ It may be that trying out LCHF (low carb, healthy fat) may be a big help.
For me the big difference between LCHF and other approaches is that I don’t get hungry. Partly that is because my blood sugar levels are relatively stable but not feeling hungry is a big plus.
Also since 1 litre of water is 1 kg weighing yourself every day may be frustrating as your weight can fluctuate a fair amount depending on how hydrated you are.
Also 27kgs in 8 weeks is massive. 3.3kgs per week is a lot and I would think as your body gets used to the exercise and you get fitter that rate will slow down. It is unlikely that you can keep up that pace.
For one thing with all the walking you must be carrying more muscle mass which increases your weight. You should see a nutritionist and check out the food side of things. Congrats anyway. I’m averaging 1 kg a week and in my case most of my exercise is swimming but the science makes sense for me and slow and steady wins the race.
BTW when I did the mad cycling for 3 months – that was 15 years ago. When my exercise dropped I put all the weight back on over the years since but this time it is different.
This study http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1199154
Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance is worth a read.
It is a long read but the section that stood out for me was this one. Under comments.
“The results of our study challenge the notion that a calorie is a calorie from a metabolic perspective. During isocaloric feeding following weight loss, REE was 67 kcal/d higher with the very low-carbohydrate diet compared with the low-fat diet. TEE differed by approximately 300 kcal/d between these 2 diets, an effect corresponding with the amount of energy typically expended in 1 hour of moderate-intensity physical activity.”
Simple translation. All calories are not treated the same way by the metabolism. And not feeling hungry is a major benefit of the LCHF diet.
Thanks Jason for your advice.
Actually I didn’t lose any weight while I was just increasing my exercise and not addressing my diet. Actually in the first 12 weeks of The Plan I gained weight. I am essentially on a LCHF diet, although I am not really subscribing to any diet program or technique. But I do research, and I have consulted my doctor. I am not actually trying that hard on my diet, more just being mindful and informed in my food choices, the rate of weightloss is exceeding expectations and just what my body wants to do. Hunger (now) is not really that much of a factor.
Cheers and thanks for reading and commenting.