Posts by doctorj

I had a baby 16 months ago and I'm trying to lose ten more pounds. I'm 5'2" and I weighed 123 before I got pregnant. I'm down to 128, but I'd like to get back to 118, my ideal weight when I'm fit and healthy.

I think I weighed 140ish when I got home from the hospital and dropped down to 132 after a few months. When my son was 9 months old I was still a size bigger than normal, so I just bought a couple of pairs of comfortable pants and started feeling better because my clothes fit. Two good pairs of pants can go a long way!

Having a kiddo is so exhausting, especially if you are working full time. You can do two things:

1)stop beating yourself up. You said you feel like you only have few months to get back to your prebaby weight. It is not about the time, and you are not a failure if it takes you 12 months or however long. It is about taking time to take care of yourself. Babies totally change our lives and routines so you just need to develop a new routine that gives you time to exercise. If you are still sleep deprived (my kid was nursing in the middle of the night until he was 10 months old) you just don't have the energy to exercise. Be easy on yourself AND make time for YOU.

2) Make sure you are doing both strength and cardio training in your routine. You can do this at home or the gym. I hired a trainer to help me create a routine I can do in the living room that combines both strength and cardio for those days when I can't get out of the house to do the kind of exercise I like to do.

Also, switching to a vegan diet might explain why you can't stop eating. If you are not getting enough protein, then you are likely to be overeating carbs. I suggest that you consult with a nutritionist. I have two girlfriends who were really struggling to lose weight and they are vegetarians. I took a look at their diets and they were not eating enough protein, so they binge and night eat. Now that they got more protein into their diets, they are doing better and losing weight again.

Here's the basic formula for losing weight.

 One pound = 3500 calories, divided by 7 days a week that's 500 cal/day. So, you should shoot for a 500 cal deficit every day.

How did you calculate your daily allowance of 1300? That sounds to me like a 500 cal deficit from what your body would need on a regular day, likely between 1800 and 2000. So if your burn meter says 2250 (including your exercise) you could eat 1750 and still have the daily 500cal deficit needed to lose 1 pound/week--which is the recommended rate of loss for someone your size and weight. The more overweight you are the more you can lose in a week. But for someone only 20 pounds overweight, you'll struggle to lose 2 pounds/week. 

On days you work out hard, you can still eat a bit more than 1300 cal and have a deficit between 500 and 1000. If your deficit is 1000, you'll feel hungry and tired in the evening. 500 is more realistic than 1000 everyday.

It is much easier to increase your deficit by working out than by eating less. 

 Let's say your body burns 1800/day, and your daily calorie goal is 1300 (a 500 cal deficit). On days that you work out long and hard and burn an extra 1000 cal, then your burn for the day will be 2800. On a day like that you could eat 1800 and still have a 1000cal deficit. You can't get a 1000cal deficit by just cutting calories because that would put you below the 1200cal/day minimum. On days you don't work out, you could eat 1300 and still have a 500cal deficit.