Diet is more important than exercise

I am 5'11 and weigh 128 lbs and have weighed that EXACT same weight for the past four months. In January I decided that I wanted to go back to my pre-boyfriend and birthcontrol weight of 120. I moved to the caribbean with him (as he attends medical school) and there is a gym here. My average calorie intake for the past four months is 1300 calories. I leave for home for three weeks and guess what, I did not lose a pound. Why? I do not eat healthy consistantly.

Even if I do Cardio for 40 mins 5 days a week with lunges and squats (Every other day) and free weights (the days i do not do lunges/squats) I guess it does not matter if I eat fatty mcdonalds and a bunch of fruit. Some days I would have a good meal plan: eggs for breakfast, fruit for snacks, 1/2 sammy for lunch, chicken or fish with salad for dinner . . .  it does not matter if the next day I have chicken nuggets, fries, and a soda for dinner after eating only fruit all day.

I really wish I could stick to a balance. It feels awful to return home tomorrow not having lost a pound but feeling like I should have. Four months of working out and I feel like I only look larger =/. So tomorrow I guess I am going to try again.

I think my biggest problem is that my diet analysis shows me that I usually have

50-60% carbs, 15-20% protein, and the rest is fat. That means most of my diet is of fat and carbs. I guess I need to juice up the protein but for some reason meat never seems to keep me full for very long . I dont know what I am writing about here but I guess I am just asking for suggestions and ways to improve my error. Should I just stick to a higher protein diet? And for people who do do that what do you eat for snacks? How do you make it filling or taste good? This was my first time living on my own and i found myself having cereal often for dinner because I hated the way the chicken/fish tasted that I made. My boyfriend ate it all the time and said it was great but I found myself not liking it very much.

Sorry for such a long post. I just think I needed to vent over this. I mean FOUR months of working out and. . . nothing.

Diet is definately more important.

5'11 and 128 pounds is underweight. You should not be trying to lose weight.

You are probably having such a difficult time losing weight because you are aiming for a dangerous, unhealthy weight.

The absolute minimum you should weigh is 133 for your height.

With a BMI of 17.9 you're currently underweight.  You're also undereating by about 1000-1200 cals a day.  At 120lbs you'd be even more severely underweight - can't imagine why you'd want to be there.  Being chronically underweight and malnourished isn't a healthy situation in the slightest .... you're at risk of all kinds of nasty medical problems.  If your boyfriend really is a medical student, he's not a very good one if he hasn't spotted what you're doing.  

• Do you make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
•  Do you worry that you have lost Control over how much you eat?
• Have you recently lost more than One stone (14lbs or 6.5kgs) in a 3 month period?
• Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are too thin?
•  Would you say that Food dominates your life?

If you can answer 'yes' to two or more of those questions then you could well have a problem with disordered eating.  Make an appointment to see a doctor as soon as possible, get checked out physically and talk to them about how you feel about your weight.  Something is badly wrong.

CC does not promote or support those exhibiting unhealthy lifestyles or eating behaviours

you are way too skinny for 5'11. I think if you put on 5lbs of muscle you'd be happier with your body and it would be more of what your looking for. you are in no way fat. Maybe you feel bloated from eating the Mcdonalds. Try eatting extra meat during the day. Add some kind of meat with your lunch. Or even add nuts and peanut butter to your daily diet. Deff try adding more strength training to your work outs. I think if you toned up and gained 5lbs of muscle you would be much happier.

• Do you make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
•  Do you worry that you have lost Control over how much you eat?
• Have you recently lost more than One stone (14lbs or 6.5kgs) in a 3 month period?
• Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are too thin?
•  Would you say that Food dominates your life?

no, no. no, yes, no. 

I just eat alot of bad unhealthy foods and workout and it is not doing anything for me. I am tone but "skinny/fat" tone from my junk food diet. Fruit can also be seen as junk food if you eat is excessively as I do because it is so high in sugar, right? Human bodies were not made to digest a lot of fruit (8-10 servings a day). So all of that sugar gets stored as fat because it is not being used. I think that and eating things like pizza weekly are someo f my problems (ill eat an entire pizza in a week!)

the BMI says i am underweight but I look quite normal. I think I looked best at 120 lbs, i think it because I have a small frame.

Do you look different from the pictures in your gallery then?  Because, in those, you look very skinny and verging on underweight.  There is absolutely no way you need to get any thinner than you are in any of those pictures.

Original Post by skinnylea:

Fruit can also be seen as junk food if you eat is excessively as I do because it is so high in sugar, right?

No.

Original Post by skinnylea:

Human bodies were not made to digest a lot of fruit (8-10 servings a day).

Says who?

Original Post by skinnylea:

So all of that sugar gets stored as fat because it is not being used.

Everything get's stored as fat if it's not used, sugar from fruit isn't any different.  100 extra calories from fruit isn't going to make you gain any more fat than 100 extra calories from chicken, or spinach, or milk

Original Post by skinnylea:

the BMI says i am underweight but I look quite normal

If that's you in the picture, you look very underweight.

Well I don't like to read posts like this, because the OP usually gets bombarded with a bunch of very direct messages saying that they are underweight and doing it all wrong, that their goals are out of whack.  Which very well may be true, but it can be discouraging if thats all you read post after post...

What was mentioned above is all correct information, I completely agree with what was metnioned in the other responses.  And judgeing from your picture, I really do think you wouldn't look better with further weight loss, you'be been told it before, but you are pretty skinny as it stands.

As for some of your original questions.  I think that your carb-fat-protein intake is pretty normal, unless your body building I don't think it would be necessary to increase the protein.  Fat is needed in the diet, the age old myth "if no fat touches my lips, then no fat will touch my hips..."  is just that, a myth.

Next only bad thing about the excess fruit, is that you are getting an abundance of antioxidants...  Seriously, fruit is simply not bad for you, dried fruit is a little less healthy then fresh raw fruit, but all the same.  The sugar in fruit is not the same sugar in a little debbie swiss miss roll.  The sugar in fruit is fructose and is negligible when calculating your sugar intake.  Now the sugar in the little debbies snack is refined sugar, or sucrose, which in excess amounts can be altered and stored as fat.

But please take the advice that everyone else above has given.  I do honesty think that if you were any smaller that you wouldn't look as good as you do now.  I think that you would even look a little better with a few more pounds on you, but thats just my humble opinion.  Take care and good luck.

From your profile:

I am a biology major who is "pre-med". I, who cannot get over being thin wants to be a doctor one day, and if I do one day achieve that goal, I will still care more about being thin/fit/perfect. It is an obsession that i have.

I wish i was obsessed with something else, but I am not. You can name a food and I can calculate the calories and fat content with percentages and ratios in mere seconds but I wish i put that energy more so into my studies, (even though i have A's).

And yet you said "no" to the question "Would you say that Food dominates your life? "

You are thin.  I am sure everyone you talk to tells you that.  Why can't you believe it?  Thin as you seem to want to be is not a goal that is compatible with fit and perfect your other goals.  Fit and perfect require a healthy diet and way more calories than you are eating.  If you want to be a doctor think about this, what would you advise a patient who came to you saying what you are saying?

Wow you look hot. If you believe, and it seems like you do, that you are fat I would recommend seeking counseling. Sorry for being rude, I am a guy. lol

UD

Yeah I just read your profile too, and that just further reinforces what everyone else has been trying to say.  It's better for you to recognize and kick the habit now, then to keep feeding it and letting it slowly destroy you.  If you keep on down the road that you are headed, it will eventually affect your goal/ability to be a doctor...  Just think about it.

You look like a fashion model and you want to lose even more weight? This is ridiculous. Great many of us here have as much as 100 pounds to lose. Posts like this just make me wanna gokill myself or cut off my fat with a knife.

Girl, you are sick. You should be posting at the eating disorders support and recovery forum, not here.

Though weight is important, you should value your health first. Also, you may have just simply gained MUSCLE weight, not fat weight. It's clear that you don't have an eating disorder if you do exactly as you posted, even though people may keep calling you 'anorexic'.

Anyways, if you actually gained muscle weight and tried to lose weight by stopping working out and eating weirdly, you might just gain fat and lose muscle while overall losing weight. That's not something you want to do, you'll weigh less but look fatter. Just eat healthy and have a reasonable calorie limit and see where that takes you.

You're obsessed. If you can honestly calculate food in your head the way you do, you need help.

Also, that skinny bitch that you WISHED You looked like? You DO have that body type, in fact you look smaller than her. And your face is INFINITELY better looking. She looks like a cheap date and a bad lay. ON TOP OF THAT: if you have been working out, you have probably accumulated muscle mass - which this girl, or whatever, has none of.

I know a lot of people really don't care in the race to be thin, but you're not in your 20's forever. And because you don't feel bad now DOES NOT MEAN YOU'RE GOING TO LIVE A PAINLESS LIFE.

You're underweight as is, and no this isn't the baying of the freaking pigs over here. YOU'RE 5 FOOT 11 INCHES AND 128 POUNDS. I HAVE A CHAIR THAT WEIGHS MORE THAN YOU.

Your legs don't even touch, Jesus Christ. You're perfect just the way you are. Go to a REAL doctor and get some REAL help. 

Alright, just as the above posts say, you look like a super model.

Seriously, http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average _weight_and_height_for_a_runway_model ;

Even though you look like a model, and are far thinner than the vast majority of the population, I can understand the idea of wanting to look YOUR personal best, so I will do as very few have done before me and actually answer your question. 

If you have been working out, but eating 1300 calories a day, it is unlikely that you have gained muscle. You are not eating enough. I plugged your height/ weight/ age into a caloric needs calculator, and it says that you should be eating 1600 in order to lose weight. It's possible that you're encountering the dreaded..... STARVATION MODE!

Yes she's probably in starvation mode... 

OP-  Here's something you may not want to hear, but you have hips like a 12 year old boy.  You are already seriously underweight.  YOu are already risking serious health problems.  And if you lose any more weight you are likely to look like a survivor from a german concentration camp.  Is that really the look you want to go for?

Original Post by lunaripyros:

Yes she's probably in starvation mode... 

Starvation mode is a temporary and inconvenient feature of long-term calorie reduction.  What the OP is doing is 'starving'.... quite a different thing. 

Original Post by osainto:

Well I don't like to read posts like this, because the OP usually gets bombarded with a bunch of very direct messages saying that they are underweight and doing it all wrong, that their goals are out of whack. Which very well may be true, but it can be discouraging if thats all you read post after post...

What was mentioned above is all correct information, I completely agree with what was metnioned in the other responses. And judgeing from your picture, I really do think you wouldn't look better with further weight loss, you'be been told it before, but you are pretty skinny as it stands.

As for some of your original questions. I think that your carb-fat-protein intake is pretty normal, unless your body building I don't think it would be necessary to increase the protein. Fat is needed in the diet, the age old myth "if no fat touches my lips, then no fat will touch my hips..." is just that, a myth.

Next only bad thing about the excess fruit, is that you are getting an abundance of antioxidants... Seriously, fruit is simply not bad for you, dried fruit is a little less healthy then fresh raw fruit, but all the same. The sugar in fruit is not the same sugar in a little debbie swiss miss roll. The sugar in fruit is fructose and is negligible when calculating your sugar intake. Now the sugar in the little debbies snack is refined sugar, or sucrose, which in excess amounts can be altered and stored as fat.

But please take the advice that everyone else above has given. I do honesty think that if you were any smaller that you wouldn't look as good as you do now. I think that you would even look a little better with a few more pounds on you, but thats just my humble opinion. Take care and good luck.

 

 

Thank you very much for actually answering my question! Furthermore I got home from the Caribbean today and the scale says that i weigh 139! Now I nearly fainted at the sight of it because the scale at the gym in the carribbean says that I usually weight around 128-130. Now the scale my parents have (which is old) is digital vs. the dial/meter scale that is in the gym. I knew I wasnt crazy when I thought I was gaining weight after living on my own and that i was doing something wrong. So tomorrow I am going to invest in a new scale because it is REALLY bothering me now that my weight seems so ambiguous. I feel more confident in the gym scale because I can see when it is set to zero and what number it lands on, but still, 139 still appeared on the LCD screen of a four year old scale. I have to find out!

Original Post by lunaripyros:

Yes she's probably in starvation mode...

OP- Here's something you may not want to hear, but you have hips like a 12 year old boy. You are already seriously underweight. YOu are already risking serious health problems. And if you lose any more weight you are likely to look like a survivor from a german concentration camp. Is that really the look you want to go for?

Hips like a twelve year old boy? My hip circumference is 33 inches! That is proportional to my body. I am not at all "seriously" underweight. I am very healthy and have a strong heart. How is a BMI of 18 at all "seriously" underweight. The BMI for emaciated is like 14-16, anything below that is damn right dead-person-walking. Here is something you may not want to hear, don't post on a topic if it is not constructive  or helpful. You are just rude.

What I am going for in this post is that DIET is important than EXERCISE because I exercise and do not lose weight because I do not eat a healthy diet, it's more like junk food.

You asked for advice and what we're all seeing is someone that is

• (Originally) claiming a BMI that defines them as clinically underweight
• Eating a lot less than they need to stay healthy - chronic undereating
• Still trying to lose weight

You may not think any of these are a major issue  but there are many impressionable young people who frequent this site who may come along, read your post and try to copy you on the basis that 'if it's OK for this person to be clinically underweight, eat very little and still want to lose weight, why isn't it OK for me?'.  You should be pleased if you're now 139lbs.... that's a much healthier weight and you should probably try to stay there.

CC promotes healthy weight-control via calorie control, healthy eating and regular exercise. It does not endorse members displaying unhealthy eating habits or lifestyles.

LEA Girllllllllll Your body is sickkkkkkkkk

I don't understand why you'd want to change it, because you look nice and toned and athletic.

I mean do you want to look like someone who's about to pass out, 120 for 5'11........that is a big no no and even if you think you'd look better i'm sorry it's just not going to work out.

Remember that guys don't like girls with flat asses and no boobs....right!!! You've got a boyfriend, so would he perfer bones sticking out or nicely shaped body, good perportions...ect ect. And just think about micheal jackson....he keeps on getting surgury...for what though....he looked his best before he took matters in his own hands.

Your body.....everybody wants that body.

You'll do what you want in the end of the day, but just remember your body is already really nice.