A messy metabolism

At the end of the day, my metabolism slows down to the extend that I can't even walk. I had all my snacks and meals. I had 7 hours of sleep last night. I don't suffer any flu or cold.  I don't understand this. where is the problem? is that because I have an office job? maybe ....

Blackthorne: I used the tools on this website and 1700 is for me to maintain. in order to create a calorie deficit, I am trying to get 1400.

Joan: no, I didn't workout yesterday..here is my workout this week ( first week to go back to the gym after a long break and a cold)

Monday: an hour ( cardio)

Tuesday: 45 m ( light weight training)

Wed : 90 minutes ( cardio)

Thursday: no workout ( had an evening event, couldn't go to the gym)

Friday : will head to the gym after work.

can you give me feedback, please?

I used to be more active than this. :(

David and trawley: thanks for your advice. i will work on a new diet plan next week.

I can gain 5 lbs in a day from eating junk food - but it will be gone in a few days - its water gain not fat -- looking at your pie chart I'd say you need to eat some more fat -- healthy fats but women need fat - maybe have an advocado or some peanut butter. 

16 Nov 09 2007 13:35 David and trhawley: I am really surprised. I thought that is enough. No, I don't need counseling. dinner ususally is 300-400 cals. that is total of 1400 a day. do you think that is not enough for a female who is 143 pounds and 5'3'' . I am not active these days, I don't go to the gym.

how much food do you want me to eat then?

Which is it?  You work out 4 or 5 days a week or you are not active?  I recommended maintenance calories because  you said "I can't even walk".  Health is more important that weightloss right now.  But with the workouts you are doing you may actually need to eat more than 1700 cals.

no I am not active. I used to wake up early in the morning, walk to the gym and workout for an hour , then work out for another hour in the evening. I was very active. now, comparing to my life style in the past few months. Now, I get up at 6 am to eat breakfast and sleep for a couple of hours then I rush to work.

Yes, I usually have an energy crisis late afternoon and I think becasuse of the amount of SUGAR that I have from fruits. On a normal day, I can eat 3-4 fruits or a combination of apples, pears and blueberries.

this is my problem.:( I can't cut back on fruits...

Why can't you cut back on fruits?  They have some really great frozen small serving veggies that you can use for a snack.  All you do is steam them in the microwave and the veggies come out nice and soft and absolutely delicious.  They even have some with sauces if you need to cover up the flavor of the veggies.  I would suggest that you replace at least one of your fruits with a veggie or even a V8 drink.  You are overloading your system with the sugar that is in apples and even bananas are considered a high GI food.  I am diabetic and have to really watch my fruit intake or I will experience sluggish times throughout the day due to my blood sugar being high.  You will go into an energy crash if your blood sugar is high or low either way. 

i thought fruit was supposed to be good for you. i mean, if you're craving sugar isn't it better to get it from fruit than other foods?

Fruit IS good for you, ug123.   But Safina seems to be having blood sugar problems, so in her case too much sugar in the absence of enough food overall, is causing some havoc on her energy levels. 

Safina, I still think you should be at 1700 a day.  I'm as active as you are (albeit heavier) and I'm losing weight while 2000-2200 calories a day.  1200 is not enough for you.  You haven't felt successful or healthy for months; it's time to commit to 1700 calories a day and seriously stick to it for several weeks to balance out your metabolism and blood sugar. 

Also, try to get in some more protein - do you eat meat?  Chicken breasts are great and easy to prepare. 

I eat fruit because I crave sweet food. Last year, I used to eat a whole pumpkin pie in one setting. I think 40g of sugar per serving. the pie was 5 servings. I used to eat a lot of candy during the day. a bar of candy every two hours. Now, I am just trying to control this. I eat fruit. Otherwise, I will binge like last week. I had 4 muffins and one chocolate bar , one scone and jelly chocolate.

I am glad today, I passed by the candy store and I resisted the desire to enter....

Now, the fruit.... I had a pound of apples today. one pear and one orange. two cups of coffee( no sugar or milk), a cup of plain yogurt and non fat cottage cheese. total of 1200.

anyone has any suggestions?

Mmm, it's a question of doing what's possible of course, training your palate to not crave the sweets is - well, a long process.

 Congratulations on resisting the candy store!

That said, I'm with Andesite; you really do need more protein in your diet. Using your bodyweight of 145 pounds and the conservative 1.4g/kg of protein for the average trainee, you're looking at 92g/protein a day as your baseline - wouldn't hurt to make that about 100g since you're looking to ease back into strength training. Once you're back up to full in the gym you'll probably need the full 1.8g/kg of protein for strength trainees, or 118g for you.

 Your current meal schedule seems to contain about half your protein needs - this could explain why you've been feeling under the weather.

 You also need some more whole grains in your diet - how do you feel about oats? You don't need to go totally TNT diet on us, but try aiming for a 50-30-20 or 55-30-15 ratio of carbs, protein and dietary fat over the course of a day.

To second Melkor's suggestion, I think more protein, aside from being good for you, could also help you curb the sugar cravings.

Did you eat anything else today other than what you listed? I'm guessing a lb of apples is, what, 250 cals? Another 80-ish for a pear and same for an orange brings you up around 400. A cup of yogurt, another 80-150 (depending on fat %) and you didn't say how much non-fat cottage cheese you had, but to make up 1200 you're talking tubs of the stuff...

That was great, you passing by that candy store! Bravo!

I might suggest making an appointment to have a glucose tolerance test done. This might determine if you have a preexisting condition that is causing the sugar craving.

In my twenties, I was considered borderline hypoglycemic... I would drag myself around as if I were made of lead and felt absolutely awful. A change of diet really helped me.

black thorne, im curious, how did you change your diet?

i find i dont eat enough, and feel weak, or i eat too much, and dont lose, my whole life, when i was dieting, like 900-1000 calories a day, i always felt weak, i try to uptake my protien on the days i work out, but it seems im not losing much at all

Hi, Angelbrenda:

Well, I had to cut out a lot of sweet stuff... no more sugar in my coffee or tea or cereal.... I stopped eating anything processed.

I learned to eat several times a day... I patterned my eating after what was called - at the time - an "ADA diet."

A rough example:

Breakfast: bowl of cereal (not sweet stuff... more like oatmeal or a healthy cold cereal) with milk and a banana.

Lunch: a lean, non-processed meat on whole grain bread with lettuce and tomato, a peach or nectarine, small cup of vegetable soup.

Afternoon snack: a whole grain form of bread or something similar with cheese or a glass of milk.

Dinner: A few ounces of a lean meat; 1/3 - 1/2 cup of a complex carbohydrate like brown rice, barley, or beans; a serving of a fresh green or orange vegetable.

Dessert: a piece of fruit, but no apples.

Night time snack: a whole grain form of bread or something similar with cheese or a glass of milk.

Back then, there wasn't any such thing as lowfat cheese, no sugar bread, or low carb bread. Of course, we can substitute all those things, now.

hi Safina!

you’ve been complaining consistently about fatigue for a long time (since at least april) – you’ve described yourself as “tired” or “very tired” both when you’ve been losing weight (and therefore eating a calorie deficit) and when you’ve been gaining weight (and therefore eating a surplus, although it’s not clear whether you actually ‘gained weight’ during your recent binge, but at the very least eating during the times you’ve been eating close to maintenance or above it); these feelings of fatigue persisted both when you were working out hard every day, and when you weren’t working out as hard (and i gather that there was some time when you weren’t lifting at all for a couple weeks, and you were still complaining about it).  from that, i would say that your fatigue may not be related to the amount you’re eating or exercising (although not eating enough and exercising while already fatigued may exacerbate it).  doing a quick search of your posts over the last few months, you’ve also complained about other things (mostly vague, non-specific constitutional concerns, but that doesn’t make them any less real or potentially ‘important’) – dizziness, muscle weakness, anergia, joint pain + non-specific body aches, numbness in your right foot that persists after you get off the elliptical, etc.  additionally, at least several times, you’ve referenced feelings of depression.

before you meet with a nutritionist (especially since you don’t think you need to do so), i would STRONGLY suggest that you meet with your DOCTOR to discuss all of these concerns.  To answer your specific question about whether working in an office should make you this tired, presuming that you’re not racking up a sleep deficit in order to wake up in the morning, and that you’re not inordinately stressed out by your job, then working in an office should make you bored and misanthropic ;-), but NOT physically tired.  in fact, after sitting at a desk for the entire day, it should feel GOOD to move your legs with a nice walk, and it shouldn’t be taxing at all on a healthy, young person who exercises and gets sufficient sleep.  i’m not talking about HIIT cardio here, but some mild-to-moderate cardio should even leave you feel energized, not depleted.

On the issue of sleep, it is likely that going to bed at midnight and waking up at 6am (which is what you described as your sleep habits) is not providing enough sleep for you.  but i’m not you – i don’t know!  On October 26, you wrote the following:

I feel very tired even I don't workout. I slept yesterday like dead for 10 hours. so it is not a sleep problem.Today, I am tired and hungry.

well, the fact that after days of only sleeping 5-6 hours, you crashed for 10 means that you likely weren’t getting enough sleep during the previous days.  The first thing I would do if I were you is go to bed an hour earlier (i assume that you’re waking up as late as you can in order to get dressed + make it to work), if you’re still tired, try going to bed at 10 and waking up at 6.  Honestly, what can you possibly be getting done (other than thinking about how much you want to binge eat ;-)) from 10pm-midnight if you’re so exhausted that you can barely walk?  sleeping from 10-6 will give you 8 hours of rest.  if that’s too much, your body will wake up sooner (and not be exhausted at an earlier time the next evening).  it could be, however, that 8hrs/night is still too little for you (it will probably be enough, but we all differ).  You were worried at one point about eating immediately before going to bed.  i’m going to address your eating schedule later, but if your main problem is a sleep deficit, and if you are tired at 9:30 after you eat your dinner, go to bed without worrying about the fact that you just ate.  i believe that it takes longer than 9 hours for your food to turn into permanent fat [which if you’re on a calorie deficit, shouldn’t be happening no matter when you eat it], and so long as you’re not eating sugary, fatty junk food right before bed, it’s not even worth thinking about.  in terms of costs and benefits, the cost of fatigue + sleep debt (particularly if it’s making you so tired that you don’t want to exercise) is way higher than any cost of eating immediately before bed that MAY (but probably doesn’t) exist.  similarly, the benefits of being well-rested far outweigh any possible benefits of going to bed after you’ve eaten.

as Tim (tgpish) told you in a previous post, sleep and protein are very important to muscle repair – and you’re probably not getting enough of either (as Melkor already pointed out in regards to your protein situation, so I won’t repeat it).

many of your other complaints MAY be products of exhaustion; on the other hand, it could be that 6 hours of sleep generally is enough for you, and that your exhaustion and other complaints are symptoms of an underlying medical problem (even if you don’t generally ‘feel sick’).  it’s also possible that you are racking up a sleep deficit, but that you also have an underlying medical condition, and that the sleep debt is making it worse.  i can’t tell you which of these situations is likely.  even if you start sleeping 8hrs/night and feel better in most ways, that doesn’t rule out an underlying medical condition that only becomes symptomatic during times of stress (and a sleep deficit, to your body, IS a time of stress).

my very BEST recommendation (other than experimenting with more sleep) is that you talk to your doctor.  exhaustion can be a symptom of many illnesses + disorders, and it could be that treating a heretofore unknown-to-you underlying condition can remedy this (of course i don’t know that this is the case, but a few simple lab tests can tell you whether it may be, or at least rule out some easy ones).  i'm not your doctor (nor is anyone else you may be speaking to over the internet), so i won’t even attempt to give you probable diagnoses or a differential.

nevertheless, if i were you, after talking to my doctor, i’d run some basic labs (your doctor will likely do this anyways); at the VERY least, i’d get a sed rate (that’s your erythrocyte sedimentation rate, a simple blood test that measures how long it takes your red blood cells to settle; it’s non-specific, but if you have a high sed rate, it indicates some sort of inflammatory process, acute or chronic – it can indicate that you have an infection, inflammatory disease, or certain kinds of cancer, but alone, a high sed rate can’t usually tell you much), CBC w/ platelets + differential (complete blood count, another simple blood test. this one measures a lot of useful things, like your RBC [how many red blood cells you have], hemoglobin, hematocrit [basically, how much of your blood is composed of red blood cells], MCV [mean corpuscular volume – how big your red blood cells are], WBC [how many white blood cells you have – WBCs mediate inflammation + immune response], MCH + MCHC [the size + concentration of hemoglobin in individual cells], platelet count, and differential [gives you more info on different types of WBCs] – high or low numbers on any of things can indicate many different things, which i won’t go through here for each component of the CBC for the sake of brevity, but, briefly, they may indicate that you have such things as anemia, a nutritional deficiency, infection, inflammatory disease, autoimmune disease, liver/spleen/kidney problems, etc.  a cheap and often useful test), complete metabolic panel (measures glucose [since blackthorne mentioned hypoglycemia + a glucose tolerance test, you should know that the glucose test that’s part of a metabolic panel is a fasting blood test, not the OGTT – oral glucose tolerance test – which will take a fasting glucose and then further levels after you swallow a sugar solution; depending on the results of the fasting glucose, your MD may recommend further tests, but you should know that the OGTT is generally not considered very helpful in the diagnosis of reactive hypoglycemia, but there are some more useful tests if your doc thinks that’s likely], calcium, total protein, albumin, several electrolytes, kidney function, and liver function – at the very least get a basic metabolic panel or have your blood chemistry + electrolytes checked), and thyroid tests (at the least, check your TSH, free T4, free T3; you’ll get more info from a complete panel, but it may not be necessary) – all of this should be relatively cheap, even if you’re paying out of pocket (that is, it’ll come to far less than the amount you paid for what sounded like a useless personal trainer ;-)).  also, make sure your doctor knows about your sexual history + travel history (which can be beyond useful in determining whether certain tests for infectious diseases may be warranted), your bowel habits, sleep patterns, all the things you’ve been complaining about, and your weight loss/eating habits. 

since you’ve posted at least several times talking about feeling depressed, i’ll just mention that depression (even dysthymia, which is what you might call ‘mild depression’) can cause fatigue – there’s no lab test for depression, and most of what a shrink will base a diagnosis on will be info that you give him (not entirely – your affect, for example).  i have no idea if you were depressed or just having a couple of bad days.  but here’s a simple questionnaire that you can take if you think that might be an issue: http://www.med.nyu.edu/psych/screens/depres.h tml; here’s a slightly longer (but not necessarily more valid) test if you want: http://www.findingstone.com/services/tests/de pressiontest.htm

ok, now let’s talk about your eating habits.

in a previous post, you wanted to know what your maintenance calories are.  NOBODY CAN TELL YOU THAT!  that’s something you need to find out from experimentation.  the numbers given on this site are GUESSES, nothing more, nothing less.  and they’re not even GOOD guesses, since they only take into account your age, weight, height, and gender, and not the amount of lean mass you have, which is the most important determinant (for most people) of how many calories they burn per day.  you’ve been getting your body fat tested – that’s good.  that means you know if you’re gaining/losing fat/muscle.  that, and nothing else, is the most important info you need for figuring out what your maintenance calories are (similarly, any number given on an exercise machine, online calculator, or heart rate monitor for how many calories you burn during a given exercise session is also just a guess):  assuming that you weigh yourself regularly and consistently (at the same time and in the same way), if lose 1lb OF FAT/week (this won’t hold if you’re also losing muscle; hence the importance of measuring your BF%, because you don’t want to lose muscle, and if you’re losing muscle at the same time as fat, that complicates things), that means you were eating a 3500 calorie deficit that week – or an average of a 500 calorie/day deficit per day, NO MATTER WHAT any machine or online calculator tells you. you should therefore be able to eat 500 more calories per day to maintain, assuming you aren’t exercising any less than you did the week that you lost that lb.  of course, to know for certain, you have to try it.  maintaining muscle and losing fat is an experiment.  if you gain ½ lb of fat one week, don’t look at that as failure, look at it as part of your experiment, and an opportunity to gain useful information about what works for you and what doesn’t.

however, i agree with most people that your maintenance (and even weight loss) calories are almost certainly higher than 1200-1300 (since that’s the same number of calories you were LOSING weight at).  if, as you suggested, you’re afraid to eat more than that because you feel it will lead to a binge, it might help to realize that at the same time you’ve talked about not wanting to raise calories, you’ve also often complained of being hungry.  hunger and constant deprivation lead to binges, as well as your attitude towards the fat-loss process (e.g. if you see eating 1700 calories as “too much” or an amount that’s going to make you gain fat, you may have a tendency to say ‘screw it, i’ve already eaten too much and put on fat.  i may as well eat the whole pumpkin pie!’ [hint: this is the wrong kind of thinking!]). 

if you are emotionally over-eating, that’s a separate issue that you need to deal with (and i’m sure there are people on this website who can provide more info about that).  but, if you’re binging due to sugar cravings, hunger, etc., you need to eat more throughout the day.  actually, looking at what you wrote previously, you DEFINITELY need to eat more during your day.  you eat lunch at noon and dinner around 9pm – that’s 9 hours between lunch and dinner.  i’m not at all surprised that you’re crashing in the late afternoon/early evening and craving sugar.

you can’t give up fruit?  trust me on this, i love fruits + veggies as much as anyone, and i’ve limited myself to about 1.5 servings of fruits + veggies per day (due to malabsorption/intestinal issues that fiber exacerbates) – you can give up anything if its costs outweigh its benefits and if you REALLY want to. 

but, since you don’t want to (which is fine, btw!  a healthy life should be enjoyable, and if you enjoy fruit, that’s great!), you can at least MINIMIZE the effect that eating so much sugar will have on you.  right now, you eat a decent meal at noon and basically no more decent meals throughout the day.  start here:  realize, as Tim told you earlier, that you need to eat 5-6 (start with 5 if that’s tough for you) MEALS throughout the day.  your meals can be small (and if you’re eating that frequently, by necessity, they WILL be small), but each meal MUST contain some protein + some complex carbs.  examples of meals: a tuna, turkey or egg salad sandwich; a starchy vegetable and some cottage cheese; chicken, veggies + rice; an egg-white omelet, side salad, and oatmeal;  whole wheat crackers with low-fat cheese [note: i haven’t tried these meals – i’m a vegetarian and not a dieter, but if you need examples, there are a million people you can ask].  eat as much fruit as you feel you need to, but make fruit your dessert.  that is, you eat your fruit AFTER you’ve eaten your meal (and by eating like this, fruit should be enjoyable, but you shouldn’t “need” it in the same way).  btw, if you have time to eat an apple, you have time to eat a tuna sandwich and half an apple.  when you’re packing your lunch, pack two more meals! right now, you’re using fruit for a quick energy buzz, and not eating anything that will give you lasting energy.   try eating 5-6 meals, averaging around 300 calories each (your breakfast will likely be more, your mid-morning and mid-afternoon meals can be smaller).  make sure that every 3 or 4 hours, you eat some protein and some complex carbs.  fruit must be PART of your meal (dessert, as i suggested, because if you eat your apple first, you may decide that that’s enough and not eat the stuff that you REALLY need), not a stand-alone snack.  see if that helps with sugar craving.  even if you’re eating as much fruit as you are now, you’ll at least be feeding your metabolism in a decent way and getting up to a number of calories that i suspect is more reasonable for you.  try it!  if it doesn’t work, eat a bit less!  at the most, you’ve had a fulfilling week without hunger and will not possibly have gained very much fat, if any, because of it.

you mention not having time to eat in a previous post – again, if you have time to eat an apple, you have time to eat a meal.  the time comes in preparing the meal, since you’re at work all day.  pack a lunch!  it takes 2 minutes to make a tuna sandwich; whatever dinner you ate the night before [which should contain complex carbs + protein!], make extra portions so you can eat some of it for your meal the next day.  i don’t think doing the ‘real meal’ thing should take any more than about 15/mins a day to prepare (that is, more than you’re already spending).  but if it gives you extra energy, that’s time well spent.

incidentally, this is the sort of diet recommended for people with reactive hypoglycemia (frequent, decent meals; no sugar on an empty stomach), although nobody online can say if you have that; even though you seem to experience many symptoms of it, those symptoms could just as well fit a bunch of other illnesses, since they’re generally non-specific. again, see your MD.

what is your work schedule?  for most people, i tell them that they need to figure out things like how much sleep, protein, and calories they need through experimentation (since we’re all different), but you seem to want the answers to come from others outside of yourself, i’ll help you if you want - if you give me your work schedule (and other obligations that take time), i’ll help you schedule a reasonable day with what i think is probably a decent amount of sleep, exercise, and calories.

have you bought + read the book that Tim recommended (Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle)?  you’re its target audience + even though it’s expensive (for a book that is; i dislike the ebook format, but for valuable information that will help you lose weight, $40 is a bargain!), i think it will be much more valuable for you than the $500 you spent on a personal trainer :-) [note: i haven’t read the book myself, since i’m NOT its target audience, but tgpish’s recommendation is enough to tell me that it’s a damn good book]

again, my main point is that your complaints, seen altogether, sound like there may be a problem other than the amount you’re eating or exercising.

Safina, I hope you appreciate the time that Erinzz too to put together the post above.  I think that it is very thorough and right on target. 

Trhawley: I am actually impressed that she spent all that time to read almost all the posts that I have posted in the past so she can better help me. I don't know how to thank all of you.

After another major energy crisis on the weekend... I no longer will buy apples. a blood test has been scheduled this week.

I am dizzy at the moment so I can't really concentrate right now. what I did this morning is I printed out Erin's post so I can read and " digest" all the information that it has. I have started to highlight some points that I want to ask her about and will write to her soon.

Thanks Trhawley, thanks Erin. Thanks to everyone who spent the time and efforts trying to give me advice. I really appreciate it.

Hello Erin:

First of all, I would like to thank you for all your time and efforts. I am really impressed that you spent the time to read my previous posts and learn more about my " complaints":)

Your main point is there maybe a problem other than the amount I am eating or exercising... I agree that I have other problems in my life like everybody else but these problems are not my main concern. I can deal with them. My main concern is I want to be able to FINISH what I have started since last March. Binging scares me. I also need to tell you that this is the first time in my entire life I am losing weight... I have tried so many times in the past, since I was a teen, with no luck at all. losing weight this time is a major joy because I am doing something I was NOT able to do since I was a kid.

Meeting nutritionist: That was the first thing I tried to do last March. I tried to meet someone who can help me to set up a good diet plan. Erin, I have to tell you that with my tight budget, I couldn't do it. I still can't do it. I can't pay $600 for a diet plan, then each time $130. My insurance doesn't cover it by the way.

You mentioned something about " stressed out by my job". Yes, I am but I don't want bother you with more details about this.

Sleeping from 10-6 is a good idea and I will try to do that. I just wanna tell you that I finish work by 6pm, I go to starbucks and have coffee or something ( because my energy level usually is low at that time so I can't workout). what I ususally do is I spend an hour 6-7pm at starbucks, trying to get some energy from a banana and coffee, then I hit the gym at 7pm. I work out and finish by 9pm. I walk home, it takes about an hour of walking, and I am home by 10pm. At 10pm, I am very hungry, so the easiest thing to eat is broccoli and green vegetables. I eat a lot of broccoli like 400grams and I add some green vegetables. so there is really nothing left for the following morning as you suggested:)

Thanks for the information about the blood tests. I will get this done soon. I am sure it will help a lot.

Depression is not an issue in my life. Of course, I have experienced it sometimes but I know that I am not a depressed person so it is not part of the problem.

MY DIET: the binge happens only on the weekends. I have had this problem a few weeks ago when I had a bad cold and gave myself the green light to eat WHATEVER I crave or want. A Gelnny's candy bar and a small non fat sugarless pumpkin muffin was the beginning. Since that time, I haven't stopped.

It is like my body thinks that I should eat  as much as I can on Sunday because there is no sweets tomorrow or during the entire week. ( as you know I follow a strict diet during the week).

I will defintely follow your suggestions, and Melkor's regarding increasing my protein and complex carbs. By the way, I am not an emotional eater but my sweet cravings are a mystery.

I can give up fruits. I already did. Yesterday, I felt dizzy in the street and lost my way to the grocery store. I spent 5 hours trying to go home... It was a bad day because I had another binge.

Tim told me about the online book but because I don't have access to the internet at home, I didn't know what to do since it is an online book, there is no hard copy I can buy or keep. I don't want to download the book at work. I really wanted to buy and read it but what can I do? nothing at the moment.

I am so glad that you offered me help. I can send you more details if you would like so I can start a new plan.

I also liked what you said about gaining the fat.   " if you gain ½ lb of fat one week, don’t look at that as failure, look at it as part of your experiment, and an opportunity to gain useful information about what works for you and what doesn’t. "

it is really supportive.

Now, I am craving something sweet, not sure what to do. Hopefully, I will make my way to the gym today and not to the candy store. 

hi Safina,

i know you were supposed to have blood tests done this past week.  i've been waiting to hear the results before posting further advice.  have you gotten them back yet?  how's the rest of your week been going, in terms of diet and exercise?  i read in other posts that you had one good day eating 5 meals a day, and then the next day binged.  what's happened since then?

Hi Erin,

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. Many thanks for the follow-up. yes, I am glad I had my blood tests done but don't know the results yet.

I should change the title of this post. I am not dizzy any more since I have been binging like crazy everyday. My daily calorie intake is probably 4000-5000 calories. Most of them from junk food. Muffins, cakes, cookies, and icecream. I don't need to mention that i have gained weight, about 8 pounds of PURE fat. Most of them in my midsection and hips.

I know that my body was in a starvation mode, I have lost muscles in the past few months because I was working out very hard with a strict diet. Because of the binges, I have gained fat right away. I destroyed 2 months of hard work and I feel like I gain one pound of fat every day.

Can you help me to get out of this situation? what is the best strategy to start losing fat again?

I guess one of the reasons I have been binging is I am not happy with the reaction of my co-workers and people who are around me towards my weight loss. they simply don't want me to lose weight. I was shocked when I was talking to one of my co-workers and I told her that I have gained weight recently and I eat more than I used to. she said " good to know". that is one examples of many others.

anyway, your advice is much appreciated. I also would like to hear from Melkor, David and others on what I should do in terms of exercise. I had another week off and I don't feel like I want to go to the gym.

 Well, I've been reading up on a lot of Dr. Lonnie Lowery's articles lately, and I came across this tidbit in one of his nutrition articles:

 Lose 5-10% body weight, max (unless obese); if you need to lose more, hold this new "midpoint" body weight for at least 2-3 months before progressing further.
 - You're a Yo-Yo Dieter!
by Dr. Lonnie Lowery

That makes a kind of sense to me that taking a break from severe calorie restriction and maintaining for a while would make it easier to lose and have the weigth stay off. Given the large amount of weight you've lost since starting this diet it seems to me likely that you could benefit from a maintenance phase where you deliberately attempt to maintain your new, lower weight for a period of 2-3 months like Lowery recommends. Well, his article is primarily aimed at bodybuilders but I think the concept transfers over to general weight loss regimes.

 You'll know more when you get the blood test results back, but it seems to me that since increasing the carbs in your diet has helped with the dizziness issue, it's at least likely that it's related to blood sugar issues.

 If you stick to eating at maintenance level and ease back into a gym regime with some weight training/cardio mix over the next few weeks while you wait for the results of the blood work, you'll be prepared to move your diet/exercise regime in the direction recommended by your doctor when the results come in. That would mean just easing back into a gym schedule by repeating the conditioning period of starting with just one set of each exercise for the first week, and adding in a set/week until you're back in the groove, and starting with about half your usual cardio and building back up to your normal regime in about two weeks.

 If you feel that your motivation is slipping at any point when you're easing back into the workout schedule it's more than possible that you're somewhat overtrained. In that case, maintain at 1/3 to 2/3 of your normal workout schedule until you feel your motivation and desire to do more returning - eating at maintenance should also help speed recovery from overtraining/overreach if that's part of your situation.

 Eating at maintenance while working out should work in your favour regardless - your scale weight might not go down, but you'll more than likely add muscle weight and reduce fat mass when you're working out and maintaining.

 I have no idea what could possibly be going through the mind of your unsupportive co-workers and others - though at a guess it could be that your success makes them painfully aware of their own lack of effort at doing the same. Which echoes something Cosgrove/Waterbury wrote:

5. Surround Yourself With Social Support

Is your boss forcing you to eat Krispy Kreme's at each meeting? Quit your job! Are your kids kicking and screaming for you to eat at McDonald's every weekend? Give them up for adoption! Is your wife feeding you Ben and Jerry's every night? Divorce her!

You get the idea.


Real Fast Fat Loss
by Alwyn Cosgrove and Chad Waterbury

 The lack of social support from your surroundings makes your work that much harder. Your friends and co-workers could use a reminder in that direction - either that, or you could use some new friends who'll be more supportive.

 Right now though, up until your blood test results come back, just focus on maintaining for a while and see how your body responds to that, eh?