Rant Thread about Weightloss/Health

[thestarsfall]

I can't seem to lose weight, honestly. Even when I try.

I'll break it down to eating and exercising because I have issues and such with both sides.

Exercising: I don't mind working out. I hate getting sweaty, but I totally have no problems walking places when it might take way more time than ideal. I walk to work which is either 5 mins away or 30 mins depending where I work. If it's the 5 mins away one I like to go on a walk around the neighbourhood after that work is done (I'm a massage therapist so I don't work regular hours, only when I have clients). So a rough estimate is that I walk at least 30 mins at least 3x a week...which should be enough to maintain weight right?

Other than that I occasionally will go for a few weeks of doing either extra walks or workout videos or something else...so like November/December I worked out 5x a week for at least 30 mins (usually more like an hour) each time. DIDN'T LOSE A POUND. And I didn't change my eating habits, which I don't think are too horrible either.

My other issue is that I have a lot of pain in my legs. I have shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and I think a heel spur in my right foot. I have restless legs syndrome as well so if I up my activity too much I get symptoms that night. I also have some weirdo hip problems that my one professor suspected might be a congenital hip deformity. So while I can do some activities and I often push through the pain for them, other activities are just too painful for me to do (running...for instance. I want to want to run though...lol).

Eating: I have a history of disordered eating, and I htink I have something akin to night eating disorder. I can have a reasonable breakfast of like 300-400 Calories and then I honestly am not hungry until like 4pm or sometimes even like 6pm. Then I'll have a semi-reasonable dinner (homemade) and after that all I want to do is snack. It helps that I don't actually have that many snack foods in my house usually, but I just get incredibly peckish. I have tried to just drink herbal tea or green tea or water but given the oppourtunity I would probably binge. Not cool.

Now with this history of disordered eating comes weirdo mental issues when it comes to eating. If I keep a food diary, for instance, which is recommended when trying to lose weight. I start to waaaaay undereat and feel guilty about anything I do eat. I'll have like a piece of toast for breakfast or just a banana and then lunch will be some eggs and carrot sticks and I'll start to think it's too much. If I write things down I start to think I ate too much that day if it's more than like...one meal worth. Not healthy.

The only times in my life that I have actually lost any significant weight were:
-after having my wisdom teeth out and only eating milkshakes for a week and being on pain medication that took away appetites.
-after having jaw surgery and having my jaw wired shut for a week and then living off of milkshakes and such
-living at a ranch for 2 weeks where we did heavy physical labour all day and there was no food available except for at meal times
-having an eating disorder in first year university where I would have orange juice for breakfast, work out for 90 minutes during the day and then only eat dinner

Otherwise I have been steadily gaining weight since birth pretty much. And up until recently it hasn't really affected my health at all. I had mildly high triglycerides a few years ago but my new doctor has said nothing about my bloodwork now. And I have slightly higher than normal systolic blood pressure...but my diastolic is low so no one really worries about it. (it's like 128/70 usually) Plus high blood pressure runs in my family so it's not like that would be a direct correlation with my weight necessarily.

I wear an 18/20 Canadian sizing....would LOVE to get back down even to a 16.

I don't really know why I made this thread other than to rant. I feel like most people I know are just like "durr, just work out and eat proper and you'll be fine" but I don't feel like I eat horribly most times, and I am moderately active, so I don't think I should be as big as I am....I know I could always eat better and be more active too...but that hasn't ever worked for me to lose weight.

 

[ElmaWG]

I totally understand your frustration about wanting to run/jog but not being able due to to pain. I used to jog when I was younger, and I loved it, and it was a great way to maintain or loose weight. But over the last decade I've had a number of injuries, some recurring, all in my left leg. Sometimes I think I can get back into it, but even if I start slow and do all my stretches, the pain in my leg will return. Boo.

Your whole situation sounds very frustrating, you deserve a good rant! I'm really no expert on weight loss, just trying to loose the baby weight (very slowly). But I have some comment on several things. First, I do NOT think walking 30 minutes 3x a week is sufficient. It probably depends on speed (or not?) but I'd think 30 minutes 5x a week is probably a better goal, just in terms of being healthy. But of course your weight loss will depend on how much you're eating, so even if you're walking that much, you won't loose (and may gain) if you're eating too many calories.

It also sounds like you're eating way to few calories early in the day. It's true what they say about breakfast being the most important meal...300-400 cal might be ok if you're snacking and eating lunch, but way too few if you're not eating until the evening. If it did that I know that I would binge for dinner and dessert. You might have better luck with a bigger breakfast, 500 cal or so. Or keep it at 400, but please do eat lunch, even if you not "hungry" cause it should curb your cravings to binge later on. Not sure if any of this helps you, but good luck and don't give up!

 

[helen_beee]

By the sounds of it you're not eating enough calories during the day and not doing enough exercise. You need to eat regularly throughout the day to keep your metabolism ticking over otherwise your body will think it is being starved and hold on to every calorie - this will also help with the snacking on an evening. Walking for half an hour three times a week isn't really all that much exercise tbh, if this is the only exercise you do then I would increase length of time and frequency. Although you can lose weight without exercising, you can't improve fitness without exercising.

Most important thing I think you need to address are your internal issues, you need to get your head into gear and sort out your disordered eating / issues with eating otherwise you will always fail when trying to lose weight. I relate to you a lot and have had a lot of the same problems but once I got my head into gear and my made a life change everything else was much easier. I'm calorie controlled and exercise 6 times a week (30DS & zumba) and I'm steadily losing weight xx