Friday, February 22, 2008

Still discouraging

Yesterday, today, weigh up fractionally. Still under 290, but just barely. Food yesterday: calories 2100 (possibly a little higher as didn't carefully count the ingredients in the leftover fish), carbs 35, net carbs 23, protein 198. Which is about what the day before looked like, too, maybe a little higher carb though. And I'm retaining water again; I can feel it in my hands. Michael hasn't weighed himself, but he's certainly not losing anything.

I don't know what to do and where to go with all of this. We cannot possibly be the only two people in the universe who cannot lose weight on a low carb diet. And if we concluded that was the case, where would we go after that? There are so many benefits of eating this way; I believe in it heart and soul, but at some point, my weight... and more importantly, Michael's... has to change. The higher level of protein lately IS making M. feel better; there's no question about that. I feel physically fine, too, although it's been a rough few emotional days, it's only last night that I got some decent sleep.

Everything I read says, find the right combination for your metabolism. But it can't be this delicate balancing act; it can't be this fragile, can it?

I suppose that you could tell a story here that kind of makes some (though not a lot) of sense. We both have been protein-deprived for some time, so eating a lot of protein is causing our bodies to build lean body mass, which is offsetting the weight effects of shedding fat. Like that story? I don't much, not really. I have no way of measuring anything that would reassure me that it was right one way or another. And I just want to know.

At some point, you have to do something besides let blind faith lead you on. But I have no idea what. Seek advice, I guess. Can't go to the doctor; he'll be no help at all. Maybe ask on some of the low carb groups; tried that on the usenet group and got some help but not a lot.

I think that the thing that puzzles me about this most is that neither of us is losing weight. Our metabolisms simply cannot be exactly the same, although it's certainly true that we've been eating exactly the same things for nearly two years, one way or the other. It makes me think that we're just doing something wrong, although I have no idea what it could be. Other than not really getting any particular exercise, I suppose... but I far more active than M. is, and I am getting some exercise at least, so even that doesn't ring true.

There's some answer to this somewhere.






2 comments:

Carol said...

Hi Nina,

Check out this web page that I got from Jimmy Moore's blog.
http://ultimateplanofgreatness.blogspot.com/2008/01/
notes-after-one-week-of-low-carbing.html

This person lost 8 lbs in 5 days eating an average of 3,466 calories a day!! Fat calories were 61% a day, protein 28%, and carbs 5%...also alcohol was 7%! That's close to my foster son's diet of 65% fat, 30% protein, and 5% carbs.

In the early days on low carb, when there were many more online discussion forums, many people who lost weight quickly were eating 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day...most of them in the 60% to 70% fat category...and it took that for success. Most of them were also on Atkins, and not Protein Power. I love the Eades', but their way of eating does not seem to work as well for quicker weight loss as Atkins does.

I'm tellin' ya...you guys need to eat more!

Nina said...

I don't know what on earth we need to do, seriously. For every story I see of someone eating a lot and losing a lot, I see another story of eating a lot less and losing a lot. The only thing that I'm totally convinced is that individual metabolisms vary more than I ever imagined.

I can't so much see the difference between Atkins and Protein Power after you get past the induction period, but maybe I'm missing something. I don't know; the only thing that I'm totally convinced about at this point is that Michael needs to keep the protein up, and that if something doesn't happen pretty soon, he's just going to lose heart. He is very resistant to upping the calories a lot; I keep trying to do that, but at this point, it hasn't worked out terribly well. I think if he'd just start losing something, it would be easier to convince him to change the fat/protein/carb ratio... but so far, that's not the case, plus he just craves things like fruit a lot more than I do.