Updating...
A thank you to everyone who has been so encouraging about the calorie thing... my plan, which I've been doing in sort of a half-hearted way this week, is to keep a rough count on the applet on my iTouch (have I mentioned how much I love, love, love, love this iTouch? Useful in ways that I never imagined.). This has been going pretty well so far, to the extent that I've been doing it. It's not ideal in some ways, but the ways in which it's not ideal kind of keep me from getting as insane about it as I would be likely to do with a more sophisticated program. I used to use... well, I've tried FitDay (not crazy about it but a lot of people really like it), MyFoodDiary (best of the online programs, if you ask me, but still not fast), SparkPeople (not my cup of tea but again, great for a lot of people), and then ultimately I bought the software for DietPower, which I think is a really excellent program if you want to track every possible nutrient, and you have the ability to do this without spending all your life obsessing about it. (In other words, if you are not me. You don't even want to hear about the Great Selenium Debate of 2008.)
Anyway, this little iTouch applet is great, it was free (Lose It, for anyone curious), it's really fast, and you can easily track the three things I care about, calories, carbs, and protein. And the days that I have kept track, I have lost small amounts of weight. And the days that I have not kept track... you guessed it, I haven't. So you would think that someone with half a brain (and I'd like to count myself in for at least half...) would put this all together and actually do that. Which is my goal for this coming week.
In all fairness, the day that I really didn't track... yesterday... was kind of a Epic Fail sort of day anyway. Michael's been having another incidence of these mysterious symptoms he gets... afternoon fever, edema, extreme fatigue, nausea... and he feels like death, and he's depressed as hell. Part of the trouble is that he gets up in the morning and feels relatively ok, but in a few hours, he's awful again. Anyway, yesterday, I took him for a drive, just to get him out of the house, and it just was one of those ideas that seems good and turned out just bad bad bad bad... he was uncomfortable and miserable, I was miserable because my happy plans had not turned out that way, he was more exhausted than he would have been otherwise... and we didn't exactly eat properly, either, although "not eating properly" for us these days isn't exactly an extreme thing.
The trouble is that I seriously have no idea what the right thing to do about this problem is. We go back to the doctor time and time again; he does tests, and he doesn't find anything. I don't think that he has a clue where to go with this next, and I also don't think that he takes it that seriously... he doesn't see the extent to which Michael is incapacitated; he doesn't see what it's doing to him psychologically, either. I just don't know where to go with it. I'd like to have someone else see him... but who? My sister keeps suggesting that we go somewhere like Johns Hopkins or the Mayo Clinic for a complete workup, but I have no idea if my insurance would pay for it, and the other problem is, doctors take one look at him and they think that it's all about weight, and they want him to have surgery. Yes, he's still over 400 lbs. But he has lost over 200 lbs., and he feels worse. If he were not losing weight, we would consider surgery. But as long as he is... and he is, when this stuff is not going on... that doesn't seem to me to be the right choice at this time. I need for someone to see past the weight and try to get to the bottom of what causes this fatigue, the fevers, the edema.
So I will call the doctor on Monday, for lack of anything else to do, and I will try to get him in to see him, although I have a hideous schedule next week, and doing this will be very difficult.
We will get through all of this. I know that. It just would be nice to be able to see the road ahead a little more clearly.
Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Calories and Carbohydrates
When you start reading about low-carb diets, you get the notion that you can eat whatever you want, as long as it's low carb, and still lose weight. I think it starts with the first weeks of Atkins (eat whatever you like as long as you keep carbs below 20) and follows along to the people who argue that there's a metabolic advantage to low carb diets, and it all builds to the idea that if you're counting carbs, you don't need to count calories.
But ultimately, I'm pretty sure that's not true, or not true for everyone at least. (One of the things I've really learned over the last few years is that everyone is a little different, and what works for one person may not work at all for someone else.)
When I started eating low carb, I lost about 20 lbs. or so pretty quickly, and then I've spent about a year plus pretty much maintaining my weight. Which is not exactly what I have in mind. I've proved again and again that if I keep the carbs low, I can eat mostly whatever I want and not gain weight. This is kind of a long-run good thing, I suppose, but it doesn't solve the problem of really wanting/needing to lose more. And, sure, there are many reasons why, for the last year, it's been easier for me to maintain weight than to lose it, but at the end of the day, it still leads to the conclusion that that I have to do something different if I want to get anywhere. The lower carbs have also been fantastic for my blood sugar and general level of energy, and so, particularly because we eat very clean anyway, in the "very little processed food" sense, I'm pretty happy with the general shape of my food choices. But clearly there's too much of it.
I was starting to get somewhere when I was making the photo food diary, but... well, I got lazy about it, and I realized that I eat a lot of the same thing a lot of the time, and that it's hard to get a sense of scale... so it was definitely a step in the right direction, but it wasn't enough. And I got kind of derailed when my son and I went to New York, too, and haven't quite started up on the pictures again, although I probably will.
But I think that when you get right down to it, I have to start counting calories again. I am not totally averse to doing this, but it's taken a while to really convince myself that I need to do this. First of all, I love the idea that I can eat pretty much whatever I want... but "whatever I want" is simply too much for me to actually lose weight, at this point in time anyway, because I have too many bad habits that are allowed free rein with this idea. I graze (moo!). I eat when I'm bored. I think I'm hungry when I'm bored. I don't have enough accountability. And so on. The other thing is that I have been very reluctant to start keeping a food diary, because it tends to make me a little obsessive and weird and controlling about food... about Michael's food, too, and this is not a recipe for marital bliss. I am just going to have to figure out how to avoid doing that. And how to not make myself crazy in the process.
I think that "not making myself crazy" is going to have to mean, keeping a rough tally on my iPod, not spending the hours that I used to obsessing over every micronutrient. I have been trial-running this for a couple of days, and thus far, I'm a little lighter and not much more insane than normal. Yet. :-)
But ultimately, I'm pretty sure that's not true, or not true for everyone at least. (One of the things I've really learned over the last few years is that everyone is a little different, and what works for one person may not work at all for someone else.)
When I started eating low carb, I lost about 20 lbs. or so pretty quickly, and then I've spent about a year plus pretty much maintaining my weight. Which is not exactly what I have in mind. I've proved again and again that if I keep the carbs low, I can eat mostly whatever I want and not gain weight. This is kind of a long-run good thing, I suppose, but it doesn't solve the problem of really wanting/needing to lose more. And, sure, there are many reasons why, for the last year, it's been easier for me to maintain weight than to lose it, but at the end of the day, it still leads to the conclusion that that I have to do something different if I want to get anywhere. The lower carbs have also been fantastic for my blood sugar and general level of energy, and so, particularly because we eat very clean anyway, in the "very little processed food" sense, I'm pretty happy with the general shape of my food choices. But clearly there's too much of it.
I was starting to get somewhere when I was making the photo food diary, but... well, I got lazy about it, and I realized that I eat a lot of the same thing a lot of the time, and that it's hard to get a sense of scale... so it was definitely a step in the right direction, but it wasn't enough. And I got kind of derailed when my son and I went to New York, too, and haven't quite started up on the pictures again, although I probably will.
But I think that when you get right down to it, I have to start counting calories again. I am not totally averse to doing this, but it's taken a while to really convince myself that I need to do this. First of all, I love the idea that I can eat pretty much whatever I want... but "whatever I want" is simply too much for me to actually lose weight, at this point in time anyway, because I have too many bad habits that are allowed free rein with this idea. I graze (moo!). I eat when I'm bored. I think I'm hungry when I'm bored. I don't have enough accountability. And so on. The other thing is that I have been very reluctant to start keeping a food diary, because it tends to make me a little obsessive and weird and controlling about food... about Michael's food, too, and this is not a recipe for marital bliss. I am just going to have to figure out how to avoid doing that. And how to not make myself crazy in the process.
I think that "not making myself crazy" is going to have to mean, keeping a rough tally on my iPod, not spending the hours that I used to obsessing over every micronutrient. I have been trial-running this for a couple of days, and thus far, I'm a little lighter and not much more insane than normal. Yet. :-)
Friday, April 4, 2008
Ugh
I am not a happy bunny lately. First of all, my weight has taken another up fluctuation... about 2 lbs., and ok, I know that this is nothing; it's menstrual bloat (too much info probably) plus yesterday I had to take a bunch of my students to an event, and on the way home, I took them out for sushi. I had mostly sashimi, but I hadn't eat most of the day, and I was just starving, so I had about a cup of rice... and soy sauce always makes me retain water, too. It's nothing, really.
But it doesn't change the "I am sure not losing a lot of weight" equation. I try not to get frustrated about this, but let's face it... for nearly the last two years, the scale has hovered around 290, and now, on the whole, it's more like 286. If I could even get down into the 270s, I'd at least feel like something had actually changed. Yes, I feel better. Yes, my body looks better. But somewhere along the line, I have to actually LOSE some weight.
And I hate to say it, but I think that the answer is calories. You start on an Atkins-type diet, and everyone says, oh, you don't have to count calories; you can eat what you want. And I think that there are people who are like this... and I think that if I just wanted to maintain my weight, I really could eat more or less what I want as long as it's low carb. But calories DO count as some point. At some point, metabolic advantage or not, you are eating too many calories.
Of course, I say that, and the next thing I think is, well, maybe it's something else... maybe it's cortisol, maybe it's my metabolism, maybe I need to be eating more carbs not less, maybe....
But I have read so many things lately... including Jimmy Moore's blog this morning... talking about this kind of problem, maintaining but not losing and the need to pay attention to calories. I don't know. I just wish sometimes that someone would simply tell me what to do, what exactly would work for ME. And I can't seem to find that answer. Also, it's not like I'm eating a ton. Maybe 2000-2300 calories/day, and I am not a petite babe, and I am not generally stuffed by any means. But I think I have to try cutting it down, which means paying attention and recording, and that does not make me happy because I have a hard time doing it in a rational way.
But it doesn't change the "I am sure not losing a lot of weight" equation. I try not to get frustrated about this, but let's face it... for nearly the last two years, the scale has hovered around 290, and now, on the whole, it's more like 286. If I could even get down into the 270s, I'd at least feel like something had actually changed. Yes, I feel better. Yes, my body looks better. But somewhere along the line, I have to actually LOSE some weight.
And I hate to say it, but I think that the answer is calories. You start on an Atkins-type diet, and everyone says, oh, you don't have to count calories; you can eat what you want. And I think that there are people who are like this... and I think that if I just wanted to maintain my weight, I really could eat more or less what I want as long as it's low carb. But calories DO count as some point. At some point, metabolic advantage or not, you are eating too many calories.
Of course, I say that, and the next thing I think is, well, maybe it's something else... maybe it's cortisol, maybe it's my metabolism, maybe I need to be eating more carbs not less, maybe....
But I have read so many things lately... including Jimmy Moore's blog this morning... talking about this kind of problem, maintaining but not losing and the need to pay attention to calories. I don't know. I just wish sometimes that someone would simply tell me what to do, what exactly would work for ME. And I can't seem to find that answer. Also, it's not like I'm eating a ton. Maybe 2000-2300 calories/day, and I am not a petite babe, and I am not generally stuffed by any means. But I think I have to try cutting it down, which means paying attention and recording, and that does not make me happy because I have a hard time doing it in a rational way.
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