Health & Family Biggest Loser Winter 2017

Weight: 112.7kg
Waist: 119cm



Last week started well, but with some very long hours over the 2nd half of the week leading up to EoFY, I tended to opt for convenience rather than optimal eating (plus a bit of junk for good measure), and so I ended up putting on a little weight for the week overall.

 

Weight: 111.8kg
Waist: 118.5cm



Had a pretty good week overall.

In-laws have been staying to help look after the kids during the holidays, so have had a little more time to do meal preparation.

Haven't done any real exercise this week, other than walking to get lunch and walking to the shops. I did ride on Saturday to the park with the kids - but that was pretty sedate, didn't really get my heart rate up much.

 

I'm 60.3 this morning. Really, really sick of trying hard and not seeing any results.

 

Perhaps you need a different approach? What is your strategy?

There are some really interesting videos on the DietDoctor website about weight loss struggles of women 50+ ... although you do have to be a member to view them - and of course, they advocate a low carb diet for weight control.

 

It seems you're not alone.



In an interview on that website with Jacqueline Eberstein (members only) - a Registered Nurse who worked with Dr. Atkins for 3 decades says that she herself needs to stay under 20g of carbs per day to maintain her weight. She hasn't done intermittent fasting herself, but has heard that it does work for some people too.

She stresses that you possibly need to do an occasional audit of exactly how many carbs you are consuming because sometimes you end up having a lot more than you think you are (carbohydrate creep) - and it only takes a slight increase in carbs sneaking in to drop you out of the weight loss zone and so you don't make progress.

 

I've lost weight on a low carb keto diet (probably 15 years ago) and since your posting about low carbs, I've been tweaking my intake to lessen the carbs and make up the balance with more good fat. It still isn't working. I have to stick with 900 calories to 1100 calories (if I do an hour's exercise) per day or I put on weight.

I've also lost weight probably 18 years ago with WW. And twice I've gone to the ULCD bars but they are heavy with sugar, and I can eat 800 calories with good food, so I don't want to go back to the bars. I'd rather eat normal food.

But since menopause, everything seems to have changed.

900 calories is almost ULCD but it seems the hormonal changes are fighting me. I'm seeing the dietitian tomorrow after not being able to get to him for three months, so will discuss this again.

And I eat very well. It is fairly easy to stick to about 1000 calories a day for me and not feel hungry.

 

It could be that you're simply having too many carbs still. Have you done an audit to see how much you're actually having?

I lost lots of weight initially aiming for under 50g per day, but then plateaued, so now I've had to drop it to 20g per day (ketogenic) to try and make progress again.

My recent exercise of documenting everything I ate was quite informative because it showed me how carb creep was causing me to consume quite a bit more carbs than I thought I was.

From what I understand about menopause in women - you may have to get quite strict to maintain progress. Even as much as 25g of carbs a day may stop your progress - you need to go really low to actually keep losing weight. Of course, I'm no expert on the subject - this is just what I've read or seen in interviews.

Also - watch out for artificial sweeteners. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that in some women (more so than men) certain sweeteners can cause an insulin response which leads to weight gain.

 

Have you tried intermittent fasting?

Do you test your blood sugar levels? If so, have you also tried measuring ketone levels to see if you're actually in ketosis? (need a special testing device for this - most don't do ketones).

 

I just looked back and some days I'm under 30g but others I'm more than double that. I'm going to discuss this tomorrow with my dietitian and might try very hard to keep the carbs lower.

As you say, I've been trying to keep carbs down, but when I look back on my daily record, there are days that it has definitely blown out. So that could be a tweak I can easily make.

And regarding your reply to skater about intermittent fasting, I bought the 5/2 book and followed it for quite a number of weeks. When I wasn't losing any weight, I found a forum, and it seemed the only people questioning why it wasn't working was... you guessed it... post-menopausal women. I guess we cannot fight the hormones.

But I refuse to turn into a round apple, so I'll continue to fight on.

 

Not that it's entirely relevant to this discussion, but there was an interesting test that one of the DietDoctor staff did where he wanted to test what impact the amount of protein he ate had on his diet. He thought that eating too much protein would drop him out of ketosis.

Turned out, based on his n=1 experiment that protein seemed to have no impact on his ketone levels at all - it was all carbs. Any time he dropped out of ketosis, it was because of extra carbs - not protein.

You can read about it here (no membership required): How Much Protein Can You Eat in Ketosis? - Diet Doctor

 

It's probably worth trying that to see if it helps.

The thing that struck me about the interview with Jacqueline Eberstein (who does a lot of consulting with women in exactly your position) is that they sometimes get stuck trying to work out why nothing is working and have to look for alternative strategies (or other underlying causes). It seems to be a fairly common issue (the lack of progress).

I did find a transcript of a presentation she did at a Low Carb USA conference which may be helpful - https://prod-dietdoctor-d3xpwb8eqyo.../11/Jackie-Eberstein-Presentation-SD-2016.pdf

Her advice in the other interview I mentioned previously was "Be patient and have a sense of humor" ... and to make sure you get enough sleep. It may also require some consultation to get help to manage your hormone levels - everyone is different and so avoid "cookie cutter" approaches to management.

She also strongly urged women to avoid getting fixated on the scales alone - it's not just about weight, but overall health. Sometimes the weight does nothing for an extended period but if you lose patience and give up, you'll end up 10kg heavier and less healthy.

I did like the advice she gave near the front of the transcript I linked to above - while most of this stuff isn't all that relevant to men - they may well have a wife/partner who it is very relevant to, so it's worth paying attention so that they can understand and appreciate the differences and be supportive - so this will become much more relevant to me at some point in the future.