Oatmeal! Yee-Haw! WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM :)

For the first time I've hit a weight loss plateau even though exercising a lot. In this past as long as I exercised and watched what I ate, weight would come off steadily about 2 lbs a week.
In the last two weeks between keeping my intake down to about 2100 cal/day (balanced nutrition, minimize junk food), and exercising a lot, based on metabolic rate calculators I should have had a deficit of more than 1500 cal/day, which should lead to weight loss of 3 pounds per week. Instead, in 2 weeks I loss less than a pound :( I realize this caloric deficit is excessive, you're supposed to shoot for no more than 2 pounds a week of weight loss. I also know that if you restrict food intake too extremely, your body can lower its metabolism and minimize weight loss (the "set point theory"). But I didn't think this was possible from exercising too much. How can your body lower your metabolism when your exercising a lot? Anyway, my guess is I should cut back on my exercise.

Sorry for the long story. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

BentandFolded,

I've had friends who have gone through that, and they upped their food intake for just a few days (then brought it back down), and that seemed to do the trick.

Good luck!!

BentandFolded - I think we all go through that at one point or another. I have gone through it twice since I started trying to lose weight in December. Recently I was stuck at 187 pounds for over two weeks. I was starting to get pretty discouraged because of it.

A couple of weeks ago I went on a mini get away for a couple of days. While I was gone I had ribs and buffalo wings one night, the next day I had a greasy hamburger then hit the ice cream shop. For dinner that night I had every fried food imaginable. I couldn't believe I had eaten all of that. Next day I was back in the gym. The following day I weighed myself, I was 185!!!! I couldn't believe it and I can't explain it but somehow it shocked my body enough to get me back on track. That was two weeks ago, I'm now at 181.

Update time:
3/7 start: 220lbs
3/28: 206lbs
4/11 Intermediary goal: 200lbs
Long term goal: 180lbs

Still following the SB diet, and moderate excercise. Been walking about 1-2mi/day, sadly haven't had a chance to get on the bike in two freakin' weeks. Hope to remedy that this weekend. Also up to drinking 7-8 literes of water/day.

Well one week down and four pounds gone!

Start - 03/22/05 = 226

today - 03/29/05 = 222

shooting for 220 by next week...since I have to travel over the weekend and will be eating out for at least 9 meals...it might be tough...

That is awesome Darren, congratulations. If possible eat subway for at least one meal a day while you are out of town. On top of that have water with your meals instead of cokes. That should help out some. Personally I generally cheat at least once or twice on the weekends myself, you have to reward yourself from time to time.

wanna eat out and still eat healthy?
check out this site

http://www.dietfacts.com/fastfood.asp

Thanks Cheebahmunkey and Lowcel for the feedback! :) Also thanks for the suggestion about Subway and the link to that website. I'll definitely seek out a Subway if I can...great suggestion...love their subs...

One night last week I got too busy to cook (or so I thought) and went to Taco-Bell. After looking at that online menu...I think it'll be the last time for a while! Oh MY GOD! That dinner was 1500 freakin' calories and had 77 grams of fat! I knew it was bad, but that just really put it into perspective!

always a pleasure to help :)

Time for an update:

January 18, 2005 --> 213 lbs.
February 21, 2005 --> 203 lbs.
March 30, 2005 --> 190 lbs.

Target --> 170 lbs. by September 2, 2005.

With riding season just a few warm days away and just over five months left to go, I feel confident I'll reach my goal. The trick at that point will be keeping the weight off. I can't wait to see what climbing hills feels like without an extra 23 lbs. weighing me down!

weighed in this morning and fully clothed i am 381 so my clothes and stuff that i have on weigh about 5 pounds and the scale is a pound or to on the heavy side so i am prolly below 375 :)

How can one take that much weight off?? I'm now at 190, and I've been training. It seems that the more I train, the more weight I gain. I want to be much more lean.

The same way it went on... a little at a time. WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

I'm still here, but it has been pretty slow lately. I went to florida for spring break last week, so the "diet" went out the window for that week. I am trying to make small lifetime changes instead of major restrictions. That way I can keep going all of my life and never put the lbs back on. I haven't had a chance to weight myself in a few weeks, but I have had the bike out more lately and I love riding!

You might just be building more muscle, which weighs more than fat. I've lost the weight by using FitDay to track my calorie intake. I make sure that I eat less than I burn. Simple as that. The weight loss has been gradual and steady. It will begin to taper off soon, I'm sure, but I'll soon be riding a lot, so that will offset it.

I think that diet is probably the most important step to losing weight with cardio exercise a very close second. For me no matter how much I ride I have not lost any weight in the past. Once I started watching what I ate the weight started coming off.

As of right now I am down 39 pounds from 12/1/04.

All these Success stories are great . I want see some before after pictures here are mine

I was 270 when I started to turn my life around. I now hover between 147-155. I began with a doctor assisted very low calorie diet that mainly consisted of shakes and prepared meals. I was eating about 1000 calories a day and doing lots of PA. My doctor was monitoring all this and I had blood tests ever week or so to make sure all everything was good. I did this for about 6-7 months until I lost around 70 pounds.
My dad is a cyclist so you can guess what happened to me (I am obsessed now!). I lost the rest of my weight by Biking, Gym and eating healthy and keeping track of my calories trying to stay around 1600-1800 net calories a day. It is a struggle sometimes but it is worth it and cycling has became a big big part of my life. And remember it is not a diet but a way of life and it is all about calories in vs. calories out for me at least.



Matt

Wow Matt! That is so awesome! I really hope that I can pull something like that off. I started at 304 and I would love to get down to 160 some day.

I will work on getting some pictures of my progress so far. I think I have one of my max, here is one from new years.

The second picture is from St. Patty's day. But I guess I look pretty similar. I have lost about 28 pounds.

On another note, I went for a 30 mile ride today. This is twice as far as I have ever ridden before.

here are some pics http://www.thelug.com/images/weightloss.html

Big Lug,
man your doing great, keep up the good work.

Before and after pics....great idea....they are really motivating.

I started at 370 pounds on January 1, 2004. I'm now at 260 with about 70-80 to go.

Here's my before and after. The after is from an article in my local paper about keeping new years resolutions.

Wow Walnuts, keep it up man, that is great! Everyone is doing an awesome job. Same for you BigLug!

I am so stoked by Y'alls pictures! My before and after pictures are going to have to wait for a little more...after. I'm still at 262, which isn't as bad as 308, but I would like to post a more dramatic "After" shot. HTTP://WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

Good job to everybody!!!!!!! It is awesome seeing before and after Pics . I know when I just started out this process I would surf the web looking for peoples weight loss pics . they gave me an extra push like if they can do it so can I.
As for looking at your own before and after shots it is weird . For me it did not really hit me until one day as I was passing a mirror in a store and I just caught a glimpse of myself and did not recognize the person I saw. It is weird I have had this image of myself being heavy for so long it all just hit me at once. It was very surreal. I still think of myself as the old Matt sometimes it is hard when you have been looking at the same image in the mirror and pictures for so long.

Keep up the great work everybody. It’s hard I know first hand but with a little stubbornness and persistence it all pays off