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Hard time lossing weight after whole30


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I'm two weeks after my whole30. You can read about it in my success story: http://forum.whole30.com/topic/36500-day-30/

To Make it short, it was very good with a healthy weight loss (12 pounds).

 

Since then I'm whole30 (and did 2 re-intro, Gluten and Dairy) and I saw that the last two weeks my weight is the same. 

I need to loss about 20 pound more to change my weight and looks to where I want to be. Beside those 2 days of re-intro my diet was whole30 only and for now i intend to keep it that way (anyway msg, white sugar, processed food and dairy was out of my diet before). 

 

 

Any Idea what is holding my weight? My wife say that the meat is too fat (I eat red meet about once a day) and my gamble is on the good fats. I'm not sure what is the exact amount I should eat. I do love those olives and tree nuts (and Tahini and avocado). 

 

Thanks! 

 

 

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In the same way we say that weight will fluctuate on a Whole30, weight fluctuates naturally from day to day which is a big part of why we encourage people to break up with the scale - permanently. 

Although it is often a pleasing side effect weightloss is not  the focus on Whole30. How are you feeling energy wise? How are you sleeping? What are your stress levels like? (bearing in mind that worrying about weightloss can be stressful enough so as to have an impact on your overall health) How is your mood? 

 

These things are all so much more important than the number of the scale.

Your wife thinks you are eating too much protein, you think you are eating too much fat... What ARE you eating?

Perhaps if you could give us a rundown on what a few days of typical meals look like (inlcuding specifics about  portion sizes, veg types etc) we can suggest a few tweaks for going forward.

Nuts/seeds & their butters are often problematic foods - many people overeat them - perhaps it would be beneficial to ditch them & find superior fat sources (they are recommended to be eaten in moderation anyways due to their poor omega 3:6 ratio)

I add that you say you need to lose 20 pounds to weigh & look how you want to - perhaps your body feels that you're already at a healthy weight as is often the case. Media puts pressure on us all to be thin, when in fact our bodies know better when we are at a healthy & sustainable weight.

Lastly I'd add that it's only been six weeks. You didn't get to where you are now in six weeks, and so you shouldn't put pressure on yourself to fix everything in six weeks - fast weightloss is often followed be rebound weight gain - you should think of this as more of a marathon than a sprint.

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jmcbn - thanks for your fast reply.

 

Maybe I should be more patient.

 

Here is how a typical day looks for me:

 

first meal - 2 eggs (all kinds of cooking), 3-5 vegetables (cucumber, tomato, pepper, radish, some greens), olive oil, avocado or tahini (2-3 spoons) and 10 olives (can easily eat more, I started to count them prior to the meal). few times I had a burger or hot dogs (paleo compatible) at the first meal.

 

second meal - a big bowel of greens (lettuce, arugula, rocket), about 200 grams of chicken breast (half a pound), a fruit (green apple or nectarine), about 12 pieces of almonds/pecans/walnuts/macadamia (usually a mix) and olive oil.

 

third meal - some kind of meat (steak, hot dogs, burger, chicken), usually on the pan (last 10 days were very busy for me and my wife, so less "cooked" and more pan cook) at about 250-350 grams, oven cooked vegetables (zucchini, carrot. pumpkin, yam, eggplant) to fill the plate, tahini and about 10 nuts.

 

As I learned here, even though i usually eat the eggs in the morning all the meals can be at each part of the day.   

BTW - I work as a tree nut importer and this is my first time that they are compatible with my diet.

 

As u asked, I feel better, my energy is better, my sleep was always good (I fall a sleep easy) but I was snoring bad and I know from my wife that I snore way better now (BTW, on the Dairy intro I snored bad). The losing weight part is just about putting an objective measurement along side those subjective ones. I know I want/need to lose about 20 pounds more because I know my body and I know where it is at his prime. But it is not just about that. Me growing up as a fat kid I never felt comfortable at my own skin. in the last 3 years I'm happy with my self. a 38 year old man can easily find good cloth and feel good about himself even with the weight of 220-240 pounds. a 220 pounds kid can not find them anywhere. It is also about the fact I love to run. 10 years ago I started to exercise and got to half a marathon. I injured myself, gained many pounds back and stopped running. A year ago I went back to exercise and when I run my knees hurt. I have specific exercise to make my knees better, but my weight is heavy for them. And that is the main reason I need to loss more weight.

 

I have a dream to run a marathon (funny u used that marathon analogy) and I'm determent to fulfill it. But it will be tough (didn't want to write impossible) with my current weight and knees strength.               

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Okay, you're definitely over-eating the nuts/seeds. We'd recommend a closed handful every other day, maximum - you're having nuts/seeds of some kind at every meal. Ignore the fat used for cooking and add in an alternate fat source to each meal - avocado, home made mayo, olive oil drizzed over veg etc.

A serving of eggs when they are your only source of protein in a meal should be the number of whole eggs you can hold in one hand. I'm a 5'2" female and I can hold 4 when I'm hungry - I'm guessing you could easily hold 4, any day of the week. Add in either more eggs, or a different protein source to meal one - under eating is counter productive.

The meat in your other meals shouldn't be weighed, but rather measured against the palm of your hand - aiming for 1-2 plam sized pieces per meal, minimum. That's the length, width & depth of your plam. I'm guessing you're eating less than that.

Other than that the composition of your meals doesn't look too bad.

How much water are you drinking? You should be aiming for a half an ounce of water per pound of body weight daily - and most people underestimate the importance of this.

I think if you up your protein, choose superior fat sources & keep an eye on your water intake you should see coninued improvements - as with everything it just takes time.

Give it time - and that marathon won't seem like so much of a pipe dream.

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If you had been having some negative impacts from dairy, it's possible it will take you some time to get back to your "prime" feeling.

 

For some people dairy has a number of weight impacts, poor breathing and poor quality sleep impacts your metabolism, oxygen levels and exercise capability.

 

While you're in weight loss mode you might want to try lifting some heavy things with your arms instead of running (it doesn't mean you're giving up running forever, just balancing your current cost/benefit for your knees). Lifting can also bring some hormone changes (dairy has hormones too and they're not always kind to us) which can swing you into better metabolism, think of it as your long term plan for your marathon.

 

If you're recovering from injury, you may find some physiotherapy and magnesium supplements help you heal a bit faster (be careful not to abuse your knees now, you'll need them later for your marathon). If you're not getting enough protein to complete repairs or you're adding further body damage, your healing will slow and your weight loss will stop. Weight loss is a low priority for the body (it always comes with risk), healing always comes first.

 

In case you don't have it, these are the Rules vs Recommendations. Some people find the Recommendations help them reach their goals faster, but they're not Rules. http://whole30.com/2015/01/rules-recommendations/

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