The role of exercise.

[broccolimama]

Hi.

I'll start by saying that I'm trying to make this a way of life after a lifetime of overexercising/ under eating/binging and punishing my body.

I did my first whole 30 11/30-12/31. NYE had a little wine. No plan to reintro. Started compliant again 1/1 Results - many NSV's and a few inches/lbs lost. I was ok with the fact that I may be the " slow burn" type for weight loss. I'm not slim but this is how it's always been for me unless I go down to under 1200 calories. I did that when I was young. I'm miserable when I'm hungry and it's not worth it.

1/1 compliant until 1/24 when I had 2 bites of my kids pizza crust. Lame but true. Thought about the psychological reasons I did that and continued clean until 1/30 where I mindfully had 1/2 cup ice cream with whipped cream. Felt it was worth it and had mild tummy issues the next day. Not planning on reintroducing dairy actually at all. Been compliant again since that night. After day 60 my weight "only" dropped another minimal number.

So I'm wondering if people lose weight eating this way without doing crossfit. I'm not there right now in my life. I had that season and maybe I'll go back but right now I am a 3x a week exerciser at best. I run around after my 2 under 5 kids and dog a lot and have a sedentary job. I'm following the template but need to know if I should decrease portion sizes. I've decreased fruit to .5-1 serving a day because I've read that in the forums. I am aware that my go to mode is to deprive but it is scary to eat more fat when I'm losing so slowly. BTW I am aware that I lost both months but the last was really really minimal which is why I'm asking what I should tweak.

Here's the last few days of meals.

1. 3eggs fried in ghee w/ wilted spinach, 1/2 c butternut squash,1/2c broccoli, 1/4 banana. Decaf w/ coconut milk.

2. Giant salad with 2 eggs avocado, cucs, pepper, olives, mushrooms. EVOO vinegar.

3. Trader joes chicken chili lime burger 1.5 of them. 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 avocado

1. 3 HB eggs 1/2c broccoli, 1/2 cup asparagus, 1/2 c sweet potato. Decaf w/ coconut milk

2. 1 cup compliant chicken salad with chopped Apple over salad with cucs and EVOO and apple cider vinegar. A few black olives on the side as well.

3. I'll say 1.5 c chicken thighs/ breast chunks with tomato sauce,over 1 c spaghetti squash, 1/2 c broccoli, 1/4 avocado.

1. 3 egg omelette with 1/2c broccoli/ 1/4c tomato, 2 pieces complaint bacon. 1/4 c blueberries

2. Handful of walnuts, 1.5 "easy"salmon cake with tbsp mayo to dip, 3/4 c sweet potato, a few carrots. ( needed more veggies here I know)

3 1.5 cup ground chicken, 3/4 cup riced cauliflower, 1/2 c asparagus, 1/2 avocado

How does this look? My meals get me to about 4.5 -5 hr w/o being hungry. I do know I'm not drinking enough water about 60oz / a day so my feb goal is to increase that. I drink roobois tea sometimes with coconut milk in between if I need something else like exercise more.

I should also add that I am in the process of weaning my nearly 2 y.o from the breast. Usually it's 2 long sessions in the AM and PM. I don't pump at this point either. I feel like maybe my body is confused.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[GFChris]

I've never done a CrossFit class in my life, and I lost ~ 20 pounds doing two Whole30s and pretty much eating this way for a couple years.

You're continuing to drop weight, so that's worth noting.

Overall, your meals look good. When eggs are your sole protein, the recommended serving size is the number of whole eggs you can hold in one hand without dropping them. For most folks, that's 3-4 eggs. (I see you had 2 eggs with a salad one day.)

Know that you can add a 4th meal, if needed, given you're nursing.

How many hours of sleep are you getting nightly?

[broccolimama]

Sleep is deep and easy to get there but not long enough because of these tiny, demanding people waking up at rooster hours. 5:15 for the youngest. She's also waking a lot mid hours which I often respond to. I aim for 10 pm but often ends up being a bit later.

[Loulabelle]

Has your body composition changed? I found my weight loss was slow and steady, I never had any dramatic loss at any point in my W30 journey but my body changed visibly even if the scale didn't. 

[Cramsey]

I'd be interested to see what others have to say about the exercise part of it. My story is eerily similar to yours (I.e. Over exercising/ restricting/every diet under the sun) and my body is messed up, to say the least. I work full time, have four little people (ages 8 to 3 months, currently nursing) and try to squeeze in exercise 4-5 times per week. Sometimes I feel like I worry too much about the importance of exercise for weight loss.

So I'll be following these responses.

[broccolimama]

Has your body composition changed? I found my weight loss was slow and steady, I never had any dramatic loss at any point in my W30 journey but my body changed visibly even if the scale didn't.

A little bit. I lost some inches the first month but my jeans aren't all that loose. My belly is flatter.

[missmary]

what's a "minimal amount"? If the trend is downward from month to month, then I think you are in a good place for healthy sustainable loss.

 

Exercise is not important. In fact, if the only goal is weight loss, I would recommend keeping "exercise" to a minimum: walking, mobility (maybe a little light yoga) would be plenty. If health is your goal, I would add some strength work and maybe some sprints or that sort of thing (intense bursts of cardio), but that activity needs to be fueled and recovered from, and tends to lead to body composition changes which might move the scale upward.

 

overexercising or not recovering well will reduce muscle mass, add belly fat and slow your metabolism so you need to eat less and less to maintain your weight, so use caution not to do too much in an effort to get faster results.

 

ultimately, I find it works better for me to focus on the tangible things I want (to be able to move better, to feel good, etc) rather than the abstraction of a number on the scale. the scale doesn't tell you very much.

[praxisproject]

You haven't mentioned how much you have to lose, so keep in mind that's a factor. People who have a lot of weight to lose will lose it quicker, those with only a small amount it can take much longer. You may also not see drops on the scale if you're increasing muscle, even if you're losing fat (as *by volume*, fat weighs more than muscle).

 

Stress (including exercise, which is a physical stress and lack of sleep) can influence your weight loss as well.

 

It might sound crazy, but some people will lose more weight when exercising less IF their current exercise load is pushing them into high stress territory (I used to live in this territory lol). I also had a different experience switching out heavy cardio for lifting heavy things (less impact to cortisol). There's also lots of other options than Crossfit, if you're concerned it's not a good fit for you.

 

Make sure you're eating enough too, lots of exercise means you need more food. "Starving" is another kind of stress for the body.