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| 5 years long term weight maintenance, LCHF, Paleo, Keto |
I can't do what worked 5 years ago. I've got to do what works NOW. Different age, menopausal status, and food template.
Looking back does help, so that I know where I was. I'll be able to plan where I'm going little better.
The first 1-3 years of weight maintenance were relatively easy for me. (lots of folks hated on me for saying that I found it easy). What do you want me to do, lie? Not 100% easy but relatively easy. I'm not going to change how I feel to people please.
I yo-yo dieted 40 years with such hate from doctors, teachers, classmates, co-workers. YOU REGAINED IT! BETTER GO EAT SALADS and RUN A MARATHON. (that's such BS by the way), Can't outrun calories for many of us. Not too many tools offered to those in maintenance.
Relatively ,based on being obese in elementary school in the 70's, I could keep a tighter variance on my weight. I would see and get faster results with easy tweaks in my food. My health got better. I felt pretty great, most of the time. It's okay to feel how you feel.
Everyone has it slightly different, so own your own experience. Just like kids, some are easy, some take different approaches to parenting. None are the same, but some kids are similar.
Just like weight loss and maintenance. Your first 1-3 years could be hard. It is what it is. Time is going to pass either way, so DO YOU and don't give up at the slightest blip in the radar screen. Get ready to be tough, whenever hard arrives in weight maintenance, focus and do not give up.
Weight maintenance toughness is required.
In the past 2012 to 2014
I could cut my carbs, eat Paleo, eat Low Carb , use the ketosis state to control my appetite (and sleep better) and use elimination 30-60 day periods to fine tune my diet.
For example years 1-3:
0. Removing Grains and Sugars helped me the most. (removed binge urges, joint pain)
1. Removing dairy helped me with (both my sinuses, my acne, and sleeping better and joint pain)
2. Removing nuts helped remove binge urges and migraines.
3. Removing emulsifiers ( along with grains, almost all sugars, and nuts) helped me greatly reduce binge urges that I had life long.
4. All = better sleep and very few binge urges. Meditation and walking helped too.
Then all those things helped my health and binge urges, but the weight started to creep back on despite EVERYTHING.
Super careful with food intake and choices.
Not binge eating anymore.
It was frustrating but I told myself I would find something that worked for me. That others could maintain and be and feel very well. Even after a lifetime of overweight, obesity, and morbid obesity.
Once the 8-10 pound weight gain started about 1.5 to 2 years ago, I tried a lot of things,
Didn't work on their own for me, but might for you:
1. going super low carb,
2. alternating carbs,
3.intermittent fasting 2 meals a day,
4.intermittent fasting 3 meals a day.
5. Going high or low on intake on calories, and
6. The Dr. Panda study with consistent shortened feeding windows.
Here's the tough part: It took 2 years and lots of combining different methods, but I finally found what worked for me in 2016 to 2017. ONLY for the next year or so, really. I can't get too comfy.
A. Until I got into a 17 hr fasting: 7 hour eating (17:7) AND
B. bringing my calorie intake down a bit, depending on my activity level, natural outcome of IF
= WINNING for me, that's when the sustained weight loss started to happen.
Good things: combining low carb with the ketosis in intermittent fasting takes my natural hunger way down and my energy way up. It was a total win for me. I lost subcutaneous fat, ate my regular food template and feel pretty good. Back to EZ.
It's tough to realize that my calorie intake will HAVE to be in a certain, controlled intake the whole rest of my life. But tools like My Fitness Pal make it a breeze to record my food and weight. EZ
This is where I do ME: I'm totally guessing here, but I'll bet it's a combination of my endocrine system, with my genetic disposition to be over weight, with a type 2 diabetes risk, combined with life long obesity.
Tough biologic environments require tough planning for weight management.
Long story short is that once I found what weight loss method was going to work in my 50's well, I just needed to stay on it until transition time. And, now I'm moving on to Phase 2. (more about the phases in my previous blog post
Karen's 5 phases of weight maintenance (link)
Next up. Exactly what concrete steps that I'm taking to get through phase 2. And, my 5 year celebration in early Feb 2017.
Question: Does it help you or hurt you to look back? Can you determine if what you did in the past is in your way now?
Hey. :)
ReplyDeleteI just want you to know 2 things: I am impressed with your perseverance and your ability to think things thru without getting lost in your head. Most people can't do that. Youir example proves that it's okay to be a thinker.
2. I love the comments you leave on other blogs. You're a good egg, Karen.
Oh. And I've started logging in food on myfitnesspal. Loving those charts. :D (I guess it's contagious.)
Deb
Deb, thank you!!! I think picking a self experiment, writing it down and testing for 2 weeks to 2 or 3 months is key. Sometimes I pull the plug early ( think AltShift- works great for many, I depend on Jason Seibs thinking- like not bringing the SAD with me in my Paleo conversion in 2012-2013), due to my glucose levels. Too many carbs on the Alt Shift 3 days. If I had been 20 or 30 years old without decades of obesity, his plan would have worked for me. Great guy, good coach and programs. So I take what I need.
Delete2. Yes, I've had to stop commenting on some blogs. Really, if I take the time to comment after 10-20 hours of commuting, a full time job, single parenting, walking 5 -6 miles day- it's probably something gold, juicy, or to take note of very carefully. It also means I like you and I want to see you do well. It s'a good reminder of where I've been, were I went and where I'm going.
Thank you for your comments and onward!
Congratulations on achieving "the impossible" - long term weight loss. Not many people lose a significant amount of weight and manage to maintain their loss. All kudos to you Karen, well done - you are a great example to others :)
ReplyDeleteLynda!!!! Thank you, as you know long term weight loss is possible. When I speak to people, I think you. I always remember how by just you changing to a lower carb template, that you've changed 3 generations in your family.
DeleteAnd no doubt more family and friends. :) Thank you so, so much for your comments over the years. It means a lot to me.