Staying with your weight control lifestyle in the long term is not always possible. I read often about people who adopt extreme-sounding lifestyles. People are clearly very motivated to try and control their weight, based on what they are willing to try. One man said that he had good results on a low carb lifestyle and was planning to stay on it long term. I tried that, living on 30 grams of carbs per day. That’s the equivalent of an English muffin. And a low carb diet isn’t magic. You can eat enough low carb foods to maintain overweight or even gain weight. I lost 30 pounds on a low carb diet. But it didn’t work for me in the long term. Why?
It wasn’t very satisfying, for one thing. That means you get tired of it. It starts to take more effort to stay on. After a while, it’s not worth the effort. But for losing up to 30 pounds short term, and not having to change anything else about yourself, a low carb diet is hard to beat. How many people are willing to do it forever?
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – BLT wraps with 3 slices bacon (210); 3/4 whole wheat wrap (80); lettuce, tomato and horseradish (25);
- 315 calories
Lunch – 6 Kirkland meatballs (250); 2T hummus (80); whole wheat wrap (110); red cabbage, pickles, and horseradish (20);
- 460 calories
Dinner – 2 chicken enchiladas (450); sour cream (60);
- 510 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (120); pretzels (260); ham (100); chocolate almonds (100);
- 580 calories
Total for the day: 1865 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
Discovery and Recovery
I am slowly recovering from a low grade stomach flu. That’s my explanation for the last two weeks! I lost my appetite for my usual foods, and started eating a lot of simple carbohydrates – out of control. I also felt cold (it has been cold outside, but inside??) and needed more sleep than usual. It took me a while to figure out that I must be sick, since there weren’t many obvious symptoms. My first clue is that my weight went up two weeks ago – very unusual. An issue of fluid retention shows up in my food journal almost every time I get sick. (I also had some stomach issues but nothing that seemed serious at the time.)
I’ve said this before, but how many people’s “plateaus” in their weight loss might be due to intestinal issues? Looking through my records I have been sick 6 times since January, and several times it lasted 2 weeks or more. During those times I didn’t lose weight, but quickly started losing again once the illness was over.
Last week I didn’t even try to do more than keep a vague track of my calorie count. My eating behavior was too erratic and the result to unsatisfying for me to keep it up. The lethargy of feeling ill probably didn’t help. Since Monday, I have been able to recover my lifestyle somewhat. My appetite still isn’t back to normal but I’m not eating 3000+ calories a day, either. I was doing that late last week, though it’s only an estimate. It might have been higher!
I’m very lucky that I have been able to spend the whole last year devoted to my weight control lifestyle and working out a system for doing it. The major weight loss portion is still going on and will be for months, yet. My initial goal was 215 pounds, and my last pre-sick weight was 237 pounds. That’s only 22 away from that goal (losing 120 pounds). We’ll see what happens when I get there. I might decide to lose more. Anyway, I don’t have any bad feelings about this pause in my weight loss. I am grateful that it has worked so well, so far. I have a way to keep going, and a history to build on.
-The Doctor