Need a bit of guidance

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Need a bit of guidance

Postby vegandrea » Mon Mar 30, 2015 1:15 am

I'm not sure if I should post this here or in the journal section, but since it's related to MWL, I'll try here first.
I've been around before with moderate success in recent years. Sixteen years ago at my wedding (my anniversary was on Saturday), I weighed about 180 pounds (I stopped weighing myself when I reached 176 pounds, so I'm not sure if I gained more or not). Anyhow, after I started following a vegan diet and stopped taking some medication that caused weight gain, I lost a lot of weight. It was around this time that my husband started following MWL and I read the book. I remember thinking, "How can you cook without oil!" Hah!

After reading the book from cover to cover, I did stop cooking with oil and eating processed breads and desserts -- for a time. Eventually, I weighed 125 pounds and looked better than I did since high school. And since then -- except when I got pregnant and for a time after -- I haven't weighed more than 136 pounds.

Right now, I'm at 130 and I'd like to lose enough weight so I don't have any excess body fat, but I'd settle for losing 10 to 15 pounds. I've been sticking to the regular McDougall diet since the holidays ended, but I haven't lost weight, at least not permanently. The lowest weight I've been recently is 127 and the highest 133. It's frustrating and I'm ready to do something about it, which is a good thing.

I also didn't exercise for quite a while because I hurt my back in the summer of 2013, and even after 2 epidurals, I still have residual numbness running up and down my leg if I stretch the wrong way or sit too long. But I joined a gym a few months ago and for the past three weeks have been exercising at least 30 minutes a day for four days a week, doing cardio mostly, and Pilates.

Now I have to address the food. I'm hoping that by posting what I eat every day, I can get some help figuring out why I'm not losing weight. I keep track of what I eat using an app on my phone called Noom. It's similar to the Cron-o-meter, which I used to use, but it doesn't break down the foods I eat by nutrients. Noom is easier for me to use and keeps track of the calories I eat and burn when I exercise.

Also, I still drink coffee, about one cup a day, with homemade oatmeal milk and either stevia or erythritol. I stopped drinking coffee and tried green tea, crio bru, and even drinking raw cocoa, but I find one cup of coffee a day is tolerable and anyway, you gotta have some fun, right?

So here is what I ate on Sunday, March 29:

Breakfast
1 cup coffee
1/4 c. oatmeal milk
1 packet stevia
3 steamed sweet potatoes
1 cup frozen kale
1/2 cup black beans
2 T. Trader Joe's Fire Roasted Salsa
1 tsp. nutritional yeast

Snack
1/4 c. blueberries
1/2 c. strawberries

Lunch
More sweet potato (leftover from breakfast) plus one more
1 c. steamed broccoli
2 T. Fire roasted salsa

Snack
1 apple
2 stalks of celery
1 c.green tea

Dinner
1/2 c. brown rice
2 c. raw kale
1/2 c. bell pepper and tomato
2 T. Fire roasted salsa
1 tsp. nutritional yeast
2 1/2 small bowls of homemade vegetable soup with garbanzo beans, brown rice, carrots, and broccoli

Snack
2 small strawberries

All I can think of is that I'm eating food in too much quantity and/or variety. Any other ideas?

Thanks for reading this. I'm looking forward to "meeting" some of you and learning from your experiences following MWL.
vegandrea
 
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Re: Need a bit of guidance

Postby vegandrea » Tue Mar 31, 2015 1:21 am

I moved this thread over to the Journal board.
vegandrea
 
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Re: Need a bit of guidance

Postby DWu » Tue Mar 31, 2015 5:36 pm

Hi vegandrea,

Two things that stand out to me are the stevia and nutritional yeast. Though they're small amounts, they're processed foods.

Also, it looks like you're having more than two servings of fruit in a day.

Finally, have you checked the ingredients in the salsa for added salt, oil, or sugar?

Other than that, perhaps you just need more time and adherence.
DWu
 
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Location: Los Angeles, California

Re: Need a bit of guidance

Postby vegandrea » Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:47 pm

How much would be considered one serving of fruit?

Also, I don't usually use more than a teaspoon of nutritional yeast at at time, but I'm willing to drop it if it's a problem.

Thanks,

Andrea

DWu wrote:Hi vegandrea,

Two things that stand out to me are the stevia and nutritional yeast. Though they're small amounts, they're processed foods.

Also, it looks like you're having more than two servings of fruit in a day.

Finally, have you checked the ingredients in the salsa for added salt, oil, or sugar?

Other than that, perhaps you just need more time and adherence.
vegandrea
 
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2011 8:41 pm

Re: Need a bit of guidance

Postby 000 » Wed Apr 01, 2015 9:26 am

Nutritional yeast and stevia are not your issues; binge volume eating is the issue here.

You're binge eating because your stomach stretch receptors are completely whack.That's why you have "good intentions" but fall off the wagon and continue to binge. In order to reset your stretch receptors to feel full on less food, you actually have to, well, eat less food, and you have to eat less food consistently over time. So for a few days you'll be white knuckling it, but that will pass and then you should feel full on less food.

You're 15 so I don't know how much this applies to you, since I don't know what calorie requirements you actually need but for some guidelines, maybe this will help:

Three preplanned meals a day, ZERO SNACKING. Get used to being a little hungry between meals. Nobody needs to graze all day. I know it's encouraged on the starchy carb plant based plans, but it's unwise for those of us who are/were volume eaters. We need structure and planning to our meals, and the only way that's going to happen is to preplan what you will eat each day and stick to it. PIck a daily food volume level that will work for your age, normal activity level, and a gradual weight loss down to your healthy BMI. Divide your foods equally among the three meals with foods you like and stick to it. Weigh weekly and re-evaluate based on this. If you need to change volume levels before hitting your goal weight, adjust and divide by the three daily meals again, eating the same volume of food over the three meals. I have not veered off my chosen volume level the entire time I've been on this plan. It shouldn't be necessary until you hit maintenance, but do what works for you.

Two fruits a day, one at each of two meals. Don't eat fruits separately as snacks. If you binge eat at night or want sweet things at night like desserts, never eat a fruit as part of your dinner meal, keep fruit eating to earlier in the day.

No sugars - ditch the dates, date sugar, stevia, that agave stuff, molasses, dried fruit, craisins, raisins, or sugar artificial or real in any other form. It can trigger binges and overeating in a lot of people.

Don't overexercise. It's better to focus on food intake during weight loss than overexercising since you'll only compensate by eating more food or attempting to white knuckle NOT eating more food. Moderate exercise is okay, don't overdo it. Food is more important than exercise. If you get too tired or feel you "need" more food for your exercise, cut back on exercise don't add more food.

Don't drink your food - no smoothies or those green leafy drinks. They whack out the stretch receptors. That kale drink craze started after I went plant based, and I never got on board, but the thought of drinking kale makes me want to hurl. I don't even eat kale.

Replace most starchy carbs with beans. Since you also overeat beans, you'll need to portion out beans for each of the three meals. Beans at breakfast will keep you fuller longer than oatmeal or other grains. My only starchy food all day is a portion control of oatmeal (portioned for my needs) and I also eat a portion of beans at breakfast. I eat the equivalent of one can of beans per day divided into three portions that work for me throughout the day. I would need 20 cups of oatmeal to feel full at breakfast before I started this plan. Now I just eat my small portion of oats and a small bowl of beans with a fruit for breakfast and I'm fine until lunch.

Plan your meals so you eat approximately the same volume of food at every meal every single day. This is the only way to reset your stretch receptors. My breakfast includes my portion of starch (oatmeal) and my lunch and dinner meals involve vegetables instead of starch, but the volume is fairly consistent over the three meals. You can eat less food at any of the three meals than your chosen volumes, but not more. My breakfast is always a little less food than my other two meals, simply because I can't stomach shoveling in a large amount anymore in the mornings. I'm fine with a smaller bit at breakfast than at my other two meals.

I'm no longer sold on calorie density. Your stomach doesn't recognize calories, it recognizes volume. If you're eating different volumes of food at each meal and it varies every day, your stomach receptors just whack the hell out and overeating can become a problem. If you want to get volume eating under control, this is imperative. Sorry.

Make weight loss your project. Pick a BMI (preferably the lowest number in your normal range for your height and age) and diet down to it. Don't set "interim" goals. Interim goals can sidetrack you and throw you off your game. You reach your interim goal, hang out there a while, lose your momentum, then either stop the strict day to day planning, or horrors start gaining again. Don't do it. Pick the BMI you want to be and go down to it full bore. Keep logs, pick a computer food tracking app, and just do it. Logging, weighing, and measuring everything I eat has become a bit of a game to me and I no longer dread it. It's now second nature. I'll never NOT do it. It's imperative for me to stick to my plan and get the skinny body I want.

I was a volume eater on my plant based diet for six years before I finally got control of my eating through this type of portion controlled plan. I weigh, measure, portion , and log every bite of food that goes into my mouth every single day.

Volume eating can be a huge problem with a plant based diet. This is a highly carby diet and many people simply can't process all the carbs efficiently, hence our hunger-satiety signals become completely ineffective in helping us control our food intake. It happened to me and I was never able to get below a BMI of 23. I'm now closing in on a BMI of 18.2 and may go lower to get the final bit of flab off my stomach. I was never able to do that on my "regular" eating of plant based food.

I'm no longer on board these plant based experts using plant based diets as weight loss tools. They should be advertised as health improving tools - blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, insert disease here. The weight loss is hit and miss with people. Volume eating and binge eating are happening on plant based diets and most people just flail around without getting control of it. It's rarely addressed on any of the plant based websites. Lectures about calorie density don't help. Your stomach doesn't know from calories.

Good luck.
000
 
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Re: Need a bit of guidance

Postby Nean » Sun Apr 05, 2015 12:31 pm

000 I think you got the wrong OP. Vegandrea states she's been married 16years. So she can't be the 15yo volume eater ;)
"I am very much in control of how I feel as long as I control what I put in my mouth!" Blue
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