Wife is having some issues losing weight... any tips?

My wife and I started our new diet/workout routine on April 1st. Initially she lost 19 pounds in the first 3 weeks. We quit drinking pop (well we allow ourselves one a week as treat), quit all the junk food, and lately she's been staying under her goal of 1200 cals a day. Unfortunately she's having some issue right now with dizziness so she isn't able to workout for the time being.

The last two weeks she's barely lost anything and she's starting to get depressed and discouraged by it. Anything else she should be doing? She drinks plenty of water every day and this is what her daily meals normally consist of.

Breakfast - Green smoothie - 1 Banana, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1 tablespoon of PB2, 1 cup of Kale, 1/3 cup of 1% cottage cheese, and 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk.

Lunch - 100 cal yoplait greek yogurt, orange or banana, or any leftovers from previous day

Dinner - We normally have a main course of lean meat (chicken breast, lean hamburger, ground turkey, etc.) with some type of veggies (normally baked potatoes, corn, green beans, etc.)

Any tips or recommendations for her would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
E

Replies

unknown

psulemon wrote: »

For me, if i don't have at least 180g of carbs a day, i get dizzy. It's probably because I have a naturally low blood sugar level. IIRC, my A1C is 4.0. In fact, my last doctors visit, it was recommended I carb up more often.

And I am just the opposite! More than 75g of carbs a day and my blood sugar skyrockets. I love how we are all unique.

For the OP, I have 90 pounds to lose, 5' 9". I eat 1725 calories a day and lose about 2-3 pounds a week on average, without cardio. It sounds like she could also be low on any number of minerals, like potassium, sodium or magnesium. Maybe switch to a greek style yogurt for lunch.

unknown

Eat more. CICO. Also two bananas in a day is a lot of sugar along with the yogurt. If I stay within my calorie range but go over on carbs I don't lose a thing.

unknown

Thank you to everyone for the feedback and suggestions. I spoke with my wife and she has agreed to at least up her daily calories to 1400 and I also mentioned that she should try to eat back any calories she burns from working out. I also told her to open privacy on her MFP diary in case anyone would like to view her food journal.

unknown

I also opened my diary in case anyone would like to share any tips for me to consider. We're both still in the process of learning what our bodies need and gaining knowledge so we can make this a lifestyle change instead of it just being another "diet". Thanks again for all the feedback.

unknown

(I just looked....your diary, OP is closed.

)

unknown

Nix the kale, use baby spinach instead. Kale is thyroid suppressive (by all means look this up to verify). That'll shut down your weight loss and make you feel like crap for sure. Spinach won't mess with you like that.

unknown

allaboutthecake wrote: »

(I just looked....your diary, OP is closed. )

Sorry... I changed my profile settings not my diary settings. Should be good to go now.

unknown

SMH -- read these...Valuable information, Especially ESPECIALLY sexypants! And read all the links in that thread. You'll thank yourself later & not have near the frustration.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1290491-how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

unknown

Can't stress enough setting your goals correctly. Unless there is an underlying medical condition, the majority of folks here on MFP have high success. Best of luck to you both.

unknown

If she is eating less than 1200 she is probably either not counting/weighing food correctly. That or she is cheating. 1200 calories will make your brain rationalize eating just about anything. Take baby steps eat more food and slowly taper down.

unknown

edetherington wrote: »

Thank you to everyone for the feedback and suggestions. I spoke with my wife and she has agreed to at least up her daily calories to 1400

Good! That's what I did. I was consistently eating right at 1,200 and it bit me in the butt. I got sick and dizzy. I suddenly realized I was going about weight loss the wrong way. I'm training for a 10K to boot which I was not fueling properly.

GL to her, I wish her the best! Tell her to drop me a friend request if she'd like.

unknown

Eating less than 1200? No wonder she's dizzy.

I once saw a great quote on here, and I wish I could remember who posted it, but it went something like this: the winner of this race is the one who gets to eat the most food and still lose weight.

unknown

See an MD ASAP. Dizziness not good.

unknown

edetherington wrote: »

My wife and I started our new diet/workout routine on April 1st. Initially she lost 19 pounds in the first 3 weeks. We quit drinking pop (well we allow ourselves one a week as treat), quit all the junk food, and lately she's been staying under her goal of 1200 cals a day. Unfortunately she's having some issue right now with dizziness so she isn't able to workout for the time being.

The last two weeks she's barely lost anything and she's starting to get depressed and discouraged by it. Anything else she should be doing? She drinks plenty of water every day and this is what her daily meals normally consist of.

Breakfast - Green smoothie - 1 Banana, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1 tablespoon of PB2, 1 cup of Kale, 1/3 cup of 1% cottage cheese, and 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk.

Lunch - 100 cal yoplait greek yogurt, orange or banana, or any leftovers from previous day

Dinner - We normally have a main course of lean meat (chicken breast, lean hamburger, ground turkey, etc.) with some type of veggies (normally baked potatoes, corn, green beans, etc.)

Any tips or recommendations for her would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
E

From one woman to another (your wife) I can say that....her hormones are imbalanced!! It's a miserable experience, and it can happen at any age. Her dizziness, depression, and difficulty dropping weight are all symptoms. Did you forget to mention brain fog? The hormones can be corrected by eating in such a way as to rebalance their proportion to one-another, the interaction of the hormones with each other, and the proper firing of the endocrine glands.

You can google hormone imbalance quiz, there are plenty of them online, she can take a quiz and see how her particular set of symptoms are clusters of symptoms (and often overlapping symptoms!!) that indicate which hormones and how they are imbalanced (too low, too high, or dysregulated--not controlled).

For several weeks to several months she can eat in a targeted fashion, like as follows:
Remove sugar, fruit, grains and dairy, as well as conventional meats (they are laden with hormones, adding to the problem). Sounds difficult or restrictive, but actually it's not, I've been doing it for more than 6 weeks!
Instead, eat non-starchy veggies(lots of them), grass-fed beef, organic chicken and eggs, grain-free vegan protein powders (such as pea protein), and lots of healthy fats such as nuts and nut butters, avocado, ghee, refined and virgin coconut oil. Also increase the fiber to 35-45g/day (gradually, adding 5g/day) Her macros would be like 40-50% fat, 35% protein, and less than 50g Net Carbs per day (from the veggies and nuts and small serving of legumes or black beans). Net Carbs are Carbs - Fiber.

What this does is to target cortisol and blood sugar levels first and foremost. It allows these levels to normalize. Cortisol crashes the body's hormone party and causes all kinds of problems with all the other hormones.

So a sample day might look like this

Breakfast
Stir fry with seafood or scrambled eggs
Green protein smoothie (ice water, a few almonds, a scoop of vanilla pea protein, a wad of parsley or 2 de-stemmed kale leaves, 2T cacao powder, 2t Maca, stevia powder to sweeten---whip up in high powered blender)

Lunch
Lentil soup w/grassfed beef
salad
Some dark chocolate for dessert

Dinner
Salmon
Steamed veggies