2.5 pounds a week till May 17/19?

[lost_kitty]

I am a 25 year old female, I weigh right now about 160 lbs, I will be turning 26 on May 17 and on May 19 I will be graduating from Collage, I thought I could lose 30 pounds, but I hate diets and I never can stick to them, right now I work only part time and my husband leave the house between 5 and 6 am and since the gym is right across the street, thank goodness cuz I have no car, he drives me to the gym in the morning I "run" usually 45 minutes to an hour on the tredmil and then do some weight training, I eat something light for breakfast and cook lunch/dinner before I go to work, I love home cooked meals and cooking for my love is the best thing, I keep finding just great recipes, I'm not over eating for lunch and my dinner is a little larger then a snack a couple hours before I go to bed. I go to the gym every morning 5 days a week. Does anybody else have an idea how to real my goal? Or any feedback is greatly appriciated.

THANX :D

[Barb135]

Depending on the ingredients, your waffles, toast with jam, salisbury steak, beef stroganoff and nacho chicken bake, all have the potential to derail any diet.  In addition, potatoes, white rice, regular pasta are all considered "simple carbs", which break down quickly and tend to turn to fat if the energy they produce is not used right away; same goes for the bread, unless it's whole grain.  

"Lunch meat", such as summer sausage, bologna or others are processed meats that usually have quite a few calories in relation to their nutritional content.

There are online programs you can use to figure out how many calories are in your food, even when you cook from scratch; you just put in the amount of each ingredient and how many servings are in each recipe; the programs will calculate the # of calories/serving.  Some will also give nutritional content.

In order to lose weight, you're best off with a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, low fat dairy, whole grains - things with lots of protein; and not so many carbohydrates and fat.

[Dakuka]

You might also want to try switching up your gym routine. If you run everyday for 45 minutes, that's wonderful, but you're working the same muscle groups over and over again.  Try mixing it up and splitting your workout on different cardio machines: bike, stairmaster, elliptical etc.  I get bored at the gym very easily so I like to do a 20:20:20 routine, 20 minutes on three different machines.   If you are committed to the treadmill you can switch it up by varying your incline or selecting a different workout mode (I think most treadmills have manual, hill climb, random, and fat burner settings) play around with those.  

[ahassounah]

have you tried using the food diary available here on medhelp? I use it every so often for a few weeks at a time to gain insight on the calories and the macro-nutrient content of what I'm eating.

I agree with Barb, the type of calories can have a huge impact on weight loss, consider two diets with the same calorie level but one is high in carbohydrates and low in fat and protein while the other is more balanced, even though both diets have the same calorie level your body will react differently to them. Diets that are high in carbohydrates generally lead to obesity, even if you are at a calorie deficit!

I can't really tell you for sure what you need to fix in your diet without actually seeing a sample of at least a few days, but I have an inclination to say that your diet might be a little too high in carbohydrates and low in fats and proteins, again this is just a guess from what you posted in this thread.

Take a look at my food diary and exercise tracker and you can see roughly how I've dropped 20lbs in the last 2 months.

[lost_kitty]

well he wants to take me to the gym in the morning to spend a little more time with me, which is really cute :) and I usually walk everywhere too, I walk back from the gym, I walk to the bus stop which is 15 minutes away just so I dont have to transfer, if I could walk to work I would but thats a little far, I walk down the street to joanns to buy things, or from the bus home once in a while, I even walk to the store when I have to, cuz thats how we do it in germany... I also work with a bunch of 2-3 year olds which keeps me kinda running around outside and inside, lift em up and down, putting away beds, and so on... and I love the treadmill, they have TVs in my gym everywhere so I can just run and watch a great show :)

I know about the sleep thing too, but I go to bed with my hubby usually around 8 pm, I know how lame, but he always wakes me up in the morning and once awake I just cant go back to sleep so its just easier to go to bed at 8 and get my sleep that I need, however I always had trouble sleeping, fell asleep late, woke up early, no fun...

I have no clue how many calories are in my foods, it really cant be too little, since I make everything from scratch I really dont know how to figure out the the calories of it, but how about this? I eat either some homemade waffles, eggs, or toast with jam, for lunch I made this past week salisbury steak, beef stroganoff or nacho chicken bake, I eat rice, potatoes and pasta for lunch, for dinner I either eat a small salad or what I used to eat in germany growing up, bread with what americans call "lunch meat" on it, I drink tons of water during the day and once in a while a sprite, or sprite zero...

oh btw, I am german, I grew up there and left, we in europe eat a "cold" meal for breakfast and dinner and a "warm" meal for lunch and we walk really everywhere since we dont get our drivers license till we're 18 and our public transportation is SO much better unless you live far outside the of town...

[Barb135]

I agree that your calorie level might be off, but it could be the wrong kind of calories, rather than not enough.  

I also agree that the best way to figure it out, is to keep a food diary for a while to track your intake.  

If you live right across the street from the gym, why not walk, rather than have hubby take you?  Even if it's cold outside, you could burn more calories. That would save time on the treadmill......

[ahassounah]

there isn't enough information to be able to tell you what is going on, but it seems like you're getting too little calories for your activity level. try keeping track of your calories for a week or so and see how many calories you really are taking in versus spending, and if the difference between calories in and out is too great then you need to eat more, our bodies are designed for survival, if you put too many harsh conditions the body will do everything it can to preserve itself.

also don't forget that sleep deprivation can hinder weight loss as well as not drinking enough water during the day.

hope this helps steer you in the right direction.