Walk a lot, but dont loose much!

[drewlevas]

For the last six month I have been watching my calorie, but it does not always work! I walk a lot, up to 1h1/2 a day. I cant do a lot of other workout because of physical pain and I cant get to the pool (I have no babysitter).

I was 229lbs in febuary and I am now 215lbs. People around me say that I lost a lot of weight but I dont see it!

What am I doing wrong? Other people doing the same thing than me in my family has lost way more weight than me! What am I supose to do?

Drew

[jwoolman]

P.S. In addition to my walk in place exercises, I try to spread out my eating over the course of the day in small and mostly simple meals. This might work especially well for me because of food allergies --- many years ago, any extra weight came off fast and easily when I was diagnosed with some food allergies and went to a simple eat all you want but only one or two foods at a time plan, rotating foods. Google "rotation diet" plus food allergies for details, it helps in diagnosing and controlling such allergies. But it seems as though the idea of small but frequent meals helps people with extra weight to lose because it keeps the body from going into starvation mode. This is also why slow loss is better than fast loss, the body hates change and will fight you on any attempt to make a quick change. I actually started eating like this to solve some other GI tract related problems and chose the iPhone app to help me keep track of both food and exercise (which is essential now to keep the circulation going while at a computer all the time).  Also the program lets me track nutrients such as fiber and protein so I can see that odd eating doesn't harm anything, even eating practically vegan. But I also saw that the program let me see how easy it was to keep within a reasonable food budget while losing a little weight each week. Helps me make decisions even though I don't plan much ahead beyond the next meal.

[jwoolman]

If you can walk outside, can you walk inside? Just about the only exercise I get is inside walking mostly "in place" more or less while watching tv, reading, or dangling a string in front of a cat or talking on the phone. Usually I just do a sideways in place routine, kind of like a dance step. But straight on place works also. You can adapt the speed and how much you lift your leg. I keep track of everything I eat and all the deliberate exercise time on an iPhone app and am obviously losing weight at exactly the expected pace (the program calculates net calories from eaten vs expended on exercise).  I count mine as walking from very slow to moderate depending on how fast.

[twehner5]

I just happened to log on and saw you had JUST posted.  I thought of a few more things and forgive me if you have tried them...okay?

One is (besides measuring, which might encourage you), keeping a food journal.  MedHelp has one that I hear is good.  I have to be honest and say that for ME, I have to have a pen and paper journal, HOWEVER, the MH journal DOES help with calorie counts and whatnot.  I cannot recommend it enough IF you will RELIGIOUSLY KEEP TRACK OF EVERY BITE THAT ENTERS YOUR MOUTH, lol.  Yes, I was shouting.  I am a mom AND a school bus driver :)

I am also long-winded...  I must add my two-cents about food journals.  They are eye-opening.  If you haven't tried one, please do!  For me, it helped me to think twice about "do I really want to eat ____________?"  I knew I was going to write everything down, so sometimes, I made better food choices because of it.  I wrote down what time I ate and at the top of the page, I kept track of how much water I drank what exercise I did that day.  I even wrote down my MOODS in the beginning.  It helped me to see if I was eating because of hunger or not.

The other thing I was going to recommend i forgot, LOL....

OHHHHHHHHHHH !  If your chiari malformation allows, is there any way you can speed up your walk(s) a bit?  PLEASE, if I am making a dangerous suggestion to you, do NOT do it.  I just know that sometimes if/when the intensity of our workouts are not challenging enough, we will not get the results of fitness (or weightloss) we wish to achieve.  I have heard of the condition you have, but that is all, so I am reluctant about recommending this to you, though.

A third recommendation I had thought of was core exercises...but many of the ones push ups and sit ups are two of them.  There is another SUPER core exercise called "plank" (you could look it up online) that I wonder if you could do....?

I am going to tape my fingers now........  I hope there is something helpful here !

[drewlevas]

Yes I'll also try to take my measurements at the begining of each month, you might be rigth about the inches!!!!! I usualy wears joggins pants so I didnt thought much about it because, well I still wear the same cloth than six month ago!

Thank again,

Drew

[drewlevas]

Ok I'll try to incorporate some weight in my routine. The pain comes from a Chiari Malformation. It`s making me very tired, and gives me a lot of headaches and pain in my neck, shoulders, back and harms, so far my legs seems to be fine except that they get tingles in them, this is why I chose to walk as my chosen workout. I can do push-up, sit-up or bending over; I tried in the past and they trigger major headeache. But some light weight training make sense, I'll look on the internet and ask my doctor if I could meet a physioterapiste!

Thank for your insite.

Drew

[twehner5]

Drew, I am so sorry you feel frustrated after 6 months of walking and not losing any more than 14 pounds.  I have to say, though that I am impressed that you are sticking with it in spite of physical pain.  You are very determined.  I sure hope you hang in there.

Did you happen to take your measurements when you first started walking?  If you didn't then, can I encourage you to measure yourself now and then maybe on the first of every month?  When I was losing weight (more on that in a minute), I measured my waist, bust, upper arm, thigh and calf.  If people are noticing your weight loss, it makes me think you are losing inches.

I wonder if it is at all possible for you to get your hands on some free weights?  They aren't too expensive and I'm thinking that since you said you can't get a babysitter, maybe you could do some things at home.  I don't know your pain level or why you have it, so you of course have to watch out for your personal needs there.  (When I started strength training, I started with 5 pounds...again, I have NO idea of your fitness level or the reason you are in pain.)

My thinking is that possibly you can learn some (don't freak out on me !) body building techniques on the internet.  You can easily learn 1-2 exercises each for your shoulders, biceps, triceps, pectorals, upper back...and so on.  You do NOT need to do all of them every work out, but it is good to do each muscle group 2-3 times/week.

I must tell you.  I had read/heard for YEARS that women needed to incorporate strength training into their routine to lose weight, maintain weight AND just simply to stave off osteoporosis.  I DID NOT CARE.  I was too tired, overwhelmed or lazy to add anything into my life or routine.  Period.

That all changed 5 years ago this past July.  After my 4th knee surgery, I decided to lose weight.  I weighed over 200 lbs.  I lost 65-70 pounds and have kept a majority of it off now for 4 years (it took me 9 months to lose the weight - I was NOT in a hurry).  I am within 5 pounds right now of where I was when my body stopped losing weight.

I am sorry for such a long answer or if it didn't come out right.  My aim is to encourage YOU that if *I* can do it, YOU CAN TOO !  Take care and PLEASE let us know how you're doing....