I did my weigh-in last night after the first week of my diet change and exercising regime. I GAINED 5 POUNDS! Now, I'm trying not to be too concerned about this because it was only the first week, but what's going on?!?!?! I've been drinking water daily and eating healthier and walking and working out. I'm really confused. I had my daughter take my pics on Saturday as well. ACK! I feel like a big pig!

http://www.cdntech.ca/weightloss

I did my weigh-in last night after the first week of my diet change and exercising regime. I GAINED 5 POUNDS! Now, I'm trying not to be too concerned about this because it was only the first week, but what's going on?!?!?! I've been drinking water daily and eating healthier and walking and working out. I'm really confused. I had my daughter take my pics on Saturday as well. ACK! I feel like a big pig!

http://www.cdntech.ca/weightloss

You might have been eating more than you thought before. Have you done the calories calculations to see how much you should be eating, and then split that up between 6 meals?

Hi Nexus! First, congratulations on starting your new lifestyle. You haven't 'failed', but you have succeeded in taking the first steps.

If you would post some details of your program, it would be easier to help you figure out what is going on. What are you eating, when are you eating it, and how much? What do your workouts look like?

You are right--try not to be too concerned about the scale fluctuations. One of the first rules of body transformation is to take scale weight in proper perspective. It's not likely that you have gained that much lean mass or fat in one week. It is more likely that you are retaining some water weight, or you weighed yourself at a different time of day or under different circumstances, or maybe your scale is whacked.

At your size, if you are eating at least 2000 calories of good food per day, and you are doing more exercise than you were in the past, you will lose body weight. That's just the way it is.

Are you training with weights? You may already know this--but a good lifting program is so important to fat loss. If you want to really transform your body....and not just shrink into a smaller version of your current self.....you must have well-planned weight training and nutrition programs.

So post some more details of what you are doing and I am sure you will get some helpful responses. :)

I've dropped the sweets and am eating better..I hope. Here's some of the things I eat at certain times. The list is not ALL I eat at one time though...

Breakfast - Grain cereal with 1% milk, banana, whole wheat toast, water

10am - Cereal bar, fruit, water, multi vitamin, glucosamine sulfate

Lunch - Salads, turkey & ham slice sandwiches, apple, banana, water

2pm - fruit, water

Dinner - Yogurt, pasta, sandwiches, fruit, maybe a diet cola.

8pm - Fruit, low fat cottage cheese, no salt mixed nuts, water

My workout regime is a bit toned down right now to get myself moving but is something like this...

Sunday - Rest
Monday - Treadmill, Crossbow (lower & upper body)
Tuesday - Walk, situps, crunches
Wednesday - Walk, situps, crunches
Thursday - Walk, bike
Friday - Walk, situps, crunches, bike
Saturday - Walk, sit-ups, crunches

I know that's not much. I don't have the space at home for any gym equipment although I wish I did. So I am trying to make use of my parents stuff and doing what I can to get more active. My usual day for the past few years has seen me sitting in front of my stupid computer most of the day and filling my face. I'm also trying to get myself in shape to be able to bike to and from work. Time will be hard pressed over the next couple of months as I drive my daughters to soccer on Mondays and Wednesdays with Wednesdays being my normal visitation times with them anyways.

Come to think of it, I think that my calorie intake is probably higher than it should be. I'm going to check out the foods with a calorie calculator. At 230 lbs, I should be taking in 2000 calories per day. I wonder what I really am taking in. The pictures sure are a driving force to keep me going with this. WHEW!

Hi Nexus, well played on committing to a change in lifestyle.

I'm also pretty new to this, but one thing that jumped at me from your food log is that you don't seem to be getting much protein.
Many of the members on this board recommend about 1gram of protein for every lean pound of mass in your body, each day (which will be even more important once you start some weights training).

Also, whilst not strictly doing a low carb diet, I have been staying away from carbs like pasta. And I nothign sweet or high in carbs 4 hours before I go to sleep.

It may be worth playing around with the carbs and see what suits you best.

Nexus, I would strongly recommend you check out a program like 'Body for Life'. It will help you learn how to properly eat and exercise. It looks like you have some desire to change, but lack some specific knowledge and skills.

As far as the food you listed--at first glance, it seems like a lot. It depends on what you call a 'sandwich', what condiments you use, etc. But I am suspecting that your nutrition program needs some work.

Your exercise program needs some attention, too. I would highly recommend you find a way to join a gym and start hitting the weights. The Body for Life weight workout is a great place to start. This would be far better than the calisthenics you are doing right now.

Body for Life is how I started....if you are not familiar, it is a book by Bill Phillips. You can get it anywhere. It will help you learn how to feed your body and work out. It works, if you follow it and don't change the program.

Check out the link to my transformation at the bottom of my signature. I looked similar to you when I started.

:gl:



I've dropped the sweets and am eating better..I hope. Here's some of the things I eat at certain times. The list is not ALL I eat at one time though...

Breakfast - Grain cereal with 1% milk, banana, whole wheat toast, water

10am - Cereal bar, fruit, water, multi vitamin, glucosamine sulfate

Lunch - Salads, turkey & ham slice sandwiches, apple, banana, water

2pm - fruit, water

Dinner - Yogurt, pasta, sandwiches, fruit, maybe a diet cola.

8pm - Fruit, low fat cottage cheese, no salt mixed nuts, water

My workout regime is a bit toned down right now to get myself moving but is something like this...

Sunday - Rest
Monday - Treadmill, Crossbow (lower & upper body)
Tuesday - Walk, situps, crunches
Wednesday - Walk, situps, crunches
Thursday - Walk, bike
Friday - Walk, situps, crunches, bike
Saturday - Walk, sit-ups, crunches

I know that's not much. I don't have the space at home for any gym equipment although I wish I did. So I am trying to make use of my parents stuff and doing what I can to get more active. My usual day for the past few years has seen me sitting in front of my stupid computer most of the day and filling my face. I'm also trying to get myself in shape to be able to bike to and from work. Time will be hard pressed over the next couple of months as I drive my daughters to soccer on Mondays and Wednesdays with Wednesdays being my normal visitation times with them anyways.

Come to think of it, I think that my calorie intake is probably higher than it should be. I'm going to check out the foods with a calorie calculator. At 230 lbs, I should be taking in 2000 calories per day. I wonder what I really am taking in. The pictures sure are a driving force to keep me going with this. WHEW!

I agree, some lean protein at every meal is a good idea. And there are an awful lot of carbs in there. Pasta can be ok, if you are strict with the portions and don't eat it every day. Whole wheat pasta is best. A serving of pasta is 2oz. dry. It is actually fairly low on the Glycemic Idex.

Macronutrient ratios are not necessarily things you need to be paying attention to at this point. Some suggestions:

- Eat 6 smaller meals per day
- Eat one serving of complex carbohydrates at every meal
- Eat one serving of lean protein at every meal
- Eat fibrous vegetables in at least two meals
- Get some good fats, but not too much. A few nuts, some flax oil, and eating salmon can take care of this
- Avoid butter (never eat margarine), if you must eat cheese just use a small amount of the reduced-fat variety
- Use nonfat milk sparingly
- Drink only water

Just a few ideas to get you started....

one thing that jumped at me from your food log is that you don't seem to be getting much protein.
Many of the members on this board recommend about 1gram of protein for every lean pound of mass in your body, each day (which will be even more important once you start some weights training).

Also, whilst not strictly doing a low carb diet, I have been staying away from carbs like pasta. And I nothign sweet or high in carbs 4 hours before I go to sleep.

It may be worth playing around with the carbs and see what suits you best.

Great source of information -> link (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=1222)

Thanks for all your replies people. Cripes! Ya almost need a PHD in this stuff. No biggie though. I WILL research it and check around and get on the correct bandwagon. I find that my first problem is lack of understanding at how the human body really works. The next part is just what I should eat and what portions of each to stay within the proper calorie intake for the day. Almost sounds like the portions should be the size to fill a sippy cup! <insert deer-in-headlights look>

Almost sounds like the portions should be the size to fill a sippy cup! <insert deer-in-headlights look>

*cringe* Sorry, but that is about right in a lot of the cases.... don't shoot the messenger.... :D


I 2nd the suggestion to get your hands on a BFL book (at www.half.com they are really cheap) and read up - it will really help you get those results like you want! :tucool:

Nexus, this is exactly why I recommended BFL. It is a 'canned' program....you don't need to count calories or know anything other than the basics. There is nothing complicated about it.

For most folks, counting calories and macronutrient ratios just isn't necessary unless trying to get under 10% body fat.

On the BFL program, a portion is an amount of food about the size of either your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. An example of a meal would be:

- a sweet potato the size of your clenched fist
- a grilled skinless chicken breast the size of your palm
- as much brocolli as you want
- a tall glass of water

Doesn't get much more simple than that. You can start with that today. There are plenty of easy meals you can drum up for food on the go or whatever. Cottage cheese and fruit, for example.



Thanks for all your replies people. Cripes! Ya almost need a PHD in this stuff. No biggie though. I WILL research it and check around and get on the correct bandwagon. I find that my first problem is lack of understanding at how the human body really works. The next part is just what I should eat and what portions of each to stay within the proper calorie intake for the day. Almost sounds like the portions should be the size to fill a sippy cup! <insert deer-in-headlights look>

I will check out the book. Thanks for that. With the lower amounts of food more times throughout the day, I hope I don't get the shakes. I get that when I'm really hungry. Maybe it'll shake the fat away. I wish!

If you don't want to do BFL (I'm not a big fan of commodified diet regimins- they always come back to selling something), you can take charge of the one main factor that determines weight loss- calories in vs. calories out.

If you want to be OCD like many of us, you can keep track of your calorie intake with websites like fitday (http://www.fitday.com). Without knowing the exact numbers of what you are taking in, knowing that 2000 calories is your limit is somewhat useless.

Do some reading. There are a lot of good articles out there (and on this forum). The cliche knowledge is power is really fitting if you want to make the change. Good luck!


I will check out the book. Thanks for that. With the lower amounts of food more times throughout the day, I hope I don't get the shakes. I get that when I'm really hungry. Maybe it'll shake the fat away. I wish!

If you want to be OCD like many of us, you can keep track of your calorie intake with websites like fitday (http://www.fitday.com). Without knowing the exact numbers of what you are taking in, knowing that 2000 calories is your limit is somewhat useless.

Do some reading. There are a lot of good articles out there (and on this forum). The cliche knowledge is power is really fitting if you want to make the change. Good luck!

Thanks a lot! That site is great! I wonder, though, how accurate are the items? I see people can add their own foods and I've found a lot of duplicates. Either way, it's a great tool for tracking. AT least now I'll have a general idea what I'm shoving in my mouth and where my trouble spots may be.

I worked out last night BIG TIME! Did 10 mins on the treadmill to warm up and then 45 mins on the Crossbow doing upper and lower body, and then 15 mins on the stat bike, with a 5 min cool down on the treadmill. Followed that up with glucosamine sulfate and a banana and I feel GREAT today. but, I'm not going to do full body workouts like that anymore. Tonight I'm going to workout again and do either upper OR lower body.

You can add your own items, but what you add isn't added to the main database. I have a lot of things added, for my own meals and such - that's just a convienence for you.

If you want to double check things try these websites:

http://www.nutritiondata.com/index.html

http://www.thecolumn.org/nutrition-facts.asp

With the lower amounts of food more times throughout the day, I hope I don't get the shakes.

This, combined with eating enough protein and fats is exactly what you need to avoid low blood sugar and hense the shakes. Highly refined foods 3 times/day will crash your blood sugar - or reduce you metabolism a lot to compensate.

Basically you can make this simple, but some knowlege is needed since there is so much mis-information in the popular press and fad-diet programs. My 3 best peices of advise would be:

1. 5-7 meals/day
2. each meal based around a protein source (meat, fish, eggs, cottage cheese etc..)
3. Enough, but not too much fat. This is the trickiest since fat is really necessary, but it can be easy to overdo the calories. One strategy is basically to go low-fat, then add fatty fish or fish oil, flax, nuts and olive oil to your diet.
4. - OK one more, you can't eat too much fruit and veg! Eat as much fibrous veg as you possibly can.

Also my guess is that you could easily eat more than 2000kcal/day once you get your diet sorted. Protein and veg in particular take quite a bit of energy to digest and the 5-7 meals/day will significantly increase your metabolism.

Right now I'm trying to track my intake of fat, carbo's, and protien and I must say, after looking at today's entries, my protien is seriously lacking! It's the lowest of all three so far. Right now I'm sitting at fat - 46%, carbs - 37%, and protein - 17%. Can we say, sushi anyone? YIKES! That's horrible! AT least it gives me an idea where I need to make changes to my diet.