When Fat Comes Back

Date: 2/21/2012

Workout: 6:20am 40 minutes on Treadmill with speed and incline intervals, 6:15pm Kettlebell/Strength Circuit Class at Fitness One

Food:

Breakfast: Plain Oatmeal, 1/2c. Blueberries, 1/4c. crushed almonds: 312 Calories, 35g Carbs (27 net), 11g Protein, 8g Fiber, 17g Fat, 116mg Sodium, 8g Sugar
Morning Snack: Light Peach Activa Yogurt and an Apple:147 Calories, 32g Carbs (27 net), 6g Protein, 5g Fiber, 0g Fat, 66mg Sodium, 26g Sugar
Lunch: Turkey Sandwich (6 slices turkey, Whole Wheat, 1 slice Low Fat Sargento Colby Cheese, 1 Tbsp. Hummus, and Spinach) and veggies (carrots, celery, peppers, cucumber) and 2 Tbsp. Greek Yogurt Dill Dip: 319 Calories, 35g Carbs (26 net), 26g Protein, 9g Fiber, 12g Fat, 1,000mg Sodium, 7g Sugar
Afternoon Snack: Snack Wells Nutrition Bar: 140 Calories, 17g Carbs (14 net), 8g Protein, 3g Fiber, 5g Fat, 120mg Sodium, 7g Sugar
Dinner: Moo Shu Vegetables (scrambled eggs, bean sprouts, mixed frozen veggies, ginger, and moo shu sauce) and 1 Chicken Breast: 286 Calories, 14g Carbs (10 net), 36g Protein, 4g Fiber, 10g Fat, 458mg Sodium, 0g Sugar

Total Nutrition Intake:

1,204 Calories
133g Carbs (104 Net)
87g Protein
29g Fiber
44g Fat
1,760mg Sodium
48g Sugar


I really didn’t want to get up this morning and workout but I’m glad that I did. That seems to be a theme for me; I don’t want to get up but when it’s all over with, I feel a lot better. Yesterday, I started accessing my progress so far and thinking of how much longer I will document my nutrition and workouts. I have decided to keep documenting my “Commit to be Fit” journey until Wednesday March 14^th. I picked this date because it is about 10 weeks from my start day and it will be after a couple weekends that I know will be a struggle. This weekend I will be working another scholarship weekend, next weekend I will be in California, and the weekend after that I will have come back from my trip and probably be exhausted. I think these will present big challenges for me and March 14^th is after all of that. I think using this date will be a good motivator for me to stay focused during the next few weeks.
I weighed myself this morning at 127 pounds. On the positive side, I have lost weight since January and I haven’t gained any back. On the negative side, I haven’t lost any weight in the past couple of weeks. I have remained the same. I’m not necessarily looking to lose a lot more weight but my goal weight is more around 120. Ultimately, I want to create healthy habits and be as physically fit as I can. I feel like I have done a great job towards that goal. I do feel really in shape and stronger. I plan on staying really focused and being really strict until March 14^th so I can finish strong.

As I am reaching the finish line of my journey, I found the article I have summarized below to be very helpful. It talks about how people get into diets and get in shape and then end up gaining weight. I think it points out a lot of truth and shows how sometimes you can work so hard in getting fit but then throw it all away. It’s definitely something to be very careful about and I think it’s important to reflect on how to maintain your healthy lifestyle and your weight once you have gone through a transformation. Kind of a long article but I think it’s a really good one.

When Fat Comes Back

Who among us hasn’t high-fived ourself for finally fitting into those skinny jeans once again, only to relegate them to the back of the closet a few months later? This article investigates the dangerous cycle of “yo-yo dieting”-and tells how you can break it for good.
All you have to do is wheel your grocery cart into a checkout line to see the cautionary tales screaming at you from the tabloids: Kristie Alley regained the 70-plus pounds she lost on Jenny Craig, Maureen “Marcia Brady” McCormick got even heavier after she was on Celebrity Fit Club. Oprah—well, we all know about her struggles. Janet Jackson, Kelly Clarkson…the list goes on and on.

It makes you wonder: If these rich, powerful women, with their personal trainers and private chefs, can’t win the weight war, what chance do I have? It doesn’t help that these statistics are grim: By some estimates, more than 80 percent of people who have lost weight regain all of it, or more, after two years. Women who want to lose weight know these painful numbers all too well. “I’ve been on a roller coaster for the past two years,” says Leigh Moyer, 31, of Philadelphia. In 2003, she lost 25 of her 155 pounds by diligently counting calories and logging daily sweat sessions at the gym. Four years later, busy with grad school and her job, Leigh blew off her workouts and stopped monitoring her portions…and shot up to 175. “It was so sad, so frustrating,” she says. “I let myself down.”

Along with the emotional toll is a physical one: Not only is the extra weight a health risk, but recent studies have linked the gain-lose-gain cycle to such potentially life-threatening conditions as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, depression, heart disease, and cancer.
Understanding Metabolic Math

Small fluctuations on the scale are normal, but unhealthy behavior of 10 or more pounds (referred to as “weight cycling”) is not good for you. The journal of Obesity found that people who followed a very low-calorie diet regained significantly more weight than those on a more forgiving plan. Desperate for quick results in a culture of instant gratification, “women try to lose weight on diets with too few calories,” says Dr. Beck, author of The Beck Diet Solution. “If you lose weight on 1,200 calories a day, the minute you go up to 1,300 us the minute you start gaining weight.”

Even on a sensible diet, your body sheds pounds reluctantly. One reason it’s difficult to keep weight off is because there is a metabolic overcompensation for weight loss. If you decrease your body mass by 10 percent, you would expect your metabolic rate to decrease by 10 percent, but it actually slows down more than that, by about 11 to 15 percent. In other words, the body may perceive dieting as a threat to its survival. It might not know the difference between Atkins and famine. What’s more, is weight cycling or yo-yo dieting can actually change your physiology. So the more diets you’ve been on, the harder it becomes to lose the weight. A hunger hormone called ghrelin increases, and fullness hormone called leptin decreases, so you feel hungrier and less satiated.

Born to Rebound?

A study found that the reward circuits in the brains of people called “conditioned hypereaters” were excessively activated simply by the smell of food and stayed that way until those people finished eating whatever was on the plate in front of them. In other words, when you have overactive neural circuitry, resisting temptation is not a questions of willpower alone. These kinds of peoples brains are biologically wired to get very excited about food and keep eating until they calm down. One doctor of the study estimates that 50 percent of obese people and 30 percent of overweight people are conditioned hypereaters.

Through conditioning, you can rewire your brain though. Emotional triggers play a huge role in eating. A study at Brown University found that dieters who ate in response to emotions such as stress or loneliness—were more likely to regain weight.

There are many obstacles in life that can knock you off track (relationships, school, work, kids, etc). Dr. Beck sees women all the time who do well for a while, only to fall of the wagon. The problem, she believes, is that they never learned the skills needed for long-term behavior change. They haven’t been taught hot to motivate themselves or respond to negative thoughts and recognize a mistake as a one-time thing.

A study of 200 overweight and obese people supports the importance of a behavior-change approach. Along with other weight-loss techniques, one group received an additional hour of therapy, in which they learned to change their behavior; the other group did an extra hour of low-intensity exercise. After a year, those in the therapy group had maintained their weight loss, while the other group’s members hadn’t.

Risky Bigness

If you go on a very strict diet and gain the weight back quickly, you might lose a lot of muscle and regain a lot of fat. Your metabolism operates on a slower idle, which means it’s going to be harder to lose weight as time goes on. The more times you “yo-yo”, the more fat your body gains in each rebound. Because muscle burns 10 times more calories than fat does, your metabolism eventually will slow to a crawl. Losing and gaining regularly takes a huge toll on your body like loss of skin elasticity, burdening your arteries and skeletal system, and may stress the liver.

Weight gain does a number on your ticker: women who lose and gain weight are damaging their heart in the process. Weight cycling has a dangerous effect on the immune system as well.

Tips for Success

With so many drawbacks, you might wonder if you’d be better off just accepting your belly rolls. But the perils of being overweight still overweight the risks of yo-yoing. So how do you quit the cycle for good?

è Be realistic. Make sure your diet is one you can stick with. No crash diets or fads that will be impossible to maintain. Reconsider the whole notion of dieting as a temporary fix. Think of what you’re doing as a permanent lifestyle shift: “This is how I eat now”

è Be patient. Don’t try to lose too much too soon. A healthy goal of slimming down is to reduce your weight be approximately 10 percent over six months.

è Be supported. Research has found that socializing with others who have successfully lost weight improves your odds of mainting your own weight loss.

è Be analytical. Record your mood changes and hunger levels so you can learn to distinguish when you’re eating for emotional reasons.

è Be vigilant. If you lose 30 pounds and then gain three, it’s easy to think that’s no big deal. But it’s a slippery slope especially if you have a history of yo-yoing. Weigh yourself weekly and have a clear plan of action ready if the scale swings too far.

è Be flexible. Switch eating plans if you get bored. Research indicated you’re more likely to be successful.

è Be active. You must exercise. This is key in not regaining weight. This doesn’t mean you have to train for a marathon. Half an hour of walking every day is all you need to burn calories, build muscle, temper cravings, and increase “feel good” endorphin levels.

è Be optimistic. One of the most important tips for being a successful weight loser is not to let past failed attempts keep you from trying again. Every time you fail, you get more insight about what to do differently next time.