PART 1If you have been reading my blog for a while you might remember that I reviewed a podcast called "Fat 2 Fit Radio". They are the ones that clued me in to the fact that I might have lost a good portion of muscles on my weight loss journey. I sent them an email before the holidays about my current weight loss struggle hoping that they might give me some tips about how to get rid of those last few pounds. I had not heard anything from them so I kind of forgot about it. That is until I visited their website yesterday after my blog post to discover that I was featured in this weeks episode of "Fat 2 Fit Radio".
The epidode "#139 - Breaking Those Nasty Weight Loss Plateaus" features my email about 10 minutes in. "Michelle tells us that she’s tired of being “rubenesque” but has hit a weight loss plateau after losing 115 lbs. Unfortunately she’s trying to break the plateau by reducing her calories. Exactly the wrong way to do it."
They suggest to eat a lot more food, at my maintenance level or more for a few weeks to get my body out of starvation mood. They say that I might gain some weight in the process but that if I were to gradually start to reduce my calories after that I will start to loose again. The idea of gaining scares me, but if they think that it will help I would be willing to try. I kind of wish they had asked my permission to use my letter in their podcast. I have no qualms telling my story to the world and I appreciate the advice. I just wished I had gotten a heads up, I was a little blindsided by my appearance in their show. Listen to the podcast and tell me what you think.
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PART 2
So I might have mentioned last week that I told my leader to talk to her manager about my struggles. I was hoping for some feedback in regards to help me to start losing again. I sent her an email reminder and sent her the link to the podcast.
This was our email correspondence.
Me:
Any news from head office about how to break my year long plateau? Should I eat more or a lot less? LOL I was featured on a weight loss podcast (insert link). So they are saying that I should try maintaining my weight for a few weeks and the slowly lowering my calories after a while. This is scary because I fear I might gain weight back... It might be nessesary though to trick my body. Gah.
L:
Sorry!!! Been so busy I haven't been able to reply. My manager was actually questioning your goal weight and wondering if maybe you should set.it where you are now?
Me:
So their answer to my question is to give up and settle? That is depressing. I haven't even reached Weight Watchers healthy weight range yet. :( They have no plateau busting suggestions?
L:
Not give up and settle...my manager recommended it to take off the stress. The analogy she used was like trying to get pregnant. Once you stop thinking about it, it usually happens. I told her all of the suggestions I gave you and she agreed with all of them.
Are they just trying to get me to a forced goal so that I won't complain anymore. This suggestion kind of confused and frustrated me. It seemed like the easy way out. I do know that I'm going to get a doctors note so that I don't have to pay anymore. I could be using this money towards a karate class or boot camp classes. It just seems that everybody I have been talking to has a different answer for me.
You do have to other options you could try before getting the drs note (which, oddly, amounts to what I said before - it would allow you body to basically stop thinking about it and in time, you might end losing more even on maintenance - which is when your points go up).
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You could go to a nutritional expert outside of WW for a consult and see what they say. Just someone you know is licensed, and have them given everything a once over (that is actually how I got into WW - I wasn't eating enough for my size and activity levels, and it was finally suggested to me as an easy way to make sure I ate enough. I held off since I didnt think it would work, but then seeing people I knew, like you, made me realize it would).
You could also try (assuming you have been daily points) simply filling method for a week. At the very least, it frees you a little from tracking ALL THE THINGS and you can focus on activity and what you feel like and see if that gets your further.
the idea of losing muscle is interesting. Upon thought, it seems somewhat obvious that your body just isn't going to need the amount of muscle it used to have to simply carry you around any more, since there's so much less of ya. So it went away- and with going to the gym and walking so much and such, it's starting to come back. Of course it is true that the ol' bod can work against us if it's convinced that it's starving. Maybe something like the African Mango cleanse for a month can readjust your metabolism and get things turning over again? Some quick googling will fill you in. It's been good for me this month, for sure.
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