14 April 2010
Upgrade You: Anna
Recently, I got an email from reader Anna:
I recently lost about 20 lbs. My new weight just fits my small frame and feels right. I did it mainly through changing my portion sizes and concentrating on lean protein, fruit and vegs, getting rid of most starchy carbs and exercising about 45 minutes 5-7 times a week.
Well recently I have gained three pounds. I KNOW this is not a huge deal, but I DO worry about crreping weight gain. I think it happened mostly when I was on vacation a couple weeks ago, when I ate a good deal more of my usual healthy foods and laxed on the working out a bit. Now I cant drop it and its driving me crazy!
I’m glad she realizes that three pounds isn’t a huge deal — It’s absolutely not! But I can understand the confusion of gaining weight and not knowing why or what do to about it. Anna also sent me a sample of her daily eats:
breakfast - oatmeal and fruit (220 cals)
snack - apple (100 cals)
lunch - sandwich low cal bread, turkey, tons of veggies (200 cals)
snack - bar (140 cals)
dinner -ALWAYS veggies, maybe sometimes protein but mostly marinated veggies (I dont know how many calories this comes out too. I usually have 5-10 cups of veggies a night).
I drink on weekends and have one or two splurge meals a week
I can see a few problems going on here:
- Anna’s not eating enough, period. From my estimate, it could be as low as 1,000 calories. Remember, if you’re eating fewer than 1,200 calories on average, you’re sort of starving yourself. Weight loss can and will stall if your body isn’t being fed enough, I promise. Having a dinner of just veggies if you’ve eaten less than 600 calories up until then isn’t going to do you any weight-loss or health favors. Anna also says she’s working out up to an hour every day. Even more reason to up her calories!
- Too much processed food. Snack bars and diet bread just aren’t going to help you lose weight (without a fight!). I’d replace the diet bread with a whole grain tortilla and the snack bar with a hard-boiled egg + veggies or nuts + fruit.
- Not enough fat. You probably saw this coming, right? Okay, let me say it again: You need fat to burn fat! Not enough fat = a miserable, hungry human being. Anna needs to add in some fat at every meal. At breakfast, she could add nut butter to her oatmeal and fruit. For lunch, she could munch a full-fat Greek yogurt, or just make sure her sandwich has some fat in the form of meat or avocado. Again, ditch that low-cal bread! At dinner, Anna should make sure she’s cooking her veggies in plenty of coconut oil or butter and also make sure she’s getting enough protein, especially if her calories are low the rest of the day.
I’ve written about this before, but lower calories does not mean lower weight! You need to find your sweet spot. Too many is bad (obviously), but too few is also bad.
