Weight Loss, Hypothroidism, and Exercise

Even when your hypothroidism is controlled, you can still have trouble losing weight. I seem to be having this problem. For the past 3 weeks, I have run a calorie deficit (except for one day). Now some days those deficits have been low (250 calories). I also know that it takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound of fat. I feel better eating healthy food, so I am trying to concentrate on that rather than weight loss. However, it can get discouraging when weight loss is at .6 pounds a week at most.

So, I have been surfing the web looking for answers. In a CNN interview on hypothyroidism (and mine is controlled with medication), the doctor said government guidelines now indicate that some people need 90 minutes of exercise a day to lose weight. I have been to a fitness spa in Tennessee (Tennessee Fitness Spa) and I did lose weight there. Of course, I was eating 1400 calories a day and exercising 4-5 hours a day, so if I hadn’t lost weight I would have given up entirely. I cannot afford the spa right now, even though it is very reasonably priced compared to most spas, and I enjoyed it and the people who run it. So, I know I can lose weight at a “normal” rate.

According to the American Thyroid Association, once your thyroid is controlled with medication, you should be able to lose weight just like people without thyroid conditions.  Mary Shomon  has a wealth of information about thyroid conditions on her site. She is not a doctor, but has struggled with the condition. She also runs the About.com hypothyroid site. Normally, I never trust anything from About.com because it is a content farm, but Mary Shomon has experience with thyroid issues, so this page might provide some good diet tips.  Mary also points out that each person is different, providing stories from people who have lost weight with a thyroid condition.  I know I need exercise and lots of it. I refuse, and I do mean refuse, to live on 1400 calories for the rest of my life. I enjoy eating.

From past experiences (hiking, walking to work and back), I know that exercise helps me lose weight, so I guess if I plan on losing weight, I have to exercise every day.  Today, I am doing weight training and Zumba at the gym and bringing my recumbent bike from the basement, placing in right in the middle of my very small living room, and riding it whenever I want to watch TV. My body is telling me to lose weight, so I am going to have to do whatever it takes to get it done. Fingers crossed that my motivation to work through this process continues. So far, so good.

Slippery Slope of Food Addiction

Well, yesterday I was a testimony to the slippery slope of food addiction. Several reasons led to my inability to control the eating urge. First, I didn’t get enough sleep. Second, I was still stressed from the day before. Two hours of water aerobics helped the stress, but didn’t alleviate it entirely. Third, the day was gray and dreary. These are not good excuses at all, but just my attempt to understand what will push me over the edge to eat too much.

The good thing is that I don’t have truly unhealthy food in the house anymore and I didn’t get dressed to drive to the store for something unhealthy. However, I certainly ate my way through a ton of food. Had a great dinner of balsamic chicken, couscous, and grilled squash–measured it all. However, I didn’t feel full. I think I was looking for the old, I’ve eaten too much full feeling.

Anyway, my husband continued to grill squash after we finished eating and the incredible aroma of garlic filled the house. So up I got up and ate some squash. Tried to control the urge to eat by drinking hot tea. That often works for me. However, a little later, still thinking I was hungry, I ate 3 low fat cinnamon sugar graham crackers with 1 1/2 tbsp of almond butter. A little later, I had a Fage 0% fruit yogurt. Still not feeling over full–the feeling I am trying to learn does NOT mean full–I had two bowls of Cheerios with skim milk. Since I am lactose intolerant, that gave me the over full feeling.

After so much food, plus a 3 hour nap due to poor sleep the night before, I slept poorly. At 3 a.m. I got up and ate 2 tsp of almond butter. Aarrgghh!!!

So my binge is over. I used to think I didn’t binge since I have never purged, but reading what I ate on my out-of-control day, I realize I had a binge–a drawn out binge, but a binge nonetheless.

Still working on binge control issues. I am not giving up and I am back on track today, but I am reminded again that this is my war with food. I lost one battle yesterday, but I am NOT going to lose the war.

Learning to Listen

 

 

 

I am slowly beginning to learn to listen to my body. Tonight I got very, very stressed, which led to a slight depression. Instead of eating, which would be my normal approach, I watched The Biggest Loser on the computer and walked for half of the program. Made me feel better by releasing endorphins and eliminating my stress. I feel good now. I recognized the stress and realized it wasn’t hunger, then did something to alleviate the stress and false hunger.

I need to try meditation because apparently it can also release endorphins.

Color Me Confused

Color Me Confused

I had my resting metabolism rate tested today and I am now very confused. Apparently my RMR is 30% higher than is normal for people in my age and weight group (>55 and >200 lbs). I should be happy, but instead I am confused. If my RMR is so much higher, then why do I have so much trouble losing weight. Based on my calorie deficit for the week, I should have lost 1.5 pounds. I lost .6 pounds. My deficit is based on a RMR of 1584. Since my RMR is 1836, then I should have had a higher deficit and lost more weight than the 1.5. Instead, I don’t even lose half of the 1.5 pounds I should have lost. I am doing something wrong entering food, the RMR test was wrong, or something else is wrong with me. I have hypothyroidism and I am post-menopausal, so those two things play against me in my weight loss battle, but my higher than average RMR should be helping me. Maybe that is why I don’t weight in the 300s. Who knows?

Color me confused.

Take in Fewer Calories than You Expend

Take in fewer calories than you expend. That is what Bryan Ganey did to lose 270 pounds. Plus he lost the weight slowly. I am trying to follow that pattern myself. I enter everything I eat, even the skim milk in my coffee. I use a Bodybugg to track my calories in and calories out. I don’t always succeed in having a daily calorie deficit, but I am getting better. I feel better eating healthier food and feel more in control when I watch calorie intake/outgo. As a food addict, it is hard to feel in control of food, but the Bodybugg helps. You have to be willing to input your food every day though. I enter my food several times a day so that I don’t forget to include something. If you aren’t going to do that, then I think a pedometer would work just as well, but I do know people who use the Bodybugg and do not enter their food on the website or via a smartphone (depending upon which Bodybugg you get) and have lost weight. I guess they just make sure to burn a certain number of calories a day.

I first saw the Bodybugg on The Biggest Loser, but now the contestants use a different tool, the Slimcoach. I haven’t tried it, but the one thing it has that the Bodybugg doesn’t is the ability to connect to a Polar heart rate monitor. That could be very useful, especially for someone who is doing strenuous exercise, like the contestants on The Biggest Loser. It’s more expensive than the Bodybugg and the Polar monitor has to be bought separately, so I don’t plan on buying a Slimcoach anytime soon. I am sticking with the bugg for now.

Travel and Self-Control

Finally learning to live without chips

Okay, I had to go out of town for two days. Two days may not seem like a long time, but when you are working to overcome a food addiction, two days is a lifetime. I did better with eating during my trip this week than I did last week. Yeah! I am celebrating that small victory, but I did not do a great job maintaining control. However, I am slowly, slowly inching my way forward. I did eat chips (low fat and counted the calories), but I didn’t eat the entire bag. Yeah!

What I did find out while in a place where I don’t eat as much fresh food is that I definitely feel better when I eat more fresh vegetables and fruit. It is amazing how much more energy I have when I stay away from junk food. And I LOVE my junk food. I could snack my way through a bag of kettle chips and not blink an eye. Add some onion dip and I would be even happier. I am learning that I feel better when I don’t eat so much fat. Is this a break-through? I am not ready to say that yet. I will let you know in six months.

Food as Comfort

I have to learn that food is not comfort. I am having a terrible time with this. Last night we had tornado warnings, so had to round up the cats and head to the basement at 2 a.m. All was fine here, but after 1 hour of herding cats and waiting for the tornado warning to pass, I was not remotely sleepy. So, what did I do? Ate Cheerios, a Fage Yogurt, and drank a tea. I need to learn to let tea be my comfort. Tea is fine, but did I need Cheerios and yogurt? No! Did I eat Cheerios and yogurt? Yes! Did my husband eat for comfort? No, he went right back to bed and to sleep. I need to learn how to do that. Of course, he doesn’t have a food addiction, so that part of the equation is easy for him.

What method works to deal with the need for comfort food in the middle of the night when my resistance is low anyway? I am still working to find an answer.

Struggling Today

I am struggling not to eat too much today. So far, I am doing fine–eating the right foods, but I have food, snack food, on the brain. Rice cakes are a high glycemic index food, so even with almond butter, they are bad for me. Plus, the way I feel today, I would not stop with one or two, but might finish off the entire bag. My illogical reason for finishing the bag would be that then I wouldn’t have anymore rice cakes in the house, and I won’t buy anymore, so just eat them all at once.

Resist! Resist! Resist those rice cakes!!

Hunger, Craving, or Boredom

I really have trouble telling the difference between hunger, cravings, and boredom. For those of you who aren’t addicted to food, you may not understand this post, but let me try to explain it. I had a lovely dinner with fish, a greek salad, and four of us split a Mediterranean sampler plate. If you live in Nashville, Tennessee and haven’t tried Kalamata’s, then you need to do that. The food is excellent and prepared with nutrition in mind. I was definitely full when I left Kalamata’s. Later, after some health store grocery shopping and tracking down the Fage 0% yogurt that was on sale this week at $1/each, I had fresh fruit salad (about 1 cup) with 0% yogurt and 1 tsp of brown sugar/splenda mix (20 calories).

About an hour after this, I “felt” hungry, but how could it be hunger, the logical side of my brain said. To appease the ravenous child side of my brain, I had seven raw almonds. I am not eating anymore; the ravenous child can just have a tantrum. I have eaten just over 1900 calories today, which is plenty, but I want to eat, and could eat, much more.  There is no way I am hungry, but I FEEL hungry, not stomach-growling hungry, but like something is missing, a little empty hole in my stomach. I know this is crazy talk, but that is how I feel. This is the food addict talking to you. One who is strong enough today to not give in and binge eat to appease her cravings. But I fight this addiction all the time.

I think I remember (have to ask next week)  from my integrative medicine class that to avoid a sugar spike, I need to pair high glycemic foods with lower glycemic foods. Fruits usually come in the middle. I think 0% Greek yogurt is a low glycemic index food. Why don’t we have these indices on the nutrition panel? We have everything else.  Instead we get to look up the glycemic index of a food online. I don’t think the hunger pangs are from bad choices or glycemic index spikes; I think they are from not understanding hunger, cravings, and boredom. Or just plain habit. In front of the TV, I eat. Watching Poirot on TV tonight made me want to eat. I am not giving up some TV watching (Big Bang Theory and Modern Family), but I am going to have to learn that the TV does not equal food.

Be Well Program/Dehydrating Food

I just started the Be Well program that is run by Dr. Cathy Stallworth of the Nashville Medical Group. She has studied with Andrew Weil and is a true believer in integrative medicine. I am looking forward to learning how to be mindful of my eating, how to eat healthily, and control my snacking urges.

I will be getting a resting metabolic rate test next Thursday to see what my RMR is so we can best tailor the program to my needs. I have started doing deep breathing exercises in addition to adding more fruits and vegetables to my diet with the Mediterranean lifestyle.  I also need to up my exercise program–get the 10,000 steps in a day.

Dr. Stallworth brought in some apples she had dried with cinnamon, tumeric, and lemon juice. They were delicious. Makes me want to go out and buy a dehydrator, but I know I can dehydrate food in the oven also. Information on dehydrating food can be found all over the web. I liked this National Center for Home Food Preservation site and this one. I am seriously thinking about buying a basic dehydrator. I need snack food that is not loaded with fat and carb calories.