Anonymous wrote:So you’re barely eating and exercising like crazy and people are telling you to eat less?

I would try this:

3 square meals. 30-40g of protein at each meal. Try to get 25g fiber. Don’t count calories. Eat your food in order to avoid spikes and eat nothing sweet in the morning- savory breakfast only.

Veggies first, then protein and then starches.

Try for a few weeks and see how it goes.

I’m a middle aged 45 year old pre menopausal woman that did damage to my metabolism by fasting so much. I’m down 8lbs doing all of the above. And I still eat sweets but I cut out alcohol completely this year.

Who said OP is barely eating? She never even gave a calorie count, just the types of food she usually eats.

I stepped on this morning and it’s 156! I think I had water weight retention? Anyhow, I really don’t know how eating a teaspoon or so of almond butter or 1/4 cup of almonds (100 calories!) Is eating too much? I didn’t even eat my dinner as planned last night after these comments I was overeating. I mean I guess it sounds that way but I can assure you guys I’m limiting what I eat by a lot and only eating veggies and protein and good fats sparingly. I feel better now. It’s 4 lbs since beginning of month so I’ll continue on this for another 10 hopefully.

So you’re barely eating and exercising like crazy and people are telling you to eat less?

I would try this:

3 square meals. 30-40g of protein at each meal. Try to get 25g fiber. Don’t count calories. Eat your food in order to avoid spikes and eat nothing sweet in the morning- savory breakfast only.

Veggies first, then protein and then starches.

Try for a few weeks and see how it goes.

I’m a middle aged 45 year old pre menopausal woman that did damage to my metabolism by fasting so much. I’m down 8lbs doing all of the above. And I still eat sweets but I cut out alcohol completely this year.

Anonymous wrote:You need to eat more. Way more protein and fat.

??? She is eating a ton, almond butter? Almonds and other nuts? Where do you find room for more food than what she is already eating?

Anonymous wrote:I am eating nuts like almonds and almond butter on protein fiber wraps but no beans.

Example-

Lunch-asparagus, red pepper, garlic, 1 tablespoon of avocado oil, stir fried with 3 tenderloins of chicken breasts, 1/4 cheese on top, teaspoon of chia seeds

Snack-string cheese, Ezekiel bread with teaspoon of avocado or almond butter on top. OR kind zero bar ( no added sugar, low carb)

Dinner- veggies again, broccoli, mushrooms spinach garlic and whatever else stir fried and add in two eggs with some feta cheese. Or salmon or tofu for protein instead of eggs.

It sounds like you are eating a lot of calories. Why do you think you should lose weight?

Anonymous wrote:5'8 and 158 pounds is a normal weight. No one cares if some middle aged lady is thin or slightly less thin. No one is noticing you at all.

Just buy some new clothes and enjoy life.

I hate to say it, OP, but this poster, regardless of delivery, is right. I wasn't surprised to see you suffered from ED earlier in life. Reading your first few posts indicated that you may veering into that territory. Nobody, unless there are real health issues, should go through life with so so much obsession over food and weight. Eat a moderately healthy diet and keep up the weight training. What matters is your health, how you feel, and what it means for a healthy longevity. A few pounds is not worth all this hand-wringing.

It's not odd at all. You are not eating in a calorie deficit. What do you think is odd about it?

5'8 and 158 pounds is a normal weight. No one cares if some middle aged lady is thin or slightly less thin. No one is noticing you at all.

Just buy some new clothes and enjoy life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never understood people that are eating nut butters of any kind - wholly natural or otherwise - when they are trying to lose weight. People eat nut butters when you are trying to keep weight on.

Fat is not the enemy. It’s actually helpful to have nuts or nut butters in a diet when you are trying to accelerate weight loss, even though that sounds bizarre. It is easily used energy for your body and healthy fats are good for you if you are not over indulging or including lots of carbs and sugar as well into your diet. Avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, almonds and other nut butters are healthy foods that shouldn’t be avoided[u].

I agree that fat is not the enemy, but none of what you highlight here is actually processed nuts into butter form[i]. Eat all the healthy fat you want. But if you want to lose weight, you probably should not be eating high calorie dense foods in processed form that makes them easy eat - and extremly easty to overeat. By contrast, endurance athletes who struggle to get in enough nutrition - myself included - sometimes rely on that sort of food as a portable option and real meal bridge.

None of this should be surprising. There is almost 3000 calories in this container of natural peanut butter: https://www.amazon.com/Teddie-Natural-Peanut-26-Ounce-Packaging/dp/B006045ONI. I have larger ones. It takes me WEEKS to go through all that. The average american will absolutely overeat something like this - and it is not even the garbage people normally buy that has added sugar.

All that said, based on what OP posted, I don't think she needs to drop any weight anyways.

I also agree that you’re not eating enough or getting nearly enough protein. I think the latter is very hard to do with IF. I’d recommend two things: Find a good RD to revamp your diet and measure your body fat not weight. You are losing at a slow and sustainable rate. That’s good! Hopefully you’re retaining muscle, which is what really matters at your age.

I’m older than you and postmenopausal. In the past year I’ve lost 14 pounds of fat (10 percent of my bodyweight), reducing my body fat from 25% to 19% by eating more, doubling my protein, and strength training. If you don’t want to get regular body composition scans, take your measurements the old fashioned way. And throw out your scale - it’s meaningless.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It definitely seems like you should be losing more weight than you are.

I would cut out the cheese, if you already have a protein source with that meal/snack. Also, if you have a food scale, weigh how much almond butter you are actually using. I eat almond butter daily on an English muffin. When I was trying to lose 5 lbs with little success, I finally weighted the English muffin before and after putting the almond butter on it. Turns out what I thought was 2 tablespoons was more like over 4!

I would rather be 5 pounds over my goal weight than reduce the almond butter on my toast. I really like almond butter.

Are you OP?

No.

No that wasn’t me. It’s all interesting. I never do weigh myself and make a point not to because I suffered from disordered eating throughout my early 20s. I’ve been eating pretty much what I like throughout the 30s and through having two children but I always eat pretty healthy anyhow but definitely way more cheese and carbs and sugar than I am currently doing and also more wine( I’ve cut that out entirely!) I wasn’t sure what I weighed and I’ve been doing strength and hard cardio 4-5 days a week for 4 years.I still wear the same clothes I did when I was in my 20s (mainly the old sun dresses) I’m 44 now but the scale number bugs me, I have stressed to my nurses taking weight that I don’t want to know the number and it’s never been a problem until the latest physical in early June and the Doctor blurted it out when talking basic health things and now I’m obsessed with it because I thought I was 145. I know this is probably stupid to most of you but I really do want to try at least to get to 150. I’m surprised because I’ve never given up so many things and exercised on top and not seen any progress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It definitely seems like you should be losing more weight than you are.

I would cut out the cheese, if you already have a protein source with that meal/snack. Also, if you have a food scale, weigh how much almond butter you are actually using. I eat almond butter daily on an English muffin. When I was trying to lose 5 lbs with little success, I finally weighted the English muffin before and after putting the almond butter on it. Turns out what I thought was 2 tablespoons was more like over 4!

I would rather be 5 pounds over my goal weight than reduce the almond butter on my toast. I really like almond butter.

Are you OP?

Anonymous wrote:It definitely seems like you should be losing more weight than you are.

I would cut out the cheese, if you already have a protein source with that meal/snack. Also, if you have a food scale, weigh how much almond butter you are actually using. I eat almond butter daily on an English muffin. When I was trying to lose 5 lbs with little success, I finally weighted the English muffin before and after putting the almond butter on it. Turns out what I thought was 2 tablespoons was more like over 4!

I would rather be 5 pounds over my goal weight than reduce the almond butter on my toast. I really like almond butter.

It definitely seems like you should be losing more weight than you are.

I would cut out the cheese, if you already have a protein source with that meal/snack. Also, if you have a food scale, weigh how much almond butter you are actually using. I eat almond butter daily on an English muffin. When I was trying to lose 5 lbs with little success, I finally weighted the English muffin before and after putting the almond butter on it. Turns out what I thought was 2 tablespoons was more like over 4!