[Iselle]

I wrote this yesterday and couldn't post before I left for some reason....

Okay, I'm new, so let me give you the scoop, I'm 31, about 5 feet 8 inches....on some scales I seem to be 5 feet 6 inches......anyway, I'm not sure what my ideal weight should be....counting frame structure and muscle mass and all that jazz. When I checked the scale yesterday I was about 164lbs....that was after a run though so you could add a lb or two for water loss.

I'm not concerned much with how much I weigh really, I just want to get rid of the fat. I've never gotten rid of it completely (okay, I don't mean completely but to ideal bod status). I'm guessing, without estimating muscle gain, that may be anywhere between 20 and 30lbs. I've gotten down to 150 and saw that I still needed a little ways to go.....no worries, I'm definitely not into being a stick figure.

So anyway, I'm reasonably good at exercising. I'm up to running 4 miles and walking an extra mile 5 days a week. And I've been eating small portions of healthy food about 5 times a day.....And I work a little with weights 3 days a week.....Ha, you'd think I'd be slimmer wouldn't you?

Well, things always seem to come about to take me off my exercise and diet for a bit....recently I stayed on this for several weeks and did okay (progress seemed a bit slow) until I went on a cruise this past week and all went to hell in a hand basket. So now I'm back on the routine and want to add Duromine/Phentermine along with it. 30mg a day.
I just want the little extra oomph to get rid of the excess as soon as possible and then I can get off the pills and just stay with my exercise and diet.

I just started duromine today and feel fine....just a boost of energy really....(Did have some green tea today though before I read Ian's post that it could cause the effects to leave the body sooner. I'll skip the tea from now on.) Would anyone know what kind of rate loss I could possibly be looking at?

Any help would be appreciated!

I'd be happy to post my experience here as I go along if anyone is interested.....

Okay, so I weighed myself before my run yesterday and was at 166lbs.

And I did some thinking last night, and was wondering if anyone could help with with a little observation I had......

I went down to 150lbs last summer....started out running and playing volleyball and eating right.....I may or may not have taken something with ephedra in it...not sure....anyway, I made little and slow progress...I may have been at it for a month or two. Then I tore my ACL and couldn't exercise anymore. I stuck to my diet though and at that point I'm pretty sure I took ephedera, don't know how consistently though. All of a sudden, bam, the pounds came off. I never weighed myself, since I no longer went to the gym, but week by week it was noticeable in just a month's time. Then I took a week vacation and long story short, I lost my will to keep on my diet and started gaining the weight back again. But I seem to have noticed this on two occasions.....that I've lost more weight when I'm not exercising....just dieting.....with some metabolism aid. And believe me, only a small portion of it was muscle loss. The fat itself was disappearing. Any ideas?

BTW in case you're wondering after vacation I scheduled ACL reconstructive surgery...it's almost been a year of recovery now so that's why I'm running again......Just been a few months since I've been able to run without discomfort and pick up my full running routine......

[zoey]

Sounds to me like the time you weren't excercising and were just dieting, you were still losing fat, but you weren't building muscle like you were excercising. You mentioned that with more activity, weight loss was slower. That indicates that you were building muscle while you lost fat. At 5'8" I wouldn't think you would need to be less than 150. Anyway, recommended weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week and no more than 3. Obviously that's going to vary week to week, due to activity, lifestyle and cycle. It sounds to me like you are doing great at maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Out of curiosity, what is the reason you feel you need the extra help from medications?

[Iselle]

Thanks for your reply, zoey. I knew the muscle loss issue would come up and I tried cutting it off at the path. I've been involved with athletics and weight training to improve my performance for a large part of my life....only after college have I gone though periods of forgetting about the gym. I really am aware of muscle and how it weighs more that fat and what contributes to it's loss. I'm not a body builder or anything, but I've had friends who were, whom I worked out with at times and learned from. I know that I did lose some muscle mass, but I really didn't go with what the scale said as much as it might have sounded. I really concentrated on fat loss. It's easy to tell by the way clothes fit or the way your body looks in front of the mirror. Or even how you look to other people. People at work commented on how fast I was losing weight. It wasn't alarming, just noticeable. Muscle mass aside, I know I was losing more fat faster that when I was exercising and dieting. I know it sounds crazy, it definitely goes against all I know, but I've mentioned it to other people before who felt the same, even a physical therapist I worked with when I was recovering from my surgery and she was surprised because she felt she'd noticed the same had happened to her before, and she couldn't figure it out.

It's hard to explain, but it's something that was very noticeable to me. The time it happened before last summer, I'd been out of the gym for awhile, so the muscle loss was at somewhat of a plateau. I simply went on a diet (keeping up my protein though) and took ephedra and the fat dropped noticeably in a short time.

And I just don't seem to get the same results from diet and exercise.
So that's why I feel I need the extra help from medications. When I get such slow progress from denying myself the foods I like and exercising my butt off...when I'm working my hardest and two or three weeks later my pants still don't feel the least bit looser than when I started, then it's really hard to stick to it. It becomes easier to skip a day or two of working out, or going ahead and ordering something with a little more flare on the menu instead of the plain ol' grilled chicken breast. And I do love food. All food. The more flavorful and exotic the better.

As much as I love food though, I'll give it up for the ideal body. But I have to see results for my sacrifice. Progress I can see is the only thing that keeps me motivated.

Now I definitely don't want people to read this and stop working out! Even with my experience, I still can't get myself to stop, because deep down I know the benefits of exercise, and there must be something else to this, but it's just something I found baffling and just wanted to throw it out and see some of the comments.

[zoey]

Do you think it's possible that because of all the working out and such you did before becoming less active could actually have caused your metabolism to maintain a higher level for a while? If so, that could cause you to lose more fat more quickly because your body would be focusing more energy towards burning it than providing you energy for excercise. Don't know if that's possible but it sounds good!! You sound very dedicated to your goals and that is a great thing. For me, I just want to be healthier in general. I don't deprive myself of the foods I love, I just work more at balancing them into my daily intake. I use a system at FitDay.com and it really helps me. Sounds like you are probably more into an athletic type goal than me. My excercise basically is just to make sure I am burning enough calories and of course since I am trying to lose 130 pounds I don't want to end up sagging and bagging!!!!! Today, I'm suffering from terrible cramps and Midol is just taking the edge of, so I'm happy to make it from the couch to the bathroom. Tomorrow will be better I'm sure so I'll work harder then!!!

[Iselle]

Sorry to hear about the nasty cramps, Zoey! Yeah, hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

Ya know, what you said is definitely something I thought of....that the metabolism was at a high level and perhaps my body did use the extra energy it no longer used for working out or repairing my body after workouts to burn the fat. It does make pretty good sense to me too, at any rate. It doesn't go well with my previous experience, when I'd been out of the gym awhile, and didn't have that metabolism built up, but that was much longer ago, so who knows what other factors could have been involved I may have forgotten about.

Yeah, my goals definitely involve athletic fitness. Health really is the most important thing. I'm glad that is your goal. And it does sound like you are pretty focused in getting there. You are doing the right thing by taking it slow to avoid that sag and bag you mentioned. I am very fortunate.....I've managed to stay very fit despite the extra pounds, but here's where my obsession comes from. Looking back all the way to Jr. High, as much into althletics as I was (I played almost everything) I always managed to keep a little pudge on me...maybe about an extra 10 lbs at my fittest. I never ever had that washboard stomach. Ever. That is my goal, to get my body back to where it was then and then go that extra mile I somehow never managed to reach. I know it only gets harder with age, but that just makes me more determined! I always told myself I'd do it before my 30th birthday.....I got close....I don't remember what knocked me off my course about a month before though....it's always something...I was doing so well last summer....I know what knocked me off that one....now I'll be 32 next month. And I'm still not ready to give up the goal!

I'm just depriving myself of the food for now. It's always the hardest to take the weight off, and usually maintaining is a little easier....so I tell myself that once I reach my goal, then I can allow myself some favorite food now and then. Ideally, on a good exercise program I should eat whatever I want one day a week while maintaining a low fat/reduced carb diet the rest of the week. I should do it now really to keep my body from adjusting to a reduced calorie diet and slowing the metabolism down, but I just feel too guilty when I do it and. So I'll wait until I reach my goal.

My hardest obstacle and biggest factor that knocked me off my diet last summer is my boyfriend. He loves food as much as I do. All food as I do. But he's not as conscious about his weight as I am. He is definitely obese, the doctor told him so last time he went, though I don't know if he could be considered morbidly or not. We met last summer so it was all the chocolates and dinner that knocked me off my routine. Now that we are past that I try to get him to eat healthy with me at least during the week....he has trouble doing so over the weekends though and he believes there should be no dieting during vacation. Hence my fall during the cruise last week......

[zoey]

I understand that TOTALLY!! I am trying to get hubby to join me in this and he's coming around a little at a time. He now understands that I'm worried about his health not his looks. He is 6'4" and weighs 435. He is supposed to be having back surgery for a damaged disc from a car accident but they won't even consider it until he has lost at least 150 pounds. Prefer 200. At his weight the risks of surgery are just too high. At one time we discussed gastric bypass surgery. They won't even talk about that. Said he's got to lose at least 100 pounds first! I think once he gets going and sees some of the weight come off, he'll get into it alot more. In high school he was the football star!! I think he kind of dreams of being like that again. Even then, he was close to 100 pounds overweight but he was active and fit. Now it's just fat! I finally just told him that I am scared to death that one day soon he's gonna die and I'm not ready for that.

[Iselle]

Gosh, yeaaaahhh, I've read some of your other posts. Those football guys! Especially the ones who have to carry extra weight for defensive positions. That was my guy too, played football in college even. I'm mean goodness, as much as they exercise and they still have to eat even more to keep their weight up...they get used to eating that way for most of their life and then suddenly all athletic activity stops and the eating keeps going! And they get older and their metabolism slows further...It's no easy feat to make such drastic changes. Most of them get so used to a coach pushing them that without him they just can't continue the exercise on their own. :( Mine is about 6'2 and last I remember when he went to the doctor and they weighed him it was like 306lbs. He just gave me this look of surprise....I think he thought he was 280 something or 290 something....I think the sound of 300 really startled him. He made an effort after that for a little while....he cut his eating down to 1000 calories....wouldn't go to the gym though, even though he has a membership. He just works too darn much and doesn't feel motivated afterwards. As soon as we take a little weekend vacation or something though, he gets off it and just has a hard time getting back on afterwards. I announced my return to my diet after the cruise to see if he'd follow suit, but he hasn't. I'm afraid to tell him anything because I don't want him to think it has anything to do with his looks....even though I really would love it if he were nice and fit, but I certainly don't love him any less because of it. I am worried though. :( His bad football knees tend to ache and get pretty stiff when he does a lot of walking and I think of telling him how much less they would ache if he'd reduce the load on them, but well, I dunno, maybe one of these days I'll get the courage. But honestly, if the doctor telling him he needs to lose weight doesn't get him jump started, I don't know what will. :( I do what I can though. He used to skip breakfast (big no no!), lunch varies, but then eat a big big dinner late in the evening. He leaves for work a little earlier than I do but I started getting up with him so I could make him a nice healthy breakfast. It seems to curb his appetite a little more....and I try to get him to eat dinner earlier and make food not so incredibly yummy that he feels compelled to get another helping even after he's satisfied. Unfortunately when he eats earlier he gets the munchies even later at night and if there's any dessert in the house that's what he attacks. :(

He's wanting to try this Duromine/Phentermine though. He hasn't yet because he's still whoosy from the cruise. (He gets affected a little by seasickness) I'm hopeful though, I think it would be a big help if he could just curb some of that appetite. I'd really love it if the boost of energy was enough for him to feel the desire to go back to the gym! Thaaat may be a little to much wishful thinking though. But for the most part, I'm not having problems with side effects so far and I only hope it's the same for him....

[zoey]

John can't take the Phentermine because as a truck driver he's subject to drug testing. Being a truck driver is hell on him. No time to eat regular meals so it's usually one big meal after starving all day so it's HUGE!!! He lost his college scholarship when he got tackled and twisted both knees. It was gross Both legs turned outwards and all the way backwards. You described his player type exactly. People used to tell him he looks just like Refrigerator Perry. Actually he does look alot like him. Of course most people now don't remember the Refrigerator so the best comparison now is Rueben Studdard.(American Idol) He actually was asked for his autograph a few times. I tell people he only looks a little like him, but John sings better! John believed himself to weigh about 360 and one day when he picked up a load they scaled the truck when he wasn't in it. Then when he got in and it was still on the scale there was a 435 pound difference. That was a true eye-opener for him. I'm trying to come up with ideas that he can do that won't put too much pressure on his knees at least to start off with. He said that when he's home, he will walk with me, but he won't be able to do the whole walk because he can't get uphill. To make matters worse he has asthma too.