Discussion Board

Jana,

I found that when I switched to a high carbohydrate diet, I actually needed a bit less sleep. But the first thing that popped into my mind when I read your post, is, are you getting enough sleep? IMHO, we underestimate our need for sleep. Have you looked at your sleep habits?

fiddler3

No the weight gain happened gradually over a year and a half. I lost my waitress job in late April 2005 and now have a desk job During that year and a half I even worked out at Curves but still steadily gained.

Tricia

I don't do doctors



And I would say that may be the problem with me now, as I am nearing 50. I started McDougalling when I was 30 years old in 1989 - BUT then again, I was active then too - waitressing, mall-walking w/ a ladies group, and doing water-aerobics at the YWCA.

Maybe McD only works for me when I am in constant motion??? Otherwise I have to be this hideously ugly obese blob??? That is really sad. I eat brussel sprouts and weigh 200 lbs while other people eat ice cream and are thin. Sheesh.



I have wondered if I just eat too many starches, but then again all the McD books are like - eat till you are full - ya know? I happen to like potatoes and brown rice!! But, I have deliberately cut back on the starches and upped the green veggies, and there is no difference in the weight.



How many calories are in brussel sprouts though? I mean, good grief!!! And I eat NO FAT whatsoever, except the small bit in my flax seeds.

Sheesh. I have tried to tell myself to just let it all go, buy a bunch of fat clothes, and live the rest of my life as a fat woman. There are certainly worse things in the world than that, right? And Lord knows I would surely the healthiest fat woman in the world, given that I eat strict McDougall!!!

But then I look in the mirror or a storefront window or something and I see this gross thing and realize it is NOW ME - and I just literally want to puke. I can't accept this. If I ate fried chicken, cookies, and pizza I would figure I deserved it, but come on!!!!!!!!

Tricia

Actually, you are "doing" one doctor by, according to your testimony, strictly following the McDougall program for many years. Why do you choose not to go to a doctor who can diagnose your medical problem?


So fill up on more vegetables. That is easy.


Is good health a matter of what you like or of what is good for you?


Based on what you have told us, which is all that anyone in this topic-thread has to go on, if I were you, I would be extremely concerned about possible serious medical problems. Again, if I were you, I would very quickly have a physical exam to help uncover the cause of the potentially very serious problem you are having.

I must say that what you have claimed -- that you are strictly McDougalling and yet still obese without any improvement at all -- contradicts everything I have read about and seen with my own eyes. That raises many questions.

For example, I wonder if perhaps you have made a mistake in reporting your situation. I base this question on personal experience with others.

For example, I once knew a young man, J, who wanted to lose about 30 pounds. We talked about the McDougall Program. He said he would follow it. He lost about 8 pounds in a few weeks, and then stopped losing. I asked him how closely he was following the program. He said, "Completely."

When visiting him one day, and sitting in his kitchen, I saw him open his frig to get a jar of cold water.

What I saw in his frig were these things: A block of cheese, a carton of eggs, and a gallon of whole milk.

Stunned, I asked him how he could be strictly McDougalling and yet eat that sort of thing. He said, "Oh, those are for the weekend. I McDougall only during the week, but on weekends anything goes."

Oh. My experience with him -- and several others who inaccurately reported what they are doing -- is one reason I have doubts about things some people tell me, if those things contradict everything I have seen and experienced myself.

So, perhaps there is an error somewhere in your reporting?

My heart goes out to you. Is what you have posted above, literally, ALL you are eating 24/7? How big is "a big bowl" of oatmeal? How much is "some beans or brown rice" added to dinner soup? Is there anything else that you might be forgetting to include -- snacks or anything? Are you on any medications?

Congratulations on quitting smoking! This may play some part in your weight gain, but I think something else going on that is contributing. Before saying anything further I'd like to hear and consider your responses to the few questions above. Hang in there -- you've got great support here.

Tricia, if you are truly that distressed about your weight, how about doing the live-in McDougall program? You could be evaluated by Dr. McD, have meals done for you and get immediate scale feedback. I have to agree with the others--either you are not doing the program correctly, are volume-eating enough to negate the effort of lower-calorie-density foods, or there is something medically wrong. Dr. McDougall has an article on volume eaters and you might want to peruse that. I think you would really benefit from doing the program in-house.

Like Yam said, without portion size it's hard to know Tricia if you are consuming too much. My portion of oatmeal is 1 cup cooked. Not much. But If I was to double that it would be about 300 calories.

The days you eat a bag of brussel sprouts, first off, how does your gut take it LOL. I love the things but can't eat a whole bag of them. You have nothing else?

The hormone, getting older, stopping smoking are all playing to decrease metabolism. One thing that does increase metabolism is muscle. You are losing muscle rapidly now. I think that's my saving grace, I do a lot of lifting around home, so my muscle level isn't bad for a 48 yo woman. heck I even hold my own (for a minute) when arm wrestling my 25 tomb stone setting son. Personally I'd work on building that muscle and not like curves. You don't build much with their routine. Remember I check into it.

Eat all you want. Eat to satisfaction. and Stop when you are no longer hungry. Each of those have a drastic different meaning to me. All you want would set me up taking seconds on the mashed taters and gravy. Eating to satisfaction would probably have me getting a tad more mashed taters and gravy and then loading up with more veggies. Stop when you are no longer hungry has me taking no seconds. I know I can go back when I get truly hungry. That was a hard concept for me to tackle. Maybe it's just me who interprets these differently.

Hi Sunny - when I began, the McDougall Plan was all there was - so that is what I started with and where I always return to. And I have always tended to go heavy on the starch (because that's what appeals to my taste buds I assume LOL) However, it wasn't an issue - I could eat all that starch w/ no weight gain. I don't know how many times I would sit at lunch break at work eating my baked potatoes (usually 2) and the other gals would gasp and make a comment about "how do you stay so THIN eating potatoes, they are so full of CARBS!!!!!!!!" while they sat there eating their chicken or steak and avoiding the potato and bread!!! They never realized it might have something to do with the ketchup that was on my baked potato (as opposed to butter or sour cream).

I have, the past year and a half since losing my regular exercise and starting to gain, tried to cut out some of the starch and eat more non-starch veggies. That would be more in line with the MWL I think, if I remember correctly. But it isn't seeming to make much difference. Or who knows, it may be - maybe I would be even fatter if I hadn't.

I am coming to the conclusion that I just have a huge appetite, for some reason - always have all my life - and that is the reason that even eating super healthy McD only works for me when I'm extremely active. Like someone said earlier, calories still do count.

Since I can no longer waitress, it appears I am going to have to figure out another way to get MASSIVE exercise, or a way to cut calories even FARTHER back that will work for me. Or a combination of both?! I have already taken a step toward this plan by visiting a fitness center. I did Curves for a year after the waitressing ended and it didn't help but this place has a treadmill and I am thinking that might be better. I did almost an hour on it today, day two of my free week and then I will decide if I want to join. Of course I can't do the treadmill 48 hours a week but maybe it can be part of the answer somehow.

Tricia

I crunched some numbers. (I can't help it; it's what I do for a living. )
To gain 50 pounds in 18 months, you averaged an extra 320 calories per day from what you needed to maintain.
(3500 calories per pound x 50 pounds) / (365 days per year x 1.5 years)

Depending on how much flax seed you eat and how hard you exercise, I would guess that ditching the flax and exercising every day (not just a half hour 3 x per week like at Curves) would easily take care of 300 - 500 calories per day. (1/4 cup of flax seed is 224 calories and 66% fat.)

You can do this! Best wishes.

Serenity, I love that you did that! Are you an engineer?

LOL, no. A CPA.

There are some misunderstandings here. First, there is no need to worry about amino acids and 'balancing' your protein--this was a popular theory in the 60's and early 70's that has been thoroughly debunked. Even the original author of that concept has announced that it is false.

Second, Dr. McDougall's program is entirely plant-based and includes no dairy products at all, including the whey you mention. There are very good reasons for this, which you can find out about by going to Dr. McDougall's website and searching past newsletters for "dairy." There are several excellent articles there on the subject.

Finally, most Americans have too much iron in their bodies, unless they have a drastic medical condition like intestinal bleeding.

Dr. McDougall teaches, and we who follow the program discover that he is right, that there is no need to supplement individual nutrients when following a healthy, varied, plant-based diet.

Heart4animals,
Sorry this is happening to you...and I don't think you're the ONLY one...ideally, McDougalling causes most people to lose weight, but sometimes there can be other issues.

I have a very sedentary life now too, and it's true you just don't seem to burn up calories when you sit around at work all day...on top of that, my hobbies are sedentary, and it's now a real chore for me to manage to get some form of workout in...and that does make a difference, to a point.

Since you say you recently stopped smoking, here's my thought (coming from a non-medical person...you realize)--I've read that somehow smoking can sometimes interfere with certain food intolerances. Once you stop smoking, the intestines are free to "react" negatively in a better way to something your body is having difficulty with...also, food intolerances can sometimes cause unexplained weight gain.

I would ask myself HOW I am feeling, besides just the weight gain...how are you feeling besides that? You might want to examine your diet closely for possible food intolerances...the most common ones seem to be to dairy (which you don't consume), glutinous grains, soy, corn, and fructose....from things I've read, but there would be many others possible as well.

I've read quite a bit about this because I don't do doctors either...I find them totally inept at LISTENING to the patient, knowing how to diagnose...and they are fascinated with invasive and dangerous diagnostic tools that give many false clues as to what's going on with the person and often lead to unnecessary and harmful drugs or treatments...not to mention the expense, emotional toll on the patient, and just getting a "bandaid" effect to mask whatever it is that's going on giving people trouble. This is why I like McDougall's approach...he empowers the person to take care of his or her own health. However, overall, McDougalling might work for most people, but some find they have difficulties.

In my own case, it took me a decade to figure out and really learn how to manage a gluten intolerance problem. This caused me excessive, urgent-feeling hunger, possibly my entire life (I've always eaten tons and tons and tons--), and eventually moved on to gradually create digestive issues that manged to sneak up on me to the point where I was able to ignore and sort of turn my attention elsewhere until it was really a bad, bad daily thing. I had to ask myself if this diet was making me well, or possibly making me sick???? Because it was SUPPOSED to make people well!!!

Anyway in my own struggles I managed to educate myself as to how to get all the gluten out and how to expect my health to improve...and now I am amazed and very happy with the changes.

Back to YOUR situation, though...it might be a good idea to examine your daily diet thoroughly, do some research on food intolerances and the multiple ways they surface in individuals, and then see if your answers might be found there. I hope you can find your answers and see the improvement you've been looking for...reap those REWARDS you've expected from following a healthy diet!!!!