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Hi...

My wife wants to lose weight in order to join the RAAF.   She is 163cm and weighs 82kg which is a BMI of 30.9 - technically obese.

Now here's the point: she doesn't eat much meat, nearly none, and therefore no meat fats. She doesn't drink tea or coffee or soft drinks. She doesn't eat bread and butter or any kind of sandwich whatever. Instead she'll occasionally make some steamed bread and eat that. She doesn't eat plates of pasta. She doesn't drink fruit juice. She doesn't drink milk. She doesn't eat cakes or candies. She does eat much green vegetable.  In fact vegetables and that steamed bread is about all she lives on.

I think you get the picture. It goes without saying she doesn't drink alcohol. 

It seems to me she's already doing everything or nearly everything that all the usual weight loss programmes recommend and doing nothing that is supposed to create weight in the first place. 

And yet her weight seems to be slowly climbing.

All the world (our world) seems dramatically interested in the obesity and weightloss thing, has been for decades, it's a billion dollar industry - and yet, it seems to me, it is all a scam, no one really knows what causes it and how to reverse it.

Probably because there's a myriad of different reasons for a myriad of different people - and some of those reasons implacable, like perhaps genetic propensity or predisposition.

We'd be delighted if I'm wrong. If someone can confidently point to some thing(s) my wife can do to get this weight off.

 Can anyone?

 

regards,

 

ab  :)

 

 

i'd be xhwxking out if she's even eating enough throughout the day.

years ago, i wouldn't eat breakfast or lunch, but only have dinner. basically your body goes into a 'starvation' mode and holds onto whatever food that comes in, in the hope that it's not going to 'starve'.

i'd increase the amount of protein - even if she can have a protein shake in the afternoon, and one in the morning.

from your description it sounds like your wife has eliminated several food groups from her eating - which is not good if it's not replaced with nutritional equivalents. i'm a vegetarian, have been my entire life, and it took me a long time to learn about how best to replace what i was missing there. i'm actually most concerned that she has no dairy foods by the sound of it.

does your wife take supplements? does she eat replacement food? does she exercise? you haven't mentioned this important factor at all.

i think it would be a really useful exercise for you to sit down with your wife & work out exacty what nutrients she is missing from her diet - maybe even book in with a dietician for a few sessions, and have them help you build a healthy and balanced plan. then, if she's not already exercising, start by walking and doing things she enjoys.

this is only a quick reply as i've only limited time this morning but good luck!

One thing I learnt on weight watchers is that you must eat a balanced variety of food plus get a reasonable amount of exercise to lose weight.  I think they call it "everything in moderation".  Eating too little and getting too much exercise puts your body into starvation mode.

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Nat

This may sound silly but what does she drink?

 

Soft drinks and flavoured milk can have a lot of calories.

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you've said everything she's doing right...can you work out anything she's been doing wrong?  I find it weird that she's putting on, if she's doing all that right...is she exercising? 

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If your wife is gaining weight then she must be consuming more energy than she is using (otherwise she would be violating one of the fundamental laws of physics / nature).

 I would suggest that a record of her food intake should be analysed by a dietician and following that speak to a exercise physiologist.

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AK

It's an old world out there and I'm glad I was part of it!

im trying a low-carb diet atm.

Id have a check up at the doctor there could also be underlying problems

I have hypothyroidism which makes me put on weight

No matter what i do in my life it will always be there and now i know

it really helps me as i have exercised and dieted in the past to lose nothing

and get really frustrated with myself but now i know its my body and for me

to take my medication for my thyroid!

Im not saying she has this but im just saying a good checkup may eliminate if there

is an underlying health issue.

My other problem is that i dont eat enough no alcohol no pasta no lollies or treats

My doctor has assigned me with 6 small meals a day to help me

Needing to include the food groups and making sure i am eating

My big problem is my body is in starvation mode and hanging onto the fat

Anyway i wish you all the very best!

It may just be something simple like the food combinations or lack there of!

Take care and i hope your wife gets into the field that she is looking for!

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It is hard to comment without knowing all the details but if she is eating healthy food, with the right quantities, and is still putting on weight then I would advise a medical check.

Everyone is different so people respond differently to different methods, which is why there's no 'one-size-fits-all' program. I have however seen many successes with the 'one-size-fits-most' program of healthy eating and an active lifestyle.

Ray

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Yep. I'd have to agree with Ray & Devine, get your wife to a good dr immediately. I would find one that specializes in endocrinology, or at least one that will look beyond the numbers when looking at things like THS (thyroid), etc. Also make sure they do the blood test for adrenals. Exhausted adrenals can also cause weight gain.

 My life is turning around slowly since I've been on thyroid replacement therapy. My adrenals are also producing too much cortisol, which is also contributing to the weight problems.

I may never be able to drop the weight at a great pace, but it's slowly coming off. I did manage to lose 20 kilos last year. Not a lot, but not bad, either.

BTW -- I had to go to an integrative health care dr in order to get the help I needed.

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Sally

If she wishes to lose some weight in a hurry very low calorie diets will work.

 

I have used kicstart.

 

http://www.kicstart.com.au/  

 

Like any “diet” it does nothing to address the long term issues and if you go back to your old habits you will end up going back to your old weight.  

 

Exercise has a lot more health benefits than just helping to lose weight and some sort of physical activity is also worthwhile.

 

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Let me just finalise the tranfer agrangements Pentanque,

Now it was all of my money directly transfered toyour offshore bank account in the Caymans?

TF

 

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Sometimes I Need People To Ask Me How I Am REALLY Doing.

HI there,

Due to fast paced daily lifestyles, eating on the run, people have to face a constantly growing endangerment: the over-acidification of the body cells, which will interrupt cellular activities and functions.

It is a major root of sickness and disease, and it is also what causes overweight: to protect itself from potentially serious damage, the body creates new fat cells to store the acids and carry them away from our vital organs.

 

Eating foods that are alkalizing transforms our body’s balance from dangerously acidic to slightly above neutral.  Fresh vegetables, greens and grasses are an excellent anti-yeast and anti-fungal. Green grasses such as barley or wheat grass are some of the lowest-calorie, lowest-sugar and most nutrient-rich foods on earth, and contain high amounts of fiber.

Should you concentrate on these foods, the body’s pH level will gradually be balanced. In addition, as soon as the acidic environment is eliminated, there will be no need for new fat cells to form. That means the fat in our body is no longer needed, and literally melts away.

When pH balance is achieved, the body naturally drops to its healthy weight, food cravings will diminish and energy levels will increase immensely.

Regards, Ten 

 

Here are the few tips to reducing weight.

 

- Take appropriate and timely steps to control your weight

- Give due importance to stress free and relaxed life.

- Change your diet system.

- A balanced diet is very vital to maintain normal weight. Starving is not a solution.

- Take more fruits and vegetables and try to add as much variety to your diet as possible.

- Try new things and new meal ideas.

Including above tips also use some supplements which have natural ingredient. 

 

Hope this information is helpful to you.

AB,

To quote your words "she doesn't eat much meat, nearly none, and therefore no meat fats" and "Instead she'll occasionally make some steamed bread and eat that. In fact vegetables and that steamed bread is about all she lives on".

If this is in fact true of the way your wife eats then she is seriously undernourished. And if "bread" is a staple food in her diet then I am not suprised that she is getting fatter.

Understand that we evolved over 100's of thousands of years, through times of feast and famine. When food was plentiful we ate and put on weight. When food was scarce we scavenged and the weight we put on sustained us. The hormones that govern our metabolism today are a result of our evolutionary eating habits.

During our evolution to the remarkable upright beings we are today we required nutrients that we have come to know as "essential". You may have heard of "essential fatty acids" and "essential amino acids". They are essential because they play vital roles in human physiology. And there are the essential "vitamins and minerals". You may know them better as the "multi-vitamin" They are used as co-factors in important biological reactions in your body.

Now, take away any of these essential nutrients and co-factors and your body (more particularly your wifes body) is going to run like a car with no air in the tyres and a flat battery - it ain't going anywhere!

By missing out on proper nutrition your wife is in a perpetual state of starvation, but getting fatter. You see we possess a pesky enzyme called Lipoprotein Lipase. It plays a major role in the conversion and storage of incoming nutrients to fat. In times of low calories (think back to cave man days) we had to "fatten up" when food was plentiful. Lipoprotein Lipase helped with that. So now whenever we chronically lower our calorie intake Lipoprotein Lipase is upregulated (turned on) in response.

So the take home message for those following along at home is AB's wife needs to very gradually increase her calorie intake and start eating a variety of lean proteins, ingest some essential fatty acids (Omega 3 from fish oil is a good start) and get plenty of fresh raw and / or steamed vegetables.

Oh, and ditch the bread.

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Your Diet Coach