The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[DogMa]

Yeah, Luke. I liked him so much last time, and then they called the other day to cancel my appointment because he'd been fired.

I'm glad, too, though. about the dinner thing. I got in a good workout (basically did what I did with him last time, only increased the weight on a few things and did even more weighted lunges) and tomorrow should be good, too, since I'll do upper body with Sean/Shawn. I figure I'll tell him how much I liked Luke, because I WANT someone who's kind of tough on me (although I already kinda miss hearing him say "very nice" in his Borat-like accent). Then came home and had the dinner I had planned. I'm going to stick to the plan all weekend and see if I break through and lose a bit more. Sigh. And I'm still waiting a couple of more weeks, for when I'm supposed to finally become a fat-burning machine. Maybe THEN I can go back to a weekly free meal, if I ever get my metabolism fixed up.

[DogMa]

OK, this is just crazy. I realize I had a tiny bit more sodium than usual yesterday, but really not that much. And I went to the gym, but I'm not sore, so I apparently could have done better there and doubt that I'm retaining much extra water in my muscles. Anyway, 135.4. What's up with that??

I see the trainer today, but I'll cut back on salt and see if I start dropping down again tomorrow or the next day. But now I wonder if my 2-pound roller-coaster has nothing to do with free meals and is going to happen no matter what I do.

But I know Mr. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle said it could take six to eight weeks on the program to repair a severely damaged metabolism, so I'm hanging on. I certainly seem to be doing everything I can to repair it.

On the plus side, my thighs are measurably thinner than they were a month ago or even when I finished Medifast. A full inch.


Edited to emphasize: I am NOT freaking out about the number on the scale. No, I'm not happy about it, but I'm still sticking to my plan and doing exactly what I said I was going to do: continue eating and exercising as I have been, but skip the free meal this weekend and see if that has any effect.

[Tawanda]

Robin, hang in there---cause I'm very interested in how this works for you and also because I want it to work for you (to fire up your metabolism into a 'normal' range).

Thanks again for sharing your journey, with us.

[holberry]

Robin, that is great on the inch lost on your thights. Great accomplishment
h

[MerryMary]

But I know Mr. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle said it could take six to eight weeks on the program to repair a severely damaged metabolism, so I'm hanging on. I certainly seem to be doing everything I can to repair it.

Robin, I have a question. I've not read your entire journal so forgive me if you've mentioned it before ... have you any idea HOW your metabolism got so severly damaged? How did you determine that was the problem? I've heard that low calorie diets can do it so I've been weight training while I'm on MF to develop muscle. But I am concerned ...

Congrats on the lost inch! How marvelous!!

[DogMa]

I don't know for sure, but the main problems seem to be: many years of dieting and eating far too few calories (mostly because of not being hungry while I was in ketosis) and possibly some hormonal issues from going through menopause extremely early (my early 30s). It's why I chose Medifast in the first place, because I was already eating 1,000 calories a day and NOT losing, and the combination of eating six times a day and eating even fewer calories seemed to work (except that even on the program, I struggled for every pound, and by the end, I was losing weight extremely slowly and not losing body fat at all, which is when I decided to go off the program).

So I lost weight on the program, but I suspect I did even more damage in the process. I just hope it's not irreversible. I figure I'm doing everything right and everything they say to do to speed up a slow metabolism. I just hope it kicks in at some point and gets revved up.

And again, all this is just my experience. Most people seem to do fine, and even though the literature says your metabolism will be slowed for a while after transitioning to maintenance, it apparently only lasts a short time, from what others who have reached goal say.

[DogMa]

Oops, almost forgot to post my workouts for the day. I did the treadmill thing, of course, plus a few minutes extra at the end. And then met with the new trainer Shaun, who I really didn't like at all. First he double-booked and I had to wait half an hour, then he was totally unprepared and just kind of made things up as we went along. And I said I wanted to do upper body, since I'd done lower body last night. He spent the entire time on chest and shoulders, the things I want to work the least, and none at all on biceps or triceps. Argh. So I'm going to have to do my arms tonight or tomorrow on my own.

And I think I'm going to call the other L.A. Fitness near me and see if they have more trainers on Saturdays so I can set up something over there instead. Because I just didn't like working with this guy at all. And the whole time, he was looking around the gym and watching other people instead of paying attention to what I was doing. And he's a manager!

[MerryMary]

I don't know for sure, but the main problems seem to be: many years of dieting and eating far too few calories (mostly because of not being hungry while I was in ketosis) and possibly some hormonal issues from going through menopause extremely early (my early 30s). It's why I chose Medifast in the first place, because I was already eating 1,000 calories a day and NOT losing, and the combination of eating six times a day and eating even fewer calories seemed to work (except that even on the program, I struggled for every pound, and by the end, I was losing weight extremely slowly and not losing body fat at all, which is when I decided to go off the program).

So I lost weight on the program, but I suspect I did even more damage in the process. I just hope it's not irreversible. I figure I'm doing everything right and everything they say to do to speed up a slow metabolism. I just hope it kicks in at some point and gets revved up.

And again, all this is just my experience. Most people seem to do fine, and even though the literature says your metabolism will be slowed for a while after transitioning to maintenance, it apparently only lasts a short time, from what others who have reached goal say.

Thanks. What you say makes sense and it was helpful to hear. I hope you can get your metabolism going full steam again!

[SuzyQ66]

Hi Robin - just realized that next month you will be celebrating a year of having met goal and maintaining there. Congrats Robin - keep up the good work.

[DogMa]

Thanks, Suzy (and glad to help, Mary). Yep, it'll be a whole year very soon, although the work on my body didn't stop then. It's more just a year since I finished Medifast and reached my goal size (athough I decided since then I'd like to drop one more size).

134.6 today, so it's dropping back down. I'm also really sore today from Friday night's workout, so I guess it was harder than I realized and I just had a delayed reaction. The good news is that means my muscles probably ARE retaining quite a bit of water. I'm off to the treadmill, and tonight I'll do abs. And today I'm actually going to take some time and go to a movie. In the morning, which always feels so decadent.

[katieb920]

You go girl.............. I hope I have as much energy as you do, when I hit maintenece. I am exhausted just reading what you post, on all the different exercises you do.
Katie

[DogMa]

It feeds on itself, Katie. I find that if I skip my morning workout, even when it's planned because I need a day off, I have less energy all day long. Same with the afternoon one: On the days I don't do an afternoon workout, I'm falling asleep on the couch in the evening.

133.8 this morning, so here comes the test to see if I'll drop below that after not having any kind of free meal this weekend (closest I came was having a bar each day rather than my usual, cleaner stuff).

Off to the treadmill. I think we're doing Walk and Kick this afternoon.

[DogMa]

Ugh. My co-worker (and teammate) is out AGAIN this week. I think this is the sixth week I've been putting out my sections on my own, although at least I'm getting more help from the rest of the desk now. Still, it's a huge pain.

Ooh, and last night I ordered a few different gym logs from Amazon. I've been just printing out free ones, but I want something more structured and in a notebook, so I can keep it all together. I'm excited to have a new toy for the gym! (OK, so the real reason I posted was because my journal was sinking down to the bottom of the page and I don't want it to get lost!)

I miss Biki!

[Tawanda]

Robin.....I miss Biki, too, but hopefully she'll be back tomorrow or the next day.

An exercise/gym log......never come across one of those -- I will have to google it and see what I find (just curious). I'm not exercising enough to warrant needing to write it down. Yet.......

[DogMa]

It's basically just so you can track what exercises you do, how many reps and sets, and with what weights. Just to track your progress, plus so you know what to do each time you go to the gym instead of wandering around picking machines at random. All three that I looked at on Amazon got good ratings, and they HAVE to be better than the way I've been doing it.

Plus it's a toy. What I REALLY want is this thing my friend's boyfriend got that supposedly measures how many calories you're burning (I think by your body heat). It's way too expensive, but I SO want to try it out. I suggested the paper do a story on it. And test it out on me. But the editor hasn't bitten.

Of course, my birthday is coming up ...