[Kitty]

Well, it seems I've put on 9 pounds over the past 11 months.

How do you keep from gaining weight when:

1) you're not able to do exercise of any kind (except shuffling around the house with my walker)

2) age (I'm 54) is not on your side anymore

3) the food choices I make have more to do with convenience and ease of preparing rather than nutritional composition

I do the best I can but I rarely have the fresh produce I crave since I can't make daily or every other day trips to the market.

I do get frozen fruit (blueberries and strawberries) and keep beans, rice, pasta, eggs and peanut butter on hand always since I can prepare larger batches then eat from it during the week.

I realize those are high carb and sometimes high calorie foods but anything else spoils after one or two days.

I bought canned green beans but they just don't taste like green beans to me.

I guess I'll just have to start making large batches of soup (veggie and/or chicken & rice) and eat from that.

I love red grapefruit and had been keeping a large container of it (cut up in small pieces) in the fridge to snack on but I read somewhere that you're not supposed to eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice with some medications so I just stopped keeping it on hand.

What does everyone else do to keep the weight at least stable??

[SallyC]

This is what helped me lose and then maintain my loss.

I took one per day (it says take two per day, but one per did just fine
& I saved money) and ate Lean Quisine TV dinners, usually 2 dinners
each day = One big meal per day, with snack at night.....(fat free
ice cream with small dark/light chocolate sauce or low fat choc chip
cookies or pretzel crisps w/low fat dip. etc....

While losing weight, I tried to keep Calories at 800/1000 and did lots
of PT type stretches and laying down/sitting exercises. To maintain,
I eat about 1200/1400 cal and still take my 1 a day GC capsule.

19.00 per bottle @ Amazon.

...


Worked for me, anyway.

[Blessings2You]

Originally Posted by Kitty

1) you're not able to do exercise of any kind (except shuffling around the house with my walker)

2) age (I'm 54) is not on your side anymore

3) the food choices I make have more to do with convenience and ease of preparing rather than nutritional composition

I lost 64 pounds over a little short of two years. I reached my goal of 128+ fourteen months ago, and lost 4 more pounds besides.

1) The most strenuous exercise I get is usually going up and down stairs.
2) I'll soon be 65
3) I rarely truly "cook" anymore.

My point: it CAN be done. It's not easy, but it's possible. I used various sources to compute how many calories I should consume daily to maintain my goal weight--I figured if I kept eating at that calorie level, I'd eventually get there. For me, that's around 1350 calories. (I'm only 4'11")

I do a lot of label-reading, and choose the bread/yogurt/salad dressing or whatever with the least calories. I try to keep things sort of balanced, but nutrition isn't as critical to me now as it would have been when I was younger. I hardly ever go out to eat, so it's probably easier for me than someone who is frequently tempted. I don't have any problems with blood pressure or cholesterol, so I have some leeway there.

DelMonte green beans taste better (to me) than the other brands. I wait until they're on sale and buy a boatload of them.

Apples keep pretty well, and apple slices with just a whisper of sugar and cinnamon tastes like a treat. Grapes are my favorite fruit. I like carrot sticks dipped in light ranch dressing. Sometimes we only get to the store every couple of weeks, so we buy canned or things we can freeze.

I have a kitchen scale and weigh meat, potatoes, etc. For me, guessing leads to cheating.

It took me a few weeks to figure out what works and what doesn't. The ONLY way I'll ever avoid gaining it all back is to add up my calories every day. It doesn't work for everybody, but it works for me. After a while you memorize the things you commonly eat anyway.

Dove dark chocolate promises are 42 calories each. I eat two almost every day, unless I'm having some other splurge. It's a high point of my day, right after putting my jammies on

[Kitty]

b2y And Sally I know you remember Jack LaLane. This video is hysterical!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqPVfHnd3nk

[TheSleeper]

I lost 50 pounds in 5 months when I threw the ex out! I no longer needed food in my mouth to prevent me from laughing at her!

On a serious note? I realize my activity level is low, so I don't need to consume as much food. I also don't need to compromise on my food choices, and I am not very picky about what I can eat and call a meal. A bag of frozen vegetables with a little butter and pepper can work for me, or a tuna sandwich.

A different situation for me than some? My son and his buddy live with me, they handle most of the serious cooking projects now, and I don't mind eating leftovers, so we cook extra so I don't have to do much if they aren't around.

Dang I hate being serious!

[Starznight]

I'm also working on trying to lose weight and not gain anymore if nothing else, it's been a ten year battle , though the weight is honestly still the same its the dress size that keeps climbing up... Started at a size 4 (200 lbs of lean muscle) now it's down to 12 from a 16 (200lbs still) ah 5'8" here btw.

For me, my issue has always been eating, I'm a rolly poly aneoxic lol. So to go from 16 to 12 it was a simple matter of setting alarms to remind myself to eat and listening to those alarms. But the DH has decided to get in better health too, so I'll offer what he's done...

Eat breakfast! And include protein with breakfast... Not a bowl of cherrios and glass of OJ. Peanut butter on toast, frozen breakfast links, a hard boiled egg, pick your poison.

Watch portion sizes, even many of the microwave meals are really portioned for 2 meals despite packaged as "individual" meals. See if you can't scare up (or you might already have) an old version of better homes and gardens cookbook. It's great for remembering what a "portion" really is. Like for red meat, make a fist, the size of which is a single portion of 'uncooked' red meat.

As a female, eating red meat is important, but still shouldn't exceed 2x a week. Ditto for fish.

And if freshness is an issue, frozen veggies would be you next best bet, most veggies if you're going to use them with a month can be simply frozen as they come. Longer storage requires the par-boiling and such. Also as a small note for lettuces which don't freeze, whole baby leaf 'bagged' salad mixes last a little over a week in the fridge vs the American or italian mixes.

And as Sally pointed out, PT exercises can certainly help. 20 mins of exercise a day is the recommendation to stay healthy. And it can be broken up into 10 or even 5 min time slots throughout the day.

Given the age factor I imagine you already know to avoid 'fad' diets that tell you to cut out one food or another... So we'll just go with eat a variety, eat often and move as much as you can. If you want a bit of technical help with figuring out where you should be on caloric intake And making sure you're getting some nutrients from your food, I would recommend Myfitnesspal. It's both an app and available online.

[Kitty]

Lots of good suggestions here.....thanks! I think accountability is what makes me succeed.....keeping track of what and how much I eat.

I think a lot of the time I eat out of boredom. I need to get a hobby of some sort but it's hard when your hands don't work well most of the time.

[Lumia_black]

I've went vegetarian and pasta now.... Still though I cannot be as active as I once was... So yes...ive put on about 60 pounds in four years. It sucks. Od like to find out how to shed the weight....but how? I can't do rigourous exercise.

Good thread.

[Starznight]

For lumia: it can be quite difficult to keep down weight without exercise on a veggie/pasta diet. Mostly because that pretty much translates to carb diet. That doesn't mean you have to eat meat, but do ensure you're getting plenty of protein from beans, nuts and seeds. Also make sure your veggies cover a large variety. And try to stick with whole wheat/grain pastas whenever possible. And be careful with the use of oils to flavor (including salad dressings)

Many people think eating salads and going vegan is 'healthier' or will translate to weight loss, but rarely is that the case in fact the opposite is generally more true. The number one issue is to pull off a vegetarian diet one has to basically be a grazer, that is not allowing more than two hours pass without eating. When ones diet is higher in carbohydrates it quickly burns through them, by not replenishing them you're telling your body it is in 'starvation' mode. Which causes it to store them any way they can (weight gain).

Also there's the difficult task of finding veggies and fruits with similar amino acids to red meat (such acids actually help the body build muscle and burn fat) I beleive its gourds that can mimick meats in that, but not 100% sure.

However the number one thing is to ensure you are still getting plenty of protein without eating meat. A body with insufficient protein will turn to mush, it's what fuels and builds muscles, without enough even if you were an Olympic competitor last year your body would quickly breakdown making weight loss impossible.

[Kitty]

I got a carb counter in the mail today! It's from Atkins so I'm sure they want me to buy their foods.

I've lost weight before on a low carb diet but I was working at the time and was busy.....not sitting at home watching food commercials! Does it seem like every other commercial if for food?? Maybe I just need to stop watching TV.

My problem is I love carbs. Bread, pasta, etc. I think it's just asking for failure if I try to remove all of that from my diet so I will try to manage my intake and keep a record of what I eat so I can see just where my downfall is.

I think it's between breakfast and supper