Expert Help, where to go?

AnswerIs42

Hi,

I am posting this on behalf of a friend who wouldn't be too tech savvy.

My friend is a woman in her early 60's who is 5'7 and weights a little over 14 stone. Her goal is to lose as much weight as possible. To that end, since January, she has gone on a diet and starting exercising.

Her diet consists of a strict 1000 cals a day with good proper food. For example, lunch would be a chicken breast and salad, breakfast would be a bowl of porridge...etc

Her exercise consists of 3 trips to a curves gym p/w where she does the interval workout that's all electronic. She goes to a machine, inserts a card and it keeps track of the weight and reps.

She also runs twice a week. This involves a ten minute warm up run then 8 interval sessions of 90 secs on, 60 secs off followed by a warm down.

Despite all this, she has lost only 1 pound per month. To my mind, she is doing everything right. There are no binge sessions or falling of the wagon weekends, she doesn't drink or smoke.

To get to the point of this thread, can anyone recommend an expert to see? I don't think a personal trainer is going to help as the gym stuff is all automatic and she seems to be doing everything right on the diet side so I'm not even sure what kind of expert to look for.

Maybe someone has had similar frustrations and can recommend a course of action?

Thanks for any help

Atlantic Dawn

Is she taking any medicines or food supplements? Does she drink any soft drinks or diet soft drinks?

AnswerIs42

Hi AD,

No, doesn't like soft drinks so none of that.

No medication either but she does have a shake once a day as part of her 1000 cals. I don't know the exact make/brand but it is ment as a meal supplement as oppose to a meal replacement.

runawaybishop

AnswerIs42 wrote: »

Hi,

I am posting this on behalf of a friend who wouldn't be too tech savvy.

My friend is a woman in her early 60's who is 5'7 and weights a little over 14 stone. Her goal is to lose as much weight as possible. To that end, since January, she has gone on a diet and starting exercising.

Her diet consists of a strict 1000 cals a day with good proper food. For example, lunch would be a chicken breast and salad, breakfast would be a bowl of porridge...etc

Her exercise consists of 3 trips to a curves gym p/w where she does the interval workout that's all electronic. She goes to a machine, inserts a card and it keeps track of the weight and reps.

She also runs twice a week. This involves a ten minute warm up run then 8 interval sessions of 90 secs on, 60 secs off followed by a warm down.

Despite all this, she has lost only 1 pound per month. To my mind, she is doing everything right. There are no binge sessions or falling of the wagon weekends, she doesn't drink or smoke.

To get to the point of this thread, can anyone recommend an expert to see? I don't think a personal trainer is going to help as the gym stuff is all automatic and she seems to be doing everything right on the diet side so I'm not even sure what kind of expert to look for.

Maybe someone has had similar frustrations and can recommend a course of action?

Thanks for any help

1k calories is far too low. How does she know thats what she is eating, is she weighing her food? Is she counting drinks?

For example, a 40g serving of porridge is 148 calories. However, you wouldnt feed a sp[arrow on that. My serving would be closer to 130-160grams with full fat milk (not water) and probably hit 600-800 calories with sugar etc.

runawaybishop

runawaybishop wrote: »

1k calories is far too low. How does she know thats what she is eating, is she weighing her food? Is she counting drinks?

For example, a 40g serving of porridge is 148 calories. However, you wouldnt feed a sp[arrow on that. My serving would be closer to 130-160grams with full fat milk (not water) and probably hit 600-800 calories with sugar etc.

I don't want to disagree with your advice, because you give excellent advice, much better than I would have. However, 40g of porridge I find to be a lot of food. I'm kind of shocked of how much of it you can get down your neck, I wouldn't be able for that much at all at all.

It's only relevant because I would imagine most women would be satisfied with 40grams of porridge, made with around 250mls milk.

When I have porridge it works out at 315calories, 40g made with 260mls LF milk, 10g raisins, 1tsp chia seeds. And it's a lot of food to be atein.

runawaybishop

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't want to disagree with your advice, because you give excellent advice, much better than I would have. However, 40g of porridge I find to be a lot of food. I'm kind of shocked of how much of it you can get down your neck, I wouldn't be able for that much at all at all.

It's only relevant because I would imagine most women would be satisfied with 40grams of porridge, made with around 250mls milk.

When I have porridge it works out at 315calories, 40g made with 260mls LF milk, 10g raisins, 1tsp chia seeds. And it's a lot of food to be atein.

315 is a lot more than 148 though - people often forget to account for milk, sugar, honoey, banana or what have you

I wouldn't even blink at 3x 40g servings of porridge and my very scientific research in the office around me indicates that this is the case with my colleagues.

FYI, look at the actual serving amount of 45g in a bowl versus the pic on the box of Alpen. I'd eat whats in the pic, its probably around 120-150g.

Alf Veedersane

The salient point is to know what you're having. People assume they're having a serving a lot of the time when they might be having multiples.

runawaybishop

runawaybishop wrote: »

315 is a lot more than 148 though - people often forget to account for milk, sugar, honoey, banana or what have you

I wouldn't even blink at 3x 40g servings of porridge and my very scientific research in the office around me indicates that this is the case with my colleagues.

FYI, look at the actual serving amount of 45g in a bowl versus the pic on the box of Alpen. I'd eat whats in the pic, its probably around 120-150g.

Oh I know it is, but you said that a normal serving wouldn't fill a sparrow, I was just pointing out that most women wouldn't eat a lot more than that in one sitting. It's far from a sparrows portion! God I can't imagine eating three portions of it :eek:

Totally agree with you on the Alpen. Which is exactly why I would never buy it - way too addictive

But yes, as Alf says your point is bang on, knowing what portion sizes is so important.

runawaybishop

Deleted User wrote: »

Oh I know it is, but you said that a normal serving wouldn't fill a sparrow, I was just pointing out that most women wouldn't eat a lot more than that in one sitting. It's far from a sparrows portion! God I can't imagine eating three portions of it :eek:

Totally agree with you on the Alpen. Which is exactly why I would never buy it - way too addictive

You eat over twice the recommended amount though

runawaybishop

runawaybishop wrote: »

You eat over twice the recommended amount though

I don't follow?

I eat twice the recommended about of porridge?

runawaybishop

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The salient point is to know what you're having. People assume they're having a serving a lot of the time when they might be having multiples.

Indeed, as was my point. People often really underestimate what they are eating, or ignore calories from some things such as a cuppa. 4x cups of tea with milk and sugar daily is probably 160 calories, x7 days is an extra 1120 calories not accounted for. You'd easily stick on a pound a month with that.

runawaybishop

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't follow?

I eat twice the recommended about of porridge?

So, I said the recommend amount of porridge is tiny and wouldn't feed a sparrow. You disagreed and said you wouldn't each much more than 40g but you actually consume x2 the calories than the serving suggestion as you add milk and whatnot. 40g of porridge, the way they suggest you eat it (i.e with water) is actually very low in calories..

runawaybishop

runawaybishop wrote: »

So, I said the recommend amount of porridge is tiny and wouldn't feed a sparrow. You disagreed and said you wouldn't each much more than 40g but you actually consume x2 the calories than the serving suggestion as you add milk and whatnot. 40g of porridge, the way they suggest you eat it (i.e with water) is actually very low in calories..

Ah I see.

Yeh I used to eat it with water and still wouldn't have been able to eat more than one bowl. Now when I do eat it with milk in order to get more calories in.

Didn't mean to drag the thread off topic, apologies.

runawaybishop

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah I see.

Yeh I used to eat it with water and still wouldn't have been able to eat more than one bowl. Now when I do eat it with milk in order to get more calories in.

Didn't mean to drag the thread off topic, apologies.

Well, the op mentions porridge so i think this highlights how misleading the nutritional boxes can be.

AnswerIs42

runawaybishop wrote: »

1k calories is far too low. How does she know thats what she is eating, is she weighing her food? Is she counting drinks?

For example, a 40g serving of porridge is 148 calories. However, you wouldnt feed a sp[arrow on that. My serving would be closer to 130-160grams with full fat milk (not water) and probably hit 600-800 calories with sugar etc.

As far as I know, she is counting the calories. She has been in weight watchers before so I'm assuming she knows how to do it accurately.

Even allowing for being, let's say 200 cals a day off, given the amount of exercise that she has introduced to her regime, surly you would be expecting a bigger drop than 1 pound a month?

Deer

Would she go to a dietician?

My 15 year old was referred to one. The dietician will calculate her bmr and recommend calorie amount based on age, activity and food regarding any medical conditions etc.

I'm same height and losing on 1700 but I am in my thirties so I would imagine its different progress etc.

If it was my mum who is also in her early sixties and she could not shift it that's what I would recommend. She could ask her gp if she can be referred to community dietician (I am not too sure if anyone can as daughter has condition so she got referral based on that) or I presume can be referred privately.

AnswerIs42

Deer wrote: »

Would she go to a dietician?

My 15 year old was referred to one. The dietician will calculate her bmr and recommend calorie amount based on age, activity and food regarding any medical conditions etc.

I'm same height and losing on 1700 but I am in my thirties so I would imagine its different progress etc.

If it was my mum who is also in her early sixties and she could not shift it that's what I would recommend. She could ask her gp if she can be referred to community dietician (I am not too sure if anyone can as daughter has condition so she got referral based on that) or I presume can be referred privately.

Yes, I think this is probably the way to go. Get a firm cals per day allowance and take it from there.

Thanks for the help folks