Girl Diet & Cycle Changes

[momamia4]

I was really hoping to lose some weight before my Tubal Reversal and figured I would kill 2 birds with 1 stone and start the girl diet to get the ball rolling. So, I started the Girl Diet officially on Aug 1st. Since then, my cycle has been nuts! I had a 2 day period in August followed by a 25 day cycle and a 4 day period. I guess I should be thrilled because normally I have long cycles (around 30-36 days) and long periods (6-8 days). I think I'm mostly just surprised at how quickly changing my diet effected my hormones! Has anyone else experienced this?

I suppose it could also be due to the exercise (cardio 30-45mins 5-7 times/week). I have never ever worked out that much! I am however very disheartened that I haven't lost any weight at all. Maybe I need to make more changes to the diet to make it more IR friendly? I thought that the recipes I had chosen were pretty Insulin Resistance friendly, but maybe not. I am not sure what else to do at this point. I definitely have a lot of weight to lose, so that's not the problem at all. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Here's my usual diet:
Breakfast: Cream on top Brown Cow Yogurt & Taste Nirvana Coconut Water
Snack: 1/8 cup nuts & a banana
Lunch: 2Tbsp Hummus, 16 hint of salt Wheat Thins, 1 c carrot sticks
Snack: 1 cup 1% cottage cheese, piece of fruit
Dinner: 2c stir fry veggies, stir fry sauce, 1 tbsp canola oil, 1 c brown rice

I usually have a cup of coffee around 11am and have been drinking crystal lite in place of my usual water. What am I doing wrong? I really appreciate any help anyone can provide.

[bluebonnet22]

What are your totals for fat, protein, calories ? On LE we eat only 2x per day (3 max!) so my first critique is just cut down the number of snacks. You want to be quite hungry before eating so meals should have long fasts in between.

[momamia4]

Well, for this particular example my totals are 45g fat, 48.5g protein, and 1445 for calories. With insulin resistance, the eating requirements are adjusted and I'm supposed to eat 5 times a day (specifically protein 5 times/day) according to atomic. I just not sure if I'm matching things correctly. I probably should have messaged atomic specifically. Thanks for replying though!

[bluebonnet22]

Hrm totals look good, sorry didn't know you were on a different plan. Not sure why not weight loss yet, but I will say my weight loss was really slow at first and sped up quite a bit after the first month. I know for some people (myself included) when you first start exercising your body holds onto weight for the first few weeks. I'm not a big exerciser but every time I start I lose hardly any weight until I stick with it for 6 weeks or more.

[momamia4]

Hmmm.... Maybe that's what is going on with me. My husband is convinced that I am losing something. I have lost inches but I haven't dropped any weight. I guess I'll stick to it and see what happens. I'm going to read through my sway plan again and the IR diet recommendations and try to make some changes. Hopefully that'll help!

[momamia4]

So, after re-reading everything. It turns out that I've been doing it wrong all along! I am only supposed to be eating 2-3 times per day. I am just supposed to be eating 5 servings of protein instead of only 2-3! Since I figured it out before my usual snack time, I just skipped it and added it to my lunch. That way I'm still hitting all of the requirements except now I am actually doing what I was supposed to be doing all along! I am so frustrated with myself for not asking for help sooner and for not double checking to make sure I understood what I was supposed to be doing. Hopefully, now that I've figured out my problem, I'll start losing some weight! Thanks again bluebonnet!

[bluebonnet22]

No problem, I do think the long fasts/not snacking have really helped my weight loss. I also do my running on an empty stomach in the morning which works well for me (and really sped up my weight loss!), but I know that some can't work out on an empty stomach. Good luck! Hope you see the results you want soon!

[essnce629]

Good luck! Glad you figured out all the diet specifics before your attempt!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes I'm sorry I tried and tried to come up with a less confusing way to describe that but it's SERVINGS, not meals. 2-3 meals a day.

Fasting longer between meals (if you can stick to it) can really really help improve insulin response and may help shift weight. I know the conventional wisdom has been "eat lots of little meals to lose weight" but newer evidence is showing that our bodies may need a break between meals and that it's probably "natural" for us to have some periods of time between meals where we aren't grazing.