So just do a good hard cardio session while limiting my fluid consumption and then weigh myself quickly before ingesting fluids?

I liked the information about glycogen so I am posting here to tag this thread incase I need to find it later.

Judy.... no wonder you were feeling faint and whatnot. Your body cannot function on 900 calories a day with 3 hours of exercise. It's not nearly enough and it's only going to harm you.

With that much exercise you need more calories. Probably around 1500, I'm no expert, but I'm losing weight eating around 1500 calories with an hour of exercise or more a day.

I would increase your calories (and good calories) whole grains, vegetables, fruit, lean protein and continue exercising.

Plus you also need to vary your exercises every once in a while to keep challenging your body.

That was my routine back in my early 30s when I still believed it was possible to attain a model-type body if I worked hard enough. LOL All that work, all that starvation and I never got under 150 pounds. Even at that weight I was wearing a size 6 and frequently heard that I was "too skinny".

Nowadays I'm more realistic...I woud be happy at 175. I don't mind working out...I just want to eat enough to not be hungry..indulge my liking for a little wine and not suffer hypoglycemic episodes too often.

There's nothing wrong with indulging every so often; I do that myself. Just most of the time you have to eat proper portions and healthy food. I find counting my calories really helps me keep on track. That doesn't mean I don't blow it on some days, but that helps me stick to being healthy. Knowing that I can have what I want (but not go overboard when I do) really is the reason I'm doing well. If I completely had limited myself to only eating certain things, I would have failed no doubt (I know I've tried that before).

So if the majority of the time you eat healthy and stick to proper portions, the odd glass of wine here and there, or whatever other food you like... won't harm ya.

<<The only thing I can say is to keep track of your eating like you've been doing and not to leave anything out.

--->>Thanks Risty... been keeping a record of exactly what's going into my gut this week... happy to say that I thought I really blew it last night cos I had a hypoglycemic issue on way home last night, but when I tallied up the cals, it wasn't all that bad! WHEW! Also helped that I still had another 700-800 calories to blow for evening. <g>

<<<I would say that exercise is important as well. I know for me just eating the 1500 cals or a bit less only maintains my weight. I had to start exercising again to lose the weight.

--->>Alas even with exercise I can't seem to budge it... am trying tho. Will be back at gym at lunchtime today. Actually really beginning to LIKE that place... LOL!

<<Again, I wish you luck on your weight loss. Keep a log of your food and let ExercisePhysio look at it. Eat what you normally would eat so that he can get a look at what you normally do.

--->>Ah well I didn't keep a diary of what I "normally" ate before... but overall I've been trying to stick with limited calories for ages now... so can't really give a "before" and "after". I think tho if I could just kick out not eating after say 8pm I may be *ok* but it's difficult to do that when I don't get home til 7-7:30pm and dinner isn't made until after 8pm... not a good scenario. Working on it tho...

<<<First I have to apologize to you Darkmstf, I am not trying to hijack your thread...but one word jumped out at me.

---->>No apologies needed at all Judy... we're in the same boat...

<<Hypoglycemia!

--->>Evil, ain't it?

<<I've battled my weight for most of my life but back when I was in my early 30s I was determined to win the battle and I worked out for 90 minutes in the morning (30 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes of toning exercises (crunches, lunges, abs, etc) and 30 minutes of work with free weights. I did the same thing in the evening and counted every thing that went into my mouth. I lived on about 900 calories per day and diet pepsi.

--->>900 calories??? Now that's low... I'm not a fitness expert by far but I know I'd crash and burn if all I took in was 900 calories plus did the all day bit and worked out for 90 minutes.

<<So...I start getting these episodes where my heart would race, I would feel faint, I would get sweaty and shaky. The worst of the symptoms would pass if I laid down but I would be left with residual weakness, feeling shaky...and that would last for hours.

----->>I hear ya... get that often unfortunately. No rhyme or reason for it sometimes, but usually it happens more often if I don't eat.

<<That name was hypoglycemia and it's very common among women who diet and exercise strenuously. She told me when these episode hit, I should eat a small piece of fruit. It was almost magical. I would still have some residual weakness...but nothing like before.

--->>Yes ... I'm sorry your doc wasn't able to put a handle on it earlier for you... aw heck I even figured it out on my own I think. It's very frustrating to have hypoglycemia cos it can really sabotage a diet... when the "low" happens you need to get something into you fast, and depending on where you are at the time, your options my be limited (as in grabbing a piece of candy vs. fruit or other *real* food).

<<Since putting on weight I only rarely suffer episodes...but occasionally. So it's the hypoglycemia that makes it so difficult for me to lose weight? And the cure is exercise and drinking less water?

--->>Somehow I don't think so.... I get hypo events even when NOT drinking excess water or working out too strenuously ... wish there was a "magical" pill that could keep sugar levels on an even keel all day.

<<There has to be something else.....

--->>I'm with ya on that!

<<<If you have a predisposition towards hypoglycemia then it might be harder to burn your glycogen stores. Which means it might be harder to shed what I would call "sugar weight". This is weight you need not worry about.

----->>Michael, as usual, thank you for responding. Of course I got more questions .... So a hypoglycemic person does have more issues with shedding weight? But what do you mean "weight you need not worry about?" Doesn't it count towards "weight"?

<<Your body needs glucose to run. You do exercise, you burn glucose from your bloodstream. Your body needs to have that sugar in your bloodstream replaced. So it calls on your liver to replace it. What does it replace it with? Glucose in the form of glycogen stored in your liver. The delivery method of that blood is called glucagon.

--->>Got that.

<<Glucagon goes: Ummm...mr.liver, there is not enough glucose here. Can you take your glycogen and start splitting it up into glucose and giving it to us? When you are hypoglycemic, your body really sucks at getting the glucagon to boss the liver around. Call it lazy glucagon or what have you.

--->>So it takes longer for the glycogen to be released and converted?

<<So think of it this way. Since your liver is being obnoxious it's storing all this glycogen. Your body only holds 2000 calories of this stuff max. For most things like carbs or protein, thats 500 g...or approximately a pound. But for glycogen its different. Glycogen is 4 parts water. This makes it responsible for up to 5 pounds of weight. It's a lot.

--->>5 lbs.???? GEESH!

<<Exercise will eventually moderate this hypoglycemic effect. For now if you want to really see where you stand without the water and the glycogen...Go on a brisk walk on the treadmill for 90 minutes and avoid drinking water.

--->>Umm... who's gonna send the paramedics to come wipe me off the floor???? I recently got on the treadmill at the gym (never really used it before) ... set myself up for a brisk slight incline walk... did only about 15 minutes... I was sweating but feeling okay (so I thought) ... but made a boo-boo... I just slowed down quickly and walked off treadmill. HA! I felt like I just rolled off a boat and hadn't gotten my landlegs yet! But was also very lightheaded and dizzy for a good 15 minutes ... didn't help that the FAN on the treadmill wasn't working and that I didn't have water at the time. Thus I know if I even tried to do a treadmill for 90 minutes w/o water I'd be in a whole heap of trouble! But I tell you what, that will be one of my goals... to see if I can manage to do the treadmill straight for at least an hour (can't do 90 minutes... don't have that long of a lunch-hour). With no water. At a brisk NYC powerwalk.