[Nursy Lori]

Originally Posted by mom of two crazy boys

Nursy, are you eating 6 times a day? How much water? In that hour of exercise, are you lifting weights? I lost weight slowly at first, but when I increased my calories I lost more, and I wasn't feeling so deprived at the end of the day. Your exercise could be making you lose inches and gain muscle. You know this Ms.Nurse! (I'm a nurse too.) Go to www.calorie-countplus.com and calculate your bmr, calories used in one day (includes everyday calories burned and exercise) and determine how many calories you should be eating. It's probably alot more than you think. Going by those calculations have really made a difference for me. Hang in there. Do you work dayshift eves or nights? Night shift can make it harder for us to lose cause our metabolism is screwed up. I also find when at work, I don't get to really space my food out like I do when I'm home cause of the busy-ness, let alone trying to pee! Let me know.

I work nights, so it does make it harder to do. I don't have a "normal" eating schedule. On work nights I normally eat a healthy dinner before going to work in the evening, then I fix a huge pitcher of water to drink on while at work (when I can actually sit down and drink it), I eat a light snack around 9 or 10, then I eat a healthy meal around midnight or 1 a.m., then I eat another snack around 4 or 5 a.m. On my days/nights off it's usually even harder to eat like I'm supposed to because I'm sleeping in my first day, then I'm usually up late the first night (like right now), but when I go to bed at a normal time, I eat 5 to 6 small meals/snacks during the day and drink water. I have been lifting weights along with my cardio and I have definitely been able to tell that I've lost inches. I was brave enough to post before and now pictures tonight and I can tell when I look at the pictures side by side. I can feel it in my clothes, too. None of my pants fit anymore.......they are falling off of me. Even though my weight is not moving, I'm realizing that I'm probably replacing fat pounds with muscle pounds and toning up.