I can't seem to win for losing...

Starting January 1, my wife and I decided that we were going to change our eating habits and do what we could to lose weight.

Our plan was simple. Increase the amount of fiber in our daily diets and eat pre-packaged amounts of food so we could monitor what we were actually getting. I went to Amazon.com and bought a bunch of 100 calorie packs of snacks, Kashi GoLean bars (high fiber/protein), and we switched to whole grain breads and whole wheat pastas.

Everything has been going pretty well, until today. I have been eating a fiber content that has been over 30g/day and losing weight. I have lost about 13 pounds in just about 6 weeks. I thought that was pretty good, but I went to the doctor today. I have high blood-pressure and high-cholesterol, so I have to see him every 4 months. I had my bloodwork done about 10 days ago, so it was ready for my visit. My cholesterol dropped nearly 20 points, but my triglycerides jumped to nearly 400, nearly 200 points higer than 4 months ago.

I was dumbfounded. My doctor explained the situation to me like this. I have been eating a lot of fiber, but the foods I have been using to get it have been very high in carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are only partially being burned, due to the excess, and so they are stored in my bodies fat cells (and there are a lot of them), elevating my triglycerides. Though I am losing weight, I am harming my body chemistry balance by doing so.

Two possible solutions: take another pill, or re-alter my eating habits again to get the fiber content from vegetables and cut out most of the carbs and exercise. I chose the altering my diet and excercise. I don't want another pill, I already take 4 kinds of medicine for my blood pressure and cholesterol.

Here I thought I was doing so well, but like I said in the title, I can't win for losing.

Seems like most "low-calorie" or "diet meals" just have you changing one problem with another. The only way that I have found to shed weight and keep my body as healthy as possible is to switch 75% of my diet to vegetables (almost completely cut bread type foods), and exercise regularly.

The trick is sticking the veggies and the excercise.

First, good for you! This is a good thing you and your wife are doing.

nazpastor wrote:

Two possible solutions: take another pill, or
re-alter my eating habits again to get the fiber content from
vegetables and cut out most of the carbs and exercise. I chose the
altering my diet and excercise. I don't want another pill, I already
take 4 kinds of medicine for my blood pressure and cholesterol.

I think you've made the right choice here. Don't get discouraged, keep it up!