Answer:

Hello and thank you for your questions. Losing weight can be a difficult problem because so many different factors play a role. There can be important medical reasons for gaining weight, and you should consult your doctor to be sure you do not have a medical problem which is causing your weight gain. If not, please bear a few facts in mind in thinking about your weight. Sometimes people's weight seems to be high, but for their height and build they are not overweight at all. Sometimes women gain and lose quite a lot of weight during their monthly cycles. Sometimes weight gain results from overeating when people are stressed in their lives or in their work, or because they feel depressed, and they eat too much because it makes them feel better. And sometimes people weigh more than they would like because that is the proper weight for their specific body...the body wants to be that weight, and will do everything possible to maintain it. Normal weights vary from low to high, and despite what we want, our bodies sometimes do what they want, and that is sometimes the right thing for us.

Taking an excellent multivitamin can sometimes help with weight control. We have some suggestions on how to deal with stress and how to pick a good multivitamin in the English language section of our sister website www.NutritionNo1.com.

From your note it sounds like you have done many different things to lose weight. Your experience with the 1200 calorie diet is not unusual, however. When you significantly reduce your calories your body thinks you are Starving and tries to turn down the metabolic furnace to conserve the fuel needed To maintain life, and when you begin to eat again it tries to store plenty Of fuel for the next time there is not enough food to eat, and your weight will go up, sometimes by a lot. It is also difficult to keep eating so little if you find satisfaction in eating, or if eating helps you to relax, so when you begin to eat again after such a diet you feel so much better that you tend to overeat. Such diets are not a very good way to lose weight, and will not work at all if your body is trying to keep your weight at a particular level because that is where it is supposed to be for you as an individual.

This weight is called a "set point" and it is different for everyone. Your weight may go up during your monthly cycle as well. This kind of Weight gain is quite normal and should resolve during your cycle too. Try to Keep track of whether this is an influence on your weight gain. Eating before going to bed is an excellent way to gain weight if that is What you want to do. And eating lots of carbohydrates such as cereal is also An excellent way to gain, even if we don't want to. There is a reason we May eat more carbohydrates than is good for us: eating carbohydrates helps Our brains produce a chemical called serotonin which relaxes us. This Especially relaxing at night before going to sleep. See if you eat at night to relax.

Try to see if eating helps you to feel happier too. Some people who have a mild depression can improve their moods by eating carbohydrate-heavy meals or snacks. Your doctor can help you find out if depression plays a role in how you eat. Low-fat foods are not necessarily low in calories. The fat removed from A food must be replaced by something else and is usually replaced with carbohydrates. If you eat more carbohydrates than your body burns for fuel the extra carbohydrates are converted to fat which is stored, and your weight goes up. It may be possible to replace some of those carbohydrates with protein which is not stored as fat. So increasing the amount of protein in your meals may be helpful as well, as long as you do not increase the amount of fat or carbohydrates in your diet at the same time.

Remember that weight changes for two reasons: it goes up when the number of calories eaten is greater than the number of calories burned, and it goes down when the number of calories burned is greater than the number of calories eaten. If you find it difficult to reduce the number of calories you eat, you must increase the number of calories you burn in order to lose weight. An excellent way to do that is to increase your exercise. We suggest walking, not running or jogging, at a slightly fast pace for 30 minutes a day. It is not difficult to fit 30 minutes of walking into even a very busy schedule. We also suggest walking up one or two flights of stairs, and walking down the stairs also if possible. You'll find you can fit in a lot of walking simply by thinking about it. Take it easy when you first start out with walking or taking the stairs. It is important to add exercise or increase it gradually. If you do too much too soon you may hurt yourself or tire yourself out and then quit exercising altogether. The goal is to exercise a little every day, and to do it consistently for a long time. If you do, you will see significant changes, but it will not happen overnight.

Just keep doing it and after a while you will be very pleased. By the way, exercise such as walking can also help improve your mood, so you feel happier and less depressed, and are less likely to eat just to feel better. So it has lots of benefits.

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