Posts by dolphinclick

It's sort of weird saying why I decided to lose weight.  I decided to lose weight when I was 13 years old (and 9 pounds lighter than I am now), and here I am, 19 years later, still trying to lose weight.   But I suppose this year I aggressively went about making it happen instead of feeling sorry for myself that I couldn't manage to lose weight.  I think the straw that broke the camel's back was that I just didn't feel comfortable in my own skin anymore.  Part of it was definitely for appearance, but when I realized I was just a couple pounds shy of becoming obese, there was the niggling fear that if I didn't do something now, I was just going to get heavier and heavier as I got older, and one day my health would suffer for it.  I couldn't let that happen.

So, 20 pounds down, and probably healthier for it, but definitely feeling more comfortable.  I can't wear a bikini yet, but I don't think people see me as fat anymore, and I look good in regular clothing.  Now, if I can just get past this bloody plateau so I can get down to a healthy BMI for the first time since I lost weight when I had mono in college.

Ditto what everyone else said.  There's nothing wrong with having treats with sugar in them, but there is something wrong with having them instead of healthy meals.  If you don't want to eat the school lunches because they are unhealthy or unappetizing, couldn't you bring lunch with you from home?  A sandwich or something like that instead of granola bars?

To those who are freaking out that 21 WW points = 1050 calories, it's not the case.  21 points can be as little as about 800 calories (if you're eating a steady diet of pure fat) or as much as 2310 calories (if you're eating a lot of fiber and next to no fat).  Most people fall somewhere in the middle, but this is why I'm not a huge fan of weight watchers.  I did weight watchers about 7 years ago for a whole year and lost a grand total of 6 pounds.

My advice: Try counting your calories instead of points.  Use the tools on this site to figure out how many calories you're burning and subtract 500 from that each day and log what you eat.  There's a little less guesswork that way.  Though I do think that eating at maintenance for a few weeks will probably do your metabolism a world of good, like previous posters said.  There's a calculator for if you're under 21 that someone around here I'm sure has a link to rather than using the one here that isn't really meant for kids and teens.

You are currently at a very healthy weight with a BMI of 21.5.  Your goal of 110 lbs would put you at a BMI of 18.9, a rather low BMI that hovers just above underweight.  At 18 years old, believe it or not, you're still growing -- not in height, but in other ways.  A good portion of that weight probably wasn't fat.  Some of it was probably good weight gain like bone density, which doesn't make you bigger and doesn't require a calorie surplus, merely adequate nutrition, something you weren't giving your body before.

And yes, some of the weight probably was fat.  But you have to understand that you don't get to keep your 16 year old figure forever.  Women need fat on their hips and breasts in order to be able to carry babies to term.  I know that this is going to be hard, especially since you've been starving yourself thin for so long, but take a good look at your body objectively, and I'll bet you'll find that you're not even close to being fat.  And before you start, here's one tip: your hip bones aren't supposed to stick out.

I did notice a guy heavy breathing at the gym once.  But that was only because he was wheezing so badly I was afraid he was going to pass out.

I also find it really encouraging to see the people who have successfully lost their weight healthily and are still keeping it off.  Especially when it's someone who took a really long time to lose the weight and hit long plateaus in the middle.  It gives me hope.

It doesn't really bother me when I see people who are in the higher half of the healthy BMI range who want to get to the lower half, but it does drive me nuts when these girls who are just shy of being underweight come on desperate to lose 5 pounds.  And quite often, no matter how many times they are told that their goals are unrealistic and unhealthy, they continue to try to justify why they're trying to lose.

• I miss not having to keep a mental list in my head of everything I eat so that I can log it later.
• I miss not measuring out my food.

Unfortunately, we don't get to pick where the fat is taken from when our bodies burn it.  Your body will get rid of fat in the order it deems is best, not the order you necessarily want it to.  But, as annoying as that is, take heart that you have a healthy body shape.  It sounds like you're pear shaped -- you store fat in your thighs, hips, and butt, which puts you at a lower risk for things like heart disease and type II diabetes.

I do agree with one of the messages in the video: Lifelong dieting makes us fat.  One of the major differences between us and the people on the video is that they haven't found this website.  Most diets do not teach you how to lose weight and keep it off.

I've never been obese, but I've always been overweight, and I'm quite sure that had I not taken control, I would have eventually reached obese.  I was almost there when I found CC.  I can not remember a time when I didn't see myself as fat.  I clearly remember thinking that I was fat when I was 8 years old.  When I was 12, my mother offered me a deal: For every 4 pounds I lost, I would earn a horseback riding lesson (something that I really wanted to do, but was a splurge for my family).  Then when I was 13, she took me to Jenny Craig.  My start weight was 132 (BMI 24.9), and they wanted me to get to 106 (BMI 20).  I lost a few pounds, but never got to my goal weight.  But I've been trying to lose weight ever since then, and nearly 20 years later I found myself almost 30 pounds heavier.  I've learned an awful lot about nutrition over those 2 decades because of my constant desire to lose weight, but the self esteem issues created by a society that worships skinny bodies are horrible.  Example: I know that while people don't see me as skinny right now at 5'1 and 140 lbs., they also don't see me as fat.  But it doesn't change the idea in my head that guys don't find me attractive because I'm overweight.  And because I believe that, they don't find me attractive.  I simply don't project the confidence that defines sexy.

So while I do believe that everyone has the ability to healthily not be obese, I think one of their messages is a great one: Love your body, no matter what size it is.  It's a message I wish I could have learned early on.

Original Post by adsunshine:

Do you realize what our colons are packed with after years and years of processed, fatty foods. There is absolutely nothing to the enema's. Takes no time at all and completely painless. Leaves me feeling light and very clean. I used to shudder at the thought but...experience is the best information and as mentioned, I'm on day 25.

Because I want to do things right, I'm constantly reading and learning. I've educated myself so much on my body and how important the vegetables and fruits are that I feel so good about my decision. It is a lifestyle change that will stay with me. I feel totally in charge of my life. It is very, very, very hard. Especially smelling food but nobody will take care of me but ME!

I can't wait to try out all the recipes that I've found. Like substituting pasta with spaghetti squash.

Unless there's a problem, our colons are generally very good about cleaning themselves out.  Contrary to what the "cleansing" proponents tout, our colons are not coated in decades worth of sludge.  Enemas are for relieving bad constipation, not for every day.  I sincerely hope you're not doing any damage to your intestinal flora.  And if you're having issues with your intestinal regularity, it is generally recommended to add fiber to your diet, not to eliminate it. 

Fruits and vegetables are wonderful for you.  I just don't understand why you feel the need to extract all the fiber from them before consuming them for a whole month.

I think you're missing what the definition of lifestyle change actually is.  A lifestyle change is something that you plan on doing for the rest of your life.  This juice fast is something you're only planning on doing for the next 5 days.  It has not taught you how to eat.  It has taught you how to not eat.  It's great that you're looking forward to healthy cooking and healthy eating.  I just don't understand why you feel that you have to suffer (you said it's really really hard to smell food and not eat it) before taking on that healthy lifestyle.

I'm also not clear on why you decided to respond to this particular thread.  The OP was freaking out about all the healthy changes she's made to her life and whether what she was doing was enough, and you responded by essentially advising her to scrap the changes she made to go on a 30 day juice fast instead.

This was posted 2 days ago and gave some really good advice to teenage girls.  I'd offer you advice, but I really couldn't say it any better than lynnlette did.

http://caloriecount.about.com/hello-misinform ed-teenage-girls-may-moment-ft154586

- Buy a wetsuit.  At the moment, unless I get one custom made (expensive), the arms and legs are just too long on the ones that I can actually get into.  I need to be able to fit into a small in order to get one with arms and legs that are acutally short enough.  Plus, I always feel self conscious wearing them because you can't hide your tummy in a wetsuit.

- Wear a bikini.  You know the great thing about bikinis?  They're essentially underwear.  You can wear them under your clothes without feeling like you're wearing an extra layer in the hot weather.  Of course I see women on the beach who are more overweight than I am wearing them all the time, but... I just can't bring myself to do that.  I just can't have my tummy out there and jiggling.

It's water weight.  I'm guessing that you probably ate more sodium and simple carbohydrates than you normally do.  And you probably got a chance to replenish your glycogen reserves.  Glycogen holds water.  It's not a bad thing.  Don't worry too much about the number on the scale.  I know.  Easier said than done.

But ultimately, you're trying to lose fat, not weight.  And you did not gain fat if you were only eating 2000-2500 calories a day for the last 2 days.  If you were that hungry, you needed the food.  Your body was trying to tell you that you've been restricting too much.  Don't be so hard on yourself.

I can't say from personal experience since I've never reached a weight I've wanted to maintain, but I think most people continue to excercise the same amount, give or take, and eat a little more.  That would be my choice.  And if your friend doesn't want to eat more, I'm not sure why it would be so complicated to simply excercise for less than 90 minutes each day.

Personally, if I felt it was a hardship to excercise for less than 90 minutes a day, I'd stick with that and just add some nuts and oils or *gasp!* a piece of cake to my diet.  Why in the world would I want to lower my metabolism?

I'm guessing that in your case, it wasn't so much about finding the sweet spot, but as you indicated, that it had more to do with your muscles and the added excercise.  When you start a new excercise regimen, especially when it includes weight training, you can see a slight gain from muscle (this is a newbie phenomenon and people generally don't continue to gain muscle while eating at a deficit), but more importantly, your muscles hold onto a good deal of water while they're repairing themselves, so some of the 4 pounds that you lost this week was most likely water weight.

As for whether you should continue to eat 1700 calories instead of 1500, I say do what makes you happy.  If you're losing weight eating at 1700 calories, and you're happier eating a little more, you're more likely to stick with it in the long term.  Plus, if you hit a plateau down the line, and you want to lower your calorie intake, it's much easier to lower it from 1700 than 1500.