Posts by sbatt1

I know what you mean. I lost about 40 pounds since January and in the last month or so I haven't seen a change on the scale, I have actually been feeling really frumpy. However I have gotten several coments lately about how good I look and my pants are barely staying up without a belt. I don't know how its happening without losing any weight but I'll take it. I started out a size 18 and I am in a 12 currently. I figure even if I don't lose a lot more weight I will at least get into a size 10 which is what I was at High School graduation! So congrats to your new size.

Since January I have lost 40 lbs. I haven't went to the gym once. I track my calories and I make sure I have a healthy defficit. However I do get plenty of activity through out the day. I take the stairs and park farther away. I also have 2 small children at home. When I come home of an evening I only have a few hours with them before bed time. I honestly don't even get to sit down other than to eat dinner once I walk through the door. I usually start dinner the second I come home then I clean up after dinner and go in and play with my kids. We do a varity of things, sometime we turn on music and dance around, other times I get down on the floor with them and they climb all over me. They like to do the superman thing where I lay on my back and lift them up with my feet. It is like a work out and I am spending time with them. I hate exercise and so finding things that keep me active is important to me. My kids love to go to the park and sometimes on the weekend we walk there. My son is 2 so he rides in the stroller but my 4 year old daughter walks with me. They are learning to stay active without having the thoughts of exercise and dieting shoved down there throat. My 4 year old would tell you she isn't allowed to eat junk food, and she would tell you what junk food is. She also knows that eating healthy will make you grow up healthy. We don't mention weight and that helps me too! Even if your child is an infant you can do lots of little things with him that will keep up your activity. Even when my kids were babies we would dance around. They loved it then and they still do, they laugh at me and think that its funny, but they still ask to do it all the time. Start now and it can be something that you do with him for a long time to come, you'll be a goofy mom but he will love you for it.

I have been married for 6 years now and when I married my husband he was about 300 pounds. At the time I was at a healthy weight, but after less than 1 year of marriage I started to pack on the pounds. I had a baby on top of it and ended up about 40 pounds overweight. I decided enough was enough and I joined weight watchers, I stopped buying junk food and started cooking healthy meals. My husband lost about 50 lbs just by changing his eating for 1 meal a day. I only cooked enough for each of us and no leftovers, this way he couldn't eat 4 helpings of anything. He started to notice how much better he looked and felt and now it has been 4 years, he's kept off the weight and lost another 15 lbs. He started to make changes in his diet after he noticed what was happening. Our family doctor has made several comments about how great he has done. He has a family history of heart disease and diabetes and our doctor says the he has greatly reduced his risk!

I think  making dinner for your family is a great start. Honestly if you can cook well you can make healthy foods that taste as good or better than the high fat foods. I have found ways to make our favorites without all the fat. I know the importance of good food, cooking is a passion of mine and I was raised on southern style foods that are loaded with fat. Believe me, you don't miss the fat once it's gone. 
Good luck and remember that you don't want to push your family. Just offer them better choices and changes could happen before they even notice. Good Luck.

So glad you posted this. I premeasured some oats and put them into a baggie to heat up at work. I use a scale to weigh my foods. My friend who also counts calories yelled at me saying that I wasn't eating enough and there was no way that could be a serving. The oats that I had used were weighing in at twice the serving size, 1/2 cup was twice the weight of the serving so if I want one serving I basicly have to measure out 1/4 cup or always be sure to weigh. Food scales are what I live by, everyone makes fun of me but I always have awsome results if I am counting calories and weighing out all of my foods.

1. Do you go to a gym to exercise? If yes how much do you pay per month?

Sometimes, where I work has a gym and it is one of our benifits to use it for free.

2. What is your favourite activity?

Swimming

3. Favourite food?

Anything sweet

4. How many calories do you aim to consume each day?

1300-1400

5. How much is the price of gas where you live?

$3.86/gallon

6. What is your form of transportation?

Chrysler 300

7. Do you have a cell phone, if so what provider are you with & do you hate them?

Razor, AT&T,NO

8. Do you collect anything, if so what?

NO, I have too much junk as it is.

9. What are you currently reading, if anything.

Don't have time to read books anymore, occasionally read a Rachel Ray Mag.

10. Where do you work or go to school?

Work for the Hospital System in my town with the computer program team.

11. On a scale of 1-5 how boring was it to read these, 1 being boring, 5 being boring x5.

Its 5:30 am, not much else to do now- 1

It's so frustrating. I hit one for about a month. I was very strictly sticking to my intake, no cheat days and doing everything I was supposed to. I tend to stick to the lower end at 1200-1300 cal though so to break it I increased my intake for about a week to 1500-1600 cal and I am back to a good loosing streak. After my month at 184 for I quickly dropped to 177. I guess it is true, sometimes you do need a higher intake. Good luck!

Yeah, NO is the answer. Sleep is included in the total burned for the day so unless you have slept for 24 hours staright you shouldn't or it will through off the number burned.

Zarelha, I was just about to say the same thing.

BMI is not BS- "Body Mass Index is a formula for measuring a person's level of overweight or obesity using measurements of height and weight." (quoted from About.com) BMI is a good measurement that medical professionals use to determine health risks that may be associated to weight.

A knowlegable professional will not use BMI, but in conjuction with body structure and body fat percent.

I will say one thing- Just because you may have weighed a certain number in the past does not mean it will look the same now. At age 16 I weighed 150 lbs and I wore a size 10, at age 20 I weighed 160 and I wore a size 12, now at age 25 after 2 kids and getting up to 215 lbs I weigh 180 and I wear a size 12, and it is loose on me. So for the 18-20 year old girls on this site that really don't need to lose any weight, until you've walked a mile in my shoes you really don't know how they feel. I have read many post from these young things on here putting down older women who talk about feeling and looking good at "unhealthy" weights, I'm tired of it and if a woman that is 5'0 feels good at 150lbs than who is anyone to judge especially if she has spoken with her doctor.

Your appetite will depend on you. Your body will adjust best if you eat small amounts frequently throughout the day. If you don't let yourself get too hungrey you will not have a problem there. Ideally you could eat 5-6 times a day 3 meals with 3 snacks. Just be sure to balance your fat, carbs and protien.

Your last question I think what you want to know is if you burn 2500 cal a day how many should you eat? If that is what you want to know the answer is 500-1000 cal differnce. You will hear it called your defficit. For example on average I burn 2200 cal a day so I should eat at least 1200 cal but can have up to 1700 and still lose. I try to stick to about 1350 a day. It works well for me.

I feel your pain. I weigh 180, down from 215 in Jan. I am a big girl. My husband tells me all the time, "you need to eat, What have you developed an eating disorder?" I mean seriously, I wouldnt be able to function if I weren't eating. I also hear this from people at work. These are people who either A.) are overweight or B.) are way thin and eat junk all the time. I eat 1350 a day and I think that is a ton of food. I wish people would just shut up. Who's buisness is it if I want to be healthier. So what if I pass up on the junk food in the break room, I have a perfectly balance healthy lunch waiting for me along with all the snacks I might need. I have started to pretend like I can't hear them when they say these things, I hope it will eventually stop.

Oh and Congrats on the loss, 1 lb and you're there!

I went to the site and created a virtual me, its in my gallery. I think thats about the right size. I know I dont look that good in a bikini but I've had to kids via c-section and I dont work out enough lol. Just use that as encouragment. You will love how you look when you get there.

Original Post by kristinedaqueen:

OK, first off this site does not calculate your BMR. Its a misunderstanding everyone has so dont feel bad.

 I went to the site that you recomended, and the other recomended site, both sites gave me the same numbers that CC give.

Also I think that if you are truley eating that many calories and keeping busy as much as you listed 1800 should be ok but 1600 should work to. I know that someone posted you could have a larger defficit because of your weight, however what they didn't mention is that if you have a higher weight and you maintain a healthy lifestlye you will burn more calories. I started out at 217 and ate a lot more than I do now at 182 and until I was under 200 lbs I lost pretty fast. Just remember to drink enough water and watch your sodium intake. You can retain a lot of water. Also fruit is a great treat and is loaded with vitamins and fiber but it also has a lot of sugar. The best thing you can do is decrease your fruit intake if you have an excessive intake, and replace it with veggies. They may not be as tastey but they sure do help fill you up without giving you all the sugar that you don't need.

OK, This topic makes me extremley angry.

1. An older person say over age 40 is going to have more difficulty losing the weight than lets say gnomey who appears to be like 18-19.
2. A physician will recomend 10% reduction in weight to reduce high blood pressure and help with complications from diabetes
3. We can't all be 100 lbs
4. After I had children and had some other issues I couldn't lose all the wieght I needed to so 200 lbs sounded great to me
5. Unless you are someone's health care provider you may need to back off on the advise
6. Having a little extra weight especially after reducing it by more than 10% is far less dangerous than these girls who are 5'8-5'10 that would like to weigh in at 100-120, they could die because they are generally not eating well or exercising too much, So to the person who posted that "they wouldn't dare say anything to a 5'0 woman who said 200 lbs was too thin" I would say something, I would encourage them and tell them how far they have come so far, THESE PEOPLE JOIN THIS SITE TO MAKE A LIFE CHANGE, THEY POST ON THESE FORUMS BECAUSE THEY WANT SUPPORT
7. If you weighed 350lbs and you got down to 200 that would seem pretty freakin thin- THEY HAVE ALREADY LOST A PERSON AND STILL HAVE MORE TO LOSE

I think that it is rude and an uneducated statement for someone to say that someone is not planning on losing enough weigh. I mean I weighed in at 220 lbs 8 months ago and I am now down to 184. My goal right now is 160, I am 5'8 so 160 is TOO HIGH OF A GOAL. That is not for you to judge. I may decide at 160 that I would like to lose another 20 lbs but if I can feel good in my skin then I may just work at maintaining 160. Maintaining what you have lost will likely be difficult for someone who has spent most of there life as obese. Obviously Since gnomey posted this she doesn't realize how difficult it can be to lose weight.

Did you know that obesity is a disease that is inherited from your family? No probably not. You probably think that all of those classified as obese are just lazy and eat too much. Why don't you research your posting topics prior to making judgement. I have went through years of working with people who are severly obese and I can tell you first hand that 10lbs can be a huge change. I can't tell you how many times I have walked through healthy eating plans and obtainable exersice plans with these people. When you can't hardley walk you certainly can't think of running 2 miles a day now can you? Although the 30 min cardio is recomended at least 3x a week, it doesn't mean that everyone can do it. Seriously saying that just because you can, or because that is what works for you means nothing. Everyone does things at there own pace. Maybe they think 200 lbs would look too thin, I'm sure if they could just get to 200 they would realize "hey I can do this and I have more work to do".

So to conclude this entirley to long post, Please encourage people on this site. That is how some people get through from day to day. I would never dare say to someone who was eating to few of calories "Hey are you stupid, that is not enough, are you trying to starve yourself?" Instead I list the facts and give them positive encouragment it the hopes that it will make a diffrence to them. So whom ever it is that you are posting about, maybe you should have offered some kind words of encouragment instead of coming here and complaining about them.

I wish I had the answer. I started out eating about 1350 a day approx 6 weeks ago. I lost 14 lbs in the first 4 weeks. I don't work out but I'm not sedentary. I walk at work a lot and I only sit down of an evening long enough to log into this site. I eat diffrent cal amounts so 1350 is an average. Some days its 1100 and others its 1500. I just wander if I am doing this right. I understand the math part of it all, you have to eat 3500 cal less then you burn to lose 1 lb of fat. I guess I just wonder about this because at that calculation I should lose about 1.5-2 lbs per week and I am not seeing anything. I know that the inital loss was big but I had been doing less activity and eating well over 2000 cal a day for a while, I was weighing in at 200 give or take a pound. So its not that big of a loss when you have 50+ pounds to lose.
I just wish someone would answer your question so that I could get a little insight. Good luck, and don't forget to share how this works out for you.

I don't think that its an unrealistic weight. However I am not sure how you figure what your body fat will be at that weight. I mean I could lose 30 lbs and only drop a few percentages of body fat. I am sure you must workout a lot but I just wanted to mention this because your body fat percent may not end up that low when you get to that ideal weight.