Good News!

Hang in there!  I finally have broken my yo-yo!  After being somewhat patience for the las 2 1/2 months, following the program, I finally have drop to a new lowest low 142!  I haven't seen this number in years!  This is posted to give everyone some hope....it works just stick to it!  I have been frustrated like many of us on how slow this is taking, but when I look at my weight analysis I do see, ever so slowly, the weight is coming off!  Keep excersising for me the key is the aerobic part and stay in your cal range that again is for me the low 1400's and the plan is starting to work!  I am down now a total of 8!  I am proud of every ounce! Before CC.....I have not seen this weight for me in years!  Thank you one and all for your support!

That is wonderful!  I just joined CC last week, and it is really worthwhile.  My biggest problem is snacking between meals, and the food log helps keep me honest.  I agree with you that exercise is the key ingredient to pair with controlled calories, or your body gets used to the reduced intake.  I am a physical therapist who only started exercising seriously 10 years ago (I'm 55) and wonder now why I waited so long!  Keep up the good work, and congratulations on getting past your platuea!    Judy

That is fantastic.  I am working on my weelky yo-yo.  I get down during the week and then destroy any progress on the weekend.

Hey Jigglethe handle!   When you are ready you will stop the weekend binging.  I use to maintain like that.  For me I just really wanted to get 10 lbs off for over 10 years and the more I felt I could just do it without a real program I just kept slowly gaining and it went from 10 to 25lbs in 10 years!  I am 44 years young, and I finally found this program to do the trick.  So keep with us and keep chatting and trust me it will all come together in time. 

The weekends are so hard!  I did fine last weekend, but friends want to go out to eat next Saturday at our favorite Italian restaurant.  If I can stick to a salad and broiled meat, I guess that will be OK, but I'll REALLY want pasta!

thats awesome to hear :) I'm stuck at a plateau, trying to pull my self out of it, I love to ruin my accomplishment every 2 weeks, I always get that stupid sweet tooth and eat every cookie in the house :( i always seem to make it up in 3-4 days but I hate it

good to see someone is following things properly (lol)

congrats again

Wudy111 -    You should have your pasta but plan for it:  excercise, conserve cal's for big dinner and only eat half!  Good luck you can do it!  You have to live your life, if you deprieve yourself of something you REALLY like and are looking forward to.....I guarantee you will fail later on....feeling sorry for you self.  Go  Live!

You know, I have considered that approach, too.  I will research calorie counts for pasta and see if I can make the allowance for a small amount.  Life is too short!

Wudy, it's definitely worth it.

Almost everyone I know is on some kind of diet or another, but I've lost more weight since January (when I started here at CC) than anyone I know -- and I eat whatever I want; I just keep it in moderation.  I'll have one or two Buffalo wings or pizza slices instead of six; one cup of pasta instead of two; four ounces of steak instead of six or eight :)

It just boils down to moderation.  I figure life is meant to be enjoyed -- so I just find a way to get small portions of the things I love in, stay within my limits, and pursue forms of exercise I love (fortunately for me, they also burn a lot of calories).

Original Post by 5327:

Wudy111 -    You should have your pasta but plan for it:  excercise, conserve cal's for big dinner and only eat half!  Good luck you can do it!  You have to live your life, if you deprieve yourself of something you REALLY like and are looking forward to.....I guarantee you will fail later on....feeling sorry for you self.  Go  Live!

 You could ask to see if they have a whole wheat pasta option.  But for me Plain White Rice is my vice.  If i'm not careful when we go to a chinese restraunt, I will eat my serving AND my g/f's.  Brown rice is good, but just not the same.  so I take 1/2-1/4 of what they serve me (depending on how large a ball it is) and put the rest out of reach, and inform the table not to let me have any more.  My friends help keep me accountable.  I have been on calorie count for 6 weeks now, and lost 9.2 lbs.  It took me 12 weeks on WWs last year to lose 10 lbs.  Keep up the great work, all of your stories inspire me to keep going.

 Great!!! I started CC last week. Already I've noticed changes. I am now able to record my daily intake. It is amazing to track how many calories, I have been consuming. No wonder I have been successful in my weight loss efforts prior to CC. Keep up the great work!!!

Thanks for your post.  I find myself getting frustrated these days.  I have been watching my calories (about 1200/day) and have been burning approximately 400-700 calories per day and nothing.  I have lost 3 measily pounds since January.  I am hoping that one of these days my body realizes all this extra walking and healthy food and I drop that other 15-20 pounds.  One can hope.  Any suggestions or hints from anyone would be appreciated.  I would eventually like to get down to 145 but my goal right now is 160.  I walk 3x days (60 min).  I have a busy life so I try to alternate situps and the elliptical in the evening when I get the time/energy.

5327 - thanks for the post. It gives me inspiration to get back on the wagon with the serious calorie "logging."  I have been on a major yo-yo since my M-I-L passed away and we went back home for a week (a week full of people bringing over their favorite not-so-healthy foods and goodies so we didn't have to cook). I had finally lost 20 pounds and am now back up 10! So frustating.  But I know my problem was losing track of my portions and falling back into the habit of enjoying too much of the calorie dense foods.  So I'm hoping this program will help me get back to where I was!  Thanks again for your story.

Wudy111- Enjoy your dinner with your friends. You might try having the server bring you a to-go box right off the bat and box up half your meal. That way your not tempted to pick at it past your calorie goal.  I know once I get started on pasta, I'm going to finish it because it's sooooooo good, and not something I normally let myself eat.  So if you can afford the calories, enjoy half with your friends and eat the rest the next day! You'll get to enjoy it twice!  Or if you don't want the calories, send it home with a friend...or the waiter.  Enjoy! 

albertamom, are you eating 1200 net calories per day, meaning once you subtract the 400-700 you burn exercising you are left with +1200? or are you eating 1200 calories total and then burning another 400-700 on top of that, leaving you with only +500-800 net calories?  If you are left with net calories under 1200 then you are not going to lose any weight in the long term.  The lowest net you should go (meaning once you subtract calories from exercise) is 1200.  So if you consumed 1200 + burned 400  = 1600 total you should eat.  That's the m you should be eating, otherwise your body will store fat and not burn it, your metabolism could slow down too.  A deficitis important but you can't drop below the minimum amount your body needs to survive.  For me it's 1400  because I teach aerobics and exercise a lot.  1400 is my base (BMR), yours could be 1200 but once you start exercising a lot over time it will increase.

Wudy111, another helpful approach is to ask the waitress to bring you a to-go box with your entree, and immediately put half away and get it out of sight.  I don't know how often I've eaten past the point of comfort just because it was there.  Also, eyeball your pasta before you start eating, and make sure you know just how much you are eating.  A portion of pasta is one cup, and many restaurants will bring out a platter with three or four cups of pasta plus whatever is added to it. 

I agree with whoever was explaining about basal metabolism. It really worked for me. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't loosing the weight. I am very active. I lift, jog/ellipitical, and cardio kick boxing. I realize that I was burning 400-600 calories per workout, but only eating about 1200 calories. No wonder I felt horrible. Now I know my basal metabolism is about 1350 calories so if I'm working out, I have a polar watch, I just add the amount of calories that I need. If for some odd reason I don't work out, I just stay near 1350. I have lost about 10 pounds since I started doing this method.

I am just coming to grips with this concept of eating a little more to lose weight. All the diet programs I have tried have left me fighting with feeling straving all the time, I lose weight then I binge and put it back on.

Over the past month I have tried allowing myself 1500 instead of my 1350 cal. allowance, as I am a Yoga teacher and I guess I am pretty active. Its made a huge difference! I dropped 2lbs this week finally. I find some days I dont feel like eating the whole 1500, so I eat up to the 1350 and other days I eat up to the whole 1500 and I'm finding I dont feel so hungry and I'm not binging like I was. I think the most important thing I'm beginning to understand is you can't diet in a way that leaves you hungry and deprived permamently.

I have one very heavy work day which is Fri. and I'm thinking I might up my cals. that day to 1700, because its this day that I often feel so hungry that it starts off the weekend binging. Anyone who has any experience to share on this I'd appreciate. 

that's so fabulous for you! I have been caught in a yo yo too, and I'm hoping this next week will be the breaker of the 207-213 craziness that i've been in. It's a great inspiration to see someone make it through such a hard struggle that seems to engulf a large portion of the CC forum. Congradulations again!

the concept of eating more to lose weight doesn't make sense, I know, especially when you are very active and eat healthy already.   Your first thought is to exercise more and eat less.  But when you are a yoga instructor or group fitness instructor you have to realize you are burning much more than the average person, first because sometimes we teach more than once a day and two, because we talk and workout at the same time, which burns more calories. .  A nutritionist helped me figured out my BMR is 1433.  I realized that  if I was eating 1600 calories I was still only at a net of about 1000-1100 becuase of the amount of exercise I get each day teaching, running, etc.  This of course, caused the weight gain because my body stored everything I was eating (yes, fat too).  I started eating more about a month ago and although the number on the scale hasn't gone down yet (hasn't gone up much either) I think my body and metabolism is going to kick into gear anytime now (hopefully).  I can feel my stomach gobbling up the food when I eat.  Before I didn't have a feeling of hunger or of fullness when I ate and was bloated all the time.  Now I'm starting to get that back feeling hungry and feeling normal.

Your metabolism will definitely kick in soon. give it about a week or two.  It takes a while for your liver etc. to switch it's metabolic enzymes to favor weight loss (fat burn) rather than storage. You will seriously change the whole metabolic profile of your body right down to the molecular level.  But this takes time. it's definitely not an over night process. just keep up with the adequate calories (to keep your body from staying in "starvation mode"), and most importantly space your meals/calories out evenly through the day and the weight will start to drop right off.  Your body will treat food completely differently if you eat 5 300cal meals vs. 2 750cal meals even tho the calorie count is the same.  The worst thing anyone could ever do is to eat very little all day (100 cal here and there) and then a huge (1200 cal) dinner.  That is still the perfect set up for "starvation" mode! (not to mention the risk of being so hungry you binge).  If you find it difficult to feel full on 300 calories, up the veggies, they are low in calories and big in fiber and bulk! Adequate protein will help stave off the hungries too! The first few days of getting on schedule you may feel a bit hungry between meals, but it will only last a day or so then your body will "know" it will get to eat again soon and before you know it, you'll be working to get yourself to eat that next meal!! :)   If you are already doing this had have reached a plateau (ugh!!) you can trick your body into burning again, by actually increasing your calories for a short time and give it a break from running on reduced calories, or vary your calorie intake from day to day, ranging calorie levels between 1100 to an 1800 calorie day so that your WEEKLY calorie total is your target (ex. you want 1500 cal/day, vary the calories per day, some high and some low, but add up to 10500 for the week).  Keep your body on it's toes and you won't fall into a metabolic holding pattern. This can be a good way to help break through a plateau.  Good luck everyone!