10 pounds by the middle of August? Who's up for it? ----GROUP CLOSED!

I started calorie count in November of 2007, since then I lost 22 pounds. But...I gained 2-3 back and I never reached my goal of 145. Right now I am 155-156. I began this journey at 175, 5'8". So who's ready to lose the last 10 with me??

We will have weekly weigh-ins on Friday mornings and post them in this thread, tell how we feel, if we are struggling, etc.

We need support!!

Challenge SW 188.6

GW 150 (GW for the challenge 178)

7/11/08: 187.8

7/18/08: 186.0

7/25/08: 184.6

8/1/08: 181.2 Yeah! I think I'm going to make it!

8/8/08:

8/15/08:

some of you are doing great!  :D  hang in there everyone!!!  it's only 2 more weeks.

did anyone else make it already?

snow, I just don't see it happening at all! haha. :D

maybe I'll be 140/139 by then though, which is nice. :D

This morning I hit a new all time low of 175.4, so that is great to me.  Not my goal for August 15, but still makes me proud.  I hope to see 174 by Wed and that would put me on target to hit 173/172 by goal date.  Low 70's was my aim so I am on task, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Snow are you still losing?  Was this goal your total weight loss goal?

come on loz,  you'll probably be 139 by wednesday.

hali, congrats on the 175.  you should reach your goal.  no, that 134 was my goal weight.  i love it!  LOL  and they say the last 5 are the hardest to lose.  i think they were the easiest.  i'm done losing.  i just need to tone up still though, and stay down this time.

I'm preparing myself for the worse, and then we can have a super party if I reach 139. Tis the plan!!!!!!!!

Yey.

Burned 500 cals today, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can some of you who are on track or ahead of schedule give us laggers some tips.  I really feel like I just cannot lose weight.  I am at 167.6 again this morning and I am very discouraged.

Original Post by meekalo:

Can some of you who are on track or ahead of schedule give us laggers some tips. I really feel like I just cannot lose weight. I am at 167.6 again this morning and I am very discouraged.

First of all, I don't cheat. I log everything and keep my deficit between 500 and 1000, closer to 1000 when I can. I won't go below 1200, so that means I have to exercise at least an hour and a half every day. If I don't I can't get the deficit I want.

I give myself one day of rest each week. I believe this is very important. On that day of rest, I eat sensibly and still don't go over my burn meter. I don't exercise that day. On other days if I am tired, I nap. Again, I believe rest is also important to the process. This is a principle I know very well because the same is true for a woman in labor and I'm a midwife.

I weigh every day. I know that's not for everyone but it does help me and I've learned some things doing it.

One thing I have learned is that the weight loss is not steady and it does fluctuate naturally. If I eat late, don't get enough water or eat too much sodium, the scale shows a gain. So the day before an official weigh in I make sure I drink a ton of water and don't eat after 7 pm unless it's just a bowl of blueberries (my favorite snack).  If I've had very much sodium, I either put lemon in my water or I eat watermelon which seems to work great for me.

If I have a big drop one day, I expect a plateau to follow until my trend catches up. I keep an eye on my average to make sure I'm loosing around 2 lbs a week and don't loose too much to avoid starvation mode setting in.

My calories are not the same every day. I eat a variety of different healthy foods and vary my exercise and my calories. I think this helps, too.

I try to keep a positive frame of mind. Discouragement is my worst enemy and I know it. So I try to do things that encourage me.

What ever you do, don't give up. Just keep doing what you need to do and that scale will move eventually.

~ Beth

Original Post by meekalo:

Can some of you who are on track or ahead of schedule give us laggers some tips.  I really feel like I just cannot lose weight.  I am at 167.6 again this morning and I am very discouraged.

Keep a calorie budget.  Same as a financial budget.  I know how many calories my body needs to function properly and I know how many calories my body can have when I add exercise.  I know how much of a caloric deficit I need each day to loss weight.  I know what amounts I need from each food group.  I keep list, charts, graphs whatever I need to keep me focused on this task.  I love to share what I learn so if you want more detailed information about what I personally do or sites I get information from feel free to ask here or in a mail.   

I am down to 174 (174.6 to be exact) today.  This is a good week for me.  I am going to enjoy this "easier to lose" week and try to remember it fondly when it is a "harder to lose" week.  I am hoping that isn't next week, our final week.  I am just expecting to stay at 174 for this Friday's weigh-in and maybe a low 173 for the final goal. (of course that doesn't mean I don't have a fantasy wish of hitting 172 by then, lol)

meekalo - eat enough calories. Excercise. Understand the the scale moves, alot, in all directions. and that you want to be looking at a trend, as opposed to a set loss or gain. Otherwise you'll be thinking, WHY HAVE I JUST PUT ON 2 LBS?????????

Keep an eye on the trend, it helps balence out fluctuations. I had this period when I was up, but my trend was down, kept down, and in a week I was back with the trend.

It happens.

Don't starve yourself. Don't starve yourself. Don't starve yourself.

It's very important that you eat enough, really, it is VERY important. If you're living off 1,200 cals a day, excercising too - then no, I don't see why you would loose weight. (Not saying you are!)

Roll on friday - I want to see the 139's!!!

Ladies, thank you all so much for responding.  I am just so frustrated because it seems that I've become one of those people who talk a good game but still cannot lose this weight.

I am 5'1, medium frame and 167.6 (according to the scale today) pounds.  My short term goal is 150 pounds and longterm is 136 pounds. I've been as heavy as 177 but started this challenge around 170.  This means I have only loss about 3 pounds at this point which is really a bit discouraging. Now don't get me wrong, before this site and the challenge, I was not losing a pound and I think I may have been putting my body in starvation mode.  But as of now I eat between 1600-2000 calories daily.

Although I do not use the features on this site, I have been keeping a food diary for well over a year now and tracking my weekly weight for about 2 years.  I know that I am up 8 pounds since last year this time and that I had been eating between 2300-2600 calories per day in the past with continuous exercise.  I ceased doing this in April of this year and cut back to 1800-2000 but I was increasing my exercise so much that I fell below the 1531 calories needed daily for my BMR.  I was not losing one pound.  I think I also made a mistake in thinking that cutting back to 1800-2000 would give me a deficit of atleast 600 calories since I had been eating 2600 and had cut those calories extra.  Now I realize that cutting those calories on stopped my weight GAIN but did not help me to lose weight.  It only but me at maintenance.

As I said my BMR is 1531 from a calculation I did, so I feel I need to eat atleast that daily to stay out of starvation mode (correct me if I am wrong). I have a desk job and calculated that with work, and my deliberate exercise I burn around 500 calories a day.  I wear a pedometer all day and most days I get 10k steps or 500 calories burned) So total calories is about 2031.  Over the past week or so I've been eating at 2000 for a few days but overall most days I stay around 1600-1700 calories.  I realize that that is why I am losing so slowly.  I had somehow fooled myself into thinking that I was actually at a deficit of about 1100 (500 burned + 600 I stopped eating), but now I see I have been around 1600 - 1700 (deficit of 400-300 calories) which equals about 1 pound every 2 weeks.  So now I can see my error.

I have been so afraid that I might go into starvation mode if I just eat the 1531 calories but I think I've been more in denial and splurging here and there and thinking I'd see weight loss.  Cheating is also an issue and I do weigh on Monday and then on Friday and notice that a big meal does affect my weigh in.  Maybe this week I can drop the pound and stay motivated.

The weight is really beginning to affect my self-esteem and the image I have of myself.  I am beginning to be embarassed to meet my husband friends and family because I am overweight and I don't want people to have that image of me.

meekalo, I find this site very helpful to understand how many calories I need to eat Calorie Calculator - Daily Caloric Needs it tells a lot more if you check out the menu on the left-hand side. 

Another big help to me was the site we are on right now.  In the Exercise Plan there is a 12 week program to set up an exercise routine.  It helped me learn alot.

Thanks halizabeth!  That site IS very helpful.  Hopefully I'll have a good report on Friday.

Hang in there meekalo!  Your body may need time to adjust to your new lifestyle.  I can definately relate to wanting it to happen fast though!  But when I expect quick changes I stop to remember how long it took me to gain the weight.  Experiment with the calories - the first site hali provided is awesome.  I discovered that one as well when I was researching how to get past a plateau.  Just remember that you have our support.  Good luck Friday!

oh my, 1 1/2 weeks left till the end of this challenge.  I started at 180 and today I am 175.2.... Five pounds in 3 1/3 weeks is pretty good, especially considering I am not feeling deprived when it comes to eating.  Slow and steady may win this race, it's just hard to wait patiently with this pace..lol 

I am 40 pounds from my final goal weight with 1/3 of the total weight loss behind me.  Now is an important time to remain focused and I think these challenges are perfect motivators.  Hope everyone else is finding their motivation along the way.

aug 8... 199

Ugh, I am having a craptacular week.  I started with a big loss, but now it's all back and just hanging around.  My ring is tight, so I can tell I am retaining water, but none of the usual tricks are helping.  I hope I can shake it by tomorrow!

A weigh in might just go my way for one week!

So... weigh in tomoz... shouldn't be THAT bad!

Last week: 130.5

This week: 130.5 . . . AGAIN!

Oh well, at least it's not a gain.  I was hoping for 129.5 but I can feel it coming soon.  Maybe next week!

Looking forward to hearing from everyone else today!  Good Luck!