New Member

Hey everyone!

I just joined CC and Im ready to lose the weight!  I was wondering if someone, maybe someone who is a pro at CC explain what my boundaries are.  Is it as simple as staying within the calorie amount suggested everyday?  Can I truly eat whatever, as long as my calories add up at the end of the day?  What about exercising? I tried to hit the gym 5 days a week for 1-2 hours.  Is there other things I could be doing?

Also, How fast will the weight come off? Is it a slow process of 1-2 pounds a week or is there a chance for a large weight loss?

If someone can get back to me asap that would be great!! I cant wait to see my results.  I hope this diet wont fail me like so many others :(

Is there anyone just starting out today/this week? I would love to see how others are progressing on their journey.

Welcome, Kay223!

This diet won't fail you because really, it's a lifestyle change.  If you use the many tools on this site, you can learn to lead a healthier lifestyle, and pack more nutritional bang into your caloric buck, so you'll feel and look better.

Yes, you can eat whatever you want as long as you stay within calories, but I have found that if I eat a lot of junk food, my calories get "used up" faster than I'd like.  Then I'm walking around hungry, and if I eat more, I'll go over my recommended allowance.  If you plan meals around healthy foods (veggies, fruits, lean proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates), you can eat more, feel fuller, and your body will get more of the nutrients that it needs.

That's great that you're exercising!  Have you noticed the activity log where you can put in your various types of exercise? 

As far as the speed of your weight loss, it depends on a couple of factors.  One is the caloric deficit that you maintain.  For example, if you eat 1400 calories, but your body burns 1900, you have a caloric deficit of 500 calories for that day.  3500 calories = 1 pound of fat; so 7 days of a 500 cal deficit theoretically results in a pound lost.  Other things that affect weight loss are sodium consumption (excess sodium can cause you to retain water, and the scale will show it), and also, if you don't consume enough calories, your body may try to hang onto the calories you do consume, so you won't lose weight as fast.  This site generally recommends that women consume at least 1200 calories daily, and men 1500.

I hope this helps you!  Again, welcome, and I hope this site is as great for you as it's been for me!

Hi Kay,  I've started my diet today.  I've put on two stone in nine months (I blame it on letting my self getting too comfortable with the boyfriend - eating boy size portion going to the pub with him etc.)  I've bought herbal diet pills and am going to stick to a calorie controlled diet.  I would never usually excercise but after one day of the pills I felt the inclination to walk home from work and then do 30 mins on the trampoline but that was probably the buzz of the first day of the diet.

I want to lose a stone before I go back to uni end of september (bit ambitious but its a start! its also my birthday on thursday so would like to see a few pounds go then even if it is water weight.

One problem don't own scales better get to the shops tmrw!

Hello again,

Im so glad you guys responded so quickly, surprised even!  I used the tools to figure out I am supposed to be eating 1750 calories a day, but that seems like a lot.  I finished up my food log for the day and I am actually really full.  The total came out to be 1210 calories.  I dont see how I can be loosing weight by eating ice cream and cookies.  Yes they are in very small amounts and in monderation, but still cookies and ice cream (nonfat yogurt) on a diet? Ive looked at a lot of other peoples posts when they meantion what they are eating.  Most of them are filled with healthy, balanced meals that dont sound fatting at all.  Of course these people would be loosing weight.  Am I already starting off on a bad foot by my meal today?

Breakfast: Egg Whites with Grapes

Lunch: Veggie Salad & Grapes

Dinner: Lean cuisine microwave dinner

Snack: 1/2 cup of non-fat Frozen yogurt, (2) 100 calorie packs

all of this equaled 1210.



  Im going to give this a week or two and pray for a difference in my weight!

Hi kay,  I think the reason they cut out 'bad' things are because eating sugar can cause blood sugar crashes that lead to more cravings. 

I was going trough a phase of eating loads of sweets and cakes etc. and my bf made a bet with me that if I didnt buy any cakes sweets, choc, biscuits, desserts etc. he'd treat me with a day out or something. this is such a good start cos it means if someone offers you a bite of something sweet you can have it but you cant buy anything for yourself (or cheat and get people to buy you it!) from doing this i've got out of the habit and don't crave it anymore. (well i do if its right in front of me but i'm only human.

So if you get out of the habit of eating these'bad' foods you'll start to crave the good foods!

All i notices from your diet today was you had no carbs or grains.

not that i'm much better i ate popcorn, carrot sticks, sugar snap peas, hummous, an apple and a feta panini, so not exactly varied but onlu 1400 lower thaan my target of 1650.

Hi!  I am also a relatively new Kay.   

I eat sweets about every day, but I have changed the type of sweets I eat.  For instance; I can have 1 icebox chocolate chip cookie...or this big bowl of watermelon.  1 little cookie ---- great biiig bowl of watermelon.... same calories.   The choice is easy!! 

One of my very favorite sweet treats is half a cup of lowfat cottage cheese topped with about 1/3 container of fatfree yogurt.  Sooo many flavors.  I think the yogurt is a bit sweet for my taste without the cottage cheese but as a topping it is just right.  And since I cannot stand the thought of drinking milk, (ew! bovine bodily fluids!) I can get some dairy in my diet. 

Kay.

Kay223, I have to disagree with franc. With all due respect, I due see carbs in what you ate. I see good carbs and not bad carbs. You had veggies and you had grapes, and both of those are good carbs. You didn't have grains, though, I agree with franc, unless that Lean Cuisine had pasta or rice or something like that. It actually sounds like a pretty good meal plan what you had today. Maybe not enough though of veggies. You've got protein in your egg whites, and in your Lean Cuisine, and in your yogurt. You've got grapes for your fruit. You had some veggies, but it's recommended that you try to have 7 servings of fruit and veggies per day. Adding some grains would be good as long as it's whole grains, and not very big portions at all. For some people, it very much does matter WHAT you eat as well as how many calories you eat, because many of us are what is called insulin resistant, and when you are insulin resistant and you eat things like potatoes, pasta, rice, and bread, sugars, etc, it is very difficult for your body to lose weight, but instead you gain. I am NOT advocating a low carb diet, just a diet with good carbs instead of bad carbs. Best wishes to you!

Hi Everyone!

I have recently upgraded my CC acct to CC+ (really like the new look). I have been trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle for over a year now. I was doing really well for a while - but have lapsed in the fitness arena. I was spinning 4-5 days a week and eating healthy. When I tried to transition from late afternoon to morning workouts to accommodate family activities in the evening - I gradually found more excuses not to go to the gym. I am trying to "psych" myself up to re-establish exercise in my daily routine but am not feeling very motivated to do so. I am hoping this community will be helpful in that respect.

I really like the activity log - it has been enlightening to see how many calories I burn just on household chores. I have a HR monitor and was logging my workouts before - I found it to be really helpful but again - have been on hiatus so I feel like a real slacker.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself. I am trying to lose about 25 lbs. I find it easy to lose 5 - 10 but then seem to plateau. I am walking my dog again (I had left it to my husband for a while) so that is a plus - I just need to get myself to the gym on a regular basis.

 

TTFN~ W

 

Is there anyone just starting out today/this week? I would love to see how others are progressing on their journey.

Hi Kay! Hi everyone!

I've been reading these message boards the last few days (stalker!!) and decided I might join in the fun! I'm Aoibhe (pronounced Eva), I'm 22 and from Kerry in Ireland. At 5 foot 5 and 135 pounds, I'm a pretty healthy weight but I'm just trying to tone up a bit and eat a little healthier.

When I was registering, I was told to aim for about 1700 calories ... that's probably quite close to what I'm eating already. I think I just need to increase my fruit and veg a bit. At the moment, I'm doing NO exercise (my excuse is I'm a student, too poor to pay gym membership) ... however that's going to change, I just need to get out and start running a lot more - I'm aiming for a half hour run 4-5 days a week.

Anyways, nice to meet you guys ... :-)

Hi Aoibhe, i'm in Huddersfield in England, also a poor student, who knew fruit and veg was so expensive!  I want to lose 28 pounds to get back into my healthy weight zone. I bought a mini trampoline from argos for 17quid and its really good I use is while i'm watching tv and you hardly notice how much excercise you do!

Oh that sounds good franc! I was a member of the gym last year and went every evening only because they had TVs on each treadmill and crosstrainer. As our TV in the student accommodation was broken at the time, we used to have to get up off our asses and go to the gym if we wanted to see Home and Away -- great motivation :-) I've decided I can't afford the gym this term though, so must get myself sorted with some kind of at-home exercise. The trampoline sounds like great fun, must look into that!