Posts by makphl

I haven't been able to get the Prevention one to work either in awhile:(  I think its the tool and not your internet provider, as I have a different one. I hope they have it up and running again - it was a fun little tool!

I lost over 85 pounds in a year, and my carbs usually represented 50-60% of my diet. (With the majority coming from healthy options and limited processed foods.)

Hello Weigh in Wednesday Buddies! Now that I'm ounces from my original goal of 130, I realize that I do need to lose 5 more to wrap it up. so I'm officially changing my down to 125. I'm going by a bunch of clothes that I used to wear in my 20s, which was weight I was able to maintain for years pretty comfortably.  The 125 pretty much lines up with what I remember anyway, although I rarely had my weight checked. 

Welcome, Mrimommy!  I wrote out the what each abbreviation stands for...and since you already started losing weight, I would use  192 as your starting weight going forward. (But your turn to decode an abbreviation --what's an 'IRL'?) Congrats on the big loss already - especially over that tough holiday season!  I did WW about 8 years ago and did well, until I had a few bad weeks and stopped going...and gained it all back to no surprise. I think you will find that the general philosophy on this site is the same --eat as healthily and nutritiously as possible, reasonable goals, a focus on lifestyle change and education....and encouragement to set fitness goals no matter what your starting part may be.

As for your calories, what did you use as your 'activity' level (i.e. sedentary, light, moderate, etc.)? It may be factoring in a higher activity level. You will get varying opinions of how to figure out your calories and I don't think there is is a true right or wrong answer and more often up to how you prefer to track your daily calories and activity.  

This is what I do (an I'm almost 5' 4): I set my activity level at sedentary (which I am not!) just to get the baseline of what I need just to exist and not really move.  Then I go in and manually add the calories burned each time I exercise, and add about 150-350 more calories guestimate to that total 'burn' based on how active I was that day...lower if mostly at the computer, higher if I did more walking or playing with my nieces, etc.  Not everyone likes to go in and manually add their exercise each time and prefer to have it preset based on their normal trends, but I like it this way because I get an accurate count by using a heart rate monitor and do a variety of work outs.

There's no perfect answer, just what works for you. (And you don't technically need a heart rate monitor to get a better sense of your exercise calories burned -- this site has a tool where you can manually add your activity that day, and it will calculate it based on your last updated weight....I have found these numbers to be very close the ones I get from the monitor.) You just need to choose what works for you - pre-set it at an activity level if you're pretty consistent (which is where I believe your 1700 came from since out stats are close) and DON't add each work out unless you go above and beyond the daily norm, or choose the  lowest setting and add daily activity.  take care!

Starting Weight (SW): 220
Last Week Weight (LW): 132.4
Current Weight (CW): 130.5
Goal Weight (GW): 125
Height - 5'3.5

Hedgren - wow, my head is spinning but thanks for sharing such good info!

Hmmm - think I was about 14,  the summer before high school. At almost 5 '4, I had a 'big' weight gain of nearly 10 pounds...taking me over the 100 pounds mark to 108.. And basically it was all boob weight, as those girls just arrived in force and  puberty was just peaking, but of course I wasn't thinking about that. Looking back, I can't believe that I even considered dieting - I shouldn't have even considered looking at a scale as I was active and nowhere near even chubby, but it actually says a lot about how mothers can influence daughters' body image, and that their behavior teaches both good and bad things. 

As long as I can possibly remember, my mom was always battling her weight (she was never super heavy, but fluctuated between 15-70 pounds overweight.) As a kid, I remember her doc prescribing 'diet' pills (I shudder to even think of it now - no wonder she could never relax!) and attending WW off and on, as well as regular  attempts at most fad diets of the day. She was (still is, actually) a sweet tooth addict, and often replaced meals with a candy bar or donut or cake...she would cook something decent for us, but wouldn't eat herself because she ate her own 'food" (junk!) earlier.  

So basically I just grew up around a messed up constant state of dieting, and I'm certain it has much influence on the years of yo-yo dieting on my end (with the exception of most of my 20s, when I managed to have a healthy balance and weight range). While I wasn't overweight until college, I think it really impacted my own habits of trading junk for real food. 

There was also an us/them dynamic - -my dad and sister were super skinny and never gained weight. My mom clearly had issues, and I had to be 'careful' because I was always being told that my body type was more like hers and I could gain weight easily. (And while I wasn't overweight, I was never gangly skinny like my sister.)   So basically the house would be filled with tons and tons of junk food for them to inhale on demand, and I was constantly aware that I had to be careful and control myself. Not really easy for a teenager when its right there and your entire family was snacking like crazy. So it still felt like a diet even when I wasn't consciously on one!   

Original Post by corinth13:

I know binging is well bad. I had a horrible day but crap happens right?

Perfect advice! It was just one meal...now tomorrow you start fresh with the healthy habits you know work. 

Just beware if you weigh yourself tomorrow -- you will likely show a gain that is higher than the amount of excess calories you had today and its not real weight. Fast food just has soooo much sodium that you will likely see a jump...just drink a ton of water and you'll be fine in a day or two!

First, congrats on how far you've come -- great job!!  I'm sorry you had such a bad experience.  But how proud are you that you came here and vented - -instead of getting too discouraged and binging on some junk food!? 

Yeah, I've become more aware in the last year of how little training medical professional get in school around nutrition and weight loss, based on conversations with my own docs, friends who are docs, and my sister (who recently became a nurse).  They are so overwhelmed with other subject matters and only a teensy amount of time is spent reviewing the basics in a formal matter. So unless the doctor has a special interest in the subject matter, their formal training is nearly zip. Just think - -how many crazy weight loss scams out there have 'real' docs attaching their name to them!?  There are plenty of good ones out there, but you're going to need to do some research! 

@lovemytulip - -check your personal email box, as I sent you a detailed email....your comment about the 'new' elevated cholesterol levels caught my attention, particularly when your diet doesn't seem to be an issue.  Its not uncommon for significant weight loss to trigger gallstones, which can show up as elevated cholesterol levels. My primary care physician never made the link with weight loss, but my 2 surgical consults immediately said that they see it ALL of the time - -they both called it the 'gift' for losing weight! It may be worth an ultrasound if you haven't had one yet!

Personally, I don't think its a good idea. We never really see ourselves the way we really look, so I think its just setting oneself up for frustration. Plus we're not robots - -we can be the same height, weight, pant size and body type as someone else but still carry our weight differently and look different,  We may always see what's wrong with our own bodies, but not see the good parts as well.

I agree with the above poster who says that it feeds insecurities rather than resolves them. If you truly find it motivational, then maybe that works for you. But listen to your inner voice and see if its making you feel better or worse about yourself now. Because how you feel now will impact the loss process.  I don't know what your goals are, but if a good amount, then I recommend taking pictures of yourself along the way, wearing the same clothes and taken from the same angle. Then you see how the REAL you changing and its quite motivating!

I second the 'off' day of you aren't already doing so...I always do one day a week at maintenance, and sometimes its a few hundred calories over.  The rest of the week I typically 'zig zag', alternating higher and lower deficit days so that it all ultimately averages out to overall goal range.  I really thing there's something to confusing the body. I managed to have no plateaus from Feb-Dec of last year, even as I approached a healthy BMI (then gained a few over the holidays for the usual reason!). And since I went back on plan a couple of weeks ago, losing has started again.  Good luck -- you will break thru it!

Welcome, Newbies! Absolutely poke around the different tools - there's much to learn. And at the core, its mostly math - calories in, calories out - with the goal of losing in a healthy, nutritionally balanced reasonable way.

My biggest recommendation is to faithfully track your calories and exercise on the site's tool. (And plan a day in advance when you can.) Many of us were sporadic or stopped tracking entirely over the extended holiday season, and you can guess what happened (even on days you thought you were in your calorie limits, typically we were wrong!). And now many of us are getting back to recording the calories consistently - and you guessed it - we're back to losing again. There's something to be said about seeing it all in writing to keep us accountable.

And of course, exercise - in whatever form you can to start, and then build up. Many of us incorporate fitness goals in addition to the numbers on the scale. Its amazing to look back at where myself and online friends here were just last year versus where we are today.  And feeling physically stronger helps you stay motivated to eat healthy as well - it becomes so interconnected.

Good luck!

Jodi - I have my special shoes ready for next week's Onderland dance!!  

jjcteach - on a positive note, you ate 2 PIECES and not the whole cake! And you still managed to post a loss!

I am so glad to say goodbye to January! Its seems like its been a readjustment month for many of us -  battling holiday gains, trying to figure out what our 'real' weight is after being off track, and trying to get back into a good exercise routine. I've never been so happy to see February:)!