Spinoff: Share Your Weight Loss Success Stories

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BMI is a poor indication of fitness. You should really measure body fat %. Many elite athletes would be considered obese using BMI.

For athletes. BMI is a poor indication of fitness for people who are athletes. For schlubs who sit around a lot, it's reasonably accurate in its measure of whether you are too fat or not.

[Anonymous]

BMI can be helpful - if you are above 30% body fat, then both your BMI and your body fat percentage would tell you that weight loss should be your primary goal. HOWEVER, as soon as you start to get serious about your body weight and training, then BMI quickly loses its appeal.

[Anonymous]

penguinsix wrote:.....I walk as my exercise averaging about 25,000 steps a day which gives me a calorie bonus most days such that I can basically eat as much as I want, though I still try to eat healthy for other reasons.

How are you averaging 25,000 steps a day? How long are you walking workouts? And what else are you doing regularly to get in additional steps during the day (i.e. walking to/from the metro or bus, always taking the stairs)?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

131 down to 120. I am 5'4". My dd is 2. Did it in 3 months by seriously measuring food and doing jillian Michaels dvds.

[Anonymous]

^^Wow, PP. In just 3 months? I'm your height and my goal weight is 125 or 130. 13 lbs to go and it's just so hard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with grapes? My skinny 13 yo dd eats a ton.

Your DD is 13 and at that age they can eat a cow without gaining weight.

[Anonymous]

I'm on Ideal Protein. It's a high protein, very low sugar, low carb diet. The protein keeps your body from burning muscle. Reducing calories wasn't enough for me because I was hinge and not eating the correct macros. There are a number of similar ways to duplicate the program. I'd start with lean protein and two cups of green veggies at each meal. No alcohol, no fruit, breads, pasta or sugar. You slowly add a small amount of those foods once you are at your goal weight. It's really a lifestyle change.

[Anonymous]

Hungry, not hinge^^

[Anonymous]

I've posted about my weight loss on DCUM before, but:

My high weight was about 280 lbs (I am female, 5'4.5"). I got down to 133.7 in 16 months by calorie counting (1200-1500/day) and exercise typically 5 days/wk (mix of cardio and strength training). I then got pregnant and gained 95 lbs. I lost 55 of it in the first three months without doing anything, then lost another 20 by six months with next to no effort. Since then I have been putting in some effort to take off the rest, but NOTHING like the level of effort I expended the first time around when I was weighing my food, tracking every bite I ate, etc. Basically I eat sensibly but allow myself some indulgences here and there, and I keep a rough count of my calories in my head each day. DC is now 15 months old, and I am 138.4 lbs - so about 5 lbs from my pre-preg weight. That's been 9 months then to lose 15 lbs, which is slow but totally fine by me. My eating habits now are sustainable for me, yet I'm still managing to lose a bit. I expect I'll probably end up somewhere in the low 130s again, and if I want to go lower than that I'll need to be more diligent about exercise (which is inconsistent at best right now).

I definitely had plateaus while losing the first time around, and I got through them by just waiting them out. I knew from my food logs and exercise habits that I was doing the right things to keep losing, and that if I kept at it the losses would eventually show up on the scale. If you're not certain that what you're doing should result in losses, or if you've truly been plateaued for two months or more, then it might be time to try a new approach. Switch up your exercise, or modify what you're eating to see if you can kick start your loss again.

I found the 3 Fat Chicks on a Dirt forum incredibly helpful when I was losing weight. Lots of support, and lots of people with extensive experience. It might be worth checking out. http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/

[Anonymous]

Diet, not Dirt!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've posted about my weight loss on DCUM before, but:

My high weight was about 280 lbs (I am female, 5'4.5"). I got down to 133.7 in 16 months by calorie counting (1200-1500/day) and exercise typically 5 days/wk (mix of cardio and strength training). I then got pregnant and gained 95 lbs. I lost 55 of it in the first three months without doing anything, then lost another 20 by six months with next to no effort. Since then I have been putting in some effort to take off the rest, but NOTHING like the level of effort I expended the first time around when I was weighing my food, tracking every bite I ate, etc. Basically I eat sensibly but allow myself some indulgences here and there, and I keep a rough count of my calories in my head each day. DC is now 15 months old, and I am 138.4 lbs - so about 5 lbs from my pre-preg weight. That's been 9 months then to lose 15 lbs, which is slow but totally fine by me. My eating habits now are sustainable for me, yet I'm still managing to lose a bit. I expect I'll probably end up somewhere in the low 130s again, and if I want to go lower than that I'll need to be more diligent about exercise (which is inconsistent at best right now).

I definitely had plateaus while losing the first time around, and I got through them by just waiting them out. I knew from my food logs and exercise habits that I was doing the right things to keep losing, and that if I kept at it the losses would eventually show up on the scale. If you're not certain that what you're doing should result in losses, or if you've truly been plateaued for two months or more, then it might be time to try a new approach. Switch up your exercise, or modify what you're eating to see if you can kick start your loss again.

I found the 3 Fat Chicks on a Dirt forum incredibly helpful when I was losing weight. Lots of support, and lots of people with extensive experience. It might be worth checking out. http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/

+1 for the 3 Fat Chicks forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Congrats on your success. It looks like you've done everything to have a healthy food lifestyle.

Thanks, but I actually still have a long way to go.

I'm done losing weight. This is where I want to stay and will stay. However, I absolutely need to swap out a number of 'bad' items in my diet that are contributing to the high sodium and sugar levels. Sugar has been a bit easier to reduce, but sodium is hidden in so many things that I end up reaching the R.D.A. after lunch some days.

Interesting side note was that I was never really hungry during the whole dieting process. In fact, I never had a day where I was like "I'm starving but I've hit my budget for the day". I think I was just overeating before, not so much pigging out but just sort of a slow gradual "eat because it was there" kind of attitude that had me downing junk food in front of the computer and TV and whatnot. Slowly over the years it just added up until I finally had enough.
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Congrats on your healthy lifetistyle! I have a hard time reducing the sugar and I eat very "clean". Do you mind sharing what you eat in a
day?

[Anonymous]

OP, are you nursing? I found that my body held onto about 12-15 lbs with each of my kids and no matter what I did, I couldn't lose it until they were fully weaned. Drove me nuts but at least the second time I had some hope that it was temporary. Both times I made sure to work some good solid exercise back into my routine and track my eating - the first time I did it through WW and the second through MyFitnessPal.

[Anonymous]

Agree about the nursing. I was one of those ppl whose body held on to weight until about 9 months post-weening.

As for me...I'm 5'5". I don't weigh myself b/c it discourages me, but in the last 3 months I went from a tight size 10 (almost 12) to a kinda tight size 6 (loose size 8). If I had to guess, I'd say I have lost between 15-20 lbs.

I won't lie -- I had to make some SERIOUS changes in both diet and exercise. First, I have pretty much given up all white carbs and sugar. I have cheated maybe 5-6 times in the last 3 months, and don't feel bad about it, but otherwise, very low carbs and no sugar.

Second, I started exercising 6 days/week. Started out on our treadmill at home running/walking 2-3 miles. Eventually joined a gym that the whole family goes to (has a fantastic kids club) and also run outside. I'm probably running 25+ miles/week. Plus doing spin classes, swimming, weights, etc. at the gym.

As you can imagine, the exercise component has been a huge time commitment. I also work full time (as does my DH) and so we agreed that every other night, we get to come home late and go to the gym. Every other morning, we leave go to the gym in the morning instead (so we alternate).

Are kids are a little older (4, 6, 8) and this change has been a long time coming for us. I think when we both hit our "goal" sizes (which I'm almost there), then we may relax a bit. And as the weather gets nicer, we do more stuff as a family outside. But dropping the weight has take a REAL commitment for both diet and exercise.

FWIW -- I'd previously been struggling to lose weigh since my oldest was born!!

[Anonymous]

4 months after DD was born I weighed 240. I was 233 when I got pregnant, my weight having gotten that high after I broke my foot and my activity was very limited.. 39% body fat. Over the next two years, worked out with a trainer and started logging food on my fitness pal, after a year or so really focusing on increasing protin intake.

After 2 years I was down to 200, with 26% body fat (I am 5'11") Not perfect, but definitely in the best shape of my life. It's not a dramatic change in terms of time but the fact that I just gradually deflated and incrementally changed my lifestyle really helped. I startd out with 2 workouts a week and then eventually got up to five one-hour workouts a week, every week. (Yes, I WOHM).

No drastic changes. Just gradual improvements to my lifestyle and my fitness that I can maintain forever. 34 weeks pregnant with #2, still doing strength training a few days a week and walking a lot. Cannot wait to get back into the butt-kicking workouts I was doing before I got pregnant