Lots of nice progressive reports going on here! Very encouraging!
I signed up with the Daily Plate before I heard of Spark People and although SP’s exercise and community pages are better, they have very little Japanese food or brands found here so I stuck with the daily plate for calorie counting. They are also wildly optimistic about calories burned so I usually record a more conservative estimate.
My Monday report says I am 1.3 lbs down from last week (yeay!) and have lost 1 cm each from my hips, thighs and belly button circumference, two cm from my underbust and waist and bust remain unchanged.
I thought this weekend was a bust, too. I had a mens weekend seminar (well, friday night and all saturday). I ate too much toast at breakfast, had a good packed lunch, but decided to have fish and chips for dinner. Afterwards, I really wished I hadn’t - the cod was really nice, but the greasiness got to me and I dumped most of the chips. I scarfed a couple of green firecracker chillies out of the leftover indian some of the other guys had - I love the burn and it tends to have a salutary effect on my digestion. Sunday arvo I got out on the bike, rode 16 miles and ran some hills before cooking a really nice high vege lasagna (lots of onion, pepper, chickpeas, not much mince).
And I started the week still at 87kg. According to a recent calculation I am at about 18% fat. With all the training (2 weeks till my next 10km) I am doing, I hope to get this down to 10%. If I hit that without losing more weight, so be it.
I’m signing up for sprint tri at the end of May, June, July and August, and will do something twice the sprint length in Sept.
Won’t be weighing again for a couple of Sundays as we’ll be away from home next weekend and I try as far as possible to compare like with like. However I’ve done a couple of huge poos today so that may have accounted for some of the anomalous reading.
Last weeks weigh in - 13 stone 9 pounds. That’s more than a whole stone lost, wahoozle! That’s 15 pounds in 12 weeks, so I’m not doing too bad.
I can really tell the difference now too - I’m evidently skinnier and the muscles in my calfs and forearms are starting to get impressive now. Still need to cut a lot of fat around my midriff, and off my upper arms so my biceps and triceps show a bit better.
Still, I think the best thing has been improving my health. Although I’m only 19 so I should still have quite stamina, but I’m a heavy smoker so that’s not been the case for a while. I can now out last all my friends when training, and none of them smoke!
Also, whilst getting back into taekwon do has taken a toll for the worse, as my training partner, also the guy who taking me to train and bringing me back, has quit taekwon do, I’m still getting back into martial arts. The training I do with my friends is sparring based, and I can now kick above my own head height again! I’m really pleased with that
But, I’ve still got 25 pounds to cut to get down to my target weight, and the first 15 has been hard enough! I really wish my BMR was the 2500 calories it’s supposed to be, as a man of average build etc. According to the body composition thing on my scales, it’s 2013. I’m allready cutting calories to about 1600 a day, and with exercise I should be fine, but being allowed those extra 487 calories would make my lapses in healthy eating easier to handle!
I’ve been maintaining for more than six months now. Actually, I’ve been doing more than maintaining…I’ve lost another 15 lbs since hitting my goal weight in September. I stopped tracking my food at SP, but I am going to try to pack on another five pounds. I’m still going to the gym…I have to get toned up so I can look good in a bikini for our Key West trip in June!
15 pounds in six months is not a lot, I don’t think, but I wasn’t trying to lose it. Basically, I was afraid the weight would come back so even though SP calculated a higher calorie range for me once I hit my goal weight I couldn’t eat that much. I had this mental block. So I stopped tracking for about two weeks to give myself a break from the numbers, but after six months of “maintaining” I stopped tracking my food again.
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to throw this in anyone’s face who’s still trying to lose weight. But it’s something I’m struggling with now that I got to where I want to be, so take me as a warning that once you hit your goal weight, it doesn’t mean it’s over.
Diggit, that’s fantastic! Keep it up! Join us at SparkPeople if you like. Our team is SDMB.
The thing is though: I’m kind of allergic to dieting (and calorie control, while we are at it). Whenever I’ve lost weight, it’s through rigorous exercising. Mainly I swim. When I’m “in the zone” it’s because I’ve managed to ratchet up my exercise quota enough to counteract any calorie consumption I have.
Which is a long winded explanation of why I’m not fully on board with the whole “SparkPeople” experience… yet.
I guess I’m going to try to tough it out for 3 or 4 months from now. From there, I can see two scenarios:
I’m successful. Meaning, I lose about the same amount (about 10 pounds). Which means that I’m closing in to my ideal weight. And which also means that I’ll have to monitor my weight much more carefully, because I don’t think I’d be willing to slow down my exercise rate by then
I’m not successful. Meaning my weight loss has decreased, or, Og forbid! even increased
Either way I’d have to get into some kind of dieting program. However, I’m more inclined to do it with a dietician than I’m willing to trust an internet program!
We’ll see…
(However: No statement like yours, ivylass, can be admitted without sufficient evidence. Like the SD is fond to say: cite? Or, perhaps, linky? In other words: Show us your pictures (before and after) and we’ll accept your claims!)
