January's big fat weight loss thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

All 8 million of us who overindulged over the holidays, or made a New Year’s resolution to get fit, or who are simply continuing a sane fat-reduction plan that we maintained throughout December (good for you!) need a thread to start 2012 out right. Here it is.

I think the biggest thing I’ve learned about controlling my calories is that I **must **plan ahead. It’s when I suddenly arrive at 1pm, realizing that I haven’t eaten and that I’m starving, with no idea what I’m going to eat, that I get into trouble. So not only am I tracking my calories, I’m trying to fill out my diary ahead of time, so it serves as a checklist and I know ahead of time what I need to have at the ready.

As far as exercise, I was very foolish over our winter break and spent 2 weeks not going to the gym. I need to go for my depression and for my various musculo-skeletal issues, regardless of weight loss. Now I’m in pain and might need some time with the physical therapist to get my trick ankle back on track. From now on, exercise has to be like brushing my teeth - not something that can be dropped for a time.

How about y’all? What plans have you got to get more fit in 2012?

2

I got EA Sports Active 2 for Christmas and have been using it regularly so far.

And I plan on grocery shopping a lot more. I ate far too many frozen dinners in 2011.

My goal is 30 pounds by late December.

3

Plan here is to log calories/exercise on myfitnesspal, do 3 cardio days and 2 weights days a week, stick within calorie goal (1770) and to drastically curtail alcohol intake to one night a month. At 200 calories a pop those pints of beer are a dieting nightmare.

4

My niece and my father have become big fans of myfitnesspal. My niece lost 3 pounds in less than a week with it.

5

I’m cutting out the bs calories. I figure no soda, no booze and no snacking at work will save 3500 calories a week. That has got to make a difference. Try to walk in threadmill more. Im pretty sure I can lose weight simply by having a little willpower. When ive tried this concept before I lost 30. I just didn’t have the willpower to keep going on my successful route.

6

i lost 3 and a bit pounds in the run up to Xmas, but the holiday brought them back, which I’m not going to stress about. It’s more important what you eat between New Year’s and Xmas than between Xmas and New Year’s!

7

I actually managed to lose 1lb over Christmas. I’ve been off the treadmill for a couple of weeks though - today is the day to get back to it, only 39 days til vacation and I really want to increase my stamina before I go so I can enjoy the hikes.

8

I actually started up my daily exercise over the holidays, and rather than gaining weight, I actually lost a little, and it was immediately noticeable. When I was doing this exercise last year (Bollywood workout) I was regularly losing a pound a week. I made a big mistake in stopping it; I kept it up for three months straight. So I started again and plan to go daily.

9

Still can’t work out post-surgery, but hopefully will be released to exercise in a few weeks. I feel great otherwise–my back barely bothers me at all anymore.

10

About a year and a half to two years ago I started The Great Quest for Fitness. It started with a treadmill and small to modest common-sense changes in eating (e.g. Mrs. Devil and I would split a chicken breast for dinner rather than eat one each). Grew (or shrunk, rather) over time, eventually adding in weights to the cardio and maintaining a nice, gradual, steady and manageable loss, which hopefully will translate to long-term success.

Goal was in sight. After building up to an hour and a half on the elliptical and regular weights (a bit excessive for now, but the plan is to cut back slightly to maintain weight instead of lose it), I had dropped between 70 and 80 pounds. I had maybe 15–20 more pounds to go, an easy target to fixate on to maintain motivation for another four to six months.

[Waves at Drain Bead] Then I spent a week in the hospital :frowning: It was a planned procedure (plumbing repairs stemming from a major incident a year ago), so I had ample warning. But it decimated the most precious of resources—momentum. I was told that under no circumstances was I to do anything more than brisk walking for six weeks, preferably just modest walking for the first four.[/WaDB]

It’s been four weeks, and yesterday I got back on the treadmill for an hour. Just walking, not as major calorie a burn I had built up to. But it was very nice to get active and (hopefully) recapture the momentum before it gets lost to the “I’ll start tomorrows.” I have another couple weeks to go before I have the all-clear to start really building up again, so we’ll see.

The not-quite-depressing thing (more of a hey, thanks for the Cheerios but did you have to piss in them) is that after spending all my life being a bit roly-poly and finallycoming close to being “in shape,” just as I’m about to reach a nice level of confidence I end up with this horrible scar on my stomach. It’s angry looking, and for whatever reason not quite … aligned. It’s like a bachelor did a quick repair job on a pillow and the result is a bit misshapen. I have no idea how this will translate once the final weight is off, but it’s not looking good. Oh well, can’t win them all.

But if momentum is recaptured, this should be the final leg. Eye is on June … eye is on June …

11

Not content to rest on my laurels after disposing of 43 pounds, I’ll try to drop these last 10 ones to get to 190.

12

I started 2011 in the low 200s and ended in the low 160s. My high, 3 years ago, was 216 (I’m 5’6"). I lost my momentum in the last couple of months, and although I didn’t gain, I did stop losing. I intend to step it up at this point. Better meal planning, making sure I get to the gym regularly, and, if budget allows, starting back up with a trainer are the priorities.

I don’t have far to go. 10 or 15 pounds at most; right now I just have a pad of subcutaneous fat around my belly. I wear a small shirt, 29-inch waist pants and a 38S suit (down from large, 35 and 44 respectively) and I look good in those sizes (and it’s hard to find anything smaller in the men’s department). Now I just need to get to the point where I look good without a shirt on too.

13

Well I’ve been at the gym regularly for a year and a half now. At first, lifting weights and walking 3-4 days a week. It waxed and waned though through illness and then a shoulder injury.

Earlier this year, around September, I ramped up my workout and ditched walking for the elliptical. Now I am getting about 6 hours a week of exercise - walking the dog 7 days a week, elliptical 4 days a week, weight lifting 2 days a week and swimming 1 day. According to the heart rate monitor on the elliptical my heart rate is up in the 140-155 range.

I’ve been great about consistency with my workouts. I plan my life around them now. No excuses. I’ll even leave work to work out if I’ve got other plans after work.

I don’t snack, I rarely eat out. I don’t drink alcohol or smoke. There are no chips or donuts in this house. I don’t drink soda.

I didn’t eat any differently in the beginning of the year than I did at the end of the year when I started doing all that extra exercising.

I weigh over 300 lbs so you’d think that just walking to my car would cause me to lose weight.

But no, I’ve gained weight over the year. And no, not muscle weight from weight lifting. That’s fantasy.

So now I’m begrudgingly back to eating low carb. Not that I don’t think low carb is awesome and perfectly workable for me. I’m a huge fan of Dr. Atkins.

I just don’t like the fact that I have to be different or special. I don’t want to have to count the things I eat or think too much about food. What I ate before was all just “food” and normal and not too crazy.

I really hoped that working my ass off in the gym would do the trick. It’s basically done nothing for me.

Of course now I am addicted to the gym so that can’t be bad.

I hope you guys don’t mind me being a little melodramatic here. It seems like every week on the SDMB we have another “THIS IS WHY PEOPLE ARE FAT” thread and people come into the thread and say “all the fatties on the SDMB have excuses” and “all you have to do is eat less and exercise more.”

I get so frustrated, almost to the point of tears, because I seem to have an excuse and I DO eat less and exercise more. But here I am.

So I hope that you guys in this thread are cool and understand that we’re all different when it comes to weight loss and I’m not trying to make excuses. And sometimes calories in < calories out is not the answer - for me it’s the TYPE of calories in that seems to be the issue.

I hate to be that person but …here i am.

14

ZipperJJ, that sounds really puzzling. You should have dropped at least 20 pounds.

Have you considered talking to a dietician? There may be something that you’re doing that’s obvious to everyone but you. Or maybe you can at least get some new insights.

Or perhaps consider bariatric surgery. It seems to work for just about everyone.

15

I would like to take part in this thread! I used these threads, the C25k, and Sparkpeople a few years back to drop around 40 lbs. But summer 2010, I ended up with blood clots in both my legs that made exercise impossible for a while, and I had to quit my trapeze lessons. I got out of the habit of running, and here I find myself even heavier than before. I restarted trapeze in August, but I’ve actually gained even more weight since then. I am still strong enough to do it, but barely.

I am around 175lbs at 5’8. At my peak aerialist physique, I was around 130lbs which is my mental goal, but I’m giving myself a year to get to it.

My fitness goals for this spring are to keep taking my current trapeze classes, sign up for the trapeze conditioning class they also offer, and try to start running again.

Diet-wise, my goal is to start tracking my food again on Sparkpeople. I also really need to lay off the sweets and baking, which sort of became a hobby. I know the amount of junk I eat is ridiculous, and I need to start exercising some self-control.

16

But I don’t eat too much. I don’t pig out, I don’t binge. Why would I need a smaller tummy?

My problem is not the amount I eat, it’s what I eat. I am doing low carb because I know it works for me. It just makes me sad that that is all that works for me.

17

That frustrates me, too - if it was that easy and simple and applied to everyone equally, we probably wouldn’t have more than a handful of obese people in North America. My husband is truly scrupulous about recording every calorie he eats and every bit of exercise he does, and weeks where he’s way over on calories, he drops weight, and weeks where he’s way under, he gains weight. It is not the one-to-one relationship that sceptics of the Dope think it is.

I kept up my walking over Christmas, and at last weighing, I haven’t gained anything, which I consider a huge success. Then came New Year’s Eve, with a massive dinner and snacking all night long, and I don’t think I’ll weigh myself again until I have another couple of long walks under my belt. :slight_smile:

I don’t think people should disregard walking as your exercise, either - I’ve lost 30 pounds with a few dietary changes and adding in a daily walk, and kept it off for two years now.

18

If that’s what works, then that’s what works. Still, you might want to see a dietician for some more ideas.

And I know that you’re smart, but I’ve met enough overweight people who claim to eat right, but I’ve seen them eat. Their weight is not a big mystery to me. (Not that I can claim the moral high ground on this!)

19

This is the sort of conversation I am not interested in having in this thread, but thanks anyway.

20

I’m officially 113 pounds down for 2011. I’m proud of the number, but I want to increase it. Er, the amount lost, not my weight. I’ve been doing it all with calorie counting and exercise, though the past month and a half, I’ve been a bit lax on the latter. I have not restricted carbs one whit, except to the extent that calorie counting restricts my intake of everything.

The difference in how I feel is nothing short of amazing. Everything’s improved, from my stamina to my mood swings to my allergies and likely asthma. It’s sometimes hard–the worst is when I socialize. Almost everything seems to involve food! Even with that, though, I’ve managed to do well enough.

I’ve also learned to cook a lot more, though that’s sort of separate from my weight loss. But it’s definitely handy!