If you are getting enough exercise to increase muscle mass, you might not see a significant weight loss. Find an easily reproduced place to measure and track that.
My goal is to get my body fat down to 25%, and my waist to 28". (I don’t have a prayer for the latter.)
My chosen method is to give up grains, eat at least a cup of fruits or vegetable with every meal, and work up a sweat every day. If I don’t make my body fat goal, I will work out twice a day and give up fruit.
Today’s (well, really yesterday’s because it’s after midnight) weigh in result: 197.6. That’s 2.4 down from last week and I hit the 30-lb loss mark.
Things that I’ve tried in the last week: whole wheat couscous, Eating Right veggie burgers and Eating Right vegetarian breakfast patties. (I even made my own sausage egg muffin, using multi-grain light English muffins.) Oh, and we got free samples of 1-point Peanut Butter Bliss mini-bars at the WW meeting, and mine was damn good.
I’d second this - the reason I’m determined to exercise as well as lose weight by dieting is because I want to get back to having a 30" waist, it won’t have worked if I don’t!
A friend of mine a few years ago did a crazy woman thing by giving up carbs completely and working out constantly and then complained to another friend and I about it. Conversation went “I’ve dieted and done all this exercise but I haven’t lost one pound!”. Me “Okay, but are you any thinner?” Her “Yeah I’ve lost 4 inches, but I haven’t lost one pound!”.
[QUOTE=pbbth]
This last hour and a half has been the hardest hour and a half of the new year. We had a meeting in the office during lunch so they ordered pizza. Delicious, New York pizza. You know the kind I am talking about-huge, cheesy slices that have to be folded to keep the toppings from falling into your lap. There were also calzones that dripped cheese and a variety of meats and vegetables out onto plates as people cut into them and dipped them in marinara sauce. I spent the last hour and half watching people gorge themselves on one of my all time favorite foods while I ate a bowl of chicken noodle soup. At least 3 people asked me why I would be eating soup instead of free pizza paid for by the boss. I gently explained that I am trying to lose some weight and I had not budgeted my diet for pizza today so I was having soup instead and they all nodded like they understood but looked at me like I was crazy.
Slowly over the course of the meeting I found myself becoming angry with everyone in the room. They were all so thin! They ate and ate and ate but they were all so skinny! Why do they get to eat whatever they want and stay so slim? One slice of pizza wouldn’t hurt me, right? I was so upset that I was almost shaking. Then I caught up with myself and realized that the reason everyone else could eat like that was because it was probably rare for them to eat that way and that I couldn’t have one slice of pizza because one turns into three or four very, very easily. I fell back on my analogy that calories are like money and I have gone into a serious caloric debt and that is why I can’t charge that pizza to my calorie credit card.
It took a lot of work and I don’t really remember much about the meeting because I was so focused on the food, but I was able to walk away from a bountiful buffet of pizza without succumbing to temptation. I came to realize today that it isn’t just about learning better eating habits and changing your lifestyle but that food is an addiction for me just as much as cigarettes or alcohol would be for someone else. I am incredibly proud of myself for not giving in and loading up a plate like everyone else. I know I can lose the weight and keep it off this time.
I think I am going to go peel my orange now.
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Pizza, huh? My team at work just got back from a café breakfast. Nearly everyone had the Full English (bacon, sausage, fried egg, mushroom, beans, hash browns), while I virtuously had two poached eggs on toast, and walked the half mile or so each way. Also, it’s pissing down today.
But on the other hand, two different people yesterday commented on how much weight I’ve lost, and my walking muscles at least are looking really ripped (for an out of shape sedentary 47-year-old, at any rate) so it has its compensations. And, frankly, I’ve had the pleasant experience of eating too much of the wrong kind of food plenty of times in my life, and it won’t hurt to try something different for a change. Also, I have a hat and a coat.
[QUOTE=j666]
If you are getting enough exercise to increase muscle mass, you might not see a significant weight loss. Find an easily reproduced place to measure and track that.
[/QUOTE]
Y’know, I’ve only just worked this out. All this time I’ve been thinking “What? Well, where’s the increased muscle mass come from - fresh air?”. And it’s finally occurred to me that a pound of fat has about twice the calories of a pound of muscle, so you can exercise enough to put on muscle and still burn no more fat that the weight of the muscle you’ve added, even without any other food intake (tho’ you probably will have some).
Duh.
:smack:
So as an encouraging thought, I’ve probably lost much more than fifty pounds of fat.
Those peanut butter bliss bars are honest to god the best WW bar I have ever tried, Kat!
I weighed in this morning, and am down a pound. While I’m below my stated WW goal, I’m about 4 pounds above where I’d really like to be - my goal is to be there by the time I get married in April.
Haven’t been to the gym to weigh in this week. Physical Therapy is kicking my ass…or my back/shoulder/neck, more precisely.
I was up all last night with a puking 3-year-old and we are home today. I am simultaneously trying not to catch the sicks and trying not to eat too much out of combined boredom and anxiety (missed a meeting at work today, for which I may or may not get in trouble…Trouble is far more inflated in my mind than it is a real threat, though. Either way, food won’t help…)
Congrats and encouragement to everyone. We’re doing great!
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
I’m up 2 pounds since last week. Must have eaten too close to bedtime or something.
But you know, I could feel a difference. I felt blobbier and bloated. Interesting.
On the other hand, I can now arm-curl 50 pounds! (Both arms at the same time in the exercise machine.)
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Congrats on the arm curls, Sunspace.
Yeah, I finally understand all those times on TV when a very skinny woman asks her significant other if she’s getting fat. He can’t see it but she can *feel * the difference just a couple of pounds makes and it makes her feel bad. The first couple of times that happened to me it was a blow to my psyche. Now I just do my best to ignore it because it doesn’t matter how good you are, there’s going to be ups and downs in your weight. It’s natural.
However, gaining over four pounds because you couldn’t rein in the habits you developed during the holidays even after the holidays are over is another thing. I’ve finally gotten back down to 145.2 after more than a week of hearing myself whine, “But I wanna* eat good, fattening and yummy things!*” all day long. Note to self: Be more vigilant next year so you don’t have to go through this again.
Need to get out for my walks more often but without my natural insulation, dang, it’s cold out there!
I just returned from a month long vacation during which I ate pretty much whatever I pleased and drank a lot of ‘calorie drinks’ too (eg, juice, iced tea, etc - something I don’t usually allow myself anymore). I also walked a hell of a lot and swam here and there. I didn’t have access to a scale at all.
Weighed myself with great trepidation this morning - and I’m actually down 1 pound! I find this frankly amazing. Now to get back to the gym.
Huh. Well, I’m flabbergasted. Weighed in today for the first time since, oh…September. And I’m within 1/2 a pound! I gained essentially nothing in these 3 months that I haven’t been following the Plan, even with the holidays!
I’m really psyched by that, as it means I’ve reset, to some degree, my “comfortable and even indulgent” food needs - they’re not as far from my “Yes, I feel deprived a bit but I can deal with it” weight loss intake as they used to be.
(I’m also secretly hoping I’ve reset my metabolism enough to drop that ten pounds in a week you get that the first week on a changed diet!)
[QUOTE=Bin-Gay]
That looks like an awesome routine, Zweisamkeit!! Thanks so much for sharing it. I’ve been trying to come up with something to kick up my workout to be more challenging. I believe THIS will do it for me. I can hardly wait to try it out tomorrow!
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Lordy, it is! I got the courage to do the routine today (I always allow two full days of rest between the first and second times of a new routine) and I cut my time down to 18 minutes! The downside, of course, is when my PT heard that, he said, “great, we’re gonna get you down to doing two sets of all that in 20!”
Mrp!!!
It’s all worth it, though. It was awesome when I (a chick) flexed my arm at work and one of my co-workers felt it and his eyes bugged out. “Those are damn good guns for a DUDE!” he said. When I flex my arms, my triceps are firm! My shoulder muscles are firm! Hell, I have firm FOREARM muscles! And this is under quite a layer of fat, so just imagine how awesome I’ll look after this year.
I’ve been eating pretty healthily since the New Year and have been exercising at least a few times weekly – I hit the Y four times this week and spent 30 minutes (plus a five minute cool down) on the elliptical each time, as well as making a full circuit of the weight machines – but have only managed to lose two pounds since the first. I’m fine with that but it’s pretty strange after my previous weight loss attempts, where I would lost that much in a single week sans exercise. I blame increased muscle mass.
[QUOTE=Aesiron]
I’ve been eating pretty healthily since the New Year and have been exercising at least a few times weekly – I hit the Y four times this week and spent 30 minutes (plus a five minute cool down) on the elliptical each time, as well as making a full circuit of the weight machines – but have only managed to lose two pounds since the first. I’m fine with that but it’s pretty strange after my previous weight loss attempts, where I would lost that much in a single week sans exercise. I blame increased muscle mass.
[/QUOTE]
Increased muscle mass would serve to raise your metabolism to help you lose more quickly.
Hi. I’m back in. After doing really well with Weight Watchers through most of October and early November, I totally fell off the wagon during the Thanksgiving-Christmas black hole. I got on the scale this morning and luckily seem to have only regained two pounds, so that’s good. (I thank breastfeeding, actually.)
I’m not sure I’m going back to Weight Watchers, though. I’m a type 2 diabetic and am pretty used to a restricted-carbohydrate diet, and WW had me eating a lot more fruit and a lot less cheese than I’m used to. And frankly fruit isn’t really that great for my blood sugar. But basically I just need to restrict calories SOMEHOW and start exercising regularly again.
Well, I’m holding steady, but dealing with other health issues right now, so losing more weight is pretty much on the back burner. It looks like I’m going to end up having a complete hysterectomy within the next 4-6 weeks, and in the mean time, I’ve got some testing related to that, plus I need to start a series of iron transfusions to get my anemia under control before surgery. So right now, I’m focusing on getting through all of that!
Must have eaten too close to bedtime or something.
