akennett, I know exactly how you feel. When I first got my scale, I had been similarly underestimating my weight. I’m on the road from 411 to 260, so I know what you’re about to start on. If you’ve been reading this thread, you know I recommend Atkins, especially for people like you and me who have so much to lose – it works, and it works fast. That last part is important, because the results help you stay motivated. In the last 6.5 months, I’ve dropped ~81 pounds, all of it fat loss. When you start to see the veins and tendons in your forearms and hands for the first time in years, you get better motivated. When the muscles in your arms and legs start being visible, again for the first time in years, it helps even more. Moreover, Atkins really, really helps with the boredom eating. I used to down a whole box of Wheat Thins if I was bored, but the appetite has diminished a great deal while on Atkins. It’s a side effect of ketosis.
I also recommend that you get a bodyfat analyzer (from Omron or someone similar). It’s a handheld device that will tell you the composition of your body, and with it you can get a better overall picture of you. My goal weight was originally 240, but my bodyfat analyzer tells me that I have 225 lbs of lean mass, which would make 240 an unreasonable and unhealthy goal, so I revised my goal up to 260, which would put me at around 13% bodyfat – a reasonable, healthy number. You may be doing yourself a disservice to focus on a number that might be wrong. The Omron I got was only $30, and it’s well worth it.
Thanks for the welcome messages Imperial Shag and Bambi.
I will definitely look into the bodyfat analyzer. It sounds like that really is a good addition to the weight-loss toolkit. I’ll also give Atkins another look, but I really doubt that it is right for me. I’m not one of those anti-Atkins folks - that it works for you and others is great, and I truly couldn’t be happier for anyone who finds a system that does work for them. It’s just that knowing myself, my available stores of will-power, and my personal tastes, I doubt that I will be able to stick with it. But, as I said, I will give it another look and consider it (especially hearing the amazing results you have had with it).
Thanks for at least considering it. You’re being more open-minded than I was originally. My brother started the Atkins last October, and I couldn’t imagine doing it then – I’d watch what he ate and just be disgusted and surprised that he thought he could lose weight like that. Then, 40 pounds (and three months) later, he started looking different and I decided that it couldn’t hurt to try it. I figured I’d go on it, I’d fail due to missing my favorite foods, and then quit. Well, I do miss some of my favorites, but I make up for it by sneaking a little bit of them now and again – never more than once a month. Once you’re in gear with it, one meal here or there will not sabotage you.
As for me, I hit 327 this morning. I’m 320-something! Hello 17 years old again! When I hit my goal, it’ll be the first time since 8th grade that I’ve weighed that little. And y’all stop calling me a role model. I’m all blushing over here.
Congrats on your progress, Shag – you’re doing great. And Susie, I imagine your morning headaches are dehydration. If I don’t drink a lot before bed, I’ll get them too. They always go away once I get some water in me.
Bambi, quick question: where did you get your bodyfat analyzer? I’ve been looking around, and the only electronic one I found was something like $60 at CVS-slightly out of my budget. Other than that, I could only find those caliber pincher thingys which just seem inaccurate. Could you point me in the right direction?
It’s been two weeks, and (Oh, my God) it actually works. I’m down 2 lbs the first week and 1.5 for this past week (that’s 3.5 total for the math-phobic ). Not the startling numbers of some of you Atkins folks, but at least it’s something. This is the sort of reduction I was expecting when I chose the small changes approach rather than a more drastic diet, so I’m considering this a success.
If I can keep this pace up, I should be able to make my original goal weight some time in the second half of 2006. I also have a bodyfat analyzer en route to help see what a realistic goal will be (thanks for that tip Bambi).
Congratulations to all the losers!!
I’d just like to take this opportunity to brag that I weighed in yesterday and am officially back to the weight I was before my first pregnancy! That was nearly four years ago. I’ve still got about 30 more pounds to go before I’m down to what it says on my driver’s license. Here’s hoping I can make it.
228/182/ 150…
I got a little off track, but not entirely. I’ve maintained about a 34 pound weight loss, but now I’m back at the gym and back on WW, so I should start losing again soon!
Bambi, I’m still just so impressed with your progress.
akennett, sometimes it’s all baby steps. The fact that you’re seeing progress is great. Once you start adding in exercise, I’m sure the rate of your weight loss will dramatically increase.
Good going, belladonna! Yeah, my next goal is to be the weight it says on my driver’s license, too, which will be in about another 30 pounds.
For me, well, a few weeks ago, my husband and I were starting to take long walks in the evening, and adding a little bit of running during the walks. After a week of this, I noticed that when I woke up, my right foot was completely stiff and painful, and difficult to walk on. I’ve been trying to rest it, but if I’m not exercising, I’m not losing. So, I’m kind of stuck. I do have a swimming pool, so I have been doing some water aerobics stuff a few times a week, for 30 minutes or so, but that’s just keeping me from gaining anything back. I think it’s time to talk to a doctor about it, because it’s still aching. This, of course, is making me somewhat grumpy.
Congrats, akennett! 3.5 in two weeks is a sustainable, normal number, and very encouraging. Watching the numbers move south is very encouraging, isn’t it?
I think i’m losing weight. I dont go by pounds as those are not reliable, i go by inches on my waist.
50.5/39.5/34-36
I am adding more exercise in just to be sure. I used to do about 1100 kcal on the elliptical 5x a week. Now i’m going to add about 500 kcal a day in low intensity aerobics on top of that 1100. So i may do ellipticals then 5 hours later bike for 40 minutes. I’m still eating 3000 calories a day, if I go down to 2500 i start starving. Since weight loss is thermodynamics and I can’t cut calories w/o starving I have no choice but to up my exercise to 1600 calories or more a day. I find that even though i’m (probably) only getting 1400 calories for my bodies needs I don’t feel starvation, even though i have calculated that i need around 3400-3600 just to survive on a normal, non exercising day.
What is everyone’s maintenance plan? Maintaining weight loss is harder than losing it, and the maintenance plan is just as important as the weight loss plan.
Mine is
-Eat 3-4 servings of dairy a day to get the benefits of dairy on weight loss
-Continue to exercise, maybe do 4000 calories worth of exercise a week via biking, hiking, walking, lifting weights, etc.
-Go back on a diet 1-2 days a week, and only eat 3000 calories that day.
-Try to keep dietary intake to within 500 calories of maintenance/exercise needs
-Eat a high fiber breakfast
-try to keep fat intake at/under 35%
-build more muscle so my metabolism is faster and runs at 4200 or so a day
-try to stick to diet sodas, diet kool aid, and low fat substitutes of foods (applesauce instead of oil in brownies, low fat dairy, etc)
I don’t think i’ll be anal and write down everything I eat, i think i’ll just try not to eat too high above maintenance. However i have found i’m capable of eating 6000 calories a day sometimes, so I will have to watch out for that. But most of the time I eat about 4500 or so if I let myself go, 6000 is a rarity. Between december and march due to stress i barely watched what I ate and didn’t exercise. I gained maybe 3" on my waist back, which is only about a pound a week, or a 500 calorie a week surplus from not really doing much of anything to lose weight or maintain the loss. I think i ate in the low 4000’s a day back then. I’ve relost all that weight i regained and then some though.
It seems like maintenance will be almost easy if all I have to do is work out a little bit, not pig out and go back on an almost completely painless diet 1-2 days a week. I hope it works out for me.
All righty, time to share my problem with the world.
I’m 31 years old, male, 6’2" (1.86 meters) and up until 2.5 months ago, I weighed 233 lbs (105.7 kilograms). Since then, I’ve been working out twice a week, and have been watching my food a lot. Counting calories, even eating diet products sometimes. My staminia has vastly improved, and I feel a lot more energetic.
This morning, I weighed in at 215 lbs (97.8 kilograms).
My goal for the short term is to hit 198 lbs (90 kilograms), and see if I can keep dropping weight from there. My ideal target weight, factoring in the way I’m built, is about 187 lbs (85 kilograms).
So, I’m doing all right, I think. I’m not going overboard: I still drink a few beers on the weekends (though never during the week anymore), I still go out for dinner every now and then. I don’t want to become a complete health nazi, I just want to make some subtle changes to my life, leading to me exercising more and eating less, thus losing weight.
What about your measurements? Muscle weighs more than fat. Thats why I rely upon the measuring tape much more than the scale. BTW have been doing Atkins for 3 months here and have lost 10 inches on my waist. Yay for me!
I’m past the muscle building phase, so this isn’t a case of the newbie blues.
The doctor and I have been going round and round about Atkins since I started seeing him in January, and at the previous visit I said I’d stop trying to follow it. Up to that visit, I’d been losing about a pound a week.
I’m attracted to it because it’s easy in my mind to keep track of what I can/can’t have, and it’s a natural for someone who’s diabetic like I am because the low carbs makes blood sugar regulation a lot easier. He’s against it because of the hi fat content, but he doesn’t get that I don’t go out of the way for the fat. I like my meat lean, and something fatty gives me an upset stomach.
). Not the startling numbers of some of you Atkins folks, but at least it’s something. This is the sort of reduction I was expecting when I chose the small changes approach rather than a more drastic diet, so I’m considering this a success.
