I joined Weight Watchers online June 19, 2001. At the time, I weighed ~172 - I didn’t have a scale, so I just went with what I most recently remembered as my weight. I followed the program guidelines (at the time, it was Winning Points) strictly - hardcore, no excuses. It was a point of pride.
April 21, 2002 I hit goal - 120 pounds, 52 pounds lost. Since then, I’ve been maintaining around 115-118. I still count points - although the program changed slightly after I hit maintenance - and I’ve had no problems taking any weight off that might come on during vacations.
Recently, I’ve been working out with weights. Not heavy ones - being a girly girl, I’m proud to get up to 5 pounds. I work out with them 3 times a week - for cardio I do walks, but I have to figure out how to motivate myself to do something different over the winter, since it will be too cold for me. People have actually commented that they can see the difference in my body - more muscles, which is nice. I also do crunches every night - differing types, including reverse - a total of 180. My abs are definitely getting more defined - and the layer of fat seems to be thinner.
For a little while I was obsessed about getting lower - I hit 111 at one point, which is a little too low. Now I am happy that I fit into size 4 clothes - sometimes 2, which is a little ego boost. It’s still a thrill.
I used to be a little more obsessive about maintaining - but 2 years later, I am a little less so. I’ll always keep my scale around - but my life is a little less about it now.
I went on the Atkins diet three months ago and followed it religiously. I was only able to remain on it for about three weeks due to the severe restrictiveness. However, in that three weeks I lost 20 lbs; that was three months and I’ve only gained back about three lbs. while eating a sensible but mainstream diet. It’s great for short-term weight loss.
Weight Watchers since March, and have lost 43 pounds. It would probably be more if I exercised more and hadn’t taken time out recently for about three weeks (because of Hurricane Ivan and because of family vacation–would’ve been a PITA to count points then, and who wants to diet on vacation?). I didn’t gain a single pound back in all that time, though! Now I’m back on track and hope to start losing once again! I have about 102 more pounds to lose, so I really have to hang in there!
I’ve lost 42 pounds on Weight Watchers. It’s taken me a little over 6 months, but I have not been exercising. I’ve changed my eating habits for the better (more veggies, less fried foods/fast food) and I switched to water, tea and diet soda instead of the sugary soda. I never feel deprived because the Weight Watchers Flex Plan allows you occasional indulgences and helps you understand your portion sizes. I can still eat chicken parmigiana and tiramisu every now and then, but not every day. I’m really happy with it and I never felt like I was putting my body through some kind of shocking, radical experience. My system is sensitive, so I’m very pleased with the results.
Are you me?
I’ve also been doing Atkins, and have lost about 84 pounds on it. I gave up sodas and anything with white sugar carbs. I drink lots of water, and eat mostly protein and veggies. IMO, it’s the easiest “diet” I’ve ever been on. As I’ve mentioned in other threads, eliminating white sugar and excess carbs from my diet has also had the effect of helping me get rid of nearly crippling migraines. This is basically just the way I eat now. Chicken, fish, salads, lots of green veggies, cheese, eggs, and lots and lots of water. I do pay attention to portion sizes, and watch the fat content now, though, that I’m closer to my goal weight, but it’s a very easy way to eat.
Oh, I have an exercise bike and I walk, too. You gotta get the exercising in. LastCall, you metioned “geocache” as your hobby. What is that?
I lost 50 pounds in about 6 months and have kept it off for over a year now. My lunches use to consists of a 10 sack of Hard Shell tacos or a 10 sack of White Castle with large fries. I don’t eat fast food anymore. If I do go out to eat, I will just drink light beer or only eat half of what I get and bring the rest home.
The hardest part was getting that last 5-10 pounds off. I really had to workout hard and eat very lean. I think it took me at least 2 months to lose the last 5 to get to where I wanted to be.
I am right where I want to be. No Brad Pitt type abs, but that’s not realistic anyways. It feels absolutely friggin fantastic. When surrounded with a supportive network, you feel like a million bucks.
I lost 85 pounds from the first week of January to about August, on Atkins. My weight had held steady since then, because I’d gotten lazy and stopped walking and started eating a little of the wrong things. Also, even though I currently weigh ~320, I feel much thinner, so I’ve not been quite as motivated.
Now, I’m back on it – 2 miles / day walk, plus low-carbing – and it’s coming off again. Much more slowly than last time, but it’s happening.
I have about 60 pounds to go to bring me down to my goal weight of 260. When I hit that, I’ll be at around 15% fat (down from ~54%) – well within the low-normal range.
I hit 192 in July and the dread of being 200 lbs motivated me to do something. I’m down to 168 (stupid plateau for 3 lousy weeks!) and have 18 lbs to go. I’ve gone from a tight size 18 to a comfy size 16, chest down 2 inches, waist 2 inches and hips 2 inches.
1300 calories
30 grams of fat
100 carbs (only whole grain, complex carbohydrates, no white bread or potatoes)
10 Super Foods
I eat small meals every 2 hours to convince my dumb body it’s NOT starving, there’s plenty of food and it can let those big hips GO.
I’ve also incorporated an aerobics exercise tape, trying to do it at least 3 times a week. I never liked soda, so giving it up was no hardship. It’s either water or tea for me. I’m also a vegetarian who loves vegetables (which kinda makes Atkins out for me anyway) so not having any problem finding tons of veggies to help fill up on.
I love to read all these success stories, I feel like there’s hope for me!
Hmm…1300 calories sounds a little low. I’m not a dietician, but you might want to consult a pro about that.
I’ve lost about 60 pounds since the end of March, going from 256 to about 194 as of this morning. I’m a 24 year old male and about 5’11". What worked for me:
LOTS of walking. I walked at least to if not to/from work everyday, which was on average 2.5 miles a day. I’d also take long walks on weekends and do 30 minutes on my weight bench at home a couple of times a week.
Reduce the amount you eat, but not drastically. When I first started dieting I did cut and keep track of my calories, and probably dropped to 1500/day, but over the first three months of dieting I probably averaged closer to 1700-1800. Honestly, I didn’t keep track very much. I mostly just cut my portion sizes.
For my actual diet the USDA Food Guide Pyramid was my Bible. Lots and lots of bread, fruits and veggies. I ate mostly poultry and nuts for protein, and completely cut out non-diet soda, candy, cookies, chips, etc. I also ate a lot of whole food and prepared stuff myself instead of ready-to-eat kinds of dinners.
Since I’ve gone back to school I’ve not been eating quite as well as I had been over the summer, but I think I developed a stronger metabolism and a far better “ethic” about what I eat. Yeah, the first couple of weeks were tough, but I look and feel great and I’m probably healthier than I ever have been.
I like to have a taste to my water too. One thing that helped me to drink more water at work was adding 1-2 Equal packets, depending on the size of the glass. They are only 5 calories per packet, and I figured that walking down the hall to the kitchen, walking back, and actually drinking the water probably burns at least 5 calories, so it comes out more or less even. Other people add lemon juice or other flavoring. I like sweet drinks so this worked the best for me.
And for the book - I lost between 25 and 30 pounds in 2003 on Weight Watchers, and in the process picked up some better eating habits. I kept off the weight for a long time. The biggest changes I made were switching to water/diet soda, snacking on fruit & veggies instead of chips, and cutting back on fried foods as much as I could stand to. Unfortunately I’ve been slipping a bit lately and am starting to be able to tell with my clothes … back to stricter control again. (sigh)
I replaced mine with tea: regular brewed tea. That way I can add as much (or little) sugar as I want. By varying the kind of tea (herbal, different kinds of black, etc.) I make sure I get a nice variety of tastes.
I also drink mochas as well: a bit of chocolate suryp for the sugar and a bit of regular cocoa for more chocolate taste. Calcium and caffene all in one package.
<< In my next life, I want more memory installed! >>
I’ve been living on diet Coke and Wawa diet iced tea for the past year. Wawa is a local convenience store chain in the mid-Atlantic states, and their diet iced tea is the best tasting diet beverage ever - no “diet” taste at all. I’m sure there are some negative health issues associated with diet soda, but compared with being overweight, I’ll take my chances with Splenda.
Like many others who’ve posted, I simply increased exercise, bike riding, walking, and just recently started working out at a gym. I try to do it every day, but often it works out to be 4-5 days per week. I cut out the excess food, eating about 1,800 calories per day, but try to find room in the 1,800 for some Ben & Jerry’s or Klondikes on a daily basis. I like bread & pasta way too much to consider Atkins. Less food and more exercise is a simple but magic formula. I’ve dropped 55 pounds in the last year, currently at 190 and working on dropping another 20. From one year in, I can safely say that once you’ve made your mind up to prioritize weight & health, the doing is easy. The hard part is making the decision to do it. I spent too many years avoiding the issue. A fifty pound drop is life-changing - you feel great most of the time, and wearing clothes you never imagined you’d ever fit into is a neat bonus. I’m back to sizes I wore in college.
Geocaching is basically what happens when you give computer geeks access to a multi-billion dollar network of government global positioning satelites…
…we use it to find tupperware in the woods!
The basic idea is people hide caches in interesting and unique areas where they live, and then post the GPS coordinates to the www.geocaching.com website along with basic details about the cache, what might be in it, and perhaps a hint about its location.
Then, others in the area go to the site, download the coordinates, and set out on a treasure hunt to find the cache! You’d think it’d be easy what with all the GPS hardware, but in reality, the GPS only gets you so close and the rest is old fashioned hide and seek.
Once you find the cache, you sign the logbook, take an item out of the cache (these are not super expensive items, but rather trinkets you think someone else might find interesting) and leave an item of your own for the next person to find. Then you rehide the cache and when you log in next, go to the site and report your success (or failure) and perhaps record for posterity what interesting/unusual things you encountered on your way. (Several times geocaches have even run accross a dead body in the woods! Although this is the exception not the rule )
A good cache will take you into an area you never explored before, maybe show you a new park or part of town you didn’t know existed. Geocaches have been placed in cities and in parks, mountains and caves, and even underwater. Some people work really hard to rack up their number of ‘finds’ but for me its more about getting out to new places, getting some fresh air and exercise, and solving the challange of ‘just where IS that danged thing anyway?’.
I could go on and on, so to spare the whole messageboard, I’ll just say check out www.geocaching.com and feel free to email me if you want more details!
Thanks for the continuing replies and encouragement!
It’s good to hear that I don’t have to go completely over the deep end to have some success and that the old ‘eat less and excerise more’ adage seems to hold true in a world where everyone wants to sell me ‘carb-b-gone’ or ‘mega-metabo-sizer’. (We’ll send you the first 500 pound tub free! Only 800 dollars shipping and handling!)
I’m going to make an effort to rid my life of regular soda and fast food and try to up my walking and exercising. As mentioned, I’m not a very good cook, but perhaps this will be a good way to learn. I am sure there are a ton of things I eat every day that if I thought about it, could be replaced with something healthier and better for me and I am going to look for those opportunities.
Someone mentioned beeer. I LOVE beer. That’ll be a hard one.
Feel free to continue sharing your stories here! And congrats to all of you who took off so much weight! I am envious and hope to replicate your success!
I lost 25 pounds over the course of 4 - 5 months or so. Here’s how I did it:
–Cut out the pop. I felt I needed the caffeine fix, but I don’t drink coffee, so I switched to diet pop. I hate diet pop. But I was sick and tired of drinking all my calories. I’m not one of those types who’ll say, “but now I hate regular cola,” not at all, but you do get to the point where diet isn’t that bad. I found that Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Cherry Coke, and Diet Vanilla Coke were the best.
Now I’m trying to wean myself off caffeine, but I don’t want to drink straight water, so I’m back to drinking some calories again. The Crystal Light Raspberry Ice isn’t too bad. Also, Propel (the fitness water) only has 5 calories per serving (but be careful! those bottles are three servings each). So there are alternatives.
–Counted calories. I bought a program for my PDA that established a baseline (based on my activity level and frame size) that told me how many calories I burned in a day just by living. It also had a database for a wide variety of foods (customizable and contains many popular restaurants as well, most fast food type joints) and I put in everything I ate. Everything. This is key. As long as I had a negative caloric intake (it’ll tell you how large this negative needs to be based on the goal you input), I was losing weight.
–Exercised more. I worked out 2-3 times a week, more if I could get it. My exercise also went in to the PDA program, which reduced the calories I ate and allowed me to “spend” more. It’s a little like the WW points system, just in calories and without the WW.
I haven’t been on my “diet” in a while - tried going back to school which cut into my time - but I haven’t gained much back either. However, I’m going to get back on track, starting next week, to lose the last 10 pounds I want to lose. Then I’ll weigh less than I did in highschool.
You can do it - the trick is making up your mind to get started.
The fourth weekly WW meeting will explain activity points. Based on your weight and the intensity of your workout, you earn points which you can either eat or not eat.
Good luck, Archive Guy. I lost 70 pounds, then got pregnant, and have to get back on the wagon.
Well damn i’ve gained about 2-3" on my waist since june. I don’t really gain or lose actual weight the same way other people do so I can’t measure progress strictly by pounds (i’m still at 255 which is what I was in june) but 2-3" on my waist is about 10-15 lbs of fat. However that is not really a bad regain rate that is only 1/2 lb a week since it has been almost 30 weeks since I dieted. So I guess I am going to start dieting again, probably for about 16-20 weeks ideally. If i’m lucky I will lose 2lbs of fat a week and I should be back to what I was in june sometime in early/mid february. If everything works out (which it probably wont but i’m just saying) I will be down to my goal of about 14% bodyfat and around 210 by the end of the 16-20 weeks. I’m doing this for health reasons more than vanity reasons this time around though because I want to lessen pressure on my knees and calves which are having problems.
My goal isn’t just to lose weight, its to slow regain down to 1/4lb a week or less after I lose it. That is a manageable amount to have to deal with. When I regained the 1/2lb a week I still did some dieting things (I drank diet soda and exercised almost as much as I did when I was dieting) but I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I don’t think I can spend my life living off diet foods because the variety is too limited. I figure if I diet 1 day a week then eat whatever I want the other 6 days that might slow the regain down to 1/4lb a week. On diet days I run a 1000 or so calorie deficit, I just hope I don’t unconsciously compensate for the diet days by eating an extra 1000 calories over the course of a week.
I’m really happy with it and I never felt like I was putting my body through some kind of shocking, radical experience. My system is sensitive, so I’m very pleased with the results.
I LOVE beer. That’ll be a hard one.