Down to 190, something I haven’t been in 15 years. Shooting for 185-180, which would bring this 6-footer’s BMI down into the “normal” range.
Fantastic work, Angel! As to the lose skin thing if you find an answer let me know.
I’m likely getting mine cut off next year. I can live with the nana wobble arms, but the bum and tummy skin must go. It’s weird because I can tell what’s fat and what’s not by how it feels - I actually am not upset with the truly fat bits anymore, I can fix those.
I’m with Ms Robyn, my bony bits are in uncomfy spots, but I’m happy to cross my legs at the knee like normal people and not have to sit on my leg with it underneath me anymore to be comfortable, so it’s a tradeoff, I guess. I got sore sitting on a park bench, that never happened before, and its strange.
My traning for the Valley Stampede has hit a snag, I’ve got bursitis in one of my hips. I’ll be bummed if I can’t do it, because I psyched myself up to do this big scary thing that fat me would never have done, and now my body is letting me down.
(To be fair, I’m not skinny me, but I’m not fat me, either. Weird.)
That’s funny you started intense training and lost 3 lbs, MsRobyn - I didn’t exercise last week and I ended up losing 3 lbs (usually 1-2 lbs per week). It drives me nuts when that happens because you know it’s bad reinforcement but the scale is moving and it’s joyful!
I think my new GERD meds are making me sleepy so I have had no desire to go to the gym for 2 weeks now. Which is weird cuz I love going. A steady stream of 7:05 baseball games has made me sort of put it off too…
Oh well. It’s not a race!
In the book Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding Myself, the author talks about some of the unexpected effects of weight loss. She, too, basically found herself a stranger in a strange land.
The reviews are very mixed about whether people liked or hated the book, but I found it a fairly compelling and brutally honest look at life as a fat person and then a thin person. (For the sake of completeness, I will say that she has another book out and acknowledges that she gained back about half the weight she had lost…and then worked on losing THAT weight, but I really don’t feel that detracts from the accomplishment).
As for me (since I seem to be participating in this thread), I’ve found that exercise is not optional if I want to get to and stay in the lower range of my weight. I know everyone is different, but I’m thinner when I have a few days of running in. I just have to get better about varying my workouts because I have a history of running injuries (including surgery last December) and I know that I need to mix it up. Right now I just can’t afford to belong to a gym any more expensive than my $10/month Planet Fitness membership, so I don’t have access to classes.
I’m not familiar with that book, but I recommend Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir by Jennette Fulda. Ms. Fulda also lost about half of her body weight, and describes how she made the decision to lose the weight, how she lost it, and the aftereffects. She’s got a great sense of humor but doesn’t pull punches.
Since I’ve been staring at my goal weight, I’ve gotten a lot of well-meaning but useless advice about how to get there. My mother-in-law suggested that I do the induction stage of Atkins to nudge myself. Uh, no. I can’t follow it; for one, Atkins disallows some of the foods that have been the basis of my weight loss so far, and it requires far more calories than I’m now used to eating. My aunt suggested a particularly strict version of Overeaters Anonymous that requires its members to report their food to a sponsor every day, and if they gain or eat one of the disallowed foods (wheat, sugar, and alcohol, IIRC, but there may be one or two more), they have to go back to the beginning and find a new sponsor because they just weren’t working hard enough. The plan seems a bit extreme to me, and I don’t like the idea that I’m a failure because I can’t control every single variable. (A friend of mine who is in regular OA once described it to me as “the perfect diet for control freaks”. I believe him.)
Ultimately, whether I lose weight comes down to my own choices. Last Friday, I went out for dinner with my usual group of friends. I had a healthy dinner of fish, vinegar cole slaw, and broccoli. I was debating whether to get any dessert. None of the cakes in the dessert menu appealed to me, so I asked if they had red velvet cake. They didn’t, so I settled on a single scoop of sugar-free butter pecan ice cream and thanked the waitress for saving me from what could have been a very bad decision. I got dessert, stayed within my daily allowance, and I was happy. And I’ll probably lose again on Tuesday.
Sorry for the blog post. I just had some stuff I wanted to get off my chest, and this seemed like a good place to do it.
Back up four pounds this morning. Weekends are so hard.
How many calories do you eat now, MsRobyn? When I’m not exercising, I’m eating about 1,600 calories a day while on Atkins. That’s for my 280lb body tho. How many calories do you think you’d be eating on a week of Induction?
I missed the gym for another week straight. Lost 3 lbs for another week straight. Having weird reactions to GERD meds. Getting depressed. Tired of being sick all the time. Grr.
I’m eating roughly 1300 calories a day. I’d estimate that I’d be eating around 2000 calories a day on Induction because I’m used to eating a fair amount of fresh fruit and I wouldn’t be allowed to eat that on Atkins. It’s also more math than I want to do; part of the appeal of WW is that the points are all the accounting I need.
At weigh-in this week, I lost another 1.6 lbs. for a total of 89.4 lbs. I went on a two-hour ride that was mostly trail and mountain biking, so I got a buttload (23, to be exact) activity points. I may do it again tomorrow or Thursday. It depends on how my knee is doing; I took some Aleve when I got home and I’m being gentle with it. If it hurts, I’m taking tomorrow off (or at least sticking with walking); otherwise, I’m doing it again tomorrow, weather permitting. The exercise really seems to be doing the trick, along with not doing anything stupid, food-wise.
One thing I’m starting to do is label some foods as SEA-food, where “SEA” is an acronym for “Someone Else’s Ass.” These foods are foods that I might be able to eat, and may even have the points for, but they’re better on someone else’s ass than mine. 
Last week, my scumbag body decided to be a scumbag once again. I stepped on the scale at home and found that the number was quite a bit higher than it should have been. I’d been, um, having some digestion issues and it’s that time of the month again, so I was feeling lousy to begin with, but seeing that much higher number just made it worse. Since I’m not about to torture myself, I decided not to weigh in, and it turned out to be the right decision. And of course my body decided that about two hours after weigh-in, it was time to resolve those digestion issues. :mad: The scale is down by a fairly significant number, so I know I’m OK; it was a temporary fluke, not something that’s going to crater my efforts.
I’m still planning meals, which is helping, and I’m still biking. This week’s meeting topic was about exercise and I got a lot of information that will help me figure out my activity points more accurately; I was giving myself far too many points than I actually earned. I also bumped up my weekly activity goal from 14 points (an average of two per day, which I can get in my sleep) to 28, which is more realistic.
Finally, I’ve become more mindful of fiber and protein consumption. Thanks, JJ, for that suggestion. Full-on Atkins is probably not going to do it for me, but bumping up my lean protein will. I think I’d been skimping on both, so I’m making much more of an effort to cut back on carbs, making the carbs I eat count a little more in terms of fiber, and doubling my servings of protein. I’ll see how that goes and report back.
Cool, glad you found a happy medium MsRobyn. Eating a lot of lean protein just gives you more “bang for your buck” when it comes to consuming food. I eat a lot of soy, whey and Greek yogurt with red meat maybe 1 or 2 times a week. It’s the satiation of protein that I’m after.
I was off going to the gym for 3 weeks and lost 6 lbs. Then I went off plan for 2 days (Memorial Day and the next). I seem to have put back 3 of those lbs. Ugh!
But I’m not too worried. I’m not in a race. I hope to lose 100 lbs by the end of the year and I’m nearly halfway there and the year is not half up. So I am on track.
Back to the gym yesterday. I was very happy that it wasn’t a problem for my body. I did have one little episode with my heart racing, and my stomach felt pretty awful but I’m hoping it’ll settle down by this time next week. Since I have the gastroparesis I might have been exercising on a full stomach from the day before!
Now that our thread is bumped, how is everyone else?! 
I’m doing better, back down to my 152 pounds of “maintenance mode” weight. I hope to lose another 20 pounds when I go back into “reduction mode” in September.
Yesterday I had my first meeting with a dietician. I had my basal metabolic rate tested via a little machine that you breathe into for 12 minutes, and we discovered that my BMR is ~1500 calories, and my maintenance level is ~1800 calories, so I’m to aim for eating ~1300 calories a day.
My first appointment to set up a meal plan is in a couple of weeks. I’d like to lose about 25 pounds by Christmas, so here’s hoping!
Huh. Sounds like an interesting machine. Wonder how it works / what it’s based on. Any idea?
Apparently being nauseous and having a tooth-ache for a week did have a tiny positive effect; I’m now at 72.5 pounds lost (goal being 150 pounds). I’ve finally gotten to the point that I’m walking 3 days a week, and I’m now up to a mile without tiring out, a trick I haven’t been able to do in over a decade. I’m rather pleased with the progress.
I’ve been doing free-weights at home as well- just something to do when I don’t have anything else to do- but I’ve laid off them for a couple of days, as I did myself some shoulder damage (completely unrelated to the weights). I’m hoping to get back to them in a day or two.
My dietician said it was a mini version of the machine they use in the hospital to test the BMR of chronically ill patients – that’s all I know. I had to wear plugs over my nose so that all of my breath would be forced through my mouth and into the machine, and she also said that even the short walk from my car to her office probably raised the reading level a little. Apparently, the machine is most accurate when you’ve been completely calm and still for a while. I also had to abstain from food, beverages except water, and exercise for four hours prior to the test.
We haven’t yet started the meal plan, but I thought I’d start tracking my usual food intake just to see where I’m currently at, and after lunch I will have already eaten 991 calories between breakfast, lunch, and a snack of almonds. If I were on the meal plan, that would leave me 310 calories for dinner. I’m going to be hungry on this diet. 
I loved being on the South Beach diet (and lost ~30 pounds) because I didn’t have to count anything – I just ate from the list of approved foods. I tracked what I ate just out of curiosity and found that I tended to stay around 1400-1500 calories a day. I also found that I stopped losing weight after I stopped tracking, even though I thought I was eating the same things in the same amounts. Not being accountable leads to slacking, I guess (duh, self!).
I’ll post my beginning stats just as a marker for future progress (this is what my dietician printed out for me):
Height: 5’4"
Weight (with clothes): 164 lbs
BMI: 28.1
Body fat: 33.4%
Waist: 33.75"
Resting metabolic rate: 1429
Med gem calc* : 1510
AF*: 1.2
*I don’t know what these abbreviations stand for.
My body fat was measured by a little machine that I held in my hands (I don’t know how it works). My BMI puts me in the overweight category, and my body fat % puts me in the obese category. My current goals are to be under BMI 24.9 (<145 pounds) and under 31% body fat (in the acceptable range).
For anyone curious, the ranges for fat % are as follows:
Women
Essential fat: 10-12%
Athletes: 14-20%
Fitness: 21-24%
Acceptable: 25-31%
Obese: Greater than 32%
Men
Essential fat: 2-4%
Athletes: 6-13%
Fitness: 14-17%
Acceptable: 18-24%
Obese: Greater than 25%
Missed the edit window. To anyone interested in doing something like this – don’t go to a nutritionist, go to a dietician. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. In the US, dieticians go through accredited education programs, have to pass qualifying exams, and have to be licensed.
[QUOTE=wikipedia]
Dietitians are registered with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (the certifying agency of the ADA) and are only able to use the label “Registered Dietitian” when they have met specific educational and professional prerequisites and passed a national registration examination. Besides academic education, dietitians must complete at least 1200 hours of practical, supervised experience through an accredited program before they can sit for the registration examination. In a coordinated program, students acquire internship hours concurrently with their coursework. In a didactic program, these hours are obtained through a dietetic internship that is completed after obtaining a degree.[18] In both programs the student is required to complete several areas of competency including rotations in clinical, community, long-term care nutrition as well as food service, public health and a variety of other worksites.
Once the degree is earned, the internship completed, and registration examination passed, the individual can use the nationally recognized legal title, “Registered Dietitian”, and is able to work in a variety of professional settings. To maintain the RD credential, professionals must participate in and earn continuing education units (often 75 hours every 5 years).
In addition, many states require specific licensure to work in most settings.
[/quote]
So how’s everyone doing this week?
I weighed in at 111.1kg this week, taking my total weight loss to 18.2kg since September of last year. I seem to be on track for hitting 110kg in July, which is very pleasing!
A lot of my clothes are too big now, so I have invested in a sewing machine. gulp I want some nice a-line skirts but my waist is two sizes smaller than my hips so I can’t get anything ‘off the rack’ at the moment.
I gained the same damn pound and a half at last week’s weigh-in. I’ve been gaining and losing that pound and a half for a while, and the reason why is because I’ve been dipping into my exercise points and using them as an excuse to eat food that I shouldn’t, like sugary desserts.
This week, I cut out the sugar; sugar-free snacks and desserts are OK because artificial sweetener doesn’t trigger a craving like sugar does. I’ve kept the protein up, and I’ve been exercising like crazy.
This past weekend, though, I was at a convention out of town. I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to stay on plan because the convention was at a college campus and I’d be eating at the dining hall. Fortunately, I didn’t have a problem because there were acceptable foods at all three meals and the convention itself didn’t offer coffee and snacks between sessions. I also wasn’t sure how much exercise I’d be able to get, but that also turned out not to be a problem because the dining hall was 0.4 miles from the dorm and I found myself going back to my dorm after meals, then to the conference center, which was another half-mile or so. Saturday, I did enough walking to earn nine points, and I earned another four yesterday. (I brought my pedometer.) Oh, and I’ve been making sure I’m drinking water and iced tea so I don’t dehydrate.
So far, it seems to be working. My bathroom scale shows that I’m down from last week.
I’ve been doing terribly this week. My birthday was on Tuesday, and due to not being able to coordinate with everyone’s schedules, I ended up being taken out for dinner in celebration three times – once this past Sunday, once on Tuesday night, and my family is doing something for me on Saturday. I don’t even give a shit about the birthday itself (34, whoo.), but everybody loves an excuse to go out. Fortunately, the restaurant I went to on Sunday and the restaurant I’m going to on Saturday are on the “all local seasonal foods and all entrees under 500 calories” bandwagon (uh, sure, plus appetizers and drinks), but I did some damage on Tuesday. I tracked everything I ate, and calories came to around 2100 that day.
Those of you who are tracking calories, etc. via online sites like sparkpeople.com or myfitnesspal.com, how do you handle restaurant entrees that aren’t found in their database? For example, I went to a non-chain restaurant and had the chicken marsala, and on myfitnesspal.com, I see a huge list of chicken marsalas I could enter – some with ~600 calories a serving, some with ~1100 calories a serving. My meal didn’t come with pasta – it was just chicken, marsala sauce, and mushrooms – so I went with a lower-calorie entry on the site. Is this what you do, or do you think it’s safer to overestimate what you ate and choose a higher-calorie entree?
I’m still good. Had a perfect week, exercise-wise (hit all my gym days) and am going for a second perfect week in a row. I lost 2 lbs last week and I see I’ve lost 2 inches on my waist. I didn’t lose any inches when I was not exercising while I was sick for 3 weeks.
My stomach has felt pretty great and the pills that make my stomach feel great are no longer making my body feel bad, so I am super happy.
Decided to start looking out for saturated fats so I switched from swiss cheese for breakfast to mashed avocado with Splenda and almond milk. Pretty good. Now eating low carb, low sodium and low sat fat. Quite a feat!
gallows fodder I use MFP and I gave it some thought and I actually haven’t had to deal with non-chain restaurants much. But when I do, I wing it and add ingredients as if I was making it myself. About 8 oz of chicken, about 1/2 cup zucchini, about 1/2 cup squash, olive oil, salad, etc.
Up and down, up and down. Trying to stay thin-ish is really freaking hard.