I lost my virginity, but I think it’s coming back.
Count me in…I need to lose the 6 lbs that Sue made me gain when she force fed me all those chocolates last Aug. Next time I visit, I will just have to make sure we do more skinny dipping.
“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good
things.” --Edgar Degas
What a bunch of weight loss pansies you all are! “I wanna lose 10 pounds” “I wanna lose 12 pounds” “i wanna lose 25 pounds” Phooey!
I wanna (and needta) lose ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS! So there.
And I’ve lost the first 3 in the past week. I’ve been swimming almost daily, and weightlifting every other day. (Although simply walking around the planet is weightlifting when you weigh as much as I do!)
stoid
Another 10 would be nice. I haven’t eaten anything solid in two days - a popsicle all day yesterday and a couple sodas today, I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to think of food. This could be a good thing.
I need to lose about 30 pounds to be at a healthy weight again. That won’t make me super thin, but I’ll at least be able to wear a size 10 and climb a flight of stairs without hacking up a lung. (note to self: quit smoking, too).
First things first–I MUST cut down on my Mt. Dew consumption [pouting with arms folded across my chest].
Stoid -
I hear ya, sister! I think I should get weightlifting awards when I run up and down the stairs at my office! Carrying around 100 extra pounds is exercise in itself.
And for the record…having your roommate bake cookies when you’re on a diet is NOT fun.
radar ralf: I get the flu, meaning Influenza itself, almost every year at about this time. I’ve got an appointment at the doc’s office on Monday. Thanks for your concern. =B^)
Oh come on Stoidela & Falcon. We hear ya. You gotta lose way more than a lot of other people here do. But I promise not to point and call you names if you promise to not minimize other people’s own private struggles.
The reason I’m trying to lose a total of 25-30 pounds now is that I have plenty of family members who need to lose 100-150 pounds. It’s no feat of imagination to see that I have the same genetics, and I could easily become my Aunt Suzy in 10 years if I don’t get a handle on it now. 'taint no shame in admitting that, and I honestly believe that people who need to lose can benefit by sharing what works, what doesn’t, stories, setbacks, etc. regardless of whether you’re losing 10 pounds or 1000 pounds.
Besides, we’re all cyber people here, and I’m sure we’ll all 110 pound blonde sex goddesses in real life.
Hey everybody, this is great.
Thanks to all who have shared and will continue to share.
I fit more in the Falcon and Stoidela group, my inital goal was 189lbs, now with 37 gone, I have 152 to go.
But good luck to those who only need to lose 20 or so lbs. Being healthy is important for us all. Sometimes to us big folks, it seems that the smaller ones that complain that they need to lose 10 lbs are silly. After all how hard could it really be to lose 10 lbs. But the last 10 can be the hardest.
To the guy who asked about the ideal weight for a 6’ tall guy. Is around 175 - 185 or so I believe. I would be happy at 200.
Everybody, congratulations on your success and have a great week. For those who have gained, don’t let it get you down, just do better next week. For those who feel bad that they missed a couple of workouts. Again, just do better next week.
We can all do it. The holidays will be tough (Halloween is gonna kill me, I love candy) but we can get through it.
Falcon and Stoidela, it may take us a year or more, but lets stick to it and get to our goals.
Satan, I did not lose, my team did. I am still the same person I was before.
What I did lose was about the size of my 3 yr old daughter.
For those who are not very overweight, imagine walking around all day with a grown man or woman on your back. We can’t just put the person down. We climb stairs with this person wrapped around us. We walk everywhere with this person. Is is no wonder we are tired at the end of the day?
Again, lets all encourage each other and continue the weight loss.
Jeffery
I told some of my story here: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/002115.html
Here are the rest of the details. Since Feb '99. I have gone from 186 pounds to 165 pounds and have decreased my body fat % from 23.2% to 9.7%. (I got as low as 155, but then started gaining muscle mass).
For all those trying to lose weight, don’t be a slave to the scale. If you are doing strength training, you may not be losing weight, but you may be looking better. You will be adding muscle, which raises your metabolism. The scale does not tell the whole truth.
The way I finally got fit was by doing the following:
1)Work out 5 days a week lifting weights for an hour and doing cardio.
2)Quit drinking pop and started drinking water (At work I would drink about 6 cans a day, and at 120 calories, that’s 720 calories cut right there) Hey, I can multiply 
- Learned how to do cardio properly. You need to do it for about 20 minutes before you start burning fat, which I knew, but you also need to monitor your heart rate. You burn fat the most efficiently when you are going at 65% of you max heart rate. Once you go above 70 - 75 you are not burning much fat. Your max heart rate generally is about 220 - your age. This means my heart rate should be around 130 while doing cardio.
This is a very easy heart rate to maintain for a long period of time.
- I let myself indulge about once a week. I used to start a workout program and diet on Monday, and if I ate pizza or something, I would say to myself “Well I’ve already broken my diet, I’ll start again Monday” and pig out the rest of the week.
Here is a great page content wise where I learned a lot, but the page is designed bad, and should be listed at www.webpagesthatsuck.com
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/2894/
“My guitar is my first wife. It doesn’t scream at me. It screams for me.” SRV
Stevie Rave On says:
(I)Work out 5 days a week lifting weights for an hour and doing cardio
----and----
Your max heart rate generally is about 220 - your age. This means my heart rate should be around 130 while doing cardio.
Damn! That’s one tough codger! When I get to be 90, I hope I have a heart rate at all.
220 - my age (23) =197. That is my max heart rate. I said you should be at 65% of max heart rate, which = 128.5. I thought what I said was pretty clear 
Wait, I think I get it now…130 is your goal heart rate, not your max heart rate.
So, if I did the math right (this time), you’re 20 years old, right?
Arithmetic is the second thing that goes when you reach my age. I forget the first.
Simulpost, and my boo-boo.
You got it Stevie, I weigh once a week, that way the little ups and downs do not get to me. I weigh each Thursday after my workout.
Also, don’t just use weight, but take some measurements. Waist, chest, arms, legs, etc. Then as you lose inches around your waist but are not losing lbs, then you know the weights are paying off and you are getting smaller.
Jeffery
btw… the plan I’m doing is at www.ediets.com. Took all the guesswork out of the eating thing, plus they have message boards, which I appear to be addicted to. I can do anything if there’s a message board about it.
StrTrkr777, thanks for your comments on the 20 pound group. Believe me, I have empathy for everyone out there who has lots and lots of weight to lose… I know how hard it’s been for me, and I can only imagine that it is much harder when you’re looking at a year or two of dieting instead of a month or two.
Keep in mind all that this dieting and exercising isn’t temporary. It has to be your lifestyle for it to really work. Make sure y’all are doing things that you can stick with/enjoy.
My past 3 3/4 years:
210 - started lifting and exercising
190 - started running instead of stairmaster
185 - eliminated a few more calories
175 - Damn! Too skinny!
195 - Oops! Overshot!
190 - Would like to lose a few more pounds. Back to lifting (albeit lighter weights, more reps) after shoulder put me out for a few months (still more muscular than previous 190 listed here, though)
…shoulder injury put me out…
Strainger is completely right. We as a country tend to diet and lose a few pounds and then we go off that diet and gain it and more back.
It must be a lifestyle change. The plan I am on is geared to be a lifestyle change.
It says that the first 3 letters of diet are DIE so it calls it the LIVE-it plan.
Once you have achieved your goal weight, you go on maintenance which is more of the same. You then find out what your caloric intake for maintaining your body weight is and follow that. Continuing to exercise.
Health is a life long process not just a month or two thing.
Thanks to all who have responded. Now let’s keep it up and continue to work toward our goals.
If anyone has any thing that they have found that has worked for them please post it so that all may benefit.
Jeffery
Strtrker:
You are right about making a change for life. That is the fundamental flaw in 99.9% of diets or eating programs: they are so difficult to maintain that people don’t. They usually make you give up whole categories of foods, use nasty tasting substitutes for the real things we like (non-fat cheese? Why not just chew on some plastic and call it a day?), and usually eat so little that we are left hungry.
I am on day 10 of the Carbohydrate Addicts LifeSpan Program. I feel FANTASTIC. I have energy, my mood is terrific, I am NOT thinking about food all day long (because I am denied nothing on this program, so why obsess about it?) I’m enjoying every dingle meal I eat, and I’ve lost 6 pounds.
This I can do for life.
stoid