My story so far
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SafioraLinnea
Posts: 628 Member
I was on MFP three years ago and "successfully" lost some weight on a 1460 cal daily diet, doing cardio 6-7 days a week for an hour (sometimes 2 hours) daily. I consistently lost 1.5-2 pounds every 7-10 days.
2012 stats:
Height: 5'3.5"
SW: 204lbs
Lowest 2012 weight: 167.5lbs
But by the time I broke into the 160s, my health was starting to suffer. My hair was thinning a lot, my skin had a lot of breakouts, my nails looked horrible, I was tired all the time, irritable with people around me, and I was noticing problems with concentration/focus. I was getting migraines often, sleeping poorly, and I just felt off. All that makes a lot of sense, realizing I was probably only netting at best 1000 calories a day (after exercise) because I didn't eat my exercise calories back.
A routine physical in July showed one of my birthmarks being "high risk for melanoma" and I had surgery to remove it from my leg two days later.
I upped my calories to 1800 to allow for healing and I slowly started gaining weight back. I knew it was more important to heal my body than lose weight, so I gave away my scale. Long story shorter and less icky for the squeamish readers: I ended up with some problems with wound healing, continued migraines, nursing school stress, working 46 hours a week, and I quit tracking calories by October 2012 and ate whatever I wanted.
Fast forward to May 2015. I am seriously annoyed when I hop on my old scale after my graduation party and discover I am 218lbs and my highest weight ever. I did not realize I was that heavy. I commit to getting back to a healthier weight and refuse to return to the level of unhealthiness I was living at that time.
A group of friends decided to do a whole30 challenge and I joined in. I hated it but I did it for the full 30 days. By two weeks in, I regretted not doing my research. The restrictions made me really irritable. To avoid quitting, I started weighing myself daily, tracking my intake on MFP and started researching the real way I wanted to get myself healthy because whole30 wasn't it.
I stumbled happily onto EM2WL, and the more I read the more confident I became. I read everything I could find and on July 1, I was ready to up my calories.
2015 Stats and progress:
Height: 5'3.5" (the .5 makes a difference!)
Medium-large frame
BMR: 1694
TDEE: 2625
In June:
1500 calories daily
-10lbs of probably glycogen stores/water weight
All that loss occurred by mid-June. Maintained (+/-2lbs) for remainder of June.
No additional exercise other than normal daily activity and work.
Bought and started using fitbit charge HR last week of June. Mostly used for tracking purposes.
Week of July 1st:
1700 cal
-1.5 pounds
Week of July 8th:
1880 cal
-1.8 pounds
Week of July 15th:
1980 cal
-1.2lbs (with three days left in the week)
Plan: Continue to up calories in 100-150 increments every week until I reach TDEE, or I start gaining and reassess then. I hope to stay on the lower range of calorie increases so that I can see the data over a longer period of time.
I am not currently lifting weights but I plan to as soon as I am cleared for heavy lifting by my physiotherapist. I'm in the final week or two of rehabilitating a rotator cuff strain. It has been going extremely well, and I am progressing much faster than expected. As per physiotherapy instructions, I use resistance bands for building up strength and moderate walking for a bit of cardio. My dietician confirmed my intake is adequate for healing.
Goals:
I don't have a set goal weight or specific goal date because I know I need to commit to permanent lifestyle changes rather than weight loss goals. I also acknowledge that a scale is not the only measure of success, and have recently done body measurements to compare to at a future time.
I want to feel strong, look good in a dress, and wear all my clothes from the normal section of the clothing shops.
My primary goal is ensuring I am taking care of myself in a healthy way and my long term goal is to stop getting hurt doing silly things!
Any thoughts or supporting ideas would be awesome. Thanks!
2012 stats:
Height: 5'3.5"
SW: 204lbs
Lowest 2012 weight: 167.5lbs
But by the time I broke into the 160s, my health was starting to suffer. My hair was thinning a lot, my skin had a lot of breakouts, my nails looked horrible, I was tired all the time, irritable with people around me, and I was noticing problems with concentration/focus. I was getting migraines often, sleeping poorly, and I just felt off. All that makes a lot of sense, realizing I was probably only netting at best 1000 calories a day (after exercise) because I didn't eat my exercise calories back.
A routine physical in July showed one of my birthmarks being "high risk for melanoma" and I had surgery to remove it from my leg two days later.
I upped my calories to 1800 to allow for healing and I slowly started gaining weight back. I knew it was more important to heal my body than lose weight, so I gave away my scale. Long story shorter and less icky for the squeamish readers: I ended up with some problems with wound healing, continued migraines, nursing school stress, working 46 hours a week, and I quit tracking calories by October 2012 and ate whatever I wanted.
Fast forward to May 2015. I am seriously annoyed when I hop on my old scale after my graduation party and discover I am 218lbs and my highest weight ever. I did not realize I was that heavy. I commit to getting back to a healthier weight and refuse to return to the level of unhealthiness I was living at that time.
A group of friends decided to do a whole30 challenge and I joined in. I hated it but I did it for the full 30 days. By two weeks in, I regretted not doing my research. The restrictions made me really irritable. To avoid quitting, I started weighing myself daily, tracking my intake on MFP and started researching the real way I wanted to get myself healthy because whole30 wasn't it.
I stumbled happily onto EM2WL, and the more I read the more confident I became. I read everything I could find and on July 1, I was ready to up my calories.
2015 Stats and progress:
Height: 5'3.5" (the .5 makes a difference!)
Medium-large frame
BMR: 1694
TDEE: 2625
In June:
1500 calories daily
-10lbs of probably glycogen stores/water weight
All that loss occurred by mid-June. Maintained (+/-2lbs) for remainder of June.
No additional exercise other than normal daily activity and work.
Bought and started using fitbit charge HR last week of June. Mostly used for tracking purposes.
Week of July 1st:
1700 cal
-1.5 pounds
Week of July 8th:
1880 cal
-1.8 pounds
Week of July 15th:
1980 cal
-1.2lbs (with three days left in the week)
Plan: Continue to up calories in 100-150 increments every week until I reach TDEE, or I start gaining and reassess then. I hope to stay on the lower range of calorie increases so that I can see the data over a longer period of time.
I am not currently lifting weights but I plan to as soon as I am cleared for heavy lifting by my physiotherapist. I'm in the final week or two of rehabilitating a rotator cuff strain. It has been going extremely well, and I am progressing much faster than expected. As per physiotherapy instructions, I use resistance bands for building up strength and moderate walking for a bit of cardio. My dietician confirmed my intake is adequate for healing.
Goals:
I don't have a set goal weight or specific goal date because I know I need to commit to permanent lifestyle changes rather than weight loss goals. I also acknowledge that a scale is not the only measure of success, and have recently done body measurements to compare to at a future time.
I want to feel strong, look good in a dress, and wear all my clothes from the normal section of the clothing shops.
My primary goal is ensuring I am taking care of myself in a healthy way and my long term goal is to stop getting hurt doing silly things!
Any thoughts or supporting ideas would be awesome. Thanks!
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Replies
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Keep reading the success stories to stay motivated. It sounds like you are starting off with the right mind set, good for you
Nice that the dietician is on board with you eating at a reasonable amount.
There are several others currently resetting or taking a serious diet break, join in the threads for support and motivation.0 -
Just a question about your activity level choice and something you said about nursing school.
Notice those rough TDEE charts are ONLY talking about exercise, and if all you had was a desk job and no kids/pets keeping your more active after work - then 3-5 hrs of exercise and Moderately Active would be correct.
But are you sedentary desk job, or nursing, do you have kids?
That would have it's own level - easily top of Lightly Active depending on what kind, maybe more.
Then you add the 2 levels together actually.
Might try this for better assessment that adds daily life and exercise together.
Just TDEE please, better than 5 level TDEE charts.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing
Yes to the slow increased, for maybe 3 weeks max. By that point you've gained any extra water weight you were going to usually, and body has learned to speed back up each week, so going to 200 daily in final weeks to get it over with faster is better.0
