Weight No More Team Chat - DECEMBER 2023
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jugar
Posts: 10,101 Member
Fat2Fit has five great teams. The group and team leaders are as follows:
Our Moderators:
Liselyn - @jugar
Megan - @Megan_smartiepants1970
Ashley - @minstrelofsarcasm
Jessica - @jessicakrall8
Our Team Captains:
Downsizers - @lindamtuck2018 and @Megan_smartiepants1970
Mission Slimpossible - @broncobuddee and @trooworld
Weight No More - @minstrelofsarcasm and @melaniedscott
WaistAways - @jugar and @ashleycarole86
Shape Shifters - @jessicakrall8 and @Pupowl
Our Team Motivators:
Downsizers - @Slimmersixties & @NachDeezy
Mission Slimpossibles - @katmary71
Weight No More - @rachelrjh
WaistAways - @conleywoods & @cleaneater80
Shape Shifters - @Sbus12 and @Cyncia85
HOW IT ALL WORKS: The December challenge runs for 4 weeks, from December 3 - 30. F2F months always start on a Sunday and end on a Saturday, so adjust your calendars!
Everyone weighs in weekly on their chosen day right here in the team chat. At the end of each week, the tallies are done to determine the team and individuals with the most weight lost. The best losers are announced with full fanfare every Sunday. The team competition is all in good spirits - may the most losing win!
We also celebrate those small, steady losses. If you lose, however small an amount, you are in the green! At the end of the month, we celebrate everyone who lost at least a bit every week. You are heading steadily towards your goal even if you aren't at the top of the weight loss leaderboard.
To make your weigh-in easy to find for your team Captains, please put it right at the top of a message, and use this format:
Weigh In Day:
PW (Previous Weight):
CW (Current Weight):
If you miss two weigh-ins in a row without asking for a break, you will be dropped from the team, so be sure to inform your team captain if you are traveling, sick, or just need some time off. If you want a break, you can be excused for a week or two, or are moved to the Support Team for as long as you need to. You still participate in the discussions, you can weigh in if you want to, but it will not count in the weekly tally. Don't worry! You can always come back even if you get dropped.
Once you reach your goal weight, you join the Goal Zone. You continue to weigh in every week. If you have 2 weeks above your self-defined goal zone, you go back to the regular team to lose that amount before it builds up. You will have a chance to hone those maintenance skills and stick with your team.
In addition to your own team, there are weekly F2F Full Group CHALLENGES. You can do all or none - it's up to you. Participating adds a lot to your success, so we hope to see you there often! These can involve anything fitness, health, or nutrition - and they’ll get you moving, thinking, and learning about this journey. Check the Announcements section for full group challenges.
Let’s show our fellow challengers some F2F love! Introduce yourselves right away, and let the last month of 2023 begin!!
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Hey all!
I’m Syd. I’m 48 years old and live in Colorado with my husband, a kid in college and a senior in high school. I have a desk job.
I joined MFP 10 years ago to lose weight, and it’s done nothing but yo-yo trending up until this last year when I hit 196. (The weight I was when I gave birth to my last kid.) 17 years ago, I lost that baby weight, dropping down to 135. I did it with cardio and a 1200 calorie a day diet losing 10lbs consistently a month. 7 years later I was at 163. 10 years after that, it was all back. Every time I would diet, I’d do the same thing: Cardio, 1200/day. It would work for a couple of weeks and then stop. I’d slip and eat 1300 calories and gain 2 lbs that day.
So - trying something new that’s supposedly supposed to be good for perimenopausal women… Strength training and walking. No stressful hours of cardio. If I do HIIT or Spin it’s for 10-20 min max, but full out. I eat at least 30g of protein with every meal and hit my fiber goal of 25g daily. I’m trying to focus on building muscle instead of losing fat. It’s working!!! I’m now down to 182 since I started the end of September. I eat 1500-1600 calories a day (can’t really believe that either) and 2200-2300 calories a day on the weekends. (Sort of like calorie or carb cycling). I think I’ve been able to lose eating so many calories because I started from a place where I hadn’t been dieting for months.
I feel like I still yo-yo up and down quite a bit, but because I’m in a challenge, I’m sticking with it instead of giving up like I did in the past, and I’m trending downward!
For December, I’m trying to give myself some grace, but still make good choices. Hopefully being here will help me stick with it!
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Hey team!
Following @sydditt lead here and thought I’d introduce myself and tell my story too!
I’m Angie. 36 years old. A wife and mother of a 2 yr old. I work in a factory setting that can be moderately physical with a lot of steps.
I joined MFP back in 2012?ish when I was my highest weight (205lbs or so) for that time. Didn’t use it much and it fell to the wayside.
Fast forward to June 2020, I was again at my new highest weight (261lbs). I didn’t feel great, and knew I needed to change, and turned to MFP again and steadily got down to 213lbs by the end of 2020. Took some time off for the holidays and fell off the wagon. By March 2021, I was pregnant and had my son on Halloween that year.
Within 1 year of being PP both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer at different times. It was stressful, scary and hectic. Navigating first time motherhood, working a 3rd shift schedule and taking each of my parents to their respective appointments was a lot and I didn’t give 2 sh*ts about the food I was shoving in my face lol
By August of this year, my parents are healthy and doing well for which I am so thankful but my weight had suffered and I reached 275lbs. I needed to do something about it. MFP has worked for me before and so I thought I would take a chance. I signed up for this challenge in September 2023 because I know I need something to hold me accountable or I’ll just give in and justify why I’m eating whatever I want and sitting around.
I caught up and read the last few posts of the November chat. I’m typically one of the ones that just weighs in and posts their steps, but I will try to do more and be more vocal to help myself and maybe others.
If you’ve stuck around and read all of this, hi and thanks lol I’m happy to be apart of this team!
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Weigh In Day:Saturday
PW (Previous Weight):
CW (Current Weight) 148
I’m Nan soon to be 69 living in Scotland, single and a yo-yo dieter who isn’t really into exercise but I do some.4 -
The December Week 1 Group Challenge is open and ready to begin on Sunday, Dec 3rd. I hope you'll join us for the "Hello December Challenge" and get your fitness fix on! Here's your link:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10904491/december-week-1-group-challenge-hello-december-challenge/p1?new=1
See you in the chat thread.
Jessica
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Hi! I am a 59-year-old widowed mother and grandmother. I have yo-yo dieted my whole adult life, gaining and losing 100 lbs many times. I have all-or-nothing thinking that I am going to change this time around. I heard someone say, "Have what you want and then what you need." I am going to try to incorporate this philosophy because I am ready to get off the diet rollercoaster and finally heal.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this group.3 -
Welcome new members. I'm Tracy, 51, I live in New Hampshire. I have 2 kids and 3 grandkids. I am also the director in childcare. I love to do zumba and walk. I haven't been able to do much of either though because I am having problems with my back and left leg. Finally on Thursday I will be going to get a shot in my back that I hope will help. I had 9 in my neck that didn't work so I'm not holding my breath. My Dr wants to try this before surgery. I do want to try to get in a small walk today. My fitbit broke months ago and I haven't gotten a new one yet so I also think with not having that and seeing my step count that I also don't try to push myself. I do want to get another watch and join back in on the step challenge, so hopefully soon.3
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Weigh In Day: Sunday
PW: 233.6
CW: 235.6
Not going in the direction I want to be going in. Can I please be moved to the sidelines until I can start doing better? I've read a lot of posts here, and think I want to try some type of habit tracker, but thinking of finding something to print out and do on paper, instead of something else to do on my phone which I'm on too much anyway! Thanks team!
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No, no, BAD Captain! Just realized i didn't post yesterday and forgot the steps post. Well, I didn't forget, I wanted to give a couple walkers a bit more time... Anyway ...sorry...
Melaniedscott
Sat weigh in (Nov, LATE)
PW:235
CW:235
Sun: 1200
Mon: 4722
Tues 3331
Wed: 6408
Thur: 6103
Fri 1200
Sat 4413
Steps were sort of better, except Sun (snow and ice) and Friday, too kitten lazy and sick husband....
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Hi all,
I am a 67 year old retired Nurse. I have 9# to lose and am looking forward to the Dec group challenge. It will certainly be challenging to keep on track with the holidays coming. Hopefully we can encourage each other and share tips for surviving the holidays and
staying the course. Are we posting our steps for Dec? I didn’t post steps for Nov.
December Start Weight: 154
December Goal Weight: 149
Ultimate Goal Weight: 145
December 1: 154#
December 8:
December 15:
December 22:
December 29:
December 31:1 -
~Step Challenge Results ~Team Statistics -
NOVEMBER WEEK FOUR (Nov 17-23)
Steppers: 6 (-1)
Total Steps: 322,485 (+7.44% from last week)
Average Steps Per Stepper: 53,748
The Leaderboard -
@OllieAndEd2021 - 76,952 total | 12,858 average - Most Steps in One Day!!!
@andja87 - 71,951 | 6,981 average
@sydditt - 63,440 total | 9,063 average
@daria0919 - 48,868 total | 6,762 average
@BodyTalking - 44,283 total | 6,326 average
@melaniedscott - 28,556 total | 4,079 average Most Consistent!!!
@andja87 indicated a little confusion about where in steps posting we were ...and I can understand why. I've been posting this later and later (Sunday for cryin' out loud!). So...this post is for the week of the 17th and my post on Wed (or whenever I do it... planning on Wed) will be for this past week, Nov 26-Dec 2.
WALKERS! Is there anything I can do to make this easier for you?
Some of us had more steps last week than the previous (not me, but some of us). Rankings barely shifted this week, and Most Steps continues to follow @OllieAndEd2021! Way to go! Those 22K walks really pay off! I'm making crowd goes wild noises (my husband is giving me weird looks...)!
We have one last reporting week for Nov, I can't say rah-rah! let's step up because the week is over...can we all get our steps posted by Tuesday?
Where we stand (walk?) now: almost 1.2 million for the month. I'm thinking we will likely hit about 1.5 million for Nov, if steps are similar this week to last.
Not a member of the current step group but new or thinking about joining?For our newbies or long term members who haven't been on the step challenge, if you would like to join us in walking the world, post the previous week's steps before...6 pm CST (11 pm UTC) on Wednesday. My goal is to most Wed night or Thursday morning (see the mea culpa above). We track Sun-Sat. So the first week of December is the final post for Nov. Some people post by the day, some do weekly total. What ever is most comfortable for you.
If you think, oh, I don't do that well, I don't get that many steps, I would always be at the bottom...take a look at my steps...it takes work to step less than me...or maybe the opposite...I'll just leave it at very few people step less than me generally.
As you can see above, we do a shoutout for most steps in a day and most consistent. If you post weekly only, you won't be in the running there. Sometimes, I make other "awards" up. I almost got biggest slacker again this month but I was too busy with other things....1 -
Welcome to all the new ladies & gents!
I'm Melanie, 47 (oof, hard to say it) and I'm from Kansas. I’m the other team Co-captain. Truly, Ashley does most of the heavy lifting. I generally do the steps post.
My (really short version) storyOnce upon a time, I was very skinny and could eat anything I wanted and not gain weight. I was pretty active and took meds that probably ramped up my metabolism (and put me at risk of severe medical problems). But that was a long time ago and things are different. Now I an the opposite of skinny and I look at anything yummy and gain five pounds. I need to lose 80 lbs.My special snowflake challengesI'm fairly significantly asthmatic (on meds all the time).What I do about it
I have terrible allergies, mostly mold. Which is literally everywhere. And cats. Anything that doesn't have square pupils (but not things with square pupils!?!), including people sometimes.
I have migraines.
And I have connective tissue issues (not enough collagen, too stretchy, lots of joint slippage).
August 2020, I acquired some vertigo problems and persistent deafness on one side. Yay.I take glucosamine and collagen supplements for the connective tissue problem. When I have bad days, I also drink collagen peptides (but I really dislike them). I've been supplementing with Vitamin C for decades, not really knowing why. In the past few years, I learned Vit C helps the body produce and process collagen. Suddenly, my lifelong obsession with the C makes sense.What is the point behind all this?
My neurologist recommended I take 500 mg of ginger and 400 mg of Vitamin B2 every day to reduce migraines, it has helped a lot. The migraines are so much better (almost non-existent) and manageable when they happen. The ginger also helps some with the vertigo. I have no excuses for not doing exercise when the vertigo is managed, except for being lazy.
After adding some nasal sprays and sinus irrigation, adjusting my diet a bit, and stopping coffee (EXTREMELY, TERRIBLY sad), I’ve got the vertigo mostly under control.The special snowflake stuff is not woe-is-me drama llama. It is that everyone has to do what works for them now. The stuff a lot of people go on about are not good, for me, and are sometimes dangerous, for me. Sometimes people get down on themselves because they don't do the stuff everyone talks about HIIT, Insanity, stair steppers, etc. I not only don't do those things, I shouldn't. But I should exercise.My GoalsMy daily goal to get about 30 minutes of walking a day at least during the week isn't doing much for me. I try to get a walk in otherwise but frequently fail. When I travel for work, which has been fairly frequent the past four ish months. I may be on my feet training all day but it isn't really all that much exercise and I generally drive three or four hours. Ugh. I joined a gym, ostensibly to go with my husband (where I can take a guest) but he hates going. It isn't working out well. He doesn't want to do anything but walk on the treadmill and not even that.
Anyway, I've been with WNM for a long while now. Early days, I lost a lot but blah blah blah, it came back and brought friends. I keep re-committing to getting back to work on losing and more than losing, improving my exercise and I keep falling short of what I need to do. I struggle with holidays. Not for normal reasons but more because they remind me of what I've lost (gran & sis)and what I never really had to begin with (reasonable, caring relationships in other areas). So, still working overtime to catch up, not catching up. Anyway, lets make December awesome!
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Team Results
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By Pounds
Individual Results
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Team Winners
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Team Results
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Individual Results
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Team Winners
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Hey WeightNoMores! Welcome to July August September October November DECEMBER(how the heck???). I'm Ashley, I'll be one of your two co-captains here to guide you through the month (and even longer, if you'll stick around with us).
While most of this information has been copied and pasted, I have updated some of my information to be more current and accurate. And if there are any questions, any at all, please do not hesitate to ask. I'm more than willing to talk about my struggles, my digestive tract, my sleep schedule, how starting a new relationship stresses me about because there are very few healthy date foods and I don't want to look like that person, how lifting heavy saves me from potentially beating up my coworkers, stress baking, stress eating... you get the idea.
There's a lot of content here, and it's spoilered, so it doesn't make a long post even longer. You get to pick and choose what you read.~ THE BASICS ~Name: Ashley
Age: 28
Pronouns: she/her
Location: Ohio, USA
Occupation: Chemical Engineer
Height: 5'7"
Highest Weight: 234lbs
Current Weight: 183lbs (ooof - updating this number hurt a little bit)
Lowest Weight: 6lb 10oz (August 28th, 1995)
Medical Diagnosis: Multiple Sclerosis~ MY HEALTH STORY ~I grew up in a Clean Plates Club™ household, with the idea that food could stuff down any emotion and mask any discomfort. This led to being bullied as a child, expecting people to be mean to me in middle and high school (and then being mean to people first so they didn't have the chance), having an identity crisis in college, and being scared (ahem) poopless after a doctor told me I was on the edge of being pre-diabetic.
I used this fear to catapult me into fitness, starting with indoor cycling classes. I expanded into trying out OrangeTheory, Barry's Bootcamp, F45, and numerous smaller boutique fitness studios. Eventually, I landed on a nice gym that offers group fitness but also allows you to use their equipment for your own personal use. That, combined with having a personal training session once a week, and dropping into group fitness studios from time to time, has led me to have a balanced fitness routine.
In the middle of me getting my (ahem) stuff together, November 2019, I had my first major Multiple Sclerosis relapse and could not feel half of my body. At the time, I had no diagnosis and did not know what was going on outside of the sensation of pins and needles on my left side. After playing a rousing game of Musical Neurologists™, I found a doctor who did not believe my condition to be severe anxiety. He ordered an MRI and a spinal tap, and I was on my way. 14 vials of blood, 2 MRIs, and one spinal tap later, I had a diagnosis. My symptoms are mostly manageable, and my active lifestyle along with reasonably healthy eating has allowed me to continue on with my life without much interruption. My next MRI is in a week, and I hope it shows no further deterioration, as there is currently no cure for MS.
And now? Now I'm focused on building muscle, maintaining my cardiovascular health, and holding back the icky side effects of the autoimmune disorder. Losing weight would be fantastic, but it's not my focus anymore. I've also become a certified personal trainer, with the intent to make fitness more accessible for those with chronic illness. Oh boy, do I have some new fun facts bouncing around in my brain.~ FUN NUMBERS ~Number of Spin Classes Attended: 1168
Deadlift Personal Best: 180 lbs
Squat Personal Best: 155 lbs
Fastest Mile Run: 6m 11s
Percent Body Fat: 26%
Times "Started Over": Too High to Count~ THINGS TO KNOW ~- I am also a moderator for F2F, so if something doesn't look right, you can let me know and I'll take care of it.
- As a chemical engineer, I am VERY familiar with a lot of the chemicals we put into our bodies, and numbers are my friends. I also do research for a living. You want facts? I'm your girl. I am always (ALWAYS) happy to explain the science behind something.
- I used to have a blog on MFP before they removed the blog feature. I didn't save everything I ever wrote, but you can find some of it here: LINK
- I am an open book. You want to know about life with MS? Just ask. You want to know when my last bowel movement was? Just ask. You want my maple donut cookie recipe? Just ask. There is not a single topic I am unwilling to chat about - all it takes is asking the right questions.
~ CURRENT STRUGGLES ~My weight has been slowly increasing over the past year. And even though I know there's been quite a bit of muscle growth, and plenty of sources of water retention, it's getting to me.
In an attempt to quell my anxieties, I ordered a new scale.
I know what you're thinking. Obsessing over my weight even more will not help.
But that's not why I ordered a new scale. This new scale has a couple built in features I'm excited to try out, tracking a dozen more metrics than a standard scale, including BMI, body fat percentages, muscle mass, etc. I am hoping (HOPING) that these new numbers will help me re-center myself and trust that this slow process is working for me, that my plan to build muscle to increase my basal metabolic rate (BMR) while losing fat from a slight caloric deficit has been benefitting me.
Because sure, my BMI claims I'm overweight. It's been decades since I haven't been overweight. But I know I'm more muscular than I've ever been at 180lbs, and I've been here several times before. And I know I can do far more than I ever could previously.
So, it's going to be okay. But my brain needs a few more numbers, just a little more data, before it believes that.
UPDATE - OCTOBER: The new scale was incredibly helpful. Here's what I posted soon after testing it out:minstrelofsarcasm wrote: »~ New NSV!!! ~
I mentioned in my long rambling post about myself that I ordered a new scale to better track the numbers in a way that matters, and oh boy was that a smart idea. I have the results of the InBody scan I did way back in May last year, when I was actively participating in a challenge at my gym at the time, F45. And while there are some things to be wary of when comparing two different methods of obtaining these numbers, I am still ridiculously proud of how far I've come.Let's take a look...
May 9th, 2022
Weight - 177.1 lbs
BMI - 27.7 kg/m2
Skeletal Muscle Mass - 74.3 lbs
September 8th, 2023
Weight - 179.4 lbs
BMI - 28.2 kg/m2
Skeletal Muscle Mass - 88.2 lbsBut what does this mean?
So here's the thing. My weight went up. For a lot of people, this is a huge no-no. And because my weight went up, so did my BMI, because BMI is based solely on weight and height, not levels of health. I wrote a blog post back in the days when MFP still had the blog feature (I was smart and made a copy of this blog, so if you want to read it, you can click here).
But let me draw your attention to what I'm actually proud of: Skeletal Muscle Mass. According to what my special scale told me this morning, I've gained almost 14 whole pounds of muscle over the past 16 months. And if I gained 14 pounds of muscle, but only 2 pounds of weight, that also means I've lost approximately 12 pounds of fat, give or take a pound or two to account for hydration levels and how much heavier my hair may have gotten.
All of this is to say that the number on the scale isn't the whole picture. I can already see a couple issues I have with the measurements my new scale has taken, because there's way too many variables that could affect the values they're giving me, but it's a lovely way to compare my values one day to my values on another, and that's a better picture than a standard weight-only scale could ever provide.
UPDATE - November: I still have a couple issues with the numbers I've been seeing, but the slight shifts from day to day have aligned reasonably well with my eating/exercise habits, so I can't complain too much.
UPDATE - December: I've been out of control with my eating recently, but I think I've discovered several of my triggers to overeat, and I have a plan to regain control. It's just a matter of doing the damn thing.2 -
CassieGetsFit2013 wrote: »Weigh In Day: Sunday
PW: 233.6
CW: 235.6
Not going in the direction I want to be going in. Can I please be moved to the sidelines until I can start doing better? I've read a lot of posts here, and think I want to try some type of habit tracker, but thinking of finding something to print out and do on paper, instead of something else to do on my phone which I'm on too much anyway! Thanks team!
@CassieGetsFit2013 - Yeah, I can absolutely move you to the support team, with the intent of returning in January. Keep in mind you can still weigh-in with us and provide updates - it might even help keep you on track.4 -
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Woohoo! We came in strong at the end, team! 😬2
This discussion has been closed.