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Weight No More Team Chat - March 2025
Megan_smartiepants1970
Posts: 44,471 Member
Fat2Fit has five great teams. The group and team leaders are as follows - contact them any time!
Our Moderators:
Ashley - @minstrelofsarcasm
Jessica - @jessicakrall8
Lauren- @lauren_989
Megan - @Megan_smartiepants1970
Our Team Captains:
Downsizers - @Megan_smartiepants1970 and [open]
Mission Slimpossible - @Katmary71 and @trooworld
Weight No More - @minstrelofsarcasm and @melaniedscott
WaistAways - @ashleycarole86 and @lauren_989
Shape Shifters - @jessicakrall8 and @Pupowl
Our Team Motivators:
Mission Slimpossibles - @micaroo4
Weight No More - @BodyTalking and @daria0919
WaistAways - @MaddawgMadsen
Shape Shifters - @LaurieWrobo and @Cyncia85
HOW IT ALL WORKS: The March challenge runs for four weeks, from March 2nd - March 29.
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, and may everyone else get to work on next week!
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 single week. You are heading steadily towards your goal even if you aren't at the top of the weight loss leader board. In March we are aiming for every team to hit 50% green every week - let's do this!
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 can be moved to the Support Team for as long as you need. 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 or re-introduce yourselves right away, and let's get March on the road!
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Hello March!! For those of you who haven't met me or would love a reminder: Hi, I'm Ashley. I'm one of the co-captains here at Team Weight No More, and one of the moderators for the Fat2Fit Challenge Group. If you fancy a bit of reading, here's my extremely long introduction post:Hey WeightNoMores! Welcome to March! I'm excited to see where the new month will take us! 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 there are very few healthy date foods and I don't want to look like that person around my boyfriend, 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: 29
Pronouns: she/her
Location: Ohio, USA
Occupation: Chemical Engineer and Certified Personal Trainer (since November 2023!)
Height: 5'7"
Highest Weight: 234lbs
Current Weight: 184lbs
Lowest Weight: 6lb 10oz (August 28th, 1995)
Lowest Adult Weight: 155lbs (although there were some heavy ED vibes, so I wouldn't romanticize that time of my life too much)
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, leading four to six group fitness classes 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 July, 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.
APRIL - The plan for this month is to find somewhere to take my personal training certification. My original lead did not pan out, for a myriad of reasons, so I am back to the drawing board.
MAY - I reached out to a local group fitness studio and threw my hat into the ring for becoming an instructor. Formal training won't start until the end of May, so I have the rest of the month to take classes and observe where I can to learn the basics.
JUNE - I edited this intro while going through instructor training, stay tuned for updates!
JULY - My instructor audition is July 6th! Wish me luck!
AUGUST - I have officially passed my audition and began teaching classes last week. It's going to be a fun new adventure for me.
NOVEMBER - I have been leading classes for several months now, and have a newfound appreciation for yoga classes. These classes have boosted my confidence in myself and challenged me to modify exercises for a large variety of different folks. I am really glad I bet on myself and took the risk to audition, and I can't wait to see where it takes me next.
JANUARY - As of next week, I will be coaching four classes per week (Tuesday/Friday nights, early Wednesday mornings). Things have been going well, the members seem to have taken to me quite easily, and it's a great way for me to balance out my weeks. While I have been talking about doing more yoga, class times at my local studio do not work with my schedule and online sessions lack that extra something special.~ FUN NUMBERS ~Number of Spin Classes Attended: 1200+
Deadlift Personal Best: 205 lbs (as of 12/16/24)
Squat Personal Best: 160 lbs
Fastest Mile Run: 6m 11s
Percent Body Fat: 28%
Times "Started Over": Too High to Count~ THINGS TO KNOW ~- I am 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 and certified personal trainer, 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. 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 2023: 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 2023: 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 2023: 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.
UPDATE - February 2024: My weight has mostly stabilized, so now I'm focusing on the little details and paying attention to their impact on my weight, essentially treating my body like a science experiment. Stay tuned.
UPDATE - November 2024: It's been a while, but my weight has not shifted much in a while. My proportions, however, absolutely have. My personal trainer and I took progress photos yesterday and it is clear I have put on a bit of muscle and lost a similar amount of fat. Consider this a friendly reminder that the number on the scale is not the whole picture, and there are a million different metrics to track progress through.0 -
The March Week 1 Group Challenge is open and ready to begin on Sunday, Mar 2nd. Please join us for Healthy Habits and start something new to motivate your way to better health!
Here's your link:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10933970/march-week-1-group-challenge-healthy-habits#latest
See you in the chat thread!
Jessica
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Welcome to all the new ladies & gents!
I'm Melanie, 48 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 challenge.
Welcome to March! Sometimes I post an intro and sometime I forget until the last week. I've been on MFP for a long time (more on that in spoilers, if you're interested). I am happily childfree, married for 24 years and I don't love exercise but I do like walking. I need to lose weight to aid medical conditions and because I don't like what I see in the mirror.
The rest is my standard stuff, read it or don't; don't if you've been around a while and already did, up to you.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, stress eat 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!?! I have no problem with squid, apparently!), 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. Fall of '23 the ENT decided to call it Meniere's and recommend hearing aids, which are good.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 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, adding copious amounts of ginger, 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 (like HITT) 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.
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 changed jobs in April '24. The new job gives me opportunity to I move more but I also drive a lot and do a lot of documentation, which means sitting at a computer so...I don't move enough. Need to work on that.0 -
Team Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Individual Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Team Winners
Percentage of Members in the Green!
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@minstrelofsarcasm sent you a message.1
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Team Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Individual Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Team Winners
Percentage of Members in the Green!
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Those that joined welcome to the group 🙂
@melaniedscott thank you
Monday 4,661
Tuesday 4,962
Wednesday 2,432
Thursday 4,031
Friday 3,188
Saturday 4,633
Sunday 3,191
Definitely a better week on steps
Thank you all for keeping these groups going we all are grateful xx0 -
I am excited about my steps this month. February I beat January, so I am hoping to have March beat February.
2/23-5,960
2/24--11,633
2/25--14,912
2/26--9,075
2/27-10,976
02/28-7,360
03/01--7,268
03/02--4,675--watch battery died didn't track everything1 -
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WEIGH IN DAY MONDAY
PW: 176.5lbs
CW: 174.5lbs
Which looks like I’ve lost 2lbs but I haven’t because I weighed this 2 weeks ago but had a spike so I’ve just dropped back to where I was *sigh*1 -
fknlardarse wrote: »Which looks like I’ve lost 2lbs but I haven’t because I weighed this 2 weeks ago but had a spike so I’ve just dropped back to where I was *sigh*
@fknlardarse -
You got rid of a bloat, and that's still a victory! This is just proof that you didn't gain 2 lbs of fat over the course of a week, and is a great reminder that sometimes our bodies hold onto excess water, even when we don't want them to.
Keeping that in mind, are you going to change anything for this week? Are you focusing more on diet, exercise, sleep, water consumption...?2 -
Weigh In Day: Monday
PW (Previous Weight): 222.8
CW (Current Weight): 222.61 -
Weigh In Day: Tuesday
Start Weight: 154.9
This was a mistake. It should have been 154.6
My scale does not record odd numbers in tenths
Current Weight: 152.0
Steps this week:
Tues: 14,300
Wed: 12,670
Thurs: 12,763
Fri: 12,194
Sat: 14,808
Sun: 16,357
Mon:13,750
Total: 96,842
295,158 left for the month
March Goals:
96,842/392,000 steps
[ ] Shave my legs - I know, seems easy, but not really.
[ ] Spring clean the kitchen and bath.
[X] Build dog kennel
[ ] organize the feed barn
I replaced my breakfast hashbrowns with a fruit bowl this week. I'll continue to do that.
My goals today are:
[ ] Tackle the feed barn. I have to get feed today, so it's a good day for that.
[ ] Clean the dog yard. There are toys and pieces of toys everywhere!
[ ] Make some flowers for the cemetery1 -
Weigh in day: Tuesday
PW: 194.7 lbs
CW: 193.6 lbs
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Well, I got the yard done and half of the feed barn. I discovered I had a rat in the barn, so I secured all of the feed and set the traps. I got no flowers made, but the HVAC guy showed up to map the house for the new unit. Progress was made. I just didn't exactly meet my goals.
My goals today are:
[ ] Go to work
[ ] Tackle the rest of the feed barn
[ ] Make some flowers for the cemetery
[ ] Meet a customer for some custom vinyl work
[ ] Vacuum and mop floors. It rained last night, so I'll have little paw prints.
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Update on Me…
I've been weighing myself daily, and while the number on the scale refuses to go down, I can tell there's been some major recomposition happening in my body. A few of my shirts are no longer appropriate to wear to work because they are no longer supported by now-reduced back fat, so I'll be saving them for a date night unless I muster up the motivation to get out the sewing kit.
There's also noticeably less fat hanging around my biceps, which was a lovely surprise. Based on the way I've lost weight in the past, I fully expected my upper arms to lose the excess later in the process (I tend to lose outside-in: starting with my fingers, feet, and face, holding onto fat in my thighs, upper arms, and torso for as long as possible).
So am I being too hard on myself about the number on the scale? Absolutely.
But am I making noticeable progress? You betcha
Upcoming Anxieties…
- Work travel - I'll be at a conference in two weeks, away from my gym, my kitchen, my routine… it'll be a fun time, but I am concerned how far I may fall from the wagon
- NOLA vacation - My boyfriend and I have not taken a fun trip, just the two of us, so this is going to be an adventure; here's hoping he's on-board with my plans to walk everywhere and avoid using the rental car as much as we can help it
- Interviews - I am looking to switch up jobs, which means a major disruption to my routine is coming; don't know when, don't know how, but I feel the stress already
Reminders… (for me, but also for you!)
- Drink water
- Roll your shoulders away from your ears, take a deep breath
- I can only control how I respond, not the actions of others
- I've done this before, I can do it again
- Life happens, often when we least want it to, all we can do is hold on
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WEIGH DAY REMINDERS
Earlier This Week:
@BodyTalking ~ @jennyell85 ~ @ellammcg2911 ~ @podperson1
Let me know if I'm blind and missed your weigh-in, if you need to be excused for this week, or if you need any changes made!
Expected Today:
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Laurabb99
weighin day: Wed
PW: 190.6
CW: 190
We're all going to have a wonderful March!
Great news today! My total cholesterol went down 10% and is back in the normal range. Going to continue to work on getting the weight off and LDL cholesterol down more.
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@minstrelofsarcasm ooops, I will get on the scale in the morning
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Hi WNM …This was posted on team Downsizers
LivinLaVidaRosa Posts: 39 Member 2:36PM
@minstrelofsarcasm and @melaniedscott
Weigh In Day: Wednesday
PW (Previous Weight): 197.0 (2/26/2025)
CW (Current Weight): 194.6 (3/5/2025)
I know every week can't be -2.4 lbs… this was some time of the month water weight I'm sure.
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@Laurabb99 - That's wonderful news! Way to go!
@Megan_smartiepants1970 - Thanks for the help!
@LivinLaVidaRosa - Still a great loss! Even if you know it's extra water, that has to feel good, right?
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[b]BodyTalking
Weigh-in-Sunday 2nd Mar[/b]
Starting weight: 81.7 kg/180.12 lb
Previous weight: 78.2 kg/172.4 lb
[b]Current weight: 78 kg/171.96 lb [/b]
[b]BodyTalking
Steps 23 Feb - 1 Mar
Total: 37,696 [/b]
S 1028
M 3917
T 5437
W 12583
T 7190
F 3113
S 4428
@melaniedscott @minstrelofsarcasm
Sorry I'm late. I'm visiting my mum in Scotland.
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@melaniedscott I can't remember posting my steps for last week, I was away at my daughter's competition and WiFi was limited, so sorry
Sun 23rd 22892
Mon 24th 15700
Tue 25th 15103
Wed 26th 18155
Thu 27th 11583
Fri 28th 12884
Sat 29th 8783
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Weigh in day: Sunday (can I change it to Monday please?)
PW: 266.5
CW: 268.3 (on Mar 2)
Goal weight: between 165 to 175 lbs
I did weigh in but forgot to come update the thread. Whoops! Will do better next time!
Been a busy couple of weeks and I haven’t been on my game, food-wise or otherwise. But I’m working to get back on track. I feel like I ate ALLLL the things last week. This week was a bit better but I need to work on increasing my protein and sticking to my calorie goal. Stress eating gets the better of me sometimes. If anyone wants to add me feel free, my food logs are public, and I like to see others for inspiration and ideas.1 -
@melaniedscott I think I would also like to do the steps challenge. I will start on Sunday and put them in for next week. I guess my goal would be 9000 steps per day? I think it might help with consistency.
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@jennyell85 - Your weigh day has officially been shifted to Monday!
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Sorry, I'm late with weigh in - been a rubbish week.
CW - 231.6
I'm annoyed with myself as scales were much further down last weekend and then I had a stressed out few days and went straight back into the 'food will make me feel better' mindset. I need to kick my butt back in gear!
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steps
Sun-92
Mon-0
Tuesday-0
Wed-7,586
Thursday-5,844
Fri-6,657
Sat-2,644
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I am still at 191. This time it is 191 even
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