Healthy and Fit in 2012! (Closed Group)

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  • January IS coming to a close. SO I guess Monday is week 1 day 2 of the "new" month? I'm sick with a sinus infection and broncchitis right now so Im eating at maintenance through the weekend and I will see how Im feeling Monday. I "broke" through the Plateau and dropped to 136 (yay) so I think that will be my ending weight for the month (as of this morning). I'm going on antibiotics and some other medicine so I know I'll be retaining water (plus TOM starts late next week).

    We all did awesome IMO, MIMI we miss you!!
  • holy MOLY being on my feet for 7 hours straight playing with kids all day, pushing them in swings, playing tag, eating fruits and veggies at snack time, and pushing buggies with 6 toddlers in them for a couple hours should be a workout on MFP!!!!! I am definitely feeling it! LOL
    Awesome, I hope you are loving it! :) And you ARE right...it should count as exercise on MFP! I'm sure "pushing swings" is not in the data base, but something comparable is...maybe "push-ups"? See what I mean or...depending on how much you work you may be able to change your activity level in your profile.

    Good idea! Especially because when I push the kids I am pushing two kids at a time so one-arm each so that is more weight on my one arm rather than one kid with both arms!! And after today I am FREAKING BEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope to the heavens I burned a lot because I caved today and finished off the cake I made. PMS+long day = treat attack. Lmao.
  • January IS coming to a close. SO I guess Monday is week 1 day 2 of the "new" month? I'm sick with a sinus infection and broncchitis right now so Im eating at maintenance through the weekend and I will see how Im feeling Monday. I "broke" through the Plateau and dropped to 136 (yay) so I think that will be my ending weight for the month (as of this morning). I'm going on antibiotics and some other medicine so I know I'll be retaining water (plus TOM starts late next week).

    We all did awesome IMO, MIMI we miss you!!

    Yay for dropping! That sucks to hear you are sick but I feel you girl these last couple weeks my allergies have been bonkers! Sinus infections are TERRIBLE! Hope you feel better ASAP!
  • After taking it easy on my "goals" this past week I realize I am doing A LOT better at going above and beyond. I have done 2/3 ab workouts, been working out my arms almost every day with various activities at work, gone walking at least once a day but mostly 2 times a day, in addition to walking to/from work, have had a lot of fruits and veggies during snack time at work, and drinking tons of green tea and water :) Tomorrow I will be babysitting so I plan on taking the kids on a walk to the park and getting them outside which means getting exercise while I make some extra cash :) Sunday is the Pro Bowl which we are going to! Fun weekend yes, but I am ready for a weekend of no plans!!!!!!!!
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    Sorry I ended up being MIA for the past 3 weeks! It looks like the madness at work is finally over for the time being ( * crosses fingers * ), and I finally have time to get on MFP.

    First of all, I've decided to keep this challenge going through the rest of 2012. So at the end of each month, please post whether you'd like to continue the challenge for the next month. This small group size seems to be working really well for ensuring that everyone is getting lots of support (everyone seems to be doing great so far!), so if most people decide to continue the challenge in Feb., I'm planning to just stay with our current group for the time being (instead of adding new members in Feb. as I'd previously mentioned). So when you post your Week 4 results, please also indicate if you're planning to continue the challenge in Feb.

    Anyway...on to my update. Since work got crazy right at the end of Week 1, I never got a chance to post my results for Week 1, or goals for Weeks 2 - 4. So here's my update for Weeks 1 - 4....


    Week 1 Goals
    Calorie Deficit:
    Eat at or below maintenance every day

    Eating:
    Follow meal plan template every day (in the "Notes" section of my Food Diary)

    I met both goals every day, and managed to maintain as planned! I'm was really happy that I made it through Week 1 without bingeing, even though work was very stressful and I wasn't able to exercise at all because I was sick. Usually those two factors are a deadly combination and bingeing is a foregone conclusion, but it didn't happen this time!


    Week 2 / 3 Goals
    Goals were the same as for Week 1, since work was really hectic and I didn't have any time to exercise (I was averaging ~5 hrs of sleep per night, and was working for most of the weekend).

    Every day I followed my eating plan every day up thru the last meal, but I had big late night binges almost every night because of all of the stress. I went way over my maintenance calories almost every day, and ended up gaining ~4 lbs of fat during these 2 weeks. :ohwell:


    Week 4 Goals
    Calorie Deficit:
    3500 cal/week (~500 cal/day) mainly from exercise

    Exercise:
    Stairmaster (45 min. x 7 sessions)
    Body weight exercises (20 min. x 1 session)
    Calisthenics (15 min. x 3 sessions)

    Eating:
    Follow "meal plan template" every day (in the "Notes" section of my Food Diary)

    Work was still very hectic last week, but not as bad as the previous 2 weeks, so I set reduced exercise goals since I didn't think I'd have enough time for weight training sessions or more body weight exercise sessions. I'll report on my Week 4 results tomorrow.
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    Hi Everyone,

    Looks like you're all doing a very good job!!! WTG!! :drinker: :flowerforyou:

    Sorry I've been absent for the last few days...my mind has been very occupied. On Friday I found out that our office is being moved to Georgia and my last day at work is on Jan. 31st. I've been at this job for 5 years and have built some very close relationships so this is very tough :brokenheart: Although this is very scary for me :sick: at the same time, I'm a little bit relieved. There has been a lot of stress and pressure at work lately and frankly it has taken over my life. Losing this job is going to change my life completely but I think it's for the better. I feel like I'm about to start a new journey so I've been thinking things through trying to figure out how to be most successful with what I'm about to face. If all goes well, I will be able to finish school while sitting on unemployment. I only have another year to go. The funny part is the night before when I was driving home from work I was thinking "this is going to be a year of changes". I strongly feel that these will be positive changes.

    Anyways, I think I did very good last week on my goals. I had to put the cleanse on hold for a few days but no biggie...it was my birthday weekend. I even lost 5 lbs but gained it all back overnight. I still don't understand how...the only thing I can think of is it has to be the alcohol or TOM. If you've seen my diary, I've been drinking the last few days. I drank a lot on Saturday night and woke up the next morning with all of that weight back. I just about fell over! And I can't seem to shed an ounce for 3 days now. It makes me mad because I worked my butt off to lose those lbs. I don't like it! :grumble: :explode: :angry:

    I would like for my goals to remain the same as the week before. Except I would like to add a push ups to my exercise routine.

    GOALS FOR THIS WEEK:

    Sleep 8 hours every night-even 7 would be nice
    Drink at least 10 glasses of water per day

    Exercise:
    Do 30DS everyday
    Walk on lunch-at least 3 weekdays
    Do atleast 10 push ups twice per day (increasing with one push up each day of the week)

    Food:
    I'm doing a cleanse so I have to stay away from all processed foods, allergents, dairy, and wheat.

    Here is my weight progress. Does anybody know what happened to the signature option? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

    :glasses: 2012 WEEKLY WEIGHT LOG::glasses:
    Jan. 2nd-->215
    Jan. 9th-->212
    Jan. 16th-->211.8
    @ Maria - it sounds like you're doing really well, especially considering all of the stress that you've been under because of your job situation! I really know how you feel, because my job is also very stressful and I end up working long hours a lot of the time. It sounds like losing that job really will be better for you in the long run. You have a great plan, and I think this year will indeed be very positive for you!

    Don't worry about that weight -- its probably just temporary water weight. The important thing is that you've been doing really well on your goals overall!
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    Reporting a day early this week:
    Week 1 1/1 128 lb
    Week 2 1/8 127.5 lb
    Week 3 1/15 126.5 lb
    Week 4 1/23 124.5 lb

    I have been weighing 124.0 or 124.5 for the past four days. Yes, I do weigh myself every morning. Today I went and got my body tested in a BodPod since I am getting closer to my goal weight. Friends and family have told me that I shouldn't lose more, so I decided some numbers would be good for me to consider now in determining my goal weight.

    The result was that I am down to 20.3% fat. This puts me in the "lean" category for my age. And that goal of 115 is definitely not reasonable, since I would be in the "risky" category and have such little fat as to no longer be healthy. I should not go below 119 pounds for any reason to maintain a healthy amount of fat. So why do I still see a "fat girl" when I look in the mirror???? I wear a size 2Petite now, so I realize that I must be pretty small. But I just don't see it. I am not anorexic, because I still love to eat and I have a hard time restricting myself to eating 1200 calories per day. Partly I think it's the loose skin that makes me think I'm too "soft". Maybe going from 202 at my highest weight to 124 now means that I will never have the toned look that I so want. I don't know. I need to do some soul-searching and really think about this. The good news is that I have gained SIX pounds of muscle mass in the last ten months so I know this slow and steady approach has worked for me! Even though my ticker says I have lost 28 pounds or so, it's actually an additional six pounds of fat! Cool!

    Since I am STILL trying to recover from this cold/respiratory infection, I was way off on my weekly goals. Only two days of exercise and over on calories often.

    Week 4:
    exercise: run 3x
    weights: 3x
    calories: unsure about this; switch to 0.5 lb loss per week? maintain weight and tone?

    Any advice or thoughts you all have is welcome and appreciated!
    @ Mandy – congratulations! Its fantastic that you gained 6 lbs of muscle mass while losing all that
    weight! If you decide to keep losing, I think you should definitely aim for losing only .5 lb/week since
    you’re at a lower body fat level now.

    Some thoughts on why you don’t look as toned as you’d like -- how long ago was it that you were at
    202? If you had lost the weight very rapidly, your skin might need some more time to tighten up. By
    “toned”, do you mean that you want to be able to see muscle definition? To get that look, you probably
    need to get to a body fat level of 13% - 15%, since you need to get rid of a lot of subcutaneous fat
    before you can see the muscle. Or by “toned”, do you mean that some spots on your body have more
    fat than you’d like? If so, you might also need to go to ~15% body fat, because your body might
    naturally prefer to store more fat in those spots, and you’d have to lose enough fat all over in order to
    reduce the fat in those spots to get the look that you want. Doing weight training with heavier weights
    and adding more muscle could also make you look more toned.

    Its also possible that you might be able to lose more fat and still be above your “healthy” level of 19%,
    for a couple of reasons. The BodPod measurement has a +/- ~3% error, so its possible that
    your acutal body fat level might be higher than 20.3%. Also, if you had a significant caloric deficit for a
    number of consecutive days prior to the BodPod measurement, you might have had 2-3 lbs less water weight than if you'd been eating at maintenance (due to your glycogen levels being significantly lower, since glycogen binds ~3 times its weight in water). I’m not sure how the body fat calculation is done for the BodPod measurement, but its possible that your body fat level would appear higher once your glycogen levels were back to maintenance levels and your weight was 2-3 lbs higher.

    Personally, when I get close to my goal weight (~115 lbs), I'm going to get a DEXA scan to check by body fat % (that has +/- ~3% error as well), but I'm mostly going to go by how I look to determine if I have the right amount of body fat and should stop losing weight. I want to look trim and toned with some muscle definition, but not so thin that I look gaunt, collarbones are protruding, etc.

    Anyway, that’s my 2 cents. In any case, you’ve done a great job on losing fat and gaining muscle!
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    Hey Ladies! Happy Monday!

    Alrighty here's a recap of week 3:
    Sugars 5g or less over- 2/7 (goal7/7)
    Fresh fruit-7/7 (goal 7/7)
    Fresh veg- 5/7 (goal 7/7)
    Cardio- 5/7 (goal 5/7)
    Strength/circut training- 1/7 (goal 2/7)
    Yoga-0/7 (goal 1-2/7)

    I did some readjusting of my main goals today, so I will be posting my weights...
    Weight so far on challenge:
    Start- 203.5
    1/9- 198.5
    1/16- 198.5
    1/23- 197.5
    Hoping to end challenge at 196!

    Final week goals:
    Sugars 5g or less over- 5/7
    Fresh fruit-7/7
    Fresh veg-7/7
    Strength/circut training- 3/7
    Cardio- 4/7

    Here we go! Hope everyone has a great week! :)
    @ Jess - wow, you've been doing a great job! Excellent progress on weight loss as well as your other goals. By the way, I haven't been able to meet my strength training goals either. I also need to focus on doing better on that going forward!
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    Eating like crap this weekend made a difference on the scale - I also used a different scale than normal and I am pms'ing. I am +2 lbs. 125 :(( my goal this week is simple: eat healthy, run, walk, do crunches, and arm workouts! I have mastered eating more fruits/veggies and drinking tons of water. With me starting working after taking a break due to moving from one duty station to another, I now realize I cannot set a million goals and expect to meet them all and at the same time work and spend time with my husband. I feel defeated from last week but today is a new day and new week.
    @ Wimberly – this is just a minor blip, nothing to worry about. You've been doing a fantastic job overall throughout this challenge! I'm really impressed with how well you've done on both the exercise and the eating.
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    So this week went a lot better than week 2...except for Sunday. Traditionally weekends have always been very difficult, especially Sundays. Went over on my calories, but still under for the entire week so I’m somewhat pleased....My workouts don’t seem to be the problem. For the most part, my food is good too....even my meal planning is great. It those d@mn “moments” I get into...when I’m at work and get RAVENOUS (ahem weekends) or just when I feel crappy.

    ***WEEK 3 RECAP***
    EXERCISE:
    - Burn at least 2000 calories through exercise (CHECK! BURNED 2394)
    - Strength training 2x (CHECK!)

    FOOD:
    - Drink a total of 64 ounces of fluids each day (CHECK)
    - 24 ounces of that needs to be PURE water everyday (CHECK)
    - Stay UNDER or AT goal calories everyday (ALMOST 6/7 DAYS, OVER ON SUNDAY)
    - Hit 80g protein 5x this week (3/5 DAYS NEEDS IMPROVEMENT)
    - Daily veggie! (CHECK)

    ***GOALS FOR WEEK 2***
    EXERCISE
    - Burn at least 2000 calories through exercise
    - Strength training 2x

    FOOD
    - Stay UNDER or AT goal calories everyday
    - Hit 80g protein 5x this week
    - Veggies 5x!
    - Have fruit 3x this week
    - Stay UNDER my Sodium!


    Weight loss goal: 10.2 lbs (This is a desired loss including the water weight I gained over the holidays) Going for 132 lbs!
    Weight loss total: 5.2 lbs

    Week 0: 142.2 -- starting weight (post Holiday bloat & gain ::GASP::)
    Week 1: 135.6 (- 6.6 lbs; a lot of water weight lost)
    Week 2: 137.2 (+1.6 lbs; ugh between BAD eating and all the medication I'm on...rough week & a lot of bloat right now)
    Week 3: 137.0 (-0.2)
    Week 4:

    Again, I know I wont be making my goal weight loss for the month but I’m keeping it just to motivate me!
    @ Sammie - great job on Week 3, and on the challenge so far! You've been making execllent progress on the weight loss! I have the same problem with doing well on the eating and the exercise, and then slipping up on the eating because of stress, etc. (stress induced late night binges are my problem). Getting that under control is really difficult -- it sounds like we both need to work on that.
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    I've been at a plateau for quite a while now and honestly was having a bit of a breakdown yesterday over seeing that same number on the scale again. I'm doing better today.
    I think for this week I will :

    ~up my net calorie intake so that I'm getting at least 1200 NET calories, which means I'll be eating back most of my exercise calories. This honestly makes me really nervous but I need to do something different and that seems to be everyone's advice.

    ~I want to keep at the c25k program--did week1 run again today and it seemed so much easier, so I'll be moving on to week 2 for the rest of the week. I want to keep up with my powersculpting dvd also.

    ~Again, focus on more water and less diet soda.

    ~No more weighing until Sunday/Monday.

    ~PRAYing for any loss at the end of the week...anything under 150 will make me happy!
    @ Joy – if you've been eating under 1200 cal/day, that definitely could be a cause for the plateau, and eating more sounds like a good plan. By the way, you might be able to get some more ideas from this article, which has good into on "unexplainable" weight loss plateaus: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2011/01/unexplainable-fat-loss-plateaus-explained.php

    Regarding one of your earlier posts -- it sounds like you should definitely get a new scale! I have a
    Tanita with a .2 lb accuracy, and it almost always gives me exactly the same weight if I step on it several
    times in succession. Very occasionally several successive weighings will give a .2 lb variation, but
    apparently because my weight is right in between two .2 lb increments.
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    January IS coming to a close. SO I guess Monday is week 1 day 2 of the "new" month? I'm sick with a sinus infection and broncchitis right now so Im eating at maintenance through the weekend and I will see how Im feeling Monday. I "broke" through the Plateau and dropped to 136 (yay) so I think that will be my ending weight for the month (as of this morning). I'm going on antibiotics and some other medicine so I know I'll be retaining water (plus TOM starts late next week).

    We all did awesome IMO, MIMI we miss you!!
    @ Sammie - thanks, I also really missed you and the others! Now that work has calmed down (so I hope!) I'm going to be back on here regularly.

    I agree, it looks like everyone (except me!) did great on the challenge! Like I mentioned in my earlier post, this next Mon. is the first week of the Feb. challenge, and I hope everyone decides to continue.

    Great job on getting past that plateau! I hope your sinus infection and bronchitis are better now.
  • HELLO! Well first "month" has come to a close! It is technically still January but new challenge month has BEGUN! I don't want to step on your toes Mimi, since you are the starter of this group but it is Monday and I am a bit antsy to set some goal for myself :tongue:

    I think I will set a new challenge for myself each week...whether it be an extra spin class, walk/jog X amount of miles....I want to improve each week and work on what I lacked the previous but I think I want to kick it up a knotch and go out of my comfort zone a little!

    Anyways a recap of this month...it's been a roller coaster! First week was awesome...second not so hot....third week was great and the fourth week was a flop!
    This past week was good right up until Thursday when i started to get REALLY sick...I've been feeling icky for about a week but Thursday was the plunger. Fever & all. Started antibiotics on Friday plus a dose of painkiller for the amount of pressure my sinus put on my teeth and eyes (swollen gums & can't even put my contacts in :sad: ) Anyways, FEELING human again...have been on bed rest since Friday so I'm hoping that later in the day on Monday I will get some exercise it...maybe yoga, something light to feel out what I can handle. Weekend was tricky since walking around made me very dizzy. SMH, that's broncchitis and low O2 levels for ya. Oh well, I'm on my way to getting 100% again.

    BUT HELLO FEBRUARY!!!!!

    *** WEEK 4 RECAP***
    EXERCISE
    - 1327/2000 calories burned (ended up sick & on bed rest by Friday)
    - Strength training 2x (1/2)

    FOOD
    - Drink a total of 64 ounces of fluids each day (CHECK)
    - 24 ounces of that needs to be PURE water everyday (6/7)
    - Stay UNDER or AT goal calories everyday (3/7 days!)
    - Hit 80g protein 5x this week (CHECK)
    - 5x veggie! (3/5)
    - 3x fruit (5/3...yay OJ)

    JANUARY RECAP
    Weight loss goal: 10.2 lbs (This is a desired loss including the water weight I gained over the holidays) Going for 132 lbs!
    Weight loss total: 5.4 lbs

    Week 0: 142.2 -- starting weight (post Holiday bloat & gain ::GASP::)
    Week 1: 135.6 (- 6.6 lbs)
    Week 2: 137.2 (+1.6 lbs)
    Week 3: 137.0 (- 0.2 lbs)
    Week 4: 136.8 (- 0.2 lbs)

    ***GOALS FOR WEEK 1 OF FEBRUARY***
    EXERCISE (easing myself back, if I feel I can handle more I will try to blow these goals out of the water)
    Go to Spin 2x
    Go to Zumba 1x
    Plus additional 45 mins of cardio
    Strength training 1x

    FOOD
    Hit as close to my MACROS as possible (50/25/25) at least 4x this week (carbs/protein/fat)
    Hit 80g protein 2x
    Stay at or under calorie goals everyday this week
    Stay under my sodium 5x

    Weight Loss Goal: 133.5 lbs
    Weight Loss Total: 0.0 lbs

    Week 0: 136.8 (was at 136.0 on Friday 1/27 but gained 0.8 through “Maintenance” SMH, right more like a free-for-all)
    Week 1:
    Week 2:
    Week 3:
    Week 4: **Leaving for a family vacation

    I’m leaving for a week long annual family vacation (BF’s side) in Florida on the 22nd. My goal is to stay SANE that week and be as close to 133 as possible! We usually stay pretty active but I know I’ll have a hard time slipping away to the gym. Actually, I think it will be impossible as my bf and I are not staying at a hotel as we usually do but with his dad in the condo he rented for the winter. Anyways, I will log the best I can that week from my iPhone and track whatever activities we do...unfortunately I can’t promise to offer you all support you really deserve during that time period! I am getting ahead of myself...still over 3 weeks until I leave. I’m not going to lie...bikini weather is making me nervous! I’m going to up my strength training and cardio as soon as I feel out my limits this first week!!!

    HAVE AN AWESOME FEBRUARY EVERYONE & THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT THUS FAR :drinker: :flowerforyou:
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
    Sammie -- thanks for kicking things off!

    We're now in in Week 1 of the Feb. challenge -- let's make Feb. a great month!


    I've written below my weight loss goal for Feb. and my goals for Week 1, and my results for Week 4 of Jan.

    Weight loss goal: 4.0 lbs
    Weight loss total:

    Week 0: 138.6 lbs. (
    ) -- starting weight
    Week 1:


    Feb - Week 1 Goals
    Calorie Deficit:
    3500 cal/week (~500 cal/day) mainly from exercise

    Exercise:
    Stairmaster (45 min. x 7 sessions)
    Body weight exercises (20 min. x 1 session)
    Calisthenics (15 min. x 3 sessions)
    Weight training (25 min. x 2 sessions)

    Eating:
    Follow "meal plan template" every day (in the "Notes" section of my Food Diary)


    Jan - Week 4 Goals / Results
    Calorie Deficit:
    3500 cal/week (~500 cal/day) mainly from exercise -- 1500 cal deficit

    Exercise:
    Stairmaster (45 min. x 7 sessions) -- DONE
    Body weight exercises (20 min. x 1 session) -- DONE
    Calisthenics (15 min. x 3 sessions) -- DONE

    Eating:
    Follow "meal plan template" every day (in the "Notes" section of my Food Diary) -- DONE, but had binges on 2 days

    During Week 4 I focused on getting my eating stabilized after having stressed induced binges almost every day during Weeks 2 -3, and on exercising again (I didn't have time to exercise at all during Weeks 2 -3). I met the exercise goal, but missed the calorie deficit goal because I had binges on 2 days (went over maintenance by ~500 cal each day.
  • jwerman
    jwerman Posts: 176
    January Final check-in:

    Start-203.5
    1/9-198.5
    1/16-198.5
    1/23-197.5
    Final-195.5!! (Goal 196) 8lbs gone this month Yay! :)

    Sugars over by 5 or less- 2/7 (goal 5/7)
    Fruit-6/7 (goal 7/7)
    Veggies-6/7 (goal 7/7)
    Cardio-7/7 (goal 4/7)
    Strength/circut training-1/7 (goal3/7)

    Now let's start the new month!!
    I'm keeping the same goals^^ for week 1.
    Starting weight: 195.5
    HERE WE GOOOOOOO! ;)
  • ratsyroo
    ratsyroo Posts: 103 Member
    I'm in for another month, please! Still trying to figure things out with this crazy plateau, but eating more did seem to help some this week. 149.6 Only .8 of a pound lost all month, and that was mostly just this week (eating back exercise cals)!

    Goals for week 1:
    Eat 1200 calories at day --this is NET--which will mean eating back some exercise calories
    Drink more water! Less diet soda!
    Focus on more fruits/veggies, less 'junk'
    Work out 5/7 days a week --C25K week2 and strength training (cardio/scultping dvds when weather is bad)
    Weigh only once a week!

    Final Jan check-in:
    Start-150.6
    ? -150.4
    end-149.6

    Hoping for a much better February! Time to break this plateau!!!
    So happy to continue on with you great people =)
  • Jermna, that's an AWESOME loss!

    Ratsyroo...yes net at LEAST 1200. Check your BMR...maybe eating at that level for few days would help. It's still a deficit but it's an estimate of how many calories your body needs just for basic functions (digestion, maintaining homeostasis and etc)
  • Hey ladies! I have to run to work but I will catch up this evening! Looking forward to February with you girls maybe a few new faces!


    Question! Is it okay to eat back your exercise calories???? I am so confused on this. The smaller I get the more help I need too. It's so hard once you hit the final 5 lbs. range!

    Have a great Tuesday!
  • Wimberly...I wrote you real quick note on one of your post. Here is my personal logic...I TRY to follow it but obviously, I'm not perfect :blushing:

    I think no one should eat TOO far below their BMR (which is what your body needs for daily functions and homeostasis) Mine is around 1450...I aim to eat 1350-1500 calories a day. This still gives me ~400 negative calories for the day since my maintenance calories are ~1900 (lightly active lifestyle)

    If I eat my 1450 calories in one day and then burn 800 calories at the gym....I am leaving my body with a mere 650 calories to nourish my muscles, keep all normal functions going and etc. Now once in a while if this accidentally happens, no biggie. If you do this constantly you body will not be functioning at it 's peak 100%...you may feel colder, your skin will look dull, you'll be tired etc.

    Everyone has their take on this. I'm no certified nutritionist but I took a TON of classes and seminars through college and in clinics as a mandatory processes in recovery from Anorexia.

    Here's my two cents...Aim to eat a deficit that would give you about 0.5 lbs loss per week. Start by eating back about 75% of your workout calories and see how fast you loose. You may need to adjust because although are math may be accurate we don't really know what our body's are burning!

    Now I understand everyone's argument that it's counterproductive to eat your exercise calories back....not really. Strength training builds muscle (muscle needs to be fed)...Cardio improves our overall vascular health and boosts our metabolic function, our emotional well being and improves general feelings of 'wellness'....without proper nutrition our body's wont be able to do those amazing things like running, walking, lifting weights. If our body isn't getting enough fuel to even maintain homeostasis, how is it suppose to keep up with the demands we are putting on it through exercise?

    Shedding the last few pounds IS hard....I've been at it for a while and even backtracked a bit.

    Hope this helped a bit :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • Wimberly...I wrote you real quick note on one of your post. Here is my personal logic...I TRY to follow it but obviously, I'm not perfect :blushing:

    I think no one should eat TOO far below their BMR (which is what your body needs for daily functions and homeostasis) Mine is around 1450...I aim to eat 1350-1500 calories a day. This still gives me ~400 negative calories for the day since my maintenance calories are ~1900 (lightly active lifestyle)

    If I eat my 1450 calories in one day and then burn 800 calories at the gym....I am leaving my body with a mere 650 calories to nourish my muscles, keep all normal functions going and etc. Now once in a while if this accidentally happens, no biggie. If you do this constantly you body will not be functioning at it 's peak 100%...you may feel colder, your skin will look dull, you'll be tired etc.

    Everyone has their take on this. I'm no certified nutritionist but I took a TON of classes and seminars through college and in clinics as a mandatory processes in recovery from Anorexia.

    Here's my two cents...Aim to eat a deficit that would give you about 0.5 lbs loss per week. Start by eating back about 75% of your workout calories and see how fast you loose. You may need to adjust because although are math may be accurate we don't really know what our body's are burning!

    Now I understand everyone's argument that it's counterproductive to eat your exercise calories back....not really. Strength training builds muscle (muscle needs to be fed)...Cardio improves our overall vascular health and boosts our metabolic function, our emotional well being and improves general feelings of 'wellness'....without proper nutrition our body's wont be able to do those amazing things like running, walking, lifting weights. If our body isn't getting enough fuel to even maintain homeostasis, how is it suppose to keep up with the demands we are putting on it through exercise?

    Shedding the last few pounds IS hard....I've been at it for a while and even backtracked a bit.

    Hope this helped a bit :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

    Thank you for your advice. As well as everyone else! I agree I think eating some of it back at least makes sense. There was a good example given....say my daily goal is 1340, if I work out and burn 400 calories that only gives me 940 calories to work with that day thus making me fall below 1200 and would then go into "starvation" mode. If I don't get about 13-1400 I am very grumpy, sluggish, and light headed.

    Thanks everyone!