The eternal see-saw.. not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Runninglibrarian13

Long story... I did weight watchers from 6/15/10 to 7/something/12. Finally stopped paying the monthly pass because I was just bouncing up and down within the same 10lbs or so. I figure if I'm going to see-saw, I can just as easily do it on my own.. don't need to pay for the privilege!

At my best I was down 62 lbs. From 253.2 to 191.2.. then my weight creeped up to the upper 190s, then to what it is now... (started MFP at 206, had 2 nice loses of 1.6 and .6...then back up to 205.8, so basically see-sawing back to where I was.)

Money is tight in our house... so no gym membership possible. (It was another reason to quit weight watchers aside from the see-sawing)

For cardio I run/walk. I say running, but MFP rates my speed as brisk walking. (lol)... I average 12.5 min/miles.
At this point I don't strength train... and I know I should. ... but again, no gym membership. I plan on asking for some free weights for Christmas, but don't know what I can do now... maybe body weight exercises?
My diary should be public... if anyone wants to look, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks! I'm sure folks get tired of seeing this topic.

sweet50935

For strenght training, you can use your own body weight for that. If you look up strength training exercise on the internet, or go to shape magazine, they should have a variety to choose from. You can always buy a resistance band from target or walmart to help with that as well. If you can afford to buy an exercise video off the internet, try physique 57 or beachbody.com. If you shop the video you want from Amazon.com, you can usually get a new/used one for a decent price. Hope this helps.

jesspi68

Don't get too discouraged! Keep working at it and you will get there. You may not be eating enough if you are training for a marathon also, just running your info through the Scooby BMR calculator, if you did 1-3 hours of light exercise a week it has you around 1700 cals. Try adding squats, lunges, push ups, Ab workouts, etc. I also love my Jillian Michael's DVDs which you can get for around $10 a piece.

Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism is great if you don't have free weights, but my favorite is Ripped in 30 and I currently do that with 8lb hand weights.

Good luck and feel free to add me if you have any questions!

IveLanded

See-sawing is all about choices. If you see-sawed it's because you weren't consistent and you didn't consistently exercise off the calories you took in. Pretty basic math.

A lot of women, especially, say they don't have money for the gym or working out....so I say ask yourself "Is my health worth $50 a month?". That's how much my gym membership is. Yes. Yes my health IS worth that and it IS worth an hour a day. Being around for my kids longer (knock wood) is DEFINITELY worth a measly $50 a month. My money BARELY covers my bills each month but part of my essentials is stuff to keep me healthy and on track. Because it's worth that. I'll give up meals out and Starbucks and grabbing new nail polish each month to keep my gym membership.

Hand weights are pretty cheap at Target and if you live in a big city you can check Craigslist or Freecycle for free or super cheap ones. I'm about to give away my 6lb weights on one of those sites because I need heavier ones.

If you have a Pinterest account, I have found it's really awesome for quick work out schedules. I have about 30 work outs "pinned" and I just open one or two each day while I'm at home when I have the time. Super easy and free. Mostly done with body weight.

100forme

Not sure where you are located but my no-frills gym is only $10 a mth(planet fitness). Also when I first started working out I used the Supreme 90 workout DVDs. The entire video set was only $20 and it's a 12 week program. I found weights at goodwill for next to nothing.

PayneAS

You are my friend and I'll be a little more brutally honest than I would be with some stranger on the forum. Don't take it the wrong way though, I really do want to help.

Looking back at your journal....

One major thing I see is that you are netting way below your goal. There are two ways to go about fixing this:

1. I am not sure what your BMR is (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator) but you should be eating at least that (and mine is 1500ish so you should be eating more than that given your activity level) plus half your exercise calories.

or

2. Figure out your BMR and your TDEE (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) and eat your TDEE minus 20% (which for me comes out to be 1897 per day).

If you really feel like you are logging your food correctly (using a scale and all that) and your exercise (with a HRM) then you might want to consider seeing a doctor and having tests done to make sure your thyroid is functioning properly, that you aren't insulin resistant, and/or that you don't have some sort of food sensitivity (gluten, etc).

I know you say you can't afford a gym membership or a weight set or anything, but starting strength training really might help. Lean muscle burns calories at rest (and more calories period) than fat. A full weight set can be pretty costly but using your own body weight, with something like TRX which I love (http://www.trxtraining.com/products/trx-pro-kit), might be something you can consider.

I can't think of anything else right now. Got busy around here all the sudden. If I think of anything more I'll get back to ya.

/hugs!