Question about waistline

DrMAvDPhD

I calculate as best I can. Sometimes I can get an exact count and sometimes I have to use a similar item and make an intelligent guess i.e. if I'm having pizza at a local restaurant, I'll use Pizza Hut calories for the same type of pizza and make a guess based on that number. Sometimes it's the best I can do. I'm a little anal and don't like unusual numbers so if my actual calorie number is say 247, I'll enter in 250 since it's a nice round number. Just a little personality quirk but I never purposely underestimate anything I'm eating.

Maybe you should eat in more and eat pizza less. Inaccurate counting will hinder your weight loss, and it is cheaper and healthier to eat at home.

jadedone

It is great you are doing the treadmill! I'd advocate adding in some strength training too.

You should try the 200 squats and 100 pushups programs.

Basically, you work up to doing 200 squats and/or 100 pushups.

Squats really solved all of the knee issues I was having. I used to have some minor problems here and there, but body weight squats eliminated it.

Another tip to help with the belly fat, try intervals. These are very self-paced. Just go faster for 20-30 seconds...and then stick with normal pace for 3-5 minutes. Alternate this for your full workout. As you add endurance, you can up the "fast" time and decrease the "normal" time.

Good luck!

**I am female of course, but I find the more strength training and intervals I do, the more my waist shrinks!

danner13

If using the treadmill hurts your knees and you still want to get some physical activity in you could try doing some seated/chair exercises or use a resistance band. Do a Google search for ideas. Good luck!

desmith1982

I calculate as best I can. Sometimes I can get an exact count and sometimes I have to use a similar item and make an intelligent guess i.e. if I'm having pizza at a local restaurant, I'll use Pizza Hut calories for the same type of pizza and make a guess based on that number. Sometimes it's the best I can do. I'm a little anal and don't like unusual numbers so if my actual calorie number is say 247, I'll enter in 250 since it's a nice round number. Just a little personality quirk but I never purposely underestimate anything I'm eating.

Maybe you should eat in more and eat pizza less. Inaccurate counting will hinder your weight loss, and it is cheaper and healthier to eat at home.

I eat out about once a month and have pizza maybe once every 3 months. I was just using that as an example.

Hellbent_Heidi

Water work outs.
You can do water yoga
Water zumba
A bunch of different work outs in the water.
They even have underwater treadmills.
Try something like that, see if that helps your pain.

Also, i started running when i first started my journey.. and i had no pain, 6 months into my journey i had severe ankle back and shoulder pains.. my body wasnt use to the movements and they became sore. Work through it little by little and it gets better. A year later, no pain.


I can't afford anything like that. I'm unemployed, in school, and my wife barely makes enough to pay our bills and feed us and our cats. The only reason I have a treadmill is because it was my grandma's and she gave it to us because her health has deteriorated to the point that she can't use it any more.

FYI...check the local high-school. I'm sure its different everywhere, but in my area, the local school allows people from the district to use the schools pool on the weekends and summers. You might be able to find a school or community pool that won't cost you anything.

Oh, and congratulations on your huge loss so far. You've come a long way, and I'm sure whatever is going on...you can find a way to beat it!

sarahrbraun

Are you saying your body fat percentage has gone up? If that's the case you may want to try more protein, and less cardio and more walking.

But be proud of your weight loss!

The only exercise I can do is walking and that's a real struggle because of severe hip, back and knee pain. I walk 30 minutes twice a day on a perfectly flat treadmill and usually after 10 minutes I hurt so bad that I'm nearly in tears. Sometimes in the morning I hurt so bad that I nearly have to have my wife get me out of bed.

Yes, according to all the measurements I've found, my body fat has increased from 27% to around 33% despite losing over 145 pounds.

1) I have heard that a perfectly flat treadmill is not good for you, and that it is better to use a 1% incline....

2) I know you said money is tight, but could you try to get a consultation with a chiropractor? When I first started walking on the treadmill, my lower back and hips would burn like fire. Turns out that my hips are SUPER uneven--my left hip sits significantly higher and towards my back than the right. Usually an adjustment gets me feeling better...I actually need to call and schedule a "tune up" because my back is buggin me.

3) do as much as you can, and eventually it should get better....

DrMAvDPhD

I calculate as best I can. Sometimes I can get an exact count and sometimes I have to use a similar item and make an intelligent guess i.e. if I'm having pizza at a local restaurant, I'll use Pizza Hut calories for the same type of pizza and make a guess based on that number. Sometimes it's the best I can do. I'm a little anal and don't like unusual numbers so if my actual calorie number is say 247, I'll enter in 250 since it's a nice round number. Just a little personality quirk but I never purposely underestimate anything I'm eating.

Maybe you should eat in more and eat pizza less. Inaccurate counting will hinder your weight loss, and it is cheaper and healthier to eat at home.

I eat out about once a month and have pizza maybe once every 3 months. I was just using that as an example.

But your quick adding ALL your meals. It isn't hard to use recipes (Taste of Home magazine/cookbook/online recipes are a good example) and know EXACTLY what you are consuming at every meal. Or use MFP's or other online nutritional calculators for your own recipes. If you aren't willing to use MFP correctly there really is no point to calorie counting.

desmith1982

Water work outs.
You can do water yoga
Water zumba
A bunch of different work outs in the water.
They even have underwater treadmills.
Try something like that, see if that helps your pain.

Also, i started running when i first started my journey.. and i had no pain, 6 months into my journey i had severe ankle back and shoulder pains.. my body wasnt use to the movements and they became sore. Work through it little by little and it gets better. A year later, no pain.


I can't afford anything like that. I'm unemployed, in school, and my wife barely makes enough to pay our bills and feed us and our cats. The only reason I have a treadmill is because it was my grandma's and she gave it to us because her health has deteriorated to the point that she can't use it any more.

FYI...check the local high-school. I'm sure its different everywhere, but in my area, the local school allows people from the district to use the schools pool on the weekends and summers. You might be able to find a school or community pool that won't cost you anything.

Oh, and congratulations on your huge loss so far. You've come a long way, and I'm sure whatever is going on...you can find a way to beat it!

The only place around here with a pool is the local YMCA and they offer a $25/month membership to just use the pool but as I said, I don't have 25 dollars a month to spare at this point.

desmith1982

I calculate as best I can. Sometimes I can get an exact count and sometimes I have to use a similar item and make an intelligent guess i.e. if I'm having pizza at a local restaurant, I'll use Pizza Hut calories for the same type of pizza and make a guess based on that number. Sometimes it's the best I can do. I'm a little anal and don't like unusual numbers so if my actual calorie number is say 247, I'll enter in 250 since it's a nice round number. Just a little personality quirk but I never purposely underestimate anything I'm eating.

Maybe you should eat in more and eat pizza less. Inaccurate counting will hinder your weight loss, and it is cheaper and healthier to eat at home.

I eat out about once a month and have pizza maybe once every 3 months. I was just using that as an example.

But your quick adding ALL your meals. It isn't hard to use recipes (Taste of Home magazine/cookbook/online recipes are a good example) and know EXACTLY what you are consuming at every meal. Or use MFP's or other online nutritional calculators for your own recipes. If you aren't willing to use MFP correctly there really is no point to calorie counting.

The only reason I still use it is to keep a rough track of what I eat so I'll know if I can afford to eat certain things that day such as a Reese's cup or a glass of skim milk. If I actually at the calories for a single week that MFP recommends me to eat, I'd gain well over 10 pounds in just that one week. I've had days where I've eaten 1900 calories and gained nearly 5 pounds from it.

jadedone

I'm not sure what it means but if you're a woman, you want to get your waist down below 35 inches, regardless of your current weight and your height. You want to get your body fat to 25 or less in most cases. You should determine what your body fat is. It will only be an estimate but there are a number of ways to do it. I suggest you check out the calculators at fat2fitradio.com and find some of your answers. Those calculators are far better than what they have on this site.

I think the rules for women are a little stricter. Waist should be 50% of height and below 35, which ever is lower. There is some conflicting info, but the best outcomes seems to be the 50% of height number.

For men, the waist measurement goal is under 40 for the less strict version and I believe 36 for the strictest, I guess I haven't seen a height designated one for men.
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/heart/articles/2010/08/10/for-good-health-watch-your-waist-size-not-just-your-weight

weird_me2

I'm not sure what it means but if you're a woman, you want to get your waist down below 35 inches, regardless of your current weight and your height. You want to get your body fat to 25 or less in most cases. You should determine what your body fat is. It will only be an estimate but there are a number of ways to do it. I suggest you check out the calculators at fat2fitradio.com and find some of your answers. Those calculators are far better than what they have on this site.

I've done this and my body fat is around 33% today at 305 lbs. When I started at 450, it was 27% according to the calculator I used.

I'm sorry, but there's really just no way your body fat was 27% at 405 lbs. That would imply that you had 295 lbs of LEAN body mass. With your estimate of 33% at 305 lbs, then that would mean that you have a LBM of 204 lbs, which sounds more reasonable for your height, but may even still be high. If you are using online calculators, they can vary widely, but I recommend the Covert-Bailey calculator on fat2fitradio website. It uses a large number of measurements and seems to be much more accurate than the others that only use neck and waist and hips or something.

As for how much you can eat, I'm guessing that you are probably off on your calorie calculations. Accurately weigh EVERY SINGLE THING you eat and drink and record it by weight and using the NI from the product you are using and not just a generic entry. Do this for at least a month and I'm willing to bet that you will either see that you are consuming way more calories than you think OR you are losing faster than previously because your calculations are more accurate. Plus, even if you are staying at 1600 most days of the week or month, just one day of not tracking can easily rack up thousands of calories. There's just really no way to get to 300+ or 400+ pounds without being able to put down some major calories. Trust me, I've been there.

desmith1982

I'm not sure what it means but if you're a woman, you want to get your waist down below 35 inches, regardless of your current weight and your height. You want to get your body fat to 25 or less in most cases. You should determine what your body fat is. It will only be an estimate but there are a number of ways to do it. I suggest you check out the calculators at fat2fitradio.com and find some of your answers. Those calculators are far better than what they have on this site.

I've done this and my body fat is around 33% today at 305 lbs. When I started at 450, it was 27% according to the calculator I used.

I'm sorry, but there's really just no way your body fat was 27% at 405 lbs. That would imply that you had 295 lbs of LEAN body mass. With your estimate of 33% at 305 lbs, then that would mean that you have a LBM of 204 lbs, which sounds more reasonable for your height, but may even still be high. If you are using online calculators, they can vary widely, but I recommend the Covert-Bailey calculator on fat2fitradio website. It uses a large number of measurements and seems to be much more accurate than the others that only use neck and waist and hips or something.

As for how much you can eat, I'm guessing that you are probably off on your calorie calculations. Accurately weigh EVERY SINGLE THING you eat and drink and record it by weight and using the NI from the product you are using and not just a generic entry. Do this for at least a month and I'm willing to bet that you will either see that you are consuming way more calories than you think OR you are losing faster than previously because your calculations are more accurate. Plus, even if you are staying at 1600 most days of the week or month, just one day of not tracking can easily rack up thousands of calories. There's just really no way to get to 300+ or 400+ pounds without being able to put down some major calories. Trust me, I've been there.

I track what I eat everyday. I've not been off of it a single day since May 27. Honestly, I tend to overestimate my calories and to a certain extent, this is done purposely because I don't want to convince myself that I can afford to eat more than I actually can. Because exercising is so extremely painful for me, diet control and portion control is my biggest weapon in losing weight.

I did a test once to figure out what I used to eat daily before I started my diet. Based on the test, pre-diet, I was averaging between 4,000 and 6,000 calories a day. Now, I very VERY rarely go over 1600 daily because I will gain weight if I do.

weird_me2

Just a little personality quirk but I never purposely underestimate anything I'm eating.

Studies have shown that obese people can severely underestimate what they are consuming. Use your personality quirk to your advantage and put some effort in to accurately weighing and tracking EVERY SINGLE food item (and caloric beverage) you eat EVERY SINGLE day for at least a month. It can be eye opening. Make recipes for the meals you have at home. If you get in the habit of tracking everything that you are consuming at home this accurately, then one meal a month eating out won't affect your weight loss no matter how off your calories are for that one meal. Plus, once you truly understand portion sizing from weighing everything at home, you will be much better equipped to estimate when you are out.

I hate to say this, but I hear a lot of excuses. You can't "fix" your metabolism that the doctors say isn't broken because you live in the south and all the doctors are bad. No, they aren't all bad. If 4 different doctors and 2 specialists have told you there is nothing significantly wrong with you, then in there really probably is nothing wrong with your metabolism. You've already put in the effort to lose 145 lbs, now put in the effort to accept that you and you alone are going to be able to "fix" yourself.

weird_me2

I'm not sure what it means but if you're a woman, you want to get your waist down below 35 inches, regardless of your current weight and your height. You want to get your body fat to 25 or less in most cases. You should determine what your body fat is. It will only be an estimate but there are a number of ways to do it. I suggest you check out the calculators at fat2fitradio.com and find some of your answers. Those calculators are far better than what they have on this site.

I've done this and my body fat is around 33% today at 305 lbs. When I started at 450, it was 27% according to the calculator I used.

I'm sorry, but there's really just no way your body fat was 27% at 405 lbs. That would imply that you had 295 lbs of LEAN body mass. With your estimate of 33% at 305 lbs, then that would mean that you have a LBM of 204 lbs, which sounds more reasonable for your height, but may even still be high. If you are using online calculators, they can vary widely, but I recommend the Covert-Bailey calculator on fat2fitradio website. It uses a large number of measurements and seems to be much more accurate than the others that only use neck and waist and hips or something.

As for how much you can eat, I'm guessing that you are probably off on your calorie calculations. Accurately weigh EVERY SINGLE THING you eat and drink and record it by weight and using the NI from the product you are using and not just a generic entry. Do this for at least a month and I'm willing to bet that you will either see that you are consuming way more calories than you think OR you are losing faster than previously because your calculations are more accurate. Plus, even if you are staying at 1600 most days of the week or month, just one day of not tracking can easily rack up thousands of calories. There's just really no way to get to 300+ or 400+ pounds without being able to put down some major calories. Trust me, I've been there.

I track what I eat everyday. I've not been off of it a single day since May 27. Honestly, I tend to overestimate my calories and to a certain extent, this is done purposely because I don't want to convince myself that I can afford to eat more than I actually can. Because exercising is so extremely painful for me, diet control and portion control is my biggest weapon in losing weight.

I did a test once to figure out what I used to eat daily before I started my diet. Based on the test, pre-diet, I was averaging between 4,000 and 6,000 calories a day. Now, I very VERY rarely go over 1600 daily because I will gain weight if I do.

Okay, so what did you have for lunch today that you calculated to be 750 calories? What about breakfast? I honestly believe that if you are not logging every single item individually and weighing your portions, you cannot say that you can't eat more than 1600 calories or you gain weight. Again, studies have shown that obese people can seriously underestimate what they are eating, even when they are trying to lose weight.

Also, how quickly were you gaining weight prior to deciding to lose?

ETA: Actually, you can obviously eat more than 1600 calories per day without gaining weight if eating 1600 calories a day has allowed you to lose approximately 4 pounds per week if my calculations are right (145 lbs divided by 8 months)? That woud imply that your TDEE is around 3600 calories per day...

jadedone

I'm not sure what it means but if you're a woman, you want to get your waist down below 35 inches, regardless of your current weight and your height. You want to get your body fat to 25 or less in most cases. You should determine what your body fat is. It will only be an estimate but there are a number of ways to do it. I suggest you check out the calculators at fat2fitradio.com and find some of your answers. Those calculators are far better than what they have on this site.

I've done this and my body fat is around 33% today at 305 lbs. When I started at 450, it was 27% according to the calculator I used.

I'm sorry, but there's really just no way your body fat was 27% at 405 lbs. That would imply that you had 295 lbs of LEAN body mass. With your estimate of 33% at 305 lbs, then that would mean that you have a LBM of 204 lbs, which sounds more reasonable for your height, but may even still be high. If you are using online calculators, they can vary widely, but I recommend the Covert-Bailey calculator on fat2fitradio website. It uses a large number of measurements and seems to be much more accurate than the others that only use neck and waist and hips or something.

As for how much you can eat, I'm guessing that you are probably off on your calorie calculations. Accurately weigh EVERY SINGLE THING you eat and drink and record it by weight and using the NI from the product you are using and not just a generic entry. Do this for at least a month and I'm willing to bet that you will either see that you are consuming way more calories than you think OR you are losing faster than previously because your calculations are more accurate. Plus, even if you are staying at 1600 most days of the week or month, just one day of not tracking can easily rack up thousands of calories. There's just really no way to get to 300+ or 400+ pounds without being able to put down some major calories. Trust me, I've been there.

I track what I eat everyday. I've not been off of it a single day since May 27. Honestly, I tend to overestimate my calories and to a certain extent, this is done purposely because I don't want to convince myself that I can afford to eat more than I actually can. Because exercising is so extremely painful for me, diet control and portion control is my biggest weapon in losing weight.

I did a test once to figure out what I used to eat daily before I started my diet. Based on the test, pre-diet, I was averaging between 4,000 and 6,000 calories a day. Now, I very VERY rarely go over 1600 daily because I will gain weight if I do.

You should note the foods you are eating not just the calories.

Right now, it is hard to gauge if you are getting proper nutrition (veggies, fruits, protein, fibers, etc) and you won't be able to discern any patterns. Maybe you are sensitive to wheat, or soy, or corn.

You should improve your calorie tracking, to include the foods and not just the cumulative calories.

sozisfitnow

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/731316-how-to-fail-with-instructions?hl=how+to+fail :laugh:

desmith1982

I'm not sure what it means but if you're a woman, you want to get your waist down below 35 inches, regardless of your current weight and your height. You want to get your body fat to 25 or less in most cases. You should determine what your body fat is. It will only be an estimate but there are a number of ways to do it. I suggest you check out the calculators at fat2fitradio.com and find some of your answers. Those calculators are far better than what they have on this site.

I've done this and my body fat is around 33% today at 305 lbs. When I started at 450, it was 27% according to the calculator I used.

I'm sorry, but there's really just no way your body fat was 27% at 405 lbs. That would imply that you had 295 lbs of LEAN body mass. With your estimate of 33% at 305 lbs, then that would mean that you have a LBM of 204 lbs, which sounds more reasonable for your height, but may even still be high. If you are using online calculators, they can vary widely, but I recommend the Covert-Bailey calculator on fat2fitradio website. It uses a large number of measurements and seems to be much more accurate than the others that only use neck and waist and hips or something.

As for how much you can eat, I'm guessing that you are probably off on your calorie calculations. Accurately weigh EVERY SINGLE THING you eat and drink and record it by weight and using the NI from the product you are using and not just a generic entry. Do this for at least a month and I'm willing to bet that you will either see that you are consuming way more calories than you think OR you are losing faster than previously because your calculations are more accurate. Plus, even if you are staying at 1600 most days of the week or month, just one day of not tracking can easily rack up thousands of calories. There's just really no way to get to 300+ or 400+ pounds without being able to put down some major calories. Trust me, I've been there.

I track what I eat everyday. I've not been off of it a single day since May 27. Honestly, I tend to overestimate my calories and to a certain extent, this is done purposely because I don't want to convince myself that I can afford to eat more than I actually can. Because exercising is so extremely painful for me, diet control and portion control is my biggest weapon in losing weight.

I did a test once to figure out what I used to eat daily before I started my diet. Based on the test, pre-diet, I was averaging between 4,000 and 6,000 calories a day. Now, I very VERY rarely go over 1600 daily because I will gain weight if I do.

Okay, so what did you have for lunch today that you calculated to be 750 calories? What about breakfast? I honestly believe that if you are not logging every single item individually and weighing your portions, you cannot say that you can't eat more than 1600 calories or you gain weight. Again, studies have shown that obese people can seriously underestimate what they are eating, even when they are trying to lose weight.

Also, how quickly were you gaining weight prior to deciding to lose?

The second part I honestly can't answer because I just don't know. If it helps, I weighed 300 lbs by the time I was 14 years old and weighed at least 250 lbs by the time I was 10 years old.

My lunch consisted of:

2 servings of 93% lean hamburger, stated to be 170 calories per serving on the packaging. 340 from that.
2 potato rolls stated to be 100 calories per roll on the packaging. 200 from that.
1 serving of skim milk stated to be 80 calories on the plastic jug. 80 from that.
1 serving of reduced fat mayo stated to be 40 calories per serving on the bottle. 40 from that.
1 serving of ketchup stated to be 25 calories per serving on the bottle so. 25 from that.
1 slice of Kraft yellow American cheese stated to be 60 calories per slice on the packaging. 60 from that.

All these were precisely measured on my food scale except the rolls which I take at face value. My math comes out to 745 calories and since I consider 750 to be a nice round number, it's what i entered in.

jadedone

My lunch consisted of:

2 servings of 93% lean hamburger, stated to be 170 calories per serving on the packaging. 340 from that.
2 potato rolls stated to be 100 calories per roll on the packaging. 200 from that.
1 serving of skim milk stated to be 80 calories on the plastic jug. 80 from that.
1 serving of reduced fat mayo stated to be 40 calories per serving on the bottle. 40 from that.
1 serving of ketchup stated to be 25 calories per serving on the bottle so. 25 from that.
1 slice of Kraft yellow American cheese stated to be 60 calories per slice on the packaging. 60 from that.

All these were precisely measured on my food scale except the rolls which I take at face value. My math comes out to 745 calories and since I consider 750 to be a nice round number, it's what i entered in.

Why don't you just add each of these individual items!!!! Instead of total cals.

literatelier

As for the knee pain - have you looked at your shoes? When I first started walking I was using the wrong shoes for a while (they were offering pronation control that I didn't need) and that messed up my knees and hips. I got fitted, switched shoes, and felt better.

Just a thought - your pain sounds a lot more severe than mine was.

DrMAvDPhD

Using http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

I calculated your most recent meal to be 841 calories, 27 grams of fat, 70 grams of carbs, 75 grams of protein with a whopping 60% of your daily recommended cholesterol intake and 57% of your recommended sodium.