5 Pounds A Month April 2010 Challenge

losingweightfor30

Count me in!! My goal is to lose 9 pounds by May 1st, I'm down 3 already.

April start weight: 224 lbs
Current weight: 221 lbs
Goal: 215lbs

Elokyn

weighed in yesterday and I'm down 3 lbs! 2 to go!

phyljen

bethinagain, good luck on the surgery. We'll all be thinking of you.

Phillis, I think you need a Pita Pit over there too. Healthy eating.

Jacque

We don't have a Pita Pit, but we have many kinds of Pita that are DELICIOUS. We can get Pita sandwiches at any moment over here that are filled with felafal or foul beans. I use the pita pockets to make sandwiches with about any filling that I make up or want.
but when I get to the states I am going to check out the Pita Pit and get some ideas of other sandwiches that I could stir up when I get back here next year.

Phyljen

Jennplus2

Hello my friends,

Phyljen, go try Subway! I like that I can get lots of healthy veggies and the sandwiches are low in calories. Most sandwich places I find that I have no idea what to guess the calories are, but I like a good sandwich for lunch.

Bethinagain, good luck on your surgery!

Terri, you made me laugh with your quick diaper changing need to sign off. :laugh: Always the way it happens for me also.


So I feel very happy with my week so far. I am eating lots of healthy veggies and staying in my calories. I have really stepped up the exercise and feel great about the jogging I have been doing! I start walking then pick a place ahead of me that I start jogging at. Once I reach that point I jog until I see a goal point to stop. Run from this stop sign to that stop sign, ect. I was not jogging as much today as the rest of the days because my legs are a little sore. I went out for 40 mins today for my walk/jog and feel really great about how many times I have gone during the week.:bigsmile:
Here are my 3500 numbers:

Sunday:0
Monday:531
Tuesday:1032
Wednesday:754
Thursday:856

Only 327 left! OMG I am going to do it, I am so glad we are doing this challenge! I can't wait to hop on the scale tomorrow and see if I have made progress.

I also wanted to ask everyone a question! :blushing:
So does anyone know much about the 80/20 rule about eating treats only 20% of the time? I have been trying to follow this mind set. My question is what you think 20% of the time really means. 20% of what I eat in the day, week, month, year? I love frozen yogurt but I don't believe that it is really as "healthy" as they claim it is. Well I guess not that they say it is healthy but just not as bad, fat free, low calories per oz and such. I am treating it as ice cream and trying to limit how often I get it now, but I find that if I eat a yummy frozen yogurt at night I don't get the urg to snack. But I have heard that eating sugar makes you crave sugar more and I find I always want it so I don't want to sabotage myself. What do you gals think? How much is too much and where is the line of that right balance? How many times per week? Once? Or not even that much? Or is more ok if I have the extra calories? I know that I can't eat all my calories in candy bars and frozen yogurt, but I do eat healthy meals for the most part.

mrsnych

Start weight Feb: 144.1lbs
Current weight April 15th:140.0lbs
Goal weight by April 30th:136lbs
Goal weight by May 30th:132lbs
Goal weight by June 30th:128lbs

good luck everyone!

Gypsy_MerMom

Im in I think i can do it so count me in
Im 224 right now

spiralgirl71

I did a 30 minute Turbo Kick DVD yesterday burning 437 calories. I'm up to 1864 for the week. Hoping to get a long workout in tonight. Will weight in later. Hoping for better results than I had at WW on Tuesday but still feel like I'm retaining quite a bit of water. T.O.M. is kicking my butt this time.

TCASMEY

Happy Friday to All!

First the official weigh in for the week

April 1 weight 177.6
April 9 weight 175.4
April 16 weight 175.2

Only down .2 but it is a loss! I'll take it as I have had a strange week.

Jenn, I have heard of the 80/20. It is probably a good plan. I am of the mindset that is I want a treat and it fits into my plan I allow it. I have read that about sugar making you want more. I just try to avoid a lot of sugar because of the calorie content. Frozen yogurt is probably better because it is low fat. I would allow myself a treat once-in-while. Remember this is a lifestyle change. So if you can't give it up forever, you have to figure out a way it will fit into your eating plan. That is why 80/20 is a great idea. (I think I am rambling, but it is early and my coffee has yet to hit the blood stream!)

Terri

TCASMEY

Trying to post some photos....does anyone know how?

phyljen

HI PALS,
Haven't weighed in yet today. y freind didn't bring hte scales to church.
But did my exercise and I've totaled up a grand total of 3129 so far so by the time I do my 2 hour run tomorrow I will be way over the 3500, cause I only have 371 left to go to meet the challenge. I love the challenge too.

I don't feel that I have lost a pound but my clothes are fitting much better so I need to remember to measure if I weigh in and get no loss. inches are losses too.

I have heard about the 20/80 and my friend does that. I agree with Terri that it is a life long way of healthy eating and so you have to plan on eating treats now and then. I gauge my treats by the amount of calories I have left to eat. and I will do more exercises or drink more water if I eat too much salt or sugar. It is just so much about being aware and taking responsibility for what you do to keep healthy. I love frozen yogurt too but luckily there is not a place over here to get it. So I have to just freeze my own yogurt if I want it bad enough and it is NOT the same.
I'll check back after I weigh in. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :laugh: Phyljen

iwantthis

Friday Check in:

4/1: 196.6
4/9: 194
4/16: 193.2

I must have missed the boat somewhere along the line - I want in on this calorie challenge! Has everyone been logging starting on Sundays or Mondays? Also, do most of you keep track of calorie burns with a heart rate monitar - or just record what the machine says you have burned at the end? I'm interested. Let me know!

Happy Friday to all! Another beautiful sunny day!

rjadams

Weekly weigh in.

Well working out with 5000-6000 is paying off. even though I was up at the beggining of this week with TOM I cranked it off.

April 1 170.4
April 2 170
April 9 167.6
April 16 166

I lost 1.6 pounds this week. Only one pound to my 5 pound goal. I hope I can blow past it.

Congrats to Terri and iwantthis for you losses. a loss is a loss. PhylJen I hope the extra workouts pay off. I think they already did in how you feel.
Have a great Friday everyone. and I am really going to try to roller skate today. yesterday got to cloudy in the afternoon so I didn't go.

fivefatcats

YAY! I finally got to read the whole topic!! Hello everyone (again)!

My friday check in:

4/9 178.2
4/16 178.8 (happy with that after the way I ate last weekend) - just glad the 180s seem to be really gone!!!

GW for May 1st was 170 - but I'll take whatever I can get and go from there.
I had my first 5k on 4/10 and did a respectable 29:52. My 2nd 5k is May 1st and my only goal is to set a new personal record.
Then triathlon 6/6 and 10k 6/12. These events really help keep me motivated.
My cousin talked me into running a half marathon with her in September. I am both excited and terrified.

Phyljen: how long did it take you to work up to half marathon distance??

The rest of you workout animals:: Congrats on some of your amazing weekly calorie burns!! I'm not sure if I can match you but again, I'll do what I can!

Traci (fivefatcats)

barty

Hello everyone, Its Friday and time to weigh-in!!!! Hope you have all had good results...I'm down 1.5 pounds this week at 141.5 Yahhh !!

Start Weight with mfp..............164.5

Weight on 4/1/10......................145

Weight on 4/9/10......................143

Weight on 4/16/10 ...................141.5

Good Luck

Arianna52

Hi Everybody: I just started this week controlling my impulses to eat more than I am supposed to. I weighed this morning and I was shocked to see the scale arrow pointing to 163.5. Wow!!! Knowing that I need to lose 5 pounds by end of month really motivates you.

CW: 163.5
SW: 165
GW: 150

phyljen

YAY! I finally got to read the whole topic!! Hello everyone (again)!

My friday check in:

4/9 178.2
4/16 178.8 (happy with that after the way I ate last weekend) - just glad the 180s seem to be really gone!!!

GW for May 1st was 170 - but I'll take whatever I can get and go from there.
I had my first 5k on 4/10 and did a respectable 29:52. My 2nd 5k is May 1st and my only goal is to set a new personal record.
Then triathlon 6/6 and 10k 6/12. These events really help keep me motivated.
My cousin talked me into running a half marathon with her in September. I am both excited and terrified.

Phyljen: how long did it take you to work up to half marathon distance??

The rest of you workout animals:: Congrats on some of your amazing weekly calorie burns!! I'm not sure if I can match you but again, I'll do what I can!

Traci (fivefatcats)

Traci - I joined the MFP on Jan 10th. At that time I was only walking the track and doing an occasional walk/ jog type of thing. then I decided to just run on the streets on Saturday mornings for a while. I started like with 30 minutes and kept working up each Saturday. I do little DVD's at home that are an aerobic routine and so it builds up my endurance some too. and I swim three times a week but that is not bad at all on my knees. anyway I started to push myself to do 100 minutes and then I decided what the heck... I will go for 2 hours, cause by the time you do 100 minutes it is ALMOST 2 hours. the most I have done is 2 hours and 15 minutes but I JOG SLOW. and so I don't think I have done quite the distance yet for a half marathon. I went out and clocked it on the car and it was about 14 miles so I still have some to go before I really do a half marathon distance. BUT I am happy with what I can do. I plan to do a 10 K on the 4th of JULY when I get to America. So I am looking forward to that. Phyljen

phyljen

Hi Everybody: I just started this week controlling my impulses to eat more than I am supposed to. I weighed this morning and I was shocked to see the scale arrow pointing to 163.5. Wow!!! Knowing that I need to lose 5 pounds by end of month really motivates you.

CW: 163.5
SW: 165
GW: 150

CONGRATULATIONS! WAY TO GO!!! Phyljen:flowerforyou:

phyljen

Hello everyone, Its Friday and time to weigh-in!!!! Hope you have all had good results...I'm down 1.5 pounds this week at 141.5 Yahhh !!

Start Weight with mfp..............164.5

Weight on 4/1/10......................145

Weight on 4/9/10......................143

Weight on 4/16/10 ...................141.5

Good Luck

SUPER LOSS BARTY! I'm so proud of you. Keep it up. :flowerforyou: Phyljen

phyljen

Weekly weigh in.

Well working out with 5000-6000 is paying off. even though I was up at the beggining of this week with TOM I cranked it off.

April 1 170.4
April 2 170
April 9 167.6
April 16 166

I lost 1.6 pounds this week. Only one pound to my 5 pound goal. I hope I can blow past it.

RJADAMS_ SO cool. I am sure glad that you lost 1.6 after all that working out! YOU ROCK! I can't imagine doing 5000 or 6000 cal burns. WOW !!!DID you eat up most of those calories?

Congrats to Terri and iwantthis for you losses. a loss is a loss. PhylJen I hope the extra workouts pay off. I think they already did in how you feel.
Have a great Friday everyone. and I am really going to try to roller skate today. yesterday got to cloudy in the afternoon so I didn't go.

tres1967

Daphene

I would love to join this, my only problem is I don't know how to lose the weight! I've been eating 1200 calories or less each day for almost a month, and I joined a gym a month ago, and I'm going 3, usually 4 times per week. Step class, cardio, weight lifting, and pilates. I have not lost one single pound! I'm really getting discouraged. I've considered the fact that I've replaced some fat with muscle, but I'm not really seeing much of a change, either. I'm killing myself and depriving myself of yummy food for nothing! How long does it normally take to see results? I've had two children, so I know my metabolism is way different than what it once was, but after a month, I expected to see something!

You may not be eating ENOUGH... it sounds crazy but when you drop your caloric intake far below what your body is used to (or needs) it will slow your metabolism to almost nothing because your body thinks you are starving, there is a famine, you aren't getting enough food and it needs to save every calorie it can for you to survive. It is a difficult balance but carefully tracking both your calories, eating clean, making sure you are getting enough protein, and taking calories burned from exercise into account is the challenge. 1200 calories is really low. You can use the tools on MFP and other sites to calculate your basic metabolic rate (the calories you burn just staying alive) and then add in additional calories for your activity level. In the end a daily caloric deficit of 500 calories (including exercise) will result in about a pound a week weight loss. The numbers are never exact and your caloric needs vary as you lose weight, build muscle, etc.

tres1967

Still holding at 189.5

For the 3500 challenge I am at 1714 for Monday, Teusday and Wednesday. I spent about 6 hours yesterday spring cleaning, doing yard work, clearing out the garage and shed so I'm sure I burned calories I just don't have a number, I would guess around 500 so that gives me a guesstimate of about 2200 through Thursday, will post today's workout numbers later.

fivefatcats

Daphene

I would love to join this, my only problem is I don't know how to lose the weight! I've been eating 1200 calories or less each day for almost a month, and I joined a gym a month ago, and I'm going 3, usually 4 times per week. Step class, cardio, weight lifting, and pilates. I have not lost one single pound! I'm really getting discouraged. I've considered the fact that I've replaced some fat with muscle, but I'm not really seeing much of a change, either. I'm killing myself and depriving myself of yummy food for nothing! How long does it normally take to see results? I've had two children, so I know my metabolism is way different than what it once was, but after a month, I expected to see something!

You may not be eating ENOUGH... it sounds crazy but when you drop your caloric intake far below what your body is used to (or needs) it will slow your metabolism to almost nothing because your body thinks you are starving, there is a famine, you aren't getting enough food and it needs to save every calorie it can for you to survive. It is a difficult balance but carefully tracking both your calories, eating clean, making sure you are getting enough protein, and taking calories burned from exercise into account is the challenge. 1200 calories is really low. You can use the tools on MFP and other sites to calculate your basic metabolic rate (the calories you burn just staying alive) and then add in additional calories for your activity level. In the end a daily caloric deficit of 500 calories (including exercise) will result in about a pound a week weight loss. The numbers are never exact and your caloric needs vary as you lose weight, build muscle, etc.

I agree. In nutritionist terms, maintenance eating is 12 calories per pound of (goal) body weight for women. That means that 1200 calories is for a 100 lb woman. My goal is around 150ish, so using this calculation maintenance would be 1800 calories.

Also - check out any blogs/entries written by Banks1850 - he seems to really have some solid advice.

Perhaps start here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

rjadams

Phyljen,
I eat some of my calories back. I basically try to eat between 1400 and 1500 calories a day. My BMR is 1430 so I figure I am fueling that everyday. The way I have MFP set up I would only have about a .4 pound per week weight loss so I try to have around 3500 exercise calories for the week that I don't eat so that I can lose about 1.5 per week. I have been at this for 8 weeks and have lost 12.4 pounds and that is roughly 1.5 pounds per week so until something happens to stall I will keep this up.

nisijam5

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!!

I weighed in at 174 today. No change from the beginning of the month.

At least, I started exercising this week and it feels better to get back on track...foot is still tender

I am determined to see the 160's by the end of the month!!!!

Have a sunny weekend!!!

Kim

PixieGoddess

Official Weigh-in
4/1 160.6
4/9 162.2
4/16 159.2
4/31 Goal 155

Well, I'm headed back in the right direction!

barty

SUPER LOSS BARTY! I'm so proud of you. Keep it up. Phyljen




Thank you Phyljen for your words of encouragement, they are much appreciated and I will certainly try my hardest to keep it up!!!!!:flowerforyou:

Jennplus2

Hi everyone!

Great job on the weight loss!

4/1:150
4/9:149
4/16:147 :bigsmile:

I'm back at my low weight! Now if I can stay below it, that would be great! I love the results extra exercise is getting me. I am going to try to get in a bit more exercise tonight so I am not going to post my 3500 numbers just yet but I did pass the 3500!

kalmf

So for the first time in months I actually bought and ate a chocolate bar! My husband stared at me the whole time incredulously as if I was doing something sacreligious - how annoying!!! He asked, ' so, are you going to report it - or whatever you do on that site"

Anyway, so yes, I picked up my son from residential treatment, went to the airport, waited for hours, waited again after the flight was cancelled and we had to be re-routed to another airport and I thought, Hey, I think I'd like a chocolate bar. So I went to the newsstand, read all the labels and chose some sort of Milky Way Light kind of 200 calorie bar and I ATE IT!! and I thought ___ them (Insert any bad language of your choosing here)

So that's what I was doing in Utah, Phyllis. He's been there almost a year (in Ogden outside Salt Lake) it's a beautiful part of the country,

Berry and Moozie, and all other new posters, welcome.

Terri - what you accomplish crippled is more than I do with both legs functioning well in a week.

RJ - congrats on the interview. I think it's the sh** on the wall theory - get out there keep doing them, eventually something's going to stick.

Jenn - I'm not sure about the 80/20 rule because it's applied to so much indiscriminantly (that's a tough word to spell without getting a red warning from spell check!)

phyljen

Hi Pals::laugh: :happy:
Just got back from breakfast out with a couple friends. Of course I told them I could not go until I had completed the 2 hour jog this morning. Ended up going 2 hours and 10 minutes ( WHA HOO!) so I pretty much figured anything I wanted to eat would be fine. Ended up splitting a veggie omelet with one of the gals.

Karinf, i could even grab a chocolate bar!!,:bigsmile: but I was full after the omelet, fresh orange and a fruit cup not to mention two slices of whole wheat toast! All in all it was delicious. ANYTHING I DON'T HAVE TO COOK IS DELICIOUS IN MY BOOK! Oh and I know exactly where Ogden is and it is a pretty area especially up in Ogden canyon. I pas thru Ogden when I go from SLC up to Idaho where my folks live.:happy:

Congratulations on everyone's losses. :flowerforyou: Jenn, PixieGoddess, and everyone else I cant remember all the names but I HAVE READ ALL YOUR ENTRIES! THANKS FOR THE MOTIVATION. I still have not stepped on a scale to see what I did last week but I did total up my exercise points and I am 1175 over which means I booked a total of 4675 this week. Not bad if you ask my opinion. I'll weigh at school tomorrow so I can use the same scale and be consistent. My home scales says I am 137!!! HA HA I know it is about 5+ pounds low. but it is sure fun to see that number even if it is a LIE! I'll be there soon though RIGHT???

So well better read the two chapters I need to finish before tomorrow when my book club group meets to discuss the book. :yawn: Bye and looking forward to hearing what the new challenge will be this coming week. PHYLJEN

fivefatcats

I started mid-month but my pre April 15 weight was 178.2. Today was 177.8 - moving in the right direction!

Question: I ran 45 minutes today at about 6mph. My HRM only gave me 400 calories (heart rate stays between 145 and 165), but MFP would give me 605 for 45 min at 6mph. I'm a little covetous (sp) of those hard earned calories.

Anyone have a suggestion as to which is more accurate???