Advice on losing percentage!!

Generally percentage for challenges are % of weight lost, not body fat %. You take the number of lbs lost and divide by the start weight. So if you weigh 150 and lose 15 lbs, you will have lost 10%. Someone who weighs 200 and loses 15 lbs would have lost 7.5%; and to achieve the same 10% would have had to lose 20 lbs. Best of luck! $400 would be a nice holiday gift.

To calculate percentage, subtract final weight from starting weight (in other words, weight lost). Then divide this number by your starting weight. For example, if you start at 150 and end at 130 that's 20 pounds lost. Divide 20 by 150 and you get 0.1333 or 13.3%

Percent is more fair to everybody that total weight lost. For example, a 200 pound person would have to lose 27 pounds to reach the same 13.3%. It is easier for people who have more to lose to have a bigger loss, even a bigger percentage loss, early on, than someone who only has a little ways to go, so they may have a slight advantage, but I would say that this is the fairest way to do it.

Best way to drop is to eat right and exercise - follow the MFP plan. Do cardio and weights both, not only for losing weight, but for overall health. Track, track, track, and be disciplined, and you will do great. The reward money is a big incentive to do it on days you don't want to, good luck!

That sounds like fun. Just be careful to lose as much as you can by being consistent and sustainable. Sometimes people do drastic things to lose weight fast and then they rebound and in the long run that is no good.

Are they going to actually measure body fat percentage? I doubt it, but if they did it would be the ratio of your lean body mass to fat mass. Since I have a heavy lean body mass from lifting weights (that's dense bones, not just muscle) I can have more fat lbs then someone else my height who has not been lifting and my body fat % is lower. I have a feeling for the contest it will be your total body weight to lbs lost as the ratio, but I'm not sure how they do it. I sort of hope they do a body fat test because scale weight is highly inaccurate.

The good thing is that you don't have to worry about going into starvation mode if you are over 12% body fat (more on this below). However, eating at too low of a deficit is hard for people and can be unsustainable for many and cause rebounds. Even when you lose weight in a healthy manner your body goes into a state of flux while you are losing, hormones change and adjust, and everyone is different.

Weight loss:

I'm not telling you what to do. Check with your doctor if you want to try any of this. This is simply what worked for me. What worked for me may not work for you.

I lost 40 lbs rather slowly but consistently by eating smaller meals and without necessarily planning to mini fasts (from dinner to breakfast). One of the many diets I had tried had a rule of not eating past 7pm. So once I got a feel for how much to eat to lose weight I realized some days that I probably had enough by 5pm or 3pm so I stopped eating for the day. This was strange for me because I had never fasted in my life, I always said "I can't, I feel to weak, felt hypoglycemic, etc". Well I realized it's mindset and a sort of endurance for it. I could never figure out how people at church could do spiritual fasts and I couldn't. Unless you get tested and find you are truly hypoglycemic (It's quite rare) then it's really mindset and a sort of endurance that you adapt to. After I suddenly realized after doing this awhile that I was fasting! Me, fasting! LOL Unbelievable, but it worked. So I was working with a friend one day and told him I thought I found the secret to weight loss (for me anyway!) was mini meals and mini fasts and he told me to look up Eat Stop Eat on the internet. So I did, and this accelerated my last 17 lbs. I showed the book to my doctor with all the research backing the theory and my doctor said great, do it! One meal a day instead of three. I dropped my last 17 lbs this way and won a transformation contest where you send in before and after pictures. This was sustainable for me, I've kept the weight off for over a year and I still use the Eat Stop Eat principles as well as some others I've learned from the company that produces that book.

Other things to keep in mind for weight loss:

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

Some people will say you need to eat more. Some people will say you need to eat less. Only you can decide or check with your doctor. But what would make the most sense? Taller people have more room in their calorie budget to go up or down. Shorter people like me have less room and get frustrated with "eat more" because that typically does not work for us. If you are confused about it don't just listen to any of us, do some research and get approval from your doctor, then just do what you need to do and tune the rest of us out.

It really depends on your RMR. If you are short like I am then your RMR is really just above the 1200 limit so you really don't have much room for a calorie deficit and going up is less likely to work. If you are taller you will have a higher RMR and can go up or down and still be in a deficit so you can lose no matter what. All that matters is a calorie deficit. If you are short it can be hard to have a deficit at 1200 or above so your only option is to check with your doctor. I did and he agreed and had me go down.

Exercise is to make your lean body mass pretty, strong, and healthy (especially lifting weights).

A calorie deficit is to lose fat. A calorie budget keeps your fat level where you need to be, either losing fat or maintaining.

Nothing else really matters much.

What is the exact number of calories for you?

We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.

This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.

-John Barban (The Body Centric Calorie Guide from the Venus Index and Adonis Index Manuals)

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit
you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is
when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to
as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in
men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

-Brad Pilon and John Barban (from The Reverse Taper Diet in The Adonis Index, Venus Index, and manuals)

Good luck on your contest!
Bobbie