Hit 200!!

Hi there, welcome to the beginning of a thinner you!

I should be about 150, and was up to 181.5 a year and a half ago. First, I'll tell you what didn't work: the Paleo diet, eating mainly natural foods (home-cooked, nothing packaged), square dancing lessons, ballroom lessons, water aerobics, getting my thyroid meds raised, riding 15 miles a day on a stationary bike at home, working out at a gym three hours a week, trying MyFitnessPal for just a few days a month, training and competing in dog agility competitions, heavy duty gardening, and carrying tons of invasive saplings out of an adjoining conservation forest.

All of those things together for almost a year and a half caused me to go from 164 to a high of 181.5, and back down a bit to 179. So a net GAIN of 15 pounds despite tons of exercise and what most would consider quite light and healthy eating.

I finally realized through research and experience (including other people's) that people cannot lose weight through exercising. No matter how much you think you're eating healthily, studies show we make up every last calorie we burn through exercise... UNLESS we also count calories. The thing that really hit me was reading a book about a man and his dog that have climbed the 48 tallest (4000'+) peaks in New Hampshire, in winter, four or five times each, and twice did all 48 in a single winter. And the man is seriously overweight. He admits he didn't lose a single ounce in all that climbing.

I started MFP in earnest (daily tracking, without fail) on Feb. 22, and I'm down to 171.5 in less than nine weeks. That's less than a pound a week, but it sure beats going the other direction, and it has been painless.

Try to make a commitment to track daily for 5 weeks, no matter what your weight does. I gave up too soon when I'd lose 3 pounds, then gain 2, then gain 1, and be back where I started. This is a slow process, and you will go up and down from day to day... but in the long run, every single person I've known that did MFP lost serious weight, from 30-60 pounds in less than a year.

Be sure to measure everything. You may run out of calories early in the day at first, so have salad on hand for the end of the day. You will soon find tradeoffs that don't consume all your calories up front. I also recommend a high-protein breakfast to stop from snacking. I typically have two 97% fat-free hotdogs and Chobani Simple 100 yogurt (very low sugar, no fat, high protein). For a filling snack, I eat 24 almonds + 1/3 cup of Craisins. This will fill me up for 2-3 hours.

The other thing I highly recommend is an Exerpeutic 400XL Folding Recumbent Bike (I got mine from Amazon--$149 delivered overnight). To earn more calories for MFP, I ride anywhere from 30-90 minutes a night in front of the TV or a DVD. It's very comfy, and you won't even break a sweat, yet you can earn enough calories for an extra meal, popcorn, etc. For the first two months, I rode 15 miles a night (90 min.), but it was waaaay easier than it sounds. Now that I've found lower cal options to eat during the day, I only ride about 5 miles, and only if I want to earn some "free" popcorn calories while I watch TV. The bike is the only exercise I've been able to stick with--and LOVE!--in my whole life.

Good luck!