I finally am in Onederland. Hopefully as a resident, not a visitor!!!! I now weigh exactly 198 pounds. Yee ha!!

I finally am in Onederland. Hopefully as a resident, not a visitor!!!! I now weigh exactly 198 pounds. Yee ha!!

Woohoo! Congratulations.

suejoker
Happy 7/7, Warrior Women! I had my first weight training session with Joe. He's such a cutie--only 24 and so patient and encouraging. He introduced me to most of the weight machines, today. We went around to each one (I believe there were 15) and he just talked me through 1 set of 15 reps on each, explaining the correct form and telling me how to avoid hurting myself. It was exactly what I needed to get started. As I predicted, the arm and upper body ones were a lot harder than the leg ones, for me. And, I was only lifting 10-20lbs on each one! So, I now have a routine to practice 3x/week. I liked it. It's a lot less jarring than cardio and the 40 minutes just flew by. He's gonna keep an eye on me for the next couple of weeks and then introduce me to free weights.

Culo, 3 gym visits already?! That's great! I love my gym and plan to go 5x/week now. We'll see if that's what happens, though. I am already sore from the lifting I did with Joe today and it took me 4 days to recover from my last circuit training class I did. I'm ok with adjusting my overly ambitious plans when necessary, though. I loved those pics! Thanks so much for giving me a preview. When I move and have somewhere safe to park a bike, I'm going down there! I already invited my cousin to come with me.

Today I had my first session with my new personal trainer, too. He wants to connect on MFP, so I'll just leave it at that. Good job on the weight machines training. Be careful working your way through the weight stack. I know I'm always impatient, wanting to move to the next level before I'm ready. The free weights will make the weight machines feel like vacation. Good to mix it up.

At least while the personal training sessions are going on, I'll also be at the gym at least 3 days a week. I'll see if I can keep up the pace after the 5 paid for sessions are over. If I see my weight drifting downwards, that will be enough motivation.

Speaking of mixing it up, turns out my swim lessons are a combination of pool and weights. Makes sense to work on my strength outside of the pool to be better in the pool. I'm looking forward to learning a lot over the next few weeks.

If you are going to check out the Devil's Slide Trail, I recommend walking it first. It's hard to tell in the photos I uploaded but there are long, steep hills, 9% grade. I can see a beginning rider being put off cycling faced with those challenges. It's only about a 3 mile round trip, from one end to the other and back but I didn't see one person not breathing hard when going up the hills. In fact, I didn't see anyone riding up the hills, only walking their bikes.

dianastepheny
Lemurcat- You're definitely right about the calories balancing out over time. I should have just let myself eat more the next day. I probably would have enjoyed those calories more too.

I finally am in Onederland. Hopefully as a resident, not a visitor!!!! I now weigh exactly 198 pounds. Yee ha!!

Wooo! Virtual high 5. When were you last under 200? I think it was around the beginning of high school for me.

By the way, there's a new thread on the topic of eating back exercise calories. For those who want other points of view. Some good points were made.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1350127-advice-needed

schnicklefrit
As far as the bike goes...all of the above...lol. I am just not physically comfortable riding it yet...my butt needs to get tougher. I am also just terrified of the traffic and such. We don't live in a real busy town, especially at the time of day, but it still freaks me out. I am not good at turning around to see behind me etc. The start/stop thing is hard for me too. BUT, weather allowing, I will meet my w/o friend W, Th F at her work in the AM and then we will ride back to my house together. It should be a bit further I think than what I have been doing, but a lot more level. The ride I have been doing has a lot of hills on it and I have to work hard to get up them. But, the awesome part was...I did it today. Terri was not on the other end waiting for me, I just did it because i knew I needed too. So, I will work through this...In September we have a 36 mile bike ride scheduled. It is on a nice trail through the country so places to stop if we want...we will ride to a small town that is 18 miles on the other end and then eat lunch and ride back. I am already nervous and excited for the goal. LOL The goal was supposed to be to ride one way and have a pick up vehicle and then the next time do the round trip. . . but... the summer is just flying by and we don't have much time to get it done. She works almost every weekend, so her only weekend off in September will be sitting on a bike. I better get a tougher butt before that. LOL


We all pretty much rock don't we....

Have you looked to see if your area has any "bike organizations"? Sometimes they have free training to help you become more comfortable riding in traffic. For instance, I took a Urban Bicycling Workshop earlier this month put on by Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition http://bikesiliconvalley.org/.

Even if they don't have any scheduled events that fit your needs, they may have recommendations for you to try. Not a good idea to force yourself to ride in traffic where you feel overwhelmed. Bicyclists have more things than cars to pay attention to with one big disadvantage. If we mess up, we could end up maimed or killed while a car may get a little ding for the same error.

I'm kind of worried about your big 36 mile bike ride coming up. Especially if your butt is still adjusting to being in the bike saddle. When I have periods of not riding, I usually work my self up in distance, a few miles at a time: 2, 5, 10, 15, etc. I don't go from hardly anything to 30+ miles in one day. Do you have a training schedule to work on the next few months? Do you have a backup plan in case you're legs are too wobbly to ride back?

To anyone I didn't specifically mention, don't worry. I see you working hard. :happy:

Well done and carry on.:flowerforyou:

Schnicklefrit- Are you eating back any of your exercise calories? It seems like you burn large amounts (over a thousand or more) but still stay at your original calorie goal. If you eat 1800 and work off 1300, it is like only eating 500 calories that day. They say you really shouldn't go below "net 1200", even higher if you are trying to stay true to your 1800 calories. That could be why you are so hungry or why you might have stalls in weight loss. If I didn't eat back enough calories to hit 1200 net (preferably closer to my 1650- I try to not go below 1500-1600), I would probably be ready to eat the wallboard in my house while snapping at everyone around me. (I have a tendency to get "hangry"). With the exception of the night where it was almost midnight and I forced myself to eat pizza (poor planning on my part), I eat more during the day when I know I am going to be exercising later, so I don't get stuck with a slew of calories and this way I know I won't be under eating by the end of the day.

Schnicklefrit- Are you eating back any of your exercise calories? It seems like you burn large amounts (over a thousand or more) but still stay at your original calorie goal. If you eat 1800 and work off 1300, it is like only eating 500 calories that day. They say you really shouldn't go below "net 1200", even higher if you are trying to stay true to your 1800 calories. That could be why you are so hungry or why you might have stalls in weight loss. If I didn't eat back enough calories to hit 1200 net (preferably closer to my 1650- I try to not go below 1500-1600), I would probably be ready to eat the wallboard in my house while snapping at everyone around me. (I have a tendency to get "hangry"). With the exception of the night where it was almost midnight and I forced myself to eat pizza (poor planning on my part), I eat more during the day when I know I am going to be exercising later, so I don't get stuck with a slew of calories and this way I know I won't be under eating by the end of the day.

I am just so confused!!!!! I am too afraid to eat the calories back now because I had such a crap two weeks. I was trying to look back at my nets and the only place I can find them in the reports section, the one day nothing is showing up...so I am assuming I was in the negatives that day? I guess I have never looked at the NET side of things. I will talk to the trainer about it too tonight and see what he says. I know he disagrees with eating back all of the calories, but perhaps he does not realize how "under" I am going? This will be my first real visit with him, so we will go from there.

Thanks for trying to help. I am just so gosh darn desperate to lose some weight, and I feel like I am doing good things, and yet...no scale lowering, no nothing!!!!!! I know you have all been there, and I am sorry to whine and complain...I am just ubber frustrated and just want to scream.

I did not even go and walk or ride the bike this AM because I am just flustered and I was hungry when I woke up, I could not imagine what it would have been like if I had worked off 500+ calories.

Schnicklefrit (what's your real name, by the way? Sorry)

If I click on the link, it only brings me to my own report, not yours. However, by looking at my report, I noticed something interesting. I have changed my calorie goals a few times, If I look back in time and try to see how much I netted on a particular day, it is showing my calories, but keeps the red line to determine my net at my current level (no matter what it was that day). If you go to your actual diary and go page by page (time consuming and annoying, I know)...it will show you your calorie goal for that day (even if it is no longer your current calorie goal). So, you can tell your net by subtracting your "extra calories from exercise" earned amount from your total eaten so far.

Example: (using 1800 calorie goal)

Food eaten: 1800...no exercise...1800 net

Food eaten: 2400... exercise 300... 2100 net (person over 1800 goal by 300)

Food eaten 1800...exercise 500...1300 net (person is 500 below goal)

Food eaten 2000...exercise 900...1100 net (person ate more than 1800 goal BUT because of exercise is actually 700 under)

Food eaten 1400...exercise 1500.. -100 net (person burned 100 more calories than she even ate) and is 1900 below calorie goal

Food eaten 2500...exercise 800..1700 net (person looks like they ate a lot...BUT is within a nice range below actual calorie goal)
Obviously, you don't need to eat back all exercise calories. What if they are overestimated...then you would be overeating. I try to eat back enough that i end up within 100-200 of goal (in case of overestimation errors). Sometimes, i eat them all back. I try and make sure i never go below 1200 net. I hope this helps. )

The "Your Daily Goal" calories is how many you can eat after exercise to "even out"...in other words (in your case) net 1800. But you can figure out exactly where you are at the moment by subtracting exercise from food eaten.

Jodi--

Ideal deficit is no more than 1000 calories/day (which should be a 2 lb per week loss).

What I think makes sense is to take the whole deficit and then try to exercise for 500 calories of it. I accomplish this--in theory--by putting myself down as active and then eating back calories in excess of that active mark. Not sure if that will work well or not, as I just started it.

What is probably a simpler way is just to cut 1000 from your NEAT (what MFP gives you if you ask for 2 lbs) and then be good about eating back exercise calories to the extent you trust them. Some are hard to figure out. The best way to deal with walking and so on IME is to just let Fitbit adjust you. I have eating back lots of my Fitbit calories from the beginning and lost doing so.

I'm skeptical of burns over 1000 unless they involved multiple hours of work and when they do I cut them because you burn calories doing nothing too.

What might be worth trying for you is figuring out your TDEE and taking a 20% cut off of it, and then you don't have to deal with exercise calories at all. At my current TDEE I'm not doing this because 20% is less than one pound a week, but I'd bet yours would give you between 1-2 lbs. If you want some help figuring that out, let me know. The calculator at IIFYM.com is my favorite (I think Scooby can estimate high), especially since it's easy to see the differences between the different calculators. If you know your body fat Katch-McArdle is the best, but otherwise Mifflin-St Jeor seems to split the difference.

If you are still getting hungry there are ways of arranging your meals that can help, but my bet is that getting the calories and exercise calories squared away will help a lot.

Also, everything Diana said. ;-)

Hey Jodi

So, since June 30th, you have netted...986...1157...1029... negative 408...1343( not 343) ...1275 ( not 275)...2009...517...and 650. You have been way under everyday if you are shooting for 1800. Even with the extra 209 calories on your one high day, it doesn't bring you close to an overall amount (especially with the negative day cancelling it out) . (1800 * 9= 16,200 ...your total eaten is 8,558) 8558 divided by 9 days= 951 calories per day on average.

Even if you didn't want to eat back ALL of your exercise calories, you really should try to stay closer to 1800, definitely over 1200. Trust me...I was barely under 1200 on only a few occasions and spent most of my time netting closer to 1400 and my body had a temper tantrum...stalled weight loss, missed period, tired, cranky...etc. That's why I upped myself to 1650 and try not to net below 1500 on the days I do Zumba (not sure I trust the calorie count, so I don't eat them all back on those days usually).

Hope this helps.