January 3-month Challenge, to start on 1/7/2011 (Friday)

Stefani,
You can get back on track!!! Forgive yourself and move on! I too had lost a load of weight and have put a lot back on. In 2002 I reached my goal after having lost 125 pounds,I did some commercials promoting the weight loss plan and now have gained more than half of it back. This is a journey to health and starts with the first step.
My goal for today is to get in at least 10 glasses of water, I am doing well with my food plan and exercise but water is soo important for weight loss.Have a great day all!

Hi Kerri,

I'm loving your challenge, is it too late to join?

Three Month goal:
Week 1 (1/7) - 10 stone / 141.5 lbs
Week 2 (1/14) - 9.12 stone / 138 ilbs
Week 3 (1/21) -
Week 4 (1/28) -
Week 5 (2/4) -
Week 6 (2/11) -
Week 7 (2/18) -
Week 8 (2/25) -
Week 9 (3/4) -
Week 10 (3/11 )-
Week 11 (3/18) -
Week 12 and the END (3/25) -

Thanks for posting a great challenge

Soph x

Kerri,
You are doing an amazing job with everything!!! It all looks great and thanks to those who helped her with the spreadsheet. I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I had a horrible weekend as far as diet and exercise but I'm ready to let it go and get back on track. Trying to get in the swing of things with classes starting again today. Good luck to everyone this week, we're doing great!

Tomorrow is weigh-in day! I'm a bit nervous myself b/c earlier this week I weighed myself and had a 2 pound gain...haven't been on the scale since and have NO IDEA what tomorrow will bring! EEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

Good Luck everybody ))

Hi there! I would love to join your challenge... I've been working at the weight loss since the beginning of January. I have a mini-biggest loser challenge going with my two sisters and brother in laws, I SO want to win! We are going until April 15, so I hope that reporting to you all will keep me on track!

My weight has fluctuated a lot over the past few years. I am 31 now, and determined to get into the best shape of my life. I was very happy with my size in 2008, I was about 120 and a size 2. Now I am 133 and in between a size 6-8. The only thing is when I got down to a size 2, it was in an unhealthy way. I was extremely depressed and going through the worst time of my life- I had no appetite and lost about 15 pounds in a little over a month due to the depression and stress. Now, my goal is to build and maintain muscle, and bring down my body fat percentage. I really believe this is the key to maintaining weight loss over the long term.

My short term goals are the jeans hanging in my closet: I have jeans in all these sizes: 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25. Right now I am fitting into the size 30's- although I am a little too scared to try on the 29's and 28's

Also I want to bench press half my weight with ease x 5 reps.... thinking i may hit this goal next week!

Three Month goal:
Week 1 (1/7) - 136.2
Week 2 (1/14) -134
Week 3 (1/21) -
Week 4 (1/28) -
Week 5 (2/4) -
Week 6 (2/11) -
Week 7 (2/18) -
Week 8 (2/25) -
Week 9 (3/4) -
Week 10 (3/11 )-
Week 11 (3/18) -
Week 12 and the END (3/25) -



SW: 139 (January 4 2011)
CW: 134
GW: 120

Thanks for the challenge!

Just a tidbit of information for everybody. I came across this information when reading someone else's struggle with not knowing why she can't seem to shed weight. For me...it opened up my eyes a bit...maybe it'll help you too! I know I've been discouraged this week because of weight not coming off but because of this article realized that it could very well be that I'm not eating enough calories.

So...to anybody who may want to read it...here's what one person had to say:

"Hello Folks,

So often people personal message me asking me if I think their calories are correct. It seems that people think there is some magical formula that only a very few can figure out. I see so many people on here just popping in numbers and following them heedless of what the numbers mean. I feel it's ULTRA important to know why MFP (and me, and a few others) gives you certain numbers. To that end I will try to empower YOU to be able to understand the basics about calories, calorie deficits, and why we recommend eating exercise calories. With this knowledge you should be able to easily figure out what your calories should be at for reasonable, healthy weight loss. So without further ado, lets get started.

1st things first, a few givens must be stated:

-Everyone's body is slightly different. ALWAYS keep in mind your numbers may not be exactly what MFP thinks simply because everyone's bodies all burn energy at a different rate. Tweaking may be needed.

- MFP's goals wizard is a "dumb" tool. That means it doesn't care whether a specific goal is healthy and/or right for you, it just subtracts the goal deficit from projected maintenance calories. This means that even if you shouldn't be trying for a 2 lb a week loss, MFP won't care, it will still try to help you get there.

-1200 calories is a generic number. It's not right for everyone. It's a baseline minimum given out as a floor by MFP based on prior research by the medical community. NOT everyone will need a minimum of 1200, very small people can go under, and bigger people need more.


OK with those facts firmly set in your mind (please go back and re-read the givens until you have them firmly planted in your skull!), we can continue. Figuring out your perfect deficit isn't magic, it's a few simple formula's base on some basic, worldwide standards, and generally with slight modefication, will work for just about anyone who (besides weight) is generally healthy.

Here's what you need:
Height, weight, age, activity level, sex

NOTE: activity level isn't as mysterious as it sounds. If you have a desk job, and do very little walking throughout the day and don't really perform any sports or physical activities, then you are sedentary, if you do some walking every day (or at least 4 days a week) or other light activity for at least 30 minutes cumulative at least 4 times a week, you are lightly active. If you do 60 minutes of light activity 5 days a week or do some kind of sport that requires walking or light jogging (say swimming or mailman or warehouse employee) then you are active, If you do a physically demanding activity (one that makes you sweat) for 4 days a week or more and for more than 1 hour a day, you are very active (like a coach that runs drills or you play volleyball). When in doubt, go down 1 level, you'd rather burn more than you think than less.

With all these numbers you can generate your BMI. Now I realize BMI is flawed, but for what we're doing it's good enough. After years on here, and doing lots and lots of research, I've been able to associate general BMI ranges with approximate goal levels. This works for about 80 to 85% of people out there (there's always a few that are outside the curve).

So now we can figure out where your goal should be.
Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)

With this quick guide you can figure out your goal rather easily. I know many people will say "I can't eat my exercise calories, I gain weight when I do". Well I have news for you, that's not correct. I submit this, if you eat your exercise calories and gain weight 1 of 3 things happened:
1 you were previously in starvation mode, and you upped your calories, and had an immediate weight gain, that's normal, to be expected, and necessary to get your body on track. Give it a month, that will stop, and you, once again, will begin to lose, but this time, in a healthy manner.
2 you incorrectly calculated something, either your exercise calories, your calorie intake, or you put in to large of a goal. Go back and check all your numbers.
3 you haven't given it enough time to work. This site promotes HEALTHY weight loss people. Healthy weight loss doesn't happen in days or weeks, it takes months and years. Each change you make in how you eat needs a month or more to work, be patient, give it time. It will happen.

And to everyone who has a trainer that doesn't agree with eating your exercise calories. I also submit this: In 90% of the cases (and I have talked to a LOT of trainers about this exact topic) they actually DO agree with this method, you just explained it wrong.
Just saying to a trainer "should I eat my exercise calories?" isn't enough, you have to explain to them that MFP already generates a deficit prior to any exercise, therefore the deficit will remain whether you exercise or not. Once you give them that idea, and you are relatively sure they understand the concept then I'll bet they change their tune.

I hope this helps, it's pretty straight forward if you've been here a while, and to you new guys, I recommend going to the message boards link, clicking on the "general diet and weight loss" area, and clicking on those first few posts that have the little mouse trap next to them, they are sticky and will always be there, and are a wealth of knowledge about this site, exercise calories, starvation mode...etc. "


GOOD LUCK again to everybody tomorrow ))

2lbs down this week! Would have lost more if I didn't have such a big dinner last night I think. Oh well, losing is losing!


Three Month goal:
Week 1 (1/7) - 97 kg / 213.4lbs
Week 2 (1/14) - 95kg / 209 lbs
Week 3 (1/21) - 94kg/ 207 lbs
Week 4 (1/28) -
Week 5 (2/4) -
Week 6 (2/11) -
Week 7 (2/18) -
Week 8 (2/25) -
Week 9 (3/4) -
Week 10 (3/11 )-
Week 11 (3/18) -
Week 12 and the END (3/25) - 87 kg/191lbs - GOAL WEIGHT!

I'm nervous too!

What is everyone doing for their "Last Chance Workout" today? LOL, I just like that term a lot.

I will probably do my spin class tonight then sit in the sauna to sweat out that last pound

Zumba baby!! With or without this headache.

I'm in!

Three Month goal: 125
Week 1 (1/7) - 148
Week 2 (1/14) -148
Week 3 (1/21) -
Week 4 (1/28) -
Week 5 (2/4) -
Week 6 (2/11) -
Week 7 (2/18) -
Week 8 (2/25) -
Week 9 (3/4) -
Week 10 (3/11 )-
Week 11 (3/18) -
Week 12 and the END (3/25) -

It's early Friday (Finally!) morning here, so i'm first to weigh in. But, it's not the best start. I've lost 0, nada, zero, no weight this week! The only way i can make sense of it is because i lost 5.5 pounds last week and my body just decided that this week it would hold onto the weight. It is discouraging though. No, my week was not as great as last week, but i was always close to or under my calories, and worked out more than the first week...
But, i'm still on target and i'm going to keep going and hope when i weigh in next week i'm in the 147s!
Hope everyone has had a good week!

Three Month Goal- 136.0
Week 1 (1/7) - (current weight)- 154.3
Week 2 (1/14) - Goal- 152.1. Current- 148.8!!!
Week 3 (1/21) - goal- 149.9. Current- 148.8
Week 4 (1/28) - goal- 147.7
Week 5 (2/4) - goal-145.5
Week 6 (2/11) - goal-143.3
Week 7 (2/18) - goal-141.1
Week 8 (2/25) - goal-138.9
Week 9 (3/4) - goal-136.7
Week 10 (3/11 )- goal-136.0
Week 11 (3/18) - goal-maintain weight
Week 12 and the END (3/25) maintain weight

I'm nervous too!

What is everyone doing for their "Last Chance Workout" today? LOL, I just like that term a lot.

I will probably do my spin class tonight then sit in the sauna to sweat out that last pound

Ok...so my "Last Chance Workout" was one hour of a Hula Hoop class with co-workers (burned 400 something cals) and then came home and completed Insanity Plyo Cardio Circuit (burned 584 calories) and to say the least...I'm EXHAUSTED!!!

I don't see much of a change in my body yet...so tomorrow's weigh in may not be good but I'm going to stay positive and hope that by week 4-5...I'll see a bigger change