Women 200lb+, Let's Be Magnificent This March!!!

Good work in March ladies! You're all so inspiring and motivating Having somewhere to "check in" has really kept me on track these last couple of weeks. Thank you so much for that!

My weigh-in day is Friday but I wanted to report my March progress.

Age: 37
Height: 5'7"
SW: 280 (Jan 1, 2020)

Weigh-in Progress:
Mar 20: 237.6
Mar 26: 230.8
March 31: 227.8

GW for March: 230 lb - Did it!!
UGW: 199 (and maybe 190 after that)

I made my March goal of getting back to 230. Now just to keep relosing what I've gained over the last few months since Christmas so I can get back to chipping away at the "principal debt"

Name: Kali
Age: 33
Height: 5'7
SW: 232.2 (1/15/21)
GW: #1 Under 200 #2 180 #150ish

Weight tracking:
March 2: 214.1 <--had a jump last weekend after hanging with friends (my tiny covid bubble/daily accountability friends)
March 9 214.0 <-- haven't been able to stop eating so I'm revaluating my calories and debating about upping them incase what I was eating was too restrictive...plus there was an insomnia cookie situation this week...
March 16 211.4 <--super happy to see a drop although I did buy a dress that I have to wear on 4/9 that doesn't zip sooo let's see how much work I can put in to make that happen (don't worry there is a backup!)
March 23 209.2 <--while this is a GREAT loss for the week. I am having some weird bowel issues and have watched my weight jump 2 pounds in 3 days because of not going. So i'm off to add something new to my diet to move it along (prunes?) or go the pharmaceutical route as this only started after I fixed my diet and started working out.
March 30 208.4 <--my weekends are really screwing up my scale but when I compare it to where I was, this makes it sustainable. Yeah I'm not losing at a crazy speed (although last friday saw 205.4) but I am really happy because I'm consistently losing so it is what it is.

Inches lost in March - 7.2 total body which included 2 inches off my hips!

Excited for my official weigh in tomorrow to start April off right!

Fitness goals:
Weigh daily
Log EVERYTHING
11,000+ steps 6x week
Meal prep as much as possible
C25K 3x a week
30 day squat/pushup challenge <--NEW FOR MARCH --did not complete

@ladychr0nic I have a fitbit, and I do log my exercises in MFP - however, I don't trust the calorie burn that MFP says. (I log it because I like to have a record along with my food, lol. I might try not logging next week to see what my fitbit says I burn.) I actually determine my calories by TDEE minus a percentage for fat loss. There are actually two methods to calculate TDEE (the calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight). The one that uses age, gender, and weight is the method most online TDEE calculators use, but it isn't as accurate for obese people. The other method uses your lean body weight - which means you need to know your body fat percentage. The latter method feels a little low for me, so I calculate both and split the difference.

With the first method (Harris-Benedict), my TDEE comes to 2714 calories. The second (Katch-McArdle) has me at 2302. I used "moderately active" as my activity level, though I'm somwhere between that and "very active." A 25% deficit for the Harris-Benedict method is 2035 calories. According to the Katch-McArdle method, 1956 calories is only a 15% deficit. I decided to try 2000 calories to see if it was both a good deficit for fat loss and sustainable for me. (I'd been eating 1600 calories previously, but I didn't have stamina for my workouts, was dragging every day, and was still prone to binges.) I set MFP to only a 0.5 lb weekly loss - so the number looked a little closer to my target - and I'll be honest, because of following more restrictive diets off and on over the last decade, I mentally freaked out over eating "so much." And it did feel like I was eating all the time at first. But I've adjusted to it. I'm actually considering increasing my calories again because I've upped my activity level (athletic background, I love working out).

I also do track macronutrients, shooting for around 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fats. I find it helps a ton with feeling satiated and not shaky. I eat pretty "healthy" for most of the day, and then usually have what my family is having for dinner - healthy or not! But I plan for it and track it. Sometimes I will have something different if I don't feel like dinner is worth the calories. Usually that has to do with how the food makes me feel physically rather than fear of going over or triggering a binge. (Again, I'm considering adjusting my macros since I've added more cardio. I need some more carbs! Lol!)

Speaking of bingeing, I haven't had any problems since I upped my calories - after the first couple of weeks. That was more to do with the mental freak out over eating so much, the fear that I would gain weight. I no longer feel like I'm gritting my teeth to get through the day. I don't think about food all the time. Yes, I plan out my meals more than I've ever done in the past - and I do measure all the things (because I still have a tendency to under estimate portions) - but the rest of the time, I'm not constantly thinking about what I can and can't eat, or how much I want to eat something that is "going to undermine me." I stopped having powerful cravings, and I'm not hungry all the time. I've lost 5 inches in my waist and last week alone I dropped 6.7 lbs. (Which again has me thinking my calories are still too low. I'm shooting for 1-2 lbs per week.)

Good resources for more information: Kiki Smith ("Eat More to Weigh Less" or "Crushing the Diet Mentality" - for a Google search) and Tom Venuto ("Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" - though he comes at it from a more traditional body builder background and suggests eating super healthy 90% of the time, which is not sustainable for me, lol. 80/20 is a better fit for my lifestyle. But he is super thorough with both science and 20+ years of experience as a natural - no supplement - body builder and does a good job of teaching you how to track data and make adjustments for your unique needs.) Andrea Allen (deliciouslyfitnhealthy) also has a great podcast on counting calories and tracking macronutrients. (I also recommend her podcast on training for your body type.) And Jordan Syatt has a YouTube video (without cursing, as I recall) about why the scale fluctuates - "The Science of Weight Fluctuations"

Everyone has to find what works for them, but I want to share two things that have made all the difference for me in this process. First was to stop treating weight loss like it's a timed test that I can only pass or fail. And treat my measurements (scale and other body measurements) solely as data points to help me make adjustments as needed, not an indication of my ability or inability to take better care of my health. I remind myself that I wouldn't expect to pick up a violin and play like a virtuoso without a single lesson or practice. Why would the process of getting and staying healthy be any different that someone learning to play an instrument - or learning to do anything for that matter? I'm going to hit the wrong notes a lot in the beginning. It's going to be awkward and bumbling and ugly. But as I keep working at it, I will get better over time. I only fail if I give up.

Sorry for the long post!

@Spotteddingo Thank you!! So far they have gone great and to top it off, I just weighed myself and I lost weight.

Time to look for the April thread. See you all there!!