Women 200lb+, Let's Aim For The Sky This July!!!

@gbj4120 I just need to confirm that gbj does not stand for gay baby jail. You're young enough to have me questioning whether someone would on this site.

Great job reaching your goals. Also wow, steep loss this month!

@bojaantje3822 oh lol, I had to google that. No, these are my initials and my dog’s. And yup, I’m super happy with the progress for July! Summer is definitely helping me burn more calories. I have a desk job, so it’s hard to move much in general. But now, we go out every evening to play games outside and with our dog.

I came here and read posts yesterday but didn't post. We have some weeks before going to Hawaii for the funeral in mid August. I have an interview tomorrow. I am still orienting towards the job that doesn’t open until September and starts in November. I am hoping to make some progress losing weight and getting fitter by then. My youngest is going to be out tonight so less restrictions for tonight’s dinner. It is really hot but I need to go for a walk or maybe strength training. Wish there was a pool I could go to. I will do some prep for the interview too.

@bonniemcc4 you are making good progress losing. I think 4 lbs a month is a healthy loss and you have already exceeded that and the month isn’t over. But this isn’t just about weight loss it is about getting healthy. I hope for all the best with that too.

@JAC581 I think you will enjoy the next part of the move once you can get into your new place. Glad your bf will be there to help. For 1 move I went back to clean up the house on my own after we had moved out of state. I stayed with my sister. During the day I would clean up by myself and everyday I would just stop and cry for a while I was so overwhelmed. Much better to tackle moves with others if they are big. You will start to do well now I think.

@CupcakeCrusoe sorry about your toe. Funny I made tomato sauce and pasta last night too. It was good but not really like my usual sauce without the Italian sausage. Even though I could use chicken sausage to avoid the red meat it would still be salty. Only using some grated fresh mozzarella since it is the lowest salt cheese I can find. We mixed whole wheat thin spaghetti pasta with angel hair which is my youngest’s favorite.

Good morning everyone,

185.6 this morning, which I am still not worried about. Weight loss isn't linear, I'm very sore and feel very bloated, etc. I'll try to prioritize water today, been slacking for a couple days.

Tonight at the gym is poles and pole control, that hated class where we condition our sensitive skin to help us "stick" to the pole better. I'm excited, I'm better at pole than I am at chairs at this point. And it's easier to find videos about poles than about chair tricks.

I was planning on starting a diet break on Friday, but I feel like I could go a while longer in a deficit, even if the deficit is smaller, so maybe that's what I'm going to do. Give myself the room to make the deficit smaller (eat more) but still have a deficit. My big problem is I've been logging inexactly for the last few weeks, so I don't know what my actual maintenance number is. Got to get back to that. I've been swedging it and it's been working out alright, but it doesn't make for good data to make decisions with.

Played video games with some friends last night, that was fun. And I did make spaghetti, my kid was like "you always make spaghetti when it rains," lol. I swear I was planning on making it before I knew it was going to rain, kid! Tonight I'm probably going to throw chicken pot pies in the oven for the fam, and make something slightly lower cal for myself for dinner. The chickpea salad I've been taking with my chicken at lunch, while delicious, is higher calorie than I would normally do with my lunch chicken, so the tradeoff has to come from somewhere. I'll probably make myself a tuna salad wrap with my low calorie tortilla and greek yogurt instead of mayo. That'll be... about 250, and that gives me a little room for some chips (150), and then off to the gym.

Tag party time!
@bojaantje3822 sounds like an absolute win for listening to your body, and 1) feeding it when it needs fed, and 2) not feeding it when it's not hungry. Great job.

@KeriA angel hair is my favorite, too, although it's much harder to cook al dente, where I can cook spaghetti properly very easily. I hope things improve enough where you feel alright going to a pool soon. Freakin' covid and now monkeypox. For COVID, at least, an outdoor pool is a possibility, but monkeypox, ugh. I've been wiping everything at the gym down obsessively with rubbing alcohol.

@Alatariel75 I'm glad you've got long covid on your mind, so hopefully you won't push yourself too much. Take it very easy, so that you can recover soonest.

Have a great day, everyone! One day the hula girl will come back, but it is not this day, lol.

So the tdee calculator .net has always been wrong for me based on how much I exercise and I figured out how to make it right. I need to add my fat percentage. Now I don't know my fat percentage but I know my maintenance because I know how much weight I lost eating what. So based on that, I could figure out my fat percentage, as it gives the right amount of calories for the amount of exercise I do.

If this site is even somewhat accurate, I went from a 47% fat percentage at 138kg (roughly 65kg of fat, phew) to a 43% fat percentage now at 123kg (roughly 53kg if fat). Now these percentages are very large but I also went from BMI 45 to BMI 40. Anyway, based on this, 12 of the 15kg I lost would have been fat. I think that's a pretty good percentage, 80%.

I've also learnt that my BMR is lower than it originally estimated. It should be around 1880 instead of 2030. I'm still going to keep eating a minimum of 2050 calories (though closer to 2700 for now 😂 on average) but it's good to know the occasional 2000 calorie day is okay. Yesterday was a 3700 calorie kinda day and it's interesting to me that such a big, daunting number is 1) still only 500ish above maintenance and 2) a tiny sedentary person could eat my "lose 2 pounds a week" calorie budget and be over their maintenance more than I was eating 3700.

I also learnt that my BMR at BMI 25 (76kg, around 160lbs) will be 1560 calories. I'm never not exercising knowing that. I cannot eat at the 1875 calories sedentary maintenance for that weight. This is based on the estimate without the fat percentage.
If I keep losing at 80% fat, 20% other, my body fat percentage at 76kg will be 21% (or 16kg of fat). This actually brings my BMR up to 1670 calories and sedentary to exactly 2000. I can live with this. Exercising the way I do now will give me a maintenance budget of 2875 calories! This would be a perfect scenario. I want this to become my reality. I figured out my end game.

So to achieve this, I will have to keep exercising the way I do (easy) and eat at a deficit that reflects a loss of max. 0,5% of my bodyweight, which means about half a kg a week at most until I dip below 100kg, then 1kg a month. Also acceptable: 0,25% of bw so 1kg a month now, 0,5kg a month when I dip below 100kg.
In scenario 1 I hit 100kg around the 17th of June 2023, then 76kg two years later so mid June 2025.
In scenario 2 I lose 12kg a year so I hit 100kg this time 2 years from now, July 2024, and 76kg 4 years later around July 2028.

In scenario 1 I eat around 2500 cals for a long time, in scenario 2 I eat around 2700 cals for a long time. Both are acceptable if I can keep a lot of my muscle mass but of course I don't want to be losing weight for 6 years, ugh. I'll be nearing my 33rd bday in July 2028.

Thanks for listening to my math talk. I had drinks with my new friend from the gym yesterday and it was great fun! I had an espresso martini, which was very tasty. She's 32 so we have a big of an age gap but I don't mind it and she seemed fine with it too. We went out around 8pm and she lives a street over from me so we got back around 12.30am. All in all very successful for a wednesday evening. She has an education-related job so she's been on holiday for a few weeks now whereas I was supposed to be working 30 minutes ago. Oh well.

I'll try to weigh in tonight or tomorrow to get a July figure before we go into my personal no-weigh august.

@CupcakeCrusoe – we love Old Key West. I have dreams of the tub in the 1 bedroom there. We stayed in a studio on our honeymoon and a different trip had 1 night in the 1 bedroom. Olivia’s for breakfast is great as well.

@The_Fat_Optimist – I need to get back to AIP myself. I had some allowances since I was doing it for a skin issue; caffeine wasn’t an issue there so wasn’t stopping my 1 day coffee. Are you following a specific site/book for your plan? I love Sarah Ballantyne aka Paleo Mom. Diane Sanfilippo I like as well

Vacation in the Adirondacks was okay. DH now knows he needs to decline any friends trying to jump on our vacation. The things that I said were requirements for them to come were lost on him or dismissed. I was uncertain for what I could cook vs what they’d want and they never really gave suggestions. So it wasn’t the best for all. Positives: Nice watching the lake on lazy moments. I did go swimming 3 times; 2 on one of the hot days. Food was fine but didn’t step on Mom’s scale to see if there was a difference. High sodium snacks got the best of me once I got home.
My gym friend had a great time when she wasn’t sure if she’d like being in the woods etc. She had more cell service than I ever had so that helped a lot. She was able to do some of the shorter trails.

I’ve fallen off my wagon this week and rather broke it; so figuring out what’s the next best actions for me to start moving forward again.
Next weekend is the wine festival that I’ve loved going to but I’m rather conflicted deciding to go this year. We’ll see

Plans for the next horror convention are being set. The one person DH wants to meet was just announced. He won’t let me tell him who so I have to tone down my excitement. That’ll be in Sept.

Age: 42
Height: 5'4"
Start Weight: 119.5kg/263.4lb (4 July 22)
Current Weight: 114.6kg/252.6lbs (27 July 22)
Goal Weight: 75kg/165lbs


Well, I'm still here and still trucking along, I bent last night and had wine which gives me regret today, because it led to a less than great sleep and the one thing I need more than anything right now is sleep. I actually went to bed at a normal time last night too rather than super dooper early, so I'm hoping it doesn't bite me later this afternoon.

I kind of suggested that we might order in tonight after our fav pizza place sent us a 20% off coupon, and while I'd like to not cook I'm also not sure it won't knock me off track. One thing for sure is that if we do order, I'm getting the small so I don't have leftovers tempting me for days. We shall see, I do actually need to go to the store (gasp - first time out of the house in almost 2 weeks!) so if I find something yummy and easy then we might miss the takeout.

Looking at the July goals I set here a few weeks back, I can say I utterly failed LOL save for the tracking, but I can blame all of it on this dreaded virus which has utterly taken away my ability to move more than necessary. I don't even know how to set August goals, given that I still get puffed out walking up my own stairs. August's goals might be centred around tracking and mentality.

@karilbrandt – yum, that dish sounds fantastic! Evenings are definitely a danger time, especially after a stressful day. I have a store of really nice teas and herbal tisanes which I make a pot of, it feels decadent and has become a bit of a ritual and I find that helps.

@sandielewis2001 – Congratulations!! I love being an auntie. Your weekend away sounds idyllic and so worth it.

@sarah12277 – ugh, as much as I love my friends, I dislike holidaying with them. It can be so stressful. Oooohhhh horror convention! I love a good convention, and have missed them these last few years.

@The_Fat_Optimist – take care and definitely do what’s best for you! It’s no good adding to your plate with challenges that feel like a burden instead of an assist.

Well, yesterday was OK but not the best. I was not able to eat lunch as I had meetings from about 9:30 am until 3:30 pm. So, I was starving when I got off my last meeting. I have not had pizza since I started tracking and watching what I eat so I decided to get one. It was great and I don’t regret it as my calories were still fine and I did not have a drink with it. I just went through recipes and found a couple to make this weekend to give me leftovers for next week.

I am down for the month, but I did not lose as much as I wanted to. I will keep tracking and working to stay on target.

• Sticking to my plan 95% of the time. Only small variations.
• Lose 5 pounds (down to 246)
• Start more regular exercise again. I was doing something every other day, but I got out of the habit and need to get back.

7/1: 251
7/8: 252
7/15: 246.6 – Yay I am finally down!
7/23: 253.0 – I have been off plan since the 19th so I need to get back to work!
7/29: 249.6

Tag Party:

@Alatariel75 – Thanks for the suggestion. I do have some good herbal teas. That might help out.

@CupcakeCrusoe – That is basically what I did yesterday (eat less during day) and it did work out OK. I ate a bigger but very satisfying dinner and did not get a drink to help me relax. I still need to work on not letting the day get to me. I may try a guided meditation at the end of the day to help me relax and not let the day get to me.