The Over 300 Club

WELCOME BlazinEmerald. You will love it here and find great encouragement!

Thanks Stillkristi for the thumbs up. :flowerforyou: and that info on fitness. I was just sticking to cardio, but I think I will incorporate the strength training too on the days I don't cardio. I have read that it is good to mix things up a bit, to keep your body guessing and to avoid it becoming too routine. I hear that also works with the caloric intake.

Tyravis, way the go getting back on track. I would love to be able to Tae Kwon Do!!! and I do also find that having a GREAT ATTITUDE is key. Every morning before getting out of bed, I say to myself: I will have a great day today... and music helps me a lot too.

Ok, time for my workout.. Catch you guys later.

Stillkristy, you are right, this thread rocks! I was so annoyed at myself that I did not have a chance to check in last night... :bigsmile: I am weird like that... lol.

Oh, and I weighed myself this morning... could not help it, i was starting to worry that I was not on track, (even though I have not changed the plan or cheated)... but I was reassured that I am still on track. :blushing: Now I am back to doing it every monday! I think when I get more comfortable and sure that the weight will keep coming off, I will just stick with my doctor visit weigh ins. That will be one less thing to worry about!!! :bigsmile:

Hi, Falcon, good to see you again. I can relate to your question. My first week, I lost 11 pounds. I was so excited I was dancing around! But, then, when things didn't go like that every week, I was kinda bummed. Silly, but there you have it. So, I have had to reframe that, and I have arrived at the place msarro is: This isn't a diet, its my life. A good friend from another thread, cmriverside said to me, "You are strong enough to save your life. In fact, you're the only one that can." So, thats where I am today - saving my life.

Having said that, I was reading just yesterday on Tom Venuto's website. He said that the notion we can lose a pound or two a week is a general guide, based on the average number of pounds average folks can and do lose. He suggested that it might be better if we think of it in terms of percentage of our total body weight. So, if you are like me, you can maybe expect to lose 4 or almost 5 pounds a week. IF you are doing everything else right :blushing: Everything else right would be eating four to six small, healthy meals a day, spaced at 2 to 3 hour intervals, exercising at least 2 or 3 times a week, but hopefully more like 4 or 5 and drinking lots of water, at least a gallon a day and getting adequate rest. All of those things are critical to getting our sluggish metabolisms working again. Other factors to consider are age, gender, medications being taken, other health issues and for women, where we are in our monthly cycle.

How is that for not really answering your question? The bottom line is, there are a lot of other factors to consider. Also, its natural to fluctuate, maybe as much as 5 lbs a day (I can't remember where i read that, but I think it was something Banks said.) So, having said that [nods and winks at 4suredistime} we need to remember not to get discouraged if the day we weigh, we have not lost anything, or even gained a pound. :sad: :sad: Better measures of our success might be some clothing that used to fit tight, or we couldn't even get into - the tape measure, and generally how we feel.

Oh, I almost forgot, an important part of the equation is the calorie deficit thing. MFP figures your calorie deficit based on the number of pounds you tell it you want to lose in a week. AND, it only goes as high as 2 pounds a week. Again, if you are like me, with a lot of weight to lose, the number of calories MFP suggests you eat in a day is pretty high - mine is currently at 2350. Well, I can't eat that many calories if I am eating healthy. I can easy do it if I am eating the crap I used to eat. So, I wind up eating about 1700 calories in a day when I am eating healthy. I feel full and I have plenty of energy. When I first started, I was trying to eat closer to 1200 a day. I often got headaches and I didn't really feel very energetic. So, for those of us that need to lose a lot of weight, we can eat below our recommended calories, but not so low that we don't have any energy. And, if we eat below the recommended calories (remember, MFP figures a calorie deficit in to that number, then we can expect to lose more than a pound a week. Always remembering that as we get closer to our goal, it will be harder to take off.

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a glorious Sunday. Its beautiful here in Salt Lake. We often don't get much of a spring - it goes right from cold and dreary to hot, hot, hot!! There aren't too many days like today that are just right - so after this post, I am going outside for a while.

A couple of things people have said have had me thinking of food, and specifically changes I need to make to make this a new life, not just a diet. When I am slacking, {ahem} when I used to slack off, I would eat primarily junk food - soda, chips, etc. The obvious changes I made initially were to give up soda (I hate diet, so I gave it up entirely) and chips, popcorn etc. For a while, I replaced soda with crystal light - but I am cutting down on the crystal light, too, and drinking primarily water. I got a filter for my kitchen sink and it makes a great difference. I was raised on well water, so the chlorine and floride in city water doesn't taste natural to me. I've replaced chips with nuts (sparingly eaten, and always measured) and some crackers, like Kashi or True North. Sometimes for crunch, I will eat celery, turnips or even iceberg lettuce! I know iceberg isn't the prefered lettuce, but it has a nice crunch factor.

However, I also really love to cook, especially Italian. Southern Italian cooking is a lot about pasta and tomatoes. Northern is about rice, creamy sauces, etc. So, here are some modifications I've been making in my Italian cooking. A variety of vegitables instead of pasta. Zucchini sliced thin (I use a mandolin or even a peeler) and sauted in a little olive oil is a great substutute for pasta. Spaghetti squash also. I am trying to incorporate miracle noodles (japanese shiritaki noodles) but so far, I haven't gotten them to work very well. Cauliflower grated is a great substitute for rice in risottos. Cabbage, sliced in strips can be used in liu of fettuccini. I've cut down on the olive oil I use and pretty much eliminated the bread, except for special occasions and then in small quantities. For breading on something like chicken parmagiana, I use crushed nuts, and I am going to try some crushed Kashi crackers. I don't like cheese substitutes or low fat cheese, the consistency is off for me, not to mention the flavor, so I am very careful with my cheese consumption, and I eat real cheese. Desserts were never my downfall, so I don't miss them. Just lately, I am finding I really need to plan out what I am going to eat or I wander into the kitchen aimlessly - and thats a bad thing!

The main thing I do is try to eat regularly, every two to three hours. If I don't do this, I will binge.

I would like to hear what others are doing to modify their favorite foods, and what works for them. Thanks for being here to share your knowledge and success!

Hello there, and happy Sunday to you too. Over here in GA, or at least in Dacula (minus the r ) it's been overcast all day and now its drizzling. I was indoors all day, but did not mind cause I had lots of work to catch up on.

It is great that you two get to cook and come up with your own recipes. I will take notes for when I get to my maintenance phase. Right now I am strictly following the plan my physician gave me and the great thing is he sells the foods I get to eat at his office... so no cooking for me for a while. This was way easier for me since my schedule is quite hectic these days.

What you two are having sounds yummy though... :bigsmile: Even though I can have diet soda, like stillkristi, I don't like the taste so i stay away from it. And I can't have juices, so, I pretty much stick to water.

Well ladies, I hope you have a great evening and a very bright morning. Don't forget the music and the singing!!! lol.

Good Morning everyone!

So, the weekend went well. I had my niece's Birthday party this weekend and planned my day accordingly. Had a light breakfast, enjoyed a slice of pizza and a huge salad and fit in a small piece of icecream cake, still leaving plenty of calories for dinner and an aftenoon snack.

Hubby doesn't get it this time. I'm going to do this with or without the proper support from him. Calling me out at the birthday party, insisting that one day won't kill me isn't exactly the encouragment I was looking for , but it made me more determined. I just told him I could enjoy myself without stuffing my face and having the FOUR slices of pizza that he had. And my best friend was awesome in providing salad for me and being supportive.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and has a great week full of weight loss :flowerforyou:

Hello Everyone, I know I'm a little late in joining this group, but wondering if you could use another member. After all, they say better late than never

This is just the group I have been looking for. Although most of the advice on this site has been helpful, I didn't feel like I could really relate to the people who only had 20 or less pounds to lose. I am 5'9" and currently weighing in at 310 pounds. I have been on MFP for a couple of months with no weight loss success. I have however lost a couple inches around my waist. I just figured out that I am probably not eating enough because I have not been eating my exercise calories. Since I have been exercising about 5-6 days a week, and burning on average 800-1,000 calories per session, I am guessing that my metabolism now hates me. So this week, my goals are to make sure I am eating most if not all of my exercise calories if not all of them, and to drink all of my water. I would like to lose two pounds this week.

Thanks for the great board

Welcome marlemcdougal!! It is great to have you with us! It sounds like there are so many possible reasons why you haven't lost weight yet - the most positive reason being you are converting fat weight to lean muscle weight, which is smaller by volume. So, your clothing and measuring tape might be better guages of your fat loss at first. If you look back in this thread a little, you will see an article I found called "Obese at 700 Calories a Day", or something like that. It has some good advice for those of us who have been pretty sedentary for a while and have been doing the yo-yo thing of starving then bingeing. So, keep sharing what works and what doesn't. There are some pretty successful people here, like msarro and AmyNVegas (if she will check back in :happy: ) who have lost significant weight, so there is a lot of knowledge floating through this thread. Good Luck!!!

Hubby doesn't get it this time. I'm going to do this with or without the proper support from him. Calling me out at the birthday party, insisting that one day won't kill me isn't exactly the encouragment I was looking for , but it made me more determined. I just told him I could enjoy myself without stuffing my face and having the FOUR slices of pizza that he had. And my best friend was awesome in providing salad for me and being supportive.

Ya. that's exactly why I didn't specifically tell anyone that I was making some changes. My hubby doesn't deliberately sabbotage me, but at 5'10" and complaining that is weight "ballooned to" 165 lbs after he turned 40, he thinks he is "encouraging" me when he comments on what I eat or do. :grumble: At least he pretty much eats what I put in front of him, so he's figured out there is more fish and vegetables in his diet lately. I"m the kind of person who feels patronized by verbal support, so as long as he is quietly going along with the plan, I'm good.

Good point! Hey, I see from your ticker that you are going on a cool vacation next month! YAY!!! You will have to take pics and share them with us!

It's a deal Stillkristi... :happy:

I just came back from my weigh in and am down another 8lbs... 1 week!!! I could not believe it and they had to weigh me again. :drinker:
Now I really am convinced that exercising makes a world of difference. I only do 20-30 minutes of cardio, and now have started with the resistance training (thanks StillK:flowerforyou: ) So far so good. I will increase reps or weights as I go along (been reading up on it )...
Ok, getting back to work... just was so elated I had to share. Catch you guys later. :bigsmile:

Hi everyone!!

StillKristi had pm'd me about possibly posting in here for support. I haven't done so yet but wanted to now. At my highest weight, I was 270, so not quite 300, but pretty darn close!!

I used to think that even getting below 200 would be impossible. Not only did I do that but I also got to my goal weight of 135 (up a little now with pregnancy!! lol) and I didn't suffer. I hope I can instill hope in all of you that not only is it very possible but it doesn't have to take forever and you don't need to feel deprived.

The last thing I want is to seem "know-it-all" or anything because I don't know it all. All I know is what worked for me and I am happy to share that with you since it was done in a healthy and sensible way. This is the first time in my life that I feel confident I can keep this up forever. When I yo-yo dieted through my 20's, I never felt confident because deep down I knew I hadn't done it a healthy way that I could continue on with.

Best of luck and let me know if I can help in any way!! :flowerforyou:


-Tam

Thanks for your story Tam, With stories like that I know I can get to my goal weight.