BIG numbers! how!!

lillybug11
lillybug11 Posts: 50
edited October 7 in Success Stories
so i read all these success stories about how ppl have lost all these big numbers in 6-8 and 10 months and i hear about thier diet and excersise.. but i wander.. how much do these ppl work out?? is there any rest? i mean i wanna lose 25kilos in 6 months for my wedding but i feel im never going to get there in that time... how do they do it? or is it just cause they are really big and they have more to lose then myself.. hrrrrrmmmm

Replies

  • Flixie00
    Flixie00 Posts: 1,195 Member
    I have lost over this amount (and still have some more to go). Personally I started off just walking (every day between 5-10 miles) and then progressed to the gym. I do mainly cardio (rowing machine / cross trainer / bike / step) starting out at 40 mins but now between 75 - 90 mins a session. I go to my gym 5-6 times a week, and on days that I cannot get there, I go for a long walk. If I feel really tired, then I will give myself a day off.

    I am not suggesting that you do this amount of exercise (particularly straight away), but it suits me as I eat back most of my exercise calories and I really enjoy it. I also think it is important to get a good night's sleep, drink plenty of water and to treat youself regularly.
  • at the moment i do 5-6wk gym and maybe 1-2 rest days.. i drink quite a bit of water and 1200 cals but just not getting numbers! do you go really hard at the gym?
  • Flixie00
    Flixie00 Posts: 1,195 Member
    Yep, but I worked up to it. I expect to work up a sweat in the gym, and if I feel one exercise is getting a little easier, I increase the resistance or pace.

    I took the plunge a few months ago and started eating back my calories which really helped (it doesn't work for everyone though). I was also slower off the mark losing weight this time around, having previously dieted with less exercise, but my weight soon caught up.
  • Hrrrrm I'm so lost on what to do
  • lrd2010
    lrd2010 Posts: 161 Member
    Your food and nutrition is really key here. You can work out as much as you want, but if your body isn't being fuelled properly you won't get the numbers that you are hoping for.

    It was all about working out how to eat in the early days for me. I only ate 1200 calories for 2 weeks then moved up to 1400 calories to make sure that I wasn't eating too little.

    I don't go to a gym, I do exercise DVD's and make sure that there is some resistance work in there too.

    I had 68kgs total to lose though, you will not lose as fast as I did!

    It took me 7 months to lose 25kg, you may take longer.

    In my opinion I think you should up your caloric intake to what MFP says is a 1lb loss per week and try that for a few weeks (keeping up your intensity at the gym). See how you get on.

    And for goodness sake, relax!! Stress isn't going to help you :D
  • I have tried to change that in mfp but it still tells me 1200 cals
    For two weeks I upped my cals myself but it didn't work for me.
  • pkksmama
    pkksmama Posts: 58 Member
    I just started incorporating working out into my routine and found that I needed to up my calories to lose the weight. I was at a platuea and set at 2 lbs per week. Depending on how much you want to lose you need to set it accordingly. If you only have 30 or less you should set it to 1.5 to 1 lb a week. If you are working out and only eating 1200 calories your deficit is probably too high and your body is holding it in. Just my thoughts. Good luck to you!
  • lrd2010
    lrd2010 Posts: 161 Member
    I'm surprised it's still telling you 1200 - maybe your numbers are just like that, try setting it to 1/2lb and see what it says.

    I can't see your diary, so I can't really help you too much. What height and weight are you? How many calories do you burn per workout?

    Sorry to be a negative nelly :) 2 weeks doesn't really seem long enough to give you an idea, but then I know you're on a tight schedule.
  • My diary is now open. Not that I'm doing great at the moment with it
  • I'm 5ft started at 79.9k now 72.9k
  • I know you probably don't want to hear this, but healthy weight loss is considered 1-2 pounds (0.45 kilos - 0.9 kilos if I'm doing my math right :) ) a week. Which should still put you pretty close within 6 months.

    With that said, I've seen people loss more than that per week, but you can't maintain it for very long without seriously depriving yourself and eventually giving up. The reason its said that 1-2 pounds a is healthy is because you should be building muscle at the same time you're losing fat. Muscle helps you burn fat faster (it takes more energy to supply muscle with the nutrients it needs). So you should strive to do strength training exercises as well as cardio, otherwise you'll be burning your muscle away along with you the fat; making it harder to lose more weight because you don't have as much muscle to help you burn the fat.

    Another piece of info that may help you is that for every 1 pound (0.45 kilos) that you want to lose, you need to have a caloric deficit of 3500 calories. You can do that through a mixture of diet and exercise. So to lose 2 pounds (0.9 kilos) a week you need a caloric deficit of 1000 calories a day.

    Another thing to keep in mind is to watch your body for signs of lose and don't rely as much on the scale. For the first several weeks your body may be building muscle almost as fast as it's losing fat, which is a good thing. That can't last for very long, though, so the scale will start to move.

    I hope that helps a little :)
  • Hoakiebs
    Hoakiebs Posts: 430 Member
    Sounds counterintuitive but you have to eat back your exercise calories, or a good portion of the, so add them to your 1200 cals.
  • mandy_godfree
    mandy_godfree Posts: 72 Member
    I've been losing weight since July 2011 and have been aiming for about 1lb - 2lb per week. I've was swimming for an hour a week up until Christmas and I've been spending about 3 hours per week on wii fit. It's not overly strenuous. But have still been losing. I think it's more about being patient than expecting loads of weight to fall off in just a week or two. Definitely worked for me.
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
    Sounds counterintuitive but you have to eat back your exercise calories, or a good portion of the, so add them to your 1200 cals.

    this. even if you eat them, you will still be at a calorie deficit and be consuming less food then if you are burning throughout the day.

    if you raise your calories, you need to do it slowly, like 100 calories extra a day for a week, then another 100. you need to find that sweet spot that many of us have to lose weight. but don't worry, that sweet spot changes up every once in a while, just to keep things intresting.

    you should read about staci. staci is awesome. http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/
  • Justjoshin
    Justjoshin Posts: 999 Member
    FYI, your diary still is not public.
  • FYI its only visible to my friends
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
    FYI its only visible to my friends


    Hope they can help you answer your questions!
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