rmac18 Member

This is a good question. Until your heart rate returns to it's normal level you will be burning calories at an increased rate. Actually there are some recent studies that this may continue longer than previously thought. If you want to be conservative then turning off as your finish the exercise or at 110 or something like…

44 and in the best shape since high school!

I started off just like you did about 14 months ago. I had lots of questions and no real plan but I wanted to make a change. I stopped drinking soft drinks and started exercising. I mostly ran on an elliptical machine because it didn't hurt my feet and knees like running on a treadmill did. I think the first time I felt…

you have to be careful in the heat and make sure to hydrate but my HRM is also showing much higher calorie burns than normal due to the heat, maybe don't have to go as long for the same calorie burn or you go extra and burn more.

If she burned 1400 in exercise then it's hard to eat that back in a single day. I do not believe this is unhealthy for a day. It's unlikely she will burn 1400 per day on a regular basis but to have a few days a week way below your net goal isn't a problem as long as you are eating over 1200 calories a day, 1700 would be a…

The daily number is a good thing to strive for but it's really the average over the week that will affect your real weight. Don't get on the scale for a few days as you could see some water weight from sodium on fries or other factors. Wait a week and get back on track and you'll be just fine.

My daily goal is 1290 (which for me is 2 lbs a week) and I can't do it unless I exercise. What works for me is to make sure that every day I I exercise so I can gain back at least 300 calories and 5 days a week I try to be over 600 exercise calories. That allows me to eat around 1,800 which feels good to me. I have found…

I drink tea and coffee (though I've always drank coffee). I'm not planning to kick caffeine. From what I understand if you don't have blood pressure issues then it may actually slightly increase your metabolism. The main reason though is I really like coffee and tea and I don't have the sweeteners, sodium, acid, etc. to…

You'll find something that you enjoy and is in your budget. Stay positive and surround yourself with people to motivate you and maybe even work out together.

First of all, I think you look great now and you appear to be in very good shape. Maybe you are being too hard on yourself. I would encourage you to stay positive about your self image. If you decide to try and lose weight then being positive and doing the right things will pay off over time. You may also look for ways to…

It's a good point about switching up foods. I also have a tendency to eat the same things regularly and sometimes it helps to just shake it up a bit. I'll take a few days and try to just massively reduce carbs and it helps. I usually then go back but just a few days of change will help. The BIGGEST thing is to just keep…

hang in there. I went through a couple of frustrating plateaus over the past year and it sucks. What I learned is that occasionally your body does need a break and if you are pushing really hard on exercise then sometimes taking a week off can be beneficial. The other is that you have to eat enough to fuel your body,…

definitely get a heart rate monitor with chest strap, they start around $20 online and go up as you add features. Just the simple ones are fine for figuring calories burned on cardio type exercises. anything where you keep your heart rate up consistently for a period of time.

I believe it is an addiction and should be treated as such. It's not all that different IMHO than quitting smoking or other known addictive substances. I was a diet soda addict and for me the only way to quit was to go cold turkey. I read something over a year ago on the subject and it said something along the lines of it…

I like Crystal Light. I also broke a serious diet coke addiction and I mostly drink coffee, water, tea and Crystal light these days. It hasn't impaired my ability to lose weight and I seriously doubt I am consuming enough Aspartame to be a health risk, certainly it's way less than when I was drinking diet soda. I don't…

I have the Wii Fit with exercise board. It's a fantastic scale and does have a lot of games that are somewhat active and fun. My kids love them anyway. It tracks your weight and progress over time which I find useful. There are balance and strength exercises as well as basic Yoga. You can run in place and do stair step…

This is well stated and accurate. I didn't eat back most if not all of my exercise calories for a several months and lost about 50 pounds and then stopped losing. I tried exercising harder, eating more protein and even lower calories but couldn't lose more and was feeling tired. I increased my calories so that I was eating…

I'm not surprised.

I gave up all soft drinks 14 months ago. It's not just the calories but the sodium and the impact of the sweeteners. I'm not a doctor or a scientist and I don't play either on TV but I did lose over 100 pounds and I think quitting soft drinks was something that helped me do that along with eating better and exercising…

I understand your frustration but in the long run you are doing the right thing. I've lost 102 pounds in 13 months, it's slow with 2 lbs a week but I know I can sustain it, I feel great, my kids see me working out and understand the benefit, we all eat better and with the long slow method I don't have problems with my skin…

^ What she said!

I believe exercise matters a lot. I do not believe that I would have had the success I've had without a ton of exercise. MFP is based around net calories so you need to have some idea of what you expend in order to calculate the net. If you stay in a deficit you lose weight but my experience is that if you stay in too far…

The calorie counts are very accurate in my experience, but I find the calories burned to be high, sometimes a little high and sometimes ridiculously high. I use a HRM cardio workouts (run, elliptical, stairclimber, bicycling, fast walking, basketball, etc) and I often take other values from here and reduce by 25-50% just…

Thanks and good luck to you. That darn little voice on the Wii Fit can just be maddening ;-) It's funny how it became the big goal for me for so long, much more so than numerically significant goals that you'd think would be more significant.

Great job to you too, I guess we both just joined the club ;-)

I agree however I think it is reasonable to lose 2.5 lbs per week but it has to be both diet and exercise. I don't think I could have lost the weight with diet alone. I find that exercise also helps manage hunger and keep me from bingeing. It's a balance act, eat better (not necessarily less but a healthy amount for you)…

thanks for the post

Caffeine, huh, that was my last good vice ;-) Thanks for the input. I'm trying to add more good fats to diet as well. I am finding that when I have more even balance of protein, carbs and fats it seems like it might help with the coldness, at least it seemed that way a few times. I don't think I have Reynaud's and my my…

Thanks, is there a way to do this other than go to doctor and get blood test? I take a Men's multivitamin, fish oil, Glucosamine plus 10,000 IU Vitamin A, Vitamin B-100 Complex, 1000 mg Vitamin C, 5,400 IU Vitamin D, Zinc, Potassium Gluconate and Magnesium. Some of this was on advice of doctor and then after look at MFP I…

I'm sorry to hear that, best of luck.