paxbfl Member

Good job Tracie! You have a great attitude, I'm sure you're going to do great! I completed my first 12 weeks at New Year's. I'm male, 6' 2"... I went from 250 to 215 with significant increase in muscle and strength. I'm continuing on... want to lose another 5 pounds, then will get my body fat measured. My next goal is to…

Take it slow at first so you don't get discouraged. Walking on the treadmill is good. The elliptical is nice too - there's no impact so it doesn't hurt your knees. Even a stationary bike is fine (I find it boring though). Stairmasters are tougher and harder on knees, as is running. Whatever you choose to do, play around…

I'm not sure how much this applies to you because your diary isn't complete. One of the biggest things about hunger is blood sugar. If you don't eat for a long time, your blood sugar drops. Eat a big meal (or sugar, or simple carbs that convert rapidly to sugar) and your blood sugar spikes. The sugar gets burned off…

Great job! I'm right there with you - lost 32 pounds since early October. I cut WAY back on drinking too. I was angry with myself and absolutely determined to lose the weight. And you know what? I still am. I am not going to stop until a body fat analysis shows that I am no longer overweight. And then I will adjust my…

Whoever said you're beautiful was right. You're doing GREAT! I'm glad to hear that you love yourself. That's a huge thing... all of us who wrestle with weight understand. A big part of that is honoring the promises we make to ourselves. You decided to lose weight and you're doing it. In doing so, you're showing your…

I can definitely see the difference. You're doing great - very consistent day after day. Just keep doing what you're doing and you will definitely get to your goal. GREAT JOB!

I love the spirituality in your blog. You've realized that everything we have is a gift... and God gives us so many incredible gifts. It's just up to us to accept those gifts and make the most of them. Clearly, you are doing that - and showing many others the way. You're beautiful and inspirational. GREAT JOB!!!

I've already lost 30 - in the past 2.5 months! But I'm not done yet, so I'll send you a request too. :)

I spend less money now by eating healthy than I did when I ate poorly. It could be that I ate about twice as much food as I do now. Or it could be that I was eating out a lot more often. Or it could be that I was eating a lot more processed, packaged foods that cost a lot more than healthier, whole foods. Diet is critical…

I'm sort of in the same boat... I'm a big guy with a higher BMR but I'm consistently netting under it. I think the important thing is to be CAUTIOUS and be aware that eating under BMR is probably not sustainable over the long-term. I'm still doing it because it's working for me, but if I noticed any negative symptoms such…

Workout on an empty stomach. I've heard that helps promote fat-burning too. I hated it at first but actually prefer it now - you don't have all that food (and gas) sloshing around in your stomach. BTW, I'd take you over the guy at my gym who is always smothered in cologne. Ugh.

Great job!!! Remember how good you're feeling and keep it going. NEVER go back. That's my attitude - I'm throwing away all my FAT clothes! Never again! :)

GEEZ!!!! YES!!! Seriously you're doing almost everything right, all you have to do is eat more - that shouldn't be difficult! Eat more, consider eating more often as I suggested and make sure you get plenty of protein. With the way you're working out, you're gonna get amazing results!!!

First of all, is your husband in the military? If so, thanks for the sacrifices you make as a military spouse. It makes me want to help you all the more - get you lean and mean for him when he gets home. :) I agree with what everyone is saying about BRM and TDEE. Check out this calculator which will help a lot:…

This made me chuckle. Again, I think it's perception. I think I look AWESOME compared to how I looked just a few months ago. (Not bragging... it's more because I looked like CRAP a few months ago. :) ) 10% is ambitious. You'll be RIPPED with abs! At 45 years old I think I'll be quite content with 15-20%. Check out this…

I think that's why you have to go by body fat %, since most ideal weight charts based on height don't take into consideration muscle mass. About 12 years ago I was 195 pounds, but I have a lot more muscle now. I think 195 now might be a little low for me - I think I'll probably find that 205-210 is about right. But we'll…

A lot of truth to this. Our society pushes food so much - both the importance of it and the quantity of it. It's so difficult to step away from that mentality... but once you do, you wonder why you ever valued food so much, or why you ate so much of it. I'm eating about half what I used to eat. I'm not hungry in the least…

EXACTLY what I was thinking. I have 3 good friends who are suffering from adverse health effects related to obesity. One of them has diabetes and high blood pressure and nearly died. And more than just health, it's about QUALITY OF LIFE. Right now, I can run around with my kids and not get tired. Heck, I may be in better…

Good point. No sense making things harder on myself, right? Thanks for the advice.

Maybe the high-intensity cardio (High Intensity Interval Training) I'm doing then? Or the fact that I still have significant fat stores? I see no evidence of a metabolic slowdown thus far. I realize it will happen eventually if I stay on this path. I just wonder if it's ok to stay on this path for a while longer.

LOL. Thanks. It IS awesome and worth the extra sodium. Keep in mind I'm not suggesting you eat it every day. You probably wouldn't want to - it's a LOT of food. But at 280 calories it won't break your calorie budget. The biggest sodium culprit isn't the Canadian bacon... it's actually the 1 slice of American cheese. If…

I think your diet looks good. You want to "firm up", so make sure you meet (or preferably exceed) your protein goal to build muscle. You're in a deficit so you're going to lose fat... this is only a problem if you're already at your ideal weight and don't want to lose any more. The issue for you is that you're burning a…

This is the big thing for me. I need to find a balance that I can stick with forever. I can eat healthy and exercise for days, even weeks on end but eventually I'm going to take a break, eat more than I should, take a rest day from the gym. These days will happen, that's a fact... so I need to just accept that and move on.…

I've heard this before also. I wonder how true it is. My body must be saying "WHAT THE HECK?" after my free day. Going from serious calorie deficit to serious calorie surplus in 24 hours. lol.

Thanks for the comments. I would like to cut back on the free days... either have them less frequently or scale them down significantly from what I'm doing now as some of you suggested. But I'll take it as it goes for now. Right now it's working so I'm not in a hurry to fix it!

I agree completely. For me I think it gets back to the idea of finding happiness in food. I look forward to that "treat" every week and then when I have it I'm (usually) so disgusted that I don't know why I even wanted it. I like the idea of "retraining" my brain. It could use some retraining! :)

This hasn't been my experience. Including exercise, I usually have a deficit of around 1,200 calories every day except my free day (BMR is 2500, +500 calories burned at the gym, eat about 1800 calories). 1200*6=7200 calories - just over 2 pounds. On my free day, I have a calorie surplus of around 1,000 calories - (BMR is…

I lost weight before and kept my fat clothes. BIG MISTAKE. Before I knew it, I was wearing them again. This time I'm tossing them ALL the fat clothes and buying new. Then I have no choice but to keep the weight off.

I was just discussing this with someone. I think you're better off just choosing something reasonable, no more than 1 pound a week. Then, if you fall a little under that number and have a great week at the gym, maybe you can lose 2 pounds a week some weeks. But you're not aiming for a very low number every day and…

Also consider increasing the intensity of your exercise. When I work out for 30 minutes, I typically burn around 500 calories. Try High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) - go easy for 1 minute, moderate for 1 minute, hard for 1 minute, and all out for 1 minute then repeat 4 times for 5 intervals total. Add a warm up and…