TwelveSticks Member

I used to buy nearly all my clothes in Marks & Spencer (UK MFPers will know what I mean), and the largest trousers they did were generally size 44. For years my weight topped out at around the 250 lb mark, largely because when my jeans got tight I had to diet or not have any clothes! Then M&S introduced size 46 jeans!…

After much playing with intake levels earlier in my own diet, I would suggest that you: 1. Let MFP tell you what to eat, telling it you are a complete couch potato. This will be 1200. 2. Don't eat less than this, unless you're following a specific fasting plan. 3. Exercise as often as you can - every day, if possible, even…

Omedetoo! :D

That's a remarkable loss - looking great!

It's worked very well for me - I've lost 56 lbs in 28 weeks and found it very easy indeed to do so. The fast days are easy once you get used to them - just drink buckets of water when you feel you're hungry and tell yourself that it's only 1 day - tomorrow, you can eat what you want! I restrict my calories a little (maybe…

I can only speak for myself, but I've been following a 5:2 diet for 28 weeks now and it is very easy for me to do, has resulted in a 56 lbs weight loss, and I feel more healthy than I've ever felt. And I no longer take medication to control my cholesterol. Plus, I have have had no significant weight loss plateaux and am…

If you accurately track your calories consumed and your weight, then the best way BY FAR to work out your TDEE is to simply do some maths! 1. Take last week's figures, and add up all the calories you ate (so if you ate 1,500 per day, then 1,500x7 = 10,500). 2. Take the difference between your weight at the start of the…

I've heard "you look older", but my answer is "I'm going to live longer now, and I'd rather look older and get to be old than look young and die young"...

I reached 100lbs lost overall this morning, so I'm rather happy with myself :D Well done everyone on your personal successes!

I know exactly how you feel - I'm on Week 6 of c25k, after only running more than 100 metres maybe once since I was at school (a LONG time ago!). And it's great!

Great to hear it's going well for you! I started Week 6 yesterday. It's been a welcome surprise at how easy I've been finding the gradual increases in distance/time ran. It's a great plan - I'm starting to get keen to finish it and maybe even move onto 10k!

If you don't like the gym, don't do it. You won't stay at it, unless you "get the buzz" and end up addicted to doing it. To be honest, just walk. That's more than enough if you're classified as obese right now. When I started out, all I did was walk, and that was true until only 6 weeks ago, so I lost over 90lbs doing no…

For what it's worth, my "formula for personal success" is: 1. Get MFP to set a daily goal based on completely sedentary and 1-1.5 lbs per week required loss, 2. Eat those calories, plus 2/3rds of all exercise calories (to allow for over-estimates), 3. Cap daily calories at a maximum value which is at or near maintenance…

As you get nearer your healthy weight, losing gets a little harder, so I woulnd't expect to keep up your 2lbs-per-week successes. However, a healthy 1 to 1.5lbs per week should be achievable if you keep up the good work as before and stay in the "Goldilocks zone" with regards to calorie intake (not too much but also not…

Why are scales so useless? I don't understand how they get away with making something that fails to accurately do the one thing it is made to do! I have two sets of scales I have to use, and there always seems to be about a 2lb difference between them, but I can never be sure exactly as I can't get weighed on them both at…

Please buy yourself some scales - they can be got for hardly any money and it really is very important to know how much you are eating if you are serious about trying to count your calorie intake. Guessing just doesn't cut it...

Sounds daft, but yes, you need to eat more. My (successful) formula is: 1. Get MFP to define a goal based on no exercise at all, 2. Eat the above goal, plus 2/3rds of exercise calories (to allow for overestimates), 3. Cap eat-back calories at a comfortable maximum value (I use 2,000 kCals).

I played around with this and I settled on 2/3rds, which seems fine. It allows for overestimates on the exercise and the calories. Plus, I cap my eat-back calories at about 600 per day maximum as eating 2/3rds back on a day when I've supposedly burned, say 1,200 calories on a long hike seems insane...

Well - she did actually say that she's been eating at a deficit while doing this. Estimates vary, but it is often considered to be a fair result if you manage to gain 5lb of muscle mass in a year. So unless she's been gorging on proteins and lifting like Schwarzenegger in his heyday, she hasn't gained nearly 24lbs of…

No... it doesn't make sense. At 212, with 50% body fat, your fat and lean body masses would both have been 106 lb. At 185, with 30% body fat, your fat would weight 55.5 lbs and your lean body mass would be 129.5 lbs It is generally accepted that (no matter what we might like to believe), you can't gain any significant…

In a word - exercise. Do some exercise every day and burn off a few hundred calories, then you get to eat them back. You still net 1200 calories, but you get to eat more, and you get fitter!

As long as your Fitbit TDEE is accurate, I'd say that either will work - the 2nd option is probably more balanced, as long as your exercise levels are reasonably consistent from one week to the next. If you are tracking your calories eaten though, why not double-check your TDEE - just add up all your calories eaten for the…

I started losing straight away - i.e. within the week...

As others have said, eating less is the main thing. Exercise just allows you to eat more and still lose the same (or to lose more with the same intake, up to a point). Plus, of course, it improves your fitness and thus your general health - and it helps to minimize muscle loss while dieting. But if you can't exercise for…

As I said above, I would strongly advise you to work out your individual TDEE using your calorie intake and weight loss, but if you use an online calculator, then your minimum (no exercise) TDEE will be about 1550 calories per day. If you take 20% off that, it'll give you (surprise, surprise) 1200 calories per day - i.e.…

It all depends on how you worked out your TDEE. It is supposed to be your total calorie expenditure per day, so already includes your exercise calories. If you take TDEE -20% and then eat back exercise calories as well, the chances are you end up eating around your TDEE level, which means you won't lose weight. Then again,…

It's all just words. You know exactly how overweight you are. What other people choose to classify that as isn't your concern. I read that "A BMI of ≥ 45 or 50 is super obesity". To me, that sounds like something to aim for, not avoid...!

For your age, 23% is bang in the middle of the "Ideal" range, so well done :) What's more, from 36-40, the range goes up a notch, so 25% would be in the middle of the ideal range for you from next year and your current 23% would be near the bottom of the "Ideal" range, heading towards "Lean".

I'm in about the same place as you, progress-wise - will be doing W3D3 tomorrow. Two tips: 1. Run as slow as you need to. It's time-based, not distance-based (until you get to the "Run 5k" at the end!) 2. Listen to music as well as 'The Voice'. I find the "start walking" catches me by surprise when I have music on, but I'm…

Although it's important to have an awareness of how much protein and fat etc. you should be eating, it's also important not to over-complicate things and to follow an eating lifestyle that is sustainable for you. The basic principle of MFP is pretty straightforward - set your goals on it, telling it you do no exercise and…