llkilgore Member

Yeah, Jillian Michaels gets on my nerves too, and Leslie Sansone is at least an order of magnitude worse. One thing I really love about Fitness Blender is that Daniel and Kelli's videos are all business - completely free of celebrity hype and obnoxious blather. And for me it's a plus that they aren't set to someone else's…

If a sustainable exercise routine for you is no exercise at all, then so be it. :smile: The key word is "sustainable." My point is that it's not a great idea to jack up your calorie budget with an insane level of exercise just so you can eat more. There are other, better reasons to exercise. And burn outs are best avoided,…

1st corollary: It's never too early to begin cultivating a good maintenance mindset, along with the skill set you'll need to be successful long term. You'll need to settle into a sustainable exercise routine at some point anyway - at least as far as the amount of time you're willing to devote to it is concerned. And you'll…

My collarbones were visible at 180 pounds and a squirrel could stash nuts behind them at my current weight of 123 pounds. My hip bones are close to the surface but not at all prominent, even at 123 pounds. Natural thigh gap, yes (whoopty doo). Back dimples, no.

My advice is to follow MFP's recommendations to the letter for a while, and then tweak as necessary in small increments. Don't assume that the only two choices are eating back or not eating back. In my case I found that eating back 2/3rds of my exercise calories was about right to bring my average weekly weight loss in…

Maybe that's close to being true if you're talking about Canadian bacon. Otherwise... According to the USDA a raw 28 gram slice of cured pork bacon has 117 calories, while a pan-fried slice weighs in at 11.5 grams and has only 54 calories. The exact number of calories will vary by the brand and the thickness of the slice,…

I rarely find "per serving" to be useful except for packaged foods for which a serving size is given and the relevant data can be verified from the nutrition panel on the side of the package. I'd still much rather work with grams, though, preferably with entries normalized to 100 gram servings. That simplifies the math. If…

If you're smaller, but weigh the same, then you've probably lost fat and its weight has been offset by exercise related water retention. That's what happens when you begin a new exercise program: you retain water, you don't lose it. But it's a self limiting process. Keep at it long enough and your scale weight will begin…

That's pretty much the way it went for me. At my original goal my belly still looked and felt soft and squishy, so I kept going until my belly was - if not flat - then at least firm under the sagging skin. That took the loss of another 10 or 12 pounds, which came almost entirely from my belly and midsection. That was…

I did that for the first 6 weeks or so of my diet, then realized I was wasting what was probably my best opportunity to retrain my eyes and stomach to be satisfied with standard sized servings of the full range of foods I hope to be able to eat for the rest of my life. Learning portion control when you've been used to…

I think it depends how much *surplus* fat your body has stored there, at least so long as you don't lose more fat over all than is healthy. When I slimmed down my bra size went back to exactly what it was before I gained the weight. I didn't retain the extra curves from the fat, but I didn't end up with smaller ta-tas than…

It would be nice if that were always that easy, or even usually that easy. But it isn't.

The ease with which I could create a completely stable, searchable, and in my case, almost exclusively metric personal database is one of two reasons I log on Sparkpeople rather than here. The other reason is the ability to enter the actual number of grams consumed rather than some fraction of the serving size assumed by…

If you don't mind trying something free... http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/full-length-workouts/?str=&time_min=&time_max=&cal_min=&cal_max=&type%5B%5D=3i

I think "ginormous" and "humongous" count as valid words now too, or at least should. Both have been in common usage at least since the 1960s. I remember "groovy" from that era too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvlW4bEjB5A A rarely heard one that's been around for several decades is "mismeander" = misdemeanor + meander.…

Your body and brain aren't so much "maintaining" on 1200 calories as fighting to survive. Eat more and you'll begin to function normally again and will need more calories.

MFP can only give you a statistical estimate of how many calories someone your weight, height, age, and gender needs to lose a pound a week. Your actual data trumps that estimate, so I wouldn't change a thing.

If it's squishy then you probably have a fair amount of excess fat under the skin, which drags loose skin down and makes it look worse than it really is. I know in my case, my skin seemed to do a lot of shrinking as I lost the final 10 or 15 pounds and it was able to draw up to fit my by then much firmer body. While that…

Yeah, you run into less than convenient user generated entries on both sites. I get really irritated when there are tons of entries that specify the volume of a serving and few, if any, that specify the mass, when both volume and mass are given on the nutrition panel. I deal with that over on SP by importing and editing a…

If it is, then someone needs to write up her case for publication. OP, did you gain this weight over a short time? It's normal to gain some weight from water retention after starting a new exercise program, but 15 pounds a lot for that. Have you experienced any swelling of your lower extremities, or any other signs of…

I like the MFP forums a LOT better and don't bother with those over on Sparkpeople. And I'm almost offended by the sparkpoints nonsense. It's a pointless time waster that just adds to the already excessive clutter of the site, as well as to my overall sense that the entire community is afflicted with a collective sugar…

She had a tiny waist. I'm a not so curvy 37-29-36 and wear mostly 4s, now. 40 years ago I weighed about the same and was a size 10.

An American size 12 from 50+ years ago wasn't anywhere near as large as its modern counterpart. More like a current 4, if that large.

I avoid the problem by scheduling a snack just before bed. There's no reason you can't eat at night unless it causes indigestion, and for me it doesn't. I sleep a lot better when I'm not hungry, and also find that I'm less likely to lose control and give in to my after dinner cravings if I know I'll be having something…

2" may be a lot when you're lean, but it's less than a 5% difference at her current weight. If she's looking for clothing ideas she may find that the 10" difference between her bust and her waist has more of visual impact.

I don't think 2" is enough to differentiate between a hourglass and a pear for someone who still has a substantial amount of weight to lose. We don't know where she's already lost fat and where she's genetically programmed to hang on to it the longest. It's fairly common for people to lose from the top down. I did, and…

They're also a convenient way to pad out your calories if you're having a hard time "eating healthy" and meeting your target. Starchy carbs are the last part of the meal I select, only after I've planned out sufficient quantities of protein, healthy fat, fruit, and veggies. For a given meal it might be anything from a 60…

Non-sweet fruits have a lot of good nutrients, too - tomatoes, bell peppers, summer squash, etc. I usually eat at least one whole sweet fruit a day, but more as a treat than to fill any nutritional hole in my diet. Do you nuke your almond butter?

Two years into maintenance I'm still holding at 19.3, down from 28 at my heaviest. Around 20 used to be normal for me and I didn't climb above 21 until my late 40's.

100 g is a generous but not overly large serving for me, so long it's cooked. If I'm weighing it raw I want a full 4 oz or 112 g, minimum. I try to stick with standard servings of most things but often go over on chicken by an oz or 2 to get the protein.