nelinelineli Member

I feel you - I'm known to have made a lot of blunders when comparing "my people" to "Asian people" (yes, yes that's bound to end badly!). It wasn't out of malice, and I don't think it was racist - but it often ends in a stereotypical assessment and gross generalization. That offends people, no matter what. And yes, saying…

I have the same experience with seeing a lot of obese children in my (small, secluded) Japanese town. I also noticed that McDonald and KFC customers tend to be of a rather young age - it's the place where high-school kids meet and do their homework. Of course, correlation is not causation, but... :)

No, by "they" I mean the women I come in contact with. I was under the same impression that Japanese people must have something "special", different genes or different bodies than the rest of us. I don't believe that anymore because when I started eating like them, my (caucasian) body ended up at a similar weight to theirs.

Well I wouldn't consider it racist if what you say were true - that Asians are thin because of their genes. But they're not. I live in Japan, and women around me are generally rather thin (although the young generation is visibly chubbier). One thing I can definitely tell you is that they eat very little to maintain that…

Oh I'm a whining machine this week. My appetite is out of control and my weight has been exactly the same every day for a week. I did check my scales, but it's so unusual since I always fluctuated a lot. Oh well. I'm not sure what to blame my appetite on though - the weather? the lack of cardio? loss of motivation?…

Thank you!!

Thank you everyone for all your suggestions and resource links! It definitely gives me a place to start. I'm realizing now I just have to start somewhere, there's never going to be "A complete step-by-step guide to Yoga". Probably through trial and error I'll understand a bit better what I am interested in to begin with…

For the first 3 points: Yes that would be wonderful to do, but I don't have such data. The only way to get it would be to: - stop exercising completely for weeks - eat the exact same thing every day and at maintenance for weeks - vary my intake drastically and for weeks at a time Since I do not see myself as a guinea pig,…

Too many carbs, too little protein. Try to play with your macros a bit till you find a good balance. I usually have no issues staying within my calories. I had a bite of pastry this afternoon - sampling at the bakery in my supermarket. Next thing I know, I had 500 calories' worth of bread in my stomach. Serves me right for…

2 weeks is not a plateau. Give it a month - the weight will drop overnight at one point.

10/24: 55.9kg (123.2lbs) 10/31: 55kg (121.2lbs) So I could say that I lost 2 lbs. Truth is, the "start" weight was simply on a bad day:P I'm less than 1lb down in reality:)

3 days ago I was supposed to take my progress pics, but I keep postponing them. I am so frustrated with myself for that, but I keep finding excuses - like having a "food baby" or generally a bad day etc, as if that made any difference on the size of my butt. Oh well...

Anything fried/rolls/with sauce will be highly caloric. It's of course what westerners find most tasty as well:) I live in Japan and have sushi every week. To keep it low-cal I order salmon (raw or cooked), tuna, yellowtail, scallops, squid, shrimp, and stay away from anything with mayo, tempura and teriyaki:) If you have…

I've been busy at work (and by that I mean I have a lot of work to do and I procrastinate till 4 am, without actually getting anything done) so snacking is definitely an issue... It's cold and I want my milky sugary caffeinated goodness! I'm a sad bunny.... And I've been "plateau-ing" for so long I almost lost hope... But…

As mentioned by other posters, it's very likely you're actually eating at maintenance. Losing so much weight translates into a greatly reduced energy expenditure (there's simply less of you to carry around). If you have not recalculated your needs - do so. If you have, then still consider reducing your intake a bit more or…

Bump to check it out later! Thank you so much for this OP!:)

Oh I'll make sure to look into that! Thank you for posting such a tool, I think it's much needed for people like me!:)

The more parameters the better - I'm really happy to see people taking this a notch further to meet their needs! Just wanted to ask - have you used the BMR formula for men? The one I left in the spreadsheet was for women, and I just realized some people might have not changed that coefficient at the end (from -161 to +5).…

This. Check your urine and adjust accordingly.

Yup, you need to track exactly what you eat. Fruits have a lot of calories and you're quite small. At your size, if you eat about 1600 calories a day and pile up an apple or two you're already at maintenance.

Hi I'm Neli and I just googled Thanksgiving.. apparently it's in a month! I'm 5'3", currently 122 lbs and well.. in a month I hope to be 118. I can't drop more than that at my size:)

I think most of us go through this. Popular wisdom says though that at one point the proportions will sort themselves out and everything will be good again :) I'm still waiting for that magic moment, but admittedly I'm on my way there - I'm nowhere near as out of whack as I was about 5 pounds ago!

Protein drinks are just a replacement for protein in food - they're a convenient solution for people who have issues hitting their protein targets through food alone, but have no "special" properties, so you don't NEED to take them. If you choose to take protein supplements, just drink as much as you need to hit your…

Totally normal because you ingest that amount of food and liquids every day. That's your "extra weight". Then you go to the bathroom and shed some of that.

Wow not to say that your body hasn't changed tremendously, but what shocked me was your face!! You look sooo much younger and prettier!! :) I guess I shouldn't say that, but .. it's true:P

nordakota has a great point there. The best perk of this site IMO is the social aspect - among millions of users it's easy to find those that were in your situation, that can relate completely, and that have succeeded. So my advice is to find those successful people, send them a friend request telling them you are looking…

I'm 5'3.75" and 122 lbs... I understand low TDEE issues, but 1100-1200 calories can be very filling, as long as they're the right kind of food. It took few months of trial and error to find out the composition of food that makes me feel full and happy. I've raised my protein first (which made me feel very full and…

The only way to lose weight is to eat at a caloric deficit. The only way to make sure you DO eat at a caloric deficit is to track your calories. Binging is often the result of a low-calorie diet. That has nothing to do in itself with counting calories, but with the deficit you set for yourself. If you are prone to binging,…

Weight comes down in waves (supposedly because fat cells depleted of fat get temporarily filled with water). This will give the impression of plateaus followed by huge drops. Exercise also favors water retention. It could be that you simply dropped the water weight you were carrying for quite a while now, nothing worrying.

From personal experience as well as the plight of virtually all my fellow female MFP-ers, weight usually comes down in bumps, once or twice a month. It is simply water retention, nothing new or strange. I actually advise people of the total opposite - that is, to weigh themselves every day and use tools like…