scrittrice Member

@JoRocka: Gorgeous! Not to mention prime fodder for the next question from some woman who wants to lift but is afraid of getting bulky and masculine. I'm another member of your silent lurking fan club. (Is that creepy?)

Can you set a goal for yourself? Certain number of miles you want to cycle/run or a weight you want to lift or a race you want to enter? I'm not the only one to find that setting a fitness goal is really helpful. Any way you can work out during the day? Even a 30-minute walk on your lunch break? I agree that this winter…

I had a similar experience, and for similar reasons--wanting to reach a round number (in my case, of pounds lost). Now I just consider that number the bottom of my 5-pound goal range, but I never get there and have certainly never dropped below it.

Me too. I've always been active, but I felt entitled to eat whatever I wanted because of it--that's how I ended up here in the first place. I try and really think about how I feel. If I'm ravenous, like I feel like gnawing on my own arm, I eat a small snack--edamame, a few almonds, a couple of dried apricot halves, a…

I am the same way--I tend to be overly cautious if I'm not logging. I have mostly stopped weighing the things I eat every day, but every once in a while I double-check. Also, now that the weather is warmer and I walk/bike a lot more, I have to make sure I fuel myself properly.

Worked like a charm! I think it gives me a better grip position and also just a firmer grip on the bar. Whatever--definitely a big improvement, so thank you for mentioning it. I looked at the photo just before stepping up to the bar.

I keep lurking here, so please don't stop posting! I've read this chapter so many times I feel as if I have it memorized, yet when I get in front of the bar, all of a sudden I can't remember what I'm supposed to do. "Like a penguin" is helpful.

Hardest lesson (in life, not just fitness/weight loss) for me to learn: You can't control other people's behavior; you can only control the way you react to it. Good for you.

Worked once for me last night, but today it unlinked itself. I just linked it again, but nothing from FitBit is showing up on MFP and none of my food from today or yesterday shows up on FitBit.

My thoughts every time I read one of these posts. If only there were some kind of carbon offset-type program for calories...

I think what everyone on this thread is saying, and what I would say, too, is that non-purposeful exercise calories are key. Most people don't have time to work out for hours at a time, but if you do small things--walk/bike to do errands, take the stairs whenever possible, park a few blocks from your destination--they add…

I'm closing in on the six-month mark, and I would not only second this, but add that giving myself exercise/strength goals has helped me to see food as fuel, which has been crucial for me.

Every single one. Works like a charm for me. I agree with @HeyBales--why use a rough estimate based on averages when you have all this more specific data about your actual self? Oh, and doesn't work like a charm in the sense that I remain the exact same weight every day, but that over the course of a month when I'm eating…

1. Tightened up my logging. Worked every time. 2. Tried to be patient. How long have you been "doing everything right"? Are you doing a new exercise routine? That will make you retain water. I gained weight the first few weeks and almost always see a bounce in weight the day after lifting.

I guess I'm not "most people," because my jaw dropped when I read that. Wow.

I interviewed Jeremy Dean, the author of "Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don't, and How to Make Any Change Stick." Now that I'm looking back at my notes (it was a few years ago), I'm not sure whether he did the 21-day study or just reported on it. Also, I misremembered the "easy" habit--it was…

This caught my eye: <<Possible that lots of exercise can trigger it too>> Do you eat back exercise calories? Once I started doing that, I realized that I wasn't irrationally hungry--I hadn't been fueling myself enough. I know everyone says MFP overestimates exercise calories, but it's been spot on for me. Agree that…

This is true, but a) not only can you build up the muscles underneath your breasts, which definitely helps, but weightlifting with proper form improves your posture, which also helps, and b) when you switch from eating at a deficit to eating at maintenance, at least some of that "deflated" look goes away. I don't know why…

That is exactly what I got tired of with dumbbells--I was up to 4 sets of 12 for most of the exercises I was doing. My problem is that I would always rather work out outdoors. I don't mind going to the gym this time of year--I'd be going anyway to swim or use the elliptical--but I'm not sure I'll make it three times a week…

I just wanted to be sure you'd seen this post from Sara a while ago: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/902569/barbell-routines-when-you-only-have-dumbbells/p1 It has lots of links to videos of various dumbbell exercises. I found it incredibly helpful. I'm your age (well, one year older) and this week I…

I'll just leave this here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf Also, later in the process you're going to want good stats, and if you're not keeping track of exercise somewhere, you won't have them.

If you're not seeing a loss on the scale, are you seeing other progress? Measurements? Clothing fitting better? More energy? Better workouts? Rather than just thinking about your weight, focus on the big picture.

As someone who has spent time on several Food Network sets, I can assure you that the people you see on camera do not "eat all day." A lot of them also do not know a whole lot about cooking, but that's a different issue.

Ditto. I once saw this described as having "a 26-inch waist and 26-mile-a-day thighs."

My new mantra. Also, great profile pic.

I found it fairly easy in the fall--in fact, I continued to lose a little weight when I was trying to maintain. But winter is definitely harder. I like to eat a lot, and I don't mind working out to do so, but indoor exercise is so boring to me.

I, too, have found that that "empty looking" quality and the weird wrinkly skin went away after I switched from a deficit to maintenance, which is a big improvement, and weight-lifting definitely helps as well. I'm in the camp of people happy to have gone down a size, both because they're more proportional and because I…

Also @FunSkittles: I have used the exercises from this very helpful post for about a year and a half with good results: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/902569/barbell-routines-when-you-only-have-dumbbells/p1 I started lifting years ago (15? 20?) with the book "Strong Women Stay Young," which doesn't get…

Even if you could eat 500 calories of broccoli or asparagus, I imagine you would have some really atrocious gas as a result.

That makes sense. I never realized that it instructs you to set yourself to sedentary, or if I did, I read it a long time ago and forgot. I have myself set to lightly active, but I'm really somewhere between active and very active, so I rarely have calories subtracted at the end of the day, and if I have extra, I'm happy…