ruststar Member

I fiddled around for a while and found my "sweet spot" seems to be eating an average of 2100 calories per day, exercising 5-6 times per week (2500-3000 cals per week), which gives me an average net of ~1700.

I'd love to be outside, but my bum knees don't even like walking these days. The elliptical is no trouble, however, so that's what I have to do. My problem with the gym in summer is that I get too hot wearing a jacket cover up and without I have nowhere to put my keys and my iPhone when I do weights. I need to get an arm…

I wouldn't want to live on a net of 700 calories for the rest of my life, not when I can lose weight and maintain my goal weight by eating 2100 and exercising 4-5 times a week (which averages my net calories at 1700). I'm eating the maintenance calories of an active person at my goal weight which causes enough of a deficit…

I'm losing weight so I can DO more, so that puts me firmly in the exercise more camp. I want to be able to eat as much healthy food as I can because I don't want to live feeling hungry or like I'm dieting, and exercise is what allows me to do that. I don't use it as license to eat junk.

You can burn just as much doing less intense exercise - it just takes longer. Take walking vs.running. Say you can burn 400 calories running three miles, or 400 calories walking the same distance. The only difference is the speed. One of my biggest calorie burn days were when I took my daughter for a walk on a nature trail…

Try a workout DVD that you can do after she goes to bed, or do calisthenics and weight-bearing exercises (jumping jacks, sit-ups, push-ups, that sort of thing) that don't require anything. Try lifting your daughter in the air a few times - kids make a great bench press and they love getting to "play" with mom. You can fit…

Look at the labels on your food - the more ingredients it has, particular those that aren't actual food but chemicals, the more processed it is. The closer a food is to it's natural state the better. That's not to say that all prcessed food is bad, but just reduce the amount of food you're eating that came from a box or a…

Lean protein is good for you and I wouldn't worry about going over. The amount MFP defaults to is 15% which is low - I have mine set at 20% and still always go over without worrying about it. I try to eat protein with every meal and snack throughout the day because it keeps me full longer. Sometimes that's a piece of…

Somehow you're not getting enough of a deficit to cause weight loss. You've been doing this for a while, up to five classes a week, which indicates your body has adjusted to it and is probably more efficient (meaning you're not burning as many calories). Try cutting it down to a couple days a week and try a completely new…

All that matters is that you move around more, so if nothing else do whatever gets you moving!

Oatmeal with almond butter and blueberries is my favorite, and I can finsh my hair and makeup in the time it takes to cook (6 minutes). I've got it down to a science because it's my favorite breakfast. You can also make oatmeal beforehand and just reheat - the resipes I've seen suggest using steel cut oats if you want to…

Turn on some music and dance! Go outside for a walk, do some jumping jacks, jog in place, pretend to hula hoop, box, whatever - just move! Just some suggestions to take away the panic because I have no idea how to diagnose what's wrong with the Wii.

You're three pounds lighter than when you started - congrats! Look at three pounds of butter if you want a little visual motivation. You could increase exercise, particulary any kind that has a strength element that will help you burn more calories throughout the day, but otherwise keep on going. What's going to happen if…

Can you put the money aside for Disneyworld for 6-months to a year and see what happens? You're still paying for the vacation up front, but you haven't committed.

Somebody I absolutely hated gave me the best advice I ever heard when I was going through a time like you are right now. She said "The best revenge is living well," and for some reason, despite how much I didn't want to listen to her, she had a point. There is nothing you can do to make the people who are hurting you feel…

Maybe talk to a nutritionist about what to eat that will take the "counting" out of the equation. If you had a plan for the day with some varied meals that you knew were a set number of calories you wouldn't have to think about it or document it anymore. I say a nutritionist instead of a diet center because a…

I went to the movies last night and had a "kid's pack" - with butter - thinking it would be much better than a bag of popcorn. Turns out it has 5 cups of popcorn and a small bag has 7. It was still a better choice, but I didn't really need it. This morning I felt exhausted.

But clearly you couldn't sustain it, so wasn't the money wasted? If you had lost that weight over a slower period of time, learned how to eat healthily for the rest of your life, you'd still be enjoying the benefits of that loss instead of having gained it all back. You can eat normal amounts of foods and exercise…

I add almond butter to my oatmeal in the morning, and for snacks I have cottage cheese with added fiber + fruit or greek yogurt with almonds. For lunches and dinner I focus around the protein. I eat lots of chicken - I roast a whole one on the weekend and eat the leftovers with salad the next couple of days (there are more…

I'm 5'5" and my goal weight is 145-150 (down from 200). The best shape I have ever been in was when I was in the Army and I weighed 150 at the time. I'm curious to see what the 140's look like, but I don't I'll go any lower.

I go for walks or take a swim at the campus pool (I work at a university). I also get upand take short walks every hour or so - even just around the building will wake me up and keep me energized.

I've been doing the same thing and it's been a challenge watching all these people crowing about losing a bunch of weight in a short amount of time and all the endless debates about eating exercise calories back. I set my calories to the maintenance level of a sedentary woman at my goal weight and eat back any exercise…

I read somewhere that 5 pounds of fat lost is equivalent in size to a loaf of bread. When I was getting down about the 30 pounds I've lost over the last year and a half I found that visualizing it as 6 loaves of bread removed from body it really helped. You've lost the volume of 9 loaves of bread off your body and that has…

I have 3 and 10 pound weights and wish I had 5 pounders - the 10 are fine for some things, but not all, and 3 are too light for most. The other piece of equipment I recommend would be a stability ball, especially one with sand in it to keep it in place. I have a workout DVD for the stability ball that's a good strength and…

Whichever one you can do for longer periods of time at a faster rate. I can burn far more on an elliptical because I can do it for 45 minutes while I can't manage running on a treadmill for more than 20 minutes (yet). Why do you have to choose?

I see every little bit of exercise as getting me closer to my goal, which makes it easier. My struggle is getting it done in the morning, and sometimes I have to manipulate myself into doing it at 5:00 AM. This week the only reason I managed to get out of bed was knowing that I had to put gas in my car if I wanted to make…

Taking a look at your pictures I have to say you look pretty darn lean and thin to me. I was expecting a stockier build from the way you described yourself, but you look as thin as most of the fitness fanatics people aspire to be. I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat! Keep doing whatever you're doing - even body…

The guided mode gives you a goal number based off your daily activity level. So it gives you 1200 for a sedentary lifestyle/job. If you also exercise and you enter that into MFP your goal will adjust to reflect the additional calories you burned. Your maintenance calories are 1530 then 1200 gives you a calorie deficit of…

Why? Because I don't want to have to keep losing the same pounds (plus some extra) that come roaring back when I stop eating like a prison inmate. Aiming for slow and steady loss at reasonable rates I can live with for LIFE (not to squeeze into a bikini for a trip to Cabo), is the strategy I would rather use. If I starve…

I would suggest planning your day out the night before to keep you from having to worry about how to squeeze something in after a workout, but that wasn't the question. I like making a half almond butter and jelly on whole wheat, especially if it's close to bed time - the complex carbs with protein combo keeps me full…