jonikeffer Member

The sagging comes from having stretched out the skin and then losing some of the "filler" for them. There's nothing you can do about that, but if you pump up your pecs behind them, it can help prop up the entire area to make it look better. To the person who said she was scared to do chest exercises in fear of "losing"…

Wowsers, do you or did you have an ED? That would probably affect our answers. Do you have much muscle tone or are you just really skinny? Are you a veggie?

I couldn't even begin to tell you how many irrational fears I've had in my life. I had OCD as a kid, although I'm fine now. Those kind of weird ones go along with OCD. Like I'm afraid I will throw my small dog out the car window while we're moving. Why, who knows, I love my dog and would never ever hurt her. But it's like…

I try to eat most of my exercise cals back, since I'm set to 1200 cals/day too. I'm 5'0" and currently 139. If you're only burning 200-250, you might be OK, especially if your 1200 cals are nutrient dense and not "crap", and if you are especially small. However if you find yourself not losing, or losing big at first but…

I'm not quite sure from your post if you mean you're NETTING 1200, or eating 1200 and then burning however many with your exercise. Sorry if this is something you know, but you want to make sure you NET 1200. If you consume 1200 cals, then burn 400 exercising, you're only netting 800 cals, which is too few.

Well if you just have to meet this deadline and not necessarily KEEP that fat% or weight after that (i.e. if you won't be measured for another 6 months or whatever), you could safely "starve yourself" for 2 weeks. Now I don't mean that literally as in eating nothing at all, but I mean if you eat less than would normally be…

I thought of "blow out" in terms of hair straightening, until someone said it's a 50 y/o man. LOL

Standard question - are you eating 1100-1300 NET cals, or total? In other words, are you eating back your exercise cals? If not, it would appear that you need to be. If you're eating 1200 cals and then burn 400, you're netting 800 and that's way too little to eat long term.

I find it incredibly relaxing and love it, but I don't really think of it as a workout. I can be, like Astanga yoga (sp?), but I like to do Hatha/Iyengar yoga to be mellow.

Anyone from PA remember the "WaWa"? Seriously, that's what it's called. I think it's more of a convenience store/7-11 type deal than a grocery store, but the grocery is "Giant Eagle". Really?? What a weird name for a grocery store!

I'm 5'0" and have hit 140. I got as low as 139 but fell off the wagon and am retaining what I'm pretty sure is just a couple lbs of water weight. So I'm here, but looking to go to 115.

I'm barely 5'0" and am aiming for 115 as a very reasonable/reachable first goal. I may decide to go lower once I get there, but I think there is no reason I shouldn't be able to get back to 115. I weighed 100 and was never "skinny" so I'm thinking 115 is a generous goal.

Two things - if the avatar pic is the new do, I LOVE it. Second, young girls tend to love long hair and never think short hair is a good idea. It's very rare that any young girl who isn't a total tomboy will have short hair. EDIT: I forgot to say the shorter hair makes you look MUCH younger too. You look fantastic. :smile:

Picked a weight I knew I'd been at before...that's probably what most of us should do, as long as you're not someone who has always been overweight. Better to go for a weight where we know we were healthy, rather than trying to fit into some range that some tool says we should be in.

Agree, get a "back supporter" or "abdominal band" and wear it while exercising. You may even find it relieves any back strain that you want to get a second to wear while not working out. I was just into the obese range and had the same kind of thing going on, and once I lost a bit it really helped. You should be able to…

Are you in *south* WA? I'm in Portland OR but Vancouver WA is right over the border!

Hate to say it but at your age (cough, sorry) one's eyesight just tends to change pretty rapidly for awhile. You literally go from not needing reading glasses to needing them virtually overnight around 40. I used to work for an optometrist when I was in college and he said this to my mother who didn't yet need them and…

Are you able to give more info? Was there a specific diagnosis/name given to the cyst? Was it an "incidental finding" on a CT scan? Kind of hard to tell you much without knowing more. My husband has continuous kidney stones so I might be able to give you some info if I knew more. Feel free to PM me.

I would really recommend getting one with a chest strap, it's much more accurate. They are waterproof so sweat isn't an issue. I have one that does not do the calories for you, but it is inexpensive and quality - Polar FT1. I just take the average HR it gives me for the workout time and go to a website online that tells…

Master manipulators and masters of hiding stuff. SO TRUE. My mother was a white wine drunk until she was going to be laid off, got depressed about it and stopped eating much as a result. She kept drinking plenty though and developed something called Wernicke's syndrome. Very very scary stuff, almost killed her and now she…

Losing is NOT easy...it took adding 45 mins, 5x/wk of moderate to high intensity cardio, plus counting calories, PLUS being sure to eat mostly "clean/quality" food instead of processed crap. For me, just counting the calories wasn't and isn't enough, I have to actually care WHAT I eat too. SO hard, but so worth it in the…

5'0" and 139 currently, down from a peak of 165. We can all do it!

Not sure where your friend is getting their info, but my nutritionist/father says complex carbs (which would include whole grains like steel cut oatmeal, quinoa, and other genuinely whole grain foods) are needed to burn fat, and has me eating my oatmeal before my midday workout for that reason. As said above though, a lot…

Weighing yourself from one day to the next will never give you an accurate picture of what your weight is actually doing. Your weight will change every single day, and can even go UP AFTER you go to the bathroom! I would highly recommend not weighing yourself daily, especially if it is going to make you give up on your…

What she said. :smile: Remember, MFP is already building a calorie deficit into the number (1200) is is telling you to eat, so when you exercise, you can eat those back without touching the deficit the system is already building in for you. When you are set to the lowest number(1200) MFP will allow, it is highly advisable…

I noticed (when trying to see what my resting HR was) that my Polar HRM with a chest strap doesn't like it when you drop too low. If you're not in any kind of exercise HR zone (like if you're below 90-100) it doesn't seem to work. Maybe it somehow works in reverse for your "walking" HRM? If your HR gets too high, which a…

According to my nutritionist and general health nut father, you should have some protein after any workout, including all cardio workouts. You should also eat some complex carbs *before* a workout, when fat burning is your goal.

As long as you're not neglecting other obligations, you're not injuring yourself, and you have that much free time, then you can do whatever you want as your "hobby". It sounds like a whole lot of time spent to me, but I don't ENJOY working out that much, it's something I do because I need to. You might think I spend a lot…

Let's stick to a simple definition: starvation mode is when your body doesn't get enough calories consistently enough and for long enough that it thinks "food must be really scarce, I'd better start conserving the fat stores I have on hand now". So simply put, it's when YOUR body thinks it's not getting enough food and has…

I've had autoimmune thyroiditis (aka Hashimoto's disease) since I was about 21. At least, I was diagnosed at that age, I suspect it started my 1st year in college. My weight gain crept on slowly post-diagnosis, so I can't really blame the gain on that. In fact, a lot of people have a touch of hypothyroidism and never know…