mathjulz Member

There are tons of videos on youtube. I like bellydancing and zumba (as far as you tube videos) ... you may have to weed through a few bombs before getting to a great one, but it's worth it. Or, you can go to your local library and browse the dvd section. Fitness dvds are in the non-fiction area; you can ask a librarian to…

1. You can lose weight eating whatever you want as long as calories in < calories out (i.e. you hit the calorie goal MFP gave you). You will probably find that some macro balances (carbs, fat, protein) will help you more than others because of satiation and compliance to calorie goals. There is no one magic balance - some…

Go back to 1700 calories, especially if you aren't counting and "eating back" your exercise calories. If you feel like you're starving (not just a little hungry) then it's a good indication that 1500 is too low. There's no point in trying to force the 1500 if it just makes you give up and quit; you'll lose faster eating…

Here is the threat that I mentioned. It's pages and pages, but there are also lots of fabulous examples! http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky#latest

Based on your height and weight, I would say you don't need much of a deficit at all. According to the Scooby calculator, your TDEE is around 2100 calories (that's where you would maintain weight), assuming that you workout 3-5 times a week and don't "eat back" exercise calories. So, you can probably eat a few hundred more…

The twinkie diet!!

Two weeks is a short time. It could be many different factors (a lot of them listed above). Give it more time. I agree that you shouldn't lower your calories below 2200, but you may want to tighten up your logging. Also, if you are eating back exercise calories, be careful of overestimating those. But it is very common to…

I was talking about his (her?) first sentence/paragraph "Weight loss is easy. There's no 'trick.' Any diet based on CICO works." I agree with you on the exercise.

It does fine calorie-wise. I wouldn't even necessarily call it higher sugar - half a banana and half an apple and a handful of berries isn't going to put you over on an otherwise balanced diet (and even the watermelon wedge). I would probably add a scoop of protein powder, personally, because I like a higher…

I think you're confusing easy and simple. Easy means it doesn't take a lot of effort. For some people, adhering to a calorie deficit may be easy but for most who need to lose weight there is a challenge there; it takes conscious effort. Simple means uncomplicated. Eat fewer calories than your body uses and you will lose…

Thanks for clarifying! I knew my memory was fuzzy.

I remember when I was in college the first time (two decades ago :anguished: ) a teacher talked about a study someone had done where women with osteoporosis were put into two groups. One group just did their regular stuff, and the other group spent a short amount of time (20-30 minutes?) jumping off a box. It was only 4-6"…

Oh noez the cake culture today! Family birthday party for the September birthdays (happens to by my own kids this time). I was one of the last people to get a piece of cake, several minutes after just about everyone else was served. No one even noticed, or at least mentioned, that I didn't have cake yet! I must be…

I believe it's actually quite a large range. In some areas (like here in Utah) they are called groundhogs. Other areas call them whistle pigs. And apparently some people call them ground beavers. I thought their range was most of North America, but when I googled it, it was mostly east of the Mississippi and throughout…

I've been at Salt Lake Comic Con all day and am still catching up, so I'm sorry if we've moved on from chili. I always wondered why one of the local canned chili's was labeled as "Chili con carne with beans." Now I know. Not all people consider beans as one of the necessary (or even acceptable) ingredients of chili. And…

Or muscle imbalance elsewhere in the posterior chain. I thought my back pain was from a wrong lift or something. That may have exacerbated it, but after a visit to the Dr, x-rays, and finally PT, it was determined that I have hypermobility and my glutes/core had weakend during and after my last pregnancy, all contributing…

Yoghurt culture. :lol: I hope that was an intended pun! :naughty: :lol: :naughty:

A swim cap will help a lot. So will getting your hair wet before getting in the pool (with non-pool water, like the shower). Wetting hair then putting on a cap is even better.

1200 calories may be too aggressive a goal, which is why it's hard to stick to it. I plugged your stats into scooby's calculator (I estimated height based on your "no more than 130" and assumed female mid 30s). Even if you're mostly sedentary with just moderate workouts 3 times a week, it puts your BMR around 1600 and your…

Let's pretend that we believe cake culture exists for a moment. Even if it does exist, whose fault is it? The people who bring in the cake, the people who eat it, or the supposed pressure that there is to eat said cake? I will admit that I am one to eat something if it is there. When they tell us there is cake, bagels,…

*cough* debate section *cough*

OP may be lurking. Or someone else may be. Just because they aren't responding at all doesn't mean they aren't "listening."

I'm quoting this because it is good advice and great things to consider and it deserves to be repeated. OP, read through amusedmonkey's advice a couple of times. Really consider your goals and what you are trying to achieve, and try the things she suggests. See how it helps you. And this:

I haven't looked quite that much into sucralose ... Just as far as the molecular structure. If I liked the stuff I might further investigate - this is an interesting concept. But to me it tastes horrible, so I stick with aspartame for soda and real sugar for baked goodies (in moderation).

I know wikipedia isn't the ideal source, but it does show diagrams of the sucralose molecule and has some interesting information on its "discovery" as a sweetener. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose. It is a saccharide (sugar) molecule with chlorine in 3 locations actually. As mentioned above, it's not that sucralose…

I'd have to go back and check to be positive, but I'm pretty sure sucralose is different from the sugar alcohols. Will try to follow up later (when I don't have a kid waiting for math help, lol)

I'm going to pedantic for a moment. Sucralose is, technically still a sugar and has 4 calories per gram. But it is super sweet, so one only needs such a small amount that the calories are basically insignificant. As a bipeptide (protein), aspartame also has 4 calories per gram, but again is sweet enough that the calories…

Sucralose is made from a sugar molecule (sucrose, IIRC) that has one of its Carbon atoms replaced by a chlorine atom. Aspartame is a bipeptide, made from two amino acids (remember, those are the building blocks of proteins). Of the two, aspartame has been around longer and so has been studied more extensively. There is no…

I agree with this. If .5 pound a week loss freaks you out, go to 1 pound a week for a while. This will also help you transition into maintenance as you reach your goal :smile:

Aspartame has been on the market for about 35 years (maybe more, but I remember first seeing Equal as the hot new 0 calorie sweetener about that long ago). Science has been studying for longer than that. If there were a clear link, especially a causality, between aspartame and weight gain, cancer, or any other doomsayer's…