withchaco Member

I was netting 1000 calories a day back when I was obese. Ate around 1500, burned around 500. This went on for a few weeks without any problems, then I increased calories gradually. Note that I'm a 5' 2" female, and had a lot of body fat sitting on me while I was doing that. Now, I'm still the same sex, still the same…

HCG is not cheating. The way I look at it, it's a HARDER way to do it, which is why I have never done it. Those who lose weight on HCG only to gain it all back are the ones who fail because of its difficulty. But not you. You took the hard way and got through it (i.e. got outside of yourself and actually learned healthy…

You can't choose where to lose. Your body decides where to lose. Fortunately, losing from the boobs doesn't necessarily lead to sagging. For me, it led to LESS sagging. Before the fat was really weighing my boobs down. Now my boobs are smaller, but also perkier. People say building chest muscles can help, too. :) Do chest…

When you do weight lifting as hard as you should, you won't have enough energy for a hardcore cardio session afterwards. A little bit of cardio, sure, but not as hard as you usually go. It's generally not possible to build muscle and lose fat in the same session. Muscle building requires caloric surplus (eat more than you…

OP mentions "more calories and carbs" so I'm pretty sure they meant calories (as well as carbs). And cheesecakes aren't that low in carbs either. All that sugar...

Thanks for the response. I'll have to really start studying my cheeses!

It's addicting, that's for sure. I'm also slightly OCD-ish and I thrive on planning & control!

What is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)? For example, let's say your TDEE is 1900 calories, meaning you neither lose nor gain by eating 1900 calories a day. On your rest day you go over 1200, but as long as you stay under 1900 (or whatever your TDEE is), you will still continue to lose.

I really don't mean to be a prick over semantics, so forgive me for asking for clarification here. Do you mean that you THINK even if you were to reach size 6, you'd still feel like a fat cow? Or you DON'T think (i.e. you doubt) you'd feel that way once you get to that size? Reading the last paragraph, it seems like you…

I think your feeling of being left behind will be replaced by a sense of triumph (not over your mom, but over life and all of its challenges) as you make more progress in your own journey. In the meantime, hang in there and try to be supportive, both to yourself and your mom. Like PeaceCorpsKat said, lap band does not…

I'd never thought of eating chocolate with peanut butter... OH NO WHAT HAVE YOU DONE :sad: Seriously, that sounds like an awesome carby snack, perfect for either pre- or post-workout. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate by itself, but I can imagine how amazing it can be when paired with peanut butter!

Definitely not accurate, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you lose more, sometimes less. :smile:

This thread is full of inspirations! :love:

If EVERYTHING in your food intake has remained the same except the banana, then yes, it makes sense -- you've increased your deficit by 100 something calories. But if it fits in your calories/ macros, there's nothing wrong with bananas unless you're allergic.

How does the 45% woman have a thigh gap!? I'm around 26% and no thigh gap, haha. Getting my body fat % checked on the 30th, looking forward to it.

There are so many variables, it's impossible to assign X number of pounds for a size. Even on the same person it can change; it used to take about 15+ pounds for me to go down a size, but now it takes less. Sometimes people lose 20 pounds without going down even half a size, depending on where they lose! Feet, forearms and…

I think your hunger might be more psychological than physiological, even if it is accompanied by hunger pangs. Over time you've trained your brain to think that you're always hungry even when your body does not need more food. Maybe go strict on yourself for 2 weeks and see what happens? Be sure to eat enough protein (1g…

"If you need to use an empty bar"... for what? Surely not for weight lifting? I mean, most dumbbells weigh more than that. I'd use the empty bar that you stick the free weight plates on. If that's too heavy, there should be mini-barbells, i.e. the ones people do curls with. Be careful with those, though, especially when…

lol i r teh noob, I had to look up the difference between high/low bar squat. I've been doing high bar. I go all the way down, and I try not to stick my knees out too much (which I find hard with my extra small feet!).

Back squat. I'll keep the chest thing in mind.

Awesome and true.

This should be in the success stories section... that is a major NSV you've got! :flowerforyou:

To me, it comes down to this: which one do I want more, this cookie or my dream body? Don't add "at the moment" or "eventually" or ANYTHING. You want one of them more than the other. No buts or ifs, no nothing. You have to want it.

There's obviously going to be a big difference between weight-less squatting, and squatting with 100+ pounds of weight on your shoulders. But there are ways of making bodyweight exercises more challenging, such as doing pistol squats (one-legged with the non-supporting leg sticking out forward) instead of regular squats.…

I think you ARE an a-hole if you, knowing that someone in the room finds something horribly offensive, continue to crack the joke and rub it in their face. For me, it's not so much about what you find funny; it's about how far you go in knowingly disregarding other people's sensitivities. The problem is defining "the room"…

Oddball answer: I come to MFP mostly for the forums. Been around for a while, but haven't tried using the food tracker until recently. I will give it more chance for a few more days, but I don't think I'll continue to use it after that; I have a different program on my computer that's similar, but suits my needs much…

Don't pay attention to the modes. According to stuff I've read, it seems maximum fat burn is actually achieved through high-intensity interval training, and you spend little to no time in the "fat burn" zone when you do HIIT. 180 does sound rather high for a 36-year-old (especially if you're doing sustained cardio as…

Same here. I love tasty food after all. It's just -- just because one person (e.g. you) or even most people at X height and Y activity level spend Z calories per day, doesn't mean all people at X height/ Y activity level spend the same amount of calories. You sound like a good example in proving that point. Sedentary,…

I see taller women here posting things like "my BMR is 1600." Do you know what I would do for a BMR that high!? Never said all short ladies need sub-1200 to lose weight. My whole point is that there is no magic number that means the same outcome to EVERYONE. One short lady might need 2000+ calories, another might need as…

Well, that's only one part of the equation. Also consider that the more *fat* you carry, the bigger the deficit you can do safely. And if you're REALLY sedentary, you might not be moving around enough (except during purposeful exercise, and if you eat your burnt calories... well, that changes a lot too, doesn't it?) for…