LauraMarie37 Member

All of what everyone said above, plus your metabolism is still trying to figure out what your "fully grown" needs are/will be. If you starve yourself, even a little bit, as a teen, your metabolism will be much slower as an adult, and you will eat small amounts of calories but still gain weight. Totally not worth it =(

From what I've read, a HRM that doesn't use a chest strap (so both your watch and the hand grips from the treadmill) is not going to be accurate. I would take your HRM number, the gym's HRM number, and what the MFP database gives you at the speed you were running, and use the average. Then you'll know in the future if your…

You didn't gain four pounds of fats (or even organs and muscle) since yesterday. So the only thing it can be is water weight. Did you have a lot of sodium yesterday? Were you out in the sun yesterday? Did a humid front move in overnight (and your house isn't centrally air-conditioned)? All of these contribute to water…

Here's another vote for lightly active, since you have to use way more muscles to maintain a standing position than you do for a sitting position. Standing is actually a very effective fat burner if it's combined with one or two short, brisk walks during the day.

Eating my exercise calories, but setting myself at "lose 1.5 lbs per week" helped me lose the first five of my final ten pounds pretty quickly. I plateaued again with only 5 pounds left so I am now trying upping my calories to "lose 1 lb per week", intensifying my workouts, and seeing how that goes.

Agree with this. Also, chocolate milk is a good recovery snack - apparently the leucine (sp?) in milk helps muscle repair more than most proteins, and of course the higher carb value from it being chocolate milk instead of regular milk.

Oh no! I know it's ideal to want to lose weight and increase your exercise solely for the health benefits and solely for yourself - but let's face it, there are definite societal and social benefit for looking good as well. =)

22 grams of fat isn't "excessive". Again, ideally, fat would be more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, rather than the saturated and trans fats found in processed meats. But a teenager weighing, say, 100 pounds can - and should! - consume at least 40g of fat per day.

Agreed with this. Fat is a wonderful thing, especially if you exercise a lot, because it helps keep your joints working well and helps prevent overuse injuries. A dinner for a growing teenager should probably contain at least 600 calories, more if you are exercising a lot, to help fuel all of the growth, repair, and…

Maybe high impact aerobics? Or the "general" dancing category (I take that to mean dancing like you would at a club)?

You can do it! I'm so glad you haven't given on yourself - that's all you need to succeed!! I love your title - life would be so much easier if the most delicious foods had negative calories, too! ;) But I guess this way it gives us something so much more to be proud of when we're done! =)

I don't agree that they are "usually much higher". I agree more on the sometimes too high, sometimes too low. Once you have a good sense of how hard you have to work to achieve a certain burn, you'll know if you agree with the MFP number of not. Like for example, I know an hour of "light" exercise for me is around 250-300,…

I technically have 8 pounds to what my "goal" weight is for my contract renewal (I'm a professional dancer; we have to weigh in before signing a new contract. I don't choose the number.) I know what I look like when I'm only 5 pounds less than where I am now, though, and I feel like that would be "good enough" to get a…

We all take three steps forward, two steps back. Don't beat yourself up over it! "Failing" is a really learning process, figuring out what components are necessary for you to succeed!

I think if you are hungry, eat more - maybe on days like today, try to eat to the net calorie level you would be set at for a pound and a half per week (1400? 1450?). The other, less intense days, go for the net calorie level for half a pound. I always use my crazy burn days to indulge in things like homemade chocolate…

I'd consider myself much closer to the "recovered" end than the "recovering" end of the spectrum - but of course it's one of those things you'll fight for the rest of your life, right? Feel free to add me!

I always think, once I've had one good meal or am 10 minutes into my workout, "No one can take that away from me." You know? I could spend the rest of the day...week...year eating crap and never working out, but that can't change that I made that one healthy decision. I did something good for me. I moved my life in a…

My first thoughts were (1) maybe you aren't measuring your calories correctly. (Nearly everyone underestimates their portion sizes unless they actually weigh/measure their food.) or (2) you haven't tried keeping your calories high enough for long enough. Your body has to stop believing it needs to hang on to every last…

Ajon, I agree with you. (Ninerbuff, I know you'll jump all over me for this...) I feel like there are probably ZERO people at the gym who couldn't improve their workout in some way, overweight or otherwise. We could probably all learn something from other fitness-minded types there. But unless someone asks me, I'm not…

I am SO jealous/impressed thaf you hiked the AT!!! That is definitely one of my life goals; I'm afraid I won't have the time/money to do it until close to retirement, though. How did you manage to do it in eight months? Did you start really early or was it just really cold/snowy by the time you finished? (Or both - like…

People who don't follow through on their commitments. Just tell me no, rather than yes and leaving me out in the cold expecting your help! Also, it drives me insane, insane, insane when people misuse apostrophes, especially in formal settings (like on your business's sign!). If there is an apostrophe, that means the word…

This is awesome, though I'm slightly ashamed to admit it.

I want to add my $0.02. I had a somewhat similar situation in that last week I had a TERRIBLE day at work (I mean, like the kind of day where someing you've been working for for months just completely and irrecoverably falls off track) and binged horribly, including getting very drunk (at home, not at work, don't worry!).…

That is a tough question. I like cartheaton's suggestion - log it maybe as 1 or 2 hours of low-impact aerobics and see if that "feels" right vs how you feel when you know the burn (at the gym on the elliptical, for example). Make sure you are drinking PLENTY of water, though, so you don't just feel more tired because you…

There have been studies that have shown caloric reduction is more important that exercise (ie, they have people who get a deficit of 1000 calories/day only by eating less, and people who get to a deficit of 1000 calories/day only by burning more, and the eating less people have an a greater average weight loss). However, I…

Hahaha agreed.

I agree 150% with everyone saying to eat more. I know you said "I tried upping my calories", but I don't think it was for long enough. Sometimes when our body has been starving for a long time, it assumes any "normal" calorie days (meaning 1500 NET calories or so - about 1650 more than you are eating now) will soon be…

Thank you for bringing in actual laboratory physics to this discussion - amd more clearly than I was going to try to explain it! However, in regards to your "As a physicist, if I really wanted to tick you off...." paragraph - I think physics would say it IS work. Here's why (and how it was explained to me in my kinesiology…

I TOTALLY agree that dynamic stretching is the way to go (for me at least). I try to save my slower, gaining flexibility type stretching for the cool down. But your number 1 motion makes me cry! You are putting so much pressure on the discs in your lumbar spine that way!!! If you have a very strong core (especially…

Yeah that site said I should be 112 pounds and I am 5’9". No thank you. (ETA: I realize the site is not calculating the final step correctly - ie, it basically says your lean body weight should be your final weight. The calculator is still crazy wrong for people who don't know the formula though!!!) So... OP, maybe lean…