The Weight Loss Club Thread (No tomfoolery)

I can understand you being worried about your bf, but you nagging is more likely to make him defensive and deny that there is an issue. He needs to figure this one out for himself. You've said elsewhere that he's recently gone into teaching. He's not the only person to balloon after doing this. It's very stressful and demanding on the energy reserves and nothing gets you through like a large slab of something sweet.
The walks sound like a fantastic idea though, as they're also likely to keep his stress levels down.

I'm just really scared he'll end up getting some kind of heart palpitation/attack/diabetes while he's here with the way he's been eating. ;A; But you make a good point. I'll just stop talking about it and covertly get him working out with me. C:

So I am starting to undo the damage from previous weeks, down 1.5 pounds this week, at 163.5 now. Pretty happy that I didn't gain any additional weight, and even better that I lost, since my goal was to maintain.

Briefly- I went for a physical on February 15, 2012 (a day I will NEVER forget) and my doc told me I was basically going to die at any moment. 70+ pounds overweight, pre-diabetic, cholesterol was stupid high, and my blood pressure was well high enough to think I was actually having a stroke in the office that day. I snored, I took 12 advil a day for headaches, I was always tired, I had acid-reflux I was always out of breath.

I ignored all the warning signs for years. The year before I had to get OFF a ride with my daughter in Santa Cruz- they could not secure the belt because I was a fat pig. Hiking-hahhaa, our trip to the Grand Canyon- 3 or 4 steps up the path and I had to stop- and I ignored them all until Doctor Satan dropped the hammer on me. I was so bad she told me NOT to exercise for 6 months until my bp and weight were under control. Ouch

The bottom line for me is that I had to decide it was time, I had to make up my mind it was time and I had to just do it. After that visit I went home, tossed out all the crap in the fridge, switched to chicken, fish, veggies and fruit. No processed, boxed or canned food. No eating out, no sugar, no salt, no dairy, no nothing.

A year later, well I am fine, and truly happy. The happy part is the best part- I look better, I wear normal clothes and I am not going to die tomorrow. Looking back I wish someone told me something-but really it all came down to my making a decision to change and change it is- there is no diet for him that well help, there is no eating less or pill. The only thing is for a complete lifestyle change- He can do it- and he will be so happy in the end but it is very drastic and very difficult especially for the first oh 6 or 8 months but in the end, wow, it is like a I have been given a new life.

Try to get him to the doctor- my first blood work a year ago was close to 10 pages long- every test had 5 paragraphs of what was wrong- now it is just - ok, ok, normal, ok, normal....

But yeah, in the end, he does have to make the decision for himself. But don't give up. Nagging-no but constructive yeah- I got lucky- I caught it in time but trust me, the health issues are severe but the best thing is that they can ALL go away.

Anyway, sorry about the length but I just feel very strongly about it and I want people to know that it is very dangerous to be in that situation as I was, and it is SO easy to fix- just stop eating wrong, eat right and voila, you are better. (haa I wish it were that easy) I hope it works out-if he has any inclination to read this thread- have him do it- it is filled with great people doing great things and it is full of support. The best thing here is that there is so much "OMG I love losing weight and I am so happy" here that it has to rub off.

I lost 0.9 kg (2 pounds) in total this week, despite being on maintenance calories and not logging over the holidays. Obviously what MPF think my maintenance calories are and what my body thinks my maintenance calories are, are two different things!
So I've decided to keep eating at this amount of calories but use them as a guide-line more then a target. If I want to eat them all, then that's fine, if I go under a bit then that's okay too.
It's a very unexpected result though, I was fully prepared to deal with a gain, and would have been delighted to stay the same!

Back on the wagon after losing some progress (not just because of the holidays), and I'm down 5 lbs in the past 7 days. I also just got a Withings scale which is pretty slick, so thanks for mentioning it Lum and whoever else did!

I just finished my first C25K run/walk thingy. While I'm doing it, GODDAMN I HATE THIS FUCKING SHIT I WANT TO DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE but right now I feel better and more mentally "well" than I have in quite some time. I guess it'll work.

Griot, I know this is the equivalent of saying "eat your vegetables because there are starving children in Ethiopa", but be grateful you can do C2K. I used to run and loved it, but can't any more because of a bad knee and some weird bone issues. I miss it terribly!

So I got my fitbit, if you want to be friends with me, PM me and I'll send you my email address. :)

Update. I lost about 13 lbs prior to the Christmas holidays. A week at the family gathering meant that there was no weight loss, and perhaps some gain. I got a scale as a present!!!

I had planned to go back to the first cycle of the 17 day diet, but then got socked by an even more interesting diet: sinus infection/cold/mysterious crud whose origins are based on *gasp* a small child!. I am really happy about drinking, but have zero desire to eat anything very solid.

Report back on how you like it!

The setup is not too bad, and it is super tiny! Getting the withings scale hooked to it was a little bit of a pain, but that is more of a withings issue than anything else.

So far, I've clipped it to my bra and it's just doing it's thing, growing a litte flower. It seems to have guestimated a BMR from the beginning of the day, even though I didn't get it until 7PM.

I'll post some more thorough impressions in about a week. :D

Not sure I'm the sort of guy who could pull off a bra flower...

Well in the case of a dude, you clip it to a pocket or collar of your shirt! :)

Just wanted to note that it is now 2013 and I was indeed under 12 stone by Christmas Day 2012, and indeed I completely forgot I said Christmas Day waaay back in post 2 and thought I said the New Year so as a happy result I'm still under 12 stone now. So happy New Year weight loss clubbers! May all continue to reach their goals in 2013.

Any opinions on whether we should refresh this thread on a yearly basis or should we just keep posting in this one until it breaks something in the forum one day?

A new year might be a good fresh start, and possibly encourage new folks to join us. You could do a new thread with similar rules, and maybe some links to MFP groups and stuff.

*ding!* 50% mark reached! Also...

The very best place for a guy to clip a fitbit is in the useless 'not a pocket' pocket in most jeans and pants. I'm talking about the small 1/3 depth pocket inside of your front pocket. Clip it so the device is tucked inside, and you'll never lose it.

Fitbit has made a serious impression on me. It's incredibly good at what it does. From last week's report:

18813 cals burned (It figures this out from vital stats + you wearing the fitbit)
-11096 cals eaten (I reported this via MFP)
--------
7717 cal deficit. (So,I did a little math...)

7717/3500 = Estimated 2.204 lb loss.

I actually lost 2.1 lbs that week. Fitbit usually seems to be getting my burned calorie estimates close enough that, as long as I'm accurately reporting how much I eat, it's accurately predicting my weightloss. Pretty astounding, really.

I kind of like having a perpetual mega-thread but I'm fine with a new one being started, too.

Good news: I'm starting 2013 weighing less than I did at the start of 2012.
Not so good news: I'm still above my maintenance weight.

But if everything falls into place according to my clever plan I should be back on track to a slimmer 'n trimmer self by the end of the month.

Which Fitbit are you two talking about? It looks like they have a couple of models. And is it basically just a fancy pedometer? I thought this was similar to the thing some gyms sell, that have contact with your skin and do some voodoo based on your body heat to figure out your calories burned. I always thought those were a scam, but would definitely reconsider that based on people's thoughts here. But this thing looks like you just carry it around clipped to your clothes. What does it do, exactly?

We're both using Fitbit One. At its heart, it's a fancy pedometer. It has a number of sensors on it, and uses these to track motion and, among other things, tell you how many steps you've taken. The magic happens on the internet:

First, fitbit has been crazy-accurate for me. As long as you provide it with vital statistics (height, weight, gender), it will gleefully figure out how many calories you've burned each day. Sync Fitbit to MyFitnessPal and then Fitbit will make alterations to your daily caloric allotment. When you're being lazy, it will lower your calorie limit. When you're being active, it will raise it.

Sync a site like Endomondo to Fitbit, and your workouts will be reported to fitbit, which will pass the info on to MyFitnessPal and give you even more accurate data.

It's also plain useful for the CRPG effect. A lifetime of playing computerized role playing games has trained me to instinctively try to raise or lower any numbers I see on a computer screen. :) At a cost of $100, it isn't cheap and probably is not worth the asking price, but it's a surprisingly useful little device. I had buyer's remorse the first week or so, and slowly changed my mind.

Sounds like it's most useful if your primary exercise is walking, jogging, or running. I do walk several times a week but weights are my primary workout, and it doesn't sound like this thing would be able to do much with that.

Hmm not sure what happened but all of a sudden I seem to have FINALLY broken the 190 pound barrier and I am 188 after oh, 8 weeks of stagnation. I have to say I wasn't really trying that hard to loose and frankly sitting at 190 for a while was just fine but hey, I'll take renewed weight loss any day of the week!

So on 1/15 I have my just short of 1 year anniversary doctors appt. New blood-work, and hopefully a reduction in my blood pressure medication. I am hugely looking forward to this, especially the testing- seeing all my levels go from "you are gonna have a stroke an die at any minute" to "wow you are healthy" by just eating right and exercising is pretty cool. I think when I get the new results, I will post before and after test results along with that hugely anticipated before and after photo- haaa ;)

Christmas wasn't very good. Mostly due to toffee and lack of self control. But I seem to be almost back where I was beforehand, so I should make a full recovery soon. Dan got me a set of dumbbells for Christmas, and my dad got me a book called 'Smart Girls Do Dumbbells' so I can get some proper form and use the exercise menu until I know what I'm doing.
I'm dragging Dan out clothes shopping with me today (on the promise that we can go into Games Workshop) so I should have some clothes that are not falling off of me when I go back to work on Monday.

I guess I've been neglecting this thread. I came out of the holiday at 170, which was about where I went in. I'm hovering at 5 lb over my maintenance weight but I haven't been too worried about it. Right back on the horse this week in terms of exercising, and I'm pretty sure I can shave off that weight before the end of the month. I got about a million cookbooks for Christmas, plus a pullman loaf pan and a baguette pan. Not to mention that the cinnamon roll recipe that I tried out this holiday seems juuuuuust right for a real King Cake...

I guess we'll see how that affects things.

I first read this as 'I got about a million cookies for Christmas', which probably says more about me than anything.

I go in to the doctor's office tomorrow. I'm hoping the news for my ankle is neutral at worst. I want to start running again like nobody's business. It really feels like a big piece of my overall health maintenance is missing without it and so far I've mostly replaced it with the lifting-hand-with-cookie-to-mouth exercise. It doesn't take as long as running but the calorie burn is very disappointing.

That's called a "coin pocket". And it's also great for holding coins.

I opened my new scale, a present from my sister (who's lost about 25 lbs or more), and discovered lo! I am 20lbs lighter than I was in October!!

Another 25 lbs more to go and I'll be at my "fit" weight.

Good news, everyone! /Farnsworth

I correctly assessed my foot injury and it is indeed my Achilles tendon, as confirmed by my doctor. However, with a month of self-guided therapy (mainly a pair of stretching exercises I will slowly ramp up) I should be back to running in about a month.

In the meantime I'm going to try to convince the partner to join me at the local community pool, which also has a gym. I can work on an elliptical without stressing the tendon to improve my cardio before resuming my runs.

And as a final bonus, I was down a little in the weight department this morning. I'll take it!

Bah, down only 0.6 pounds this week, but I'll take it. I probably won't be really happy until I've dug myself out from the Christmas weight gain.

I blame the Chinese food I ate on my hiking day.

Went all in with fitbit: bought an Aria scale (it is very slick looking!) and got a fitbit One for Bahimiron too while we were at it. I love that it lets you sync MyfitnessPal entries for food and exercise! So far the Aria tells me I'm down 2 pounds this week, but I'm not sure I trust that my old scale was telling me the right thing anyway, so I'm not quite celebrating yet.

No loss for me today, which is as it should be since I was eating maintenance calories last week. From tomorrow on I'll be eating and exercising again as normal, today is going to be my last lazy day.

My partner has agreed to the elliptical plan. I'm pleasantly surprised! Like Mirriam today is my last official 'bad day'. After this I'm going to be back to earning the extra calories instead of just acting like my mouth is a food vacuum cleaner.

Have dropped six pounds since December 31. I'd chalk it all up to water weight since I've cut my soda intake to nearly zero and reduced the amount of sodium in what I eat - except that my body fat percentage has dropped as well. While I know that bioimpedance scales aren't perfectly precise for determining body composition, they're a good benchmarking tool as long as you maintain some form of consistency in measurements. For me it's Monday morning, after drinking a liter of water, within 15 minutes of waking up. And I've dropped 2.5% since my initial benchmarking on December 31, so that's a pretty good start.

I got a Jawbone UP for Christmas. I have not used it for much yet. I haven't tested it on my biking yet. I need to spend some time with it and then decide what I think. Once I do, I can post some thoughts.

One thing is for sure, I have a feeling that you can get all or most of the benefits of this for much less money- esp the Fitbit.

AND...Fitbit Flex was just announced at CES: http://www.fitbit.com/flex

Wireless does have its advantages plus it seems to be a pretty spiffy item.

So since my Jawbone UP is currently untested on my bike, lemme ask those with a Fitbit- has anyone used them on a bicycle? What I am specifically wondering is that if it had the same type of abilities that Strava has for gps/maping/speed etc... functionality or at least something similar. Also with any of these, if you are actually riding a bike, and since they are technically fancy pedometers, do you need to say stick it in your sock when riding to get the measurement of your activity?

There are no mapping abilities, for that I use my smartphone, (or my handheld GPS when hiking,) and have recently tentatively switched to Endomondo.

As far as how accurate it is on something that isn't walking: it can tell that I'm doing something high impact on the Arc trainer, but it doesn't fully translate. However, when I plug it into MFP, it compensates, based on the time the workout started.

Haaaa, the boyfriend is gone and my body is really struggling with the change in food intake. While he was here, I'd mostly snack on smaller things all the time, but I also partook in soda! Now that those two weeks are over, I'm back to eating small portions/trying to stick to that 1200 calorie mark. My body is grumbling and growling and I keep getting cravings for things that I know are terrible, but body you are gonna have to deal with it.

On a positive note, while he was here, the bf started harping on me about my "mean" desktop background (which is really terrible, yeah, but I only pay attention to the "drink water" and "do you really need what you're about to eat" parts) and how it was horrible and how the amount i was eating was harmful to my body and etc. So then I got on his case about how he eats too goddamn much, and when I suggest he not eat something, he'd retort with "WELL I WANT IT AND IT'S MY MONEY SO I'M GONNA GET IT". It was a good wake up call for him. Since then, he's been letting me know what he's eaten every day and while it's definitely not ideal, it's a whoooooole lot better. I don't think he really realized that not only calories are what matter, but the content of the food you're eating.
For example, he'd think it was okay to eat half of a pizza because "it still fit under his calorie limit", but he didn't stop to think about the fat content and the sodium and the etc. Now he's aware and I'm just so happy because i was seriously afraid he was gonna die soon.

I really need to stop staying awake for so long. As soon as serious tiredness hits my resolve goes out the window.

Son of a bitch. I just got the One! Oh well, I still like that I can put the one in my pocket and forget about it. And I've been obsessing over the sleep stuff, which I find infinitely cool. I've been pretty good this week, so I hope that reflects well on the scale on Saturday. The aria scale is damn sleek looking and I love that it automatically inputs my new weight in without me having to do anything. It's like I have the future IN MY LIVINGROOM!

On the floor. Where the cats lay on it. Still it's pretty sweet.

I wouldn't be too worried about the Fitbit Flex. From the one review/look I saw about it from Gizmodo, they thought it was a step backwards.