The Weight Loss Club Thread (No tomfoolery)

I'm reading the page now and it actually looks like they didn't add anything except that it's a bracelet. If it added like, heart rate monitoring that would be cool. But then again I don't really want to wear a damn bracelet everywhere. I like that it's in my pocket and no one knows I'm carrying it around.

I do find the One sometimes tells me I've gone up a flight of stairs when I haven't. But other than that, it's been pretty good.

It does that when you have altitude changes, there's an altimeter in it. That's why I got the 150 stairs badge last Wednesday when I went hiking!

:( Eh just a different wait to wear it...

Now that Aria scale looks pretty sweet- looks like the Fitbit ecosystem just keeps getting better.

Joking in the podcast thread aside, it is time for me to get back on the horse. I have been holding steady at what I shall term lazy weight—the weight I achieve by not thinking much about what I eat and not exercising—for quite a while now, and it's more than I should weigh (180-185 pounds; I am 5'9"). More importantly, though, last time I had some blood work done I was informed that my cholesterol is higher than is optimal considering family history. Looking a little squishy is not the worst thing in the world; horrible disease, on the other hand, I would like to avoid. Thus, once more into the MyFitnessPal breach it is! I'll probably resume running when the weather gets better, as it's much more palatable scheduling-wise than going to the gym even though I fucking hate running, since the amount of time it takes me to walk to and from the gym (around 20 minutes) is about as long as I can spend running. I will not rest until my weight is a mediocre LSAT score!

After a few days of delay due to other commitments, my partner and I headed off to the swimming pool/gym last night. It was jam-packed full of people still working on their New Year's resolutions. I approached an elliptical machine with trepidation as I'd never used one before. My partner found a nice young man who works there to run down the basics on setting it up. I was only somewhat distracted by his smoldering good looks.

I set the resistance a bit higher than default and the incline a bit lower, to better simulate a run. I started off and found the answer to 'What does a calf muscle that has not been worked for nearly two months sound like?' the answer is: OH GOD STOP, PLEASE STOP NOW. After about five minutes I was warmed up and apart from some minor soreness today in my upper legs I have survived the ordeal of The Gym. We rounded out our evening by playing some ping pong, shooting hoops, swimming in the main pool and soaking in the whirlpool. All in all, good fun. I am looking forward to further work to shed my donut weight!

In related news, my weight is still holding steady between 74 and 75 kg(163.1 - 165.3 lbs). Gym sessions three times a week are going well. No issues to report.

Exactly where I hope to be within the next 30 days.(although slightly heavier- heh) Grats!

The continuing battle of winter weight has been going strong, supported by finding a great local produce store by the name of Stanley's. It's just a treasure of cheap, delicious fruits and vegetables. My original summer goal is still within sight, despite having given up on it for a few months there. Things are back on track and I've just chalked up the tedium of calorie tracking to an unpleasant fact of life, like standing on line at the bank: THERE'S MONEY BACK THERE.

I've been out of the gym for some time due to a knee injury, and then ACL reconstruction surgery on Dec 3rd. I've finally recovered to the point where I can get somewhat of a workout in addition to the physical therapy, so figured I'd start weighing myself again.

Verdict: 83.1 kg -- substantially less than I weighed before my injury and somewhat of a surprise, as I'd expected to have lost ground from camping on my ass all day. I've for the moment lost somewhere around half the strength in my right leg and it's noticably smaller, so hopefully this isn't due to simply atrophy and instead me eating better. I do think my target area has shrunk somewhat though, so it can't all be bad!

Another 4-5 kg down and I'll be happy, though the target is somewhat fuzzy as I'd also like to be stronger to lessen the chance of reinjury and hopefully improve the explosiveness of my lunge.

Oh, and I'd like to add that I love this thread. Such energy is infectious! It'd have been so insidiously easy to slack off after sundering my ACL...

Down 2.8 pounds this week, putting me at 160.2, which is below the weight I was before Christmas, so yay, back on track!

2 more pounds and I'll have lost a nice round 90. 20 more pounds to my goal!

Oh yeah, since I hit another round number, time for a picture! I even tried to smile, just for you, Creole Ned!



Comparing this to previous pictures (see here), I have definitely been losing most of the weight in my boobs. The little stupid top of my stomach bump is slowly disappearing, too, which makes me happy.

Looking goooooooood!

You look great, Athryn, smile and all!

If I ever make it out east we are totally doing one of your mega-hikes together.

EDIT: I looked back over your progress pics and ay caramba, what a difference. Really impressive effort!

The biggest change I notice from your previous pictures is that you look less shlumpfy. That's the term my wife uses when I'm dieting & exercising. I don't quite know what the definition of the word is, but it feels like a good description for the changes.

Anyways, good going!

As mentioned in the New Years Resolution thread, I'm going to try and lose some weight. Right now I'm 250lbs. I'd like to get that down to 230, possibly even 200 if I can. I bought a Nike Fuel Band today while wandering around the Apple Store. I already have a pair of Nike+ shoes, which have seen far too little use. It's actually fairly easy for me to lose weight with some minor diet adjustments. The problem I have is sticking to those adjustments. It doesn't help that my department at work regularly has cake/donuts/Cheezies. Yesterday I went skiing! First time in far too long. This summer I'm going to go and buy myself a new mountain bike and hit up some of the trails at the lake near my house.

Hopefully, between getting a little more active and making some minor tweaks to my diet I can shed some of that extra flab.

Down .2 pounds this morning and also 3% body fat so I guess that's good?

Awesome and inspirational. My older sister's lost 30, and is looking for another 30, but only because she thinks 90 is impossible. Yours is a story that shows it's acheivable!

I'm 25lbs down, and I'd like to lose another 25 to be at the weight I was before my father died, which was when I started to gain.

Please to be telling me of heart rate monitors. I've been hitting the bike and elliptical at the gym more lately, and it seems like it would be a good thing to have. Those handlebar sensors kind of suck.

I really don't like having to wear a chest strap, though. Are there good monitors that don't require one? All I know is that Polar is good, and they all have the strap as far as I can tell.

I have a polar chest strap one and it's fine for me, but of course I have stuff to wear it under. I believe Garmin makes some decent wrist ones though.

I'd been starting to get a bit anxious as I hadn't lost anything since before Christmas, when yesterday morning I was down a pound on the day before. I've stayed down today so hopefully it wasn't just a fluctuation and I'm on my way back down again.
Only two pounds away from target now.

I was stuck on the same weight for like 6 weeks around the holidays- then all of a sudden I started paying just a bit more attention to what I was eating- looks like 4 pounds in 2 weeks and counting---weight loss is funny.

I feel like posting "I am going to get up from this computer and use the elliptical trainer until I am physically unable to use it anymore" is motivation to actually do it.

yeah okay i can feel it working. i should post this more often.

EDIT: 20 minutes later and my knees hurt.
this is so depressing eaugh
doing lots of stretches instead to make up for it the best i can

So now that I'm actually living in the same building as my husband for the first time in more than a year and a half, I've decided to join him in trying to get healthier. It's about time too, I've fallen out of shape when I used to be really athletic as a kid.

My goal is to at least get back down to 105-110 by the end of the year, and to be able to run 5k in one go. This will be particularly hard for me as I have bad joints in my ankles and knees, but I like running and I miss being able to do it. I think right now I'm in the vicinity of 140 which is the heaviest I've ever been, but since I'm so short, that's a lot of weight for my size.

I find it amusing that your starting weight is my goal weight.

I was up .7 pounds this week--I'm not too surprised since I was stuck in training all week which meant sitting there for hours and hours upon end.

Also I've learned that you can manipulate your fitbit numbers by accidentally putting it through the washer and dryer. I've walked 22000 steps today and gone up 70 floors according to it now.

Ok I just figured I would do a bit of showing off as well. :) I am just short of my one year "Doctor Visit of Doom and Death" anniversary. On February 15th 2012, I was a walking stroke about to happen, cholesterol was through the roof, pre-diabetic, and I had a hard time putting my socks on in the morning. My heart rate and blood pressure was so high that the doctor thought I was having a stroke in her office. As of my last visit, I am basically cured. Just about 75 pounds gone. I am still on blood pressure medication because I think it was so bad for so long, my doc is just being safe. Otherwise, without any meds, I have fantastic cholesterol, my blood sugars are great, I can put on my stupid socks without grunting and wheezing and I can do 8 miles of hills on my bike.

Looking back had I not changed I truly believe I would have been dead now- one of those "Wow, he was fine yesterday...." things. Now, I'm happy, my wife is happy, my daughter taunts me with bacon and pancakes but she is happy I am not the fat dad anymore-it's all good. You guys are all great, really. This forum is great and all the positive words and thoughts here go a long way. This shit is hard, really hard. People don't realize how hard it is but truthfully, once you start seeing results it gets so much easier because being fat just sucks. I see now just how miserable I was. Really. Now, not so much. I have a few more pounds to go but eh, 10 more pounds next year and I will be happy. Wow, I really looked bad...heh.

Anyway, thanks for all the likes here guys and all the positiveness of this entire thread. Stay strong and don't ever give up. The end results are so worth it. Ok no more rambling from me tonite.

That's amazing, Walter! You look like a different person, well done!

I gained a pound and a half this week, despite logging everything I ate, despite dropping from 1700 to 1500 calories. I'm back to the weight I was before Christmas. Do need to eat more? Less? My last big loss was on 2000 calories but that seems far too much. I went to bed hungry last night, woke up ravenous this morning and since it's my rest day I barely have any calories for today.
I haven't changed my exercise or eating habits really (besides working a bit harder and eating 200 calories less this week), so that isn't it unfortunately. I think I've just hit a plateau.

WalTer - you look awesome! Well done.

That is changing something! If you've intensified your workouts and dropped your calories this week your body is probably asking WTF is going on. I'm convinced that one of the main reasons I stalled over the xmas holidays was because I started doing more exercise so my body was storing more water. Give it a bit of time and you'll probably go back to losing. I've lost 2lb over the past 7 days which I think is all the weight I should have lost over xmas finally going.

I think that the biggest problem for me is balancing exercise days and rest days. On exercise days I have calories to spare, I quite often don't use them or use them on rubbish. On rest days (usually the weekends) I don't have enough calories, especially since we tend to have treats in the house during the weekends. Some of my friends on MFP use an average amount of calories instead of eating back their calories which would help with this but I find that if I don't log my exercise I'm less motivated to actually do it.
My daughter just suggested saving up some calories during the week by keeping track manually, then using those over the weekend to make up for the lack of exercise calories. That might actually be a good idea, I think I'll try that for a while! It will look like I'm in the red in the weekends then, but it's no different from the TDEE-20% method.

Only down .4 pounds this week, which I really don't consider losing as losing weight, as that can just be the amount of water I did or didn't drink.

I just listened to the Broken Record podcast on weight loss with (I believe) Athryn and Bill D. Excellent discussion from both of you, thanks for taking the time. Athryn -- what was the name of the app you discussed? I think that would be perfect for me. As I posted here last year, I managed in 2012 to lose about 25 pounds, but since then have regained nearly ten of them. I'm still exercising and sticking mainly to salads and fruit during the day. So I need something more, and I think an app in which I keep track of quantities would be perfect.

The app is MyFitnessPal. A lot of us here use it, so make sure you link your profile when you sign up, so we can become your friends. :)

Its free? What's the catch?

They have partnership apps with a lot of other apps, and they have ads in their mobile apps (which I would seriously pay to get rid of) which are the only catches that I know of.

GAH I had no idea this was a *thing*!! Sometimes I am such an internet noob. Off to grab it and listen!

Ok caught up with the 21st century- downloading the podcast now.

So, couple of weeks on with only sporadic weight checking, I suddenly find myself having dropped to 72 kg/158.7 lbs. I should maybe start thinking about eating more, I don't want to end up looking emaciated. Gym three times a week seems to be doing wonders for my general energy level though, I find myself looking more and more forward to each session, and catch myself thinking, "I could totally do another round of weight exercises right now" as I'm walking home.

Thoro, that's the same way I feel at the end of a run. After doing 11.5 km I don't experience relief that it's finally ended, more that I could just keep on going.

I easily miss the mental part of running as much as the physical. I'm hoping for my first test run in a few weeks, tendon willing.

I've hit a plateau on getting my weight back to where it should be but that's a good thing. I don't expect it to keep creeping up. By the time I'm ready to try running I should be closer to my normal maintenance weight and not completely out of shape due to my elliptical workouts at the pool.

More than anything, the run injury has reminded me that weight maintenance is a journey without destination, so you better enjoy the sights. :)

So as of today, I have logged one year in a row on MFP. It's been pretty awesome, and I wanted to thank all of you who post here, who like my posts in here, and who have said nice things to me and encouraged me here and on twitter and facebook. Here's hoping the next year will be as productive!