20lbs or less club

I hope that everyone is having a good week.

My weight is down with a new low of 9st 10.0lbs or 136 pounds today. I have just this week been able to buy a pair of UK size 10 jeans (same as US size 6). I have to say that I was rather pleased with this.
 
I'm new, and I've already posted in the 130s club. I assume its okay to be in more than one?

I'm 5'3" and think I weigh around 132-135. This is a guess because I don't have a scale, but I feel the way I feel when I've weighed that much in the past, and my clothes fit about that way, too.

My biggest discomfort area is my belly - I know that's the case for a great many people. It just seems to be where ALL my weight gathers, so when I gain weight, sometimes I really do get people assuming I'm pregnant.

I'd like to lose around 10-15 pounds, but I know that will be difficult with my physical restrictions - I am recovering from a broken leg, and I'm definitely not ready for vigorous exercise just yet (still in a cast and using a crutch on the broken side), so I am currently looking mainly to modify my diet. And at this point, pretty much any effort would be an improvement! I eat everything!
 
Lemmy,

Im 5'3 too and weigh about 135. I'd like to get down to 120 or lose a pant size. whichever comes first! I was down to 132 but i went on vacation, and i was soo bad. I ate ice cream, fudge, everything in sight! I'm home now and hopefully those 3 pounds will drop off quick and then onto the next 12!!! i was trying to be at my goal weight by 4th of july, but thats not looking good. oh well i just need to stick to it and quit giving up!!! here we go....

good luck to everyone! Hope you're all doing well!
 
hello, everyone...just joined the forum last week, and ran across this club this morning...I am working on losing 15-20 pounds. I put on the weight about 3-4 months ago. surgery, stopped smoking, and munchies...therefore, extra weight. I am 5'5" and 125 lbs. I have a small frame, so the extra few pounds really show: mainly belly, love handles, and thighs. I am working on getting back into the clothes I wore last summer. I am exercising daily, eating alot less, and drinking more water...would have liked to hit my goal weight earlier, but it's not happening. I have noticed inches coming off before weight, so I am on my way...good luck to all!!!!
 
Welcome to those new to the forum - and of course Shannon.

It is certainly perfectly ok to post in more than one club. It is by posting all around the forum that we build relationships, make friends and generally support and motivate each other.

Good luck in all your projects.
 
well i am behalf of my slimming lessons - best i can advis is aerobics - sounds lenthy but beleive me - it workd the fastest for me...
 
joined the gym yesterday...did my first workout of upper body yesterday and my first workout of cardio today, and I feel GREAT!!!! I was wondering though, how many times a day do you want to work on cardio. I only did 30 minutes this morning, and I would like to do another 30 on my lunch break, is that too much?
 
I suppose it all depends on how intensive your cardio is. I walk for over 3 hours a day (I do between 11 and 12 miles a day). I also sometimes do aerobics too. I am perfectly happy with that as I think that my walking counts as just being very active.

You could try checking out the stickys and general postings in the exercise section. Alternatively - ask a question on the general on topic or expert sections. Several personal trainers surf that section and are often very helpful.

It may be worth you asking at the gym that you have just joined. Gym's tend to employ people that are qualified to answer that exact kind of question.
 
I have found that if I do two workouts a day I need to cut down the intensity of each one just a little or I get burned out very quickly. But overall for the day I end up burning more calories that way. So I'd say doing it twice would lead to a little bit faster weight loss. But make sure you can keep it up.
 
Just thought I'd tell you guys a little bit about myself. I'm 25 years old, 5'6", and want to lose about 10 pounds. Mostly I'm looking for the love handles to disappear so they don't hang over the top of my pants. Yuck! I think 10 pounds should cover it. I'm also, finally, in a place with a kitchen (no more dorms!), and I love to cook so I'm trying to learn to cook 3 meals a day for myself. Unfortunately, that hasn't really happened that often since I moved in a few months ago. I'm still working on it though. I know I can do it. Good luck to everyone!
 
Since you are just starting out cooking and want to develop good diet habits - now would be a perfect time to feed a few days of your food list through fitday.com (an account costs nothing) in order to check that your food contains all the nutrients that you need and that your calories are pitched at about the right general level. It is an easy way to see if you need to rebalance your diet. So much of what we do is habit - so if you acquire a good habit it should stand you in good stead for the future.

I found it best to try to eat really healthy food without focusing too much on the calories on a day-to-day basis. That way I am unlikely to consider my day as a failure because I have gone over a magic number. That feeling of failure is a bigger danger than the slight overspend in calories.
 
New to the forum & happy to find this board

HI!
I have to lose just a little more than 20 to be in my happy space, but only 15 to be in my healthy BMI range. Haven't really had a huge problem with lots of weight gain, but I'm big enough not to fit in my skinny pants comfortably. NEED HELP!

I eat when I'm bored and stressed - like annoyed at my kids - I would like to hear what others do to try to nip the desire to chomp in the bud before you're standing in front of the snack cabinet. When I get really stressed or depressed, I don't eat. But I don't want to be sad or stressed like that to maintain a decent size. :ack2:

I'm back to working out 5-6 times a week and have tried a 1200cal diet the last few weeks, but am finding myself too hungry, so I bumped it up to about 1450. Is that too much??
 
welcome, missteaspoon.

Omega, I'll have to think about possibly not counting my calories, although I'd probably do it in my head anyway. How do you know you're not eating too much? I can see how it would relieve the possibility of the feeling of failure, though, and I'm tempted by that, because I don't like that feeling, not one bit. I'm going to try fit day tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
MissTeaspoon - welcome to the forum and thread.

Tactics for not nibbling:
You may try going out for a walk - I find that I dont want to eat anything while I am walking along - and you get some good exercise in.

If stuck in the house - as I can imagine that you may well be with kids - then try some of the following:
chew sugar free gum - a stick can last quite a long time and is only 5 calories
drink some water - we have quite a bit of water that we need to drink and sometimes drinking water can divert you
clean your teeth
eat sugar free jelly - I am a great fan of this and go through 2 pints of the stuff pretty much every day. Since it is only about 32 calories a pint it really is not going to break any calorie barriers and it is sweet
eat salad veg or fruit - we need 5 a day but I have so many more than that it is silly. Yesterday for example I had 8 portions of veg and salad veg and 6 portions of fruit. It adds calories - but at least it keeps you "regular".

GonnaGetAbs - I tend to take the opinion that many of us have a reasonably repetitive diet. I certainly always have. I tend to have the same things at breakfast time and supper time. Lunches tend to be the same with a choice of two or three things being repeated as the days pass. The main variable of the day seems to be my evening meal.

I know that many experts speak against such things - but I find that weighing every day suits me well. I had the experience twenty years ago of gaining a dramatic amount of weight very suddenly (due to a hormonal problem) and fear a repetition. I have got used to my normal weight fluctuations and am not phased when I see a gain of a few pounds when I feel that I understand the explanation.

The fact that I weigh every day means that I was able to form a spreadsheet whereby I plotted my weight and therefore the daily weight variation against such things as exercise, period info, toilet habits, main meal and exceptional food items. These are the main factors which have a bearing on the daily weight variation. For instance - food high in sodium causes water retention, most women experience water retention around the time of a period, food and water consumed continues to have weight whilst it is being processed within the body. I was thus able to identify which meals gave a very good track record for giving me a weight loss the next morning. The track record I get for a salmon meal that I do is exceptional - I tend to see a drop on the scales (maybe just a fifth of a pound but a drop just the same) the next morning on about 14 out of every 15 times that we have that as the main meal. When statistics like that come to light - it certainly encourages you to eat salmon as a main meal instead of something that regularly makes you gain!!!

You have to remember that I am now 16 months into my weight loss project - so I often have one of about 6 or 8 meals that seem to give me good results. I have other things if I fancy it - but often I am happy to just stick to one of the meals that I have confidence in going well. The fact that I dont count calories means that there is no need for weighing or measuring - which is always such a pain when you are dieting. I just cook the meal as I always cook it.

I found that by focusing on eating healthily - then counting calories for several days I was able make sure that everything was being pitched at about the right calorie level. Then I just stopped counting the calories and kept right on eating pretty repetitively. By using fitday you can evaluate the nutrients too so that you know that everything is being pitched at the right level there also.

If my weightloss seems to have ground to a halt I put a week through fitday again to ensure that things are pitched at the right level. The calorie level that is appropriate can change as a project progresses - but I would not expect that to be a major consideration for anyone that is just trying to lose up to 20 pounds.

I actually determine whether I am having a good day for weightloss based on whether I get out on my morning walk which I always make at least 6 miles. If that happens I take the attitude that - irrespective of what I eat - I am having a good day for my project. If I go on to eat healthily I am having a great day.

I have the experience of failing on so many weight loss projects it is silly. It is amazing when I consider the amount of times that I picked a magic calorie number and added things religiously to ensure that I did not exceed it. I felt such a failure when I inevitably did exceed it that I got depressed and abandoned the whole idea. The stupid thing is that the number that I went up to was probably not enough to gain weight - it was the abandoning of the project that caused the following inevitable gain.
 
thanks for the tips!

I would never have thought of the jelly.
You're right about the kids.
unfortunately gum chewing makes me gassy :eek: But I will try your other suggestions. Right now, I'm on a decaf green tea kick with frothy soy milk. I got this hand held froth-er and it's been doing wonders for me and my this funny need I have for anything remotely resembling a fattening latte.

I have a question... right now, I'm on summer vacation and 2.5 hour workouts are totally do-able every day and I try to do that plus learn as many new healthy recipies for my family as I can. But, as soon as school starts, regular life begins again and I am so freaked out about gaining all the weight and losing all the muscle that I will and am planning on building from now until August. Any pointers on how to stay motivated when you're time and energy challenged??
Incidentally:
- I have numerous workout CDs.
- I can run and NEED to train for the Nike Half-Marathon.
- I have a gym membership
- I also belong to a yoga studio.
- And I dance hula twice a week.
None of the above seem to be significant motivators for me to get myself away from the stack of papers I NEED to grade once the school year starts. If I only do one of the above, I generally do not lose weight - or I lose the weight but am unable to maintain weightloss (as in the running.... the race is in October).
HELP!!!
 
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My local supermarket sells sugar free jelly in 3 flavours - raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant. I know of another supermarket further away that does the above plus orange and lemon/lime. Despite really enjoying the sugar free jelly I had got so that I wanted a larger variety. In addition to the above I now make up my own flavours - I use any low calorie drink that I fancy plus a sachet of gelatine - which gives me a much wider choice of flavours. In the last couple of days for instance I have had apple and peach. You can stick chunks of fruit in it too.

As for activity - I would recommend that anyone would benefit from wearing a pedometer all day long every day. I put mine on when I get dressed and it stays on until I am getting into bed. Every step of the day burns calories so you might as well count them. A lot of experts say that we would benefit by doing 10,000 steps each day. I happen to do a lot more than that - but the thing is that if you record your stepcount somewhere it can motivate you to walk the long way round or to do a short walk round the block. They are all getting added in. That extra trip to the kitchen - it all counts. I found that mine made me get a lot more active.

The great thing is that pedometers are really cheap too.
 
Omega,
Thanks for all your ideas. They're great. I especially like the spreadsheet, and the being in this long enough to be able to just eat a healthy diet, and not count every calorie. I look forward to that. I might have to occasionally though, because I like to experiment, and make recipes I've never tried before. I'm going to continue using fitday, though, so that should help me learn the calorie contents of certain food. The sugar-free jelly sounds good too.
 
I swear by sugar free jelly. It is so tasty and sweet - and when you throw in the fruit people would never believe that the calories were so low and that it was healthy really. It is so easy to make too. All that is involved is boiling up a kettle. Pouring half a pint of boiling water into a measuring jug. Stir in the jelly crystals. Top up with cold water to the 1 pint mark and stir again. Pour into a bowl and put it into the fridge. In two minutes you can make up a couple of pints and have them sitting there for later that day.

I find fitday to be a useful tool that I use every now and again without letting it drive me. Some people enter every day into it without fail. I do the odd day every now and again to just keep an eye on things. Also every so often I enter a full week because I may be in a challenge that asks you to count some nutrient maybe fiber, protein or calcium and ensure that it hits the magic number each day for a week. Also if I feel that my weightloss is going slower than I would like I check just to see if my calorie level makes sense for where I am in my project. A general rule of thumb is to go for between 8 and 12 times your weight in pounds - trying the higher number and seeing if you get weightloss. The higher number is better because you feel less deprived and it gives more options if things grind to a halt. Obviously this means that the calorie level that you are allowed reduces as you lose weight and people losing quite a lot of weight (unlike most people in this thread) need to alter things every so often. There are more technical ways of working out the calorie level based on BMR and exercise done - but the rule of thumb has worked out just fine for me.
 
Interesting Ideas Omega, ima have to try that jelly! That seems to be my main down fall, i crave sweets. Also congrats to you Omega for your weightloss, you must know what your talking about to lose that much weight. Im 136 or so and im looking to lose about 15 pounds, im 5'5.5 but i just say 5'6. I just needed ideas to curb my sweet tooth! I also have a problem with late night eating, i just hate going to bed on an empty stomach, i cant sleep. I like to eat right before i go to bed, like 10 min before, then i brush my teeth and such. Any ideas on what to eat or how to not eat?
 
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