Hello all

michael13

michael13

New member
Hi there. I'm a 52 year old male. I've been overweight now since 1994 (a trip to New Orleans started it) I'm 6' 3" and on May 22nd I was 235 lbs. I've lost 22 lbs since then by counting calories and doing all those things everyone knows to lose weight. More vegetables and fruit, less meat,little or no dairy. I'm looking at this as a long term (forever) change of habits. I have just taken my first foray into exercise with the purchase of a stationary bike which is yet to arrive. Ironically, 5 years ago I bought a small 15 acre farm because I knew maintaining that land would force me to keep active. While that has worked, I am a lot more active and stronger - I used to struggle picking up 50lb feed bags-now I just toss em around-I have also been eating more. I've been eating enough to gain weight in spite of the greater activity.
My mindset is good about the dieting. Really the weight loss has been easy but I know the hard part for me is yet to come and that is to keep it off. At this point I think that what will work is to continue to count calories every day forever. I am committed to keeping the weight off. I'm here to see your stories and learn what has been working for you so I can incorporate some of those ideas into my plan. I think my weakness is going to be the exercise. I've never wanted to sit on a machine for an hour of peddling or whatever.
So. Thanks for all your posts and all the great info on the board. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of reading and even some posting here.
Mike
Bastrop TX
 
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Welcome to the forum. There is a lot of really useful information here. Check out the sections on exercise and nutrition - with very good sticky threads.

You have lost a lot of weight over the past month. I am concerned in case you have set your calories too low. Some people do that and run into problems down the track (hitting plateaus while having nowhere to go).

How did you decide how many calories to aim for?

Are you tracking your food on a free account from which allows you to analyse your wider nutrition?
 
Oops. I guessed wrong about when I started reducing. I began on May 22nd, not in June. It has still been pretty rapid. I use a program called Diet and Exercise Assistant with a goal date of 12/31/09 (just for a round number) It has calculated that to achieve my goal I need to eat 871 fewer calories than my BMR which is approx 2596. So I'm eating about 1725 per day. I'll see if I can edit my original post to correct the time period. Thanks!
 
That sounds a bit low to me... And very quick to lose that amount of weight.

Please check up on it as I would hate for you to run into problems down the track when weightloss dries up and you need to cut things to keep losing - or your body gets too used to a really low number and you have to keep it lower than you want for something to use from then on in for maintenance.

I can think of one person here who has spent the past two years on a plateau mid project - so it is quite important that we make sure that you do not take a risk in that direction.

Read up the threads - but it is amazing how often the rule of thumb formula that goes
most people lose weight on between (weight in pounds) multiplied by between (8 and 12). Start off on weight times 12 and see if you lose weight based on that. If you havent lost anything after a couple of weeks try 11 etc and see how that goes.

I got to goal losing over 160 pounds on somewhere not too short of weight times 12 - and I am sure that you would find eating at that level less depriving and easier to stick to over the project and for finding a plan for maintenance.

Naturally it is more exact to calculate with your BMR and your exercise - and you should do a lot of exercise with that farm.

On fitday you can plot both your food and exercise and see the calorie balance which is your deficit.
 
Thanks for the referral to fitday.

When you say weight x 12, is that my weight now? 214 x 12 = 2568 if my BMR is 2596 then I am eating 28 calories a day less. That would mean I'd lose a pound of fat every 125 days?

Or if I multiply my goal weight of 175 x 12= 2100 or 496 below BMR I would lose a pound every 7 days approximately. That sounds more like it and I'd be eating exactly like I would at the finish of the weight loss. Let me know if I'm on the right track with this thinking.

Thanks again.
 
Current weight - not goal weight - that is just an aspiration and had no impact on how many calories you burn by moving the body that you have today....
 
BMR is what you burn by just breathing and pumping blood around. You burn that even if you never get out of bed.
 
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