MarMar's Weight Loss Journey

MarMar

MarMar

New member
Hey everyone!

My Name's Emily and I'm a 21 year old female from southern California living in Texas while attending school. Losing weight is something that I've been meaning to do for a long time, but the scale just kept creeping up on me. I was thinking of starting after the holidays, but why not now? If I really am committed, I can get through the holiday season while losing weight. And I am committed.

I am 5 feet 3 inches small, and when I stepped on the scale this morning.... dun dun dun... 200 pounds. This is not okay with me.

Henceforth, I will be sticking to a 1500-1600 calorie day while exercising on my stationary bike for an hour every day at medium intensity (12-14 miles per hour) and 5 minutes every day high intensity (14-16 miles per hour). I plan on doing a weekly weigh in (I can't weigh myself every day or I will get discouraged if I don't see a drop). I have tried to lose weight in the past but I went about it with the wrong mindset, so I ended up gaining all of it back, and then some. This time around, I'm not looking for extreme changes quickly. I'm looking to get in shape and have a lasting, healthy change.

My goal weight is somewhere between 130 and 140 pounds, but I'll see how I feel about myself when I get to that point. I'm hoping to reach it before summer of 2013, but if it takes longer I won't be discouraged.

My first goal is to be 185 by Christmas day or New Years. It'll be challenging, but I believe in myself.

I'm planning on trying to post a food diary/exercise log in this thread every day to keep me accountable.


...Wish me luck determination, and nice to meet all of you!
 
Welcome aboard Emicali. What do you think of Texas? It's the land of the Old 97s, one of my personal faves.


Good luck on the weight loss. Finding something that's not actually a diet, but rather something you're willing to do forever is to me the best way to do this. So I think you're off to a great start.


For me the scale should mostly be a guideline. If you do the right things, eventually the weight takes care of itself. The scale just helps tell you if you may need to make a small adjustment (usually a little extra exercise does the trick).


Good luck and keep us informed!
 
Originally Posted by MrVee


Welcome aboard Emicali. What do you think of Texas? It's the land of the Old 97s, one of my personal faves.



Good luck on the weight loss. Finding something that's not actually a diet, but rather something you're willing to do forever is to me the best way to do this. So I think you're off to a great start.



For me the scale should mostly be a guideline. If you do the right things, eventually the weight takes care of itself. The scale just helps tell you if you may need to make a small adjustment (usually a little extra exercise does the trick).



Good luck and keep us informed!
Click to expand...


It's... interesting, haha. Definitely not what I'm used to and I keep getting surprised even though I've been here almost two years. I mainly moved here to be with my fiance, but it helps that school is cheap. I do miss home though. The scale is just a guideline for me as well, in the past I have only gone by the numbers and have gotten discouraged when I hit even the smallest plateau. This time around, it's about getting healthier for the long term.
 
Hey Emi


Welcom to the forum!!! I am almost in your shoes I am also 5 "3ft and Last week I weighted in at 195lb I too have tried to loose weight in the past and got discouraged!

Loosing slow and keeping it off is a great plan!!! I hope to be between 189-185 by Christmas as well so I am gonna be here to cheer you on!!!!
 
Hello, thought I'd post my week so far: 2 pounds lost!
I have been using My Fitness Pal for iPhone to track everything. Here's what's been up. I'll come back with thoughts later.


Friday, 11/30:
Breakfast, 250 cals
Lunch: 414 cals
Dinner: 342 cals
Snacks: 514 cals
Excercise, biking 14mph for 1 hour, 860 cals burned.

Net for the day: 667 cals


Saturday, 12/1:
Breakfast: 190 cals
Lunch: 700 cals
Dinner: 415 cals
Snacks: 220 cals
Exercise: Bike, 14 mph, 75 minutes; Walking around at 2.0mph 3 hours; 1600 cals burned all together


Net for the day: -112 cals (Whoops...)


Sunday: 12/2
Breakfast: 300 cals
Lunch: 416 cals
Dinner: 594 cals
Snacks: 456 cals
Excercise: Biking, 14 mph, 75 minutes; 852 cals burned

Net for the day: 914 cals


Monday, 12/3:
Breakfast: None
Lunch: 598 cals
Dinner: 952 cals
Snacks: 679 cals
Exercise: Biking, 14 mph, 90 mins; 1077 cals burned

Net for the day: 1152 cals


Tuesday, 12/4:
Breakfast: 410 cals
Lunch: 371 cals
Dinner: 444 cals
Snacks: 701 cals
Excercise: Walking, 3.0mph, 20 mins; Biking, 15 mph, 53 mins; 891 cals burned all together


Net for the day: 1035 cals


Wednesday, 12/5:
Breakfast: 280 cals
Lunch: 250 cals
Dinner: 588 cals
Snacks: 433 cals
Excercise: Walking, 3.0mph, 20 minutes; 98 calories burned

Net for the day: 1453 cals
 
Thank you! I have been working my butt off with my exercise bike, and have found a new guilty pleasure while doing so... the Biggest Loser. It's bit dramatic for my tastes, but when the trainers are yelling at the contestants I pretend they're yelling at me :blush5: hehe. Plus the episodes are about an hour and a half which is what I aim for exercise-wise with a small break.

It's still taking me a while to get used to this whole system of my fitness pal, though. I set my weekly goal to a 2 lb weight loss per week, and it set my calories to a 1,200 per day limit. I *can't* just love off of 1,200 calories a day though. Even though I'm heavy, I'm still pretty darn active what with walking around campus daily and running errands... etc. I'm also really, really fidgety. So I've been trying to stick with 1,600-1,700 calories a day + burning a bunch on the bike. I break a pretty good sweat and make sure my heart rate stays in the 150s for the duration of my ride.

That being said, I've heard a bunch of controversy about whether or not one should "eat back" exercise calories. Here's the deal: To lose on pound of fat, it's a 3,500 calorie deficit. To lose 2 lbs per week (my goal) you must maintain a 1,000 calorie deficit per day. My TDEE (total daily energy expenditure, using my height of 5 foot 3 and current weight of 198lbs) is calculated to be 2050 calories with a 'light activity' lifestyle. If I exercise 90 minutes a day and burn, say, 800 calories, that would be 2850 calories burned though daily activity and exercise. Therefore, for a 1,000 calorie deficit, I would eat 1,850 calories, right?

According to My Fitness Pal, I haven't had a day where I haven't under-eaten my 1,200 calories goal except for yesterday when I took a night off of my bike. Even then, according to my TDEE, I still have about a 500 calorie deficit. But I've been eating when I'm hungry, eating fairly clean (as much as a busy college student can), and drinking lots and lots of water. I also want don't want to eat back all of my exercise calories in case of a discrepancy between what MFP says I burned and what I actually burned, which I ind is pretty likely.

But I also don't want there to be an issues with metabolism et al. if I'm not eating enough. Bah, I know that the human physiology of weight loss is a lot more complex than a bunch of calculators online though.
 
Personally I don't eat back my calories, and my dietitian is quite happy with that approach (in fact I don't loose if I eat back any of my calories) but if you are concerned about your metabolism you need to maintain your lean muscle mass, and to do that you need weight bearing exercise which could include trips to the gym or bodyweight exercises at home.
 
So if I'm eating 1200 calories per day and burning 800(exercise) + 2000(TDEE) that's all right? I'm just a little confused because that would mean that my body wouldn't be running on much fuel. Alas, I have a lot to learn.
 
You are taller than I am and a similar weight although I carry a lot of muscle and I am a lot older lol. Firstly, looking at your exercise, how are you calculating the calories burned ? If you are going by a display on the bike, they are often not accurate and at the moderate 16 pace I would have expected a lower calorie burn ? Also as we adapt to a specific exercise the body becomes more efficient and burns less calories during that exercise. Another point is, do you weigh your food ? estimating calories ads in another area of error in the calculations.

Secondly, because numbers can be wrong in so many areas, often one of the best ways is to experiment, if your loosing to fast then it is most likely your loosing muscle, water and fat, if loosing to slow then your eating to much, if your loosing at around the 2lb pace per week it should be mostly fat your loosing with a small amount of muscle loss if your only doing cardio.
 
I do weigh my food, and I log everything I eat via My Fitness pal on my iPhone. Very handy. I also log my exercise through here, and usually do 90 mins on my stationary bike every day going anywhere from 12-16 mph. I log specific times at specific speeds. I do realize that there's bound to be a calories burned discrepancy (MFP lists lower numbers than the numbers on my bike, and both list higher numbers than calculating calories burned by heart rate, for starters) which is why I haven't been eating back all of my exercise calories. I have lost 2lbs this week so far (from last Friday to today) so I'm supposing I'm doing something right.

I'm also on the mini-pill, which I have a week left on, which I think is holding me back from losing more weight at a time. It's certainly doesn't help with bloating. I've been on progesterone medications since October of 2011 (Depo shot for 9 months and mini pill for another 4 months after, 3 weeks break between) and have gained 48 lbs since then. I used to maintain my weight at around 153 (I have a medium sized frame and looked pretty good at this weight) without carefully watching what I ate or exercising beyond daily walks around college campus. I know a great deal of it is that I've been eating more (it makes me so hungry and messes with my blood sugar levels!) and haven't been as active, but I am suspecting that once I'm off the mini pill and giving my body a break from extra hormones, I'll lose weight pretty easily.

Oh, and I should add, I've signed up for a twice weekly hour long weight lifting class through campus for next semester... Getting college credits for getting fit, doesn't get much better than that!
 
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