Hi there everyone, I'm new here (although I've been reading the great stuff on this forum for a few months now) so I just thought I'd post a little bit about my 'journey'!
I live in the UK and am 26 years old, and 5ft 2 inches tall. I started out at about 133 pounds, and had basically reached a point where I felt fat and uncomfortable and was aware that my diet was far from ideal. Unfortunately, at this time I was not as well educated in the ways of weight loss as I am now and took the drastic step of seriously reducing my calorie intake to a ridiculously low amount (around 800-1000 per day). I also started jogging for 30 minutes 5 or 6 times per week, from doing literally no exercise whatsoever.
Well, this got me some great results in terms of weight loss. Between September 2006 and January 2007 I dropped 14 pounds ... but it didn't do my health too much good at all! Because I was essentially starving myself, I started to obsess about food all the time, it was literally all I could think about for most of the day. I also suffered from feeling tired all the time, and would be in bed by 9pm most nights because I was so hungry and didn't have the energy to stay awake any later. After that I started suffering from dizzy, shaky spells and just generally felt terrible.
The reason for me wanting to lose the weight in the first place was that I was going on holiday in March this year. The holiday turned out to be a real turning point for me, because obviously as soon as I went back to eating 'normally' my body stored literally every last calorie as fat, and I came home weighing 7 pounds more than when I left!
I was naturally completely horrified by this, but thankfully had the common sense to realise that I couldn't go back to trying to lose weight in the same way as I had before. I did quite a lot of research (including reading a lot of the stuff on this forum) and decided that healthy eating was the best way forward.
Because I stuffed up my metabolism with the reduced calorie dieting, I am having to gradually build up to a more sensible daily intake - at the moment I aim for between 1200-1300 on non-exercise days, and between 1300 and 1400 on days when I go to the gym. I'm aiming to eventually get up to 1800 on non exercise days and 2000 for exercise days in order to maintain my weight.
I gave up with jogging outside because I kept on picking up injuries, so now I go to the gym 3 times per week. I do around 35-40 minutes of cardio activity, and 15-20 minutes of resistance training and weights each session. This seems to be working well for me at the moment, and I can really notice the difference in terms of muscle tone and fitness levels.
Since I got home from my holiday I have dropped 5 of the 7 pounds that I put on, and am now plugging away at getting rid of the last 2! I have realised though that what the tape measure says is a much better indication of how I'm doing than what the scale says, and I have lost around 3 inches from my hips and waist since returning home, which is pretty good going I think!
So, thats me. If anyone has any tips or advice for me they would be gratefully received!
I live in the UK and am 26 years old, and 5ft 2 inches tall. I started out at about 133 pounds, and had basically reached a point where I felt fat and uncomfortable and was aware that my diet was far from ideal. Unfortunately, at this time I was not as well educated in the ways of weight loss as I am now and took the drastic step of seriously reducing my calorie intake to a ridiculously low amount (around 800-1000 per day). I also started jogging for 30 minutes 5 or 6 times per week, from doing literally no exercise whatsoever.
Well, this got me some great results in terms of weight loss. Between September 2006 and January 2007 I dropped 14 pounds ... but it didn't do my health too much good at all! Because I was essentially starving myself, I started to obsess about food all the time, it was literally all I could think about for most of the day. I also suffered from feeling tired all the time, and would be in bed by 9pm most nights because I was so hungry and didn't have the energy to stay awake any later. After that I started suffering from dizzy, shaky spells and just generally felt terrible.
The reason for me wanting to lose the weight in the first place was that I was going on holiday in March this year. The holiday turned out to be a real turning point for me, because obviously as soon as I went back to eating 'normally' my body stored literally every last calorie as fat, and I came home weighing 7 pounds more than when I left!
I was naturally completely horrified by this, but thankfully had the common sense to realise that I couldn't go back to trying to lose weight in the same way as I had before. I did quite a lot of research (including reading a lot of the stuff on this forum) and decided that healthy eating was the best way forward.
Because I stuffed up my metabolism with the reduced calorie dieting, I am having to gradually build up to a more sensible daily intake - at the moment I aim for between 1200-1300 on non-exercise days, and between 1300 and 1400 on days when I go to the gym. I'm aiming to eventually get up to 1800 on non exercise days and 2000 for exercise days in order to maintain my weight.
I gave up with jogging outside because I kept on picking up injuries, so now I go to the gym 3 times per week. I do around 35-40 minutes of cardio activity, and 15-20 minutes of resistance training and weights each session. This seems to be working well for me at the moment, and I can really notice the difference in terms of muscle tone and fitness levels.
Since I got home from my holiday I have dropped 5 of the 7 pounds that I put on, and am now plugging away at getting rid of the last 2! I have realised though that what the tape measure says is a much better indication of how I'm doing than what the scale says, and I have lost around 3 inches from my hips and waist since returning home, which is pretty good going I think!
So, thats me. If anyone has any tips or advice for me they would be gratefully received!