New and Struggling!

N

nerdygirl

New member
Hello all! Greetings from St. Louis! My name is Kate.

A little about me: I'm an engineering student at SLU. I like fashion and make-up but I'm also kind of a nerd, lol.

I would not consider myself "fat" or "overweight" by any means...but I still wish, for personal reasons, to lose weight! I would like to drop from size 8 to size 4....but it is proving sort of difficult, lol.

I'm 22 years old, female, and I stand at 5'5" tall with a medium size frame. Definitely not "petite" by any means but not super tall with large bones either.

I current weigh in at about 138lbs. My body fat percentage is approximately 26% according to my "weight watchers" scale. It measures bone mass, water weight, overall weight, body fat percent, and one other value which I forget. Not sure HOW accurate this is...compared to getting a test done by a personal trainer/doctor/nutritionist/etc.

I am currently on a 1000 - 1200 calorie per day diet. I wish I could say that I avoid fatty foods and carbs but I eat them just like anything else, in small quantities. I don't like the idea of limiting oneself to a specific type of food when dieting as long as you stay below your calorie limit for each day....!
I take women's one a day multivitamins and fish oil capsules too.

I work out at least 2-3 times per week doing mostly cardio but I lift weights too and I try to build my muscles up. I realize that gaining muscle mass will cause the overall number on the scale to increase, so I don't freak out too much about that, which is why I got a scale that shows Body fat percentage as well as overall weight... and I realize that more muscle mass = faster metabolism = more calories burned daily even though I am female and most girls my age don't want to get "bulky." Sometimes I drink the Wheybolic Extreme 60 protein shake post weight lifting so I can REALLY get the muscle mass to rebuild/repair after each workout.

Is this a good routine?

Finally, my goal is to get down to about 120lbs. Ideally I wanted to be 110 but that might not be healthy for my height and bone frame. What do you folks think? It's REALLY hard to get below 138 for some reason! Granted my body fat dropped from 28% to 26% in the past four weeks, which is a pretty great accomplishment, I guess! And I guess I should be listing my goal in body fat % and NOT overall weight.... but I don't really know what is "realistic" I just know I want to be a size 4 instead of a size 8!! But I don't know how much body fat % I will need to drop to reach that goal. Any help? :)
 
Hi Kate,
I am going to be very honest with you and straight to the point.

5'5" 138 pounds in a size 8 small enough!!!!

Sounds like you are managing a healthy lifestyle. Cutting back on foods is much better then cutting out.

Welcome to the WLF. Good Luck to you and stay healthy!
 
Hi Kate

Hi Kate
I have to tell you that personally I would love to be your size, however I can see the way you are focusing on your weight and after all the things I've recently discovered, it doesn't matter what you weigh or look like, it is how you feel about yourself and what you are focusing on. We can all sit here and say what has she got to complain about but if you are feeling bad then that is where the problems begin. Honestly I am 41 and I have taken until recently to recognise what I was doing wrong and it all started with how I was looking at things and from your post I can tell you that you are also looking at what you see as a problem and looking at food as if it's your enemy and it isn't. In fact food is your friend and since I have realised that my whole body shape is changing rapidly and I am finally shrinking. The best news is really surprisingly for me how I now feel about myself and it is magically making the weight just drop off.
All the best
Janice (Finally)
 
Janice--you are spot on. While certain people who hear about my goals disagree with me and tell me I don't "need" to lose weight (kinda like the poster above you, lol) that obviously does not matter to me. Do I NEED to lose weight? NO. According to BMI I am in the healthy zone, albeit closer to the "overweight" end instead of closer to the "middle"....I'd rather be closer to underweight than overweight but ideally I should be in the middle. Even if I am 5'5" 138, I can still be healthy by losing body fat % and that will ultimately be better for my heart, my cholesterol, and my body as a whole. My family has a history of heart problems, so why not start early on taking care of my body? :)

It's about the "feeling" I get when I look in the mirror. Am I healthy? Yes. Is my body fine the way it is? To a stranger, maybe. I guess so. But not really to me. I have cellulite. I have flab. I have areas where it would behoove me to lose fat so that I might feel *that* much more confident about myself. I have areas where I need to tone my muscles. And if you disagree with me, replace "need" with the word "want." It's all about what I want do to with myself. It's my only body...I only get one shot at life. Might as well stay healthy and look fit! :)

The good news is since I posted this, my BF% decreased even more and now it looks like I am starting to get definition on my tummy....it looks as if I am starting to get "abs" even though I haven't done a single sit-up in months. All because I am losing BF%, right? Crazy how that stuff works... I need to work out more. Due to midterms I cheated and didn't work out so I need to get back on that! Losing BF% just by decreasing food can work, most of the time, but it's also a lot harder when you're not being aerobic ...or anaerobic...or whatever!

Anyway thanks for welcomes and support! Look forward to getting the most out of my stay here. *goes off to look at other threads* :)

Kate
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top