Reaching my target weight

[Susan]

I am very very  lucky I dont have to do much to keep my weight were it should be although I should be doing exercises or going to a gym. I guess I am lazy. 

[Kirsten]

I had a very good day yesterday. Best in a while. I got my video in and ran on the treadmill. Plus cleaned the house and did some other stuff in preparation for a party. 

I ended up at 24 floors, 17200 steps for 8.1 miles. 3400 calories burned and 102 mins of activity heartbeat 111. That may be my most steps ever. 

Maldonado stuck pretty well with the food too. I did have 5 beers but not much bad food. I stuck with the veggie platter for the most part. ?

tomorrow is weigh in. I’m a little nervous. I hope I’m at least 191. But won’t know thill tomorrow. 

Keep up the good work everyone! 

[Raven1981]

So I have not had a workout style day yesterday.  I cannot say it was a blah day cause I still lost 1lb with no workout.  I went to a big support group which was fun and met alot of new people and made friends.  I then came home and did some yard work, laundry and just moving around.  I went out to dinner with some new friends that I met from group and we had sushi.  I did stay true to my portion control and no alcohol. 

 

I saw that I did 11000 steps, which is just amazing.  Without doing any workouts, I cannot believe that I lost 1lb still

 

[Kirsten]

Awesome Amy!! Don’t worry about not having a workout every day. You just need to stay in a positive healthy life view. It’s ok to have bad days as long as the good outnumber them. I had some unhealthy stuff last night. And I’m even having some today. But overall I stay on the positive side. Sounds like you’re doing good. Keep it up girl

[DeeDee]

OK girls - I need your best tips - how do I wean myself off sugar again!

It was going fine until Christmas but it has crept back in through sweets, biscuits and desserts and is now back in my coffee. I even poured maple syrup over my pork roast today to act as a glaze. This needs to stop!

[Linde]

I plan to loose 20 lbs for a few month now.  i am able to keep my current weight pretty much (I have this weight for years now, it is decent for a guy 6' tall), but I want to have a better waist because I gave it up being a guy!  I try to walk every day about 10000 steps and go to he gym twice a week, but the love handles i have on my hips do not want to go away.  The only thing I really achieve is that my butt is getting slim and muscular, instead of well padded!  I seem to loose any butt fat like no problem, but that waist line seems to want to keep those love handles!

[Susan R]

Just now, DeeDee said:

OK girls - I need your best tips - how do I wean myself off sugar again!

 

Dee,  there are probably other tricks, methods or strategies to getting off sugar or at least reducing to almost nil.  I'm no expert but I can tell you a few things I've learned over the years.  I reduced all added sugar consumption by half the first week to ween my body off slowly.  The following week, I go cold turkey off cane sugar and replace all added sugars with substitutes at the same reduced levels.  It works well if you can go the full 21 days without any added cane sugar but you also need stay away from most processed foods with over 2-3gms of sugar.  I'm always looking at labels of new foods to check for this and other ingredients.  It's tough and there might be a few difficult days but I've done it.   If you can manage that 21 day period, you'll taste even a very small amount of added sugar in anything.  Citrus fruits almost become too sweet and candy becomes too rich to enjoy.

 

Four months ago, my wife and I stopped adding any cane sugars to anything .  We don't even have any at home. We do use substitutes but I use them sparingly.  I've tried all the substitutes (except for coconut sugar substitutes which there seem to be many now) and only two to be safer than saccharine, aspartame and sucralose and without aftertaste.  The first is "Stevia in the Raw" sweetener (Best Bulk pricing at Costco) and my favorite but most expensive is Monk Fruit extract or sweetener.  Of those two,  Monk Fruit is the best, imho.  It does cost a little more but in my coffee it would take 3 Stevia packets to give me the same sweetness as 2 Monk Fruit packets.  There is a nice blend of these two sweeteners combined in bulk at military commissaries that my daughter buys but I can't find it in a local store near me.

 

DIsclaimer:  This is solely my experience with this specific topic.. If you are diabetic or "low blood sugar", check with your doctor first.

 

Susan R?

[DeeDee]

Just now, Susan R said:

DIsclaimer:  This is solely my experience with this specific topic.. If you are diabetic or "low blood sugar", check with your doctor first.

?  Nope - No medical history - just greed and an emotional connection/addiction to food that I know is bad for me!

 

When I did the meal replacement shakes for 12 weeks it was actually easier because I wasn't eating at all. I do not want to go back to that method because I still need to prepare and eat food for myself and my children this time.

[Kirsten]

Dee I can’t tell you an easy fix for it. My wife shares your need for sweets. But over the last 8 years the only thing that has gotten her off the sugar was a 30k wedding. Lol. And I DONT recommend that. ???. 

Umfortunately it’s a simple equation. If you put it in you, you have to work it off. That’s what it comes down to. If you eat the sugar, you run the marathons. Lol. 

You need to find substitutes. Non sugar sweeteners for coffee, cut out desserts, eat fruit in place of processed sugar. But ultimately it comes down to you. You have to choose not to eat those sugar filled treats. Remember, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. ?

[RithiaAllen]

Not much of a weigh in today. I was the same weight as yesterday even after walking 11 miles and drinking a bunch of water and keeping my calories under 1500. I think I probably retained water because I drank something like seven 16oz bottles. I wasn’t too concerned but I was hoping for a win tomorrow.

 

To wit I weighed myself about 20 minutes ago and I was 205.8 which is .2 from being less then my weigh in earlier today. This is fantastic because that means at 0600 hours tomorrow I might even be under 205 pounds!

 

7 hours ago, DeeDee said:

?  Nope - No medical history - just greed and an emotional connection/addiction to food that I know is bad for me!

 

When I did the meal replacement shakes for 12 weeks it was actually easier because I wasn't eating at all. I do not want to go back to that method because I still need to prepare and eat food for myself and my children this time.

 

You can still eat what your children are eating just give yourself a smaller portion. Maybe also work in a good side salad for everyone too which will help fill you and provide vital nutrients. Either that or a bowl of fruit. I love mixed berries, it’s better then desert.

 

Then mix in some aerobic exercises and/or walking through the day.

[RithiaAllen]

1 hour ago, Kirsten said:

Dee I can’t tell you an easy fix for it. My wife shares your need for sweets. But over the last 8 years the only thing that has gotten her off the sugar was a 30k wedding. Lol. And I DONT recommend that. ???. 

Umfortunately it’s a simple equation. If you put it in you, you have to work it off. That’s what it comes down to. If you eat the sugar, you run the marathons. Lol. 

You need to find substitutes. Non sugar sweeteners for coffee, cut out desserts, eat fruit in place of processed sugar. But ultimately it comes down to you. You have to choose not to eat those sugar filled treats. Remember, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. ?

This is so true. At Christmas I had one small strawberry milkshake and it threw me off. Sugar messes with the metabolism. I had to burn roughly twice as many calories then it contained to lose weight. The milkshake was 540 calories and because of it I was on the treadmill for  an extra three hours that day burning it off.

 

I might indulge in a milkshake every now and then but it’s going to be few and far between because I have decided I like my figure and health better then I like the sweets.

[DeeDee]

Susan, I've never heard of Monk Fruit - we have lots of coconut sugars available so will maybe switch back to that.

What do you do for breakfasts? My son loves poached eggs but I have a love/hate relationship with them giving me cramps and so I tend to fill up on toast if I eat at all.

Thanks Kirsten and Rithia. Once I get it out of my system I'm fine. I eat a lot of veg, but when its cold, wet and miserable salads and fruit can be hard to keep buying in.

I weighed myself this morning and have gone up 10 pounds since just before Christmas! ? ? I was so close to my target!

But I am going to a pride in a few months with my niece now (she booked our tickets yay!) so I will need to look my best so I'm starting to hold myself accountable today. Logging on this morning has helped, my morning coffee has no sugar in it and all the biscuits (cookies) and chocolates have gone in the bin!

[Kirsten]

Good morning. Well weigh in day was good. 192.2 and I have some to dump later today. So I am happy with week 1. I have lost 3 belt loops this week and I am visually much thinner than the loss I’ve had. Only problem is that my arms and legs are looking very muscular. Almost 8 months into hrt I still have that male physique for the most part. Someday it’ll get better. But for now I am just going to have to deal with noticeable biceps. ??????‍♀️?

[RithiaAllen]

Today I weighed in at 204.3 pounds and dropped 1.3 pounds over the weekend. I did a measurement of my hips and waist and this morning my waist was 45.6 and my hips where a few ticks past 41. Yesterday my waist line shrunk half an inch. Ultimately this is the metric I am looking to fix and get back into the 34 to 36 inch range.

[Raven1981]

Today I have weighed in at 225lbs.  A little bit down and up over the weekend.  But I am glad that it is not rising too high and it is still moving in the right direction.  I have noticed that when standing in front of the mirror naked waiting for the shower to warm up, I noticed that my stomach area is not pushing out there as much and it is starting to reside and my figure is starting to become more noticeable with getting that hour glass figure and my upper torso indented in and then I can now see my hips from others saying they can see my hips and booty.

 

I am continuing on working out and portion control eating

[Linde]

2 hours ago, RithiaAllen said:

Today I weighed in at 204.3 pounds and dropped 1.3 pounds over the weekend. I did a measurement of my hips and waist and this morning my waist was 45.6 and my hips where a few ticks past 41. Yesterday my waist line shrunk half an inch. Ultimately this is the metric I am looking to fix and get back into the 34 to 36 inch range.

You are getting there.  I thought my forced diet of chicken soup would make me loose weight, but it did not.  Could be that i retained to much water, because that Cambel stuff is pretty salty

[RithiaAllen]

30 minutes ago, Linde said:

You are getting there.  I thought my forced diet of chicken soup would make me loose weight, but it did not.  Could be that i retained to much water, because that Cambel stuff is pretty salty

Thanks. Sadly I can’t lose the weight too fast or I’ll have stretch marks. One flattering thing is when I was out shopping for exercise clothes another shopper asked me in more of a statement “I had problems shaking off the pregnancy weight too.”

 

If I can just keep the weight loss going. On the bright side I have my Apple Watch back. Big thanks to Apple for fixing it for free!

[RithiaAllen]

2 hours ago, Amy LeBlanc said:

Today I have weighed in at 225lbs.  A little bit down and up over the weekend.  But I am glad that it is not rising too high and it is still moving in the right direction.  I have noticed that when standing in front of the mirror naked waiting for the shower to warm up, I noticed that my stomach area is not pushing out there as much and it is starting to reside and my figure is starting to become more noticeable with getting that hour glass figure and my upper torso indented in and then I can now see my hips from others saying they can see my hips and booty.

 

I am continuing on working out and portion control eating

Your stomach shrinking is a large part of the goal. It’s great that you can see the difference now. Any loss of weight is a win. You are doing great.

[Linde]

Just now, RithiaAllen said:

Thanks. Sadly I can’t lose the weight too fast or I’ll have stretch marks. One flattering thing is when I was out shopping for exercise clothes another shopper asked me in more of a statement “I had problems shaking off the pregnancy weight too.”

 

If I can just keep the weight loss going. On the bright side I have my Apple Watch back. Big thanks to Apple for fixing it for free!

Samsung fixed  my smart watch for free.  It really helps me to watch my sleep and my activities.  I would not want to be without it anymore!

[RithiaAllen]

Just now, Linde said:

Samsung fixed  my smart watch for free.  It really helps me to watch my sleep and my activities.  I would not want to be without it anymore!

That’s nice. My Apple Watch seems like it has been a much larger help to me then my Fitbit. I think because it cracked the whip more and provides these nifty awards (carrots) that make me want to go a little more.

[Linde]

Just now, RithiaAllen said:

That’s nice. My Apple Watch seems like it has been a much larger help to me then my Fitbit. I think because it cracked the whip more and provides these nifty awards (carrots) that make me want to go a little more.

I had a fitbit, too.  My Samsung watch is so much better integrated with my Samsung phone, I just would not want to be without it anymore.

[Dakota16]

I started HRT at 172 and hung around there until about 2 months ago then, boom, up to 186. I have a Fitbit but don't really know how to read what it's telling me all that well.

[RithiaAllen]

4 minutes ago, Dakota16 said:

I started HRT at 172 and hung around there until about 2 months ago then, boom, up to 186. I have a Fitbit but don't really know how to read what it's telling me all that well.

To burn weight you need to kee an eye on the dashboard of the app on your phone. Steps are an easy metic and it also has distance in miles/meters. Then you can track your food by logging what you eat and you can also log the water to help you reach your goal of staying hydrated. Then the calories burned along with the calories ingested provide you overall metric. It’s about 3000 calories to burn a pound. So for me to lose a half pound a day I need to eat 1500 calories or less and burn 3000 calories in a day.

 

you don’t want to dip below 1200 calories in a day too often or you will lose lean muscle. 

 

The reason son I like the Apple Watch better is it more intuitive but the Fitbit does have everything needed to help you track your calories so you can apply the law of thermal dynamics to burn the fat off.

[Raven1981]

Would like to add to remember that the older you are the harder it is to lose weight and it is because of your metabolism slows down as we all age, so the key is also, working on getting your metabolism up to help burn off the calories you ate or drank during the day.

 

 

[RithiaAllen]

Just now, Amy LeBlanc said:

Would like to add to remember that the older you are the harder it is to lose weight and it is because of your metabolism slows down as we all age, so the key is also, working on getting your metabolism up to help burn off the calories you ate or drank during the day.

 

 

I’m 37 and I can burn a little over a pound overnight just sleeping. I think the metabolism slowing down has more to do with health condition. As we get older most people get out of shape hence older people have a slower metabolism. That is my hypothesis.