This is the Message Centre for Beatrice

My fitness pal

Post 21

2legs - Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side...

1 LB a week, or even 2 or so, isn't over the top at all, Last tiem I lost weight by 'changing my diet' last year, I averaged 2 or more LB a week, and I certainly didn't ever starve myself... or give up the booze... smiley - snorksmiley - angel However, I may be about to undo my recent loss of weight, with another* indian tonight followed by the pub, followed by drinking round my friends... the only upside there may be a bit of exercise later on smiley - winkeyesmiley - angel ... well walking to the pub must be exercise too, right? smiley - angel
Just so long as I try avoid a late night splurge on food when I get home finally smiley - hotdogsmiley - burgersmiley - droolsmiley - angel


My fitness pal

Post 22

ismarah - fuelled by M&Ms

If we're talking about bigger numbers then yes. Weight doesn't pile on or come off in a linear fashion. But for just a few pounds you'll be fine.


My fitness pal

Post 23

Gnomon - time to move on

I lost 17 pounds in 26 weeks (a few years ago). And that was with a fairly large increase in the amount of exercise I was doing. A pound a week is achievable, but not easy.


My fitness pal

Post 24

Sho - employed again!

blimey, that's a lot of weight to lose - was it on purpose?


My fitness pal

Post 25

Gnomon - time to move on

Yes.


My fitness pal

Post 26

Beatrice

Well, even if the scales seem slow to budge, the measurements are definitely improving! I had a Big Meeting this morning with A Bank (clue: we had tea in the basement canteen, called The Vault, where a large sum of money was stolen a few years ago....)

...anyway, I wanted to wear my smart trouser suit, but I was a bit worried cos the last time I wore it the trousers were quite tight and I had to wear industrial strength undies to hold everything in (this is tmi, isn't it...)(well tough it's my journal!)

Put on the trousers this morning - and there's an inch spare at the waistband smiley - smiley


My fitness pal

Post 27

Gnomon - time to move on

smiley - applause


My fitness pal

Post 28

Gnomon - time to move on

If you take the weight off too quickly, you end up losing it in places like your arms and legs, and it resolutely refuses to move from your stomach and hips.

It sounds like you're making good progress.


My fitness pal

Post 29

Beatrice

Yesterday I wore a leather skirt that had been a Christmas present from Dai 4 years ago. I hadn't worn it in over a year as it was too tight. Yesterday it was loose at the waist.

I also had an interesting conversation with a trainer at the gym, who'd noticed me really pushing myself on the weight machines. I passed on my nutritionist's theory that you've got to be lifting weights that make you feel at the last of your 20 reps that you really couldn't do any more. We discussed the importance of variety in diet, and how protein at breakfast can stop the mid-morning hunger pangs (I had smoked peppered mackerel today).

I'm trying to resist weighing myself every day, but it's great to see some progress in my shape smiley - smiley


My fitness pal

Post 30

Gnomon - time to move on

I think it is a good idea to weigh yourself every day. You will see your weight fluctuating by a kilo or two from day to day, but the overall trend over weeks is noticeable. If you only weigh yourself once a week, you still get the same random fluctuation, and you'll be disappointed for a whole week if the loss isn't as much as you expected.

Make sure to always weigh yourself at the same time every day - just after you get up in the morning is a good time.

When I was trying to lose a lot of weight, I tracked all my weights in a spreadsheet, and graphed them, which makes them a lot easier to see patterns in. I also did a regression analysis on them to remove the random variations, but that's a hard one to explain.


My fitness pal

Post 31

Beatrice

One of the nice aspects of the My Fitness Pal (MFP) app is that it does all those graphs and reports for you. It can also calculate things like "If you ate every day the same as today, in 5 weeks you would have lost 3 lbs..."

On the whole as an app I think its pretty good - you can update on the PC as well as on the mobile, and make comments. It records exercise as well as food, and there are conversation forums where you can get support and advice from others.

It has little shortcuts - you can just go "same as yesterday" if you ate the same thing for lunch 2 days running. And it lists all the foods you recently ate so you can just tick them to add them into today's consumption.

What I DON'T like is that it lists lunch items under "lunch" - but not what you had for dinner previously. So if I have a strirfry for dinner one night, and then have some leftovers for lunch next day, I can't select last night's dinner from my list of recent lunch items. (Does that make sense?)

It's also very American, though there's quite a few recognisable brands on its huge database of food items.


My fitness pal

Post 32

2legs - Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side...

Most of the online and I guess on-phone/PDA applications for calculating calories is that they all tend to be very American-centrik, I used an online one last year when I was loosing weight, though it soon became quicker to just remember waht the calories were on the things I ate the most, and then look them up as and when I needed to on the supermarket website smiley - zen
My weight can vary easily by three pounds day to day, so If I took it once a week, I could get an etnirely wrong impression, though I know for doing it fairly frequently sometimes that its actually at any point in time pretty much stable... Unfortuantely It'd be better if it wasn't quite* so stable and instead heading downawrds smiley - doh I must start paying attentions to the calories I'm actually eating, as that is the only way I ffound to really alter the diet and hence get into a nutrition which is causing (however slow) weight loss smiley - zensmiley - goodluck I'm still hoping to be two or more stone lighter by the end of this year smiley - grovelsmiley - zen


My fitness pal

Post 33

Beatrice

Some of teh comments on the message boards make oi larf:

"Help, I think my body's gone into starvation mode, cos every morning when I wake up I'm starving!"

"I've heard I shouldn't exercise during my TOM - is this true?"

"I need some ideas for negative calorie foods!"

smiley - rofl

Anyhoo. Progress is steady - down to 10st 7 as of yesterday, so more than half-way to my target. But a HUGE noticeable difference in shape - size 14 clothes are baggy, and I'm fitting into size 12 stuff I haven't had on me in years. Plus the definition in my muscular arms is very pleasing smiley - smiley


My fitness pal

Post 34

Gnomon - time to move on

smiley - bubbly (lo-cal version)


My fitness pal

Post 35

Gnomon - time to move on

They used to say that raw celery was a negative calorie food, but I'm not sure I believe it.


My fitness pal

Post 36

You can call me TC

I once heard that about hard-boiled eggs. I'd rather eat the celery, I think!


My fitness pal

Post 37

Beatrice

Some of the queries on the message boards are just hilarious...

"This may be a silly question, but the lemon juice that comes in those little bottles that look like lemons....is it edible? I use them to squirt in my garbage disposal to freshen it, but I need lemon juice for a recipe tonight. Can I use that or should I get something else? Just want to make sure I don't poison myself "


Anyhoo. Progress going well, 1 whole stone off, and trying some rather super dresses yesterday straight off the rail in a size 12 - no nasty lumps or squidgy bits!


My fitness pal

Post 38

Gnomon - time to move on

Well done on the weight loss.

And I have some happy memories of those little squishy lemons.smiley - pggb


My fitness pal

Post 39

Beatrice

I should have asked what she intended to make with the lemon juice! And offered a recipe of course smiley - pggb


My fitness pal

Post 40

KB

You *were* looking particularly lean 'n' mean the other week, Bea. smiley - ok


Key: Complain about this post