Hey everybody,

Some good news and some bad news. The good news is the guy was there to calculate the body fat % and mine went down a whole point!!! I'm now at 41.7%. (still horkin huge---but we're whittling away at the stick.). He was very complimentary saying that losing body fat % is not easy and it usually takes a while to get going on that (I wish he would've told me that before when I didn't change at all but still was losing weight). Anyway, he said that usually when it starts to go down it will continue at a fast rate, so let's hope so. The next calculation day for me will be June 7th---A good month away and some good time to make a good change!

And the bad news is that my BMR is going down. I thought that was a good thing, but my husband noted that it is supposed to go up while you are exercising, not down. So I did some research and found out that one of the reasons that a BMR would go down is because you are depriving yourself of the calories that you need and your body shuts down (similar to starving yourself and then your body just stops working and saves every bit of fat it has to preserve itself).

So, Here is the deal. I was trying to stay around 1600-1700 calories per day. Well, my BMR is around 1680 and that means that with all the exercise that I am doing I'm WAY below what I should be eating. I'm supposed to be eating around 2500 calories to STAY at my current weight. So to start losing weight I should subtract 500 calories a day and that will equal a pound at the end of the week....plus all the exercise should count for another pound (I'm hoping for 2 pounds a week).

So with all that hard work I was doing, it seems that I was pushing it a little too hard by lowering my BMR. All this food crap sucks, you know? You try your best and then your best ends up biting you in the butt too.

Well, education is supposed to be our friend. I'll be uping my caloric intake now by about 300 calories a day to keep that BMR up and not put myself into starvation mood. This means that I get to have 3 fig newtons and a bowl of life cereal tonight---Yippee!!! (Darn 300 calories goes too fast)

Molly

Hi, Molly, I'm glad you found out about the BMR. It always kills me when I hear about people restricting themselves to 1200 calories per day, one, how do they do that? and two, whoa, surely the metabolism will shut down...

Hopeful, I know what you mean about issues....I got derailed today. My ex-boyfriend called me today, and it was such a heated conversation, that after I hung up I ate a frozen pizza, 3 cheesecake bites, and 2 cups of instant pudding. My eating plan just completely slipped by me, I completely forgot. And now I'm just full, and I don't remember anything about how the food tasted, I just inhaled it.
yeah, made it to day 2 and fell off the wagon... I should have worked harder on the no-fail environment chapter....

I went to WW meeting tonight and have gained 3 lbs. Considering that I have not gone in a month and have eaten HORRIBLY, that is not so bad. I am with ya on the whole weight loss thing. It is hard but I am tired of being tired, ya know?

Just checking in to see how everybody is doing. I had a new thought for my goal of losing weight by September.....I have to get my driver's license renewed. Wouldn't it be great to put your actual weight on the license and be proud of it? That is a ways away, but just one more good incentive, right?

Just a thought to keep me going.

http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm

another helpful site!

Hey guys,

I am feeling a little discouraged today. I broke down and weighed myself mid-week, instead of waiting until Monday and I noticed that I haven't lost anymore than last week. I hope that I am doing all the right things, I have one treat night a week in which I indulge in a meal (usually pizza) but other than that I haven't fallen off the wagon yet. Maybe I'm not exercising enough, I work out 20 min a day for 4 days a week, any suggestions?

Hi everyone!
I'm so busy working right now. I can't wait to post later. I went to my meeting last night and felt great. So I'll write more later. I just wanted to say 'hi'

I want to comment on everything too, but for now...
Don't get discouraged Adriane! Stay strong. I've been losing really slow too and even gained when my parents were here. So we can do this! One week I weighed myself saw no change then the next few days I broke down and weighed myself and lost a couple of lbs. So don't let one weighing get you down.
I'll talk more later...
:-)

Katie - that website is so cool. Now I can know how much my walks burn off. It puts things in perspective. It also matched up perfectly with what my elliptical trainer says.

Hopeful,
Glad it helped, I thought it was pretty neat..and good to know that it is pretty accurate!