<p>I grilled tilapia with a chipotle sauce and made a huge romaine/spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, slivered almonds, avocadoes, and edamame. H and D2 were very satisfied. I even got H to try my low sugar raspberry vinaigrette and he liked it!</p>
<p>Have been losing weight for a year. Still waiting to reduce in the bust…sigh…</p>
<p>^^^
Maybe we could work out a deal:) I wouldn’t mind an increase there!</p>
<p>I ordered steamed edamame the other night at a chinese restaurant. Love it!</p>
<p>If we’re having true confessions here, I had a hamburger Happy Meal for lunch. So satisfying as I was too hungry after days of salads and relatively few (for me) carbs. I lost more than 70 pounds on WW several years ago eating Happy Meals. Of course, I also was running marathons then.</p>
<p>So we will all do better tomorrow! I have to go to a party in the afternoon. I will really have to watch it. Lot’s of salads are coming though.</p>
<p>I will be traveling the next two days, and will have less control over what and when I can eat. I have tried to do at least some planning - unusual for me! - because I see that there are periods during which I won’t be able to eat, and times when the choices won’t be great. I know that I will do better than I would have if EPTR hadn’t started this thread (three cheers for EPTR!). I also have been eating things I “shouldn’t” - a cookie here and there, (brown rice) pasta for dinner tonight. Strict compliance with an eating plan would take more time and organization than I have available right now. This is why this thread is such a good home for me. We’re all trying to gradually find our way to healthier habits.</p>
<p>Wow look at the size of this thread already! 37 pages!</p>
<p>Just never give up. Everyone has a bad meal or a bad day. You will likely all your life. The important thing is not to throw in the towel. Over the course of a week, one mistake (or two!) isn’t going to ruin the week.</p>
<p>Like I said earlier, if you can be patient (likely the weight/inches didn’t GET there overnight!), just shoot for a 10-20% improvement - eat a little less, eat a little healthier, exercise a little more. It WILL add up!</p>
<p>No, it’s 455 calories for me. I think the reason is that I do have a small frame. But right now my waist and hip measurements are only 2 inches apart and I look like I did when I was pregnant. The problem is that I am sedentary and probably weigh less than I deserve to, given my life style and weight already. I would like to lose 12 lbs which is not a lot, but I am very small framed, and what I have is all fat around my middle. I am one barrel of a figure and I don;'t want to go into old age that way. And it is packed,not all loose and jiggly. 1200 calories is the minimum I should be eating is what is said, but for me to lose any weight, I’d have to go down to 455 which is not recommended and is dangerous. So what I need to do is in order for me to eat 1200 calories a day, is to exercise off an additional 645 calories. There is no other way around it.</p>
<p>I am not on a calorie counting regiment and had a whopper jr w cheese at BK today along with those fried onion rings (delicious, sigh…) for lunch. Woke up too late for breakfast, so it was my first meal of the day. For dinner I had salmon with salad. Comes to 1240 calories. So I exercised 150 calories today in deliberate exercise which puts me at about 800 still too many to lose weight on a calorie count basis. </p>
<p>Since I starved myself pretty much for 3 days and have been on an Atkins first level diet for 3 days and am now on this Carb addict’s diet which is really the same as Atkins but allows for one balanced meal a day, and haven’t lost but maybe 2.5 lbs, the Livestrong analysis makes sense. That I have a faster than average metabolism might be why I am not as big as a house at this point, and hopefully with what I am doing, I can lose without going to a 455 net each day. We’ll see. As of now, absolutely no diminishment of the waistline, not even a softening which is what is particularly discouraging.</p>
<p>I walked the dog tonight for 15 minutes. Yes, it has been way to long. He has forgotten how to heel and his leash manners are gone as well. He nearly dragged me down the street. Then he proceeded to mark every bush and mailbox on the route. I am proud to say I outlasted him though, as he was exhausted for the last 5 minutes of the walk and I was going strong. I did a brisk pace. I can still walk for long distances, I’m proud to say and I need a bit of a boost after my biking fiasco. </p>
<p>Went up and down my staircase 20 times today–10 this afternoon, 10 tonight. The walk, the stairs and the bike ride add up to 150 calories. Tomorrow I’ll try for 200. I’ll have 2 eggs for breakfast, lunch will be a lobster salad, and dinner will be a pork roast, broccoli and rice, with watermelon for dessert. Thursday, I have to have the permanent cap put on my tooth, so we’ll see if I even feel like eating after that. I’ll do a good deal of walking in Manhattan to get to the dentist and back to the train station.</p>
<p>DH is a vegetarian, I still eat fish, so we have unusual meals. I made tempeh tonight that I marinated in a lite coconut milk, ginger, pepper, rice vinegar, curry, soy mix. I grilled the tempeh and blanched baby bok choy with the reserved dressing. </p>
<p>I don’t keep track of carbs. I use Dr. Gott’s no flour, no sugar approach. I have essentially eliminated sugar and I have significantly limited flour. It is not a bad system for the long haul. If I do have something sweet or rich, a very little goes a long way.</p>
<p>Totally bagged the low carb thing. I found that for the few days I tried it my calorie consumption was ridiculous and weight went up a few pounds. Went back to what I consisder sensible eating, with fruits ,vegetables, salads, cheese (low fat) and the ocasional small sweet treat, etc and I am back down to what I was before all my travelling and such. Still have about 12 lbs to go. but I am back on track.</p>
<p>Watching calories works for me. Period. But 425 cals is starvation, cpt. Aim for 1/2 lb to at most 1 lb/week wgt loss. Anything more than that at our size is really really difficult to maintain.</p>
<p>I lost 40 pounds when I was in my 30s using sheer willpower on eating and working out a lot (2 hours per day), and went from 245 to about 215 a few years ago, also using sheer willpower. So clearly it can be done without low-carb.</p>
<p>I definitely do see a lot of benefit to watching calories.</p>
<p>I think that trying to lose weight FAST doesn’t work - it took time to put it on and it will take time to safely take it off.</p>
<p>I agree with Jym, CPT,</p>
<p>There is no way you can survive on those few calories. How many calories do you eat when you are NOT trying to lose weight? And how many would you be eating if you wanted to maintain your current weight? Anything less than maintenance intake should cause you to lose. No?</p>
<p>It seems that everyone has to find what works for them. The low carb for some of us, low fat for others. If it works…well, it works. That’s what we’re looking for. </p>
<p>Keep up the support! Today will be a challenge for me! Last day of school and the teachers will party!</p>
<p>I dont consider what I am doing as “willpower”- I consider it being conscious of what I am eating, tracking my consumption and keeping calories in check. Am exercising when I can, but not every day. This should be a lifestyle shift. There really should not be a difference between being on/off a diet.</p>
<p>^^^
I agree! Being “on a diet” feels like a prison sentence taht will be up in a few months with time off for good behavior. I’m looking for something that will help me be the weight I am comfortable with, help me find the waist I used to have before I became a rectangle and be sustainable as a lifestyle without punishing myself.</p>
<p>Back then I didn’t track my calories - I didn’t have a convenient way of doing that. LiveStrong makes that easy today. I used to workout a lot and could eat 4K or more calories regularly - shifting to more sedentary life obviously caused an imbalance. For me right now, it’s all about losing weight - figuring out what to do when I get to where I want to be will be the next challenge. Fortunately there are many more a lot closer to that than I am that will have to start working on that.</p>
<p>I plotted my calorie consumption on top of my weight graph on livestrong. Its painfully apparent that my weight parallels my calorie consumption, irrespective of fat/carb consumption.</p>
<p>CPT, maybe you should consider NOT cutting the amount of calories you eat now, (sounds like your actual weight # is not bad) but to use those calories to eat better foods. For instance, instead of that Whopper Jr. and/or onion rings, you could have had more food (both heathier and more quantity to keep you filled). </p>
<p>Also, if your weight is not really out of line, maybe what you need is just a good, solid exercise routine - I know, that can be the hardest of all! But that may help you to lose the “inches” you seem to want to lose.</p>
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<p>This is a key principle of my “calorie shaving” strategy I spelled out earlier. You never go “on a diet” and you don’t punish yourself or suffer. You just make a lot of little permanent lifestyle shifts that add up to something big in terms of weight management.</p>
<p>I am going for a half pound a week at this point. And it will have to be done in averages, it is painfully clear. I have been cutting calories for several months now, and was gaining overall, which for me is unusual. Used to be able to lose any time by cutting down. Clearly a set point has been established, making losing a problem. But for me, the primary concern is the bulk around the waist, not actual weight, though, I could use a few lbs loss there too according to the charts. I won’t lose the bulk without losing the weight, however. </p>
<p>One thing the Carb Addict’s Diet book says is to weigh self daily, but average the weights weekly and look at the comparisons on a weekly basis which I think is a good way to go. Water weight and fluctuations can make a few pounds difference. </p>
<p>I am hoping that the fat/carb ratio change in my diet prompts a start of some weight loss. Just cuting the calories did not work, and if the Livestrong chart is even close to right, I am not exercising enough to even maintain my current weight and should be gaining more as I have been over the last year. At my age and size, in order to eat a normal 1200-1700 calories a day, I have to exercise more. I think I can easily add 500 calories of directed activity each day, and will try to add 1500… Just doing that raises my allowable intake to a great level, and I can gain weight.</p>
<p>I wonder how those who are wheelchair bound can get enough activity so that they can eat a reasonable amount without getting heavy.</p>
<p>I don’t even try to lose 2 pounds a week. It’s too little food for me. I have it set at 1 pound a week (1386 calories), but in reality I had been losing about a 1/2 pound a week. I’ve stalled out so I am going back to some tracking again. Just stuck in what I ate yesterday and it was just over the one pound a week amount. Except for one extra chocolate truffle, there wasn’t much I’d be willing to cut.</p>
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<p>A comment that I make from time to time to those around my age is that the the 50s are your last good time to get rid of the extra weight and build up strength. After the 50s, the joints may not hold up so that you can exercise to take off the weight and you are left with just dietary changes. The additional strength will help you to prevent injuries (such as in catching yourself before a fall) and should help you to recover from injuries more quickly.</p>
<p>Doing 1,500 calories of exercise a day is quite a bit. 90 minutes of vigorous tennis for me is 1,000 calories. Running 7 miles is 1,000 calories. I could easily do 1,500 calories of exercise when I was in my 20s but doing that amount at my age would take a lot out of me for a day or two afterwards. I have done that (say 90 minutes of tennis and a four mile run) but my knees were sore for about three days afterwards.</p>
<p>Exercise should be added fairly slowly as the joints and muscles have to adapt to the increased load and adding too much too fast often results in injuries. I’ve had lots of exercise-related injuries in the past and sometimes it comes down to pain/injury management.</p>
<p>Once you get there and once you lose the weight, the exercise becomes easier as there’s less pounding on your joints - losing weights gets you into a virtuous cycle.</p>