Interesting. Personally I experience the complete opposite where it's actually appetite surpressing. It definitely helps make my intermittent fasting periods more manageable, together with water and coffee. Imho diet soda's are a godsend for the calorie conscious individual. Mileage varies I guess

Hi Renton,

Just so you know, I think what you've done is amazing.

RE: metabolism - if you compare me to other women my age, maybe I'm avg, however compared to the rest of the population, big disadvantage. Perimenopausal women just have a lower metabolism. Statistically, it's almost impossible for women to lose weight after a certain age. Plus, I was just so damned heavy I wouldn't move much. Then health issues popped up and I moved even less and ate more. I feel like I screwed with my metabolism but I'm surely not using that as an excuse. It CAN be done.

I've been on a 2.5 month plateau while eating 1,300 cals per day. I think it's because my exercise was akin to a 230 lbs woman's. I just never upped it and obv my body got used to walking/yoga. I'm not too concerned about fast weight loss, I just want the ball rolling again and I think all this activity will do it.

OMG Your pictures are amazing. You look like a different person.

If I get courageous I may post some pics from 18 months ago, it ain't pretty.

Yep.

I've been pondering intermittent fasting btw. Eating during an 8 hr window. Is that how you do it? Do you find it difficult? Do you eat the same amount, than if you weren't IF?

Yea, I have my first meal around 2.30-3pm, and the last around 11. I don't find it very difficult. It took a couple days getting used to it but now it's fine. I'm blessed with a pretty low appetite so that helps a lot.
Tbh the most challenging part is squeezing 60 grams of protein in per meal, since I only eat 3 meals now.

I don't normally do IF but at the moment I'm doing a small weight cut and I thought I'd try it out. I like it. Before when I cut I had smaller meals spread out over the whole day and I'd be hungry all day. Now I'm just hungry part of the day and can eat nice big meals the rest.
It also helps with eating out and stuff like that. When it's the first or second meal of the day you have a lot more wiggle room with restaurant food and/or alcohol.

When I'm going back to weight gaining I'll drop the IF though.

Josie,

Thanks for the kind words!

I wanted to add an appropriate response to a weight loss plateau is to make small adjustments while avoiding over-adjusting. Decrease calories by 10%. Increase activity by 10%. If you're going from relatively sedentary to 3x a week lifting plus various forms of cardio, I think that's going to be very difficult to adhere to. You might also find that the huge increase in activity stokes your appetite.

You could also work on gradually increasing your NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Basically, all of the daily life activities that aren't overtly exercise. Sitting up straight instead of slouching. Standing instead of sitting. Taking frequent walking around breaks instead of sitting at your desk for 8 hours straight. Keeping your house cleaner. NEAT accounts for a much greater difference in individual metabolism than any genetic factor.

Do you think you were much above 1300 in your 30s?

I'm losing weight at about twice that per day. I started reading this forum to motivate myself to stop an ongoing +/- 10 lb yo-yo. Pretty happy with the way I look, not going for a dramatic body change.

This is definitely my addiction! Toast for breakfast. Pasta/Bread with dinner.

fyp

Geez you've hit the bullseye on both accounts. This week I'm decreasing calories by about 20% and increasing activity about 60%...I do believe you're right. I'm skipping the gym today as my sister's bf is in the hospital and she needs some support.

NEAT - as soon as I started reading this paragraph I sat up straight. Def need to work on this as I know it develops core muscles as well. I'm a big sloucher...and yes i sit at a desk all day. WILL DEF WORK ON NEAT.

Thanks for the great ideas!

In my 30s was a different story. I wasn't morbidly obese or sedentary. My guess is I was eating about 1,800-2,500 calories but fairly active.

I do think being moridly obese and sedentary lowers your metabolism but I could be wrong.

Toast w peanutbutter used to be a staple of mine long ago. Mmm

Ack, you're right but it's not easy with fast food joints everywhere and fake healthy food, not that I'm making excuses. I'm just saying it's ****ing hard.

All that garbage packaged as healthy food pisses me off. Like yoplait yogurts, lean cuisines, etc.

Weight loss is one of those simple things that shouldn't be confused with being easy.

Sugar!

I play poker EVERY Friday night.

Seriously, if you ever want to meet up and play a little, it'd be a lot of fun. And could be profitable, for someone.

Idk what the cut off is for "morbid" obesity, but I would have thought the bigger the person; the more calories it takes for them to haul themselves around? Will Google and report back.

I'm always around 150 and 5'7." Getting below 140 is too much work. Not to channel MLYLT too hard, but I wonder how much of my fluctuation is related to my cycle. Dat water weight.

It is with that attitude!

There are tons of bad zumba teachers around (a lot of them are not doing real zumba), I take zumba 2 or 3 times a week and can't remember last time I twerked. I am takin a class with this guy on saturday,


He doesn't have the best technique but man, they are so much fun.

Also, in many zumba classes you put unnecessary strees on your knees(specially with bad teachers), check if your gym have different teachers during the day/week and look for someone whose class is fun and simple; also check for some dance fitness or salsa classes, these should be better for your knees in the long term.

Geez you must look incredible right now. It IS hard, those last few pounds are the hardest to shed.

I wouldn't think much about the monthly water weight?

FYI we are about the same weight but I'm 5 inches shorter lol. #jelly #mltnojelly

Lol

Oooooo tyvm, I was thinking the teacher was off. Omg it was more ass and hand rotations than anything else. I'm guessing that's not usual. My wrists got a helluva workout. I will try the video tonight. Tyvm!

Solid post. Was actually a bit surprised at the difference in cals burned between sitting and standing: according to one study, 20 cals per hour. I didn't dig into the study as such, so take that with a truck load of salt.

On the other hand, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, unless you're very high up and/or move between floors a lot, will barely register at all.


Josie,
how long have you been dieting? Have you ever done any refeeds? Diet breaks? Metabolism can definitely be affected by long-term dieting, even if it can't be permanently damaged. Imo it would behoove you to read http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/a-g...xible-dieting/ to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind fat loss. It e.g. goes into dealing with plateaus.


Like this right here. Yoplait yogurts are just fine and definitely not garbage. Sweeteners are just fine. I absolutely use them when dieting to help with sweet tooth cravings.


Complete aside, but as someone who actually dances salsa I can say that there is 0% salsa in this guy's movements and 100% reggaeton. Salsa is also pretty meh as exercise, especially classes.

I will def read those links this weekend, thank you! I started this in November 2015 with slight variations and modifications. I mean I didn't start out eating 1,300 calories, but it evolved into that. In the beginning small changes were enough to get some lbs off but I've had to modify to keep it going and it's been a slow, slow loss. No I haven't done any diet breaks but I've had some cheats.

The last couple months I've been letting in sugar more than I used to but staying at 1,300 calories. Of course if I'm spending my calories on sugar and carbs, there's less for protein. I've def been lax - maybe that's a diet break? I was justifying it by, hey these small clothes fit, I can have a cookie.

I guess the yoplaits aren't garbage. What I dislike is that they're marketed as health foods but they're not. I guess they're portion controlled. Most people think "yogurt" is healthy and it is but hat stuff is barely yogurt.

Funny, my sister is a big time salsa dancer and made me take classes. I def didn't burn a lot of calories in the classes but I was learning. I have the basic moves...I learned to dance "on 2". Issue is I'm a very beginner, don't have natural ability. I know I should go dancing more, but meh. It's never fun, it's more like work for me.

I'm loving the gym, though it's only a week in. I will try a different zumba instructor there, and there's yoga tomorrow!

Being lax is not the same as a diet break, which is actually going to maintenance for a couple of weeks (+/-, there's info on Lyle's site as well as in the book). For a number of reasons, including physiological with the aim of keeping your metabolism humming/increaase long-term compliance.

Not to go all Thremp on you, but what is "healthy"? Most people have very weird definitions of the word.


On2 linear is the only way to groove! Dancing as a beginner usually isn't very fun, but girls get better quite quick. Then after a year stall and realize it takes a lot of work to improve, then quit. So yeah, it's a lot of work to actually get good at. Helps to love the music (the good music, not the Marc Anthony stuff). /derail

Thursday 4/27/17

Protein 80g
Fats 51g
Carbs 61g

Total calories 1016

Well, I almost had a perfect day. Bummed, my protein is back down. I had those turkey burgers with every meal thinking it automatically make me hit my protein goal but nope. I knew I was short last night and thought I'd have a hard boiled egg after dinner, but ended up having some peanuts then couldn't be bothered to cook an egg.

I'll posts mfp screen shots - this is just to keep me accountable and it's def working.

Had ham and eggs already this morning and am about to have a honeycrisp apple. I brought in a haul of food for today, pic to come and after looking at it I feel like it ain't gonna be enough protein. I may have to resort to protein shakes/bars to supplement.

Don't drink "protein shakes" if you don't like them. Just down a scoop of whey in water in 10 seconds. You get used to it very quickly and it's not an ordeal that involves a blender and a bunch of ingredients. In the beginning, I got hung up on protein flavor comparing and mixing milk instead of water for taste and all that crap, but now I just down it with lukewarm water and move on with my day. I do the same thing with creatine. Put scoop of creatine on the tongue, slam it with a glass of water, and proceed with day.

How much water? You do unflavored whey protein that whey? <---see what I did there?

1. Purchase whey in a flavor that doesn't make you gag. I choose Optimum Nutrition's Extreme Milk Chocolate. But in theory, unflavored would probably be fine since I'm downing it so fast.

2. Put 200-300ml water in a shaker. Lukewarm water works better than cold because the whey dissolves more readily in it.

3. Put a scoop of said whey into said shaker. Stir with a swizzle stick. Shake well.

4. Down the mixture in <10 seconds, rinse your shaker and put it along with your swizzle stick in its handy location above the sink.