Im trying so hard to lose the weight I gained from when I quit smoking makes me want to start up again chewing gum gets boaring and I had to much sugar over the holidays to lose 10pounds for me would be a good relief and my blood pressure would thank me it was 153 over 100 last night Im checking tomorrow at the docter because it hasn't gone down since christmas...

I used to be pretty obese and started putting on a lot of weight especially on my thighs and bottom in my late thirties

littlepitcher:

Started SparkPeople 2 weeks ago. Lost 6 lbs first week, have to weigh in 2morrow.  I put on 25 lbs in 3 yrs cooking for my morbidly obese cousin.  No, he didn't twist my arm, but I ate his leftovers to conserve precious money to get the IRS paid off from seven very lean years and four desperate ones. SparkPeople is great but calories are impossible to figure on all of my home-canned condiments and fruits.  

What I do is go to the Sparkrecipes section in the Health section. Then I open the recipe calculator.  I enter the ingredients and then figure how many servings.  I will add up all the ounces of ingredients and divide them by whatever I think makes a decent serving size.  I enter it on the right in the servings box and then view nutrition facts.  For my frozen tomatoes or green beans, I count those as fresh since I didn't add anything to them during processing.  For things like jelly or jams, you could get by with just using their calculations.  It's definitely not an exact science for me but it seems to be working.   Hope this helps a little!

jennifer8055:

I used to be pretty obese and started putting on a lot of weight especially on my thighs and bottom in my late thirties. I started exercising as often as possible and also cut down on a lot of high calorie stuff. Unfortunately I hardly managed to lose much weight at all. I then recently read an article by a lady who claimed that she managed to lose nearly half of her weight using a particular weight loss supplement. I tried it out and it actually worked quite well. Within 4 months I managed to lose about 65 pounds. The results were pretty amazing and I feel so much healthier and energetic now. You can read more about the lady's article at

http://www.obesityzapped.com

Here is my concern about using any supplement to lose weight.  When you stop taking the supplement, how long do you actually keep the weight off?  Unless you make a lifestyle change in the way that you eat and exercise, then it seems to me the weight will just come back sooner or later.  I've had friends who took diet pills or went on Nutrisystem and the like.  They did great as long as they stuck to those plans but after losing the amount of weight they wanted, they were unable to maintain that lifestyle.  I know that, for me personally, those systems won't work. I had to learn to eat healthy and eat regularly.  Exercise is also a part of my plan but more importantly was eating at least 3 meals a day instead of skipping and not overloading on one meal in the evening.  Even with small servings some of the regular foods I was cooking would average 1200 calories or more.  Of course, only eating once a day, I wasn't paying attention to those serving sizes so was eating even more calories.  Last week, I had a low calorie day so decided to make fried pork chops, gravy, lowfat mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and one egg muffins.  That one meal came out to around 1200 calories and that was with a 3 oz serving of the pork chops, 2 tbsp of gravy and one muffin. Just an example of why I don't see something like that working for me unless I learn to cook and eat differently. I would even go so far as to say, I have an eating disorder.  All my life, I've heard that I was too big and needed to lose weight....even when I was a size 12 and 135-140 pounds in high school which isn't bad for a 5'6" medium frame woman.  I was very self-conscious about eating because I felt that people were watching and talking about me.  Saying things like, "If she wouldn't eat so much, she wouldnt' be fat." and so on.  I started skipping meals and would only eat dinner at home with my family.  When I started working after school, I'd eat a small breakfast, skip lunch, eat a junky snack at work and then eat dinner at 11 pm or later.  Eventually, I was only eating once a day.

Dear All, Changing my supper to lunch, ie, eating the most in the center of my day, has beena great help in my losing weight.  Due to all of my meds, which are sedative in nature, I sleep about 10.5-12 hours/night.  My aides give me my evening meds @ 4:15PM, & I'm usually asleep just about the minute they leave, @ 5PM.  BUT, I get up between 4-4:30AM.  I eat breakfast then, at the computer.  I eat lunch at about 10AM, except on days when I go to see my personal physician, Peter, or one of his nurses.  (Then I don't eat till I get home at about 11:30.)  I eat again, for the last time of the day, at about 2:30PM.  I have found that if I eat anything & any amount thta I want at 10AM, or at least at 11:30, I am not hungry at all at 2:30PM, & I just eat to save myself from eating too close to the time when I go to sleep (5PM). 

When I had eaten my main meal in the aft, I had a habit of eating more just before going to sleep, which meant that I coul not digest the food properly, as well as that I would be eating too much altogether.  (I'd tend to binge at that hour.) 

Yours in Him, Deb

Jennifer, welcome to the forum as I see this is your first post, and I sincerely hope you aren't trying to SPAM us dear.

I am worried about taking any kind of supplements or fad dieting. I've read them all. But just like budgeting is being a good steward of your money, dieting is being a good steward of your body.

Just like there are no quick debt fixes, there are no quick eating fixes. This needs to be a lifestyle change. Honestly, being on an SSRI for a year put the tremendous weight on me between sleeping all the time and eating the rest of the time... and did not solve anything in my life.

MattNH77:

 

 In 2001 I gave up drinking and drugs (rehab -- long story, but I have been clean ever since), and in 2006 I quit smoking.  Cold turkey, never had one since October 21st of that year.

  I am not sure as to what would be a good amount but perhaps by June 30th (or December 31st) we, collectively could lose a rargeted amount together and share in the success - I know I could lose a good 75 pounds myself ... so even 1000 pounds for 15-30 people would be realistic??

 

Congrats MattNH on your success overcoming addictions! Yes, food addiction will go along with that...that is something I use as a crutch alot. If I could re-train my thinking, I would be closer to my weight objectives.

If I figure right, starting in March, that would give everyone 4 months to lose about 5 lbs a month, maybe more...or a goal of 20lbs by June 30th. That is figuring 1 1/4 pound loss a week, which is healthy, and can be up to 2 1/2 lbs a week I believe.

So with 2 weeks remaining in Feb., our goal could be 22 1/2 pounds by June 30th? What's everyone think? Or am I pushing it?

 I'm game!  At losing 1-2 lbs a week, I'm scheduled to lose 50 lbs from Jan-June (I changed goals toward the end of January and that's when I got the June 13th date).  I have lost 18 lbs as of today since Jan.9th so I think 22 1/2 in this time frame should be doable.

wow, that is SO cool allie...just since Jan 9th!!!

I'd like to lose more than 22 lbs by 6/30/09, but I know that in the past, I'll lose for 3 weeks and plateau for 1, lose for 3 weeks plateau for 1....

Dear Michelle CinnamonHuskies, I would like to join in the game in a restricted, modified way.  I can only lose 2 lbs/MONTH, &, indeed my personal physician, Peter, thinks that I'm at a normal weight now.  It's just that I want to get rid of my pot belly.  I am 5'5" tall, waist 32.5", hip 42", & now weigh 141 lb at the Practice (less on my home scales, which must be misaligned).  By teh end of June, therefore, I would lose 1 lb for the rest of Feb + 2 lbs for March + 2 lbs for April + 2 lbs for May + 2 lbs for June.  That would bring me down 9 lbs to 132 lbs.  I hope that you & the fellow/sister Forumites who participate will accommodate my medical necessity of losing less quickly.  Four of my eleven medications yield weight GAIN of 50 lbs/year in many people (that's how I got up to 185 some years back.).  Will folks permit me to join at this adapted goal?  Love in Him, Deb