Need Help - Weight Loss

I have recently lost 17 pounds and am still going by doing an 8-week online class called "The Change Series" from www.weighdown.com. It's amazing, totally freeing, and I have found the strength to have self control rather than excersizing solely for weight loss. I believe I was at my highest weight ever when I excercized religiously! I still love swimming, but for fun and recreation with the kids! Oh - and the weight came off, for me, at a rate of about 2 pounds a week, steady, but not unrealistic for long term. And it has stayed off! I can't wait to sign up again for another class! Hope this helps!

Good Luck! J.

Count Calories. After each of my babies I simply counted calories and ate about 1500 a day. It may be a pain at first, but after a while it is almost like a game. It works- not a short cut but really works.

I had good results with kickboxing. Also, if you can find someone to hackysack with- that helped me lose my saddlebags when nothing else did. good luck!

Not trying to be mean but you can take it off fast but it won't stay gone. I do not know anyone and have never heard of even 1 person who lost weight fast and kept it off. And I am very deep around people who have dieted. Fast weight loss comes back because the metabolism adjusts to the starvation cycle and at some point you have to start eating again. Then the body stores fat. When you lose weight fast you don't lose just fat you usually also lose muscle. The skeletal muscle you lose only makes the weight gain worse because the lean muscle mass is what helps your metabolism burn fat. So now you have less fat but you have less muscle too. When you gain the weight back you gain back just fat, and more than you started with. You know, lose 20, gain 25, lose 25, gain 30. That's why it is called Yo-Yo dieting. It doesn't work. The body is responding negatively to a destructive event. Whats worse is the muscle lose. It can even be heart muscle that is damaged. People who toy around with weight lose have more heart damage than the people who don't try and just stay fat. Seems unfair but it is true.
The human will power is only so strong. Almost all people can't win the will power game at anything and for women it's most obvious with food. You can control big changes in what you eat for a little while but then will fail. These attempts at this type of control is what eating disorders are all about. Those people aren't weak. They went down a path that opened doors to only worse decisions. When you don't get the nutrients you need your brain cannot do it's job.

The food changes have to be small and gradual. You have to work the change into a normal and be totally happy with it. Then from your new normal you can work in another healthful change. Eventually, and without fail, these changes will add up to a much healthier eating style that is NOT a will power struggle each day. You will be healthier and the body will adjust down it's fat level to a healthy place. This might not match the look that hollywood or mattel puts forward or that you want.

So, if you weigh 180 pounds you would divide that number in half. 90. Thats how many ounces of water you should drink each day. Some juice substitute is fine but not all 90 oz. Stretch for no less than 20 minutes each day. Start gaining flexibility. Easiest at night while your favorite show is on. Get on the floor and stretch. Exercise no less than 20 minutes each day. 30 minutes is better. Longer than 45 minutes is too long if done all at once. If you have time and motivation you could do 2 - 20 minutes sessions in a day but have them at least 4 hours apart. The stretching I am talking about is not the range of motion warm-up that most people do before working out. I am talking about pure stretching. The kind that actually gains noticable flexibility improvements every 3 weeks. This should not be done before working out. You should be relaxed and resting after a stretching session.

You have to eat right so please don't go low fat. That's just stupid. You have to have fats in order to lubricate the joints in your body so you don't have joint inflamation. Your heart needs fats to work properly. Your brain uses fats to help the neurotransmitters fire correctly. You have to make decisions on the right and wrong fats.
Avoid all peanut oils. That is all fast food fried stuff. They use peanut oil usually. Deep fried anything is unnecessary. Use extra virgin olive oil at home in anyway you can but don't heat it too high. Eat almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, pecans, all raw and unsalted. Do not eat peanuts, they are useless. Eat almond butter instead of peanut butter. Have an avacado every week. Don't use any substitutes for butter. Just use butter. For butter wants on bread use olive oil and salt. It's hard to tell the difference by taste. Don't do artificial sweeteners, of any kind, at all, ever, and this includes splenda. They mess with the way your body processes sugar and carbs only making the overall problem worse. You can use molasses, honey, and stevia if you want to avoid processed sugar. If you are diabetic then use stevia. The drops are better than the tablets. It doesn't count against your blood glucose numbers.
You need to be taking a multi vit/min supplement,a trace mineral supplement, a stand alone B complex, CLA, and a fish/borage/flax oil pill every day.

It would be very beneficial to get a juicer and juice vegatbles every day. Carrot/apple/beet/parsley/celery. Then you wouldn't be needy for as many supplements. The juiceman by Jay Kordich and the Jack Lelane are really good ones for home use and affordable. You would have lots of energy and no brain fog if you did this each morning and as soon as you get home from work before dinner.

I wish I could give you an easy way but there isn't one. Anything fast is not healthful. The long road doesn't sit well with our instant gratification needs. You are probably pretty healthy and feel like you can go through the fast way without much risk for harm. But it does take a toll on the heart and the brain every time for every one. Don't kid yourself.

God Bless and Good Luck.

Hi M., I wanted the same thing. I WAS a huge soda drinker. No exercise at all. Just laxy and getting bigger. I started taking care of my great nephew mon - friday. I pull him in the wagon to the park everyday (5 blocks one way). I cut way back on the sodas ( from 6 a day to 1 a day). I eat smaller portions but eat whatever I want( I do not go crazy on junk though) and I eat 4 times a day. I do not eat or drink after 8 pm. (mostly) . I drink more water and eat more fruit than I used to. I started this about 2 months ago. I was a size 18-20 and I just went shopping 2 days ago for size 12-14's and some of them are big in the legs. ( My problem is my belly needs a bigger size than the rest of me. ) I have lost about 15 pounds but the size it what amazes me. I feel much better and its not been hard to do. I don't think about it really. Good luck to you.

Hi M.,

I lost over 35lbs 7 years ago doing Weight Watcher's and God has blessed me to maintain. It really works along w/exercise and be sure to drink plenty of water!

Check out SparkPeople.com . It's the most informative link I have ever found on the internet. Tons of information, forums to join, health, weight, fitness and nutrition charts for you to track your own information, hundreds of age or interest groups to join.Work on your own or with a group Excercises/recipes sent to your email if you want. I've belonged since January and have heard more success stories there than I have anywhere else,,,anytime. M. K

The low carb diet works wonders quickly. Be sure to take vitimans. People also talk about weight watchers but they seem to take a long time to actually get the weight off. If you can be strict then low carb is the way to go. Right before the holidays is a hard time but if you make it threw those then your good to go. 10 lbs a month is safe weight loss.

Hi M..

Last January,I joined the Quick Weight Loss Center, and with their diet plan, I quickly lost a total of about 60 lbs. I lost the first half of that in two months, and then it took another 4+ months to lose the last half.

They have centers in several locations in the Houston area.

The plan teaches healthy eating habits, and its not boxed foods. Regular meals are made from regular items purchased at the grocery store.

Hope that helps!
M. C.

M., I feel your frustration... If I could do more of what I have gotten myself to do, I would loose a lot more weight. I went to my doctor to get some advice. If you have the time, do an intensive high cardio clas three times a week, and free weights one to two times a week... He also suggested a diet very much like the Meditterranean diet. Low on carbs, high on protein and oils. If you can do this, you should see some results.. I don't know what gym you belong to, but Golds Gym has great classes, they have a Body Pump class that is strictly weights... good luck... J.

I don't think you want to lose weight rapidly if you want to keep it off. The best method for losing weight and keeping it off is to learn and maintain a healthy lifestyle. You are already on track with regular exercise. You may want to make sure you add muscle building to improve your metabolism which aids in weight loss.

You don't mention your eating habits. I can tell you that I have lost over 20 lbs in about a year and have maintained that loss for the past year with no problem. I was already doing the exercise (30-45 minutes every morning before work) but I didn't have good eating habits. In particular, we ate out a lot. I started planning my weekly meals on the weekend, grocery shopping just once and keeping the planned schedule. My meals are low fat, low cholesterol and low sodium. I have fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks between meals. We only eat out once every other week now.

I believe the combination of eating healthy and exercising is what it took to lose those 20 lbs and keep them off.

M.,
I don't know how young you are, women after 50 is harder to lose the weight.
I have lost 12 lbs in a month,
I am too busy to squeeze in walking, which is excellent way to lose weight,
I eat crappy, love my mexican food.

so what I did,
I take SLIMSHOTS.com , these are small coffee creamer size shots I take in the morning and one about 4 or 5 pm, they have helped me tremendously, I was going into size 18, ugh!! and now I fit into my 16's loosely. yeah!!
going for 14 for Xmas,

read about it on their website.
Also lots of the creams, lotion, makeup we put on our skin makes get inflated.
with their toxins and chemical.
check out www.NotJustAPrettyFace.org , and
www.CosmeticsDatabase.com, here enter your product and you will see how toxic our daily products are.

(ps: these are not my websites)FYI

good luck,
Oly

Losing weight rapidly is dangerous and sets your body up to more easily gain weight. The best long term weight loss/maintenance is portion control and moderate exercise. For example, an average restaurant serving is now 2 1/2 times larger than what a person should eat in a single sitting. Another thing to bear in mind is that it takes the stomach 20 minutes to register when food is in it, so eat SLOWLY and savor each bite! On the exercise front, I would add in some elliptical and light weights to your swimming regimen. Toning things up makes you look slimmer even when you're not seeing the pounds coming off the scale. A word of caution about swimming - you should be aware that it actually burns up less calories than other types of exercise but because it is a full body workout you will feel more hungry. A small apple or a carrot will take the edge off without adding unnecessary calories. Oh yeah, and skip the sports drinks. Unless you are training at the level of Lance Armstrong, you really don't need them. Water will do the trick.

I lost 15 lbs last year.. The best thing that helped me was a website www.calorie-count.com-- you can track what you eat-- you can put your recipes on there and it will calculate the calories for you-- they also have a database of tons of foods, and if it's not in the database, you can enter your calories in there-- at first, it was time consuming because you are trying to figure out how it works, etc... but I'll tell you it was amazing to see how many calories I was eating throughout the day!! It really opened my eyes.. I started measuring foods, and even bought a scale to weigh meat and stuff... I also walked everyday, for 30-40 minutes. It wasn't the "fast" way to lose weight, but it worked. Also, I bought cute workout stuff-- matching pants and tops, etc-- and a good pair of shoes-- when I knew I wasn going to walk, I made sure that I put on my workout clothes so I didn't have an excuse. Now I've had a baby, he's 8 weeks old- and I plan on doing the same thing to lose my lbs I gained during pregnancy. Good luck to you!

oooh, i know what you mean. im taking off 30 lbs in 6 mon. it can be done.
switch your diet to your energy needs, no calorie counting just common sense, and eat cleaner foods that are going to go through your body and not stick to your intestines.
im the administrator of a group online called cafemom. the group is called weightloss private support group. if you want you should stop by and give it a glance, if you need help getting there, let me know : )

You definitely do not want to lose weight rapidly. That only lead to gaining the weight back and more later. The best thing to do is change your lifestyle eating habits etc. so you average a loss of 1-3 lbs per week.

Since you are exercising you may not see a difference in the scale right away. You are building muscle and then that will burn fat. Muscle is more dense so the scale may not show a loss, but your clothes should show you that you are losing inches. You also have to make sure that you are eating enough, if not your body will hold on to the fat.

I have been doing Weight Watchers online since February and I have lost 33 lbs, and that is without exercising much. What I found was that I was not eating enough, I was not drinking enough water or eating enough fruits and veggies. WW shows you how to make good food choices and hoe to balance your diet, watch your portions etc. It's not a diet so I can eat whatever I want as long as I stay within the plan.

I have also been bellydancing for about a year and I noticed a huge difference in my core muscles.

So that is my success story. What I would suggest is that if you feel what you are doing is not enough, make sure you are eating enough fruits and veggies and drinking enough water. Watch your portions and I am sure you will see the weight start to come off. Remember you are in a marathon not a sprint so don't get discouraged just keep it up, you'll get there!

Good luck!

Oh I feel you!! I am working hard to get off 50 lbs of post baby weight! I haven't tried the swimming thing, but it sounds great to me, I mean it is a total body workout that won't harm your joints. Right now I am doing Weight Watchers and going to the gym a couple times a week and starting to play raquette ball with my hubby a couple times per week. I think that anything you do that is fun is something that will really help, so if you enjoy swimming, stick with it girl! Also if you have time to look into weight watchers, I highly recommend it, it helps you get your portion control back and allows you to eat a wide variety of foods. Best wishes!

Hi M.,
I lost about this amount at Weight Watchers. It was surprisingly easy with their point system, and I ate my own food. It's now more convenient since they offer an online weigh-in. This means you don't have to go to those meetings. The best thing is that it retrains you about portion size. I have kept the weight off for two years.
Best wishes!
J. M.

I once lost over 40 pounds using Weight watchers, and I was miserable the entire time. I've exercised as much as 25 hours a week to loose weight, and I lost nothing. As far as a healthy exercise, swimming is easy on the joints. The only think that has worked for me to lose weight is a low-carb diet. No bread, no pasta, no rice, no sugar, and be very carful with anything else with carbs, like nuts and milk. (Fat doesn't matter at all.) I take a good multi-vitamin, along with my medications, and I have lost almost 60 pounds in less than a year.

One very important addition to this that has helped me a great deal is that every twelve days, I eat carbs, anything I want. This not only helps me stay ON my diet, but pulls your body out of Ketosis, starvation mode, and you lose weight faster.

Every body is different; what works for one person doesn't work for another. Good luck.

I agree with Rebecca. And like I just said in a previous post, the very best thing that worked for me was eating four small meals a day and snacking in between with fruits or veggies. I lost 50 lbs in a year. And I really, honestly did not try that hard. Once you get into the routine, you will realize that you CAN'T eat a big meal anymore. You will get full a LOT faster!! Good luck!

Hi M.!! Boy, you've gotten a whole wide range of suggestions!! My personal experience, having lost 40# over the past year or so, is ...
1) you MUST document every single thing that goes into your mouth (you'd be soooo surprised to see it in writing),
2) exercise, and specifically low-impact swimming, is very helpful with making you feel better, tightening the loose skin of weight loss, relieving stress, and boosting your metabolism, and
3) I try to stay busy, keeping my mind off of food, and finding activities to replace my opportunity to go eat in the kitchen!!

Calorie King books are very helpful, especially when eating out. You'd be shocked to see the calorie content of certain "healthy" meals. Personally I carry the pocket diary book to keep in my purse. For the electronically minded, they do have online diaries, and software that can be added to handheld devices.

Good Luck .... it's so rewarding when you've accomplished your goal, I'm with 'ya M.!! You go girl!!

I needed to lose weight ,so I walked 4 times around the high school track.I started to notice the weight coming off all over my body.I would go in the evenings after dinner so I could walk off my dinner.I did'nt know I was walking a mile a day because it just seemed to be something I wanted to commit to at first.I did this everyday and it worked.

Good luck on your weight loss.Let me know it works out for you.

____@____.com

Please check out my website at www.irenecandles.scent-team.com

I've recently lost 50 lbs. Here's how:
1)I keep a log of exactly what I eat. I record my online. Here's a free website you can use: www.fitday.com
2) I work to stay between 1200-1500 calories/day.
3) I work to have roughly 100 grams of protein/day - which is tough. I also try to keep carbs between 50 and 75 grams/day.
4) I DO NOT eat the same thing every day, and I don't eat the same amount of calories each day. I have a day when I'm closer to 1500 calories, then a day when I'm at 1200, then a day in between, then a high, then low, etc. to keep my metabolism from getting in a rut.
5) I exercise, but not for weight loss. I love yoga and treat myself to a once a week class (it's quiet - there are grown ups - I focus on me). I stretch daily. I walk 4 times a week for about 20-30 minutes each time - for my heart health.
6)I eat lots of veggies (I shoot for 4 cups), but only one (sometimes 2) servings of fruit daily. I hardly ever eat bread, but when I endulge, it's a whole grain bread that has flaxseed/omega 3 - that kind of thing.
7) I have a dessert once a week - but only enough to enjoy the taste, so not the whole half gallon of ice cream. Maybe just a small cone, or half of a regular slice of cheesecake.
8) I eat small portions/calories and about 5 times/day. I don't eat after 6 pm.
9) I drink TONS of water. Well, maybe not tons, but I drink about 64 oz per day - which is a lot. I stopped drinking coffee, I drink tea occasionally, and no longer drink soda.
10) I take these supplements:
a multi-vitamin
calcium
Fish Oil
Chromium
5HTP
L-Glutamine

I don't know if this will work for you or not. But it has been pretty successful for me and pretty doable. I've had to work to change some of my habits, but writing down what I eat has helped. My big thing was snacking, but I've found other activities that keep me out of the kitchen and my mind off food. When I need to snack, I choose something that I know will tide me over (like an apple with peanut butter is good for my sweet tooth as well as gives me good protien and my need for munching).

Good luck! :)

M.:

I bought "10-Minute Trainer" from www.beachbody.com. I started out and could barely make it through one 10-minute session. In no time flat I was getting up every morning and doing 2 sessions. In one month, I went from a size 12 to fitting into all of my 8s and some of my 6s. I only lost about 10 lbs during this time, BUT that was because I was gaining muscle mass at the same time. It's important to measure yourself as this can give you more insight to your success than the scale. Also, after you lose that first 10 lbs, add weights -- hand weights and ankle weights (which can be purchased in diff weights and also adjustable weights). This is important because your body has now lost that natural 10 lbs of resistance, so you have to add it back. Also, eat a lot of protein....not ONLY protein, but make it an important part of your diet. Protein helps the body burn fat. Great sources for this are tuna and chicken. I would be happy to answer any question you might have for me if I possibly can.

Good luck -- and remember, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH DETERMINATION!

Like most I've tried it all. I found this fairly new thing and loving it. It's a weight loss patch. All natural and safe. You can still wear it if you work out or sweat a lot and there are no pills to take, no counting calories, no cutting out meals, no counting points, no starving yourself, etc. My mother, sister, a few friends and even my husband have all been using it and have had great results. My mother is up to 18lbs in about a month and half and 6 inches lost, my sister 14lbs and 5 inches, husband I think reached 10lbs in a mth although we haven't taken his measurements yet. I love how easy it is and that you actually get results. You lose the weight while maintaining muscle mass and increasing muscle mass plus it helps you sleep better, gives you energy without you heart feeling like it's going to jump out of your chest. I even recently became a distributor because I love it so much. I put my website below that you can go check it out in more detail or feel free to call me and I can give you the information. They have several products but I think the Jen Fe Power Patch is probably their top. I have a few packs in stock if you want it immediately or if you order through the website I believe it takes about a week. And yes all you do is put one on, wear it for 24 hrs then take it off and put a new one on. You can wear it in the shower.

www.nexagenusa.com/startthepatch ###-###-####
Let me know if you have any questions.
M.

I had success w/medifast & LA Weightloss center. (Did the LA Weightloss ctr first but messed up my knee so I couldn't do the required exercise anymore plus I ran out of money but later tried the medifast after my cousin lost 25 lbs w/it. Worked for me! Lost 20 lbs.). Look for something w/low carbs in it. Medifast has only 6 carbs I think compared to slimfast which has a lot more. That'll help too! Good luck!

M.,

I work out in the pool 2 times a week for about 1.5 to 2 hours at our Community College. Water Aerobics and swimming laps. I thought I would loose weight, but to my surprise I lost 13 inches the first 3 months (semester). It looks like I have lost and I have definately dropped a couple of pant sizes. I feel great. I would recommend swimming over every other exercise. It is great for you and easy on your body. I am proof that it works!

Hi M.,

I lost about 25 lbs after college in my 20's when I started exercising a lot and watching what I ate. But now that I'm a full time working mother and it seems like there is never enough time in a day to do everything, I really have to work very hard to manage my time to squeeze in exercise. I tried to do it on my own like I did when I was younger (I'm 36 now), but I've found it difficult b/c it's so easy to slack off. I'm on a quest to lose about 25 - 30 lbs right now too!I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy and never really lost all of it. I joined a small gym, got a personal trainer, and started to really educate myself about different types of cardio exercise, weight training, toning exercises, and food. My trainer is also a competitor so her great body helps keep me motivated to stick w/ my goals. I don't like to get bogged down w/ too many details. I try to stick to the basics and compartmentalize what I learn so that I don't get overwhelmed with too much information. I found a great website that helped me to get the basics down.

http://www.flat-stomach-fitness.com/

I hope that you find it as useful as I did.

Please keep in touch and let me know your progress. Maybe we can hold each other accountable to reach our goals - it helps me to have a support group.

Good Luck! You can do it! We can do it!

You need to do LOTS of cardio! Walk, kind of a fast walk when you can. At the gym, do the treadmill, eliptical, etc.. that is the best way to lose fat fast. There is a guy in my neighborhood, he walks EVERYDAY, sometimes 3-4 times I see him come by. He is my inspiration. I have watched him walk in the rain, etc... and he has lost 90 lbs. in a few short months. Good luck!

I started walking my daughter to and from school at the end of August. It's a mile each way. I average 12-16 miles per week. It took about 2 months of that and cutting back on sodas to lose 10 lbs. but I lost 3 inches around my waist and lots of inches elsewhere. Just try not to focus on the numbers, focus on feeling healthier, having more energy, building muscle, and maintaining heart and lung health =) Even if you don't lose the magic number you want, you might be surprised how much of a difference 10 lbs makes!