Christmas 2016 to Valentine's Day 2017 Challenge

[Bobbinyc]

Welcome all Challengers!  What an amazing group we have!

Let's all continue together to take off the excess pounds and keep getting healthier.

This challenge will begin on Christmas and finish on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. 

All you need to join this challenge is to post your stats regarding your weight, and check in weekly or as often as you'd like. We are a great support group and enjoy keeping up with each other and being there for our ups and downs.  Generally we have found that the more we check in and offer support, tips, info,  and ideas to others, the more we get for ourselves.

We list our weight, as well as any other goals we might have related to being healthy (such as increase water, more active minutes, etc).  Developing good health habits is primary.

A little rundown of terminology for anyone who is new.

USW- Ultimate Starting Weight

CSW- Current Starting Weight (for this challenge)

GW- Goal Weight   (for Feb 14)

UGW- Ultimate Goal Weight   (what your healthy target weight is)

PW- Previous Weight

CW- Current Weight

MFP- My Fitness Pal

List as much info as you like.  Some people include age, gender, height....whatever seems relevant to you.

We keep it as serious or light as we feel, but we always keep it focused on being as healthy as possible, while we support each other kindly.  We can do this together!!

[smwcbrie]

@_Lilac_Is this fitbit premium? I don't have that, so I don't know what it does. On my fitbit app, it says I need a 500 calorie deficit, which equals that 3500/week thing mentioned in the article. ???

I need to move it more -- I cannot eat nearly those calories to lose what I want in my timeframe (I picked June 1, arbitrarily, so 148 days from now or about 21 weeks). I'm a snacker though. I can eat healthy, but my challenge is to not graze all day. I've already had three snacks today. Good ones, but still.

I do have 4.3 miles on the mill and 15 minutes on my bowflex. So, today is a good day I think. 🙂

[SunsetRunner]

I've had a pretty good week so far. I've exceeded my step goal each day and my activity minute goal. I'm doing Whole30 for the month of January along with my daughter and son-in-law. It is a total change in eating habits - some I hope to continue others I know I won't. We are basically doing as a reset after too much indulging over the holidays. Sounds like everyone is having a pretty good week.

[Annabel398]

12/25 | (start) 134.2

1/1      ███▌-0.7

1/8     ███████ -1.4

1/15    ██████████▌-2.1

1/22    ██████████████ -2.8

1/29    █████████████████▌-3.5

2/5     █████████████████████ -4.2

2/12    ████████████████████████▌-4.9

2/14    █████████████████████████▌ goal: 129.1 (-5.1)

Starting anew from Christmas, shooting for just over 5 pounds in 7 weeks. I'm signed up for (at least) 4 spin classes in this period, so I believe I will definitely dip below 130 before V-Day. Considering I've been yo-yoing up and down 3 pounds for the past month, I'm ready to kick it up and LOSE.

[_Lilac_]

@smwcbrie I don't have fitbit premium. I don't use the app, I use the website because I can see and do more things with it. When you set up your fitbit, it asks you your age, weight, height, activity level, etc. It also asks for your goal and how long you want it to take. That is where fitbit tells you how many calories you can eat based on what you burn. It changes constantly. It already takes into consideration your requested deficit. On the dashboard it will say 'you can still eat 285 calories'. 

Maybe someone can give details about step by step things to click on to make sure it's set properly?

Ok, update. I found it! If you go to the dashboard, hover over the 'weight' category, a little cog will pop up at the bottom. You can set you goal weight, etc. The same can be done for the other categories, such as calories burned/deficit.

[dancefoxtrot]

Hi all,

Bouncing up and down in weight day to day. Lowest I hit was 146.6 2 days ago but bounced back to 147.7 this morning. Not going to focus on this insane variation. 

Went to the nihs website and they said eat 1605 cals a day if I up my exercise 5%.  Nope, not doing that as even when maintaining I have to keep the calories down at 1350 or so. Fitbit tells me to eat more as well but I inhabit my body and know that I need to be very careful about calorie intake since I want to loose.  I eat low carb, mostly veggies, beans and some fish, eggs, nuts, seeds and fruits. 

It makes no sense to try to force oneself to eat all calories Fitbit or any other calculator advises each day.  Of course, we need to stay on top of our doctors to lower our medication as we lose weight, especially meds. for Diabetes 2, pre-diabetes, hypertension, and diurectics since we often need less as we get thinner.  We can take our own BP and what for symptoms of low BG, and get to the MD asap. Since meds. have side effects getting off them or most of them when possible is smart and save $$ as well. We can spend that money to take care of ourselves like with new clothes that fit better.

Packing for a trip now.

Best wishes for staying strong and clearly focused on your goals.

Best,

Barbara G

[smwcbrie]

@_Lilac_ great thank you! I'll check it out in the morning. 🙂

[A_Lurker]

@dancefoxtrot- I admit that the thought of you standing on one leg to read the tracker made me laugh.  I looked up the weight lifting move I did years ago (Single Leg Bent Over Dumbbell Row) and all I remember is pretty much falling over when I started with it.

[A_Lurker]

@_Lilac_- we're back to the crappy blowing wind with snow again today.  There already have been some areas without power, but so far we're good.  I made a bit of a deal with one of the people at work.  She's got heat if we're out of electricity (and her BBQ ready to go) and I'm going to bring food and wine. 

[A_Lurker]

@smwcbrie- great link.  When I first started tracking my food while losing weight I was around 4000 calories to lose a pound (and it wasn't a direct correlation, just an average).  It eventually lowered to about 3800 and I figure it's close enough for me.  The catch is that BMR/TDEE etc is an average (just a guess).  I always think its good to pick something, follow it for at least 3-4 weeks and then see what the results are.  At that point you adjust and try something else.

[A_Lurker]

Just a general wave to people to say hello.  I've been sleeping less than I should have lately (my fault) and I'm trying to get to bed at a decent hour tonight.  I still have a couple of thousand steps to head off and do and then I may catch up on a few more posts.  Those who are down, congrats and keep it up.  Those who maybe are maintaining, that's still a great achievement.  Those who might be fluctuating on the upwards side - consider it a transitory thing and consider what you're going to do going forward.

[GettingfitinSC]

Wow, I was planning to post good news also. It seems to have been a good day today. Congrats to everyone who has lost or has met or surpassed their goal steps! As for me, when I weighed this morning, I was 231.5, which is down from 233.8 on Sunday. It fluctuates, I know, but it's still great to see it going down. Also, I started back to school after Christmas break and got 6000 steps pretty easily. I did the Leslie Sansone's 1 mile Happy Walk to get to my 8000 step goal. At the end of the video, it said 1 mile Express Walk, so I decided to do just a little more and see what it was like. I ended up doing that walk also, so I got to 10,000+ steps for the 3rd time. 🙂 I've been doing the Happy Walk each evening; I'll try to do both walks again tomorrow and maybe continue that each night for a while before bumping up again. Thanks for all the encouragement on here. It's great to check in and see how everyone's doing. 🙂 Have a great night! 

[_Lilac_]

@GettingfitinSC I'm glad you are having fun with those walks! When I first did the happy mile it was difficult! When you aren't used to moving, and especially not used to going at a good pace, it can be hard. But I did what I could and pretty quickly it wasn't tough anymore. I'm glad you progressed to another video! I love seeing my progress and that the changes I'm making are improving me. Yay for you! It's so self-motivating. 

[Glenda]

Dancefoxtrot, I agree with you completely! There are many studies where researchers conclude that exercise is important for health and maintaining muscle but will not help many people lose weight. AND it is NOT logical that when you exercise you should or need to eat more. If that were true, our ancestors would have starved to death running after animals to eat. Unfortunately it is much more motivating for people to think exercise helps them lose weight even if it is really the changes in their eating habits that will make the difference. They want to be doing something. You have to find a reasonable eating & exercise program that you will not need to abandon in a short while causing you to regain any lost weight.

...........Even though a guy lost weight eating twinkies, and calorie theory isn't perfect, when you eat nutritious food it is more satisfying and you can eat less and stop. I would find it as hard to limit twinkles to the number that would allow me to lose weight as to eat just one potato chip or nut.

.........Some health conditions are not at all understood by the "experts" even now, like epilepsy. So people with those problems probably know best what makes them feel better in regard to type and amount of food. Government guidelines in the past have usually not had any science to back them. Maybe they are untrustworthy due to conflicts of interest and financial influences to researchers? Billions of dollars have been spent by the sugar industry to convince people artificial sweeteners are toxic and that all obesity is caused by fat. You really have to think for yourself.

[Glenda]

                                    Smwcbrie,  Thank you for posting this.  So good to know.  Just another example of government suggested nutritional advice with no science behind it.  Zoe Harcombe has the most wonderful short video "a calorie is not a calorie"  @ theobesityepidemic.org or you could google it.  But it explains that a lot more calories are available to the body from carbs than from protein and fat.  Very worthwhile to watch.    It shows a government reccomended plate of food that is bad for you and explains it.   Thanks again.  Both so worthwhile.  Glenda

[Glenda]

                                      HeartBiller,  You might find recent research interesting if not encouraging or helpful with your possibly  completely different Daniel fast.  Researchers have discovered that intermittent fasting cures childhood lukemia in mice.  They want to rush into trials with people because no drugs were even involved.    There is a diet called the 5 - 2 which is called intermittent fasting but people don't actually not eat.   You can google 5-2 diets)   Two non-consecutive days a week they eat only 500 or 600 calories and the other 5 days they just eat normally.  This keeps the metobisism  and enthusiasm higher than dieting all the time for lots of people.  I don't know if they gave the mice a little to eat or not.  It is something to consider for a life long diet plan you can do forever.  It is like my reading the newspaper on my treadmill so that I don't feel guilty for wasting all that time reading.  I can do this much exercise forever.  

[smwcbrie]

@Glenda  I'll definitely look into it - thank you!

[smwcbrie]

@GettingfitinSCA long time ago (around 2001) I started out with Leslie. Glad to see that she is helping you to get moving. That's good stuff -- keep it up! 🙂

[smwcbrie]

@A_LurkerYeah, I don't know exactly where I need to be just yet since I'm only just keeping track.  Fitbit says I can have 1600 calories today (and that's just so far, with only 20 minutes on the mill). I surely won't be eating that much... NIH says I can eat 1387 or something per day, so I'm going be in that area  and we'll see how it all shakes out. It's an adventure for sure. 🙂

@_Lilac_  I remember now how to do it, see above, thanks for helping me get there. I don't think fitbit really gets me, but who knows. I am in agreement with @dancefoxtrot that we don't need to eat more just because we've exercised more this day or that day. Even if that were a requirement, I'd fail because I cannot possibly keep track of my food to that degree on a day-to-day basis. 

I do appreciate all the comments, advice and support! I'm glad I poked my head in to the community forums. One of the best decisions I've made all year. 😉

Have a good day everyone!

[_Lilac_]

Just got home from tearing up the mall with Mom. We got 5600 steps in 4 laps. Her step tracker ($20) is crapping out on her. It is catching 400 less steps than my fitbit does, it resets unpredictably (sometimes several times during our walks), etc. She has shorter legs than me, it should be showing that she's walked more steps than I have. She wants a fitbit! I want to get her one but I don't think she'd be happy with me buying it for her. And I don't know which one would be best for her! She is super low-tech. I gave my ancient one to my sister but she doesn't use it, so I told her to give it to my mom. I hope she likes it. If she does, and can get used to tracking her food, water, etc. then I might get her a newer model. She has finally admitted she might not be eating enough because she ate a bit more and lost weight! So she's anxious to do the tracking and see what fitbit tells her.

The roads are still in NO condition to take the dogs walking or to go walking by myself. I'll get my 4000 steps by marching or I'll go to my water aerobics class tonight since I missed the morning session. It's only 10:45am with the bulk of my steps completed. Woohoo.

I might take a nap! Oh, that sounds good! 

[debb21]

@_Lilac_  I have the fitbit zip, very low tech and I like it.  Keeps the time, miles, steps, calories burned (I turn that off)