[Doughnut]

Originally Posted by baffled111

But Heidi, you don't need a crystal ball because the future of your body is entirely within your own control. The future will not happen without your choices. If you choose to eat moderately and to exercise, the future you will be svelte; if you choose to eat indiscriminately, and don't get any exercise, you'll stay the way you are, or you'll backtrack. This I can guarantee. This isn't to say that you won't plateau periodically, or that you won't have to adjust your calories and your exercise from time to time, but the fact is that if you count your calories and do your exercise, you'll lose weight, perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly, but you will lose weight. You can worry about the last 5 pounds when you get there--there is no reason at all to be fussing about those last pounds now.

No crystal ball is needed--you are the author of your own future, and your choices will govern how that future plays out.

Whoa - that struck a chord. It's very true and yet makes uncomfortable reading.

[baffled111]

"Whoa - that struck a chord. It's very true and yet makes uncomfortable reading."

Hey Doughnut: I think it's rather liberating to think this way about your body! Since the only thing in the universe I can control is myself, I find it quite reassuring that only *I* can affect my weight. No other person or spirit can make me fat, and no other person or spirit can make me thin. It's all up to me. I rather like the feeling of being a free and independent creature with the power and autonomy to determine the size and shape of my body (within natural limits, of course.) It's painful when I let myself down, but I still get to take responsibility for my own choices, and there is pleasure in that, I think.

[Mami]

It took me several months to lose 5 measly pounds until I took the more scientific approach. I started logging everything I eat into fitday, calculating my estimated calories burned during the day (including exercise) and the spreadsheet adds up my deficit and divides it by 3500 (obviously the number of calories burned to lose 1 pound). I must've gotten really good at tracking cals burned and eaten because the spreadsheet is right on target with my weight loss.

Even when I feel totally out of control with eating - as I did this past weekend - I can take comfort that my calorie deficit, over time, is adding up and will be turning into a pound lost. Some days I eat more than planned or I'll eat some junk, some days I eat less to make up for it (never below 1200 calories though), and I try to get 12,000 total calories in a week (the average is about 1700 per day). I bounce around from day to day on how much I eat, but I've been keeping within this range during the week (except I went over a bit this past week so this week I'll get back to that formula).

And its working! I dont get overly discouraged when my weight fluctuates upwards or I eat a lot because I still see the calorie deficit column adding up from exercise or a few low calorie days. If I go overboard, posting here certainly proves to be helpful!