So I always sort of lurk around the 270/280's thread, waiting for some of my former supporters to come on down to the next thread!

I think your steps in your journey are great! I have been eating about 1200 calories a day (i use the myfitnesspal app to count) and I work out 4 nights a week at the gym. I dont know my BMR or my fat percentage or any of that. I know that I am morbidly obese, that I need to eat cleaner, better foods and that over the past 2 months I have lost 37 pounds and shaved off 7 minutes from how fast I can jog a mile. Everyones body is different, you will see if its working for you and if you stall out, you can eat a little more or less and see what jump starts your losses again. Its a huge game of figuring everything out and while figuring out those numbers might help, I genuinley dont think it's an exact science... every single body is so different its insane. Very proud of the changes youve made so far, and 3FC is an amazing supportive site!!!

Hi Britnee--I don't know the answer to your question. I have been playing around with some online calculators where you put in your stats and how active you are and it will tell you how many calories to have in a day. Maybe you should do that and make sure you indicate that you are very active?

One of the great things about this forum is there is a lot of tolerance! people are doing all kinds of programs and I don't see any bashing at all. :)

diane--so impressed with your gym activity! you deserve you little celebration

Hi CharityMarie--nice to meet you. please post anytime and keep us company!

I'm so glad its Friday. Although I have a ton of work to do and don't seem to have gotten much of it done yet. Sigh........
My back seems almost normal after whatever I did to it last Wednesday. I haven't decided if I need to keep babying it this weekend. I'd like to go do some shopping this weekend. It's my favorite little sisters birthday in a few weeks and the stores I want to go to are a good 1-1/2 hours drive. Guess I will see how I feel when I get up tomorrow!

BDG1985: Welcome! I had to laugh when I read your post. I have been on this forum for a very long time (off and on) and I've always enjoyed it. But, I do use MyFitnessPal for counting calories. I really like the tracking they have there, but I have looked at their forums and you will never see a post from me. It is kind of amazing to me just how rude they can be to each other. Although there are times when what the person is saying is absolutely right, the way they call people out is brutal. I can't do that.

That being said, I do love the tracking of calories, weight loss, exercise, etc. You might want to check it out. But, I also think that you can overanalyze sometimes, too. Just getting started, doing what you are doing, can make a big difference. Once you get more into it, you might need to tweak something to keep the losses coming. But I wouldn't stress out about it right at the beginning.

You can do this! Just keep posting on here and reading. You will learn a lot from all the people here. And you won't get bashed for what you say!

I have weigh-in on Monday and am hoping to be able to start posting in this thread...we'll see what happens!

Hi everyone--I did well yesterday on Day 1 of my official March Diet Plan. I went grocery shopping and OMG it cost a lot. but now I have all the supplies for 1 week of healthy eating.

I didn't mean to be uptight about every little calorie, but discovered an app from the livestrong my plate program that i could download to my new tablet. It had every brand of food I ate yesterday so I ended up entering it all in, plus my water [128 oz, woohoooo], and the tiny bit of exercise I did. :D

Good luck tomorrow Skittles--hope we see you here soon!

OliConnelly: Can't wait to have you here!!!

JzBelle: Good for you! I know what you mean about the cost, though! Ouch! But you'll be helping yourself so much.

I had an awesome weigh in today. I'm very excited to have reached the 270's, since I lost 2.8 last week. I've been trying so hard this past couple of months, I'm glad to see the loss. Since I'm in this weight loss challenge at work, and it only goes through the end of this month, I am going to give it my all. I told my family that I will be obsessive about it for now and they just have to put up with it. Starting in April, I still want to keep with it, but I promised them I wouldn't talk about it daily. There's just too much money at stake. If I don't win, that's ok, but I don't want to regret not giving my all to it. So, spin class 3 times per week, body pump 2 times per week, and working the weight machines with my daughter on Saturday. Still teaching her about those so that she can keep that fit, trim 19 year old body she has.

And...tracking, tracking, tracking every calorie. Fun times.

:cheer3::cheer2::cheer3:big congratulations on your weigh in Diane!!!
wow @ the work weight loss challenge. Its going to be tough to be so on top all month. you may move past [below?] us to the 260-250 thread by the end of the month!

I'm doing ok so far with my stocked up kitchen. Had a bit of a slip Sunday afternoon but have been good otherwise. Scale inched down a bit this morning so I'm pleased.

I think I'm not quite ready for counting and tracking every calorie. I have my meals planned so I'm just going to try to stick with it the rest of the week and see how it goes. Actually-after doing some calorie counting on typical things I eat, I decided that my typical breakfast and lunch are JUST FINE. So what I'm working on is making dinners that are healthy, not too carb-heavy, and not huge portions. If I follow that then I should be in the 1200-1400 calorie range that the weight calculators recommended for me.

I wish I could have a ticker!!! But I'm too new, got to wait until mid March before I'm allowed a signature.:^:

JzBelle: Thanks for the encouragement! Glad you had some loss, too! Always a good thing. It's hard to wait for a ticker. I know I like seeing them on other signatures and I use mine all the time.

I was thinking about this weight challenge at work. I know where a couple of people are with it, but not everyone. So, it's kind of making me crazy. But then, I wonder if I knew that I wasn't going to win, would I try as hard? I would hope so, but I bet I wouldn't. So, probably good that I don't know. Just need to charge onward.

Went to Body Pump this morning. Good workout. But now I have a case of the hungries. I ate breakfast and I should not be starving, but I'm feeling it today. I think you just occasionally have those days.

Hi, can I join you all here? I have been bouncing back and forth with my weight the last 4 years or so... I have been down 100lb and back up now... I am 4lb above my previous "high weight" when I first joined this site in 2009 and started losing (I think I started losing early in 2009 before I joined, but don't remember exactly... I do know I dropped quite a bit of weight over the course of 1.5 years or so). That was 275, and at the lowest I recall weigh in at 169. :( I was about 185 at the time of my profile pic here which I put up about the summer of 2010... I'm going to keep it up because I can hardly bear a current picture. I ballooned up in 2011 again when I was pregnant, and a little bit every year since then.

279 today... I hope to get on track. I am going to weigh once a week on Tuesdays perhaps. As I say this I am sitting in my chair, just put my toddler down for a nap and I am exhausted. I can't even imagine exercising right now. I used to be soooo into fitness and doing so many things but at my current weight, and just having dropped caffeinated drinks cold turkey a couple days ago, I feel like I have no energy.

I have been trying so many times over the past couple of years to get my weight back down, and I never stick around here. Too many goals I guess and too many "time limits" I try to put myself by. I can't work out and exercise the way I did before now that I have a husband and toddler. So I need to take a slower and steadier route that works with every day life.

Oh, I just bought a pedometer too and put it on. I'm at about 700 steps being awake nearly 8 hours. This feels so terrible. I think I can get a walk outside in today as it's MUCH warmer today than it has been in past days... we have been in -30s and it is 18 degrees. But I can't leave my daughter alone so I have to wait for her to get up from nap.

Last time I owned a pedometer, there was a time when I was clocking about 20,000 steps a day.

Welcome Everlasting! The more the merrier!

pedometer--eek. I remember times when I wore one faithfully. Not sure I own one anymore though.

I've been good today so far. have plans for some quinoa pasta for dinner which I'm looking forward to!

Well...I was snowed in yesterday, so my weigh-in was pushed to this morning. And I was down 4.2 pounds! So, I suppose I can post here now. Hahaha.

I'm craving Cadbury eggs today...I had to keep myself from stopping at the store on the way home from work and buying a bag of the Mini Eggs this evening. I'm hoping it'll pass tomorrow. lol I also didn't get to go to the gym yesterday or today because of ice and snow. :\ I'm thinking about trying out one the Biggest Loser DVDs someone gave me for this evening. Just something to keep me going until I can get back to they gym.

Everlasting: Welcome!! Glad you are with us!

oliconnelly: Those mini eggs are just evil! I love them so much! I had some in the house recently, and one night, I figured that I could have six and still stay on track with calories. So good!

I've been looking over my food tracking because I just haven't felt as good this week as I did last week. The only difference I can see is that I've had more V-8 juice this week than last week. I know it has a lot of sodium, but I just love the taste. I've looked at the low sodium one, and it has just as much bad stuff in it, so I've kept with the original. I'm beginning to think that I need to just cut it out. A friend of mine suggested Naked Juice. I'll have to look at it, but I know it is much more expensive.

Sigh!

Still working out and staying on track there. Spin class today. I'm well aware of the tired feeling in my legs. Just seems like a sluggish week for me.

I'm having a hard time to get from 250 to 240... Do you have a good program you use?

Hi everyone--I did well diet-wise yesterday. Today is good so far too. Not sure what I'm going to do for dinner but need to figure it out soon!

welcome new people--and so glad your scaled moved you over here Ms Skittles!