[rakuette]

so i'm moving to memphis march 13th or so.
currently i weigh 179.
i just started dieting/eating the things i should have been the whole time, and i haven't started exercising yet. (plan to start next monday due to my going out of town)
so, with proper diet and exercising, what do you think i can reasonably set a goal at for when i move?
my calories are about 1100-1450 (sometimes we go have a beer or 3 and that adds lots of calories )

[scgirl32]

Different people lose at different rates, so it's hard to say. But, with hard work and careful attention to diet, you could probably realistically lose about 2 pounds a week.

[HeatherAngel]

1100 calories is not enough for your weight just standing still. Add in exercising, and your body may rebel. Lowering your calories that much is not a good idea. Although everyone is different and loses at different rates, if you eat between 1300-1500 calories every day and exercise moderately several times a week, you can expect to lose 1-2 lbs a week. EDIT: depending on the length and intensity of exercise you do, you could realistically eat more than this, of course.

Good luck!

[pamatga]

not all calories are created equal. Yes, I know you will hear someone say but 1100 calories is still 1100 calories. I have done some research on this when I wanted to "pick up the pace", so to speak. I think, it is as important what that calorie came from as the actual calorie itself. For example, your beers you mentioned.

Beer is rated as higher than white bread on the standard "glycemic index scale". That means that the beer not only affects your mood, good or bad, but also spikes your blood sugar at the same time.

If you have 2-3 beers even once a week, there is a possibility that you might undo all of the work that you worked so hard on the rest of the week.

As others on this site will attest, eventually, you will learn that how you "spend" your calories is as important as how you "balance" your checkbook. Calories and dollars are usually both finite "things" in our lives. We only have so much to "spend" so a caveat: spend wisely!!

Have your beers, on occasion, but don't be surprised if they slow down your weight lose progress. And, no, working out an extra hour afterwards doesn't "negate" the overall effects of what the sugar in the alcohol does to your body and health.

As a FYI, in case you didn't know, alcohol dehydrates your body and it robs it of essential vitamins like Bs and Cs. What you could even notice is a temporary weight gain called edema from the dehydration. Not to mention that the sugar in the alcohol affects different people differently and so you could end up "insulin resistant" some time down the road. I don't want to scare you or put you off from "having fun" but I just want to make you aware, if you aren't already, to be a "informed imbiber".

Good luck on your move, your weight lose efforts and welcome aboard.

Hope to hear of more successes in the future from you

[M a g g i e]

My next weigh-in/goal is March 15 and I'm starting now too so I have been thinking about what a reasonable goal is and honestly I don't think there is one. Since both of us haven't lost any weight yet we don't know what a normal week's weight loss is to calculate a goal. Plus, starting out can cause lots of changes like an increase in muscle so the scale might not show that the first couple weeks. I think you should see how the next few weeks go and then set a goal for the remaining 3-4 weeks as well as set some non-scale goals like smaller pants size, looser clothing, more energy, etc.