Hello everyone,

I'm new here and would love to join this challenge. I started the Medifast diet on July 24th with a starting weight of 260.4 and have lost 46.1 lbs so far. I've been having a hard time sticking to the plan lately so hopefully joining this thread will motivate me to continue with the weight loss.

Starting weight: 214.3
Goal weight: 160

January:

1/23 - 214.3
1/24
1/25
1/26
1/27
1/28
1/29
1/30
1/31

Thank you,
Lexxy22

kfunk, I really should be ashamed of myself for how I have let my exercise go by the wayside, because I have a complete gym in my home. After the kids moved out the gameroom in the basement wasn't being used, so I put together all the equipment I had accumulated and added some more. I have a treadmill, elliptical, bike, bodyglide, weight station, cloud walker, and pilates chair. Some free weights, tons of exercise videos, and absolutely no excuse for not using them. I started back this week. I do 30-50 min per day, and do it while watching my soap operas on TV which makes the time go fast. I hate it and would rather be sitting in my recliner, but I'm hoping it becomes a habit. I do not break any records. Light low intensity. Just make sure I'm moving. I am hoping to lower my blood sugar so I don't need as much diabetes meds.

TooManyDimples, I lived alone for 5 years, from the time I left my mother's house til the time I got married. I ate breakfast and lunch, but rarely ate dinner. I didn't want to cook just for me and it kept my weight low. Also, I figured I needed calories during the day when I was active, and not so much in the evening when I was not. That was in the 70s, and IF didn't have a name yet. LOL It was after I got married to a man who HAS to have an evening meal that I packed on the pounds. There are a lot more people who skip morning meals so they can eat dinner, and that's not always the best choice. I don't want to go so far to say one way is right and the other is wrong. We're all different.

Hi Lexxy! Welcome to 3FatChicks. We would LOVE to have you join in with us. The more people we have in our challenge the more support we get from one another. Congratulations on the 46 lb loss. That is wonderful!! Jump right in and tell us more about yourself. I don't know a lot about Medifast. Is that shakes? Or meals?

toomanydimples I would love to have an earlier window. Right now I am eating from 9:30-5 but do have coffee with creamer before 9. What time do you go to bed? I work until 3pm and get home around 4:15 if traffic isn't bad. I tend to eat right away before anything else so usually I am done before 5. I could bring my dinner to work and eat it around 2:30 but it makes me nervous that I wont make it to bed time. I will experiment with that this weekend to see how it goes!!

lexxy Welcome!! Wow, 46 lbs. is an amazing achievement!! When I first started here I poured over all the goal and mini goal before and after pictures that I could find, it was a huge source of inspiration for me!! I have been at this since Nov 2016 and have many, many periods where I struggled, but posting here every day has helped a lot! You've got this!!

carol That is awesome that are back to it this week!! 30-50 minutes is fantastic!! We have a treadmill, elliptical, and weights but they are all in different places in the house. I love the idea of finding something to watch that will hold my interest and make the time go by faster! I think I might actually do something tonight! It will be between a workout video or hopping on the treadmill. I hear all the time that people get addicted and excited to exercise, but I am kind of skeptical that would happen to me, but I am hoping it might!! The idea of enjoying fitness is appealing to me!

Thank you for the warm welcome!

wannabehealthy - Medifast is a meal replacement plan, it includes meals for breakfast lunch and dessert. I eat 5 of the meals a day every 3 hours and a healthy dinner that I make on my own.

kfunk - I will definitely try to post daily. I'm motivate by my weight loss and I stick to the plan Monday - Friday but sometimes struggle on the weekends. I met my first goal of 40 lbs and now my next goal is to lose another 20 lbs.


Starting weight: 260.4 (July 24, 2017)
Current weight: 214.3
Goal weight: 160

January:

1/23 - 214.3
1/24 - 211.6
1/25
1/26
1/27
1/28
1/29
1/30
1/31

lexxi Nice drop!!! I am the exact same way.. I can stay perfectly on plan M-F but when the weekend hits I struggle. Some weekends are better than others, but it seems like I am constantly re-loosing the gain that I put on during the weekend! Your next goal sounds great, I like the idea of breaking it out into smaller goals!

172.4 today, about 2 lbs from my low last week. Hopefully I can keep going and get back there by the end of the weekend instead of gaining!

When I worked, I was the opposite of you guys. I ate more during the week. I ate a good breakfast because I felt I needed it going off to work, then at work I ate lunch because it was lunch time and everyone else was eating. I also spend a lot of money in the snack machines, always munching on something. On weekends, I never thought to eat lunch, and the snack food wasn't here so I didn't eat it. There were times when I hardly ate all weekend when I lived alone. Now I tend to eat when DH wants to eat. Marriage was not good for me in that respect. When I met DH he told me "You're thin, you can eat whatever you want." He also said "You're thin, you don't have to exercise." He didn't realize that this was what was keeping me thin.

I don't feel that I've done well food wise this week. I'm been having carb creep and that's bringing my calories a bit over my plan. The scale is holding steady, but if I want a drop I need to be more diligent. The bites here and there add up.

Kfunk - Congratulations on your 83 Lbs loss!! I can't wait to be where you are now! I'm 48 and would love to be at my goal weight by the time I turn 50. I also find myself re-loosing the gain that I put on during the weekend.

Wannabehealthy - I had the same problem at work. I was going out to lunch daily and constantly eating snacks. Being on a diet is hard but I'm TRYING to take it one day at a time. I'm glad your weight is holding steady. I would take steady instead of gain anytime!


Starting weight: 260.4 (July 24, 2017)
Current weight: 211.1
Goal weight: 160

January:

1/23 - 214.3
1/24 - 211.6
1/25 - 211.1
1/26
1/27
1/28
1/29
1/30
1/31

carol I was about 160 when my husband and I started dating and it didn't take long before I ballooned up. I was eating way more often and larger portions. That is funny that you were naturally doing intermittent fasting before they had a name for it!! I have to remember that- that the bites add up! It also goes in reverse that every good decision, no matter how small adds up! I am fighting the urge to eat today. I have already had breakfast and lunch and I am not satisfied at all. I am drinking a cup of hot cocoa now and will hope that insatiable feeling goes away!!

lexxi Thank you! You are already over half way there!! I grossly underestimated the amount of time it was going to take me to get to my goal. Along the way I have enjoyed myself though, never feeling too deprived. I really think that this will stick with me as a life style change, so the extra time is worth it. Having said that, your goal looks realistic!! I think that is super important! I hope that I do a good job this weekend. I will be pretty happy if I work out and drink enough water and avoid binging.

kfunk, I have found that if I am hungry for something but instead I eat something that I think I should eat, I'm not satisfied. I keep eating, try to be satisfied. So I'm better off to eat what I was hungry for, and then I'm done.

carol I made it through the day without going over my calories, small miracles!! That is really good advice, and something that I will do in the future. Some cravings are too difficult for me to overcome, and that is a perfect time to indulge them and move on!

How did you do yesterday with your eating plan? I keep making excuses to not work out... I will get there though!

kfunk, I am happy with my eating yesterday. Now I have to continue that for consecutive days in the future. We went to TX Roadhouse for dinner and I am very proud that I ate only til satisfied and brought a lot of leftovers home. I don't know if I will eat them or not. If not, the dog gets them. LOL

My weight was at 199.5 this morning. I am not celebrating Onederland until I see if I hang onto this by my weigh-in on Sunday. I've been in Onederland so many times before and bounced back into the 200s. This is the time that I want to seriously start continuing downward into new territory. I am feeling very determined.

I am still not looking forward to exercise. My mind is looking for every excuse under the sun. I did 35 minutes yesterday. I don't usually exercise on weekends, but I'm out and about more so I consider that to be exercise. I want to strengthen my legs to help with my mobility. I am at the age where it can go downhill very quickly. Yesterday I scratched my leg and noticed that I could feel my calf muscle. One nice thing is they say that you will make noticeable improvements when you first become active from a long inactive period. I think that's what I'm experiencing. I spend most of the winter inside the house, but maybe by spring I will want to spend more time working in the yard.

I don't really know what my calorie count should be. In the past, I usually don't lose unless I stay at or below 1500. Right now I've been between 1400 and 1700. I don't plan my meals, but enter them in MFP at the end of the day, so sometimes I'm surprised at how much they add up to. Some people enter their food plan in the morning. That way they know they will be on plan. I am not that regimented. I have a friend who eat the same thing every day and walks outside every day. She is very rigid with her diet and exercise. I won't say never, but I don't think I could do that.

Here's hoping we all have a great weekend.

carol Very, very impressive about your dinner out!! I hope that your weigh in tomorrow keeps you in onederland!!!!

I hear you about finding every excuse in the book to avoid workouts. You are my inspiration though, you did 35 minutes when you didn't want to, so after I am done posting I am going to do my 30DS video. Its been a long time, so I have some really sore muscles in my future, but it hurts so good hahaha!!! That is awesome that you could feel your calf muscle, definitely a NSV!

I don't know how much to eat either. I think I want to stay as high as possible and if I have a couple week period where I don't lose (assuming I have stayed on track) then I will drop it down a bit. I am lucky and can eat the same things over and over so I know right off the bat what I will come in at. Most of the time I wait to enter my stuff though.

I hope ya'll are having a good weekend so far!!

JANUARY

1/1. 176.8
1/6. 176.6 (.2)
1/13. 171.2 (-4.4)
1/20. 170.6 (-.6)
1/27. 171.2 (+.6)

I am still working to undo the fallout from last Saturday night! Hope to see a loss next week

Weighed in at 153.2 today, but it's not my scale, so it could be way off. However, I'm out of town until late this week, and so this scale will have to be the one I go by. I'm feeling hungrier/munchier this weekend, so I'll have to watch myself more carefully this next week while I'm not at home. It's easy to join in with the group and eat more than I need, but I've been working hard to get into the 140s and would rather not delay it.

I keep meaning to make a chart to correlate my menstrual cycle and my weight loss. I seem to see a pattern related to it, but I haven't plotted it out yet. I think it might be interesting to do so, and may help me feel less anxious during my usual 5-20 day stalls in weight.

kfunk: I'm with you on that - at some point my focus will be more on lowering body fat. I'm still technically obese because of my body fat, AND I store a lot of it on my torso, which is even more unhealthy. I like your goal of doing that in 20 more lbs. Why then specifically?

Carol: As we talked about before, everyone is different with what weight they're healthy at and can maintain. I firmly believe that's true. Also, research suggests that over age 65, the 'normal' BMI range for people scoots upward (I think I've seen that 22-29 is actually the healthy range, or even a bit higher for some people). Not that BMI is at alll the be-all end-all, but I thought the research was interesting. 100% agree with you that fitness is more important than weight. I'd say that's true for every age group, unless weight is REALLY high or low.
Also, congrats on seeing onederland! I'll keep my fingers crossed that it sticks! If you're like me, you tend to bounce in and out of a new decade for a while. So fun.

Lexxy: Hello! Welcome to the challenge! We'll be here a while, but we've got support!

Toto, I don't think I'm in Onederland anymore! LOL

Today was supposed to be weigh-in day, but we left early in the morning and I forgot to weigh. We didn't come home until 3PM and by that time I had eaten, and you naturally weigh more as the day goes on, so I'm changing my weigh-in day to tomorrow for this week so I can weigh first think in the AM. I don't know if that will do any good. I have not exercised for 3 days. I will be back to it tomorrow.

My food wasn't too too bad today, but I feel fat. I have to keep in mind that I have some doctor appointments coming up and I want to show a loss if I can.