After a lengthy 3FC break and thinking I might never run a challenge again, I am back and here for vengeance against the flab. Join me in staying accountable and checking in with one another to reach our goals together!
The aim is to lose the highest percentage of weight loss by October 31st. The top 3 biggest losers will receive a badge that they can include in their signature (if they desire!) and all participants who weigh in every single week will also receive a finisher badge. Check them out!




You can also use the challenge for maintenance too, everyone is welcome! I want everyone to roll up to their costume party (or your couch with the lights off because you hate kids) and feel sexier than ever. I don’t want to hear “oh…I’ll never be sexy” because I’m here to tell you YOU ARE A FREAKIN’ SEXY CANDY PANDA! This is just a way to encourage a healthy bit of competition into your routine.

• Please feel free to join at any stage of the challenge! However, please note that I will be locking entrants in from October 22nd.
• Joining is super simple, in the spreadsheet (link below, but before you go scrolling please read the rest of the rules!), then input your username, starting weight and the weight you would like to be on Halloween. Your starting weight is the weight you were at when you started the challenge, not your overall starting weight.
• Week by week, enter your weight into the spreadsheet and on Monday I create a chart to track our progress. Weeks are Monday through Sunday (example, Week 1 09/03 is Monday September 3rd through to Sunday September 9th), so you can weigh in any day of the week, it doesn’t have to be the start of the week! If you want to update your weight at any point during the week because you’ve seen another loss, go ahead!
• Please use the thread to talk to other contestants, we’re here for each other! Check in to the thread and view the Monday charts to see who’s kicking butts and taking names.
• If you do not weigh in for more than 2 weeks you will be moved (not removed!) to a Standby list. If you want to opt back in, let me know in the thread and I’ll move all your information back into the spreadsheet. Please weigh in asap so you don’t accidentally get moved back to Standby!
• Going on vacation, having a scale break or just don’t wanna weigh in but you don’t want to be moved to Standby? Right click on the cell and select “Insert a note” and type a short note to say you’re not weighing in. Don’t use a comment, because those get shifted around in the spreadsheet.
• If you want to change your goal at any point in the challenge, feel free!
• If you’re joining late but already know all the weights you were at previously, feel free to fill in all the information into the spreadsheet. It’ll help for your final ranking!
• If you see a “-” in your cell for a certain week but you know what you weighed, go ahead and enter your weight!

Enter your starting weights now and introduce yourself to everyone! Good luck and thank you for joining!




Input your starting weights now and the challenge will begin September 3rd!

Thanks for a new contest Riestrella. I'm in, but the spreadsheet won't let me enter my goal weight. Apparently that isn't an editable field.

I'm going to aim for 212, to stay on track for my end of year goal.

Hopefully lots of people enter. Good luck everyone.

Rie!

I saw one of your posts on another thread with your update, but decided against reaching out wondering if you were going to be bombarded with folks with similar thoughts! It is so good to hear from you whether running a challenge or not . I'm just happy you're back and if you're in the spirit/mood/mindset to run a new challenge count me in, girl!

Lacerta - Dang it, I thought for sure this is the year I nailed it the first time! Ok, you should be able to post your goal weight now

curvy - So great to see you and yesss, I'm glad to be back and ready to lose weight with a better mindset! Can't wait to get started!

Hey Riestrella:
Good to see you active again and that you are doing another Halloween Challenge! I'm joining & hope we can both scare off a few pounds & have some fun along the way.


Munchey

Hi everyone!

I thought I would do a little intro post for myself, feel free to do the same! I'm 29 years old, I've been overweight for 95% of my adult life it feels like. I had a pretty awesome run on 3FC between 2011-2012 where I managed to lose 51 lbs (down to 149 lbs), but between 2012 - the present day I've slowly regained the weight. I took a break from 3FC for about 7 months after I started to feel depressed about the fact I wasn't able to stay on top of a healthy routine. In July of this year I came back to 3FC after I saw myself reach the 180's again - a weight I never thought I would see after working so hard to lose the weight in the past! With my return I brought a better energy about weight loss and now I've been slowly making changes to my life in order to lose again.

Currently I'm trying to cut down on my grain intake, particularly my bread intake, and also I'm trying to drink more water. I'm also working out consistently for the first time in years. I'm doing the Insanity Max 30 program, a circuit training program that kicks my butt every single time I do it! At the end of October I've entered a 5K race, so next week I'll begin running again to train for that. I'm hoping adding running to my routine will help with my weight loss, but I know I have a long way to go in terms of correcting my eating habits!

Since I'm focusing on making slow changes I'm also planning on losing weight at a reduced rate of 1 lb every 2 weeks, so my target weight is 178 lbs. I'm hoping I lose a lb a week, in which case I'll change my goal if I reach 178 lbs.

munchey - Great to have you back and looks like you've been working hard, so great to see you in Onederland!

Introduction post, huh? Ok, here goes:

I just turned 40 a few months ago. I was a healthy-ish weight and relatively active through college, but since then, I've gradually gained weight until I reached 267.4, the heaviest I've ever been and the point at which I said "enough".

I've never really yo-yo'ed a lot for weight. I did lose about 30 pounds 10 years ago, and gained it all back, and about 20 pounds about 3 years ago, and gained that back as well, but that's about it. Those were both diets. This time, I've made a total lifestyle change. I'm not dieting at all, I've just changed my diet. I've cut out almost all of the sugary and salty snack foods and cut back substantially on milk (specifically milk, not dairy, as I used to drink 3 gallons a week of milk) and bread. I don't drink soda more than about once a month, but I didn't drink that much before anyway, so that wasn't much of a change. I decided that for it to be a lifelong change, I wasn't going to cut anything out at all or have any "forbidden" foods. I just try to make healthier choices more often and integrate more fruits and veggies and healthy snacks instead of things like cookies and chips. My philosophy now is that if I really want a cookie, I'll have one. ONE, not 12. Most of the time, I haven't even craved anything, but occasionally, I have something. I do have a little bit of chocolate each day to satisfy my sweet tooth.

I walk at least 2 miles a day, sometimes more. Yesterday, I did 5. I've periodically thrown in some strength training using body weight and dumbbells, but I haven't been super consistent on that.

So far, those choices are working. I've lost over 40 pounds and 2 sizes in about 5 months, which is the most I've ever lost, and don't feel like I'm on a diet at all. I really feel like the way I'm eating right now is a way I could eat for the rest of my life. We'll see how far it gets me on weight loss before it stops. I may make adjustments from there, or I may accept that weight, depending on where it puts me.

I got put on medications last year for high blood pressure (I was 165/105), hypothyroid, and PCOS. The last two have made a huge difference in my weight loss success this year. I'm down to just one pill for the blood pressure, instead of the 3 I was on, and have been staying around 130/85, which is still high, but much better. My goal is for that to get down to a "healthy" pressure next year.

Lacerta - I love your philosophy to weight loss, I know I've said it before to you in another thread, but it really does match my own! I'm also so so proud of you for losing 40 lbs so far!! I'm curious if you count calories at all? I can't seem to remember if you are a calorie counter or not. What a great goal to have in mind to get down to a healthy blood pressure, sometimes it's better to have health goals vs. number goals on a scale. I really want to be able to beat my 5K record from the previous race I did!

Rie, thanks for the opportunity to write a bio. I haven't taken the time to do that on 3FC. A bit about me:

Weight timeline:
Birth-15: I really think the only time I was normal weight was at birth . After that glorious 6-12 months I was various stages of fat: overweight, chubby, pudgy, fat, obese, etc. For more on these categories please read the following excerpt from actress Mindy Kaling.
Age 15: Dramatic weight loss mostly through under-eating and running obsessively. Wouldn't recommend it. Gained it all back and then some within a year.
Age 16-39: Became really attached to my teenage weight gain and continued to provide it more company.
Age 40-43: Got serious about my weight loss and through healthy eating and exercise including teaching myself to run again. This coincided with completing my doctorate. Somehow finishing my degree opened the door to other things I felt like I could succeed at. Lost 70 pounds and kept most of it off for those 3 years.
Age 43-49: Regained most of the weight except for about 20 pounds. I'm starting over but not at the same place when I first was successful at 40 so for me that's a win.

Life:
Of course lots of life happened during all these stages and I've eaten through all of it. Started college, stopped college. Lived with my parents while I unintentionally became a professional babysitter . Truthfully, I was unmotivated and lost for a few years but then decided to return to college. Succeeded academically in ways I didn't know possible. Moved to California to earn my doctorate and did in 2009. It took me a very long time. My mom died in 2001, and my father in 2015. In terms of career I had some really excellent supervisors who took me under their wing and allowed me opportunities. I was also in the right place at the right time. I'm currently a director of transfer and veteran services at a large California university. I enjoy my work but I can absolutely pin the moment of my weight gain on the stress and extra work that has come with each promotion. I'm blessed and grateful but I do not handle stress well. It shows in my eating and how lethargic I've become. I seem to put everything ahead of my health. I realize this is an excuse. I've stated it before but if CEOs and world leaders can find a way to exercise each day, I can too!

My eating plan:
I read the following years ago on a blog that I follow, 'don't commit to any change you aren't worth doing for the rest of your life.' I do really well on low and slow carb vs. no carb so I don't do that. I refuse to give up anything but if I did it would be artificial sugar and sweetened drinks. There aren't many foods I don't like and I love fruits and vegetables.

My exercise plan:
I'm too heavy to really run right now but I have always been a walker and regardless of what weight I'm at do lots of walking. Walking was also my intro to running. I also enjoy heavy lifting, the elliptical and treadmill.

curvy thank you for sharing your story! I actually quite liked the concept of your weight time line and even though I've already done my bio post I really want to do one too Forgive me, y'all, this is more of a cathartic exercise for me!

Weight timeline:

• Birth - 5: Like curvynotlumpy, probably the only time in my life I've been a regular weight!
• 6 - 19: I was pretty much the pudgy child/teen. I'm sure I got thinner at some point around 13 because of terrible sleeping/eating habits, but that didn't last very long at all! I just remember my family being concerned for me, but to be fair they became concerned for me when I was losing weight the healthy way.
• 19 - 22: The balloon years. I started to enter obesity in these years after living "independently" at Uni. I also succumbed to a lot of stress, depression, anxiety while I was there which did not help the weight situation.
• 22 - 23: The golden years! I joined 3FC after graduating when I realized that I had hit 200 lbs. I started running and being mindful of my food choices and lost 51 lbs, reaching 149 lbs (officially a healthy BMI... just!)
• 23 - 25: I moved to Japan and I made a somewhat concerted effort to keep losing weight but ultimately failed. I started creeping towards the 160's. When I lost my job I turned to food and ended up leaving Japan firmly in the 160's.
• 25 - 27: After moving back to England I was pretty much in a limbo between living at home with my parents and moving to America. I made small efforts here and there to lose weight but I fluttered around the 160's. After moving to America I lived with my in-laws, who are extremely generous people and would treat us to meals out about twice a week. All the exercise I was doing was being countered with poor eating choices.
• 27 - present: After moving to Georgia I was finally independent again both financially and in terms of food choices. However, I stopped exercising as much and started to snack a lot more. Starting my own small business was also stressful and I withdrew into my default couch potato mode. After a particularly awful bout of overeating and laziness I stepped on the scale and saw 187.4 lbs and I knew I had to do something to change now that I had reached obesity again.

I've also been thinking about this recently, but I wanted to just write something about how I feel at different weights in my life.

• 200 - 180 lbs - Fat. Uncomfortable. Paranoid. Weak. My joints start yelling at me. Very aware that I'm obese and fearful that everyone else is judging me. I avoid the camera if I can help it and in general have very little confidence in my appearance.
• 180 - 170 lbs - Pretty much the same as the above but to a lesser degree. If I'm heading towards the 170's like I am now I'm still aware than I'm overweight (anything below 180 lbs is an overweight BMI for me) but I feel like I'm making some progress.
• 170 lbs - 160 lbs - I start feeling like things are heading in the right direction in this weight range. I also don't like getting complacent in this range either, because I know that I've spent a lot of my life in this range and it can go either way.
• 160 lbs - 150 lbs - This was the weight range people really started to notice I was losing weight. I start feeling like I'm just a little chubby rather than overweight. I feel strong in this weight range too, because it takes work for me to get here. I still have a little belly but I start feeling confident in my looks again here.
• 150 lbs - 135 lbs - ??? We'll have to find out!

I love Halloween, and I love your challenges, Rie, so I may just need to buy a scale so that I can participate. Thanks for organizing this!

Great to see you!! Please do join if you can!!

Scale is ordered. It's for the best that I get one. If I had fixed eating habits, I could get by without one, I think. But lately I've been indulging in social drinking, and I've also been eating out a lot (including at the weight-loss nemesis that is the buffet!). So I think it's important that I have a scale to monitor what all that is doing to me!

I haven't weighed since I moved 3 weeks ago. Going by how I feel, I think I was losing weight from the time of my move until about 10 days afterwards. And I think I stopped losing and have possibly even gained a few pounds in the 10 days since then. So I really need this push back on track before I do too much damage!

Weight bio: I was a healthy weight as a kid and for most of my adult life. Since puberty, I've been a size 6 or lower (most commonly a 4) for all except a few years. I've twice gained weight--once in my 20's and then about 10 years later in my 30's (now). The first time I gained weight, I didn't have a scale. At my highest weight, I was likely around the same high I was this time. That happened when I was caregiving for my mom when she had ALS. After she passed away, the weight came off pretty effortlessly. I was only getting 4 hours of sleep while caregiving and not exercising. Once I became active again, the weight came off slowly but steadily. It took maybe 1.5 years to get back to around 115. I then dropped even lower, to the low 100's, which is the low I seem to hit when I'm very active and moderately monitoring what I eat. (I'm only 4'11". Well, 4'11" and 3/4, so I guess I can round up to 5'. ) I don't have any interest in going that low again though. In fact, I'm expecting to be content at around 120. At that point, I'd like to start a recomp where I focus on strength training. This recent weight gain started around 2015. It was mostly due to a desk job, lethargy & inactivity from undiagnosed severe anemia, and dramatically changed eating habits from IBS. My digestive issues and anemia have been largely improved since early 2017. My weight loss efforts have been more sporadic this time compared to last time, so it's been taking longer. I've lost about 25 pounds so far and have about 15 to go. My goal is to keep my calories at a daily average of around 1350 and exercise about 5 days a week. I'm not interested in going at this any harder than that.

I'm so glad I found this! I was on 3FC years ago, lost minimal weight back then. I moved out of my parents house 4 years ago and gained 100 pounds since then and I'm now back in their house and going to college. I currently weigh 315, i've lost 18 pounds since my highest of 333. I've been fat my entire life, even in elementary school I remember always being bigger then everyone else, of course I was bullied about it and I ended up not eating breakfast, snack or lunch in school so I just ate once I came home so no one seen me eat. Looking back this is what probably caused my emotional problems lol I've always wanted to lose weight but never really did anything about it but continue my bad habits until now.

I attempted keto for a day but decided there was no way I could keep that up. So now I'm just counting calories; I'm extremely picky though and basically just eat junk. I'm lucky for now that just cutting back has worked but I know it won't work forever. I started tracking my food on an app and I usually ate around 3,000 calories, my goal now is less than 2,000 and I'm doing really good, I don't usually eat more then 1600; I think September I'll drop it to 1,900 and then October 1,800 and so on. I have quit drinking pop which was huge for me, I have drank nothing but Dr Pepper for 15 years and now I only drink water. I started getting serious the first of August and I have had 1 Dr Pepper and 2 glasses of 7 UP since then, rest water and some sips every now and then of poweraide. Health wise I've been pretty lucky until recently, I've started having issues with my heart so I guess that's whats motivated me; I'll be seeing my Dr in 2 weeks so hopefully I haven't done any permanent damage. I really don't have any friends other then my parents so I need something else to keep me accountable. There is a 5K October 20th I'de really like to participate in. After I see the Dr I really want to get into the gym to prepare, right now there is no way I could even walk a 5K so I got a lot of walking to do lol

I really don't know what I want my end goal to be. For the challenge I want to lose 16 more pounds to get me into the 200s. But since I've always been fat there has never been a time I was happy with my weight so I don't know what weight would feel right for me. I used to say I wanted to be 120-130 but I stepped on a scale that measures your fat and muscle mass and 150 pounds of me was lean mass, so I really don't want to lose muscle. I guess my non weight goal is to be able to shop at any store in the mall and not worry if they sell plus sizes. I feel like I've always had to dress older then I am and it's hard when I see stuff Id'e love to wear but I'm stuck wearing a shirt my grandma has too.

Good luck everyone!

Hey everyone!

It's the last day of August, when did that happen?! We're almost done with the starting week and the challenge will begin on Monday, I'm pretty excited to start this challenge and see the results! Along with the challenge I'll be running again for the first time since March and I'm actually kind of stoked to get started which is weird. Usually I dread running, but I think take me away from it long enough and I feel the itch again. I entered a Halloween 5K race along with 4 other friends. I'm not expecting I'll beat them, since they are all far lighter than I am, but I hope my fitness is good enough to do it in good time. The last 5K I ran I did it in 34:26 so my aim is to beat that time! I'd like to do it in 32 minute or less, but I'll be thankful if I beat that time regardless.

I'm going to also be weighing in daily and tracking my stats here, similar to the monthly weigh in threads, because it's been a hugely useful tool. This is not mandatory it's a personal preference! I also will be using my average weight since I find it to be an accurate representation of my efforts during the week since I fluctuate a lot in weight!

If you are also a daily weigher, please feel free to copy the above chart, and edit it as you please (I know not everyone is an average weight-er!), but please put it in a spoiler since it's huge! To do that simply copy and paste the text then before and after the chart type [ spoiler ] [ / spoiler ] (remove spaces) or use the Spoiler option on the toolbar.

Chunk - I'm glad you can join us, ah yes, the buffet! It's been a while since I've been to one, but they are always so appealing and encourage multiple helpings. How are you settling in to your new home? I'm curious why you are not interested in reaching your lightest weight? I think you should reach a weight you're comfortable with, but I'm just curious what you "felt" during those times that you don't wish to replicate. Good luck with your goal, let's kick some butt together!

somedaysunny - Welcome, welcome, so glad to have you! I'm so sorry you had a hard time in school...kids are so mean because they have no filter and I'm not surprised it caused some emotional problems for you down the line. I think counting calories is a wonderful tool for weight loss and as you've realised yourself, junk food just isn't gonna cut it forever since it's a lot of "empty calories" as they say! You can always try to replicate the foods you enjoy eating by making them yourself to start with? I hope your appointment goes well. We're here for you and we'll help you the best we can!! Giving up soda is a huge deal, so well done, that's a wonderful first step! I used to have a Coca Cola addiction (never say "coke" addiction or you get funny looks ) and it was a tough habit to crack. Hey, you should totally sign up to that 5K and train alongside me! If you start a Couch to 5K program now you should have plenty of time to train and I'm sure there are even walking C25K's if you don't think you can run! As for your goal weight, I was the same way when I first started, I just looked at a BMI chart and picking the weight that was smack bang in the middle of the healthy BMI range. I'd like to be in the 130's so I have 10+ lbs to gain to be considered BMI overweight again, but who knows how I'll feel when I get there!