My food intake is crappy indeed. I had waaaay too much sugar the last two days. Yesterday I had two salads, some Pringles, half a Subway sandwich, the rest of my Cold Stone ice cream and an orange soda. Which tells me that along with planning my workouts in advance, I should definitely do the same with what I eat for meals.

Sophie - Skipping rope used to be so easy in grade school. Now when I try it, I tangle the rope within a few skips! It is fun, though, and a great form of cardio. How was the rest of your day after your night of merry-making? ;). I'm new to alcohol/drinking. My first beer was half a Heineken last month - nasty.

Mesme - Welcome to the group! I'm new to this site as well and have been yo-yoing on my weight loss goals for over a year, but I found 3FC because I'm serious about sticking with those goals this time. EA sounds like fun. I have a friend who uses Wii (EA has games on Wii, doesn't it?) to lose weight. Stick with us and good luck!

Sakurai - WOW, that's a huge drop, congratulations!! I want to lose a good 20 lbs before I go back to school, too, but if not, then everyone on campus can watch my progression :P. I may also start taking multi-vitamins. Also, welcome.

I have 5 miles on tap today (slogging c[;), but I am going to cancel that workout. I work at 5 and need as much time as I can to clean this house for my sister's graduation dinner. Tomorrow's adventure should more than cover for today's canceled workout :P. I'm going on an all-day hike. It's adventure time!

Evening Ladies :)

Hope everyone is well and having a nice Sunday :) Thanks for the lovely welcome, it really does make everything easier with support :D

ahyessophie - Welcome to you too, portion control sounds great and certainly walking five days a week should help loads :) Sorry you were a bit down, but i hope you had a nice time with your friends, and not going over 2000 is pretty good for a night out if you ask me :) Hope you are feeling better today :) Good luck with the skipping, I tried last year but i'm a bit too top heavy for jumping up and down!! :-o!

Donna - Know what you mean about about accountability - i am not attending meetings at the moment as i just don't have time with two young children to get to bed! But it is helpful to know you have a weigh in :) 20lbs by your vacation sounds like a really good goal, are you going anywhere nice?

Traci - I really hope your workout went well and yay for a 90 day challenge - sounds tough but I am sure you will see great results :) Love Billy Blanks :D Really looking forward to getting to our goal and pushing each other that last little bit :D I am terrible at planning meals too, i'm not usually too bad calorie wise but definitely choose processed stuff as opposed to fresh :( Hope your sister had a great graduation dinner and your hike does indeed sound like an adventure - where do you hike?

Mesme - Welcome to the group :) Your exercise plan sounds great, lots of different things to keep you motivated :) I know what you mean about getting discouraged easily, I am sure we can all help each other through the tough days though :)

Sakuri - Welcome to you too :) Your loss so far is wonderful, really well done :) Totally agree with the book to the gym, much easier to get lost and not really realise how much you are doing :) Keeping my fingers crossed for your weigh in and mini goal on Friday - I weigh in on a Friday too :D

Hope everyone else is doing well and having a happy healthy couple of days x

AFM - Not the best weekend for me :( I STS for the third week in a row and got a bit down about it and had a bit of a blowout on Saturday :( But i did compensate today and i plan to account for everything for the rest of the week until my next weigh in on Friday. I am currently 12st12lbs (180lbs) and have genuinely been trying really hard last few weeks so it is really tough to see the scale the same! Still its a new week and i am determined to to make this the last time i try to lose weight! Fingers crossed for a change (any change!) this Friday :) When does everyone else weigh in ?

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, Mungo x

Mungo - Quick question: What does STS mean? I figured out AFM pretty quickly :). I am going to weigh in every Friday. At most, I am 170 lbs (last I checked . . . the scale shows a little below 170, but I don't trust our current bathroom scale). As for where I am hiking, I am going to Rancho Palos Verdes and then to Malibu (California). I have never been to these places, but my friend (who happens to be the guy I like, long story) has been to Malibu. They're not super long hikes or anything - the most we will be hiking is 15 miles, with a lot of natural water features to enjoy.

Also, keep it up! Hard work pays off in the long run. We may want to see instant results, but it took us awhile to get to where we are now, right? Slow and steady gets the job done.

Traci - very good point about how it took time to put on the weight and will surely take time to take it off. I'm hoping it'll be a tad faster in the beginning, so I've given my short term goal of 25 lbs less time than the final 20 lbs.

Mungo - I feel your frustration with the scale. It is hard not to get wrapped up in the numbers, but if you are doing well in your diet and exercise plan, I'm sure it's going to start to show on the scale eventually. As for your question, I've been weighing in pretty much everyday before breakfast. I used to think a daily weigh-in was obsessive, but after reading posts on 3FC, I am doing it to be accountable and not let any gains get out of control. I don't know if it's going to work, and maybe after I've lost a few I'll go to weekly weigh-ins.

Skipped and jogged a bit today - skipping went really well! A lot of fun. Took a while to get back, and I'm still tripping lots, but I can do some of the simple tricks I used to do in grade school. A bit nostalgic, haha. Jogging, on the other hand, was horrible. I'll tough it out, but once I give in and walk, I feel like I'm going to die. I'm hoping by the end of the summer I'll be able to jog the trail without breaks.

I am in too! I have a little over 40 lbs to lose and would love to be able to check in with others looking to reach the same goal. I am beginnning tomorrow and have a food journal to help me with portion control and I am cutting out sweets, as I am not able to control myself around them- eating just one is never an option for me right now. My first goal- 10lbs down by the end of June and try to incorporate some activity into every day.

Hi, I'd love to join your thread. I'm at about 175 right now, looking to lose about 30 pounds.

Currently just working to eat less, eat more veggies, and keep active. I run about three times a week, and in the summer, bike to work 3-5 times a week.

Morning All :)

Traci - STS is stayed the same :) Sorry, i get so used to typing in acronyms and texting sometimes i forget how to write normally! ;) Your hikes sound lovely, colour me very jealous of you being so close to Malibu! Hope everything goes well with the guy ;) You are right about the time it took to go on, sadly i have been overweight for about 30 years with a brief period of reaching goal about 10 years ago - gosh that so depressing now i've written it down! Still we're here for a reason right? :D

ahyessophie - Thanks for the empathy :) I too am a daily weigher normally, i tried weekly over the last couple of months and i don't think it works for me. I still only record weekly though, do you record daily? or at all? Well done you for all the skipping and jogging, I think a little exercise helps alot, fingers crossed it will get easier soon :)

Kait - Welcome to the group :) Everything sounds good for you to reach your 10lb goal by the end of June, I totally agree about the sweets i was never a one biscuit with my tea kind of girl! more like the whole packet! Fingers crossed for the exercise - i haven't done any yet and have been dieting since January :o!

Ann - Welcome to you too :) Wow! certainly sounds like you are doing lots of exercise already :) Do you have a mini-goal you are working to? Fingers crossed the 30lbs will just melt off :)

Forgot to say yesterday how i was going to change my plan! I was on 29PP (the lowest WW recommend) but i've gone back in my journals when i was calorie counting (between 900-1200 daily) and that works out at between 16 and 23PP. I know its low but i guess it just works for me! So am aiming at 20pp daily and I AM DOING my Taebo (also Billy Blanks) Mon-Thurs this week. Weighed this morning and was happy to still be 180 after my Saturday blowout :( Fingers crossed for some movement on Friday's proper weigh in :)

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Monday :D x

Hello Again,

Just a quickie before starting the afternoon/tea routine - i've been doing some maths while my children were sleeping! Apparently my BMR is 1565, and if everyone is right that 3500 deficit a week is 1lb weight loss then to lose 2lbs a week i have to eat less than 1000 cals a day AND do 40 mins taebo (300cals burned) to create a 7000 deficit!! Really puts it into perspective for me, guess i'll take the 1lb a week ;)

Localpikake - Welcome to you :) Hope all your healthy habits to implement equate to happy healthy weight loss for you :D

Hope everyone is doing ok :) x

Mungo - I think BMR is basically how many you burn if you just stayed in bed all day, so you may be burning more than that if you are doing other activities, even if its just grocery shopping or tidying around the house or something. I'm with you though, if 2 lbs a week means I only get a salad and a glass of water for dinner...count me out. I'd never be able to keep that up. As for my weigh-ins...I've been recording daily in my FitDay which will make a nice little graph for me, but I'm only going to update my CW on here once a week. No sense in updating my water weight gains and losses IMO. Plus, my scale isn't digital so I can really only measure 2 lb differences. I haven't decided if I'm happy with the analog scale (it can be a bit of a pain to read) but I was worried I'd get too caught up in the .2s and .5s of a digital scale.

Had quite a nice breakfast today under 400 calories... Coffee, yogurt, fiber-enriched toaster waffles with some peanut butter and made into a sandwich, and 12 oz of water (trying really hard to get my water in). I'll snack on some grapes in a bit but otherwise I'm feeling quite satisfied. So glad to be following a system that allows me to eat whatever I please, I don't think I could do it any other way.

Good luck today ladies!

Did my weekly weigh in, and it was 171, down from 173 last week. Not certain if it's "real" versus random fluctuation, but I'll take it!

Hi Mungo! About BMR, how did you calculate it?

BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate, and sophie's right, it is what you'd burn if you lay in bed all day and didn't move at all. One way it's determined is by a machine that measures O2 consumption early in the morning prior to eating or doing any exercise.

There is a wide range of numbers that you'll get by using different resources on the internetz to calculate BMR and daily calorie consumption. I tried 5 websites, and got between 1560 to 2300. That's an enormous gap.

So I looked this up in my favorite medical resource, UpToDate. They recommend using the WHO guidelines:

Revised World Health Organization equations for estimating energy expenditure
Step 1: Estimate basal metabolic rate
Men 18 to 30 years = (0.0630 x actual weight in kg + 2.8957) x 240 kcal/day
Men 31 to 60 years = (0.0484 x actual weight in kg + 3.6534) x 240 kcal/day
Women 18 to 30 years = (0.0621 x actual weight in kg + 2.0357) x 240 kcal/day
Women 31 to 60 years = (0.0342 x actual weight in kg + 3.5377) x 240 kcal/day
Step 2: Determine activity factor
Activity level Activity factor
Low (sedentary) 1.3
Intermediate (some regular exercise or fairly active job) 1.5
High (regular activity or demanding job) 1.7
Step 3: Estimate total energy expenditure
Total energy expenditure = Basal metabolic rate x activity factor.

(Remember kcal = what we commonly call a "calorie")

For our purposes, I recommend that we use SEDENTARY to estimate (unless your daily job is more active). That way, we can add the calories we burn from specific exercises to the "base" daily amount.

My BMR determined by oximetry was 1300 (*cry*). And I'm a student, so I sit on my butt far too much of the day. So that means that I burn about 1700/day.

Without doing exercise, if I want to lose 2 lbs/wk, I have to eat 700 cal/day. That's not happening.

(Besides, the NIH recommends that women not consume under 1200 kcal/day, and men not under 1800, without a doctor's supervision and careful nutrient monitoring.)

I'm aiming for 1000-1200 kcal/day, and ~500 kcal/day burned in exercise.
Trying to make sure sufficient protein, fiber, and fruits/vegs. I try to throw in good fats when I can.

(1200 consumed) - (1700 burned/day) - (500 burned thru exercise) = NET -1000 kcal/day ----> 2 lbs/wk LOSS :D

3 things to add:

My goodness, so many posts today! Welcome Ann, Pikake, and Kait to our burgeoning support group. Stay with us and keep it up, ladies, we're here to help!

Ann - Sounds like you have a good plan set in motion already. I am also running - actually, more like slogging, but I'm in motion and going for endurance at this point. Speed can come later. And congrats on your weight loss :).

Kait - What's your favorite activity? I'm horrible with sweets, too. Lately my sweet tooth has been super naggy, but I'm trying to choose smarter/better alternatives to what I would usually choose.

Pikake - I look forward to seeing your progress and being along for the journey! You can do it; we all can. We're going to push through the good and bad here. I'm curious, though. Is there a big event happening this year that you want to lose 70 within the year?

Sophie - I think it will be faster in the beginning. It seems to happen that way. Your breakfast sounds very yummy, by the way, haha.

Mungo - I'll take a pound a week, too, lol! It was my first time to Malibu. I live about 2 hours away. I wasn't even aware California had a place called that until my friend told me - of course, it's a coastal city. Very beautiful and upscale residential areas. I was awed by the houses we saw on our last hike of the day (why do people need so much space?!).

Sakurai - When I've woken up a bit more, I will reread your post and do my personal calculations. Thank you for the information!

Today I hiked about 10 miles and got a really good workout, considering a lot of it was either uphill or downhill, and I scrabbled over rocks for several miles. Completely worth it, though, to see a beautiful waterfall and play in a rock cave. We were gone for 12 hours. I'm still covered in dried mud and sweat (stinky much?). Tomorrow I'm sure my body will protest what I did to it today, but I still have my first workout of my 90 day challenge in the bag :). Woohoo!

"See" you ladies on the morrow!

Morning Ladies :)

Ahyessophie - Very true that we all burn more than BMR unless we stay in bed all day (oh i remember those days! ;) ) Even so, i think we forget how much we have to change just to lose 1lb a week and all the small losses should be counted - I get so involved in things like the biggest loser and think why aren't i losing 5lbs a week! Of course i'm not exercising 8 hours a day and eating fitness instructor approved meals!! But it skews my expectations i think! Great about the fit day logging, i just about manage to jot mine down on paper although i do have an app to track my scale weight. Your breakfast sounded yummy, and great for under 400 - hope you didn't get too hungry :)

Ann - Yay :D well done you, 2lbs is great no matter what caused it - fabulous to be nearly out of the 170s :D

Sakuri - Thanks so much for all the extra info :) I used caloriesperhour to calculate mine (purely because i like the activity burned calculator as the guy wrote to Billy Blanks and asked about calories burned for his taebo so i figure its the most accurate). I am sorry to be such a thicky but i tried your figures and mine came out at 340?! Now i know that's not right! Must be because i've just got up! ;) I will engage brain and try again :) Your calculations for you sound great for getting the 2lbs though, what exercise do you do?

Traci - Great that you enjoyed your hike :D I know what you mean about the houses, i vacationed there a long time ago now and was amazed by the size and grandeur! Such a beautiful setting too :) I wonder how many cals you burned on your hike? Great that you are on track with your 90 day challenge, is it a certain number of workouts in the 90 days?

Hope everyone else is doing well :D

AFM - Well very happy with myself as i did indeed do my taebo - yay! Also pretty happy that i only had to stop once and then only for a quick drink and back into it - I was convinced i would be reduced to just 'marching' most of the time. No aches yet but it takes a day or so right?! Aiming to do it again tonight then take Weds as rest and continue two days on one day off - see if i can keep it up :D

Wishing you all a happy healthy Tuesday x