Hi, my name is Melissa. My story is that I lost 100 pounds about 5 or 6 years ago now through Atkins/lo-carb in general. I started at 265 and landed at 165 in a struggling sort of way. I've been overweight all of my life. It's a sad story - but started as a child and faced a lot of ridicule my whole life for being overweight. I just turned 40 last year and my lowest weight last year was 158.5. At the time I went from 167 to that weight by doing the fat smash then the extreme fat smash diet. Happy to have lost the weight but totally miserable otherwise.

So I gained some of it back and my body is holding on at 164. It likes it there and even though I walk 4 to 5 times a week, sometimes jog/sometimes gym cardio and I still eat lo carb, I can't lose any more weight. I want to ultimately be between 145 and 148. I'm 5 7. I've tried everything since loosing the 100 to get there and nothing seems to work. I've tried body for life, cleansing diets, cleansing vitamins, the fat smash and extreme fat smash diets. The last thing I recently tried was slimquick for 2 months. I'm almost done with the pills and need to say that I was not impressed. I only lost 2pounds total.

Anyway, I'm tired of beating my self up and being unhappy. I need a new idea to lose the weight. One that will really work and get my body to settle where I want it, not where it is now.

Can anyone help me? I appreciate anyone that has taken the time to read my post. Please say Hi at least, even if you don't have an idea for me. It would be good to hear from someone out there, as I'm new to this board today.

Thank you again and have a great day.

melvin2all, HI and to Featherweights and 3FC ....

Join us on the weekly chat thread....

One thing I'd ask is--how many calories are you eating? A lot of people think the solution to getting the last 20 off is to eat less. Everything I've read says that the opposite is true--that you may have to eat more calories.

A lot of the people I respect as far as diet and weight loss advice are concerned also recommend a full-body weight lifting regime 3 days a week, with high intensity interval training thrown in. Low intensity steady-state cardio has its place, too--but you might have to kick it up a notch

Those are just my thoughts and if you don't mind sharing where your calories are at, that might help answer some questions.

Thank you for inviting me to the weekly chat, Iilene. I appreciate it. And Azure...I'm going to have to review my habits a little better. I honestly don't know my calorie intake. I'm excited to be here, though, and appreciate your advice about calories and exercise. You seem to be doing so well that you must know what you're talking about. Thank you...again...so much.

I will post again after I have more info about my calories. Is there a site you recommend to get calorie counts on things, or a book?

Thanks again for your support.

It sounds like the one thing you haven't tried is good old-fashioned calorie counting. This method never fails for me. If I want to lose weight, I drop my calories and, surprise, surprise, the weight starts coming off.

Start by figuring out how many calories you are eating now, then use some calculators to estimate how many calories you should be eating to maintain. This will give you an idea of whether you are eating too much or not enough. You could also post what you are eating here and people are sure to have strong opinions about it. Some websites that calculate how many calories you should eat are freedieting.com, Mayo Clinic, Women's Nutrition Guide, and CalorieKing.com. Figuring out your appropriate calorie level is an art, not a science, so it's best to try several different websites and compare results.

I also think increasing the amount of cardio you do would be a big help. You want to be getting to your target heart rate during your workouts (so you want to be exercising at a level where talking is difficult but not impossible); if walking isn't elevating your heart rate enough, then you might want to try some higher intensity cardio. Intervals are a great suggestion and have been shown to be more effective at reducing fat than steady-state cardio. But, in your case, I think even just upping your current cardio from walking to something a little more intense would make a big difference.

Also, resistance training (weight lifting, resistance bands, body-weight exercises) to build some muscle would really help over the long term. Even if you just sit on the sofa all day, 1 lb of muscle burns between 40 to 120 calories per day (compared to 1 lb of fat, which burns only 1 to 3 calories per day). You can see the potential there--the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism (plus you look toned and svelte). This isn't something where you will see immediate results; it takes a long time to build muscle. But in the long-term, it will make a big difference in your weight loss and maintenance.

Websites where you can look up how many calories are in various foods include:

• calorieking.com (my fav)
• calorie-count.com (this one also has a recipe analyzer--you enter all the recipe's ingredients and it tells you how many calories are in the recipe)
• fitwatch.com (this one also has a recipe analyzer and a tracking tool where you can log everything you eat, but the last time I used it it had a lot of pop-up ads)
• nutritiondata.com (also includes a recipe analyzer and a tracking tool)
• fitday.com (A lot of people really like fitday's tracking tool. It has some cool reports and you can have your 3fc profile link to your fitday log, which is helpful if you want advice from folks here on what you are eating.)

Thank you for all the sites you recommended. I seem to recall some of those in my past when I tried to eat lo-cal instead of lo-carb. I couldn't seem to make my weight budge, even though the fitday calculations had me at losing 2 pounds a week...nothing came off. But I will try again. I guess if I actually take a few days to track what I'm REALLY eating then I can see where I'm at calorie wise. i'm always hungry, though, and always feel like I have to deprive myself and suffer just to be gaining a little amount or maintaining instead of losing like I think I should be. I really think something must be wrong with me. As far as weight training, it is hard for me. I have soft tissue damage due to a car accident a few years ago. I did try to work though the pain when I tried body for life routines for about 6 months and didn't feel or see results like I should. I followed the diet too, and lost nothing. I want so bad to be positive. Thank you for your support.

Maybe the combination of low carb and low calorie will work for you. You shouldn't be hungry all the time. That tells me that you either aren't eating enough food or you aren't eating the right kinds of food. I'm on 1200 calories a day and I exercise at a pretty high intensity for an hour every day of the week. Occasionally there are days where I feel the need to eat more, but if I'm hungry all day for days on end, it's a sign that I'm doing something wrong. When I first drop my calories, I might have a few days where I'm hungry, but then my body adjusts to the new calorie level. There also have been times when I've increased my calories to get off a weight loss plateau (usually in conjunction with increasing the intensity of my exercise).

In terms of resistance training (which doesn't necessary have to involve weights--you can use resistance bands or even just your own body weight), you should be able to do that. In fact, I would think it would help with your recovery. Maybe you could hire a trainer to help you out with it. The trainers at my gym work with people recovering from injuries quite frequently.

If you wrote a dietting/weight maintenance/recipe book I'd be first to buy it! Your posts are so helpful and knowledgeable and thorough!

melvin2all

Dagmar

Just wanted to put in a recommendation for Daily Plate. The database is lots more extensive than Fit Day, AND you can still add custom foods and recipes. I've been using it religiously since November, and - when I stay within my limits - I've been losing weight. Unfortunately I've been cheating a lot lately, but that's my own problem...

I just want to thank you all for your advice and your support. Today was my first day of logging in what I eat - including the things I shouldn't! Into Fit day. It was a rough day - but I did it. My calories ended up around 1550 which was more than I thought I ate. So I'm going to do this for a few more days. I also walked 2 times today - outside - considering it was cold.

I am really paying more attention to what I've been doing by logging. I think this will make me stop feeling sorry for myself and I'll be more accountable.

Barbara, I agree with Mudpie - you should write a book and I'd buy it. You've really helped point me in the right direction and gotten me started. How inspiring.

Mudpie, thanks for the welcome...and Laura, you look like you've done so well too! I'm going to check out the site tonight and see how it differs from the Fitday that I've started.

Thank you!

Have a wonderful Friday tomorrow.

I have been logging in Fit Day for 4 days now, and I'm averaging at 1484 cal per day w/28% Carb, 49%Fat and 23% protein. I have been allowing myself anything I want to eat - trying to be lo carb, but not succeeding. I'm not eating like I normally would or have been. Today, I am, though as I've gained a pound so far. As for my exercise, I've been walking - about 50 minutes average per day. This morning I didn't just slowly walk. I jogged for 30 minutes. I need to lose - not gain. I'm going to try to stick to about 1200 cal a day and adjust my carbs to be lower. Also work at walking at a higher pace.

I want a heart rate monitor - can anyone recommend one?

Thank you all for helping me.

I have an old Polar monitor, but it looks like you could get a basic one from Amazon or Polar for $60-80. I used a goal of X number of minutes/hours of exercise with the monitor as my reward (beats food as a reward!). I didn't think I'd be able to wear the strap as I'm large on top, but have found ways to fit it around my lower chest and it still picks up. I do find that the monitor helps motivate me as I'm not to good with that RPE (relative perceived exertion) thing. I also like it for intervals because I just work at my hardest until my heart rate hits my max and then back off to maintain for 30-60 seconds before going back to baseline. (I'm new to intervals and don't last very long yet).

I have rheumatoid and osteoarthritis so I understand the pain thing very well. I used to lift 8# dumbbells and had to back to 1#! Seriously!!! I've used therabands from my physical therapist, but you can get them over the net as well. The book I used for my bad days was "Strong Women (and Men) Beat Arthritis" by Nelson. Lots of good modifications to standard weight lifting exercises based on your body part that's not up to snuff. Th other book that helped me was Jorge Cruise's "8 Minutes in the Morning" because you pick the amount of weight you lift, but the exercises don't change. In the beginning I was so weak I had to do some of them without any weights! But over 6 months I not only could do more without pain but even when I wasn't losing weight, I lost inches like you can't imagine!

I don't do well with low carb as I end up eating too much fat instead of protein, but fit day got me my first 12 pounds and I'm hoping that it (and this site) will get me thru the next 11-12.

Best of luck (from another newbie)
Sue

Sue - I really appreciate your advice about the monitor and the books. I will look into both of them. I also completely feel more confident about fit day as I've finally started losing weight. I feel better tracking my food and exercise - It really does make me accountable and I think I can do this.

I do understand following a weight lifting regime with out weights. It sounds strange but I had to do it for a while when I first started body for life after my surgery. I couldn't lift weights for 3 months but had to get my arms stronger some how.

Thank you - again - there is hope! Congratulations for coming so far on your journey and I think with your positive outlook and determination you will surely make your goal.

Best of luck to you,
Melissa