My name is Zima, and I'm a twenty-eight-year-old female trying to drop some excess flab. I am 5'4 and weighed 141 lbs a few months ago. I ate Mcdonalds every other day, and barely moved away from my computer, let alone exercised!

Then, something in me snapped (I think it was when I couldn't fit into any of my clothes anymore!) and I started exercising. I lost about 10 lbs, but couldn't get any more off. A week ago, I started really counting my calories, dropping down to 800-1,000 calories a day, and doing cardio and weight training every day. Now I am down to 125 lbs! My goal weight is 118 by September 1st.

Good Luck to everyone on reaching their goals, and I look forward to any helpful tips or words of encouragement.

ZIMA . . . glad you found us. You will find lots of support and encouragement around her for healthy weight loss plans.

Unfortunately, your current regimen of eating less than 1200 calories does not quite fill that bill and your current weight of 125 is definitely within the normal range for your height. Don't want to discourage your efforts for be healthy and fit, Chickie, but as you travel around this great big site, you will find more and more members who will tell you the same thing. Under 1200 calories a day, it is very difficult to obtain all the nutrients your body requires.

I have to agree with meowee. If you head over to the maintainers forum, you'll notice all of them approached weight loss through a healthy, 1200+ calorie a day diet. Dropping below 1200 eventually becomes non-sustainable and physically difficult due to a variety of issues. Very low calorie diets also lead to rapid regain and possible negative consequences to your metabolism. Please don't be offended or discouraged, but we like to see all of of members lose weight through the healthiest way possible.

Okay, thank you guys very much. I have been trying to consume more calories daily, but I just find that I am not very hungry. Should I eat the extra calories even though I'm not hungry? Thanks for the advice

Give us some examples of your daily menu and maybe we can find a few little places that you can change a little bit.

How about adding some olive oil to your meals or a protein shake. Simple things like that will boost your calorie intake if you don't feel like eating more.


Leenie

Hi Zima, Welcome and good luck!

Something that is important to rememeber, is that even though you may not feel hungry...your body still needs a certain amount of nutrients. It doesn't make sense, for instance, to do strength training to build muscle...and then not feed those muscles enough-because they need the fuel, as well as the exercise, to improve.

I eat every 3 hours. Here is a sample of how my day goes as far as eating:



Eat at 8:00 AM. A slim fast shake (190 cal) and a piece of fruit. (Anywhere from 50-100 calories)

Eat at 11:00 AM. A grilled chicken sandwhich (190 cal) And yogurt (60 cal)

Eat at 2:00 PM. Some fruit (50-100 cal) string cheese (50 cal)

Usually I take a long nap, or I'm out and about so I can't eat until later. So when I do eat again, it's probably a salad (about 200-300 cal) or some cereal and skim milk, which is about the same amount of calories.