Hi girls,

I am new on the site and very happy I found it.

Have couple of questions, would love to hear your opinions.

1.Do you think we should adjust our weight as we are getting older? I mean, sometimes I see woman in there late 30 early 40 and they are just a little skinny for there age. I think when we hit 35 we should look “juicy” as well, not just slim? I had a debate with my husband about it another night and he told me that when I he looks at my photo when I was in my 20 and weight 124 lb it looked good, but now, I would be a little to skinny looking and have almost no curves. So here I am at 137 lb now, and struggling to loose that weight and get back to my 124lb I was just a year ago and my husband insist that it will not look good on me as I am in my 30 now….what do you think? Do you have the same opinion? The older we get more of the pounds should be put on?

2. I was struggling with my weight loss only after 2 pregnancies, never I was counting calories or worried about my weight since and I never went over 126 lb. Year ago I went on birth control pill “Yasmin” and I put on 14 lb since!!!! I am exercising, don’t eat any sweets, tried counting calories, tried Atkins, tried “cabbage soup”….it works and I would usually loose 5 lb, but then it all comes back…makes me think if “Yasmin” messed up my metabolism? Does anybody else have the same problem?

I definitely do. At 21, when our first child was born, I weighed 125. Ten years laster and after baby #3, when I was running 20mi / wk and in the best shape of my life, I weighed 145.

Now, then we went and had another baby right on the heels of the third one...so here I am with a LOT more to loose than ever before. BUT, my goal is 160 tentative and then 145 ultimate.

I agree with your DH (and my hubs says the same) if I was 125 now, at 33yrs old, I would look skelatal. To many curves now!

I'm glad someone brought this up, as I've been wondering the same thing. At 24, I weighed 125lbs, and looked fine, not skinny. But at 40, I'm not sure - would I still look ok?

I agree. I used to weigh 130 with my 5'9" frame and it was rockin...but at almost 32 & 3 kids later...I am thinking 150 might be a better idea.

One thing I've noticed lately...how come when people who are closer to their "appropriate" weight gain or lose...oh let's just say 7 lbs, it's noticable, but when I gain or lose 7 lbs I really don't see that much of a difference.

Like my friend. 5'8" 150lbs. She will lose 5 - 7 lbs and go down a pant size.
Me...if I gain 5 - 7 lbs...my pants get tight...lose 5 - 7 lbs...I barely notice.

I guess it just depends on your frame size. I weighed 150 when I was 18-21-ish and it looked great because I had alot of muscle back then. After baby #1 (age27), I got down to 165 and looked good too. After baby #2 (age 29), I got down to 170 and felt good...still wanted to lose more, but started my PhD and shot right back up. I put 145 as my goal because I don't think I have quite as much muscle as I did at 18, but if I get to 155 and feel great, I may quit early. Certainly, if I start to look skelatal, I would stop...some of the ladies in my family fight with anorexia, so I don't even want to go there...

Long way to say, I think it is highly dependent on the person and how her body responds to weight loss...

I think we have to expect our bodies to change. Whether that means a different scale weight or not, who knows. I think it's probably way to individual to say we "should" or "shouldn't" adjust our weight.

The other thing is…I don’t know if you girls experience this as well…after I gained 10 lb my bra size jumped from B small to full C…some people actually asked me if I had ‘job” done. I hope I will not downsize in that area much after loosing weight.

I'm curious to see what my bra size will end up. When I was 130lbs previously, I was a small C. I was really too big for a B, but not a huge C either. I'm still 14lbs from goal, and currently a full 36C. (When I gained and was at my heighest, I was a 38C, verging on a D)

I really don't know. When I lost my baby weight 4 years ago I got all the way down to 130. I spent much of my teenage years at the same weight or a little higher. I'm hoping I can still get back to that point and maybe lose a little more, but I guess we'll see how it goes.

Hi I'm new here and just wanted to say thank you for this thread. I am really trying to focus on loosing the weight and getting in shape since we are done having kids and I think I may need to readjust where my "ultimate" goal will be. Which means I'm a bit closer to in than I thought.

To answer your 2nd question though I do think the BCP can mess with your hormones which can affect your weight. I'm think I'm in the same boat you are but my hormones changed permantly because of my last pregnancy.

I'm about to make a pretty controversial statement, so bear with me. I had this discussion with myself this morning (I self-talk a lot!) and I reckon that genes, birth control, bone structure all play a very little role in our current weight. What really causes us to gain weight varies between people, but mostly we can all see that food has become an addiction.

Bone structure and genes go hand in hand, but really... what IS a large bone structure? The wrist method is really flawed; some people who are small can't wrap their fingers around their wrist, yet I can overlap mine! There really isn't a "proven" method for knowing whether you're big- or small-boned until you look at your own bones, IMO.

Genes can tell you that you will hold onto fat, that you will probably overeat, gain unusually large amounts of muscle, etc. But that's all they tell you.

I gained some significant weight after I started birth control around 10 years ago- probably 20 pounds. But I don't think birth control messes with our metabolisms as much as we think it does. I have no proof, only my own observations. (edit: observations of a woman who doesn't have any children!)

Having said all that, adust your caloric intake as an adult, but not necessarily your weight. Your metabolism slows with each decade of life, so if you routinely ate 2400 calories in your twenties to maintain, 2400 calores in your fifties will cause you to gain, so you need to adust that to a level where you are maintaining your weight.

After looking at all my pictures from 124-123 lb time, and getting upset on the weekend over the fact that my favorite party top did fit, but was so tight, that I was uncomfortable, I decided adjust my weight to 2-3 lb considering that I am 34(almost) not 25.

Also I am going to fitness club today and will try to go 2/week...just counting calories don't help me much. I lost 2 lb , then I gained it back over weekend.

Another problem is my 2 glasses of red wine every evening with dinner...so many calories, have to probably say good buy to my "Merlot"....

How is everybody doing with weight loss during holiday parties’ time?

otda - you shouldn't have to give anything up. it's all about portion control and burning the calories. if you enjoy your red wine with dinner...go for it. I would say only drink one glass...or maybe go get some smaller wine glasses. that way 2 glasses seems like "enough" but in reality you have reduced the amount you drink.
the very best way to lose weight is better eating habits (I don't like the word "diet") and a normal exercise routine. stick with something you can continue even after you have lost the weight!