In WW and otherwise, I have always called myself TheFInalFifteen because no matter what I weighed, I always wanted to lose 15 pounds.

I took an Eating Psychology Class last fall/winter and tried to "Trust my Intuition" and put away the scale and the diet mentality. Imagine my chagrin when I stepped on the scale last week to discover that my intuition sucks donkey b@lls and it led me to put on another 10 lbs, just when I thought I couldn't get any fatter.

Maybe there are a few of your out there who are heavy but who LOVE to exercise? I am an avid exerciser even at my size -- I have run 10ks, hiked mountains, and I currently go to a hardcore kickboxing class 3X a week. But here I remain, overweight.

And slightly horrified.

I just didn't have the heart to call myself TheFinalTwentyFive. It doesn't have the same ring to it.

Wow, nearly 100 views and nothing. Did I say something wrong?! Everyone else seems to get at least one person welcoming them. I hope to be able to find some connection here :-) if anyone feels like replying.

Hi finalfifthteen! Im glad you said something.... I was thinking the same thing about some of my posts...... What the heck did I say!? anyway, no you are definetly not alone! I am a larger girl who used to work out alot! My comfertable size with consistant hard exersize is a 10. Since gaining...which is partially from less exersize is 14 - 16. It is very hard to loose weight...its not exersize alone unless its like 3 hrs or more a day. You have to take alook at your diet. Even healthy eating could need some tweaking. In my experience as an college athlete the best results were to increase my lean proteins and veggis and fruit. But to really watch my carbs. Good carbs only...rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and oatmeal. I had great results going high carb 2 days then low carb for 2 days. You need them when exersizing but you need the right kind. Watch your sugar as well. Be carefull to not go too low on carbs for too long. Ie... 2-3 servings on high carb day, 1-2 servings on low carb days. If you feel tierd or weak....you need to increase the servings for a couple days. Keep on moving...you will get there.....oh and welcome.
Natalie

You're , TheFinalFifteen.
Stick to 3fc and you'll receive the help you need in order to lose 15 several times
Good luck on your journey!!!
P.S: I think (just my opinion) that many lurkers who are not registered here also get to read the posts, which makes the views count high. It doesn't always mean that members are ignoring you.

I will welcome you too! I love to exercise, and I am way more fit than a lot of my peers, including many who are much thinner than I am. But exercise is such a small portion of the weight loss equation, it's weird it gets emphasized so much.

Good to have you here! Pretty soon, you will be working on the Final Fifteen again! Then you will have conquered it.

Thanks guys :-) I need to be less cyber-sensitive. I actually had to deactivate my facebook account last year because little things were getting under my skin, it was so stupid.

But thank you for replying. It means a lot.

And yes, I am trying to take a good look at my diet -- because even though I am a relatively healthy eater, something isn't working. I also LOVE wine. Which doesn't help.

This whole "work hard play hard" mentality has caught up with me on the scale :-)

Good for you! Seriously, I think this means you have the right attitude to find a way to lose weight that works for you. What you need to do may or may not be conventional but with trial and error, and being open to swimming against the tide once in a while, you will find what works for you.

You found that you gained weight when you put away the scale and tried to eat intuitively. I've done that several times (you'd think I'd learn faster than that). Some folks would claim that I'm not *really* eating intuitively, and they are probably right. But in any case, IE and me just never hit it off, so I looked for other ways to manage my weight.

The fact that you love exercise is fantastic, and means you'll be healthier than many folks regardless of weight. But if you want to lose weight, poke around and give something a try. Good luck and welcome!

Thanks for the vote of confidence, yoyoma. I so love the idea of IE, it just really doesn't work for me and my particular demons, also known as The Rebel, who loves to sabotage everything I do.

I am so committed to finding what works for me -- I am at long last coming to the conclusion that WW doesn't work for me either. I am trying calorie counting for a month or two, something I really haven't tried in earnest before, and combining that with my rigorous kickboxing class. Hoping that beings to translate to the scale :-)

Omg I love wine too!

My intuition also leads me astray. I have to stick to numbers or else I just re-gain. This time around, to prevent re-gaining, I have now accepted the fact that I will be counting calories/carbs for the rest of my life.

Welcome Final15 -- my intuition is exactly like your intuition, donkey b@lls and all, so I'm right there with you. In the past I exercised alot more than I do now, and was much more overweight. I know from experience that you can't out-run (or out exercise) a bad diet!

It is great, however, that you are into sport, it will really pay off for you once you clean up your eating and you may find yourself performing even better than you did before!

Im also in the donkey balls camp and that's why i keep a strict food diary. It gives me something objective to monitor myself against.

Welcome Ms Donkey Balls. I'd love it for someone to have that name. Its so cute.

Ok ms final fifteen… moving on. You are doing great with the exercise but your calorie intake are obviously more than you are burning. The key is not to exercise more or even necessarily to change the type of foods you are eating if you think they are already healthy.

the key is to consume less calories. And you've hinted it could be with the wine. so when you are doing your food diary, you've got to list every glass of wine, beer whatever. I once met a lady who told me she lost 20 kilos (thats about70 pounds i think), in a year, just by giving up alcohol, although its hard to imagine you wouldn't replace it with food but who knows.

So anyway try to cut down on the alcohol and if you can't, then you'd have to cut down on the food.

In case this helps, you know they say that even one glass of wine a day can increase your chances of getting breast cancer. I still drink a glass of wine on a lot of days but it is worth cutting down if you can. Maybe if you find nothing ever works, you might have to go cold turkey on the wine and alcohol.

tips for cutting down wine, have a glass of water between every glass of wine; water down your wine (with water, not fruit juice), reassess your drinking situations and go out less often if that's where it all happens. If it happens at home, its got to be a bit easier to manage.

I have to do it with sweet foods. I' think i'm giving up for life, except on special rare occasions when i can't get reckless such as in company. I know though that it will still be a risk in following days that something won't happen to my thinking to trigger weakness and lose the plot entirely but anyway that's what i'm doing. And i will always have to monitor my mental health because if life starts getting messy, i might also cave in.

Thanks so much for your advice, Pattience -- and p.s., is that your name? I have a daughter named Patience....

Me, too.