Not new to weight loss, but new the forum and was wondering which thread is most used for just general weight loss discussion.

Thanks

Well, thanks anyway.

Welcome! Glad you joined! You'll find tons of support & motivation here! Um ... there are conversations all over the place .. you kinda just have to look around. I like the chats in Support or even Support Groups ... Chicks in Control ... just anywhere! Hope you find one you like to post in that helps you!

Hi LLV. What is your age group? Which diet plan are you on? Interests? There are lots of different forums that you might be interested in browsing and starting a thread or just posting to an existing thread to "get the ball rolling". I'm glad you are here. Hope to see you around!

Hi Kells!

p.s.=Great job on your weight loss so far!

Thanks, everyone I appreciate it

I'm not on any diet. Dieting is how I yo-yo'd myself to 220 pounds, lol.

I simply made permanent lifestyle changes that I can live with

Welcome! What type of changes did you make? Me, I stopped eating in the evening, I exercise every day (even if it's only 30 minutes), drink water (about a gallon) and focus on low fat/low sodium/high fiber foods. I am vegan, so my diet was already cholesterol-free and veggie-rich, so these few small changes made the world of difference! What changes have you implemented?

I made lots of changes. I ate too much crud before. Fast food, fried food, junk. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy fast food on rare occasions or a piece or two of fried chicken. I'm not going the rest of my life without the foods I love. I simply eat way less of them than I did before. This isn't a diet for me, I've made permanent changes and part of that permanent change is to allow myself my favorite foods IN MODERATION. I don't believe in deprivation, it doesn't work. I don't believe in restricting one particular food group, either. Like eating low carb to lose weight, for example. Most of the weight you lose is water and the rest of it is simply because of a reduction in calories. When you reduce your calorie intake, you're going to lose weight.

Carbs don't make you fat. Calories make you fat. If you eat more than your body burns, that is.

I'm a calorie-counter. I use a site that keeps track of everything for me and every single day I enter what I've eaten and how much. I weigh my food, I measure my food, I account for everything I eat. I eat no more than 1200-1300 calories a day

Wow!
1200-1300 calories? I tried that yesterday, and I felt like my world was spinning. I ate a WW bar for breakfast, miso soup and a rice cake for lunch, and had grilled salmon and veggies for dinner... and I spent the remainder of my night back and forth from bed to the bathroom.

I also walked off about 120 calories during the day, but the only thing that seemed to make my nausea go away, was some hot green tea.

Is this normal? Was this too drastic of a change? I think I've eaten upwards of 2500 calories per day in the last year.

That's a pretty big change, yes.

When I first started, I was eating about 1500-1600 calories a day. Then I gradually took myself down, eating as many calories as I should have been eating according to my height, weight, age, sex and activity level. When I started this, I went and played with some online calorie calculators. You enter in your information and the calculator gives you your maintenance calories, the number of calories you need to eat per day to maintain your weight. From that number you subtract 500 to lose 1-2 pounds per week. However, the more weight you lose, the fewer calories you need. So as I lost weight, my maintenance calories dropped. And that's how I got down to 1300. It doesn't bother me because I'm used to it. Yeah, I get a little hungry now and then, but I'm used to that as well. Hunger doesn't really bother me like it used to.

Once I hit goal, I can up my calories again to maintain. I want to stay between 130 and 135, which is a good weight for me (I'm not going to kill myself trying to stay at an exact number). But once I get between 130 and 135, I can up my calories to about 1700 to stay there.

Counting calories is the only thing that's ever worked for me. I went years trying this diet and that diet (I don't even use the WORD diet anymore, to me it's a 4-letter thing) and got myself fat that way. I finally made the decision to make permanent changes, eat the amount of calories that I needed specifically for my own body, and the weight came off

LLV, you have done great and are so close to goal!

Your plan is very reasonable and close to mine...I count calories, allow myself what I like in moderation and as long as the calories are in range, I'm okay. You are right- carbohydrates don't make one fat, excess calories (from fat/protein or carbs) do but I have found that when I have allowed myself simple carbohydrates (sugars, white breads and pastas) my blood sugar and cravings become imbalanced. I focus on high fiber foods when reaching for starches and also try to balance protein intake because it keeps my blood sugar more level and helps reduce cravings (and feeling crappy too).

Oh yes, most definitely. 'White' carbs cause a spike in blood sugar levels. Which is why diabetics are discouraged from eating too many of them. So those types of carbs CAN play a role in messing up your balance, I fully agree with that. I balance carbs just as I do fats and everything else. Like if I know I'm having pasta or something for dinner, I eat mostly lean meats and vegetables for lunch. If I eat carby stuff at lunch, I watch what I eat of it at dinner. Etc etc etc. It's all about balance.

And yep, your plan sounds like mine. Never deprive yourself of the foods you love, because then the whole thing will seem more like a chore rather than something enjoyable. This is a lifetime thing. If you allow yourself to believe you can never eat pizza and hamburgers again, you're going to cave eventually and eat those foods, then give up the whole thing because you assume you've failed. So if I want a hamburger, I eat it. I just make sure it's counted in with my calories for the day and forget about it

I'm in this for life. And making my favorite foods an occasional PART of my life is important.

Thanks for the compliments!