Hi guys and gals,

Sorry I've not been posting recently - I've turned into a lurker! Just thought I'd say hi and let you know I am still around. It's great to see so many of you doing well and so many new members!

I am still going to the gym alot (5-6 times a week) and am doing a part time IT course. I am also being alot more sociable and am going out more at the weekends, which after 3 years of not going out at all, can only be a good thing!

Weight wise I have basically maintained over Winter - I have been stuck at 217 or a few pounds under since the end of September! I have found this very disheartening, but it has also taught me that the scales can be very misleading! You see the thing is my shape is continually slimming down and I am regularly dropping clothes sizes - and people are often commenting on how slim I am looking - all the while the number on the scale has not moved in 4 months!! The gym workouts have left me so toned and muscular - I am fitting into clothes that I last wore when I was 30lb lighter - this is confusing, but also nice!

I am still going to push for more weight loss - I do not believe it is healthy for me to be at 217 for the rest of my life, no matter how toned I am! So I am totally reworking my diet plan - I've basically been doing the same thing (calorie counting - 1600 cals) for over a year now and it's time to shake things up abit! I am going to try to eat 5 small meals a day instead of 3 big meals - this keeps the metabolism high, and avoids going into 'startvation mode' and then overeating. I am also going to try stopping carbs in my evening meal - I tend to have big plates of pasta or potatoes at the very time when I am doing the least movement, so I am going to have my carbs for breakfast and lunch and stick to protein and veg in the evening.

This will take some organising and planning, and will take some getting used to - but overall I feel excited about making the change and think it's just what I need to get me out of my winter rut!

I'll keep you posted!

Love Amanda x

Nice to hear from you, Amanda! I'm glad things are going well for you. You're proof that the scales don't tell the whole story, and that exercise really makes a difference to the shape of our bodies.

It sounds as though you have a great plan in place, and I wish you well with it. Don't be a stranger!

Hi Amanada - great to see you back. Glad to see you stuck with the exercise and are feeling great. Sounds like a good plan. Looking forward to seeing you around more often.

~Dee

Good plan. Great job with the exercise. Keep it up!

Oops, missed this post on Friday! Amanda it is great to see you posting again!

Great to hear from you Amanda. Good to see things are going well and you are still hitting the gym. That is awesome you are fitting into those clothes.

Amanda! I missed this thread on Friday, too. So happy to see you back! Good job on maintaining over the winter and working on toning your lovely self! Sounds like you have a good plan and the mindset to be succesful. Keep us updated on your progress.

Amanda, welcome back to the fold. Glad you're doing well and that you have a plan you can live with. Hope you'll be back to let us know how it's going.

Amanda I always said I didn't care if I weighed over 200 pounds as long as I look like I weigh 130.

The thing of it is with serious muscle, you are going to weigh more, and there is NO reason to lose muscle just so you can weigh less. Muscle is what will help you STAY slim. It burns more calories than fat, and keeps your metabolism revved up high so that you won't immediately gain back the fat you have lost.

Why not buy some fat calipers and base your body on that? Check your body fat percentages. It is a much more balanced way to measure your progress if you are someone who works out at the gym a lot.

I know when I did Body for Life exercises for 12 weeks I didn't lose a pound either. I did lose a clothing size and enough fat percentage points to be equal to about 15 pounds of fat. So I just had to conclude that I had gained 15 pounds of muscle and water and lost that much in fat.

The most logical way of calculating your level of fitness is to go by body fat percentages. Maybe your gym has that way of measuring body fat where they dunk you in a tub of water? Measure your body fat changes that way? That is supposed to be the most accurate. The calipers are second.

Anyway if you do some math you can figure out what your lean body mass is. That is your body without any fat. Just bones, organs and muscle. Then on top of that you (as a woman) need at least 20 percent of your body to be fat. Some go lower, but that is usually temporary and for competing body builders. Once you know those numbers it is easier to determine what your goal weight should be.

When I was working out seriously I figured out that although I thought my goal should be about 130 pounds, I realized that to get there meant that I would need to lose muscle. Not a good option. So I revised my goal (at that time) to about 160. That would have been my lbm (lean body mass) of 135 plus about 20 to 23 percent body fat.

Anyway it sounds like you are doing good. All that muscle will help in the long run to keep the weight off.