Is it possible or reasonable to want to lose 26 lbs. in 13 weeks?
Hi all,
I am fairly new here. I read all the posts all the time, but haven't posted much. My name is Kathy and I live on Merritt Island, on the Space Coast of Florida. I used to weigh 285-290 lbs. only about 4 years ago. Then, long story short, I left my then husband and dropped almost 40 lbs in a year by doing not much other than eating different and getting away from all the stress of a bad marriage. Since then, I got divorced, met a wonderful guy, we've been married 2 1/2 years. I weighed 245 at our wedding. I am now down to 231 1/2 according to the scales at Publix last night. My husband's company is having a company picnic on April 22, approx. 13 weeks from now. I would really LOVE to lose some more weight between now and then, so I can dress in something "sexy" and feel good about it. I just started going back to Curves, after a long absence. I plan to go 3 times a week. Also, we are taking Tae Kwon Do (a family adventure! LOL) 3 times a week for 45 minute classes. Other plans include walking with my 12 year old son to the bus stop, which is 8/10ths of a mile total (to and then back to the house) and also doing this in the afternoon to pick him up. He could walk it himself, but we are uncomfortable cause the bus stop is near a sex offender's house, believe it or not! He only just changed schools two weeks ago, and can now ride a bus to this school instead of me driving him all the time.
I also have Leslie Sansone dvd's, Billy Blanks boot camp, and two fo the Firm systems that I want to start using. Only thing is, I have to be VERY careful not to overdo stuff, cause I have Fibromyalgia (although I am now on meds that help with that pain), Restless leg syndrome (on meds for that too, now), two bulging discs in my lower back L4-L5, and bone spurs on both my heels, which makes walking difficult sometimes. I also belong to a regular gym/health club that has a pool (although I don't know how to swim, but they have water aerobics classes I haven't tried yet), as well as an indoor walking track which is great. I had been walking that for awhile, but over the holidays everything kind of stopped. Now I have a goal. I really, really want to lose some more weight before the picnic. I went to the Doctor on Dec. 1st and then again last week and she said I had lost 5 lbs (but I wasn't exercising then, just eating really healthy). I thought that was great seeing as it was over the holidays. I believe I can lose 2 lbs a week during the 13 weeks to make 26 lbs. I am not following a diet, per say, just eating lots of fruits, veggies, protein (beans, no meat as I am vegetarian), etc. My biggest problem is that I don't eat very much, so I have to make sure I eat enough to keep my metabolism up. I am hoping, now that I am exercising again, that I will be hungry and actually want to eat!
Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, and get some support and see if this is an obtainable goal. Thanks everyone!
I think that is definitely reasonable. A healthy goal is 1-2 lbs per week and the first few weeks you may lose more since you'll exercising and eating healthier than before. Make sure to eat enough calories to fuel your workouts and definitely take it easy because of your health issues. Have you tried weight training? It will help add muscle to burn more calories. i think you will look and feel great at the picnic so good luck!!
Hi.....You can definitely lose 26 pounds in 3 months and a week. However, I'm talking from male experience. People have told me that I have lost the weight dramatically. They tell me that this is so because I'm a male and they tend to lose weight faster. On average, and at my heaviest, I was able to lose 10 pounds a month. Some may say it is unhealthy to lose more than 2 pounds a week, but you cannot generalize. Everybody has different body chemistry, and if my body decided to lose 10 pounds a month, so be it. On the other hand, you may lose more or less within that period of time depending on your efforts, which include exercising and calorie counting. Twenty+ pound-loss in a period of 13 weeks is way reasonable and I know you can and will achieve it. Keep yourself motivated by constantly imagining how you will look at such event. This will help you avoid eating another handful of Doritos and finding excuses to skip a workout. Keep us informed of your achievements.
Thank you for your support. I look forward to reaching my first goal and becoming healthy. Once I lose the 26 pounds, I will reset the goal. My final goal is to see how I feel at about 165-170 and decide then if I want to stay there, or continue losing. My target goal according to the BMI calculators is 143 lbs, but I feel I will look too skinny at that. I am very curvey and hourglass shaped (just with extra padding! LOL) so I don't want to lose those curves. If I can figure out how to post a pic, I will. I have a pic of me at my highest weight of 295-290, a current pic of me now, at about 232 and I will post more pics as I lose the weight. Just gotta figure out how to do it.
I do have another question. I have been drinking LOADS of water at least 120 ounces a day. My weight has been going up again by several pounds (I weigh in the morning, naked, before I get a shower). I can only assume it is water weight that I haven't started losing yet, as I have been eating well and staying under my calorie range. My fitness instructor did a BMI, calories needed, etc. thing on me some weeks back and said for me to LOSE weight, I should be eating about 1800 calories a day as I am exercising too. That still seems like a lot to me. I think I am more in the 1500-1600 range, if even that. I have to make myself eat sometimes, cause I am just not that hungry, except when I work out. I do eat small "meals" throughout the day, rather than large ones. I do eat breakfast. Snacks are baby carrots, red grapes, a banana (of course, not all this at once!), things like that. I am vegetarian, so I don't eat meat, but I do eat meat substitutes and make sure I get enough protein. So I don't think my food intake is bad. I just need to exercise more, which I have started doing. I truly believe the excess pounds are water, as they came on the day after I started drinking all this water. I also cut out sweet tea, as I was drinking 3 glasses or so a day of that. Now all I drink is water, water, water and a sip out of my husband's tea glass! So I know I cut alot of calories by cutting out the sweet tea. I am trying to eat more veggies, fruits, etc. to make up for it. I have to be careful that I do eat enough, so my body doesn't go into starvation mode.
I think that the main problem with setting even attainable goals is that if you don't manage to hit them, then you may feel like you've failed. You want to lose 26 pounds in 13 weeks. Ok, but what if you only lose 15? That's considerably less than you had hoped, but still a very respectable 1+ a week.
Some people do better with goal dates, but some don't as well. I don't, and I believe it has helped me. I'm still plenty motivated to lose weight; being fat simply and completely sucks. But if I have a bad day, week, or holiday season its no big deal. I know I'll get back to losing and I don't have to deal with the guilt of missing my goal date.
Dieting is stressful enough. Why make it moreso?
Edit: You might want to try tea sweetened with splenda. I've never liked artificial sweetners, and to be honest I still prefer the taste of good old sugar. But I can tolerate splenda. I once calculated that given the amount of sweet tea I drink during the course of a day, making the switch saved me over 400 calories a day (yea, I drink *alot* of tea, hence my username). And yes, drinking tea does count towards meeting your fluid intake needs.
Love the name! Yes,I was drinking a good bit of tea as well. Especially since I quit drinking diet soda about a year ago. Regular soda gives me headaches so I don't drink that either. Tea became my drink of choice, besides water. But, a few days ago, I pretty much quit all my tea drinking, except an occasional sip from my husband's tea glass (it's hard to quit cold turkey!LOL). Now I am drinking over 120 ounces of water per day. Uggh. I feel like I'm swimming in it!
I cannot use splenda or any other artificial sweetener. Just over a year ago, I was having problems that mimicked MS. I went for lots of testing, ENG tests is what they were called, I believe (nerve tests), etc. to find out why I was having the numbness, tingling, etc in my arms and legs. Long story short, turns out apparently, that I needed to quit using artificial sweeteners. I had been using them for more than 20 years - aspertame, splenda when it came out, nutrisweet, equal, etc. All of those, in tea, cereal in place of sugar, coffee, diet drinks, etc. Way too much. The neurologist told me to quit drinking them and see what happens. Within 2 weeks, all my symptoms disappeared. So, I quit using them, as per his orders. Was it a coincidence? I don't know. I researched some stuff on aspertame poisoning and some of it was the same kinds of things I was experiencing. I had asked the doctor about splenda, cause I know it's different then regular sweeteners, and he said don't use that either. So, I don't.
Is it possible or reasonable to want to lose 26 lbs. in 13 weeks?
It is possible
