Some of you may already have tried this, or heard about it, but this was the first time for me.

I read about this in a magazine...can't remember which one (I subscribe to soooo many! e-gads.... ) but it's reputable, as I enjoy Women's Health, Fitness, SELF, Prevention, and several others.

ANYHOO... this article stated that an easy way to lose weight is to simply cut your caloric intake by 500 calories a day using both DIET and EXERCISE. For instance, 250 thru diet and 250 thru exercise. Easily done by not eating that bag of Peanut M&M's and completing 45 minutes on the treadmill.

Supposedly, doing this will, of course, add up to 3500 negative calories in a week, and that's one pound. So in 6 weeks you will have lost at least 6 pounds.

Sounds easy, huh? Yeah, I thought so too.

I've been doing that for 2 years. That's how I lost all of my weight.

No diet is easy and there are no quick fixes. But it all boils down to calories. I eat about 1200 calories a day, give or take a few.

That's how I have been losing my weight. I eat about 1700 a day (sometimes more, eeeeeeps!) but I also burn about 600 a day riding my bike.

Sigh. I am a new user so I am trying to get the feel of this. I have posted up before, but I don't know if anyone read or responded, because I don't know how to check. Anyway. Does anyone know how much water weight women put on during PMS? I was doing pretty good. I am on Weight Watchers, I usually take in 20pts a day, but I tend to get sloppy on the weekends. Its not that awful, bcs on the average weekend, I will go up by 2lbs and be back down by Tuesday. I am so annoyed because Friday I was 169 (I want to be 160) and here we are Wednesday and I weighed in at 176!!!! Today is the first day of my menstrual. My gf keeps telling me its no big deal, but it feels like one to me. I don't know if I need a response to this or if I just needed to vent. More info, I am 5'8"....

Beach patrol -- yes, that math is right and that's what I've been doing to whittle away 95 pounds! It is simple, but not always easy.

luluandstina -- I can read your post, though you probably want to start a "new thread'. Women vary a lot regarding how much wieght they put on before their periods. Try to take a long view of all of this and weigh yourself in a few more days! You don't want to get derailed by something like this!

I gain up to 5 lbs and avoid the scale that week.

I have seen the scale go up as much as 8 pounds and haven't even been on TOM. You get used to the daily differences. I learned that weighing everyday is okay, but I only one day a week do I count it as my weigh in day and make it offical. I used the same day and time everyweek.

wyllenn - you are TRULY an inspiration to us all! - Sometimes I feel like a dumbo because I want to lose 30-35 pounds, and I whine & moan about how hard it is & blahblahblah... ...then there are people like you who are struggling to lose a lot more than that - AND DOING IT! - and I just wanna crawl under a rock for being such a crybaby!

And you're right - something I've said plenty of times myself... "IT IS SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY."

Thanks! (just for being you!)

Beach Patrol -- You're not being a crybaby. This is hard for all of us! It usually involves changing habits and attitudes we have lived with for years (or our whole lives!). People who never have had a weight problem and snap their fingers saying "losing weight is easy" are the ones who don't get it.

That said, there are some issues that those of us who are obese (in my case, morbidly obese) have to deal with that is different for people who are "overweight" or "just trying to lose those last 5 pounds." I still struggle with the fact that I AM still obese, despite having lost 95 pounds! It's weird, some times I see myself and think "wow, I look so much better" and then "wow, I am still fat" -- sometimes one thought right after the other! I am finally getting to the point where I can shop in "normal people" stores (though the pickings are slim (haha) in size 18). And I revel in the fact that I can put on a seat belt or not have to worry about fitting into movie seats!

Anyway, didn't mean to whine on... Thanks for noticing!!

That or you can go to online calorie calculators and put in your stats. No, the calorie calculators aren't 100% accurate, but it gives you baseline to work with, it gives you an estimate.

Use one that asks for your weight, your height, your age, your sex and your activity level. It will then give you an idea, based on your stats, how many calories you should be consuming per day to maintain your current weight. Subtract 500 from that to lose.

It's not an exact science, as everyone is different, but it gives you an idea of what you need to be consuming calorie-wise without having to track your calories before you start. I didn't. I went by the guidelines of the calorie calculator and just did it. I dove in head first without knowing how many calories I was eating before.

Whatever the case, it worked for me.

In a thread called "Calorie Counters Keep it Simple" we call this calorie spread a 'deficit'.
We try to make it bigger and healthier by looking at our food and increasing our exercise. You are very welcome to join us there.