I don't think its a good idea to lose more than 2 pounds a week. You lost 5
in 4 weeks and that is not bad at all. Sweets will make you eat more, so
avoiding them as much as possible is a good idea. Too much fat also is not
good for your general health. I would definately not give up the diet and
exercise. I've started a low-carb high-protein diet and working out
"full-time" about 6 months ago and it is now that I'm seeing some results
and believe it or not I am feeling better about myself. I dont think you
have to stick to the diet forever. When I eat that fattening meal, I make up
for it during the day, or the next day. Maybe instead of tortilla chips I
eat a tuna can or roasted chicken without skin which is a good source of
protein (I do weights as well and I find that helps me maintain my
muscle --important for my metabolism I believe). Others in this group
probably have better tips, but I'd say this the only way worth trying.

<snip>

If low fat doesn't work for you try low carb. Low fat never worked well for
me. It was always a huge struggle even with exercise.
The alt.support.diet.low-carb FAQ has short descriptions of most of the
major low carb plans.
http://www.grossweb.com/asdlc/faq.htm#2a

excellent result.

How tall are you and what is your current weight? 2,000 calories is
not that little, especially for a female.

and 2 miles  "almost every night" is not THAT much, although it is
good for you.

You have 5 lbs lost. Losing weight is not that easy.

You just need to get used to the idea that losing weight is not
easy. But bein 100 lbs overweight is pretty difficult also, to carry
all that fat on  you.

Very good, you should be happy about it and not complaining. Please
note that your choice to eat low fat is not necessarily helping you to
feel satiated. Fat is known to quickly bring satiety. Obviously low
fat or not low fat, you still have to limit your calories.

If you are really craving food, maybe you need to change what you eat
on your diet, still staying within your calorie limit.

Anyway, with 100 lbs to go, you obviously had some unhealthy eating
havits that you got used to. Do you think that it is going to be easy
to start eating well?

Ruby, sounds like you are very hungry. Can you tell us what your diet
is like? Possibly you can eat different foods and feel less hungry
because other foods can satisfy your needs for nutrients.

Anyhow, with 100 extra lbs on you, your life expectancy is greatly reduced
and you have a lot of chances to develop heart disease and
diabetes. So losing weight will add several years to your life. But it
is difficult and most diet attempts fail for a reason. So try not to
become a statistic. We have a bunch of people here, myself included,
who lost weight and it is not coming back.

Sounds like you developed a real food fixation. Could be due to your
hunger, or could be preexisting condition. But it is not helping.

Consider upping your fat while still limiting calories. Eat more
vegetables and meat and lower bread and pasta etc.

i
223/177/180

Walking two miles is tiring - especially if you are carrying an extra 100lb.
As Igoramus says, it's very good for you, but exercise doesn't actually burn
a lot of calories when compared to your diet as a whole.  It's not
insignificant, but don't think that your walking two miles is going to make
the fat drop off you - it won't.  What will get the fat off your body is
changing your diet (which does NOT mean starving yourself).

Here's an example.  I'll use myself here, because I don't know your weight.
When I walk (a fairly brisk walk at around 4mph) I burn off about 7 calories
a minute.  So if I were to walk 2 miles at 4 mph, I would walk for half an
hour.  Calories burned = 30 x 7 = 210kcal.  210 calories is only an extra 7%
on the calories I would burn if I were to do no exercise at all.  And the
energy required to walk for that long can be found in a single banana.

So why is exercise so good then?  Well it tells your body which weight you
want to lose.  You want to lose the fat and keep the muscle, and the only
way to tell your body to burn the fat instead of the muscle is by doing
exercise.

Reading your post suggests to me that you are depriving yourself of
calories.  This is as bad as eating too many.  You should eat no less than
eight times your weight in calories.  I weigh 185lb, so I should eat no less
than about 1500 calories daily.  You say you have 100lb to lose which means
you could weight around 250lb?  If so, the very minimum amount you should be
eating is 2000 calories a day.  Some nutritionists even say that 10 times
your weight is a better figure so this would suggest 2500 cal as a minimum.

Eating less than that amount is dangerous.  I don't know if this applies to
you because I don't actually know your height and weight, but you could be
starving yourself.  Starving yourself triggers a metabolic change which
tells your body to start burning muscle and keep the fat.  It thinks that
you are going to have to last a bit before you can find your next meal - and
doesn't realise that the fridge is full.  It puts you in survival mode.
When in survival mode, your body grabs all the fat it can get and puts it in
storage.  It burns your muscles instead.  And when you do relax for that
thanksgiving dinner, your body says "Aw thank feic for that - ah thought ah
wiz gonny perish!" and stores all of that fat too.

Result?  You get fed up with being hungry, accept that you are 'naturally
fat' and start eating what you were.  Your body will take a while to realise
that it's not starving any more and you will end up heavier than you started
out.  This is the reason most diets fail.

I think you need to do a little research and design a suitable diet for
yourself.  This list will help, but needs more information on you.  So
please reply.

Congratulations on the 5lb lost so far, and good luck!

MadJock
204/185/165

Five pounds is a great start!  I am sorry to hear that you are
frustrated but hey, that's five pounds GONE!  Most folks recommend a
weight loss rate of 1-2 pounds per week so you are more or less on
track.  That's good news.

Are you logging your food intake?  A lot of people on this newsgroup use
fitday (www.fitday.com) -- or spreadsheets or palm pilots to log their
food.  I use my Palm and that works out great for me.  If you are not
currently logging your food intake, you might want to try fitday for a
week or so and see if you notice any trends.  Alternatively, you could
post a food log to this newsgroup for feedback.

What are your goals?  Weight loss?  Better overall health?  Running a
marathon?  :-)  (hey, one of my friends has that for a goal!)

Also, I don't recall the exact formula (someone, help me out here) but
you can figure out a good caloric intake by something like .8 * yoru
body weight?  Anyway, hopefully someone will post the formulas for both
weight loss and maintenance.

Hang in there!

You're too impatient.  That is a good weight loss.  It's
sustainable -- you're not starving and you're not injuring
yourself by working out too much so that you have to stop
and then put the weight back on.

Remember, you have to set up something you can live with
the rest of your life or one of two things will happen.
Either the weight will come back on or you will do something
that hurts your health.

dear ruby,
congrats to you on the FIVE POUNDS lost.................that IS A BIG
DEAL!

your sound VERY frustrated!
may i suggest that you find a WOE (way of eating) that will not make you
feel like your "missing out" on something?

you lost over a pound a week.  that's perfect progress; losing much more
than that isn't healthy.  don't be so impatient.

5lbs lost is 5% of what you have to lose.  It adds up!  A slow and steady
loss is best, you'll find it's easier to maintain your new woe (way of
eating) because you aren't in a huge calorie deficit.  If you're still not
happy with your progress, perhaps you could start incorporating some
resistance training - get a set of dumbells for home use.

You need to get out of the mindsed that you have to deprive yourself in
order to lose weight - you just need to learn how to moderate.  Eat mostly
healthy, most of the time, you can splurge once in awhile.  Perhaps you
should try incorporating a refeed day into your diet every couple of weeks.

YUCK!  I think once you start eating healthy for awhile, this kinda food
won't appeal to you anymore.

You don't have to be hungry to lose weight - you just have to make good food
choices.  You should consume about 8-10 cal x current bodyweight in lbs.
Try tracking your food and drink intake (every single bite and sip) at
www.fitday.com and report back to us - what's a day's worth of food look
like for you?  How many calories? Carbs?  Fat? Protein?

det

How long did it take you to gain the weight? That might give you some idea
how long it will take to lose it. So what if you only lose a pound a week?
Or half a pound? Aren't you  headed in the right direction? Look at it that
way. I know it is hard to make sacrifices and not see a lot of results. How
do I know? Because I do it every day. But if you keep being careful and
counting calories, etc., you WILL lose the weight eventually.

Meanwhile, set shorter goals (like 5 pounds or 10 pounds) and celebrate when
you reach that goal. Give yourself non-food rewards for your
accomplishments. In addition, you could buy some new (smaller) clothes for
every 15-20 pounds lost. Or buy a pretty scarf or some cosmetics or whatever
makes you feel good, and reward yourself for the 5 pound losses.

I bought some decorative graph paper at a paper store and I record my weight
once a week (I weigh every day, but only write it down once a week). I
started out at 222 and now I'm down to 142. It has taken me since January of
this year to lose 80 pounds. But what if it took until next year? It is
still worth it. It is very satisfying to see the graph line going down,
down, down. I have hit a few plateaus, like everyone else here. My goal is
to weigh 120, but the closer I get to it, the harder it is to lose weight. I
don't care, though. I will NEVER give up. My body will eventually have to
give up the pounds. In the meantime, I'm busy "outsmarting" my metabolism.
My next goal is to get into weight-lifting. That oughta get things going. :)
My point is, you are smarter than your fat. You CAN lose the weight, but you
have to have determination and a lot of patience to do it.

Try to think of your weight loss as a life-long change in eating and
exercise. You didn't get fat overnight and you won't get thin overnight,
either.

Hugs, Cat

Nothing? Stop the pity party... you've lost 1.25 pounds a week. This
is not a bad thing! It's actually a pretty decent rate of loss.

You try, because not trying means staying fat... or worse, continuing
to gain!

Stop thinking of that 100 pounds to lose. It won't go away overnight.
You may have to think in terms of a couple years to lose it.

Start thinking of small goals, maybe 5-10 pounds at a time. That makes
it easier for me to handle... and yes, where I started from, I also
had at least a 100 pounds to lose. And I've not gotten extremely far
down the road myself. Yet.

The thing is, if you learn to enjoy other good food, and by good food,
I mean real food, quality veggies, meats, whole grains, fruits, etc...
you may miss things like mac and cheese less. Frankly, mac & cheese is
not something I miss at all. It tastes so artificial to me now.

Also, don't deprive yourself of good food. One can lose weight eating
tasty food. Today, had breakfast consisting of 3 eggs, at least a cup
of sauteed veggies and a slice of ham with pineapple. It wasn't low
fat, but it was healthy. Nope, didn't use all the egg yolks either.
And the sautee was in olive oil. It was not a hugely high calorie
breakfast either.

Lunch was some whole wheat bulgur, tomato, avocado, about a tablespoon
of olive oil and lemon dressing and a grilled chicken breast. And one
tangerine. Good stuff.

Yes, well, all that tasty food got you where you are today. Find
healthy ways to fix tasty food. Learn that other foods besides junk
food can be tasty. And remember, tasty food may be had in SMALL
portions. Occasionally.

Yikes... that would give me heartburn... which I wouldn't want much.

You gotta form some better habits, because if you are mourning things
like chili dogs and fritos now, what happens when you have lost the
100 pounds? You'll start eating those things again, and pretty soon,
the 100 pounds will be back. And possibly with friends.

Well, I'm losing at a rate of about a pound a week, or sometimes a
little more. It's a normal rate to lose at. 2 pounds a week
consistently is not gonna happen for most folks.

Also, why are you thinking that you need to eat so hugely at
Thanksgiving that you regain the entire 5 pounds? Sounds defeatist to
me. That's what, 3500 calories times 5? That's 17,500 calories. You
are gonna have to really work some to consume all that in ONE day!

Consider that you can have small portions of everything at
Thanksgiving and still stay on a diet. Consider that participation is
not limited to eating... conversation is good!

Everyone's body is different. We'd all like to be able to choose some
set amount of weight to lose a week... in a steady consistent fashion.
But weight loss rarely works like that. You should see the graph of my
loss.... down, down, then up, then down, it zigs and zags. But the ups
are rarely more than a pound and the consistent trend is down.

Also, you shouldn't have to be hungry all the time to lose weight! Be
sure you get enough protein in your diet... fiber helps too. Eat
plenty of good non-starchy veggies! Low fat does not mean NO-fat...
fats in the diet are important too.

Perhaps you'd be happier trying a more balanced diet. Say 25-30% fat,
30% protein and 40% carbs.

Keep up the good work with the walking! That's a habit that will
really help you for a lifetime.

Cynthia
262/233.0/200 first goal