Is it a gain? Water retention? BOO

Well, today is my weigh-in, and I am disappointed and don’t even want to post my results. I had been feeling really good about my progress. Even my last post showed that I had started working out, and I have been sore but feeling the effects of working out.

I am not going to let this 4.6 lb weight gain on the scale mess me up. I don’t think there was a gain. I think I do have some water retention because I haven’t been drinking water like I should, AND I had several items in the past couple of days with high sodium. I remember Jillian Michaels on an episode of Biggest Loser once telling one of her contestants to stop using soy sauce because he continued to see gains on the scale. The next week, he dropped a considerable number. I am going to have to start cutting my salty sauces and add water consumption. Water has always been a hurdle for me.

Also, I am not sure if I have calculated my goal correctly for today. I may have to correct that. I started working out. I feel good, so I am not going to let the number get me down. I will let the number make me more aware of what I am eating to ensure I don’t have another week of gain.

Just 5 lb Gain a Year…

THIS IS A VERY COMPREHENSIVE POST. IT IS VERY INFORMATIVE AND COULD HELP YOU CREATE YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PLAN. YOU WILL MOST LIKELY NEED TO READ IT MORE THAN ONCE. DON’T JUST SKIM OVER IT AND MISS THE POINT. LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS IF YOU NEED HELP DETERMINING YOUR PLAN.

I was talking to my mother-in-law about my son’s weight. He’s 9 months old and considered by his doctor to be “overweight for his height.” We had a discussion about just how ridiculous it is to start such a measurement so young! She agreed that he is in no way a “fat” baby. Yeah, he has a fat roll on each of his thighs, but other than that and a little bit of a fuller face, he is a lean little machine. I’m not worried, and I will NOT permit the negative programming that screwed up my head to be preached to him.

While we were talking, I mentioned to her that since marrying my husband, I had gained about 10 lbs a year. When I go back to my earliest recollection of my weight, which would be 198 lbs in 1991 a year out of high school, and compare it to my weight today on average I have gained just over 5 lbs. a year.

313.1 (today’s weight) – 198 (1991 weight) = 115.1 pounds gained over 22 years

115.1/22 = 5.23 lbs gained per year (on average)

Given there are 3500 calories in one pound, in order to gain 5.23 lbs in a year, I would have to have eaten…

5.23 lbs X 3500 calories = 18,305 calories overeaten over the course of one year. How hard is this to do? Let’s see what it equates to on a daily and weekly basis.

18,305/365 = 50 calories over each day or 1 sugar free snack cup of Apple sauce

18,305/52 =  352 calories over a week or 1 Tuna Melt Sandwich

WOW!! Somehow, I don’t feel like I am such a PIG now! I definitely see how this happened!!! Keep following me! You’ll see it, too, and you’ll see how I will keep from adding another pound to my numbers (even as I continue to lose weight).

Let’s flip this to exercise. I NEVER exercise. Why? Because you work your butt off for nearly nothing! Not to mention, IT’S BORING! I’m referring to the gym type of exercising of course.

According to Fit2Flex blog, you can burn 50 calories in 5 minutes doing 5 simple exercises for 1 minute each. See the link for those exercises. I think I can definitely give that amount, DAILY, to help offset what I tend to gain over the course of a year. Do you see that? If I hadn’t looked at exercise the way I had, I could have offset the amount of weight I was gaining.

The fitness industry wants to sell us all kinds of things, but in reality, what has been said by so many is true! If we exercise just 20 minutes a day 5 days a week, we should prevent weight gain for the year.

Losing weight is a different story! I think this is where we lose our way. I am almost positive this is where I lost my way. I have 22 years of 5.23 lbs to lose, so I can’t just do 20 minutes a day 5 days a week. I need to do that minimum to ensure I don’t continue to gain, yes, but to begin reversing the scale, I have to add more.

How about some math. My brain will hurt after all of this analysis…

Just using the numbers I have so far (which is based on my weight gain according to my metabolism…you’ll need to consider your numbers)…I am only taking into consideration exercise at this point. This will not take into consideration an improved way of eating. This is basically the same, mindless eating pattern that I had over the course of these 22 years.

According to my analysis, it would take me three (3) years to lose the 180 lbs I have gained over the course of 22 years plus the amount to reach normal BMI. In order to lose this weight, I will have to workout 1 hour every day for the next 3 years. Again, this is keeping with the same mindless eating pattern I was in before, which I will not do. I am improving my eating, so this number can actually be reduced. This is just the worst case scenario. This workout isn’t just a basic stroll either. This is the Fit2Flex workout…an hour long, so that is a relatively intense workout considering the duration.

Reducing my caloric intake will have an even greater impact on this goal. If reducing my caloric intake could do half of the work, then I could lose the weight in 1.5 years. It is a lot easier to cut 50 calories than it is to burn 50 calories. Cutting my mindless eating, caloric intake 602 calories a day and exercising 30 minutes a day, every day for 1.5 years…I should be able to reach my goal.

I will review my current eating to determine if I have decreased my caloric intake by eliminating all meat and eating fish/seafood only. I am hoping the changes in meat and dairy that I have made will be enough.

I know this blog post was a little more complicated because it wasn’t one that you could read without analysis. Look, if you want to lose weight, YOU HAVE TO THINK. You can’t just say, ok, I’ll workout and cut back. It’s just not enough to do that. You need to know how much you need to workout and how much you need to cut back. It will take a lot of thought and basic math to come up with your numbers. Take time out to determine your plan.

Ding, ding, Weigh-in Day

Today is weigh-in day.

I lost 1.5 lbs this week.

New BMI 57.3.

My new weight is 313.1.

My goal was to lose 2 lbs per week, so I have 2.4 lbs to lose for next week to be on goal. I am not going to obsess over that. I will continue doing what I am doing because apparently, I am doing something right.

The Starting Point…

Body mass index chart (Photo credit: IITA Image Library)

I was thinking maybe my starting point wasn’t all that clear, so I want to be sure to make it clear. I’ll just be simple in my explanation. Although, I REALLY hate seeing this in print.

I currently weigh 317 pounds; 58.0 BMI.

When I was trying to find out how much I need to lose, I just divided that number in 1/2. 158.50 pounds is what I was left with. Well, I was curious to see what body mass index (BMI) that would be. The BMI is what health professionals use to determine if you are in a healthy weight range. This is the graphic I posted on my first post. If I lost 1/2 of my weight, my BMI would be 28.9 which is just 1.5 points away from being “obese.” Do you read this the way I do? Even losing 1/2 the weight, I would STILL be considered nearly obese.

According to the National Institute on Health, I need to weigh no more than 136 pounds to be considered “Normal” weight. The BMI for this weight is 24.9. I am sharing all of those numbers with you because as I lose, I will not only be keeping up with weight loss, but also BMI. So I need to lose 181 pounds in order to get there.

Wow. For some reason, after typing those numbers and sitting here looking over them, I don’t feel panic. I actually feel at peace. I don’t know if that’s the calm before the storm, or if I am truly ready for battle. I will own this and say, I AM READY FOR BATTLE! If I had a shot gun in hand right now, this is where it would go CLICK, CLICK!!!!! Bring it on!

What Does Two for One Mean?

So you may have run across this site because you are looking for a good deal. Generally, that is what 2 for 1 indicates, but not here. Here it refers to my weight, divided by 2. I literally weigh more than two people of healthy BMI. As a matter of fact, I am on the border of being 2 “obese” people in one body. I am actually 2 “overweight” people, and I want to change that.

THIS IS MY JOURNEY. It is going to be a very honest and transparent journey. Maybe you’re on a similar journey, hey, let’s travel this lonely road together then. I encourage your comments. If you have a similar blog, include your address, and I will share it with my readers as well.