Question:
I am new to fitday-Need to Lose 93Lbs in 6 mos??Feasible?

I need to lose 93lbs in 6 mos is this feasible I went from 378-388 to 235 or 237 can;t make it exactly out on the scale-It took me 11 mos to get to my current weight with little to moderate exercise-I need to lose another 93 lbs to get to my own personal goal weight and have given myself 6 mos to do so-What should I be doing to make sure I am dropping at least 4 lbs a week is this feasible-Will I still be able to lose my weight or is my window closed I thought u got 18-24 months to get to goal. As of 2day I am tracking everyhting on fitday but it is frustrating because I am a cook and I prepare alot of meals or something that I eat do not have a nutrition facts on them so how do I plug it into fitday-do I just look 4 foods that may have a similar nutritional content and plug that in-I don;t know what to do-I have begun an exercise routine as I think this will help the weight come off faster as well-I am trying to eat only 1300-1400 calories a day. In school we learned that u multiply ur weight by 100 in order to figure out how many cals u should be eating to maintain ur weight so I figured if I want to weigh 145 then I should be eating about that in cals and then with the exercise I assume I am burning off like 500 I do 4 miles of walking every other day and ultimate taebo on the other days. I think going too low in cals and then the exercise will make me feel like i'm starving if I go back to eating 700-800 cals again, but do I need to? Any advice of what I should do? Thanks for ur help    — TotallyTori (posted on February 26, 2004)

February 26, 2004
Hi, Victoria. First off, I use fitday religiously and mostly customize my food. If I don't have the nutritional info, just look for the closest thing you can find and approximate it. Another thing I do is very tedious but only has to be done once. If I'm making something, I look up all the data on the components and add them up, dividing by serving size. This gives you a pretty close approximation. I honestly don't think 4lbs a week is feasible at your stage of the game. That's a LOT of weight to lose consistently at 11 months out. Now, the first 6 months post-op, sure, no problem. But it seems like weight loss slows down so drastically at 6 months to a year, most people would not be able to lose that much. Not saying you can't, but it sure seems like setting yourself up for disappointment unless you have a will of steel and a very high basal metabolism. About the exercise, you should enter it into fitday, it will calculate it based on your weight - I don't believe that either walking or tae-bo burns 500 calories as one of the most intensive workouts I have ever done is Spinning and it does about 500 calories in 50 minutes. I've never heard the mulitplying your weight by 100 - that would put me at eating 1500 and I'm still losing at 1800 to 2000. *shrug* Must depend on your workouts, etc. If you think about it, though, the "typical" calorie intake the RDA uses is 2000 calories. That would only apply to a person weighing 200 lbs. Anyway, enough rambling on that. :) You definitely don't want to eat that few calories (i.e. less than 1000) unless you are completely unable to lose weight. Even then, it could be you are fighting your body's desired weight which can be a struggle to the end, lemme tell you! In some ways, you should pay as much attention to WHAT you are eating as you do to how MUCH. Keep your food %'s where you want them. Because of my workouts, my best food division is 30% fat and complex carbs w/25+ grams fiber and 40% protein, which includes 2 shakes a day. Many people eat way less carbs than that and are very successfull...it's really individual and you have to experiment with it. That's what makes fitday so great, you don't have to calculate the stuff out, it does it for you. It is a pain for the first little while as you have to get your foods in there, but I find I eat mostly the same things, so I rarely have to add anything new these days. I'm sorry about the book-sized answer, just have a lot of opinions tonight! :) Whatever you decide, the best of luck to you, sounds like you have a plan.
   — Rachael B.

February 26, 2004
I don't think that is a very realistic goal (sorry!). First off, my surgeon is pretty clear that the more you weigh, the heavier your goal weight will be. Since you weighed close to 400 lbs, it would be more realistic to set a goal at about 180 or 190. Keep in mind also that the weight will not come off like it did the first year. I lost 113 lbs in my first 6 mo, but it took me the other 6 months to lose just 65 lbs. I am at my "goal weight" now but I also started out at 304. Don't let yourself get crazy about a number.. just do what you are supposed to do every day. Take care
   — SarahC

March 5, 2004
I have to agree with the rest of the group. You didn't put the weight on overnight and it's going to come off that quickly. Your setting yourself up for disappointment. The weight will come off when it wants to come off. I was at 158lbs for almost a whole month and then 5 lbs came off. Your goal should be your health. If you are eatting correctly and exercising your body will let the weight come off. However, your goal is not HEALTHY. I would join a support group and talk about your goals.
   — Linda R.