2016. Cruisers who want to lose

[pmoniz]

Down 4 lbs. since 4/1 - and a few inches here and there!! I'll take it!! Some is better than none! Hoping I can keep going until our cruise March 2016!!

[Sunburns]

Hello everyone! I don't have a cruise next year. Mine is in just 4 weeks, but I thought I might help provide some encouragement. I started to try to lose weight in January. I have lost 44 pounds and still at it. I'm pretty happy in my size 12 but I like the changes I made in my eating habits and will keep going. One thing to remember is that you shouldn't torture yourself by restricting all the foods you like. Just measure them out to the correct serving and log the calories. I know it's 'old fashioned' but counting calories has worked for me while I watched my friends' on their fad diets crash and burn after a few short weeks. I'm not big on exercise and only do what I enjoy. Usually once or twice a week. I use My Fitness Pal to track my intake and I have a cheat day once a week. I don't go overboard with it, though.

The hardest part when I started was limiting my carbs and sugar. I drank Mt. Dew all day long and it took me a month to break the habit of having it every day. Now I don't crave the sugar. I found other sweets (sugar-free) to take its place and now I'm phasing those out, too. Pasta, corn, and potatoes were hard. Luckily, I've never been much of a bread lover.

Anyway, I found a BMR calculator online and figured mine out. It will tell you how many calories you must take in a day to maintain your weight. To lose a pound, you must have a deficit of 3500 calories/week. So if your BMR says you need 1700 cal per day to maintain, eating 1200 a day for a week, you should lose 1 pound. This worked for me and adding any exercise just made it work more efficiently. Remember if you build muscle, you may not notice a weight change even though you have burned fat. MFP has helped me because it divides up the allotted calories in a balanced way. I have become so efficient at it that on Saturday night when I wanted a snack, I had almost all the calories left in the fat, carb, and sugar sections. Oh, and I never go hungry!

I also had several times that I didn't seem to lose any for 2 weeks and all of a sudden I was down 4-6 pounds. Don't let those weeks discourage you because if you are being careful, you will get results. I also noticed a marked loss a few days after my cycle ended each month.

I eat mostly lean meats, low glycemic veggies, lots of low calorie sauces and dressings to make it all taste better, and small amounts of the carbs I love.

Good luck to everyone! I hope you all make it to your goals and if anyone wants some ideas on things to eat I would be glad to share some of my recipes for lower calorie meals.

[pmoniz]

Sunburns - wow 44 lbs.!! Good for you!! That's awesome! I can't do the whole calorie in - calorie out thing! But everyone says that's the way to go! Glad it works for you! I'd love to lose 40 lbs! It's a battle! We don't eat sweets at my house and 98% of our meals are healthy! All I drink is water and my must have coffee in the morning! So we'll see where this journey takes me! Keep up the good work!

[DaiLina]

Hello everyone! I don't have a cruise next year. Mine is in just 4 weeks, but I thought I might help provide some encouragement. I started to try to lose weight in January. I have lost 44 pounds and still at it. I'm pretty happy in my size 12 but I like the changes I made in my eating habits and will keep going. One thing to remember is that you shouldn't torture yourself by restricting all the foods you like. Just measure them out to the correct serving and log the calories. I know it's 'old fashioned' but counting calories has worked for me while I watched my friends' on their fad diets crash and burn after a few short weeks. I'm not big on exercise and only do what I enjoy. Usually once or twice a week. I use My Fitness Pal to track my intake and I have a cheat day once a week. I don't go overboard with it, though.

 

The hardest part when I started was limiting my carbs and sugar. I drank Mt. Dew all day long and it took me a month to break the habit of having it every day. Now I don't crave the sugar. I found other sweets (sugar-free) to take its place and now I'm phasing those out, too. Pasta, corn, and potatoes were hard. Luckily, I've never been much of a bread lover.

 

Anyway, I found a BMR calculator online and figured mine out. It will tell you how many calories you must take in a day to maintain your weight. To lose a pound, you must have a deficit of 3500 calories/week. So if your BMR says you need 1700 cal per day to maintain, eating 1200 a day for a week, you should lose 1 pound. This worked for me and adding any exercise just made it work more efficiently. Remember if you build muscle, you may not notice a weight change even though you have burned fat. MFP has helped me because it divides up the allotted calories in a balanced way. I have become so efficient at it that on Saturday night when I wanted a snack, I had almost all the calories left in the fat, carb, and sugar sections. Oh, and I never go hungry!

 

I also had several times that I didn't seem to lose any for 2 weeks and all of a sudden I was down 4-6 pounds. Don't let those weeks discourage you because if you are being careful, you will get results. I also noticed a marked loss a few days after my cycle ended each month.

 

I eat mostly lean meats, low glycemic veggies, lots of low calorie sauces and dressings to make it all taste better, and small amounts of the carbs I love.

 

Good luck to everyone! I hope you all make it to your goals and if anyone wants some ideas on things to eat I would be glad to share some of my recipes for lower calorie meals.

 

 

Thanks for the detailed information!

 

It's good to hear you get results from minimal exercise. Due to my schedule I will only be able to work out 2-3 times a week.

 

So do you mostly eat no carbs at all? Or do you just limit them?

[Sunburns]

Sunburns - wow 44 lbs.!! Good for you!! That's awesome! I can't do the whole calorie in - calorie out thing! But everyone says that's the way to go! Glad it works for you! I'd love to lose 40 lbs! It's a battle! We don't eat sweets at my house and 98% of our meals are healthy! All I drink is water and my must have coffee in the morning! So we'll see where this journey takes me! Keep up the good work!

 

I wasn't raised with sweets being available very often so that was not a very big problem. My biggest was carbs...pasta, potatoes, corn...and, of course, that wicked Mt Dew ;) ....love them!

Drinking plenty of water is the very best thing you can do and stick with whatever works for you! Good luck!

[Sunburns]

Thanks for the detailed information!

 

It's good to hear you get results from minimal exercise. Due to my schedule I will only be able to work out 2-3 times a week.

 

So do you mostly eat no carbs at all? Or do you just limit them?

 

I could never give up all carbs! I want to lose weight, not be miserable :)

On a 1200 calorie diet I have 150 or less carbs a day (two pieces of bread is 140 calories, 28 carbs). I try to be careful about when I consume them so I have time to burn them off during the day. I was fairly sedentary (just going to classes and doing normal housework) before changing to this so any dedicated workout has been very helpful. I have noticed the more weight I lose, the more I feel like being active. Sometimes I think I can feel the endorphins being released....lol.

I really don't like thinking of this as a 'diet' diet. It's more of just a balanced diet, with my intake lowered so I lose weight. When I get to where I want to be, I will just add a few more calories to all the areas, carbs, protein, etc., to maintain. I think it is way easier to maintain weight loss if you don't go from a 'diet' back to the old way of eating. It's too hard and I have the added benefit of being healthier. BUT...if I only had to lose 10 pounds, I'd might be all over Slim-fast or any other quick fix....lol.

BTW...fit into my size 12 capri's I bought over a year ago and never got to wear, till today. They used to be tighter than my size 12 jeans :)

Edited April 28, 2015 by Sunburns
clarification

[DaiLina]

Thanks for the detailed information!

 

It's good to hear you get results from minimal exercise. Due to my schedule I will only be able to work out 2-3 times a week.

 

So do you mostly eat no carbs at all? Or do you just limit them?

 

 

 

I could never give up all carbs! I want to lose weight, not be miserable :)

On a 1200 calorie diet I have 150 or less carbs a day (two pieces of bread is 140 calories, 28 carbs). I try to be careful about when I consume them so I have time to burn them off during the day. I was fairly sedentary (just going to classes and doing normal housework) before changing to this so any dedicated workout has been very helpful. I have noticed the more weight I lose, the more I feel like being active. Sometimes I think I can feel the endorphins being released....lol.

I really don't like thinking of this as a 'diet' diet. It's more of just a balanced diet, with my intake lowered so I lose weight. When I get to where I want to be, I will just add a few more calories to all the areas, carbs, protein, etc., to maintain. I think it is way easier to maintain weight loss if you don't go from a 'diet' back to the old way of eating. It's too hard and I have the added benefit of being healthier. BUT...if I only had to lose 10 pounds, I'd might be all over Slim-fast or any other quick fix....lol.

BTW...fit into my size 12 capri's I bought over a year ago and never got to wear, till today. They used to be tighter than my size 12 jeans :)

 

 

Ok great, I LOVE carbs, especially breads. Myfitnesspal says I can have 100-150 per day for weight loss so I'm going to try to limit the breads and try to make most of my carbs come from the carby veggies.

Congratulations on your weight loss :-). If I start now, I'm pretty sure i can reach my goal by cruise time in September ;-)

[Sunburns]

Ok great, I LOVE carbs, especially breads. Myfitnesspal says I can have 100-150 per day for weight loss so I'm going to try to limit the breads and try to make most of my carbs come from the carby veggies.

Congratulations on your weight loss :-). If I start now, I'm pretty sure i can reach my goal by cruise time in September ;-)

 

Thank you! I'm sure you will make it to your goal!

MyFitnessPal has helped me tremendously to keep things balanced. I always double check calorie amounts they have in their bank of foods. Sometimes they are very wrong. Don't be afraid to do your own research on how carbs and protein work in your body. It really helps to know those things when choosing meals to optimize your daily activities. Don't beat yourself up if you slip now and then, just start over the next day. I ate a ton of seedless grapes and a deviled egg for breakfast yesterday and don't even feel guilty!

Also, I like to look at web sites with before/after weight-loss pictures. It really keeps me motivated!

[stefani1982]

I'm in as well. Started working with a Team BeachBody coach recently. Need to lose a lot of weight but have well over a year to do it. Have already lost 5 lbs. using Shakeology as a breakfast meal replacement and doing PiYo 6 days a week. Gonna be sailing on Norwegian's new ship Escape in October 2016 for a 7-Day Eastern Caribbean cruise.

Edited April 29, 2015 by stefani1982

[bunchesofun]

I discovered a few days ago that when I constructed a "meal" on the W points tracker I forgot an ingredient that added 3 points to the meal. So every day I was using an extra 3 points. That's an additional 21 points for the week. That is probably why I didn't lose anything last week. So we'll see on Friday.

[cruisingfor5]

Looks like everyone is doing really well. Sunburns that is a amazing loss! I have not weighed myself yet to see how I am doing but I weigh myself on Monday. Eating has not been perfect but I have been sticking to my exercise program.

[bunchesofun]

Just a note, I just read that Jean Nidetch, founder of Weight Watchers just passed away at age 91.

[pmoniz]

I discovered a few days ago that when I constructed a "meal" on the W points tracker I forgot an ingredient that added 3 points to the meal. So every day I was using an extra 3 points. That's an additional 21 points for the week. That is probably why I didn't lose anything last week. So we'll see on Friday.

 

I always try and leave myself a few extra points every day just in case I forgot an ingredient or don't use the right serving size or whatever. Also, don't forget you have "bonus" points every week as well! I try to never dip into those unless we are going out to dinner or having a few beverages! Good luck!!

[bunchesofun]

Up to now I have been using all my bonus points at 7 a day. I may have to reconsider using them if I really don't need to. My problem is that in the evenings is when I have trouble, so usually am using those points then.

[pmoniz]

Well...weigh-in day today and down only 1.5 lbs. (total of 4.5 in 4 wks). I thought I'd have a little more weight loss than that but I'll take it!

 

I'm hoping with the workouts some of the fat has turned to muscle. (Hoping anyway!) I did my measurements and down 1-3 inches in certain spots! So I'll take that too!!

 

Happy Friday all!

[bunchesofun]

I weighed in today and lost 4 pounds. After last weeks 0 that is encouraging. Probably half of it was from last week, but the pizza caused water retention so it didn't register. Yes, I think Friday weigh in is a good idea.

[pmoniz]

I weighed in today and lost 4 pounds. After last weeks 0 that is encouraging. Probably half of it was from last week, but the pizza caused water retention so it didn't register. Yes, I think Friday weigh in is a good idea.

 

That's awesome!! Good for you!!! Keep up the good work!! I like the Friday weigh in too!! Makes sense!!

[hdowney]

It's a BH weekend here. I forsee Monday's weigh in not going well :eek::confused::banghead:

[MikeNKim]

This is awesome I wasn't getting alerts. WTG everyone

[cruisingfor5]

I weighed in today and lost 4 pounds. After last weeks 0 that is encouraging. Probably half of it was from last week, but the pizza caused water retention so it didn't register. Yes, I think Friday weigh in is a good idea.

 

WTG! That is what I figured for you. Darn sodium :)

 

 

I am having a heck of a time and stress eating. Need to get a grip on this. Hockey tryouts for my son this week. Will be glad when it is over Friday.

 

Hope everyone else is doing well this week.

[bunchesofun]

WTG! That is what I figured for you. Darn sodium :)

 

 

I am having a heck of a time and stress eating. Need to get a grip on this. Hockey tryouts for my son this week. Will be glad when it is over Friday.

 

Hope everyone else is doing well this week.

 

Last week went well, but this week I too have been having trouble stress eating. First was Sunday. Then yesterday. I've used all my weekly extra points and have gone over that. Hopefully today will be better. Some times it's not difficult at all and other days....

[msweeble1]

Sounds like you Ladies are doing really good. Weighed in Monday & I've lost 10 lbs. this month. So far I'm liking Nutri System. I'm really bad about doing on my own. I need the stucture. So far I like the food, but if I get tired of it I'll just go straight back to WW. Good Luck everyone!

 

Debbie

[vickster6k]

We are trying to decide between 2 cruises, both on the Norwegian Gem; one Jan 2, the other March 22. I have been heavy my entire life. The last few years have really hit me hard though. I have issues with chronic pain which makes weight loss extremely difficult.

 

I am so tired of going on cruises, dressing up, getting photos of the whole family taken, then refusing to purchase them because I hate the way that I look in the photos. I end up depressed, then I vow to lose weight before the next cruise. And fail.

 

So here I am, hoping to lose 60-70 pounds. I KNOW it is possible, and it is time.

 

I will be using My Fitness Pal and Lose It! apps, watching what I eat, drinking more water and walking every day.

 

Good luck everyone!!

[Sunburns]

Last week went well, but this week I too have been having trouble stress eating. First was Sunday. Then yesterday. I've used all my weekly extra points and have gone over that. Hopefully today will be better. Some times it's not difficult at all and other days....

 

Hang in there! You can do it. Remember every morning is a new day and a fresh start.

[Sunburns]

Sounds like you Ladies are doing really good. Weighed in Monday & I've lost 10 lbs. this month. So far I'm liking Nutri System. I'm really bad about doing on my own. I need the stucture. So far I like the food, but if I get tired of it I'll just go straight back to WW. Good Luck everyone!

 

Debbie

 

Awesome!!! 10 Pounds in a month is really good! Having a back-up plan is an excellent idea!