Re #75
That can be generalized to all diets - they must be something one can stick with indefinitely to avoid regaining the undesired body fat.
@MaineLonghorn Well, Happy Birthday in advance. Bastille Day! That’s a great plan. I just wanted to make sure others were aware that BMI isn’t a great health measurement any longer. And amazingly enough, my large health care provider still uses the darn thing (BMI) each time I walk in for my physical.
^ That is the crux of the problem. Maintain for the rest of my life? I guess if sugar was an illegal substance, I might have a prayer.
Who lives with a person that fills the house with tons of sweets every week? My H is ridiculous. He will come home from “shopping” with a pie, coffee cakes, donuts, cookies, etc. I don’t touch most of it and request he NOT buy my favorites, but it’s depressing to live with someone who eats tons of food and sweets and doesn’t gain weight.
Every time I’ve lost weight, it was by cutting out sweets and soda, lots of exercise, lots of water, good sleep, and a less stressful life. But it’s definitely hard to be with your family who can eat anything they want, when you have to closely watch yourself.
The exercise class I’m in did a DEXA for us. It’s funny how, when I looked at the “after” scan, I can see the difference, but the numbers were so … disappointing. I had hoped that losing weight would translate into greater fat% loss. It’s going down, sure, but not nearly as quickly as I would like! But my blob on the table definitely looked less blobby! 
I’ll have another one in six weeks.
The DEXA did reveal some good news: My bone density is two standard deviations above the average woman my age. I always had worried about that because I don’t like dairy. It’s one reason that I have the same breakfast every morning – oatmeal with milk – because it’s the only calcium I get a day. Anyway, I guess it’s not a problem. But the greater bone density means that I’ll always weigh a little more than those BMI charts say I should. Like I said, I’m not trying to get to some perfect weight. I just want to not be morbidly obese – ha! Such high standards! 
I’m lucky in the gene pool. Even though I’ve been overweight most of my life I am the only one in my family not on any medication – BP, cholesterol, diabetes. For me, my BP is the surest sign I have of when something is out of whack.
Thanks, @sushiritto. My oldest was born on my birthday, so it’s a fun time at our house. I got to be in Paris in 1989 for the 200th anniversary of Bastille Day.
I know the weight I feel best at, so that’s what I’m aiming for - 150.
Totally disagree.
First, not everyone just carries fat around their waist.
Second, not all belly fat is bad. Much of the fat in the stomach area lies directly under the skin or “subcutaneous fat.” And is not necessarily hazardous to your health. The fat that is harmful is the unseen fat around your organs or “visceral abdominal fat.” You may have visceral fat but yet not be obese.
@psychmomma So, your H may not be obese, but he still may not be healthy either.
Third, our local club runs a hydrostatic test for a few bucks several times a year, which does record body composition consistently. I’ve been doing it for several years now. The test has been consistent over time. Also, importantly, the test will tell you how many calories you burn each day, both at rest and doing your normal activities each day. Then you would just add the calories burned, and if you eat less than that figure, then you’ll lose weight. The test also gives alot of other information too.
It’s hard and lonely feeling or path when you go to a 4th of July celebration and everyone is drinking lemonade and beer, eating cheeseburgers and hot dogs and then seeing a dessert table that looks like you’ve just walked into your local bakery. And you’re eating chicken skewers with veges, drinking water and having cherries and strawberries for dessert. But it is what it is.
I was getting my hair cut yesterday and my 35 yr old hairdresser and I were discussing
goals. She is built very much like me and keeping her weight down has always been an issue for her.
It has for me also but I only began losing the battle a few years ago and I am 66.
Basically, we both have decided to lower our idea of our “ideal” wight and to take into consideration
age and body type. It was a nice conversation. I have raised mine by 8 lbs.
A weight I am likely to both be comfortable with and to achieve.
I have had two very good days with calorie count and exercise. The third day is alway my most difficult.
I surprised myself by sleeping really late this a.m. after doing some very difficult work on the computer for 2 hours
very late last night.
I am glad because being tired is the #1 downfall for me so I have hope for getting through today ok.
@“Youdon’tsay” That’s awesome! I have only done the hydrostatic test, since our local club runs it several times a year. I’d love to get a DEXA done. And absolutely, as we get older we lose bone density and muscle. We don’t want our bones to be brittle, if we can help it. Great news about your bone density. That’s one of the great things about the DEXA or hydrostatic tests, they yield other health results besides just body fat %.
Most of my weight gain went to my thighs and my chest (that especially can go away any time now! please! lol). My waist expanded but not by as much as one might think.
Mr R is underweight but is very much not healthy. He eats like crap, doesn’t exercise (well, he works with toddlers so I guess that’s an exercise regiment in and of itself lol), but doesn’t gain a pound. Ever.
I’m lucky that I don’t like sweets. Cookies, cakes, candy? Nah, not for me. My weakness is pop. I am addicted. I know I am. If I could quit that, I could probably lose several pounds pretty quickly. .
My healthy diet for the rest of my life is 1300-1400 calories, fairly low carb during the week. On weekends I eat similarly, but have waffles for breakfast on Saturday, wine with dinners and go out to dinner occasionally. (I think the last time I tracked it was 1600-1700 calories on weekends.) Of course sometimes those out to dinner nights may happen midweek or holidays interfere. I know that tis works very well for me, but I have to exercise at least a little everyday and get in a couple of more serious workouts, or it’s still too much food. I don’t have any real food cravings luckily, though I can’t allow cookies in the house, unless kids are here to eat them.
Definitely. Right around the time when my D18 was born, I quit drinking Diet Coke. I didn’t want her to see me drinking the crap. I may have been drinking 1 maybe 2 per day, but I can’t remember anymore. I lost about 3-4 lbs. almost immediately. The sugar substitute in diet drinks still trigger similar responses in your body as if you were drinking normal soda with sugar.
I recently got an older gentlemen at my workplace to stop drinking Diet Coke, when I showed him a study that diet sodas may be tied to an increased risk of dementia and stroke. He was drinking multiple cans per day, starting early in the morning. And BTW, his 24-25 year old daughter drinks alot of Diet Coke each day too. So, I’m glad I quit a long time ago for my D18.
@eyemamom about setting a goal weight: Weight Watchers believes people should start with losing 10% of their total body weight. At that 10% loss there are already visible health benefits. So you might set that as a primary goal.
Some articles comparing waist / height to BMI or weight for assessing health risk:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/04/beyond-bmi-a-better-tool-to-measure-your-health/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245328.php
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157748/
You do realize that not one of those links mention anything about a hydrostatic or DEXA scan. I’ve already stated that BMI isn’t the best indicator of person’s health. So, your point is what? That we agree? :-w
As I also stated above, a hydrostatic or DEXA scan will yield a more accurate measure of one’s health, such as bone density, calories used per day, etc.
I apologize for taking this thread off its track.
Hydrostatic or DEXA is less accessible than a tape measure.
Of course, most people here will still exclusively track by weight or BMI, rather than anything that may be better.
I may be wrong, but I think this was supposed to be a more laid back thread about weight loss. Sushiritto, you’re throwing out some really hardcore stuff that might be better in the other health thread :).
Honestly, I need to just lose weight. I am not at all in a position where I care about my “real” BMI or any other measures. The weight just needs to go away. The only other measure I’d care about is my clothing sizes going down
Also, I hate diet pop. Especially diet coke.
Sorry to get too far afoot here. Just trying to help.
I really missed diet soda when I started the detox program last month, but now I don’t. It’s so nice.
At my last Rheum appointment, we were talking about maybe switching up my medications since my RA infusion medicine doesn’t seem to be helping as much anymore. We talked about switching me over to methotrexate (a type of chemo) and I joked that hey, it would help me lose weight! (My Rheum laughed. He knows I use dark humor to help me when my disease seems to be kicking my butt.)
Alas, he won’t let me go near methotrexate with a 10 foot pole since we’re in the baby-thinking process.
^^Romani, nothing wrong with baby-thinking, but when you get to the baby-doing, well, good luck trying to lose weight!
And unfortunately, if someone could choose one way to complicate their lives in the largest way possible, it would be to have a baby. But then again, when one gets baby fever, it’s hard to go against it. And now my babies are as old as you! However did I get so old? 