12lbs, too much, just right?

[missameliax]

I was trying to figure out a good weight loss goal for each month earlier, and I thought I wanted to lost about 3lbs a week. 4 weeks in a month, that leaves 12lbs.

Is that good enough?
I weigh almost 280. gonk gonk gonk gonk gonk (tonnnns, of binges from being teased since I was like, 7)
I want to be around 130, so losing just about 145lbs, then give or take another 5.

I don't want to be tied down with exercising.
I'm going to be super busy next year, being on student council, tons of classes, cello (tons and tons of cello) I'll only have about 2 hours to exercise each day.
And I'm just guessing on my homework load.

I'm guessing my daily exercise will be 500calories each morning on DDR (probably at about 5am).
And then running, walking, strength training, etc, at around 4pm. (Not all of them, just saying things that I'd change up a bit)



Do you think I'll be able to lose 12lbs a month doing that?
And I'd eat around 2000 calories a day.
I know that sounds like a lot compared to what some diet books say, but the heavier you are, the more calories you need to fuel your body.
As I lose weight the calorie intake will go down.  

[Iconised Ghost]

my PT told me that 500g loss a week is healthy (dunno if that was just for me or if it was in general, i think its in general). Thats 1.1 pounds. So perhaps 3 pounds a week might be a little ambitious, especially if you are worried about your school work load. I guess it really depends on you personally, how many calories you burn normally, your metabolic rate etc

My advice would be set a slightly lower goal than 3 pounds a week. Of course if you lose more than that, then fantastic! And if not, then you havent made your task harder than need be. Weight loss is slow, unfortunately xp better to do it at a healthy rate than put it all back later though, right?

thats just my 2 pence though >.<  

[Groovy Spleen]

8lbs a month is generally a good goal to shoot for.
Studies have shown a weight loss of about that range per month has the highest chance of 'staying off'. You probably COULD lose 12lbs a month, but the problem would be retaining it.

Also, 12lbs a month at first might even be attainable.
The good news is, the heavier you are to start with, the faster the weight will start coming off.

When I went from 215 to about 185 the weight seemed to just sliiide off, but once I got down to the lower weights, I had to amp up my work a lot to even lose a few pounds every month.

Extreme weigh loss is easily gained back. Slow, healthy weight loss by changing your diet and exercise routine gradually and permanently forming good habits is the ticket to permanent weight loss.  

[missameliax]

Well being as overweight as I am, I will burn more calories doing exercises than someone who weight less than me would.
I'm guessing 12lbs a month for about 3 months, then bring it down each month I lose weight.

Also, 'cause going from eating a ton and not exercising, to eating less and exercising, my body will react to it fast at first.

Next spring I plan to join my schools track team. I'm a really fast runner, I can keep up with the really athletic kids, the only problem is I get worn out fast.
I plan to maintain my weight, keeping up my exercise.  

[AoiMakura]

well i read that 2 pounds at the most is healthy any thing beyond that will be harder to keep off. take it nice and easy. slower results tend to last longer.  

[Divash]

Rather than ask a lot of strangers online, you might want to ask your doctor to give you a healthy weekly weight loss goal. After all, none of us are professional nutritionists or physicians, and we might give you the advice that works well for us, but not for you. A friend of mine lost no less than seven pounds a week when she first started Weight Watchers; I lost an average of one pound a week for two years on the program. We were doing the same things, but our bodies didn't respond the same way.

However, I've learned something important. I don't make weight my goal anymore. Instead, I take the steps that will eventually lead to weight loss, and I make those my goal. Today, my goals are to drink eight or more 8oz glasses of water, to have two to three dairy servings, to have two fruit servings and two vegetable servings, and to engage in some vigorous physical activity. I also plan to restrict meat eating to the evening meal, and to get no more than four starch servings (cereal, bread, rice, potato, corn, beans) today. That's it, that's my goal for every day this week. That's all I have to do.

At the end of the week, maybe I'll be a pound or two less; maybe I'll have gained weight because of hormonal factors or because I've drunk a glass of water before getting on the scale; maybe I'll have more muscle mass from the exercise. I don't know, and truthfully I don't really care. What matters isn't the number on the scale, but the fact that I have lived healthily this week, and therefore I am -- right at this moment -- a healthy woman. Thinness will come, if I just keep living healthily from day to day and week to week.

Mind you, I still have a weight goal of 140 pounds, which is within the healthy range for someone of my height, sex, age, and build. But it doesn't matter whether I reach it next month, next year, or three years down the line. What matters is that every day I'm doing my best to take care of the body I have, rather than worrying about the body I want.  

[Iconised Ghost]

Divash

Rather than ask a lot of strangers online, you might want to ask your doctor to give you a healthy weekly weight loss goal. After all, none of us are professional nutritionists or physicians, and we might give you the advice that works well for us, but not for you. A friend of mine lost no less than seven pounds a week when she first started Weight Watchers; I lost an average of one pound a week for two years on the program. We were doing the same things, but our bodies didn't respond the same way.

However, I've learned something important. I don't make weight my goal anymore. Instead, I take the steps that will eventually lead to weight loss, and I make those my goal. Today, my goals are to drink eight or more 8oz glasses of water, to have two to three dairy servings, to have two fruit servings and two vegetable servings, and to engage in some vigorous physical activity. I also plan to restrict meat eating to the evening meal, and to get no more than four starch servings (cereal, bread, rice, potato, corn, beans) today. That's it, that's my goal for every day this week. That's all I have to do.

At the end of the week, maybe I'll be a pound or two less; maybe I'll have gained weight because of hormonal factors or because I've drunk a glass of water before getting on the scale; maybe I'll have more muscle mass from the exercise. I don't know, and truthfully I don't really care. What matters isn't the number on the scale, but the fact that I have lived healthily this week, and therefore I am -- right at this moment -- a healthy woman. Thinness will come, if I just keep living healthily from day to day and week to week.

Mind you, I still have a weight goal of 140 pounds, which is within the healthy range for someone of my height, sex, age, and build. But it doesn't matter whether I reach it next month, next year, or three years down the line. What matters is that every day I'm doing my best to take care of the body I have, rather than worrying about the body I want.

wow i wish i could think about it like that, it sounds a lot less stressful and a lot more enjoyable. I just cant let go of the importance i place on the scales. I think a lot of people have the same problem  

[Divash]

I admit, the scales play a small part in how I measure my adherence to the rules I've made for myself. "I must've not done as well as I thought, or I wouldn't be up by half a pound this week. I'll have to look at my actions more closely this coming week." "I must've done better than I thought, because I'm down by two pounds. Cool."

But when I take the steps-towards-weight-loss as my goals, rather than the weight loss itself, I can count a lot more successes. For instance, even though I never have trouble doing it, one of my perpetual goals is drinking enough water every day. I've got low blood pressure, so I need to eat a bit more sodium/salt than most folks, which in turn makes me thirsty, so I always drink enough. But if I write down "Goal: Drink 8 glasses of water or more every day this week," then on Saturday night I can truthfully write a big check-mark to say, "Yay, I did it! I met one of my goals!" I find that I feel a lot better with one practically-guaranteed success in my pocket like that.

I also LOVE fruits, so unless the fruit prices skyrocket for some reason, I seldom have trouble eating my daily fruit portions. I love drinking milk, too (and by the way, having a glass of milk counts as both a dairy serving AND a water serving!), so that's seldom a problem. That's two more guaranteed successes, right there.

Once I see three guaranteed successes on my list of goals, other goals seem more doable, too. "Walk to train in morning; walk home from train in afternoon." That gets easier because I do have to get to work by train, and I do have to get home, so I might as well walk. Unless I feel crummy with illness or injury, it's not a problem for me to decide to walk rather than spend $2 taking the bus to the train station. So, while that's not a guaranteed success, it's an easy one to achieve.

See what I mean? All these successes build on each other. Everything I know I can do easily, plus everything I know I can do without really changing my normal patterns, gets me more than halfway through with my weekly goals. Once I've figured that out, it's a little easier to say "Look how much I've done! Do I really want to sabotage myself by eating a quart of ice cream now, or would I rather wake up in the morning knowing that last night I had fruit instead, and now feel thin and cute?" One small success leads to another small success, which leads to a slightly bigger success, which leads...

See where I'm going with this? It feels good to succeed. Feeling good about oneself leads to wanting to feel even better, to do even more for oneself. Every tiny success gives a person that much more reason to want another success.  

[Iconised Ghost]

i know what you mean...each time i go to the gym now i try and keep track of what i do, and try to beat myself each time. And i always make sure its achievable, like run an extra 100m, or use an extra 1kg for part of my weights routine. Im begining to feel better and i care less about the scale ^_^ Well, i dont weigh myself everyday any more at least  

[Agorphia]

missameliax

Well being as overweight as I am, I will burn more calories doing exercises than someone who weight less than me would.

I thought it was the other way around. @___@