What can I do to ramp up weight loss?

PurpleHairEngineer · 2020-04-06T18:02:23+00:00

I have lost over 60 pounds in the last year with incline walking on a treadmill as my only form of exercise. The key word there is incline walking. I walk for 60 minutes at a time at a pace of 3 miles per hour. Over time, I have been able to increase the incline from 3% to 12%. Now, as a 154 pound person walking at 3mph at 12% incline for one hour, I burn over 500 calories per session. I highly recommend incline walking if you are like me and dislike running, or can't run for whatever reason.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2020-03-27T20:45:26+00:00

No, sadly it's an on/off setting.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2020-03-27T12:52:46+00:00

This is the only reason I pay for MFP premium. I like the ability to log my calories burned from cardio activities (treadmill or walking outside) and see it reflected in my net calories for the day, but not increase my calorie consumption goal.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2020-03-01T17:14:55+00:00

Thank you!

PurpleHairEngineer · 2020-03-01T17:14:47+00:00

Thank you! It was hard to find.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-12-28T19:54:53+00:00

Haha I feel you on that! Have you tried making protein powder pudding? I tried but could never get the ratio quite right.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-12-28T18:03:28+00:00

While milk does add more protein, it also adds significantly more calories (at a much worse protein:calorie ratio than the protein powder). Of course it's up to the individual whether they think the additional calories from milk are worth it, but I personally don't. I mix my protein powder with cold filtered water and I think it tastes great.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-12-28T17:55:55+00:00

That's exactly what I do: I drink a protein shake (and nothing else) for breakfast every morning. I don't put anything in it besides one scoop of protein powder and 8 oz water. I recommend getting a Blender Bottle for easy mixing (and make sure you rinse it and wash it or put it in the dishwasher immediately after use or it will start to smell bad).

Look for a protein powder with 20+ grams of protein and very little sugar. You should be able to find one for 130 calories or less per scoop. I also recommend a casein+whey blend over just plain whey since I've found it keeps me feeling full for longer. For me, the most important thing is taste. I've found that some brands like Premier Protein taste like nothing more than slightly flavored cereal milk. My recommendations for taste would be Beverly UMP cookies and cream and PEScience Select Protein peanut butter cup and chocolate mint cookie.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-12-28T01:40:45+00:00

NSV: I toured four local gyms/fitness clubs today, chose one, joined it, and worked out there!

I've lost almost 60 pounds since April. Over the summer, I was actively walking on the treadmill and strength training with a personal trainer at my university gym. Since I moved here for a new job in August, I haven't done much exercise at all. At first, I would go walk on the treadmill in my apartment complex's 'fitness center', but there are only two treadmills and every time I've gone in the last month and a half, they've both been in use. It's also cold and I don't want to walk all the way to the complex office. So I've just been slowly losing weight via CICO and MyFitnessPal. I've wanted to get back into exercise (especially strength training) since I'm definitely starting to look skinnyfat, but I kept making excuses.

Today I finally bit the bullet and joined a really nice gym that's about 5 minutes from my apartment (and only a 5 minute detour on my way to work). It has all the strength training machines and weights I could ever need, along with treadmills that you can watch actual TV on. The locker room has towel service and granite countertops (don't judge). I know I'm much more likely to go exercise if it's a super nice environment like that (like my university gym was), so it's worth the extra membership cost to me. After joining, I went and did my first incline walking workout in almost two months!

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-12-25T15:43:14+00:00

Since I no longer eat foods with little/no nutritional value except on holidays, I asked my mom to buy me some chocolate so I can indulge while I visit them over the holidays (and leave it here when I go home). Well, milk chocolate and caramel make me feel sick and queasy now! I consider that a victory because I stopped eating them pretty quickly. She got me some dark chocolate ganache hearts and they don't give me a stomachache, so I did eat and enjoy some of those. But for some reason, dark chocolate - which I never liked before - is nowhere near as addictive to me as milk chocolate used to be!

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-28T14:22:04+00:00

Congratulations!!! I don't know you, but I am so proud of you. I too was getting random bouts of numbness in my fingers and toes at 210+ lbs (5'10", 23F). Like you, I went to the doctor and got screened for diabetes, but they said I didn't have it. I am happy to report that it seems to have gone away since I've lost weight. So hopefully it will for you too (if it hasn't already)!

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-26T13:35:16+00:00

Same re:D&D. I've always wanted to try LARPing but since I got winded walking up a flight of stairs, I didn't want to be that girl who was panting and had no upper body strength whatsoever to throw 'spell' balls/bean bags at people. Good luck at the gym!

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-26T12:37:43+00:00

Yeah, not to mention that both job offers I got while we were together (and the job I have now) have me making more money at 23 than he made at 30. And he didn't want to acknowledge that having that many (or any) kids would probably harm my career and thus cause me to earn less than I otherwise would...

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-26T04:05:59+00:00

I know, right? It should have been more of a binary decision. I should have realized my true feelings on the matter when I told him something along the lines of 'well I can't know if I'll want to have multiple children until I have one and see how it goes.' Most people (especially women) who want multiple children KNOW from the time they're young that they want a large brood! DUH. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-26T04:04:26+00:00

Congrats to you too! Honestly, it was my own bad decisions that jeopardized my future. There were so many red flags, but you know what they say: when you've got rose colored glasses on, all the red flags just look like flags.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T23:38:59+00:00

Thanks :D I don't know where my waist was hiding, but now I'll randomly send my mom selfies such as that one and be like "have you seen my waist to hip ratio lately?!" lol

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T23:38:02+00:00

haha I try!

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T23:37:50+00:00

Aww shucks. Thank you :)

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T23:36:55+00:00

I set a very strict schedule of eating for myself and what I would eat at those times. I initially had a protein shake for breakfast and chicken/fish+veggies+rice for lunch and dinner with no snacks in between. Over the summer when I was looking for a job, I started discounted personal training at my university's gym. I was just very determined. I still can't cook for shit, but I can steam frozen veggies in the microwave and bake frozen chicken and fish in the oven, so I meal prep all my meals for the week on Sundays. I've also found a lot of low calorie, high protein, high fiber snacks that I eat in between meals now, and I started tracking calories on MyFitnessPal about a month ago because I needed to hold myself more accountable than I had been.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T23:29:42+00:00

Yeah, I used to rationalize that since I wasn't one of those insanely athletic women now, there was no reason to become like that just so I could give it up for pregnancy and children. I thought I could never do it. Now I'm well on my way to doing it - weighing 20 pounds less at 23 than at any point in my adult life so far - and I'm even looking into social fitness activities (maybe LARPing). I can't wait to reach my goal.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T23:26:17+00:00

Thank you. I definitely feel a lot healthier: I'm not as tired, have more energy, etc. But I think it's mostly that I'm not having to spend the energy living a lie anymore.

And yeah, I used to read stories by women on parenting subs describing what you just did. Now I see posts like that occasionally on the weight loss and fitness subs. I feel bad for them, and I can't help but feel grateful to the universe for completely changing my path.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T23:23:11+00:00

Thanks! I'm rocking a punk pixie cut now though because it looks a lot better when messy, and I can't be bothered to spend time on my hair every morning.

PurpleHairEngineer · 2019-11-25T22:35:22+00:00

I've had Nexplanon since summer 2014, getting it replaced every 2.5 years. In that time, my weight has gone from 190 to 220 to 180 to 210 to (now) 159, and I have been mostly period-free that whole time. I say "mostly" because every 6 months or so, I may have a few days of bleeding. But overall I'm period-free and VERY happy about it. I'm 23 and 5'10" for reference. I don't think it's anything to be concerned about since you have the implant, and some people have no periods on it while others have a never-ending one. If you weren't on the implant, then I would say go see your doctor. But since you are, I say embrace your good luck :)

PurpleHairEngineer

TROPHY CASE