Princess Mola's Journal, 02 Jan 15

I would suggest that you don't eat more then 2000 cals per day and that you do strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times a week. Because you are a heavier woman, no offence, riding a bicycle and swimming would be really good for you, walking and jogging can come when you lose more weight.  

If you are loosing inches, and feeling stronger, don't worry too much about BMI….the more muscle mass you have, the quicker you will burn fat….make sure you are eating high protein foods, and good carbs….and dump the sugar….BMI can be very confusing…..for example Martin Johnson…ex England Rugby captain had a BMI which classed him as morbidly obese….its just his body composition wasn't "normal"…he had a huge muscle mass….but not much fat…..look in the mirror…feel your clothes getting looser, feel good about what you are doing…..but don't give up….. 

BMI should be used for measuring populations not individuals apparently. See Wiki for more info. 

i'm here for u! 

Thank you all.. I will take your advice on board.  

BMI doesn't matter. I mean it does but if you are doing strength training - IGNORE YOUR WEIGHT INCREASE. Muscle mass is good. Muscle is farr farrrr more denser than fat so it will take up very little room but will weigh loads more than fat. Keep on strength training ^-^ Wish you all the best 

Maybe a more useful measure than BMI is the FFMI, but its hard to measure accurately. 

thank you... I will read up on FFMI. 

Yes, take no notice of BMI..... Aparently I am obese. It takes no account of muscle mass or body shape. 

Agreeing everyone else; I would add couple more things. Weight can fluctuate a lot on a given day. You eat something very high in sodium and that day you probably gain weight no matter what you do, as you retain water. Also, for example if you eat 200g of carbs consecutively for couple of days and then the next day you eat 400g, you will retain water (carbs stored as glycogen, 3g of water per 1g of carb if I'm not mistaken). Reverse of all of these are also true. About muscle. If you are new to lifting, you will pack on muscle very quickly. Yes, it is heavier than fat but metabolically very active. Also, muscle is not just tissue, it is mostly water and glycogen. So there you have a double whammy; more muscle more glycogen more water. Last point: Entering your food and exercise into fatsecret. Almost everyone including me underestimate what is eaten and overestimate exercise. For example; you had smoked salmon on couple of days. 2 pieces 47cals and 1 serving of 85g 99cals. However if you look at the salmon from Tesco or Sainsbury's, calories are double of that. So imagine what happens if the food you eat is actually DOUBLE in calories you think it is. My take home message: If the target is losing weight in the long term (not next week), put on some muscle, you'll burn more cals just buy sitting on the couch. If you are going to monitor your food intake and exercise, do it everyday and correctly so in any mishap, you will know what's up. 

well I used lots of line spacing but now it is a big paragraph, sorry about that.  

Just to be a bit more quantitative than "If you are new to lifting, you will pack on muscle very quickly." For a 16-30 year old, you can expect to gain about 2.6kg of muscle in a year, with 2-3 hours lifting a week. The newbie effect might increase this by up to 1.2kg. Source: http://scoobysworkshop.com/muscle-gain-calculator/ 

Thank you very much Sabribertug and GilesBathgate. Very informative. You are right about the salmon and sodium. And need to record my food intake better and accurately. Would fasting help with this issue? 

Well like everything, it depends. If via fasting you believe you can eat less overall, yes, but if you crave and binge on food after breaking the fast you could end up eating more calories than no fasting scenario. I would suggest to try say a 14 hour fast and then next week 15 hour fast and so on until for example 18 hour fast after few weeks. If you find yourself craving a lot, you can scale back hours. At the end of the day, it is calories in versus calories out. 

Thanks 

Hi there If you Want to try fasting have you tried the 5:2 diet? l have the willpower of a flipflop and found It really good because If I had a craving or really wanted Something I could tell myself that I could have it tomorrow If I Wanted it. I usually didn't Want Whatever it was the following day . 

Just one more thing, I know it doesn't fit everyone's schedule, but I would say that 1hr of (walking) cardio every day, is better than 2hrs every other day. Source: http://scoobysworkshop.com/afterburner-effect-melts-away-fat/ 

thanks for the advice and support - I tried 16-hour fasting yesterday and survived it :) I've also been doing between 1-2 walking everyday for 2 months now, that's why I was worried my weight was not going down. truly grateful for sharing your knowledge