So, two opposing views.

I used to think that the first was true and while I appreciate that some people bulk up more with muscle compared with others (there are three basic body types), on the whole, any thin person can get fat and fat people can become thinner (nobody is born fat).

But as AdrianLondon said, weight isn't important (or put another way, isn't the whole story) - there are other pointers to being healthy, and of course, muscle weighs more than fat, but an excessive amount of fat is bad for health.

What we're seeing in the West now is a huge epedemic of obesity. That can't be down to 'some people are naturally chubby'.

My $0.02 worth, even though we seem to go through this regularly.

I was an overweight teenager and have struggled with my weight a lot in the past. Carb-sensitive genetics, overeating and low activity during school years have a lot to answer for. I've yo-yo'ed on an average of a 2 year cycle in adult life, but now I'm nearly forty and I've seemed to have ironed out the curve. I am now down to 80kg, something I haven't been since I was 19.

My points are this, and I consider them fact:

1. The time it takes to get back into shape is relative to how long it took to get out of shape: If your beer belly or love handles have grown over a few years, they ain't gonna disappear in a couple of weeks. But if you grind away slowly you have less chance of getting out of shape quickly.

2. Diets alone don't work: You're body is designed to take energy in (food) and expend energy (movement). If you start depriving the body of what it needs (calorie deficit), the body will start to slow down consumption of energy (famine effect).

3. If you don't use it, you lose it: Your body built up it's muscles during adolescence and early adulthood for the purpose of being active..as you get older the body responses to a sedentary lifestyle, by slowing metabolism and breaking down muscle. This accelerates with age IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Cardio is good but resistance training is also needed in some respect or another.

4. Women have it worse than men: Sorry girls, but it's a fact. Testosterone is a muscle builder, and women generally have less muscle mass than men. Also, they are more susceptible to Osteoperosis. This is all the more reason that women more so than men should do resistance training..not high reps to bulk up, but moderate reps at a moderate weight to increase metabolism and keep bone density up.

5. If you are carb sensitive, you've got to be focused and smart: I fall into this bracket. Until I was 30, cardio seems to be enough to lose weight, but since then it's effectiveness dropped, especially as my body became used to 1 hour jogs or 2 hour cycling rides. I have added indoor climbing as a source of resistance training, and combined with cardio the results have been very pleasing...plus I enjoy the activities. Also, avoid too many carbs in the few hours before sleeping.

6. Emotional state plays a role: Be positive and happy, it makes every second of exercise easier. As for food: don't stress about what you eat, just follow your body's feelings and you'll be fine.

7. Start slow, but challenge yourself: It's important to avoid injuries, so if 200m jog is all you can do, then do that. Once you get over about 20min, increase speed OR distance by 10% at a time, but never both. Don't be satisfied with reaching a stable level of performance. Use gadgets like heart rate monitors, GPS or smart phone apps if necessary.

8. Enjoy whatever activity you do: Don't do activities you don't enjoy. Having said that, many activities like running and cycling are tiresome to start with, but become addictive very quickly.

9. Use your clothing fit as a measure, not the scales: Be prepared for some weight gain in the first few weeks, as muscle mass is gained prior to weight loss. Use a combination of measurements to determine progress (feeling, performance, weight, clothing, etc).

__________________
So sayeth the 'Speed
* I do look like my avatar

I just have 3 days here and I lost weight, people here eat lest than americans but when I vist the parents of my friends OMG just eat cheese and chocolate to bad

just want to chip in a few words

forget diets - diets are temporary and put you in the wrong mindset
the moment you think I will do on a diet you have already lost.

a permanent change of lifestyle is the only solution.
(Lost 21kg since Feb 2011 - modifying my Carb intake and swimming and Cycling)

This is a really important point imho, take your maeasurements too. I have been on an exercise & be healthy programme all year (I don't believe in diets) although the scales have not moved very much in that time I have lost 9cm from my waist. I think that if I had just gone by the number on the scale I would have been rather disheartend.

That's because they eat too much and don't do any exercise. You're (probably) missing my point. I'm not saying people can eat whatever they like and do whatever they like and stay the same weight. I'm saying that with reasonable exercise and eating healthily (i.e. staying healthy over all) some people will be slimmer than others.

But isn't that due to frame size and muscle bulk more than anything else?

Some ideias you could do at home while the baby is sleeping:

- Cardio training on a stationary bike and crosstrainer

- PowerPlate, to build up muscles and tone

- Trampolin

- If you don't have the space to store equipment then skipping would be a good alternative, combined with Pilates mat work for flat abs.
Yoga is also great for toning the body.

- Running for 20 -30 min in the evening (when hubby is at home to supervise the baby)

There is so much stuff you can do at home without expensive equipment, you just need a mat and off you go

Enjoy.

Another important milestone today - assuming I keep consistantly losing 1 kg per week as I have done, I'm half way in terms of duration - 7 weeks to go.

In terms of BMI, there's: -

< 18.5 - Underweight
18.5-25 - Ok
25-30 - Overweight
30-40 - Obese
> 40 - Clinically obese.

I was 27.3, right in the middle of Overweight. I'm now 23.76, just comfortably in the Ok zone. I want to be in the good half of the ok zone, 21.25, which gives me another 7kg to go.

Maybe this is the toughest to loose though.

Congratulations on your progress.

In a population BMI is generally considered to be an accurate measure (e.g., on average over a large sample of people). And lots of people like it because it is inexpensive, easy and a single number that you can roll your health experience into. So docs, insurers, and lots of people like BMI. Of course.

However, BMI does not take into account muscle mass, water weight or skeletal size. I guess my point is that you may not be any better at 21 than you are at 23.

here's the reference
http://www.euphix.org/object_document/o4852n27195.html

Thanks, but I'm aware it's a simplistic approach. However, I'm not especially muscule bound, and I don't retain water. There's probably no difference health wise between 21 and 23, but at 21 I don't have love handles!

I was hoping for another important milestone this week, but I've missed my target. I wanted to hit 10 kg's lost, but it's only 9.5. Last week I was at home and ate a lot (although still the correct food) and didn't excercise, so only 1/2 a kg gone.

I guess in imperial terms I've hit a target of sorts as I've now lost 1.5 stone. Just under 1 stone to go.

I had weight problem since I was a kid. Reached 100lbs when I was 10 years old and to my 'highest' at 18 with 143 lbs. I have tried almost everything that you can name: medicine, weightlose center, cream, sport, diet, no carb, fruit only, doctor etc. The only thing which work (for me) and last is healthy eating (not dieting) and sport. Now I am a healthy 112lbs. Some of my experience:

1. It's always easy to lose the first few kg because you simply have more fat to lose. But without sport it will be difficult to lose further than few kg (well, also depend how overweight are you)

2. Try to eat fresh food like salad instead of cook vegetable, also fresh meat instead of ham/salami. Seafood is better than white meat and white meat is better than red meat.

3. Cardio exercise helps you to lose weight but weight lifting helps you to gain muscle. After swim and dancing course, I normally lose weight the next day but after Body Pump/Capoeira, I normally gain weight/stay the same.

4. Eat Carbs in the morning and afternoon and try to avoid them in the evening or just take a very small portion of carbs.

5. Allow yourself a break with the diet and sport. Allow yourself to have some 'fat' food from time to time, small amount of chocolate, ice-cream of whatever you want. I am a chocolate lover and if I don't have it for too long, I will just pig out a 100g or more in 5 mins. But if I am allow to have a small piece every 3-4 days then I will limit myself to this small quantity.

6. Be prepared for holiday/gathering/special occasion. Try to lose weight and eat healthy doesn't mean we need to cut our social contact with friends like drinking/eating outside. But if we go and don't drink/eat then there will be no fun as well. Therefore when I know there is a gathering/festival coming up, I will eat a bit less/sport more few days to one week before to have some extra 'space' for the extra food. Normally I can lose back this 'gathering fat' in 1-2 days.

It's hard to change eating style and start to do sport. I just started to do sport 4 years ago, back then I couldn't even ride a bike!!! Now I go swim, fitness, Capoeira every week and eat a big bowl of salat with every meal. Remember it just takes 21 days to form a habit. So good luck with losing weight

How tall are you? The height to weight chart says that would make you a healthy weight if you are 4' 10" as a woman and it doesn't even go that far for a man

Do you mean 112 kg?

Hi Sandgrounder: It's 112lbs, around 51kg. I am a small woman with 1.58m and 51kg, I do have a BMI of around 20.4 which is considered as normal .

Last three weeks weight loss has been 0.5 kg, 0.5 kg, 0 - so I seem to have hit a wall. Not surprisingly this has happened at the same time I haven't been exercising. It's not lazyness, just been busy with things I had to finish.

Will re-double my efforts as I don't want the diet to peter out, and I want to reach my target weight, which is still some 3-6 kg off. Besides, sticking to the diet is easy - just boring.

Seems like the wall I'd been hitting had been to do with my scales rather than my weight. The two kg I should've lost have now disappeared.

They're not very good scales and I think there must be some dirt just around the weight I was and it needed a bigger weight difference to get over it. It's annoying as I was thinking of suspending my diet until I have my kitchen installed and I can prepare food more easily.

Anyway, back on schedule. I'm now only 1kg off my original target, and 4 from my revised target.

Jeez, this isn't a very popular thread at the moment. Nothing since my last post. You fat b*****rds.

My scales at home are a bit wonky, too. They're always 1.5-2 kg over what I get anywhere else. Depending on which scales I believe, I'm anything between 63 and 65kg (I just take the average 64kg), which is where I've been for the last 4 months. So I'd assume this is supposed to be my normal weight. Still, despite my weight not changing, I look much better than I did in January thanks to more resistance training in addition to the cardio. I do intenses sets of push-ups and leg-raises a few times per week and use a rowing machine. I'm this close to a six-pack, just some stubborn fat and loose skin left. I am not ready to start eating steamed chicken for every meal to make it happen quicker, so I'll just grind away slowly. In any case, I'm in the best shape of my life, can't really complain.

I noticed the other day my scales vary depending on where they are placed within the room (2-3kg variance)
with is strange since the floor is tiles on concrete and level throughout the places I have checked

I had put my "gain" down to my increased physical workout - (I now cycle 20km daily)


still got 16kg+ to go though