Weight Loss

Just to share...

Each of us in my family have been on some sort of weight loss plan since January, as every single one of us REALLY focused on our New Year's Resolutions.  I just wanted to share it with everyone.

My Father:  We don't know where he started, because the digital scale offered "ERROR" because he weighed over 300 pounds.  He's not too tall of a man (5'10"), so over 300 in ANY case meant a minimum of 43 BMI.  He started by watching his Calorie Intake, but any change in his Calorie Intake left him moody.  Plus, he didn't lose anything (and he used his shirt size to go by - they were getting tighter).  He switched to the Atkin's Diet around the beginning of April, and he has dropped two shirt sizes and has had to buy new clothes every few weeks.  I should go with him to the Salvation Army or Goodwill before school starts to get some clothes for him to wear to work (he's a teacher).  I didn't ask what his weight is right now, but it's well under 300 pounds now.  He looks fantastic and I can't wait to see him get to about 250.  He would look GREAT at 250.  Aside from diet, he has played Badminton 2 - 3 days a week for about three years.  When school is in session he is primarily on his feet (standing - light/moderate) and when school is not in session, he is the one doing the cleaning and the yardwork in the house.  So he is a moderately active person.  To see my dad drop two shirt sizes in two months is AMAZING.  He looks fantastic and I'd like to see more.

My Mother:  Not as much of a success story, but she's dropped a little.  To start, she was about 195 lb (4'11" = 40 BMI).  Using the weight-watchers plan at home and Slim Fast, she's not quite had the success that my father's had.  She's lost 8 - 12 pounds since January, and I know she really wants to lose it.  For her, it's a much bigger deal because she suffered from anorexia when she was in her late teens, dropping to about 90 pounds when she got married. Aside from that, she is of small bone-structure, and that makes a huge difference in her weight distribution than it does for me.  For example... Even when I was 198 lb, I was still curvy.  For her, she won't be curvy until she's well below 165.  Her weight loss plans aren't working, and I've encouraged her to use this site as a guide.  I may have to bug her some more.  In addition, it's really tough for her to get exercise, because when she was 12 years old, she had gotten hit by a car, and it had almost cost her her life.  It did cost her her face (which was reconstructed and now looks natural), her right arm (which is paralyzed), and parts of her legs (she walks with a slight limp - her knees have been replaced about every 10 years since the accident).  I'd like to see her get down in weight as well.

My Sister:  She never changed her eating habits, but she rides her bike EVERYWHERE.  There are few who ride as far as she does JUST to go to school and to do her errands.  She hasn't lost any weight, but she is considerably leaner.  She is at a fairly healthy weight anyways, but exercise on the bike has REALLY done wonders for her figure (her "boyish" figure is turning into a "girlish" figure just by adding curves).

My Brother:  He's always been skinny, always been lean, muscular... you know, everything anyone wants to look at IN a success story (or a Bowflex commercial...).  But he's been a dancer for a long time, and that's how he has kept himself lean.  However, his cholesterol was checked about a year ago, having reached an unhealthy level.  Since then, he has stopped eating fried foods (Good job David!), and has switched from butter to... some substitute, and that's all he needed to do in order to lower his LDL cholesterol by about 50 points.

Me:  I've lost 34 pounds with help from Calorie Count.  I'm 5'3", 164.0 lb, and was 198 when I started.  I focus everyday on getting everything I need, and I still allow myself the dessert.  I used to go to the gym 5 days a week, but working (on my feet - I work in a restaurant) has limited my gym time to twice a week.  In the restaurant, I burn a minimum of 1000 Calories per shift, sometimes about 2000 if it's a double.  My ownly pitfall so far is that I can't eat extra Calories on days I have to work.  It's impossible.  I tend to eat 1300 - 1500 per day, allowing about 200 extra when I go to the gym, and allowing up to 1000 more if I am at work.  Those "allowances" usually don't happen, because I get so full so fast.  I may eat as much as 2000 Calories on work days, but it puts my deficit over 1000, which I try not to allow.  My eating plan is as follows (the not-work/workout days):  30 - 45 grams of fat, 70 - 100 grams of protein, 150 - 200 grams of carbohydrates, and as close to 0 grams of alcohol as I can get.  On work/workout days I try to get A LOT more protein than that, a lot of which is from milk, yogurt, and lean meats.  I really like it, and it's not a "diet".  It's a healthy eating plan.  It doesn't consume every minute of the day, it doesn't restrict me, and I feel considerably healthier as a result.

Considering my whole family is here for the same goal, encouragement and compliments fly everywhere in every direction.  When a family really decides to get serious about health, there can only be good results.

congrats on the whole family getting into getting healthier! To keep your calories up in work days, you should try more calorie dense food (ie nuts). I have to do the same for my bf to get him to eat close to 2000. If i give him the same foods i am eating, just larger portions he gets too full, so lucky him he gets a handful of nuts a day.

Thank you!  We each are success stories in and within ourselves.

Just please do me a favor and encourage your father to make sure he is watching his colestral levels and blood pressure while on the Atkins diet.  Ive been reading a lot of reports the past few weeks about how there has been a rise in the connection between heart paitents and the Atkins diet.  My father did that diet off and on for about 7 years.  He died of heart desease at the age of 55.   

That isn't to say that your father will have any problems, taking the weight off will help him.  Daddy never really lost much weight on the Atkins diet, but he kept going back to it.  I personally believe it helped to speed up his illness.  So please for your own sake, just make sure he is careful and as hard as it might be, get him to the doctor for those screenings as often as possible.  You don't want to end up regretting it later. 

 

Great for you family! If there were only more out there like that. I have struggled with weight since I got married 6 years ago and my husband and his family have not helped the situation. I have recently gotten very serious because my kids ages 2 and 4 are very good eaters and I am affraid that they will follow the footsteps of other members of the family. Just by changing the way I cook, i.e. baking and grilling intead of frying, my husband has lost about 65 lbs since we got married. I have had a little trouble since my son was born, but I think I am back on track now. Its hard to get into the routine but I think once you're there it comes natural.

Encourage your family to keep up the good work. I would agree with ladykelien, your father should probably be having regular health screenings if hes not already. The problem with that diet and many other low carb diets is that some people only think they have to restcict carbs and will eat a whole lb of bacon at a time. I would say if your dad has lost weight, hes probably not doing that. Props to your dad.

*accepts all the kudos from every direction and passes them forward to the family*

Ladykelien - thanks for your concern, and sorry about your father.  My dad does keep careful track of that (except for cholesterol, but that's because the doctor said that his cholesterol was so good that he didn't need another checkup for three years).  His blood pressure is decent, but he is sodium-sensitive like I am, so he checks blood pressure whenever at Walmart.  We more have to worry about my brother, who was adopted in 2005 and has a strong predisposition to heart problems in his family.  HIS cholesterol is poor enough that he's 19 years old and has to lower it.

Sbatt1: hee hee, a pound of bacon.  I think my dad sprinkles a bit of bacon (less than an ounce) into his Egg Beaters some mornings, at most.  Because there's only so much you can do with Egg Beaters before you're throwing it across the wall because it's gotten boring.  Thanks, and good job for you and your husband.  Healthy decisions now will impact your kids considerably (except their first year of college, but you don't need to worry about that yet).

Kudos to your family for working together towards health!

I wish my family would do the same.  We began going to see a weight-loss and hormone management specialist together.  I was 5'3 and 180-something pounds (down from 206, which I lost on my own two months prior), my father was 5'10 and 250+ pounds, and my mother was 5'7 and 190-ish pounds.  This was in May of 2007.  Everyone was successful within the first couple of months, but then both my parents started plateauing or gaining weight.

The culprit, I suspect, was that they never really changed their habits.  They continued to cook with far too much oil and don't really watch what they eat for nutritional value.  I was the only one who continued to lose.

A year later, I'm around 135 pounds, my father is 200-something (I think), and my mother is 170ish (I believe).  Both my parents are starting to put on the weight they've lost as well and they struggle to understand why.  However, if they would just examine the habits they've reverted to, they'd easily see how.  They still buy junk food and cook with a ton of oil.  They also eat many snacks at night and assume that just because something is low-fat, you can eat as many as you want.  Additionally, they have no concept of portion-control at all.

It makes things quite frustrating and difficult as well as hard for me to maintain my healthier lifestyle.  But, it's also helped me become more independent as I know prepare my own meals and the like.

I applaud your family for being so supportive of one another and wish you all the best of luck.