I need some help .....

When I talk to people about our WOE that also say wow, great and then the inevitable question ........ what weight do you want to get down to?

This is where I get stuck....

I was always the fat girl at school and I have been a plus size my whole adult life so I have no idea what I will look like when i hit certain goal weights. Can any of you shed some light on:

What weight equals what size?

I am 5'3, weight 263 lbs or 19.2 stone and am a UK size 26

Any Ideas what size I will be when I hit 200lbs?

I am lost and need inspiring.....

Hi Jacki

I'm sure that there are others who will be able to give you a better answer, as I am so short myself. Now I'm down to 177 I can begin to wear size 16 tops and size 18 bottoms. So my guess is that when you get to 200 pounds you will be around a size 20.

Just keep at it and aim to lose those pounds, you will fit into new clothes as you go. My ultimate aim is to get back into size 12 clothes.

Hi Jacki

I started the plan in a size 18 at 215lbs. After losing 1 1/2 stone I'm wearing a 16 although I do sometimes need an 18 on top (Big chest ) I would like to get to a 12 at some point! I followed a link in here somewhere (Sorry - I can't remember where the link is or what it is!) which gave me the end weight of 143 (10 stone 3lbs), which is 50lbs to go! As you're the same height as me you might get the same result...

Good luck!

I don't know how to do links, but here is something I have copied across from another area.


"This may be what you are looking for.

Size Calculation

(.118 x weight) + (.059 x age) - (.298 x height in inches) + 11.11 = size "


I think the size you end up with is the US size.

SO get your calculator out and have a go. It worked for me, after I had got the numbers right....

does anyone know the conversions from american sizes to english , as I have just done the above sum but if it only gives you your ideal size in us sizes I'm still clueless.

Not all of them.

18 uk=16us, 16uk=14us, 14uk=12us. So far so good. However 12uk=10us, I think but am not sure, then it goes odd, because you can have a 4us, which I think is an 8uk, rather than a 6 and there is a 2us. The Landsend website might have the conversion.

Fun isn't it? It makes it more real to work out size, especially if it's been a long time since you were that weight!


Best Wishes

For me I always thougth a size 10 (US) would be the most incredible thing in the world. But I am a size 10 now and still have a lot of soft tummy weight. So my goal has been revised to a size 8 and firmer body.

I think this is how it has to work... to get to know your body at different sizes and see how you feel.

Say a goal today and don't worry if you change it later to reflect what you have learned about your body. Its ok to change as you go.

Hiya Jacki,

I was a pudgy child who became a squidgy adult. I don't know what thin is either. I've just been where you are now, I was 19.5 stone, and last night I squeezed myself into a pair of US size 20 jeans and found them suitably comfortable. Mind you they are a brand known to be generously sized-- but who cares?

I'm 5' 7" and in UK sizes I'm between a 22 and a 24. Strangely I'm heavier than I was when I last wore those size 20 jeans but I feel so much better. Probably something to do with losing less muscle weight and more fat. Muscle is heavier. I can already see my shape changing dramatically. I was the classic apple. The person who looks like an egg in an evening dress. Now I'm well, becomming more of a normal person with thick parts.

I'd say at 200 pounds you'll find your size 26 clothes are big enough to use for a tent and you'll very likely feel fantastic about it. You may even want to stay that size for a bit. I think I will. I remember being that size on the way up and never feeling particularly fat... big, but not fat.

Where you end up for a final goal is up to you and your build. If your a petite person with small facial features and small hands and feet, then you may find that you want to be a bit smaller. If you're like me, and a rather sturdy person with larger feet and hands it'd be suitable for you to stop sooner. I always thought being around 150 which I think will be a size 14 to 16 for me would be very nice. When I get there then I can decide if another 10 pounds more or less would be better.

Enjoy the whole of the journey and take the time to savour it.

Best of luck,

C. Corvidae

here is a link I found that tells us how to convert US/UKsizes:


http://www.grandstyle.com/cloth04.htm

HTH

Dear JJ,
I read some of your posts and a bit of your journal. I am only 3/4 of an inch taller than you and I am 5 years older than you. I wanted to share some of my plan with you in case it helps. I relate to a lot of what you express. It may seem to take a bit to get to the part about what size you may be at at 200lbs but I will end up there at some point.

I noticed one referrence to your excercise habits that you were disappointed in the length of time it took for you to walk one mile and you added a jog to shorten your time. I have read now in several different areas of expertise that the longer duration of excercise is something that will help you burn more fat calories. If you need to slow down to sustain your activity it can work to your advantage and also bring your mind into a more free flowing thought pattern as soon as you pass from the point of fucusing on the excercise and the perceived uncomfortable sensations. I find that when I focus on spending 30 minutes on a tread mill with no incline set and a speed varying 2.5 to 3.5 miles per hour it takes about five minutes before I shake the feeling that I can't do it. Then I am fine, thoughts wander pleasantly and I walk a bit faster. At about 15 minutes I get the feeling that I wan't to stop and that lasts for another 3 to five minutes. I slow down to my warm up speed at that point and increase one increment at a time, staying comfortable with a heart rate between 25 and 27 beats per 10 seconds. At 25 minutes I find that I am still feeling fine and I usually am able to go an extra five minutes beyond my 30 minute goal. I praise myself for the extra 5 but never shame myself for stopping at 30 or early. Sometimes when your body is in a repair state you actually need to work out a little slower and a little shorter. I never do the step machine because I think it is a little too torturouse for a body as overweight as mine. It is something I may get interested in when I have less abdominal wieght to burden my knees. My calves a slightly overdeveloped from carrying weight anyway so I am not focusing on them. To tighten the backs of my thighs right below my glutes I use the squat machine with a small amount of resistance. I belong to a womens gym and the machinery is different. After my 30 minute warm up on the treadmill, I go to the "circuit". It is similar to Curves. This is the only time when I do any type of little jog. I stand on a square board that is supported by a matrix of bouncey foam strips. I will begin with a quick march that I speed up quickly into a jog. Then after 45 seconds a recording over the music tells everyone to move to the next station which will be some sort of resistance. This combination of cardio bursts with resistance excercises that are engineered for a womans body is outrageously effective. After I get into a groove I add typical arm movements and step movements to my 45 second jog station. This elevates my heart rate far more than my slow pace on the treadmill. This jog makes sitting down on the machines a relief and I hardly notice how much resitance I am pushing and pulling. The machines have two way resistance so they are very effective. They adjust with dials and there are no clunky weights to try and adjust. Once the circuit is complete I have been on 8 machines, eight jog stations, and worked out every muscle group in about ten minutes. Some days I complete three circuits and sometimes only one, if I feel weak I know just going through the motions of slow marching on the squares and the least resistance once is a sign my body is in a repair mode and just what I need. I never experience dizziness or inability to speak. I turn beat red, sweat and breath deeply when I am strong and going full throttle but when I feel that weak arm or if my pulse climbs quickly with less effort I take it so slow I wonder if I am doing anything at all. I go 5-6 times per week. at least one of those days will be a day where I am on the treadmill only 15 to 20 minutes and on the circuit once at very easy pace. People tend to push too much and that can stop your excercising in it's track with little injuries you can't see. I started this excercise plan at 236 pound and it only took me three consecutive days to work up to the thirty minutes on the treadmill and 20-30 minutes of circuit training because of my pacing. I was amazed (maybe the fact that 30 years on my tail has me running) I had never had success before with excercise because of pushing too hard and thinking I would only go 2-3 times per week. Excercise is important everyday. In less modern times it was harder to spend one sedentary day. Now it is harder to find a way out of our sedentary lives. I read about fat calorie burning and anerobic muscle calorie burning heart rate zones a few months ago and it changed my thoughts about how to work out. The Curves Gym style of excercise gives you a lot of both of those ranges of excercise. Fat burning on the treadmill and muscle burning on the circuit. Plus the high paced cardio and resistance combination of the circuit is the type of excercise that starts your body burning at rest more than the more relaxed treadmill time that burns calories just while you are walking. Some people are shocked when they think about burning muscle calories (is that referred to as glycopene?) but I know that I have huge overdeveloped mucscle in my ankle, and low back from carrying weight. These are the areas that are tapering down first as far as what I think is muscle. I think the body must know what muscle tissue is superfluous and burns the tissue wisely. Many assume any muscle loss is a bad thing and I can't agree with that when I have seen the overdevelopment of my own little muscle right next to my ankle bone.
When you wonder about what you could look like at 200lbs you might want to change that musing to "what will I look like when I have correctly shaped, strengthened and toned this underlying muscle to hold my fat differently regardless of any weight loss?" Because I have noticed that my body looks nothing like it ever has before at comparable weight. I also get pain in my low back and chest area of my spine when I have gained weight and losing weight always made it go away. This time with my new excercise program it took less weight loss to gain pain relief.
With your sensitivity to low glycemic foods it sounds like you may have a metabolic dysfunction rather than poor eating habits. Your comment on your signature about missing your ex-boyfriend strikes me as a possible clue that you may have imbalanced hormones that are making it hard for you to feel good. If you are feeling tired when you have had too much rest or your periods are irregular, if you carry a larger amount of weight around your middle and your waist and hips are similar in size instead of your waist being proportionalty smaller for your weight, you may be experiencing insulin sensitivities and hormonal imbalances that effect your weight and often are seen with other syndromes like polycystic ovarian. The hormonal floods of "love" and "boyfriend" times gives a euphoria that ease the symptoms of metabolic dysfuntion thus making it hard to get over the loss of that. That is why I see that as a clue here. People who have become overweight because of poor eating choices and putting off activity for longer than they intended have quick result when going through induction and then adding the right carbs. You seem to try to add the right carbs and then get derailed. This used to happen to me because I have metabolic disorder that goes beyond the norm and I had to fix it with the proper excercise. Psych docs and primary docs all agree excercise is going to make all the difference. I began my workouts at 236lbs, lost four pounds the first week. Then four days later I had shed an additional ten. I could not believe that scale said 223 pounds when it measured at 233 four days prior! And how on earth was I excercising for over 45 minutes a day at this weight! This was during induction, I resumed the WOE the same day I started my excercise program. I am under a physicians supervision and he supports and is excited by my results. Now at 206lbs I am in a size 16 and wearing it pretty good! It has taken me just a little over a month to lose these 30 pounds and it is not typical. I am doing this rapidly for several reasons including an arthtitic condition developing in my knee from an injury, metabolic dysfuntion that aggrivates my bipolar and the fact that the medicines I began taking for bipolar (divalproex sodium/Depakote) have a drastic effect on metabolism that made me crave carbs like a fiend and pack on 40 pounds in several months after losing 80 on our WOE. Excercises speacialy for a womans body brought me in three days to having no carb cravings, I feel like I am in control of my eating decisions and I have no desoda or a bite sized low carb truffle. I don't drink truckloads of water, just as I feel thirst coming on until I am not thirsty. I skip lunch if I forget and sometimes dinner but I don't choose not to eat when hungry. I just don't force myself to eat any certain amount of calories. I have less hard cheeses than I have at other low carb times of my life and find that I am enjoying cream cheese and the fresh mozzerella balls that are packed in water on beds of lettuces and spinach. Recently I stuffed four chicken breasts with goat cheese, baby brown mushrooms sauteed in butter and garlic and I baked them with some bruschetta sauce poured on top. I ate one a day till they were gone with a couple of cups of greens with lemon juice and seasoning blends containing no MSG or "natural flavors". I stopped packaged dressing and premade dips because soft cheeses mixed with whatever you can come up with are cheaper and have no hidden gums and fillers that may be slowing you down. Macadamia nuts are worth the expense. I think they may be helpful in telling your body it is okay to burn because of thier rich fats. I like to put them in the food processor and then dust them with cinnamon (rather than flour) so they are less likely to turn to nut butter and then I pulse them just till they look graham cracker crumb size and I press them like cracker crumbs into a springform pan and bake them carefully until lightly toasted. Then I whip like crazy with the air whisk attachment 2 sticks of softened cream cheese, the best vanilla beans I can find, three eggs, juice of a whole lemon and splenda to taste in a KitchenAid Mixer and pour it into the pan. I put that into a water bath and bake it at a low temp until it looks just like a cheesecake you would find at a bakery. The water bath keeps it from getting that grainy scrambled egg texture and makes it creamy and wonderful but it sometimes can be temermental like all cheesecakes. I vary the crust with other spices like clove, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice. Rarely I will chop up a low carb chocolate bar and push bits in here and there after it has set and cooled a bit but is still warm enough to melt the chocolate slightly. I always try to chill it overnight before eating. This recipe works great in individual ramakins like creme brulee comes in too. One cheescake (if I can keep the regualr carb eaters out of it) will last me several days or more if I keep it sealed well in the refrigerator. I big slice for breakfast or a sliver for a treat is a nice reward.
I know pression. I am ecstatic to be only 10 pounds away from where I left off on my last weight loss success. I am losing rapidly at a low caloric/low carb intake while taking a large dose of medication known to cause weight gain. I stopped caffiene and switched to Splenda for rare (weekly not daily) treat of a I can't have refined carbs in my life. I know I can't have all the diet cola I want and I can't have triple breve lattes from Starbucks unless I order it decaf. I now know I have to work out every day. I know that the numbers on the scale have a lot less to do with the shape and size no matter the height than I did before. I know that this isn't true extreme. Being 236 pounds (over 265 at my heaviest ever) is the extreme and that med associations that generalize all people and what they should need for personal diet is the extreme extreme. And the industry that produces denatured carbs by refining them to the point of such little value nutrients must be re added is extreme. I have lived the majority of my life suffering the consequences of being raised on these processed foodstuffs and so the measures I am taking now are very balanced for the situation I am in.
I look forward to sharing more as I go along with my plan. It is very different doing this with a doctor and help for my other metabolic and biological conditions. I hope if you see any of yourself in anything I have said you will look into more about it.
Sandra

After my lengthy comment posted I read through it and found odd omissions in sentences that I wrote. In in the last paragraph I wrote that I know a lot of causes of my personal struggle with weight and body image were coming from depression and not "I know pression" as the post said. And the sentence that states I have no desoda or a bite sized chocolate truffle originally was something to the like of I have no desire for any refined foods and have as a treat a non aspartame diet soda or a bite sized chocolate truffle. My favorites of those by the way come from a company called Carb Safe. I like them more than the competitors I have tried. I was sensitive to these low carb desserts on the market now during my last low carb effort but this time with the almost daily excercise routine they don't creep in and take over and cause cravings and stalls like they did before.

Thanks for putting up with the confusing spelling errors and mysterious holes in sentences of my last post. I know the insert key was set right on my keyboard. Hmmmmm.