Hi. I'm Brads Nan and around April time I decided to finally do something about my lack of exercise and my weight. My stats are
Age 52
Height 5' 7
Wii Weight 186lbs
My weight is due to sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day since 1998!!!
I'm on day 61 on my Wii and I'm really enjoying it. I try to do about 45mins every evening. Mostly its been the step plus arobics, lond distance running, the cycling where I have to find the 27 flags and the free step. My fit piggy tell me I've used up about 200 - 230 calories every evening. I've only just started the Yogo and I'm now doing 12 mins as well.
I am disappointed because I've only lost 4lbs Reading other posts everyone else seems to be losing 10 - 15lbs by day 60. I've been on a low fat diet for years. I don't take sugar in tea and my only "real" meal a day is dinner and I have that about 5:30 - 6pm. I have cereal with skimmed milk for breakfast and a ham and tomato sandwich for lunch!!! Please can anyone give me some advice as to how I can start shifting some of this weight or maybe what I should be doing extra on the Wii.
Thanks

Hi Brad

Well, you are not exactly massive, so I wouldn't worry too much. Something you'll find is that the more overweight people are the easier it is for them to lose a certain amount of weight. Basically I think the body is more prepared to burn off the fat.

You can see my weight loss over the last year and a half below:



You can see that as I've got closer to "normal" (for me that's 81kg/180lbs and under) my weight loss has slowed down. In fact at the moment it is tediously slow and practically flattened out. It's very frustrating as I only have about 5kg to go, but it's going to take me ages.

I started out losing about 2 pounds a week, now I'm lucky to lose that in a month. I've had to turn up the heat a bit and have started going for a run in the morning as well as doing Wii Fit (mostly yoga).

However, the key point it that you are losing weight, even if it is slowly. Also, you are not that much above the "normal" range, whatever that's worth. In fact losing weight slowly is much better than losing it quickly, it gives your body time to adapt (no saggy skin ) and you are unlikely to be deficient in any vitamins and minerals, so you won't be doing yourself any damage.

My advice would be to try and add something else to your daily routine if you can, perhaps walk or bike to work if that's possible for you, or just go for an evening walk (which is also a great way to wind down before bed) rather than sitting in front of the TV of computer.

I know what you mean about spending your life in front of a computer, I'm the same and I've had to work at finding ways to just be a little bit more active.

You might also want to try keeping a food diary for a week, tracking exactly how many calories you are consuming. by doing that I found that there were things that I thought were much less healthy than I thought and were full of hidden and worthless calories. I have been counting calories for the last 18 months using Graphomatic but you don't need to be that obsessive Just doing it for a week can be very enlightening and might surprise you.

Hi Paul. Thanks for the advice. From tomorrow I shall be walking to work I've also started counting my calories and today I've eaten 1570. It will be interesting to see how many I get through during the week.

According to the Wii my BMI is 29.0 so I'm very much in the overweight group I'm determined not to let myself get any bigger. I have noticed that my legs are looking a little more toned. So I'm getting into the yoga to try and reduce my spare tyre. I'll let you know how I get on.

Without doing an actual medical calculation test you can't know what your real BMI is. The wii fit, or any 'smart scale' can only estimate. The 'healthy' BMI is also an overall average. For instance, I'm a female and while my BMI reads high the wii fit cannot factor in that I'm nearly a DD cup, that's a lot of extra body mass over the average C that's beyond my ability to control. My advice is to ask your doctor what a healthy weight and BMI is for you individually and set that as your goal, regardless of the computer's opinion.

1500 calories is more than reasonable intake. You might want to consider spreading those calories out during the course of the day. Your body gets a sudden boost in metabolism every time you eat so try adding a mid afternoon snack (I always make mine fruit or veggies) It's as much about the content of the calories as the calories themselves. Be sure you're eating your daily fruits and veggies and try to keep the juice servings small.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the info. I walked to work this morning and I'll certainly spread out my intake of food this week. I do tend to eat very little all day and then a large evening meal. So I've taken steps to change this. I'll let you know how I get on. My weight is holding steady at 13st 2lbs this week I've increased my time on the Wii to 1hr 15mins. Hopefully this combined with my change in eating habits will end in a small weight loss next weekend

Hey,

It's summer hols and I've finally decided to start something, AND stick to it. I'm 14 and live in the country. Everyone around here is relatively healthy and 'skinny' fit. Except me, or so it feels. I suppose, I am healthy and fit, but not the way I like it. I dance twice a week, ride once and am often in rehearsals for amateur productions. I guess my problem is that I need to tone up.

So today everyone is out and I thought 'Perfect, lets get down to it.' I've so far clocked up an hour, half hour free steps and half hour free jogging. Already I feel better and watching Bulging Brides has helped, right now I'm chowing down on celery and enjoying a glass of water. I have four weeks left of the summer because I have been in a show for the last two weeks, which admittedly isn't a good habit. Becoming part of the production cast and crew means absurd hours, once a week, Simmons Bakery for lunch and every Saturday when there's a show, up to eight weeks in a row, McDonalds, Subway or Dominoes for dinner, depending where we are, possibly Pizza Express or something a little better.

Besides all my friends and neighbours being 'lucky' skinny i.e. not working for it, just happening naturally, Every now and then, my Mum warns me about my eating habits, telling my I'll stop my growths spurts of out then up and in. And that causes me to eat more when she's not around but less when she is, which I know isn't healthy. I also know that not having a proper lunch isn't very good, but starting next year, it's rumoured that our school cafeteria is going to become more like a Subway shop, with slush puppies available and god knows what else. Although I can never find something at home that I like and there is no time for pasta, plus, as you probably know, it's full of carbs.

Anyways, four weeks, two lbs every two weeks, I plan to go back to school more toned and weighing less. I'll keep everyone on here posted. Good luck guys. Xxx

Hi everyone. I think I need some advice. I'm on day 90 and nothing is happening. I'm not losing any weight and I haven't lost any inches off my waist I feel that I'm wasting my time at the moment and getting more and more depressed when I read that other people start the Wii and lose 2 or 3lbs a week. My daily routine is
10 mins of step plus
The island cycling (27 flags) that takes me about 12 mins
12 mins of yoga which is
Half Moon
Warrior
Sun Salutation
??? Standing on one leg and bending the other (sorry I forgot the name)
Palm Tree
Torso and Waist twists
Finally I do 30 mins free step while I watch tv.
In total I have lost a palutry 5lbs

Please can anyone advise me of where I'm going wrong and maybe which exercises I should be doing in order to lose more weight. Plus I want to try to firm up my tummy and lose inches, but its exactly the same as when I first started.
Thanks. Brads Nan

Congratulation Brads Nan! Why should the waist smaller and the weight reduced?
If you can do this training over an hour duration every day, you must fit enough and when you feeling good and healthy I can't see any advanced by loosing weight.

Sorry things aren't going better for you but really, 5 lbs is nothing to sneeze at. Keep in mind that a lot of us who are reporting drastic weight loss started out drastically overweight. I've lost 98lbs and I'm still not down to my target weight, I've been holding steady at 186 (so I still outweigh you) I'd be thrilled to knock off 5 lbs in 90 days so it's all a matter of perspective. I've actually been at this for about 4 years now, so I've been losing an average of 2lbs a month. The less overweight you are, the more slowly you will lose it.

The next thing on your check list after exercise is eating habits. Food diaries are good, planning out your meals and snacks for the week is also good. Reading boxes in the market is very very good. One of my girlfriends is staying with me while she apartment hunts and she started reading the labels of everything she buys because I do it when I go to the store. She was horrified at how many calories are in "healthy" foods and she's drastically changed her eating habits since she's been here.

After eating habits the next check is stress level and general health. Stress messes with your metabolism so be sure you're managing stress effectively. Sleep is also important. I struggle to lose weight largely because I have insomnia and my body isn't getting enough sleep to balance everything out.

Weight loss really is more than activity level and food, you need to make a conscious effort to improve your overall lifestyle.

Don't be discouraged! Just because it's going slowly doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong!

It's a good sign that you haven't gained any weight. That means that you're going in the right direction, but need to examine your method a bit more in order to lose weight.

First of all, how many calories are you consuming per day? It may be that you are consuming more than you need for your current metabolism. The best way to find this out is to write down write down everything that you eat and how much calories everything contains. Right away you will be able to see how much each food adds to your caloric intake. It may be that you are exercising just enough to work off your calories so that you don't gain weight, but not enough so that you lose it.

If this is the case, you can either cut down on the amount you eat, do more exercise to work off more calories, or both.

My advice: after examining your calorie intake, try adding some aerobic exercises to your routine: jogging and hula hoop. If you're not using something to raise the Wii Board up for the free step, then you should, as this will definitely increase the amount of calories you burn off for this exercise. This should get the weight loss process started again.

Whatever you do, don't give up. As I said, you're not gaining weight, so you just need to refine your method a bit and you will start losing weight again.

Let us know what happens.