When you first post to asdww, someone will probably send you a list of tips. You might get it a couple of times, depending on how busy the "greeters" are. For your reference, here are those welcome tips.
You should drink at least 8 glasses (64 ounces) of water every day, plus
an extra 8 ounces for every 25 pounds you are overweight. You should also
drink extra water if you exercise. Water is especially important for weight
loss, because it helps to flush the extra waste from your body.
Here is a great
pamphlet about water from the University of Minnesota in PDF.
Yes, it is possible to drink too much water (it's called water intoxcation, and usually only occurrs when there is kidney problems or kidney failure), but you have to drink something like 20 gallons in a day* in order to be at risk for that.
(*This is not an exact figure, so if you want to know exact figures, call up a kidney specialist and find out from him or her.)
I currently drink between 12 and 20 glasses of water a day, with my doctor's knowledge and approval, and have been doing so for the last 6 months. He has been monitoring me as I continue to lose weight to make sure my kidneys (and the rest of me too!) are functioning properly, and they are and have been for the 6 months where I have been drinking the large amounts of water. Also, I have noticed that since I have started drinking large amounts of water, my water retention is at a much lower level than it was before, particularly during my period. Also, my skin is clearer and healthier than it was before I got started drinking water.
Remember, WW leaders, though they can be wonderful, are not medical professionals. If you have a medical question, you should refer it to your doctor or specialist.
(Thanks, Erin!)
Pick some that apply to you. Write them down. Whenever you need a bit of motivation, return to your list.
First, you need to eat at least your minimum points to ensure that you're getting proper nutrition. Check your point distribution and see if you're getting enough protein, carbs and even fat. Think of your body as a car. You need to give it gas (carbs), oil (fat) and transmission fluid (protein). If your car needs oil, filling up the gas tank won't help. If you need trani fluid, changing the oil won't do a thing. The car needs what it needs and can't change one thing into another.
Second, eating too little can trigger a "starvation" mode. Your body senses that a famine is underway and slows down the basal metabolism (the rate you burn calories when you're not exercising). This makes losing much harder.
Here are some ideas about how you can reach your daily points while still making healthy choices:
Remember, this is not a diet, but a way of life that you need to maintain for the rest of your life. If you deprive yourself, chances are you will not be able to maintain it.
Men usually lose faster than women, younger lose faster than older, bigger lose faster than those close to goal, those who exercise a lot lose faster, newbies lose faster than old-timers, those on medications can't know what to expect, periods wreak havoc on everything, and water retention after a salty food or any other reason can upset everything.
The first few weeks you may have bigger losses because you are eating less salt and so water is flowing out of your body. You didn't lose all of it in actual fat, because to lose four pounds means you cut back 4 x 3500 calories, or 14,000 calories.
WW points cut you back 500-1,000 points a day, or 3500-7000 calories a week, 1-2 pounds.You'd have to eat a few bites of lettuce all week to actually cut back 14,000 calories in a week. Anything above 2 pounds on an average is water shift.
Your basal metabolism, the bare minimum your body needs to stay alive, plus the smallest amount of activity to get through a sedentary day, may run from 1,200 calories for a small elderly woman to 4,000 calories for a young male physical laborer, with perhaps 2,300 as a loose "average."
At 2,300 calories needed a day, WW probably sets your points around 26, or 1,300 calories a day, or two pounds loss on an average a week. When you go on maintenance you vary your points slightly until you find the actual amount that your body uses to maintain, at your age and activity level.
In the same vein, when you go on a binge, you probably take in food with more salt, and so you will regain a lot of water along with whatever actual calorie excess you take in. Your binge might say you gained six pounds when it is really half a pound, and once you are eating right again the water shift will go fast with the reduced salt.
A WW point is about 50 calories, and so a pound is 70 points (3,500 calories). Eat 70 less points than your body needs and you lose a pound, and vice versa. A 70-point binge is a huge one! You probably didn't do as much damage as you think. Just get back on program and it will go fast.
Just enjoy the losses as they come, don't freak if you gain some weeks even if you were perfect, and don't freak if you go on plateaus, which you will, even when you are perfect.
Don't panic if you blow it some days, start right over that moment you come to your senses rather than tomorrow or Monday or Jan. 2, and think long-range. How do you want to look and live the rest of your life? Don't worry how much you will weigh at the next weigh-in, what will you weigh on your next birthday? And ten years from now?
[Thanks, Carol Schmidt!]
Approximate Metric/ Imperial / American/ European Conversion tables
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