Over the weekend, I learned Raiden wanted to lose 20lbs before the meet up for his cosplay, this was about the same amount I want to lose too and decided we should do it together, to keep each other motivated. Then I thought, why stop there, lets get everyone involved who wants to be.

Everyone is welcome to be as involved in this as they want, but to join the AvatarMeet 2012 Weight Loss Pact I would suggest:

• Reading this article if you don't know how calories work

• Signing up for myfitnesspal.com It's free!

• friend me on myfitnesspal, my username is sarahkatenoel_

• Post username so others can friend you

• Begin logging diet and exercise on myfitnesspal, the free mobile app is great for this, but you can do it online if you don't have a device

If you don't want to use myfitnesspal that's fine, again be as involved as you feel comfortable, you can do the entire thing exclusively on this thread if you want, or in a spreadsheet or notebook, whatever. Post whatever you like. Starting weights, goal weights, ect.

I would suggest that everyone take some before pictures, in tight fitting clothes or underwear from the front and from the side. No need to post them if you don't want to, it's mostly just for personal gratification at the end. I wish I had some when I weighed a whopping 170.

Sadly I don't know much about toning muscle, which some already skinny people might want to do instead, if anyone would like to jump in and explain that be my guest.

The rest of this post is more of my personal post, but I run through some math in it that might be helpful for some:
As I write this we have 85 days, about 12 weeks, until the meet up. I want to lose 20lbs, (I weigh 150lbs), that's 1.66 pounds a week so I need a net loss of 5810 calories a week. (1lb = 3500cal).

I've made a duplicate thread on LN too.

For those who want to tone, but not build muscle bulk, Aerobic exercise is the best. If you like your knees, and want to keep them liking you, bicycle, don't run. By bicycle I don't mean a leisurely pedal around the block, but I also don't mean riding like your training for the Tour De France either. Do it at an exertive rate, keep your crank speed high, and worry about a LOT of miles, preferably every other day, more than a sprint pace.
When I was in Florida, I had 10% body fat. I was working "Punch out" 8 hours a day at a construction site in Palm Harbor, Florida. I would pedal a 21 speed mountain bike from Dunedin to the job site and back, five days a week. On weekends, I would take a relaxing ride from Dunedin to the north west end of Tampa on Saturday, and on Sunday, I would go to Tarpon springs and back. Not at "Race Pace", but at about 15 MPH, constantly.
At that time, aside from my bust, you could not pinch any fat. I am 6 foot 1, and I had a 28 inch waist, and weighed 160 pounds, all bone and muscle, but no bulk.
Niri Te

211 lbs this morning.

There, it's public record now.

- Mikko

857 calories today so far.

I found out that my coffee, the way I like it, is around 200 kcal. :S

I'll have to do something about that. -.-;

Timeto experiment with your kafi, Ma Raiden!
I ate a bag of carrots for a snack throughout the day
and ate only one slice of pizza last night. Niri Te si Oe, also did another two hours of cleanup on the east end of our property.

These were only a little less than HALF slices of pizza. Our Veteran friend, (73), enjoys our company so much, that he tries to offer us something every night, and gets his feelings hurt if we don't have some, so what we do, is, as in the case of the pizza last night, tear a small piece off the food that he made for us, and spend the entire night nibbling on it, and when he has to go to the bathroom several times that evening, (due to his V.A. meds), we feed the rest to his two Australian Shepards. Everyone is happy.
Niri Te

... which is unfair to his Aussies. So I stash the food and dispose of it elsewhere, or take it home for the next day.

This easily varies, but 3500 is an overestimation if anything, so a good starting number. I seem to be more like 3000.

I initially planned to start dieting in March, but there was one factor I easily forgot about from my test diet in October: diet headaches. I don't know if this is common or if anyone gets this, but for about a week or two, I had some bad headaches. Since I'm taking real classes this semester, I didn't want to go through this until I took my exams, so dieting for me will now start in the second week of May. It's disappointing, but I can still make 105 if I try my best. How I look after that, aside from actually weighing less, is something I'll have to worry about when the time comes. It doesn't quite matter as much for me since I'm a clothes wearing avatar, but it would still be nice to look my best. Coffee is my best friend when dieting, and I like it all sorts of ways, including black

Ateyo just weighed herself five minutes ago when we got up, and in the week that she has been slimming to be blue, she has lost four pounds. I don't mess with scales, as I have a tendency to add muscle weight when I work out, I just go by how I look naked in a full length mirror, and how my clothes fit. The new cargo shorts that were slightly snug last week, I can slip right off me without unbuttoning them now, time to get new pair on the first, when I will probably be even one more size smaller around the waist.
In order to have this kind of results, Tee and I eat two meals a day, drink Coffee by the gallon, cut out Gluten, severely reduce carbs (for Ateyo), and almost cut them to zero for me, and both of us jack our protein intake through the ceiling. In addition to that we both work out two to three hours a day together.
Niri Te

I weighed myself on the 25th at 197 pounds. This morning I weighed 194.4 almost a four pound difference! The idea of a clothed Avatar is appealing. Easy to mask those ke niNa'vi
bulges! But how does one undress quickly with a kxetzxe poking through your clothing?
I'll figure it out for NEXT year.

I still don't have any way to get weight, but I'm eating so much less it has to be doing something

Where did you get 3000? I've only ever seen 3500 online such as here, here and here. I wish it were 3000, less work for me, but I've never seen that anywhere. Source please?

Swam ten laps, maybe 700 feet.
Then we walked three miles.

If you guys want to lose some weight, try an all organic diet. When I switched, I was at 205 lbs. Eleven months later I'm 172 lbs and holding and I hardly done any exercising. It all started when my doc said my BP was high and my buddy referred me to the organic diet so instead of meds, i decided to try the diet and it worked. My BP is normal and i'm......skinny unfortunately lol.

You can also lose weight by eating more. As strange as it sounds, it works. With a steady exercise and proper diet, you can eat 6 portioned meals a day and lose weight while toning up those muscles. Best thing about it is you are never hungry. Been there, done it when I was in college.

Even though it works for some, cutting calories and limiting yourself to very little food a day to lose weight is unhealthy. Your body needs energy to function so feed it well, but wisely.

Good luck to all of ya in your quests to drop the pounds!

The former sounds unlikely - was that the only change, or did you reduce quantities and/or increase activity as well . Food is chemically interchangeable.

As for quantities, it depends on what you do all day - if activity is relatively low (school/university, non-manual work), then you can have a lower minimum.