I lost 44 pounds. I am 5'9. photos included. :)

Altagracia220

Hello, my name is Jazmin and I am a work in progress. I started on MFP in January 2015 at 218 pounds and am now 173 pounds. I have used MFP everyday since January. It helped me to lose 44 pounds. I still need to lose 4 pounds to be in a healthy weight range but I wanted to share my story and hopefully inspire or help someone. Pretty much what I did was cut down on all the junk I was eating. Instead of eating take out once or twice a day I cut that down to maybe once a week. I drink tons of water, eat whatever I'm in the mood(take out food excluded) for as long as it fits into my daily calorie limit (excluding days when i have cheat meals) and exercise 4-6 times a week. 3 times a week I strength train and do some toning exercises. I have been lucky enough so far not to plateau. Sorry the photos are unorganized. The ones with the green tops are when I was still obese and the one with the blue dress is my after photo.

crazyjerseygirl

Lovely! Take this as you will from one lady to another, but you are one of the loveliest ladies I have ever seen. The smiles in your "after" photos make it though. Bravo!

Altagracia220

crazyjerseygirl wrote: »

Lovely! Take this as you will from one lady to another, but you are one of the loveliest ladies I have ever seen. The smiles in your "after" photos make it though. Bravo!

Thank you ^__^

LeoL87

Awesome transformation! congrats

arussell134

Nice work!! I also have to agree with crazyjerseygirl - you are *really* pretty!! Congrats again!

Barbs2222

You look great!

Altagracia220

Thanks guys

Hollywood_Porky

Amazing!!!

rgerlits

You didn't look bad before but you've blossom into a sexier señorita

kisses71213

Yes you are very pretty! and Congratulations on your weight loss!!

Vidarsbane

You are a truly beautiful women, I bet you are really pleased.

uppie66

Wow u look amazing..iv lost 23 pounds since starting mfp..12 weeks been on it..how do you upload photos on ere?

Mattyf2626

Great job you look great

Samanthamill0616

Thank you for sharing. I'm also 5'9 and just starting out. You give me something to look forward to! Can I ask what you did that helped the most?

Altagracia220

Samanthamill0616 wrote: »

Thank you for sharing. I'm also 5'9 and just starting out. You give me something to look forward to! Can I ask what you did that helped the most?

Thanks other than the exercise and cutting calories I stopped making excuses and justifying eating unhealthily and having the bad habits that I did. One thing that is very important is to remember that you're not always going to be motivated everyday, you're not always going feel like doing the right thing and when this happens you have to keep focus and remember to stick to your goals. You don't want to go to the gym because you're tired or you'd rather sit and watch Netflix? So what, go to the gym anyway. You want to eat a family sized bag of Doritos ? Doesn't matter. Eat one serving anyway. Don't dwell on things that don't help you attain your goals.

Altagracia220

Thank you everyone for the compliments

scottwblack

Great job, Jazmin!

Altagracia220

scottwblack wrote: »

Great job, Jazmin!

Thanks !!!

dargytaylor

wow!! you look great!! I am also 5'9 and am hoping to get down to 150 - 160, currently 180 with zero muscle tone, lol......very inspirational!

chesnity3

Great job!

AlejandroChacin

Yes! Motivational!
5'4" and 196lbs here... time to "stop dwelling on things that don't help" :-)

happysuccess

I am also 5"9 and really appreciate the inspiration! Well done!! Also, I agree with the above comments on your beauty I think the green colour in the "before" pics really suits you!

enchanted_daydream

Definitely inspiring to me as I'm also 5'9" and want to get down to where you are! You look awesome.

hotasfire36

Great job!

Rockin2014

Wow. You're beautiful (before and after)!

helenbenzie75

Well done! you look amazing, bet you fell fab

Altagracia220

Thank you for the support everyone *blushes*

jrline

congrats well done

Linda73c

Jazmin220, Congrats! You are my hero! I started April 1 and I cant wait to get down to 173. I started at 208. I have some questions for you. Do you feel that strength training helped? I currently doing strength training twice a week. Do you think thats enough? Also, what calorie limit were you doing?

Altagracia220

Linda73c wrote: »

Jazmin220, Congrats! You are my hero! I started April 1 and I cant wait to get down to 173. I started at 208. I have some questions for you. Do you feel that strength training helped? I currently doing strength training twice a week. Do you think thats enough? Also, what calorie limit were you doing?

Thanks for the compliments

Strength training definitely helps especially if you are trying to maintain muscle and just burn more fat. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn even after the workout is done. You should also eat a lot of protein to help maintain the muscle you have. You probably won't gain too much muscle if you have a big deficit daily.Usually people try for 3-4 times a week (strength training). When I first started at 218 pounds, last January, I ate 1200 calories everyday for about 2 months (and i didn't eat my exercise calories back) then I started to feel sluggish so I brought it up to 1350 calories a day along with eating 200-300 exercise calories back. Currently, I am doing 1500 calories a day occasionally eating back exercise calories depending on my hunger levels. Once I lose 5 more pounds ( my goal weight) I will eat 1800 calories a day (not eating exercise calories) and see how I feel and what kind of progress I make after that.

Linda73c

Thanks for the information Jaz