20 lb Goal, First Timer

eliaison

It may not seem like much, but it has started to creep up for real!

Always at my healthy (on the lower side) weight all my life until grad school- 3 years of intense work, 14 hour days at a desk, followed by (after graduating) a year to plan my wedding, getting married and traveling in England for a few mos. What started as "wow, where did these 10 lbs come from?" is now: I truly can no longer wear my clothes and have bought pants and tops to "hide" my belly and fit my new, larger butt and hips.

My husband loves me the way I am (dear man) but I don't. He doesn't mind the extra bra size! But I don't want it if it comes with the extra waist and hip inches, too. My gain is proportionate. I have a feeling he will still love me even if my bra cup goes down a bit, but I feel more confident and sexy in my (tighter fitting and more revealing) clothes. PS he gained the same amount of "happy weight" and is now trying to get in better shape in his own right. We are both eating better, trying to exercise.

I am scared. I don't want this to be the "new me" from now on. I want to nip this in the bud NOW - at this time in my life, and keep it off PERMANENTLY. Especially before kids enter the picture.

I began dieting 4 days ago. I tried to lose some first with just increasing my exercise, but that did not work. So, I'm at 1200 calories a day. I am hungry. I haven't lost 1 lb yet. I want to keep going. It's hard.

Thanks for any advice! Anyone else have a similar weight loss goal or situation?

dansdeb

just stick with it. You are doing the right thing, I was the same after marriage and then it was I'll loose it later, then came babies etc... and the rest is history. I have been taking off the same 30 - 40 lbs for years now. This time it is coming off and staying off. It is much easier to do younger and keep it off. it creeps up on you and the next thing you know BOOM! so you are doing good and have the right attitude. This is a wonderful site, I just joined a little bit ago. I had already last 25 lbs, but now I am doing it the right way through diet and exercise. Good luck!

Supermel

Just stick with it! Eat lots of protein (the default settings are low on here IMO) and lots and lots of water!!! If you are hungry, figure out if its "i'm missing eating hungry' or i'm bored hungry' or true hunger. Make sure to eat at least every 2-3 hours too! feel free to add me as a friend!

ctorrence

Hi.
What is your ideal weight and your start weight? 20lbs is harder to loose then 100lbs. Your body doesn't try as hard when you aren't obese. I know, because I've struggled with 20lbs for 3 years now.
I have always felt that I was active enough and ate healthy enough. I'm a for crepes sake

1200 calories a day is a stiff goal, hard to keep going without being very diligent, but it's possible. That's my goal to. Sticking to it, will make your goal. The trouble is, it's not a livable weight. Obviously I don't know you personally, but if the food you eat, even if it's only 1200 calories a day aren't healthy choices or ones that you can live with for long periods of time, that weight will come back on.
I've really had to educate myself and it's very hard to be so prepared and strict. I have a 7 year old, and I work full time, but dieting or as I call it, "healthy living" has to become your JOB, your lifestyle. Otherwise, it won't be a true life changing event.
I've been working on it hardcore for at least a month solid now. It's slow going however I feel amazing and my whole family is so much better off this way, and I know that I can continue with my routine for the rest of my life.

Best of luck to you!!!

ctorrence

Supermel is right! Protein and fiber will make a big diff in how full you feel! Choose wisely my friend

ruth1104

Im in the same boat!! Got married a year ago right after a very stressful last year of uni, including getting IBS and over the past couple of years I've 'grown' out of some of my favourite clothes! I want to lose about 20lbs too, and I have to agree that in a way it probably is harder than losing 100lbs because you're not doing anything radically wrong, its just all the little things piling up. But i think the thing we have to accept is its going to take a long time, so it has to be live-able (i couldn't manage being hungry all the time) and we have to stick at it!!

whyflysouth

I had the same goal as you. You'll hit yours. But don't overdo it. I started with idk maybe 2-3 weeks at 1200 then I upped the cals. The key in the first couple weeks is eating allot of salad. Salad, salad, salad. And drinking tea, allot of tea, and you'll get through it. And you'll end up probably losing like 6-8 lbs your first month.

That was the easy weight. After that, you can't do the minimum diet plan. You need to then increase the cals to something more reasonable and just ensure that you're eating healthy. Remember carbs aren't necessary for your body's survival, so if you want to cut something, start with those. After a few weeks of being hungry at 1200, your stomach and appetite will be adjust and you'll feel quite satisfied with 1400 - 1600, and then just focus on losing a pound a week, or even less than that. The remaining weight loss will come but it will be slow, but you'll feel great and not miserable, it will be sustainable.

Although I've been on MFP for a while, I hadn't started taking logging and watching calories seriously until February of this year, and so it's bee about 5 months but I've hit my goal, so it is possible to hit your weight goal. I've still got some pudge, my belly is still there but smaller, so I've got no six-pack but I'm good enough weight-wise where I feel I need to focus more on muscle building and then I'll come back to cutting fat after I've put on some more pounds of muscle.

Supermel

Also, in my beginning days, i made a weight watcher vegetable soup that i ate a noon time (big huge bowl fulls) and i really feel that that soup helped me get the first 20 off, as i kept me soo full.

sillygoose1977

It sounds like we have the same type of story. I have been seriously working at this for about 3 weeks now and I have lost about 3 pounds of my 25 lb goal. It doesnt sound like much but I can already see a difference. I am eating about 200 more calories than was recommended by MFP (my trainer looked at me like I was crazy when I said 1200 a day), and I am working out with strength training and cardio for at least 40 minutes 4 days a week. I also log everything in my food and exercise journal.

If you are like me, maintaining and even losing weight used to be a piece of cake but now it seems soooo hard. Be patient and give yourself lots of credit for every good choice you make and every little pound that comes off.

sillygoose1977

Im in the same boat!! Got married a year ago right after a very stressful last year of uni, including getting IBS and over the past couple of years I've 'grown' out of some of my favourite clothes! I want to lose about 20lbs too, and I have to agree that in a way it probably is harder than losing 100lbs because you're not doing anything radically wrong, its just all the little things piling up. But i think the thing we have to accept is its going to take a long time, so it has to be live-able (i couldn't manage being hungry all the time) and we have to stick at it!!

I have IBS too and I've found that now that I'm eating better and less, I have so much less pain. I drink 2 oz of aloe juice everyday and take an acidophilus. I have been feeling much better.

eliaison

Wow- thanks so much everyone!

I'm glad to meet a few people who have a similar issue. While I empathize deeply with anyone wanting to be healthy or get in shape for any reason, of course it is a different type of challange to lose 20 lbs vs. 50 or 100lbs, so it's good to know you're out there!

I made the mistake of going on low-cal diets the first two times I wanted to lose this. It started as 10lbs overweight (which for the fist time in your life, when it happens, is quite alarming) but each time I did a 6-8 week cut-cals, up the exercise version, I gained it RIGHT BACK PLUS 5 LBS! while eating only "maintenance" calories-- not over eating! Somehow, though I thought I was "doing it right" (I thought 6-8 weeks was "a long time") I opened the door to being 20 lbs overweight instead of 10! (These two attempts were a year apart, during summer, while school was out).

That's why this time I really really want to do this right, and forever. I've leaned more about how the metabolism works.

I almost feel like 1 year is the right goal? Like - in a years time, with several milestones along the way- I want to be back to my healthy, active, fit self. Grad school is over, my husband is now here (he is from the UK, we got married last year, and the visa stuf was very stressful, not to mention lots of travel) so I feel now is the time to begin in earnest.

While I'd LOVE to be thin by the end of summer, I do NOT want to gain even MORE than where I am now when I start "eating normally" again! I'm just really scared of doing it wrong and setting myself up to be heavier and have metabolism issues.

I think, maybe 1200 cals - though I'll see results in 2-4 weeks, is too few. My BMR is 1450 or so.

I'm VERY concious of healthy eating, and am into preparing foods at home, I love fruit, veggies, good carbs, brown rice, I eat lean meats, never any sauces, ketchup, condiments, salad dressings. My bain is SUGAR. I am so healthy, but I CRAVE chocolate and brownies, chocolate chip cookies. And it breaks my heart that I can't eat these wonderful chocolate covered digestive cookies that my British husband introduced me to with tea. That was a detrimonial "work snack".

So it's about adjusting my body and mind to where I no longer crave this stuff so badly, and life is great - and I'm active and feel great- and not deprived because I don't get chocolate cake (or anything like it).

I am 5'9" tall, and weigh 160. This is my TOP weight, ever, and I hope never to see the scale over that! My ideal is 140. At 140, I am fit and healthy, not skinny. Any less and my boobs begin to disappear! :-p

I'm going to friend you guys so we can keep in touch!

Thanks again!

eliaison

Just changed my calorie per day goal to 1320. That is the recommended one pound per week suggestion given by this site. I think 1200 was too similar to the "starvation" method I tried before, and I don't want to re-set my metabolism to store fat based on getting so little food (even if it's the correct ratio of homemade, healthy, fat-carb-protein). I feel better about this.