Wedding crunch time!

mahagonymoose

So first off hello everyone!

I go by Moose on here and I have been trying to lose weight pretty much my whole life. I was obese in elementary school, middle school and high school, and upon graduating right after my senior year for the first time ever I reached a weight BELOW 200. However, graduation was many moons ago, and while I have not gained back all of my weight I have put some baggage back on.

I would like to say I'm a fit fat person, I do kickboxing (this was until I hurt my hip. However, I have recovered and I'm starting to go back) but I've just recently taken up running. Some days I really enjoying going out and running and it's not even a strain on my body as much as it is for my lungs. When I do kickboxing it's a high intensity, hour long class that combines using your own body weight against you and swinging at a 100 pound bag.

Anyway I digress. Coming up in October I will be getting married. I'm fortunate to have a fiance that loves me at the size I am now and honestly doesn't mind having a bigger girl as his wife. However for my sake, it's every girls dream to look good in her wedding dress and it's my key motivation to getting my life back on track.

Being that I am a relatively healthy person, some of my healthy habits include the fact that I don't drink soda's or caffeine of any sort. I also do not eat out on a frequent basis. My main issue seems to be that if I'm not moving my weight won't budge and I've heard millions of people say its 80% diet and 20% exercise. I don't know if that is true for everyone but considering I eat cleanly, and have been at this for years, I kind of don't know what else to do. And I have noticed that I have to at least put an hours worth or more of cardio into my routine 4-5 times a week to see weight loss results.

All of this leads me to my question which is what are some dieting tips and motivational tips that some of you guys use? Has anyone else had THIS much trouble getting their weight off, who could help me? I'm open to suggestions!

My ultimate goal is to lose 30-40 pounds by Oct, which I feel is a reasonable and healthy goal if I don't give up.

Look forward to everyone's feedback! ;D

Orphia

Use MyFitnessPal to log your food.
Eat at a calorie deficit.
Win!

Sued0nim

Clean eating means nothing

weigh your food, log it accurately - eat to a calorie defecit averaged across the week

that's how you see scale movement

Sued0nim

and change your expectations

30- 40 lbs in 4 months? - probably a bit excessive

start a progressive lifting programme though and you will see great body shape gains as you drop body fat %

mahagonymoose

My biggest struggle is finding time to eat, and if I forget to take something with me to work, I won't eat again until I get home, I'd rather wait then pick up something. When I'm at work I'm stuck for nine hours but I've started using half of my lunch to get a jog in. When I do eat though, I've been watching the calorie intake.

I think 30 could be attainable if I went by the 2 pounds a week regimen. (2 pounds a week 4 weeks in a month = 8 pounds lost then 8 x4 =32) I would just need to use strict portion control and exercise.

I appreciate the feedback guys!

Sued0nim

mahagonymoose wrote: »

My biggest struggle is finding time to eat, and if I forget to take something with me to work, I won't eat again until I get home, I'd rather wait then pick up something. When I'm at work I'm stuck for nine hours but I've started using half of my lunch to get a jog in. When I do eat though, I've been watching the calorie intake.

I think 30 could be attainable if I went by the 2 pounds a week regimen. (2 pounds a week 4 weeks in a month = 8 pounds lost then 8 x4 =32) I would just need to use strict portion control and exercise.

I appreciate the feedback guys!

Your biggest struggle will be stopping making excuses cos seriously it's not finding time to eat that's making you not lose weight ... because you're clearly eating enough to make your objective 30-40lbs weight loss

Batch prepare food at the weekend - pre-plan / pre-log .. have your lunch and snacks ready to take with you each morning .. or if you prefer not to eat during the day - pre-prepare for the evening time

atypicalsmith

mahagonymoose wrote: »

My biggest struggle is finding time to eat, and if I forget to take something with me to work, I won't eat again until I get home, I'd rather wait then pick up something. When I'm at work I'm stuck for nine hours but I've started using half of my lunch to get a jog in. When I do eat though, I've been watching the calorie intake.

I think 30 could be attainable if I went by the 2 pounds a week regimen. (2 pounds a week 4 weeks in a month = 8 pounds lost then 8 x4 =32) I would just need to use strict portion control and exercise.

I appreciate the feedback guys!

Just curious, if you can't find time to eat, how can you find time to exercise other than a half hour jog at lunch? If what you "pick up" is a calorie laden pizza or fried chicken, then I can understand why you're having problems losing. It's easy to pack a couple of bananas and a Greek yogurt, etc., or whatever to eat at work with no preparation. And, most of all, congratulations!!!

JoRocka

mahagonymoose wrote: »

My biggest struggle is finding time to eat, and if I forget to take something with me to work, I won't eat again until I get home, I'd rather wait then pick up something. When I'm at work I'm stuck for nine hours but I've started using half of my lunch to get a jog in. When I do eat though, I've been watching the calorie intake.

I think 30 could be attainable if I went by the 2 pounds a week regimen. (2 pounds a week 4 weeks in a month = 8 pounds lost then 8 x4 =32) I would just need to use strict portion control and exercise.

I appreciate the feedback guys!

you do realize as you get closer to your goal weight dropping 2 pounds a week is practically impossible without going into unhealthy extremes right?

I'm getting married in September- I'm going to have a dress that fits me mostly now. While I'd love to lose another 10 pounds- the suckers gotta fit.. now. having it fit then on a maybe is WAY to risky and stressful.

If you're aggressively dropping weight- the harder it will be to get fitted and altered. Also- PS_ 30-40 pounds is well over 2 dress sizes- and that's when you start either needing a new dress or you're going to pay out the *kitten* for a new dress.

And Also- not for nothing- if you're going a traditional route- you will need to be dress shopping now. October is like 4 months away- they recommend 4-6 months. So- Do you're best but I would plan on only dropping 10-15 pounds and be happy with it.

mahagonymoose

Fair enough. Im setting my sights too high for October but it's weight I still wish to get off. I have been sized and picked out my dress, but you make a good point about altering cost Jorocka.


Planning meals ahead is the best feedback I'm pulling from most people.

rabbitjb wrote: »

Your biggest struggle will be stopping making excuses cos seriously it's not finding time to eat that's making you not lose weight ... because you're clearly eating enough to make your objective 30-40lbs weight loss

Batch prepare food at the weekend - pre-plan / pre-log .. have your lunch and snacks ready to take with you each morning .. or if you prefer not to eat during the day - pre-prepare for the evening time

I'm not new to weight loss, as stated before I have been heavy since a child. I have been able to lose 100 pounds during my weight loss journey though I have admittedly gained 20 back in the past two years because I switched from an active job where I was on my feet eight hours a day five days a week to a stressful desk job. The 40 pounds I still need to lose aren't from continuing to shovel rubbish in my face.
It's baggage I've never lost, but fully intend to.

Maybe I should have based this around getting back into the swing of weight loss, and how to adapt to the job change since I now spend eight hours on my rump secluded in a cubicle.

peleroja

mahagonymoose wrote: »

Fair enough. Im setting my sights too high for October but it's weight I still wish to get off. I have been sized and picked out my dress, but you make a good point about altering cost Jorocka.


Planning meals ahead is the best feedback I'm pulling from most people.

rabbitjb wrote: »

Your biggest struggle will be stopping making excuses cos seriously it's not finding time to eat that's making you not lose weight ... because you're clearly eating enough to make your objective 30-40lbs weight loss

Batch prepare food at the weekend - pre-plan / pre-log .. have your lunch and snacks ready to take with you each morning .. or if you prefer not to eat during the day - pre-prepare for the evening time

I'm not new to weight loss, as stated before I have been heavy since a child. I have been able to lose 100 pounds during my weight loss journey though I have admittedly gained 20 back in the past two years because I switched from an active job where I was on my feet eight hours a day five days a week to a stressful desk job. The 40 pounds I still need to lose aren't from continuing to shovel rubbish in my face.
It's baggage I've never lost, but fully intend to.

Maybe I should have based this around getting back into the swing of weight loss, and how to adapt to the job change since I now spend eight hours on my rump secluded in a cubicle.

The answer is still pretty much "diet". Exercise is great for body composition, overall health, and burning a few extra calories every day, but it's not great for weight loss on its own.

If you no longer have an active job, you'll need a lower intake than you did before to maintain your weight, but that's the only real effect on you from a purely weight loss perspective.

The only way you can lose weight is to create a calorie deficit. Every diet that works, works because of this. If you're not counting but switch to low-carb or paleo or "clean eating" or whatever and lose weight, the reason that works is because your changes have resulted in you now burning more calories than you're taking in. Exercise burns additional calories, which can create or increase a daily calorie deficit, but it's a lot harder to create a big enough deficit through exercise alone than through diet alone or a combination. For example, at my size a 5K run only burns about 200 calories, so if I ate enough to keep my weight steady and then added a 5K run every day, I'd lose less than half a pound a week. It's a lot more efficient to add those runs but also cut some calories from my diet - dropping 500 a day will give me about a pound of weight loss a week, and cutting 1000 per day would give me about 2 pounds. For me, that's not realistic as I maintain my weight on about 1600 calories/day and cutting my calories to 600/day isn't healthy, but cutting them to 1200 and adding in moderate exercise is, so it's very simple and straightforward for me to lose about a pound per week. Your numbers will vary from mine but that's the idea.

If you count your calories as accurately as possible (weighing all solid food on a food scale and measuring all liquids, including stuff like coffee cream, cooking oil, and sauces), weight loss becomes pretty much as easy as subtraction. I mean, all the numbers are estimates and everyone is different and some bodies might burn a little more or less than expected and you can't count everything perfectly, but still, if you just find your estimated maintenance calories and subtract a few hundred a day from that, you'll lose weight fairly predictably. It honestly is as easy as that for most people.