How I lost 140 lbs in six months with help from MFP

theprez98

Still holding steady at 200 lbs. Here are my pants from last fall (46 waist!).

theprez98

babylovers wrote: »

I have a question for you hopefully you are still answering questions. Did you count carbs at all? Right now I'm eating few carbs but its extremely hard cuz everything has carbs and idk if it even works? What kinda food did u eat healthy food or just eat whatever food you wanted? And did u eat breakfast everyday before working out? Thanks for answers!

I mostly concentrated on smaller portion sizes and did not focus particularly on any specific macro numbers. I also tried to start eating a little more healthy choices, although I still ate pizza about every week or two (fewer slices, thin crust, etc.).

theprez98

Mavrick_RN wrote: »

WOW! Good for you! What a awesome alternative to bariatric surgery. You have a much better chance at long term, life long success. Great story, well told.

Now the personal questions. There is a theory out there that we get fat and stay fat for some psychological reason like fear of success or protection from harmful people. Women may get fat to be unattractive if they fear a repeat of some sexual trauma. Men want to be "big men" even if they can't be leaders or financially successful. Did you search for or find some psychological reason for getting so big and if so, what changed to make it acceptable to lose the weight that you had accumulated?

I dread social interactions and think I use my weight to keep people at a distance both physically and emotionally. I wonder if I don't develop better social skills will I put the weight back on to protect myself?

I think, in some ways, people who are your friends will actually enable you to continue being large. They'll tell you, "oh, you don't like too big" or "you're just big boned" or whatever sounds good. They're being nice, instead of being honest, and in some ways you can feed off this and not worry about your weight even when it becomes a serious issue.

launchpadmkquak

Thanks for sharing. Nice work!!!

babylovers

Theprez98- Thanks for the response. The day I read this post I started walking/jogging to try to burn more calories cuz I don't like the pace if my weight loss its way slow. I weigh 312 pounds and my goal is to walk/jog 2 hours to start with and build from there. In the 5 days I have done about 2 hours sometimes 3 and I reached 5 miles yesterday I feel really good about it my feet are in pain from starting but that's normal. What us upsetting tho is the scale still hasn't went down . Now I know its all about food and I've lost 80 pounds on mfp before. I only eat about 1400 calories a day I don't understand why I'm not losing or maybe its weight from new exercise but its been 6 days u would think it would be gone and weight would be down I just don't get it. I recently started low carb about 3 weeks ago and it seems I stopped losing weight since then maybe little since then . So my question is why do u think since I started this 6 days ago and eating 1400 calories why would weight not budge it actually went up and just came back to normal weight today did u experience this ? Thanks again.

bnovak226

Awesome job!! U look like a very happy new person!

RekindledRose

You've done phenomenally! It took work and discipline, and a good dose of consistency, but the results are outstanding. I'm very impressed.

Is it safe to assume that you are not going to do the surgery now, but instead will continue in the path that you've taken?

Thank you for the inspiration!

jamesha100

Truly awesome loss! - can I ask a couple of questions?

Does your FitBit give an accurate count of calories lost? - I have a cheap Garmin step counter and it only reckons I use 160'ish calories for 10,000 steps. It does not have a heart rate function so I guess the figure is pretty inaccurate.

The second question is how many pairs of shoes did you go through doing all this walking? Since I started doing 10k steps a day training shoes only last me four months whereas in the past they would be ok for 18 months.

Anyway well done

debradugas9

Congratulations!!! You look fantastic!!

Cindy01Louisiana

Wow!!! Just wow. First, good job on all your hard work -- you were clearly very dedicated. Second, I LOVE your simplified ABCD! Thanks for a great post!

lovetolose20

This is the most encouraging post I've read. Thank you for taking the time to share this with all of us. I love your approach, exercise and eating less. So simple. Kind of Glad to hear you ate pizza and didn't feel like you needed to count macros or do any other special stuff. You've inspired me to go walking today and tomorrow and from now on! Thanks!!

funfitfreeme

Thank you for such an inspiring and timely post. I walked 3.5 hrs on my (homemade/rigged) treadmill desk recently and was surprised to see I had burned over 1,000 calories.

As someone who is used to doing more intense cardio, I was wondering if these calories would be as effective for weight loss. Silly question, I know, but I'm so happy for the confirmation that this is an easy way to burn calories. As long as I keep my food consumption in order, I anticipate great results.

Now I can work and lose weight at the same time - who knew!

Orphia

babylovers wrote: »

Theprez98- Thanks for the response. The day I read this post I started walking/jogging to try to burn more calories cuz I don't like the pace if my weight loss its way slow. I weigh 312 pounds and my goal is to walk/jog 2 hours to start with and build from there. In the 5 days I have done about 2 hours sometimes 3 and I reached 5 miles yesterday I feel really good about it my feet are in pain from starting but that's normal. What us upsetting tho is the scale still hasn't went down . Now I know its all about food and I've lost 80 pounds on mfp before. I only eat about 1400 calories a day I don't understand why I'm not losing or maybe its weight from new exercise but its been 6 days u would think it would be gone and weight would be down I just don't get it. I recently started low carb about 3 weeks ago and it seems I stopped losing weight since then maybe little since then . So my question is why do u think since I started this 6 days ago and eating 1400 calories why would weight not budge it actually went up and just came back to normal weight today did u experience this ? Thanks again.

@babylovers

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

Iamsimpleguy

Amazing transformation and great dedication and hardwork!!

karlasmorgan

Amazing!

silvestrea

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. You look great!

senyosmom

you are amazing!!

rin_rae

You look awesome!

VTorres26

Congrats on the success!

fredley

Wow! That is one awesome transformation. Thanks for sharing and encouraging us.

joeyleerobbins

This is an awesome post for me! My weight loss goal is 140lbs. I started at 325 lbs on Jan 5, 2016 and have given myself until Dec 5, 2016 to lose it. I am already way ahead of schedule as of today 4/19/2016. I have lost 51 lbs so far by restricting caloric intake to 1800 calories per day. I have not yet began to exercise but I do walk quite a bit at work. I believe that i will add in walking time like you did to help me out! This is a great post and I would like to congratulate you my friend on losing a MASSIVE amount of weight! AMAZING!

theprez98

RekindledRose wrote: »

Is it safe to assume that you are not going to do the surgery now, but instead will continue in the path that you've taken?
!

Definitely no surgery--I don't even qualify anymore.

theprez98

jamesha100 wrote: »

Truly awesome loss! - can I ask a couple of questions?

Does your FitBit give an accurate count of calories lost? - I have a cheap Garmin step counter and it only reckons I use 160'ish calories for 10,000 steps. It does not have a heart rate function so I guess the figure is pretty inaccurate.

The second question is how many pairs of shoes did you go through doing all this walking? Since I started doing 10k steps a day training shoes only last me four months whereas in the past they would be ok for 18 months.

Anyway well done

I've compared the Fitbit to a vivofit with HR monitor and the numbers are fairly close.

My walking shoes last 3-4 months and then start to fall apart and need replacing.

theprez98

funfitfreeme wrote: »

Thank you for such an inspiring and timely post. I walked 3.5 hrs on my (homemade/rigged) treadmill desk recently and was surprised to see I had burned over 1,000 calories.

As someone who is used to doing more intense cardio, I was wondering if these calories would be as effective for weight loss. Silly question, I know, but I'm so happy for the confirmation that this is an easy way to burn calories. As long as I keep my food consumption in order, I anticipate great results.

Now I can work and lose weight at the same time - who knew!

For me, Zone 2 HR (~brisk walking pace) worked best for losing weight, but everyone is a little different.

120poundstogo

What a difference!

jeeplovin

You are amazing, and look fantastic! You also summarized everything very well. WOW....great job

shank35l

Man, I'd love to see a before and after of your vitals, lipid profile + CMP. I'm guessing things are looking a LOT better for you now.

Congratulations on not being MI bait.

ahmshaki

First congrats on your journey!

which brand of multivitamin you're taking and when is the best time to take it?

mulecanter

Bravo! Thank you for highlighting walking. I think walking is a great solution for so many--particularly those folks just starting and in the 250+ range. It is available, enjoyable and effective. I've also found that it can also be useful--all that time can be used to listen to audio books and podcasts that expand the mind while contracting the waistline.

CrystalArmstrong1

Wonderful job!