Do you think losing 12kg in 3months (while on Zoloft) is do-able?

jem1986ma

Hello.
i love this app - 3 years ago i lost about 15kg in 3 months by eating 1200cals a day, which included eating well and exercising.
It was a rare time when i wasn't on zoloft.

I'm back up and heavier again and very unhappy with my weight (though the zoloft has helped my mental health and is important to me to stay on it). I also just had ankle surgery which has left me unable to walk for 2 weeks.

Does anyone with advice this I can lose 12kg in 3 months by strictly using my fitness pal and being on 100mg of Zoloft? I'm about to start walking again (and am dying to get healthy and drop the kgs).

Any advice or similar stories would be helpful.

Thanks!

mbaker566

I think it would be difficult to lose that much weight. Not because of Zoloft but because it's more than 3lbs a week. which is hard and not necessarily healthy to do.

HamsterManV2

Ever New Year, the gym suddenly gets super busy - the sudden influx of "New Years Resolutioners" join up to lose weight, get the body they always wanted, etc. They are woefully unprepared for what it takes, and 3 weeks later they are all gone. Only the regulars remain, with perhaps the occasional exception.

Why am I telling you this? Because right now you have a "new years resolutioner" mentality. You are trying to make too aggressive a change too quickly, which inevitably results in getting annoyed at your progress and quitting.

Lets talk about realistic goals that you can follow for months and even years.

Step 1: Acknowledge permanent change takes time. You won't see results for a couple of weeks in, and you won't get to your goal weight for many months or even years. That is fine. Consistency is king. Don't be a resolutioner who wants too much too fast, that mindset leads to failure.

Step 2: Calculate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Go on google, and find out how many calories you burn in a day. Eat -500 from that amount to lose 1lb per week. With this, you can calculate how many weeks it takes to reach your goal. If you go more than -500 calories, you will feel bad and 'flat' all the time, and are more likely to cheat or quit, so do not do that.

Step 3: Get a myfitnesspal account, a digital weight scale for food weighting, and track EVERYTHING you put in your mouth. Overweight people tend to underestimate how much they eat, and underweight people tend to overestimate how much they eat. The food scale and calorie counting keeps you honest. Anytime someone tells my they can't lose weight, I ask them to show me their myfitnesspal meal tracker and every time it is severely lacking.

Step 4: Stick with it. Weight loss is not linear. Look at this graph. Some days you will be heavier, some days you will be lighter. The general trend should be going downward and you will notice it better after a couple of weeks. When you measure yourself on the weightscale, do so with the same scale at the same time of the day (i.e. every morning after peeing, or every night before bed). I like to do it once a week because your weight fluctuates too much day to day IMO.

Remember, the longer it takes for your journey, the more permanent the changes are. In 1 year, 50lbs down is a great amount! Track calories for 3 weeks before changing anything (i.e. joining gym). It takes 28 days to turn this into a daily habit, so force yourself to count calories and track everything like it's your second job. Soon, it will just be some background thing you do without having to think about it. Don't compare yourself to the end goal, just focus on keeping true to your calorie limit and the results will come.

GOOD LUCK!

vismal

jemmarowlands wrote: »

Hello.
i love this app - 3 years ago i lost about 15kg in 3 months by eating 1200cals a day, which included eating well and exercising.
It was a rare time when i wasn't on zoloft.

I'm back up and heavier again and very unhappy with my weight (though the zoloft has helped my mental health and is important to me to stay on it). I also just had ankle surgery which has left me unable to walk for 2 weeks.

Does anyone with advice this I can lose 12kg in 3 months by strictly using my fitness pal and being on 100mg of Zoloft? I'm about to start walking again (and am dying to get healthy and drop the kgs).

Any advice or similar stories would be helpful.

Thanks!

What is your current height and weight? For someone with 100 lbs to lose that goal is challenging but reasonable. For someone with 50 lbs to lose, that goal is very aggressive and probably not the best idea. For someone with 30 lbs to lose that goal is highly unlikely to be accomplished safely.

tooru

I'm on 50mg of Zoloft and I'm losing about 1kg a week

riaward1990

I'll on 200mg zoloft per day. I've just gotten past the three month mark and I've lost 11kg. I started out with a bmi of 35 though so I have lots to lose.

Just keep going, be kind to yourself and you'll do it. Any change big or small is a something to be proud of and lots of little changes soon add up.

As long as you are going in the right direction, don't get hung up in the figure.

jem1986ma

thank you SO much to all of you who took time to reply and share your thoughts and own stories.
i am 166cm - i don't think it's too unachievable, so i'm going to cherry pick from every bit of the advice here - i'm going to give it a red hot go but will not put TOO much pressure on myself so i'm not disappointed 'a la the new years resolution diet'. I've just joined a gym that is so great, so hope to spark my interest in maintaining health because i enjoy it, not because it's a 'must do obsession'.

thanks again everyone

kshama2001

Scooby says the # 1 reason people fail to lose weight is flaming out due to having overly aggressive goals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOjsmqo1x8k

weightwatcherjoan

When I was on Zoloft, I craved carbs all the time. Make sure you eat enough protein. Also, there are two books that I recommend. The Serotonin Power Diet and Potatoes Not Prozac by Judith Wurtman Ph.D.

evildeadedd

I just want to reinforce everyone saying to nor be too aggressive with your goal. I originally signed up on MFP in 2012. And in those 4 years I have gained and lost the same 40-50 pounds over and over. Every time I have decided to attempt weight loss, I go HARD. In the gym 5 or 6 days a week, very low calories, looking at the 2 pound a week loss as a minimum. As you can see by my profile after 4 years I am still morbidly obese. without fail I have burned out every time.
Now I am trying to focus on the long game. I concentrated on just my eating for a few
months , and only started at the gym mid March. I am losing a bit slower than other attempts, but this is sustainable for me. Trying to hit smaller intermediate goals throughout the year and not being laser focused on that whole 150 pound loss.
Everyone wants to be at a healthy weight right now, we all want to wake up tomorrow at goal and be done. Try not to get too caught up in the craziness. Small incremental changes are much easier to sustain than huge leaps.
Wanting to go hard and being super motivated is not a bad thing in any way, it's a good thing. Just make sure what you are doing is something you can do for months and years. It's probably going to be 3 years or more for me to get into the kind of shape I want to be in, if I don't reach my ultimate goal until I am 40, well I was going to turn 40 anyway. For your own sanity try to keep your goals realistic.