How long did it take

alondrakayy

I've been on this journey for about 2 years and I've finally found a diet (or whatever you want to call it) that I can truly stick to for life. It's crazy to think how much trial and error I had to go through to get to this point. First was the 1200 + cardio diet, then IIFYM, then clean eating, and then intuitive eating. Now I track only cals + protein, lift heavy, and do a little bit of cardio. It feels so good!

I'm curious to hear other people's stories. Did you get it right on the first try or did it also take you months/years to find what works best for you? What exactly do work for you and what didn't?

cwolfman13

first try...

Forty6and2

It took me forever! I came into this not knowing a lot, so I thought I had to be below 1200 calories to lose any weight so I basically starved myself and spent way too much time on the elliptical. Then I finally met some friends on here who told me what I needed to know about BMR and I've been doing fairly well ever since.

My other setbacks came when I found out that my SO is terminally ill, when my mom died suddenly and then my grandma died suddenly. Those majorly set me back so I've been bouncing around here for a long amount of time but I'm finally closing in on a "healthy" weight range

quiksylver296

I started just tracking calories. Worked ok. Started lifting and paying attention to my protein macro as it fits within my calories. Still working pretty well.

RoseTheWarrior

I've never done a fad diet. This is my 2nd time losing a bunch of weight, but both times, I used calorie counting and lifting. The last time I lost weight, I ended up gaining it all back when a "personal trainer" put me on a stupid, stupid, extremely restrictive diet, and I was miserable and finally said forget it. I had got down to the last 20 lbs, so it was a real shame that I let myself be subjected to that. In fact, I paid that person a LOT of money - to make me miserable. Never again. I'm happy though to have found MFP. It's made tracking my calories virtually effortless. Much better than manual tracking.

cross2bear

No, I was uninformed enough to try a variety of approaches, none of which ended up being sustainable, so imagine my relief (and joy!) at discovering that my old friend science was right after all - CICO.

kristysaurus

So many failed attempts and (fad) diets over the years. But I'm about 8 months in and just the past couple months I had a few moments of clarity and discovered what works for me. I've been tweaking a meal plan for the last 8 months and playing with things to find what works. I feel like I can eat like this forever

jeichelb83

It took me about a year and a half to lose the forty pounds I wanted to get rid of. I've been at maintenance now for about a year without any changes.

Machka9

First try.

Since I was about 18 years old, any time I wanted to lose a little bit of weight for one reason or another, I've used CI<CO ... and it works every time.

Sometimes it was just a matter of reducing portion sizes and exercising a bit more ... other times I counted calories. Back in the day, I used to have to go to the library and try to find information in books and magazines about how many calories various foods included. Then I'd create a pen-and-paper spreadsheet to track it all. This is so much easier!

This time was the biggest weight loss I've experienced ... probably because I started at my highest weight. I'm back down to what I was in about 2004 ... and throughout most of my 20s and 30s. And I've maintained that now for about 8 months.