How quickly did you reach your goal and biggest advice?

mmstone13

Just wondering how long it took each of you to reach your respective goals and your biggest piece of advice/ trick/ key factor to getting there?

celewis2011

bump...would love to read some of the comments

slimsdown

bump, i am exctied to hear

ninnyfurr74

Bump, me toooo!

TheGymGypsy

I started at 185 and my goal was to make it below 140. It took me 6 months to reach 140 and in 2 more I had reached 130 pounds. (although I have gained back 5 of those from travelling overseas for 2 months.)

My biggest advice would be to train for an event. I set my goals high and immediately started my training with a half marathon. Knowing I had a goal motivated me to get out of bed every morning and go for a run, even though I was tired or I didn't want to. I would sleep in my running clothes and when my alarm went off I would throw on my shoes and head out before my brain knew what was going on. Running is not for everyone. Maybe you could train for a bike race, a triathlon, or a swim meet. But make yourself accountable. I had to fund raise money to run the half marathon so it kept me extra motivated not to let that money go to waste.

DancingDreams1234

I'm not there physically, however mentally was quite the journey. I needed to get my mind set to the right direction before changes started occurring. It took about two years, two long years of continually beating myself up for failing and being pretty miserable with my body. My biggest advice is to never give up, and to surround yourself with a positive environment that encourages a healthy lifestyle and happiness!

atmeeks

2 months. Lost 30 lbs/15% body fat. Power lifting background so I have a good bit of muscle on me... I dropped my calorie intake down to 1200-1500 and if and only if I went above 1500 I would do cardio. I would do giant set work outs with 3-4 different body parts 3 times a week to maintain lean body mass. That's pretty much it in a nutshell!

kathyk519

I am still working on my major goal, but I have accomplished smaller ones. I started my weight loss journey in Jan 2011 (started at 188 lbs and I am 5 ft tall) with weight watchers, lost about 30 lbs, but plateaued for a while and decided to change it up and get on this site (Jan 2012). While I have lost about 9 more lbs here, it has been up and down for me (throw a pregnancy in there). I am back on track and I keep trying. My biggest advice - don't get discouraged, keep changing it up, and give yourself some smaller goals - whatever that is to you - a weight or a size or a fitness goal. Remember this is a lifestyle change, not a diet. Don't go crazy with a bunch of changes, ease into them.

Hope that helps!

kymkan

3 months to lose 30 lbs. I did Jillian Michaels Body Revolution and clean (by my definition) eating at 1200 calories a day.

cmcollins001

While I haven't reached my end goal, which I don't have a specific number set, but I know when I'll get there. My goal is a look and a how I feel, not some number in a scale. Now, I have reached the "goal" I had entered into MFP when I first signed up, and it was an arbitrary number just to fill out a profile and at the time, it seemed like a lofty goal. That took me about 8-9 months and was about 75 lbs.

Biggest advice? Take your time, be patient, don't get in a hurry, enjoy life, eat and not log on days like birthdays, holidays, special events...remember that you are the one who wants to get in shape and lose weight, not so much the people around you, don't try and change the way the people around you eat just because you want to change. Understand that the scale isn't always going to tell you what you want to hear, and that your weight will fluctuate up and down, clothes, tape measures, pictures...those are going to be more accurate measures of progress. Lift weights as well as cardio...lift heavy.

And finally...be patient and take your time. It's more important that you can find a process that works for you, one that creates a healthy calorie deficit, allows you to eat food you enjoy and has exercise and movement envolved. And be patient and take your time...you should never be in a hurry.

Lonestar5775

I am not much of an example but I lost 20 lbs. (which was my goal) in about 6 months.

That may not seem impressive but I am a 55 year old male which means my metabolism is not what is once was and I exercised very little while I was losing.

I am 6' tall and went from 178 to 158 where I am maintaining.

What helped me the most was logging daily and seeing what I was eating for calories. I was clueless what some foods contained for calorie count and I like the way MFP sets reasonable weekly goals. It never felt like I was dieting or starving myself.

Having accountability friends helps but for me I simply had to face the fact that my health was my responsibility, period!

Good luck to you all.

thepetiterunner

I lost about 25 lbs and the main things that helped me were:

*Having a strategy or a plan.
Having a plan kept me on track and less prone to derailment.

*Not being too hard on myself when I wasn't perfect.
We're all going to have "off" days, this is normal and to be expected.

*Only making changes that I knew I could sustain.
There's no point in changing my life drastically just to change back and gain the weight back. I only made changes I knew I could sustain. This sometimes meant going slow and changing one little thing at a time.