Hello everyone! A little bit into my life and my current fitness situation!

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I am a 24 year old female who has never tried to the whole "diet and working out" thing. I grew up super active (dance, acrobats, karate, basketball, soccer, tennis, etc.) and never had an issue with my weight. I never had this issue until I was 16, that is....

Lets rewind to Junior year of high school. I had everything going for me; 4.0 GPA, captain of the dance team, on the theatre board, as well as an awesome social life...., that is until I had an acrobats incident resulting in a torn ACL. Hands down one of the biggest life changing moments for me. My 6 day a week, physical activity driven life, just crumbled. Not to mention this injury happened 8 days after I turned 16 and got my drivers license. I sat at home on the couch for the next 8.5 months, only leaving to go to school or physical therapy. As I neared my recovery times end, I had yet another injury. This time is was my opposing knee Meniscus. I had tore it completely in half (bucket handle tear). Yet again was I out of everything I loved.

During this time, I gained a TON of weight. My six pack abs were no longer relevant to my stomach. They were encased in a sheet of fat. I did go back to playing tennis and soccer for my senior year, but I continued eating the way I always have.

Fast forward to the present. It is finally my time. I can no longer use my knee injuries as an excuse to stop me. I am tired of being the 'fat friend'. I know, I hear it all the time, "you're not fat", but I am fat compared to what I used to be. October 24, 2017 I started this journey. I have plateaued, but that has only pushed my harder.

Thanksgiving was rough. That is hands down my favorite meal of the year (that, and Christmas), so of course I indulged, then immediately felt ashamed of the calories I had just put into my body. Lets just say I went extra hard at the gym the next two days to make up for it.

Motivation is hard, especially when I have no one else going through this journey in my day to day life. My mom goes to the gym with me, and supports me for the most part, but she doesn't do the "dieting" <= I hate that word. My dad is a double amputee, so he can't do much of the exercising, but still eats whatever he wants.My younger sister is 17 years old, weighs over 300 lbs and doesn't care. When she was 12 years old, she went to a weight loss camp across the country for 5 months, lost 54 pounds and kept it off for about 2 years. Over the last 3 years though, she has put it all back on, plus about 70 lbs. There is no motivating her to become healthier though. She has a TON of friends, a good paying job, and is doing well in school.

I think the hardest part of all of this is seeing results right off the bat (scale wise), then not seeing a change in weight for 2+ weeks. I have even drifted up in weight a little bit. I keep saying its due to my starting with weights, but that may just be my brain making up things to make me feel better.

I haven't even gotten started in on my diet in this post! We'll save that for a later post.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. If you have any motivational tips, or words to the wise, I would LOVE to hear!


Starting weight: 218 (October 24, 2017)
Current weight: 210.4 (November 26, 2017)
Gym (cardio and weights): 5-6 days a week

Replies

  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    You haven't given your height and calorie goal. It isn't just working out that will get you to goal--it's being in a calorie deficit. Working out will save muscle mass, so you don't wind up "skinny fat". Once you plug your stats into MFP and get your daily calorie goal, buy a digital food scale. Weigh and measure everything you eat and drink. Stay within your goal everyday. Eat back your exercise calories--some people eat half of them. Try this for 2 weeks and see how you do. Do not deprive yourself, eat things you like. This is something you'll be doing for life (changing your way of eating), even maintaining you have to be aware of calories, or you'll go right back up--as your sister did.
    Read some of the stickies especially the "Sexy Pants" thread. There's great information there.
  • kb7202017
    kb7202017 Posts: 26 Member
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    You're right, my height and calorie goal would have been helpful, huh?

    Height: 5 foot 7 inches
    MFP has put my daily calorie intake at 1430.

    I have been weighing all of my food and keeping up with my food and exercise diary.on the daily. I have actually done pretty well for being as picky of an eater as I am (which is another huge battle to overcome).
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    kb7202017 wrote: »
    You're right, my height and calorie goal would have been helpful, huh?

    Height: 5 foot 7 inches
    MFP has put my daily calorie intake at 1430.

    I have been weighing all of my food and keeping up with my food and exercise diary.on the daily. I have actually done pretty well for being as picky of an eater as I am (which is another huge battle to overcome).

    Then all you need is patience. Keep going and evaluate after a couple of weeks or a month.