It's September. Did you lose weight in August?

LumberJacck

And did you lose weight in July, June, May and April as well? If you lost weight 5 months in a row, I want to hear from you. What are you doing? How important is weight loss in your life? Similarly, how important is food in your life? Tell us how it's going for you.

sarahlucindac

Hello! My results so far are as follows:
August loss: 7 lbs
July: 5.4 lbs
June: 6 lbs
May: 6.6 lbs
April: 9 lbs
March: 4 lbs
A total of 38 lbs since March 6th - starting weight 200, current 162 @ 5’6”.

My experience has had some ups and downs, but I’m getting better at knowing what works for me and what doesn’t.
I’ve been on a pretty aggressive deficit of 1240 calories/day but always eat a portion of my exercise calories back. About 5 weeks ago, I finally picked up a food scale and realized that I had been probably eating several hundred more calories/day than I realized. Now, I’m much more accurate with what I’m consuming.
I have a love/hate relationship with food. Some days, I don’t want to have to deal with the annoyance of measuring out and planning my food, other days I enjoy the experience fully. I have an occasional day here and there when I allow myself to eat whatever I’m craving (not all day, just for one meal - ie, last night I enjoyed more than my fair share of pizza 😂). I always log those “cheat” days as accurately as possible. I allow myself to have days like that because I don’t like feeling deprived and I figure if I’m going to be able to keep this new lifestyle up long term, I need to be realistic and not restrictive 100% of the time. No food is bad food, I can eat what I want. I just have to consider whether or not it fits in my calorie goal. I pick my battles with food carefully.
Water has been an important component in all of this. I didn’t start really seeing the scale go down until I dedicated myself to drinking plenty of water (~100 ounces/day).
I’m lucky to be the kind of person that enjoys exercise. I lost the first ~25 lbs with the above mentioned calorie deficit and hiking 10-20 miles/week. I have put hiking on hold due to the horrible humid/hot summer here in Georgia.
I joined a gym in mid June and have really enjoyed experimenting with strength training coupled with various cardio exercises (elliptical, stair machine, am currently half way through the C25K program).
Now that I’ve figured out what I like and what seems to work for me, I do about an hour of intense circuit training + 30 minutes HIIT elliptical on Fri, Sun, Tues, and 30-60 minutes various cardio Sat, Mon, Wed. Working out 6 days/week and loving it.
I have to note that while I was hiking, I lost weight but didn’t always see much difference in my body. Since starting weight training, I am seeing new lines and curves and definition- I’m loving the “shape” that weight training is giving me.
Sorry for the long explanation, it seemed like you were looking for data and specifics.

I have 12 lbs to go until I reach my original goal. I say “original” because as I approach it, I’m realizing I may want to lose an additional 10-20 lbs.
We shall see

sarahlucindac

Oh and to answer your other question, my goal to lose weight and become more fit is very important to me. I try not to obsess, but it’s definitely my primary mission in life right now. For the most part, I'm enjoying this whole process.

Klmom123

No, not really. Wanted to lose 10-15 pounds then the doctor adjusted my thyroid meds (lower) and I immediately gained 5 lbs. I have since lost that weight but I’m stuck at the original weight which I wasn’t happy about to begin with. . So while I’m happy that I didn’t keep the extra weight and the meds seemed to even themselves out. It’s also an uphill battle to lose even 5 pounds. I exercise daily, restrict my calories to what I’m given. (1,400) I don’t have a huge deficit . I’m starving most days honestly so I need those calories .
So I’ll keep going, hoping I see some results in sept.

SaraMakingChanges

Yes I lost 12 lbs in August and around 10 each month before that. Ive been losing around 10 a month for over a year and a half. Focusing on being active (mostly walking my dog), eating clean and in calorie deficit. I started out quiting alcohol 100% but after I lost my first 100 I started allowing myself to have an occasional drink which hasn’t impacted my results. Big reason for that is that during the year it took to lose the first 100 I learned a lot about how to protect myself from temptation (eating good clean protein rich food at regular intervals is key for me) and I also started to enjoy feeling comfortably satiated rather than stuffed. Also I broke my addiction to sugar. I still want the candy, I just don’t buy it. Sugar free gum helps me at night when cravings hit. Also halo ice cream has been a wonderful discovery for me 😋

SaraMakingChanges

To finish answering all... My weight loss is very important to me. The most important thing to me in terms of what I want for myself. I was so depressed and hopeless before this change. I will not be gaining any of it back. I never plan to stop tracking every morsel of food I put in my mouth. I’ve given up some stuff but I’ve gained so much more and better. Freedom, hope, laughter, fun, a future that’s worth looking forward to. All of that is hell of a lot more valuable to me than eating a donut whenever the mood strikes.

tk2222

I lost about 15 lb in August, probably a bit more - I started tracking end of July and didn't get on a scale until August 6th. August 6 to 29th went from 215 to 200. I've been sticking to 1200 calories (with the occasional but not frequent over day, mostly around socializing) and sometimes eating back a bit of exercise calories. I've also had a good handful of days when I underate - in the 800-1000 range. I've walked a lot as well, hitting 10k steps (about 5 km) most days and sometimes much more, and have done a fairly relaxed Yoga class a few times a week and went in to swim or lift a few times.

That's obviously too fast a loss (though I attribute some to the early 'whoosh') and not a sustainable way to go about anything. My excuse is that this is my first month in a new country, starting at a new school. I've been getting my bearings, exploring, walking a lot, getting lost, not figuring out where to get groceries, getting overwhelmed at an American supermarket, etc, and didn't really have a routine of any kind (or much of a social life) until school stated last week.

There's also a bit of a process of personal re-invention going on in my head, I think, so a predeliction for lots of wandering and somewhat calculative, anxious planning, and taking control by tracking various things. So calories and food and exercise, but also my classes and my grades and my spending and my productive time-use and so on...

In the past week I've been making an effort to dial it back and not get carried away. I deleted most of my daily and weekly exercise goals - steps, workouts, distances, etc - and am just down to a fairly moderate 14,500 weekly calorie target. I'm also trying to lessen my exercise time, so do actual exercise sessions - go swim, do yoga, lift - that are more interesting, challenging and actively fitness-building rather than just accumulate hours of walking for calorie burn. I was at 12.5 'movement time' hours last week (wouldn't quite call all of it 'exercise'), and as of this Saturday morning at about 9.5. So I'm not going to go swimming today as I had planned, for example, because I've hit my calorie goal already and don't want to go over 12 hours for the week (and get it even lower next week after and so on).

I'm going to go on a 10 day diet break after 40 days tracking, (which was the initial plan) so that's next week, and I will raise calories slightly when I come back. I've also taken advantage of my university's free counseling option and tentatively getting into a loose (maybe not weekly, but roughly monthly) therapy routine, where I'm hoping to address some of this tendency to obsessive behaviour.

Anyway, so, as you all know, losing weight is closely tied to a lot of other questions of personal well-being, motivation, self-perception, anxiety, sense of control and so on. So I arguably had a successful August, but maybe especially in taking steps to make it sustainable rather than just in losing weight per se.

pinuplove

April: 1.9 pounds
May: 4.1 pounds
June: 1.3 pounds
July: 2.8 pounds
August: 4.1 pounds and crossed into normal BMI

As you can see, I'm not breaking any records here, but I am also within 10 pounds of goal weight and not in any hurry. Libra says I'll reach my goal of 135 around March 1, 2019. If I do, great. If it's sooner, great. Later? Still great!

Food is important to me. I enjoy lots of foods and am not willing to give many up in order to lose weight. I eat in portions that fit my goals. Lunch today was sausage and pepperoni pizza.

ExistingFish

April loss: 7.3lbs (4.6%) <--- crossed into overweight BMI
May loss: 6.9lbs (4.6%)
June loss: 7.4lbs (5.1%) < --- stomach bug at end of the month
July loss: 5.2lbs (3.8%)
August loss: 3.1lbs (2.3%) < --- crossed into normal BMI, reached goal weight.

Total loss: 30lbs (19.3%)

I started in Feb working out but didn't start MFP until April. I try to log every day. Losing weight was important to me, I have 3 children and I didn't want to bring on health issues that would keep me from being there for them as long as possible. Not just being there, but being active in their lives and setting a good example of health for them.

Logging my calories is extremely important to me because I'm still breastfeeding so it's a fine line between eating at a deficit and harming my milk supply. Also, I eat a lot of protein because I lift weights. I lift weights for some of the same reasons I lose weight, to be healthy for a long active life with my kids. Also to look good.

sardelsa

According to my trend weight I lost 9.5lbs from May to September. I lost about 2lbs in August. Which all might seem snail slow but it is right I line with my goals as I am already fairly lean and I'm just trying to tighten things up.

I am lifting 4x per week, doing some interval cardio, yoga. I am not tracking my intake, I am flexible with my eating with focus on protein intake, I calorie cycle and increase cals on weekends and a bit on lifting days.

Weight loss is actually not that important to me, I started off lean after gaining (on purpose) so I really didn't need to lose, but chose to do it for aesthetic purposes.

Food is very important to me. I am passionate about cooking and enjoying meals with family and friends, fueling my body, and using it to help manipulate my body weight and composition.