Need Motivation, Tips, and Accountability

CollegeKidLosingWeight

Hello everyone! I made this account when I had a motivational kick one week in college and wanted to lose weight (hence the username). Now it’s 10 months post-graduation, and I’m 27 pounds heavier.
I’m in my early 20s, 5’7” and 272 pounds. This week some of my clothes were fitting tight and I decided to check in and weigh myself. When I saw the number I was brought back to the reality of how much I’ve let myself go and the severe impact overeating has had on my body. I am rededicating myself to losing weight.
I am aiming to lose 100 pounds with smaller goals built in:
-Goal #1: Exit morbid obesity (reach 255 pounds)
-Goal #2: Hit 220
-Goal #3: Exit obesity (reach 190 pounds)
-Goal #4: Lose 100 pounds
I’m posting starting pictures here to show how big I’ve let the problem grow, and motivate myself as I make diet and exercise plans over the next few days. I am posting here because I would love advice and motivation! What exercises should I start with? Dieting and accountability techniques? How to maintain consistency when you have a lot of weight to lose? Losing belly/torso fat specifically?
Thanks for reading and for any support!

MomJess4

I am so glad you are making the decision to get healthy. I am older, and I realized I am the same weight now that I was when I was 9 months pregnant with my son, but I haven't been pregnant in almost 15 years 🤔. I am a nurse and I asked a dietitian for advice. He told me to check out the Mediterranean diet. I also made a resolution to work out three days a week. I cut out pop, and cream and sugar from my coffee, and I'm making more meals at home and bringing my lunch to work. I just started a week ago.

kelliward1

For exercise, find something you enjoy doing so it doesn't become a "chore" to do. You are more likely to stick with it that way. I personally do martial arts with my family and added yoga on other days to help with flexibility and such. Some people like working out alone and others prefer group settings...there isn't a right or wrong exercise, it just getting moving. I've been known to pull up old Sweatin to the Oldies videos on YouTube to get a work out in, or walk in place at work to sneak on more steps. 🚶‍♀️

StaciInGa

Exercise/activity should be something you enjoy. There are so many options. But if you just need to start SOMEWHERE simple, walking is the way to go. You control the pace and distance. You really don't need any equipment but having good shoes (that are suited for your feet and walking tendencies) is a good idea.

Having short term goals worked in is a good way to go about it. Even if it is just working to get under 270, and then under 265 and so on.

nappingcatpress

So glad you're recommitting. You absolutely can do this. Two pieces of advice. 1) take a week to cut added sugar and salt from your diet. Keith Richards said it best (though not about quitting sugar) "it's just 3 days of climbing the walls, they yer fine." I cut down to the nubbins, but my wife went have as far, and we both saw benefit. It just retrains your brain to understand what a normal amount of sugar and salt tastes like. #2) don't be a slave to numbers. Your body is alive, and maintains a level of water that changes throughout the day. If you weigh 241 today, work real hard and expect to weigh 240 the next week, simple water weight can give you a reading of 237-243. And there's nothing you can, or should, do about it. I made a chart of ranges my weight should fall in each week. It takes away that depression we feel when the numbers are high when we thought we did well, as well as the false elation of thinking we lost more than we ever honestly could. Good luck!

AnnPT77

I agree with the advice about exercise: Find something fun. Any added movement burns extra calories. Fun, convenient movement is more likely to happen than extreme, complicated movement. Movement we do burns 100% more calories than movement we procrastinate and skip at the slightest excuse.

Movement that creates a mild, manageable challenge will gradually improve fitness. As you get fitter - as you will, as long as you persist - just switch things up enough to keep a bit of a challenge. Increase duration, frequency, or intensity at that point; or try other types of exercise that are manageably more challenging. Bonus if the thing(s) you choose include both strength challenge and cardiovascular challenge, for well-rounded fitness and health.

You don't need extreme, miserable, punitive exercise in order to either lose weight or gain fitness. In fact, extremes can be counter-productive in a variety of ways. Just find some slightly challenging physical fun. That'll work. It doesn't have to be a gym-y thing, unless you like those things. Walking in the park, dancing, playing active VR or other games, biking, swimming . . . lots of options.

Here's the thing, though: IMO, eating is more important than exercise. Of course exercise is good for a body, great for health. But weight loss - fat loss, specifically - is a matter of getting calorie intake a bit below calorie expenditure. We burn calories just being alive, perfectly still - sleeping, even. On top of that, we burn calories in our job, our home chores, plus other activities of daily life, even before considering exercise. Eat fewer calories than that, lose weight.

Many people think they need some crazy-extreme eating regimen to lose weight. That's also not required. If eating in a new way makes it easier and more pleasant for you to consume fewer calories, it's a win. If it makes the process more difficult, it's a distraction.

Also, IMO, fast weight loss is a trap. For those of us (like me) inclined to overweight, weight management isn't a quick project with an end date, after which thing "go back to normal". That's the recipe for yo-yo weight, which is possibly the most health-threatening way to live. Weight management, IMO, is finding new patterns of eating and activity: Relatively easy, happy habits that gradually take us to a healthy weight and keep us there long term, ideally permanently. So, I suggest thinking not "lose weight fast" but "lose weight on an easy(-ish) path than we can continue permanently almost on autopilot when other parts of life get difficult" (because they will).

Back in 2015-16, at age 59-60, I lost from class 1 obese to a healthy weight, and I've been at a healthy weight since, now age 67. I wish I'd been smart enough - like you are being here - to figure this out decades ago, because I would've avoiding a bunch of unpleasantness along the way, and because quality of life is so much better when strong, active, and at a healthy weight.

What you're doing is worth the effort . . . 100%, 1000%. If you try some approach, and it doesn't work out for you, you didn't fail. You just didn't find the right approach yet. Keep trying. Try something different. Keep experimenting until you find your formula.

Your route will be different than my route, because personalization is key, IMO. We each have different strengths, preferences, personal challenges.

That said, what I did was (1) find some fun activities (for me, mostly rowing - boats when possible, machines when necessary - and biking); and (2) remodel my eating gradually to balance calories, nutrition, satiation and practicality while eating foods I enjoy eating. There's a more detailed description of that eating approach here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

That won't be perfect for everyone - nothing is, IMO - but it's an alternative to a lot of the rules-based named diets we see in the blogosphere and in tabloid headlines.

Best wishes!