Ladies: Were u once 200+, now at/close to UGW(w/o surgery)?

Doingit145

I just started MFP on 9-23 and I was 250.6. The 1st week I lost 9.4 pounds and I am down to 241.2. I'm currently in my second week. Now for me, I hit the track and do at least 2 miles. You don't have to be a runner, just walk as fast as you can around the track. I also do Aqua Zumba, which is great on the joints, because where I attend, its done in a heated pool. I will be starting Pole Dancing classes this coming Saturday. At one point I was doing hot yoga, but I am taking a break and will revisit that the beginning of next year. I personally hate the gym and have to find things outside of the gym that will keep me interested. This is the heaviest I have EVER been in my life. I was a small child, teen and young adult. Started having weight issues 10 years ago when my mom died, I'm going to say it was from the depression I went through. Now at the age of almost 42, I am struggling to get it off, but I love MFP and feel that I will be successful with this program. Don't over do it, just find what exercises work for you without hurting yourself and stick to them. Walking is always key and just as good as running.

1yoyoKAT

I was up at the highest end of 200 when I started on MFP and I'm only 5'1". BTW, I'm also 55. When I first started, I could only walk for about 5 minutes. So, that's what I did. I walked in 5 minute increments a few times a day. I also broke out the old Wii Fit and tried to do 30 mins on that every other day. Little by little, I built up to more activity. I parked father away when I went to the store, I walked around more when I was in the store, etc. I made lifestyle changes that could help increase my fitness, including what and how much I ate.

The biggest change was how I treated myself. I forgave myself for what I had done in the past and committed to make my health a priority.

I still have more to go, but I'm the lightest now I've been in decades and I feel great. You can do this! :flowerforyou:

I also have more photos and the story of my first year, as well as finally moving out of the obese category on my profile.

omma_to_3

I still need to lose another 10 to 20 lbs, but I've made great progress. From my highest, I'm down around 100 lbs.




When I started, I only tracked my food (no exercise). I used MFPs suggestions and I think I was started at around a net 1460 (though at the time I wasn't working out, so that was the gross amount as well). I lost around 25 lbs in the first 5 months. Then I started walking on my treadmill for exercise. I did this so I could eat more. I started walking 3 days a week for about 30 minutes each time (maybe a little longer, don't quite remember). Then, over time, I started walking for longer times, and at faster speeds. Then more often (4 or 5 times a week) and finally, I added hand weights to my walking to get a better calorie burn.

About 5 months after I started walking, I started Couch to 5K. I have never been a runner. NEVER. And it was HARD. It's an 8 week program and it took me about 13 weeks to complete it (completion meaning I could run the full 30 minutes). However, I was slow and couldn't go 5K in that 30 minutes. It took me a few more weeks after that to be able to run an entire 5K.

Since that time, I also added biking to my workouts, and this past January started strength training. I know walk, run, bike, and lift. I still follow MFPs guidelines for the most part. I'm currently set to lose 1 lbs. a week and it gives me a net 1240 calories to eat. I do only record 70% of the workout calories my HRM shows and I do tend to go a bit over most days. My weight loss has slowed to an almost non-existent crawl the last few months. The big change was a LOT of stress and my running time was basically cut in half due to work. Trying to figure out how to fix that now!

But all in all, I've had great success. My advice is to work hard, accept that you will make mistakes, and keep trying.

Doingit145

Your story is awesome, congrats!

JamieM8168

I went from 250 to my current weight 158. Goal is between 150-155.

Originally I started by just changing my diet. Then I included walking. I walked maybe half a mile and first and worked up to 4-5 miles walking my son outside in his stroller.

Once I got around 200, I started going to the gym once or twice a week all while maintaining my diet yet allowing myself one meal per week to eat out somewhere and I eat chocolate....a lot still lol.

I now do personal training and bootcamp 1 hr a day for 5 days/week

Buckeyegirlbritt

Exercise is meant to be fun, to make yourself feel good, not to be dreaded.

My peak weight was 268 lbs. just before I got married. EMBARRASSING!!!! That was my breaking point. I started lifting light weights, doing yoga postures, and walking 3x or more times a week. I didn't calorie count at the beginning, I used my judgement based on what I heard about portion size (a piece of meat should be about the size of a cassette, etc.) and ate when I felt hungry. I got to roughly 215 lbs. before I got pregnant with my daughter. Through my pregnancy, I peaked at 236 lbs. and exercised daily doing kickboxing moves. After I had her, I dropped to 210 lbs. Between the time I had her and I got pregnant with my son 2 years later, I dropped to 190-195 lbs, and sporadically doing pilates, kickboxing and slowly weeding out the crap food. Then I got pregnancy with my son. I tipped the scales at 215 lbs. and jogged when I felt up too it. After I had my son, I went back to my 190-195 lbs.. I told myself, "This is it. You need to lose the weight and be more active if you want to keep up with these two."

When I start MFP I was 195 lbs.. I exercised 3x a week. I picked up C25k. Then I increased it as I felt fit enough too. I'm out to work my body not injury myself or over do. I've ran a couple of 1/2 marathons, but those days are over now. As far as my diet, I try to eat healthy, buy organic, and make a lot of my own foods like bread. Do I fall of the wagon? You bet, but I get back on keep on trying knowing each day is new.

I reached my goal weight of 180 lbs. 4 months after I started MFP. My lowest weight was 172 lbs. (and I looked aneroxic, pencil thin as my family put it). Currently I'm 20 weeks pregnant and weighing in at 200 lbs. (don't look it or feel it). I try to exercise (free weights and walking) and eat healthy daily. So if I can do it, I know YOU CAN DO IT.

marie_2454

I'm not at my goal yet, but I'm close (12.8 pounds to my first goal weight of 145, but I will probably try to lose another 5ish pounds after that). I started somewhere between 205-215- I didn't like the scale at all so I'm not sure what my actual highest weight was. I'm 5'9 and never had a weight problem until my last year of HS due to some injuries and personal issues. Anyways, I went from 155-160 to my highest weight in about 2 years, then I lost the first 35-40 pretty quickly in a little less than a year. I didn't know anything about how much I should be eating, so I would kinda yo-yo and have periods of eating probably close to 1000 calories, then periods where I'd eat closer to 2000+. Not healthy, but I was young, dumb, and doing it on my own. I joined a local Curves type "gym" and would occasionally do circuits, but spent most of my time on the elliptical. I'd go 4-6 times a week for 1-2 hours (total overkill, but once again I was young, dumb, and on my own lol). During the summer I switched to rollerblading and would go 4-5 times a week for 45-90 minutes.

I lost another 10-15ish pounds by doing more weight lifting (actual lifting on machines and free weights instead of using the resistance machines at Curves), and some cardio, like lifting for an hour 1-3 times a week and cardio 2-4 times a week. My diet and exercise "routine" was really sporadic and all over the place, but I've maintained about a 55 pound loss for the past 2-3 years and am now (once again) trying to "get serious" about losing the last little bit and getting into better shape. Now to lose weight I lift 3 times a week (almost always hit this) and run 1.5-3ish miles a few times a week. I also enrolled in a 90 minute kickboxing bootcamp and do that 3 times a week. It's a 6 week program and this is my 3rd week, but I've lost almost 5 pounds since that started. It's a crazy seriously awesome workout and lots of fun. My calorie goal is set to 1600 and I don't eat back my exercise calories. I've got some fitness tests for a PD in 2 weeks, but after that I'm going to start gradually increasing my calories to 1800 as I know that I'm not currently eating quite enough for all of the workouts I'm doing.

Looking back I can see all of the mistakes I made and what I should have done differently, the biggest one being I should've been eating more consistently around 1500 calories with about half as much cardio and some weights. Good luck and feel free to add me :flowerforyou:

Also, I've found that a higher protein "diet" works best for me. My current goal is 120 grams and I make sure to get at least 100 (if you look at my diary just be aware that I was sick for a while last week and then only felt like eating some foods for a few days after- which is why some days are pretty low calorie and little protein). Some of my "diet" staples are: Greek yogurt, protein powder, PB2, strawberries, bananas, frozen blueberries, apples, cottage cheese, precooked grilled chicken breast strips, Lean cuisine pizzas (I add chicken to the spinach and mushroom ones), breakfast pizzas (not especially healthy, but super delicious and I find ways to budget them in some days), turkey sausage, sugar free syrup (I could live off of blueberry protein pancakes!), fiber bars, almonds, and protein bars. Now that it's fall I can start buying spaghetti squash again and make spaghetti squash alfredo with chicken...so good!

TheRunningGuppy

Currently, I am at 214 and only 5'2", so by no means am I a skinny minnie. But what I have done to lose 65 lbs is walk and run. Yes run. I ran 8.3 miles last Saturday. I've been running on a regular basis since last April. So that means I started running when I was about 240. If you like the idea of running, try it. If I can do it, so can you. Try the C25K app, it's good. I personally didn't use it, but I basically did the same thing on my own, intervals of running and walking.

The thing that has made me successful so far is to constantly have a small goal in mind. I try to have monthly goals that don't have anything to do with the scale. This month, my goal is run 80 miles, with two 9 mile runs, and bike at least 10 miles a week as cross training.
Another major reason for my success so far is that I don't beat myself up over a day of poor food choices. I look at it and say "yep, today sucked. Tomorrow will be better", and I move on.

So, obviously not at my goal weight (130), but I've been steadily losing for 9 months. Lots of exercise, lots of water, and good food.

frommetobetterme

I'm no where near goal yet (I started at 230lbs (125lbs on MFP) and not am at 214lbs). I thought I would write anyway for the exercise part.

I have a lot of issues that hinder certain exercises. I have a bad wrist because I had repeated sprains and a cyst that required surgery. I have mid back pains from a car accident years ago and lower back and hip pain from suffering from sacroiliac joint dysfunction due to my pregnancies. I also have bad knees due to repeat sports injuries and recently developed an inflamed bursa on my left knee. So talk about having things to work around to get healthy!

I was fortunate enough to be able to splurge on a trainer and found one that has a degree in kinesiology that has been wonderful about working around my injuries. I just wanted to give you examples of the things she has me do that I can work on around my issues. I love that depending on how I feel when I see her, we work around whatever is bugging me. So some days we'll work on the lower body, but if one day my knees really ache, we'll work out more the upper area.

Instead of the treadmill (my trainer doesn't want me to walk or run on it because of my knee issues), I do the stationary bike at the gym... she had also encouraged me to use elliptical and other elliptical like machines but even those made my knees act up. I very much dislike it, but it's better than not moving and on weekends I sometimes go out with my son, which makes it more enjoyable.

She has me working on a lot of weights to help correct some of the issues I have. Plank (on knees and elbows) are making my core stronger and helping with my back. I also do posture correcting exercises (being top heavy doesn't help the back issues either) and exercises focusing on my upper back/shoulder/pectoral areas. I do squats on days that I can, but other things on days where I can't. Supermans are good for your back too. I'm mentioning a lot of back exercises because I found that having a stronger back and belly and having a better posture have changed the way I walk a big and helped alleviate some of my knee pain.

I don't go to the pool, but swimming is another activity that would be easy on your knees. I also do yoga, which has helped stretch out tense areas and being slightly more limber has also helped with a lot of my aches and pains. You can find a lot of yoga videos on-line.

As for eating, I didn't change anything drastically as I have done that before and I found it demotivating and I would constantly quit. I am now changing things slowly. First working on portion sizes, not the type of food, then went on to add more liquids to my diet. Now I'm slowly working on increasing protein and eliminating the tons of carbs I would eat (hubby is half Italian, so that doesn't make it easy!). I find this more sustainable and less of a shock to me, which makes it easier to cope with.

Good luck on your journey! Keep up the good work.

Zelinna

I started at 210 and I am now at 155. My goal is to maintain between 145 and 150.

I started by getting up early everyday and using our treadmill. I used the preset programs for calorie burns, so lots of inclines, and I would adjust the speeds up/down as I needed. I did this for a couple of months and then started doing run/walk intervals and gradually increased to full on running. After about 6 months, I started doing more weight work in addition to the cardio.

I have to keep changing my workouts but found that running and using the Nike Training Club App for weight work has helped me the most.

xSirensSong

Thank you everyone for your stories & suggestions!! It helps so much & means a lot! :flowerforyou:

awise19

SOOOOOO I started at 260... I started by doing weight watchers for 3 months honestly. Lowering my portions, stopped drinking soda, stopped eating fast food. Really just got my nutrition on track! That is the first huge step that I made and I would drink like 7-8 32 oz bottles of water a day. I dropped like 25 pounds in a month. Just water weight and extra weight from the fast food and soda. It felt amazing. I then did a detox, the acia berry one, got it at walmart. It helps me really get all the crap outta my body so I stopped craving junk. My body didn't want it anymore. I would walk my dog, and walk on the tread mill, the eleptical and ride the bike at the gym. Nothing serious at all. I started dropping weight and then I felt more comfortable at the the gym, started doing intervals running, started walking on the treadmill with incline. Still of course eating well and after the 3 months on weight watchers I just started using MFP. I stay between 1200-1500 depending on the exercise level that day. I am now down to 190!!! It feels amazing and I feel the best I ever have. I swear it is all about nutrition. I prep my lunches every week. I do a meal replacement shake for breakfast, the lean shakes from GNC and fruit. I make great healthy dinners! It feels so good to eat healthy! I don't just eat lame salads. haha When I eat a salad though, it is filled with Kale and argula and baby spinach and it tastes soooo amazing. I want to get to 160 so i still have weight to lose but I am gaining muscle now because I do kettlebell training, I lift and squat and do crossfit. Once you drop some weight you will love getting in the gym and see people watching you because they are amazed at what you can do and how hard you are working. Keep working hard! Feel free to add me always here!

gobonas99

I've never been a "skinny mini". I'm 5'5", and I do NOT have genetics on my side (I take after my dad's side of the family and almost all of my relatives on that side have weight issues - some very severe). When I turned 18 my senior year of high school (Jan 95), I weighed 149 pounds (I actually had my gyno pull it up a few years ago)....I think I wore a size 10? When I first started my fitness journey in Feb 2005, I weighed 185 and was wearing VERY tight size 14s (some 16s). I started with The Firm at home and working with a personal trainer at the gym twice a week. I only lost about 15 pounds that first year and a half, but my diet was crap - complete and utter crap, so I'm lucky that I lost as much as I did strictly through exercise. In the fall of 2006, I discovered Beachbody workouts and started Turbo Jam (which I loved)....then P90X in the beginning of 2007 (which I didn't finish). I had met someone after I left my ex-husband. New boyfriend = eating out more and working out less = gain weight). I gained back almost 10 pounds (was just under 180) by Jan 2009. My sister was getting married that July and I needed to do something. So, I started Chalean Extreme. I did the first round (12 weeks) as written, and sort of watched what I ate (but didn't count calories, just tried to make healthier choices and not eat out as much) but only lost about 10 pounds and was down to 170. I started round 2 of CLX in April, but added on some extra cardio (about 30 minutes on CLX days and an hour on one of the two rest days - used TJ in the beginning, then biking once it was warm enough outside). I lost 21 pounds and was down to 154 and wearing a size 10.

I maintained that (within 3-4 pounds) for nearly two years (doing various workout videos like Insanity and other BB workouts in the winter, and biking and running in the summer - I did my first Iron Girl sprint triathlon in August 2010). Then in early-mid 2011, I was doing Insanity and then Asylum (before I started tri trianing), eating properly (and counting calories), but I started gaining and nothing seemed to help....by the time I did my second Iron Girl in Aug 2011, I was up to 175 pounds - I had gained 15 pounds in less than 6 months (plus I was always tired and felt like garbage). Discussed my concerns with my gyn at my bi-annual appt that August, and she sent me for blood tests. Turns out my thyroid levels were off the chart. Somewhere along the way, my thyroid had gone all wonky. My doc started me immediately on meds (lowest dose) and sent me to an endocrinologist to get my meds to the correct level (which was an 8 month wait to get in - she actually increases my meds to the next dose up at my next appt in February, since the initial dose had only dropped my thyroid level from scary high to still very high, and my appt with the endo wasn't until May).

Between Sept 2011 and May 2012, my weight gain had slowed, but I weighed in at the endo at 199. The endo increased my dose (as the increase my gyn had done in March had only brought my levels from "still very high" to "higher than it should be"), and when he restested me in August, my thyroid levels were "better, but not where he'd like to see them" (I did my third Iron Girl that month, which, let me tell you, was no picnic at nearly 200 pounds - especially because, even though I'd been working out, I hadn't actually RUN since my last Iron Girl - I was lucky I finished). So he increased my dose one more time.

By next next appointment with the endo in Feb 2013, I was feeling any better and wasn't tired all the time any more, but I hadn't lost any weight (tho I confess, I was a naughty girl over the holidays and WAYYYYY over ate - my highest weight ever was 202.5 on Jan 1 when I started Combat, thanks to Christmas cookies...and but was down to 197-198 by my appt in Feb). At this appt, my levels were "exactly where he wanted them to be", so no med adjustments...and he said that since I was feeling better and not tired, I should start seeing the weight come off soon. Oh...and at this point, I wear wearing 14s - the same size I originally wore at 185 when I first started - even though I was now 15 pounds heavier - so at least that meant my workouts were doing *something* for me

Anyway...my endo was right. Feb through April were a bit bumpy, because my fiance and I were eating out way more than we should have, so I only lost like 6 pounds. But then come May, I became uber diligent with my food choices and logging my calories, and started tri training after I finished my second round of Combat. I did my fourth Iron Girl AND my first Olympic distance tri in August. And I am continuing to run (to get faster for next year's triathlons), and started T25 this week. Between May 1st and Oct 1st, I lost 28 pounds (34 pounds from my high weight of 202.5 on Jan 1st). I am now 168.5 and wearing size 10s (the exact same size 10s that I previously wore when I was maintaining between 154-160)...and they're actually a little loose.

As far as my UGW. I don't really have one. I put one into MFP, but it's kind of arbitrary. I KNOW I can get back down to 154, since I definitely still have fat on me (hips and thighs, ugh), which will likely put me at or near a size 8. And I KNOW that at 154, I will still have fat to lose. But I don't know how much lower I will be able to go scale wise - maybe another 10-15 pounds? Whatever it takes for me to get into a size 6. :laugh: Pretty much once I get to 154-155, I will be paying much more attention to measurements, pictures, clothing size, and body fat % (from caliper or hydrostatic testing, NOT bio-impedance), than to what the scale says (other than attempting to ensure the scale doesn't go UP). :happy:

Feel free to add me.

babyj0

All you ladies are AMAZING! And an insparation to everyone.

DorisInTheDena

My highest weight ever was 337. I am at 208 now. No surgery just "diet" and exercise. Not under goal weight but I'm not really worried about that. I've come too far!