How long has it taken you to lose your weight so far?

phyl303

I started in March of this year, so 40 pounds in 30 weeks. That averages to 1.33 pounds a week. The first month of so I was losing at 2 pounds or more a week but I started at 209.

Lately, I stall for a week or so, then drop 1-2 seemingly overnight. I was logging wait once a week to not drive myself nuts but I've been logging every day or two for a month or so now just to see the fluctuations. It's weird. I'll be good as gold for a week or two and the scale moves up or downa few ounces a day then I'll have a splurge night and drop two pounds. No rhyme or reason, it seems. My general trend is in the right direction and I feel that dropping slowly is probably better than drasticly.

After about a month and a half of logging and on mfp, trying to log exercise, too, I bought a fitbit so now I trust it to track my calorie expenditures so I don't accidently cheat and log more out than I really use. Plus, I set it to buzz me 4-5 times during the day so I will get up and move around if I've been sitting for too long. I eat back most of my exercise calories and aim for +/-50 calories from my goal.

Drinking TONS of water is my number one hint to new folks. The formula I was taught is half your weight in pounds of water in ounces per day. Example: I weigh 170 lbs so my goal is to drink AT LEAST 85 (170/2) ounces every day. I promise that once you get used to drinking more water, you won't take as many trips to the potty. (I just think of those trips as extra steps toward my daily goal of 10,000. I also use those potty trips during my work day for an excuse to take a lap around the interior of the building and/or go up and down a flight of stairs. I drink 20-32 ounces of water first thing every morning (well, right after I pee and weigh ) Then when I get to work I fill a 32 ounce glass that I empty prior to lunch. I refill the 32 ounces and empty it before I leave for the day. That gets me past my 85 ounce daily minimum so any water with meals or after work, I visualize as flushing more bad stuff out of my system.

The next tip is the most important: DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP WHEN YOU SLIP. Ok, we have bad days, but we can get up and start a new day and work harder and do better. This tip is a two-parter: DO NOT DENY YOURSELF; JUST CONTROL YOUR PORTIONS. When I know I want that chocolate bar, I eat it. Maybe I only have half of it or maybe I walk extra to burn it off or maybe I skip a meal. I don't do it every day but if I deny myself, when I break (and I know I will eventually break) I will probably overindulge. As long as most nights' meals aren't red wine and chocolate, I think one every now and then is ok.

My last tip is LOG EVERY BITE YOU EAT! EVERY. DAY. EVERY. BITE. It's hard, especially when you know you've really blown it but it will help you use the reports later to analyze your success. If you have a bad day and just skip logging, your data will have holes that just don't add up. If you eat three almonds, log it. If you have a lifesaver, log it. If you eat two portions of ice cream, log it. If you can't bear for people to know you are being bad, make your food diary private. But don't lie to yourself. Holding myself accountable has been the best thing I've learned.

Danam48

It has taken me 18 months to lose 96 pounds. I set my goal at 2 pounds per week at the start and that was definitely the average if I went back and calculated it over the first 9 months. I have slowed now to .5 pound a week, not because I have changed my goal, but am still moving in the right direction so I am OK with that.

brc912

13 months... 150 lbs. lost! Want to lose another 20-30 lbs.

xombiebite

from june 1 - today i have lost 40lbs. what started the weight loss was severely illness in june and july.

bbzgrl110

I started the last week of June 2013, and have lost 29 pounds so far, still want to lose about 45 more.
I eat just under 1500 calories a day. I have a desk job so don't get a ton of exercise, I did join a Zumba class for 1 hour a week

Kevalicious99

2 months .. 9.6 lbs lost.

I had a few weeks where I lost next to nothing. but I am doing much better now.

tigerblue

It took me 10 months to lose 43 lbs. At first the weight came off quickly (2 lbs per week), but at the end it was more like 1/2 a lb a week (on a good week!).

I have maintained now for 3 more years (with a slight gain, which I am working to reverse now.).

I never quit logging, even into maintenance! Finding the right number for maintenance was tricky, thus the slight re gain.

Totally worth it, though! Hang in there for the long haul.

wtw0n

I've lost about 31kg (68.3lbs) in a little over 13 months - 24.8kg (54.7lbs) since I started logging here on Jan 1st.

lucystacy71

So far, I've lost 37lbs in just under four months (it will be four months November 5th). I've lost about 2lbs a week so far, although I've recently changed it to 1.5lbs a week. I have to be careful because I have to count calories I have no way of logging, but with some trial and error, I've gotten the hang of it.

Chemburly12

It's taken me a year to lose almost 50 lbs. It's been slow but totally worth it.

lucan07

Start weight 308lbs
Current weight 217lbs
Goal Weight 176lbs

Started on 31 January 2013 and have lost a total of 90lbs, since I started logging on MFP 12 August 2013 I have lost the last 31.5lbs in 11 weeks almost 3lbs per week with a little extra exercise.

StephLourenco

I’m down 21lbs in 2 months. I make sure to eat clean (with the occasional cheat or I’ll go nuts and eat my house lol!!) and I try to get at least 60 min of exercise 7 days a week. Slow and steady wins the race ☺

Pidgeywendy

It took me exactly 12 months to drop from a size UK34 to a UK16. That was 7st 7lbs (105lbs).

I then had an accident at the end of Spring, and put some weight back on, going back up to a size UK22 :-(

Starting weight Feb '12 was 22stone 7lbs (size 34)
Dropped to 15st (size 16) by Feb '13

I started back on my weight loss battle last month at 17stone 12lbs, and have already lost 1st 1lb! As I also work out four times a week, I have lost a lot of inches, putting me back into a size UK18 already :-)

I'm losing about 2-3lbs a week now and never have a week where I don't lose.
I will expect to be a size 16 for Christmas, a 14 for my birthday in March, and a 12 by the beginning of the summer - if not before! I can say this, as I'm totally focused and committed :-)

bsuew

My weight loss has been I think fairly slow. I started Feb 17, 2012. SW 260. I have 17.4 lbs to my goal. I've lost 82 lbs, so far it's been 19 months. Hoping to reach my goal by the end of December of 100lbs lost.

MMulder68

I have lost 29 in 6 months. My goal is SLOW and steady. One pound a week and so far I am right on track! I eat between 1700 - 2100 cals a day. My goal is 90 lbs. I don't care how long it takes me to do it. This is a lifestyle and a new kind of journey for me this go around. No more diets...just healthy eating and a busy life. For example, my husband and I went to my son's football game the other night and instead of finding the closest parking space, we parked as far away as possible and walked fast there and back. In fact, we raced on the way back and I kicked his butt and he has no weight to lose. We were proud of ourselves and our progress in the gym. You can do it. Slow and steady wins the race. Our motto in our household is "Exercise to eat, Eat to live!"

CM9178

I've lost 43 lbs so far, and it has been 19 months so far.

As far as setting your goal at a 2 lb loss per week on MFP, chances are, unless you have a TON to lose, that will be too much of a deficit for you, and you will eventually hit a plateau because you will not be consuming enough calories.
I had mine set like that for awhile, and while it worked in the beginning, I eventually hit a plateau for about 3 or 4 months, and didn't start losing weight again until I increased my calories, and now am set to about a .8 lb per week goal. (and have not been losing that fast).

tworthen79

I've lost 42lbs in 6 months. Start weight was 229, now I'm 186.8.

kroonha

Would you mind sharing how you worked off that weight in six months? Eating clean combined with working out? Or any other special things that you did?
I'm interested because I'm looking to lose around 45-50lbs and knowing I could do it in about half a year or so would be crazy good motivation!

servilia

I've lost my 50lbs in the last 8 months, although my high weight was when I was full term pregnant so some of that is baby, etc. before I got pregnant I lost 30 in 6 months.

Serah87

I have lost 29 in 6 months. My goal is SLOW and steady. One pound a week and so far I am right on track! I eat between 1700 - 2100 cals a day. My goal is 90 lbs. I don't care how long it takes me to do it. This is a lifestyle and a new kind of journey for me this go around. No more diets...just healthy eating and a busy life. For example, my husband and I went to my son's football game the other night and instead of finding the closest parking space, we parked as far away as possible and walked fast there and back. In fact, we raced on the way back and I kicked his butt and he has no weight to lose. We were proud of ourselves and our progress in the gym. You can do it. Slow and steady wins the race. Our motto in our household is "Exercise to eat, Eat to live!"

AWESOME!!! :happy:


"Quick losses are harder to keep off." JS

Mindychu88

I've lost a little over 12lbs in 2 weeks, but on that note I'm on a super strict Doctor monitored diet. Just stick to it and you'll lose (:

bacitracin

172 centimeters, 32 year old male: 100.7 Kg TO 82.5Kg in about 8 months, went down to 74Kg at one point but am now bulking up and resting at about 83Kg.

kimad

Hey
I lost my first 75 in 1 year (I was 245lbs to start), then I got my next 11 in about 6 months .... so about 1.5 years to lose 86lbs.
I then maintained for about another 6 months, then gained 10 back BOOOO...so just now getting that back off.

Good luck to you.

PS - I never had a consistent weekly loss... sometimes 2, sometimes 0.2, but keep to it as it all adds up!

kellybellyjellyn

Hey there! Hasn't been a fast process with me ! Taken roughly 3 years to lose 90lb ! I had many a cycle where I would lose 2 stone then lose interest, fall off the wagon and gain some of the weight back, but each time I got back on track, the "off the wagon" times would lessen as I got more focused.

HW 266lb CW roughly 175lb. Want to get to 140lb and see how I feel then! Hoping to reach this weight by Summer! Realistically. I have a pair of size 12 skinny jeans and i've said when I get them on comfortably then I think I will be content with my size !!


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Good Luck to everyone on their weightloss journeys !!

smmoler

I joined My Fitness Pal in May of 2013 and have lost 30 lbs. I'm averaging 1.5 lbs. per week even though my goals are 1200 calories per day and 2 lbs a week.
My startegy is not to stress out and remember I might ahve a bad day here and there. My motto' "Slow and Steady"

kellybellyjellyn

I've lost 123lbs in about 15/16 months. At first it was 2lbs a week, but now more like 2lbs a month, because I'm trying to look ahead to maintenance and want to start eating more not less, sooner than later.... If that makes sense.

AWESOME !


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Gemma_Louisex

Hey, I started 7 weeks ago and I've lost 27.9lbs!

I find the calories really accurate and lose the 2lbs, if not more!
Good luck!

lynn_glenmont

Hi there! I am new at this (have a week under my belt, and it's going well). I see so many of you with such wonderful stats, and I was wondering if some of you would share how long it's taken you to lose your weight? It is really inspiring to see all of these success stories!

Also, one more question. If you set your calories at losing 2 lbs. per week, and you follow the amount of calories allotted you, do you find this to be fairly accurate? Or do you lose more? Or less?

Thanks so very much for any input! Really appreciate it!

It can only be as accurate as you are, both in the information you first supply MFP for setting your daily calorie goal, and of course in accurately logging your calories and sticking to your goal (at least on average). Plus, for some (most?) people it just doesn't come off in a straight line fashion (maybe this is more of an issue for premenopausal women, because of hormone cycles -- but there are other things that can water retention, like more sodium than usual).

I've lost 21 lbs in about two and a half months (avg. loss right about 2 lbs a week, but I had one week with no loss, another with just a half pound loss, a week with a 3.5 lb loss, and one with a 5 lb loss, and that's with being pretty consistent with my net calories across the weeks -- there's only about 1000 calorie difference between my highest weekly total net calories and my lowest weekly total net calories, so that doesn't come close to accounting for a 5 lb swing, even if lower weekly net calories correlated with higher weight loss that week, which it doesn't). When I first set up my account, I told MFP I was sedentary (desk job) and wanted to lose 1 lb a week, and it gave me a daily goal of 1450 calories. Apparently I am not sedentary, but am somewhere between lightly active and active, at least based on what I burn before accounting for exercise (every week I add up net calories and 3500 calories per pound of weight loss to determine calories used), which is trending slowly downward as I lose weight, and is now a bit over 2200. I recently adjusted my activity level with MFP, again asking for a 1 lb a week weight loss, and it adjusted my daily goal to 1480 calories, which I expect will have me losing about a pound and a half a week initially, or maybe a bit more, since I don't always eat all of my exercise calories back. I probably average between 1575 and 1675 calories a day, and net between 1230 and 1380.

Don't set it for a 2-lb weight loss unless you have a substantial amount to lose. (The goal on my ticker only gets me out of the obese BMI category and into the overweight category. When I get there, or close to there, I'll reassess and hopefully feel encouraged to set a lower goal. And since I'll have less to lose, I'll make whatever adjustments are necessary to slow down the rate of to around a pound a week, although the lost weight may take care of that for me -- if there's less of you, it takes fewer calories to keep you fueled.)

tonyajohn

I started at the beginning of Sept. 2013. I've lost 18 lbs so far and the majority of that happened in the first 4 weeks. I lost about 12 lbs pretty quickly. The last 4 weeks or so has been much slower, maybe 1-2 pounds a week. I figured it would slow way down the closer I got to my goal and I've recently readjusted my calories to lose 1/2 a pound a week instead of 1 pound a week. I would love to be a goal by Christmas since I only have maybe 15 lbs left but I want to do it as healthful as possible so that the weight stays off for good.

romancefan1983

6 months so far. Started early May and have lost 39lbs so far. Still have 7 more to go.