Sucessful Petite Women - How Do You Do It?

blb85

Hi everyone! I'm a 5'0" 28 year old with about 35 lbs to lose looking for help/advice! I think my biggest problem is I'm not being 100% strict on myself, since I still do what I want on the weekends... Also, I have a bad mentality about once I start, that I should see instant results, which I know can't happen. Just like I was naïve about how much weight/fat I had packed-on, I am also naïve about how fast I can take it off.

Anyways, I have a wedding I'll be a bridesmaid in May for and I really don't wanna be the flabby/chubby one of the bunch. Ideally, I'd love to lost all of the weight by the May 17 wedding, but I know that won't happen. Or be in shape to be in a bikini by summer, since I live in walking distance to the beach. Currently I am at 154, and would ideally like to be at about 120. I need help. I need to know how all of you successful petitie women did it!

Dedshot

I do it the same as everyone else I guess: eating clean/healthy, slightly below maintenance because I'm losing fat, and enough protein to fuel my workouts 5-6x/week. Lots of water, too. It's been 6 weeks and I'm seeing results. But do you mean petite as in short? I tend to think of petite as being short in addition to having a small frame. I'm 5' 3" so I am the same height as a lot of girls around me but my bone frame is very small, making me a lot tinier than them.

EDIT: I'm not just losing fat, I'm building muscle too. Maybe it's easy for me to say because I didn't have a lot of fat to lose, but I don't think height/frame make too much of a difference when it comes to losing weight in general.

WhiteRabbit1313

I'm 5'2" and lost the first 20 lbs. via portion control. I made simple changes that I could live with. I lost the first 15 lbs. in about 2-3 months, without exercising, so that's a reasonable goal to shoot for, I think. What I did was: since I never drank my calories (except alcohol on the weekends with dinner), I couldn't cut out cokes, lattes, or juice, but if you do those things, start there. Then, after a couple of weeks, cut your bread consumption in half (there isn't anything inherently wrong with bread, but I found that the easiest thing to cut back on), I stopped eating cheap, grocery store desserts brought to the office--only good quality desserts that I savored in small quantities, when I ate out, I ate half of what I normally would and boxed the rest to save for another meal. These simple changes led to me losing about 5 lbs. the first couple of weeks, then about 1 lb. every week, then .5 to 1 lb. every two weeks. When I tapered off with losing, I'd cut back even more (eat 1/3 of restaurant meals, for example).

Anyway, these changes have become habits that have stuck with me. I never felt deprived. I ate only when hungry, so sometimes, I didn't eat lunch or dinner, because I honestly wasn't hungry. I didn't even feel like I was on a diet, because I actually ADDED in full fat cheese and real butter to my new plan. I still enjoy both, within my calorie budget, daily.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

tstoner07

I'm also 5'2'' and i'm currently at 139 pounds. I started the year at 146. I also get frustrated because I want to see instant results but I am learning to be happy with a slow and steady pace because I feel that the health choices I'm making are ones that I can incorporate for life and not so drastic that I want to quit. The biggest change I made was switching to a cleaner diet. I haven't gone completley crazy with it but I feel so much better knowing the foods i'm putting in my body are actually useful for my body and aren't filled with unnecessary preservatives and additives. I have a green smoothie every single morning for breakfast. I've learned to absolutely love them and I'm lost if I can't have one. I recommend this to everyone, especially those that struggle getting all their servings of fruits and vegetables in in a day. I also have an xbox kinect and got the Nike+ training workout. It's awesome and actually kind of fun so it keeps me coming back. If you want to know any more about either one of those things just let me know and I'm happy to share more.

Please feel free to add me as a friend, I'm finding it difficult to move through the 130s at my height and frame and welcome any motivation and encouragement as well! I don't have a wedding in May but I do have a work conference that starts that exact same day in Miami and the last thing I want is to be walking around beautiful Miami in summer clothes in front of all my co-workers carrying around this extra weight. I've never worn shorts before as I've always been uncomfortable with my legs. My goal is to wear shorts in Miami

keeptehpeace

I'm 5'3, started at 147lbs, created my MFP account at 141lbs, currently 124lbs.. I kept at it, walking as much as possible, cutting out as many liquid calories as possible (I used to drink about 3 litres of Coke a day!). Calorie counting for me personally has been quite easy, as long as I stick within my limit and walk at least an hour a day I find that it goes quite easily. Being shorter does suck because you cant eat as much as tall people, but the weight loss shows a lot quicker at least!