I am a success story, 58 lbs down (Who knew?)

Fitnwhole78

You look awesome! I'm curious to learn what you did to lose your weight. 1200 calories? 1500 calories? Exercised a lot? Eat clean or just ate what you wanted and just counted the calories? The reason why I'm so curious because I am 178lbs and 5'2.5" So it would be interesting to learn how someone who had my same stats achieved their weight loss.

Thanks

krawhitham

Congratulations!! youre an inspiration to me!

kittenful

On calorie intake and exercise:
When I started out on here, I set my goal to lose at 1.5 lbs per week. That gave me 1200 calories to net each day. I worked out a LOT more at first, to eat more, and I burned out on that. I was working out for an hour 4-5 days a week and just got SICK of it. As much as I love my Jillian Michaels DVDs and Yoga Booty Ballet DVDs it was too much. I cut back on the mad exercise. I hadn't built up that kind of stamina yet.

I figured out how to make better food choices and work out for a half hour 5-6 days a week. I took breaks when I needed them; a break from exercise when I'd finish a 4 week cycle of Ripped in 30 or an odd day off if I had pushed my self too hard recently. Mental health days are important!

When I got down to 130 around November, I upped my calorie intake to a .5 lb loss (never had to adjust to a 1 lb loss, I had MFP adjusting my settings every 10 lbs and it adjusted to that on its own). That gave me 1500 calories each day to net. I typically ate 1700 calories each day. It was easier to factor in food, but a LOT slower for losses.

I hit 120 in January, and maintained for 2.5 months. I ate between 2000-2200 calories every day (net 1800) and fluctuated between 123-118. I've recently decided to get down to 115 or the body fat percentage that I'm attempting to achieve (whichever comes first, really. ^_~) So I've cut back to a .5 lb loss per week. I still eat 1800 calories per day (netting 1460ish), and that's fine by me.

My exercise routines are body weight exercises (this is my fave site, it's free and geeky! http://neilarey.com/workouts.html) and Jillian Michaels DVDs (currently on Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism). I do all of this at home.

On to the food:
I have eaten back ALL (or close to it) of my exercise calories. I figured it's how this site is designed, why not utilize it?

To say I never changed my eating habits would be a sort of lie. I changed a lot. I started trying different foods and figuring out what I enjoy. I eat so much better than I used to because it meant that I could eat that much more! I've expanded my palate a LOT, and I find recipes all the time at allrecipes.com. It's mainly about portion sizes. I eat whatever I like because I'm going to be miserable if I don't. I just do it in much smaller portions.

I hope this helps!

ggbun

You are an inspiration! And thanks for the Neila Rey reference - what a cool site!

ceemaw

good for you! you look great in all the photos, btw. i feel like i am where you started (about 50 lbs of post-baby weight to lose - two kids, and the "baby" is now 2 1/2) and reading about your journey and seeing your transformation and is such an inspiration. thanks for sharing!

Linnaea27

Wow, great accomplishment! Good for you! And I love your look with the green/blue hair. I've always secretly wanted to have green hair but haven't taken the plunge!!

Fitnwhole78

Wow! Thanks for the info! Good stuff :happy:

pezall22

Congratulations! That's such an awesome success story. You must be so proud of yourself! Thank you for sharing. I hope to one day be able to do this as well.

kittenful

Oooh! A couple more tips that I think are really important:

Overall: Make small but sustainable changes. Building habits is key. When it's habit, it's easy!

Exercise: Figure out what you really enjoy. It's different for everybody! I can't stand yoga (I've tried, a few times) it's far too slow paced for me. However, I really enjoy things that get me moving fast: dancing, circuit training, HIIT. If you don't enjoy it, you'll be less inclined to keep it up.

Food: Stick with foods that you enjoy. I snack on cherry tomatoes (or a whole roma) and individually wrapped snack cheeses and the like. Find your happy snacks, and stick with those.

kittenful

^So basically, find things that make you happy. What's the point, otherwise?