What has been your biggest obstacle to losing weight?

Just wanted to get some feedback. What has been your biggest obstacle to losing weight?
«13

Replies

  • pennypuffkin
    pennypuffkin Posts: 41 Member
    Stress. I'm an emotional eater with Trichotillomania. I either eat food or pull out my eyelashes (when I'm not busy doing both, ha). Stuffing my face is easier to explain to people.
  • VelveteenArabian
    VelveteenArabian Posts: 758 Member
    Me. I get in my own way sometimes.
  • firststepformefal
    firststepformefal Posts: 180 Member
    Impulse buying. If I do not have it in the house, I do not miss it. If I buy it, I have a hard time controlling my consumption of the cookies or chocolate bar. I eat way too many carbs.

    I also do not like meat, chicken, turkey or fish. I have a hard time getting enough protein in during the day. I found this new protein powder. It has 24 grams of protein and only 2 carb. I mix it with vanilla soy milk. It is called Edge.
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    I've met my weight-loss goal now, but my biggest obstacle used to be the strangely "good" feeling I got from abusing myself with food in the name of "comfort". I was trapped in a cycle of pain and pleasure - the pain of life was all mixed up with the (very) temporary pleasure of bingeing on my favorite sweet treats and then lumped in again with the shame and discomfort of how much I ate - which then needed to be numbed again with sugary food.

    I could not stop the cycle because it all mashed together in my head under a huge umbrella of denial that anything was actually wrong. Once I admitted I had an addiction (or at least addictive tendencies), got real honest with myself about how I was destroying my own life with food, and surrendered to the process of what it *really* took to be healthy (from the inside out), everything started to flow freely and I pretty much waltzed down the path to a near 70-lb loss in one year.
  • Josephine237
    Josephine237 Posts: 72 Member
    Figuring out the right diet plan...Ive tried so... many. I lose initially and then my body adjusts and I stay the same. But I haven't given up...I'll figure it out yet, I'm stubborn!
  • NH_1970
    NH_1970 Posts: 544 Member
    Not paying attention to myself. When I pay attention to myself and realize that I'm huffing and puffing up the stairs, that my blood pressure is high I realized that I had totally not been doing any self-care. I think I was on auto-pilot or something.

    Now that I'm paying attention to what goes in my mouth, that no one is taking care of me but me so I have to do that well because I like who I am then I have to be aware. I like being gentle on myself, and learning about myself when I loose weight it feels different this time, like I've stopped being my own worst enemy no more Dammit :sad: I am obese and single and have problems with my blood pressure, might as well stuff my face.
    Now I'm like I'm obese, I'm single and I have problems with my blood pressure, what can I do about that? Well I can do something about two of them :) but now that I've started focusing more on me and getting to know what I'm capable of, I don't really dwell on the single thing.
    I'm also not beating myself up for stuff anymore. I guess it's accountability to myself. So I pay attention to what makes me feel good, and remember what made me feel good in the past about my health. That's eating enough calories every day and not way under or way over, being active in some way everyday, drinking water water water and paying attention to myself.

    oh yea and I figured out I can't buy ice cream, gelato or frozen yogurt for my home. I can have a cone or a little bit out but if I bring it home it's gone.
  • Binge eating :/
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    It was a non-functioning thyroid. Now there really isn't anything.

    Summer has kind of sucked because I don't walk in the summer. It's just too hot. I can't carry all that water. Plus, can't go far in the afternoon because you never know when the storms will start. But in a month I'll be able to start walking gain. :)
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
    Being too enthusiastic. I did T25 Gamma and Insanity at the same time. At the time it was fine and great, but after I was finished, I had almost no motivation to workout. I stayed in my calorie goal, so I didn't gain any weight, but it took me a few weeks to get myself back into a fitness routine (now P90X3).

    I don't mind working out 2x a day, in fact I'm doing that now still, but I think it was doing 2 extreme cardio based workouts at the same time that burned me out.

    I know better now.
  • MeganDominique
    MeganDominique Posts: 229 Member
    At first, getting motivated to workout.

    After that was down pat ( which btw took me 6 months to get serious about and committed to), myself.
    Sometimes I struggle with how far I have come and forget it when I look in the mirror.

    Thankfully, I have progress pictures, and on a bad day I pull them out and I notice it again and I bounce back now :)
  • breakonthrough65
    breakonthrough65 Posts: 19 Member
    It was a non-functioning thyroid. Now there really isn't anything.

    Summer has kind of sucked because I don't walk in the summer. It's just too hot. I can't carry all that water. Plus, can't go far in the afternoon because you never know when the storms will start. But in a month I'll be able to start walking gain. :)

    Can you work out inside?
  • Ow3593
    Ow3593 Posts: 21 Member
    My muscles, I don't want to lose too much weight too fast or I could lose a lot of muscle I gained. Which is kind of holding me back from losing too much weight too fast. Oh and people underestimate the power of strength training (specifically women) because they think they could turn into the hulk if they did the bench press or something.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    Sticking to one calorie goal lol. I keep changing it because I always want more food. But I'm still eating 2000 as a minimum, so I think I just need to stop being a baby about it and be consistent with this as my assumed intake.Although I might raise to 2050-2100 now that I'm back in school and moving around more; will see as time goes on.
  • PurrlyGirl
    PurrlyGirl Posts: 59 Member
    In the past, it's been my relationship to food and my unwillingness to admit it. I would be sick of being fat, then I'd eat better, then I'd over restrict, then I'd binge, and then I'd shame-quit and resign myself to being fat. I had to face *why* I do that and that was hard.

    But I've been successful this go-around because I don't feel the need for that compulsion. So now my hardest obstacle is the limitations of what I can eat. I've got a finicky stomach (eating something I don't like = insta-vomit) plus some allergies (tree nuts & shellfish) which force me to be careful.

    I'm working with it though. I probably have the most boring food diary...it's mostly like 6 different foods just rearranged :laugh: but that works for me, so whatever.
  • breakonthrough65
    breakonthrough65 Posts: 19 Member
    In the past, it's been my relationship to food and my unwillingness to admit it. I would be sick of being fat, then I'd eat better, then I'd over restrict, then I'd binge, and then I'd shame-quit and resign myself to being fat. I had to face *why* I do that and that was hard.

    But I've been successful this go-around because I don't feel the need for that compulsion. So now my hardest obstacle is the limitations of what I can eat. I've got a finicky stomach (eating something I don't like = insta-vomit) plus some allergies (tree nuts & shellfish) which force me to be careful.

    I'm working with it though. I probably have the most boring food diary...it's mostly like 6 different foods just rearranged :laugh: but that works for me, so whatever.

    Key phrase "but that works for me". I eat the same things over and over as well.
  • loribethrice
    loribethrice Posts: 620 Member
    Constantly putting myself down. I work out 5 days a week for 30-60 minutes each day depending on how much time I have and I have eaten the same thing every single day for almost a year now so that I don't eat too many calories because I'm scared to death of gaining weight back. I still can't see anything good when I look at myself and because my stupid stomach won't flatten out I still see myself as disgusting. It's been an uphill battle because of how much I hate myself. I try my hardest to not do crazy things like work out for hours or drop my calories super low in hopes of fixing myself.
  • cjudesaenz
    cjudesaenz Posts: 67 Member
    my need for instant gratification .... yup that would be it
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    food. it tastes so good
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,972 Member
    Filipino family parties.

    A.C.E. Certified Group Fitness and Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • My biggest obstacle is battling my depression/anxiety on top of wanting to live a healthier lifestyle. So I'd say overall the biggest thing in the way, is frankly me. I think when you sum it up that's what everyone's obstacle is regardless of what it is about them - binge eating - seeing themselves negatively - that holds them back. You hold yourself back and no one else is there to do it for you. So you do it or you don't. and that's that.
  • biancad_1992
    biancad_1992 Posts: 30 Member
    In a word... Chocolate.
  • NoMoreBlameGame
    NoMoreBlameGame Posts: 236 Member
    My biggest obstacle is the way my mind blares the *amount* I have to lose...like a megaphone in an empty room. I've lost 50 lb, which is a piddle-fart amount to me, considering I have at least another 120 to go. A few people have said to just take it one pound at a time, but it's very difficult for me to have that mindset when I see that massive number on the scale and the massive number on my ticker. Soooo...in a word, I guess my biggest obstacle is my mind. =)
  • pghsteelerfan
    pghsteelerfan Posts: 132 Member
    You said a mouthful..no pun intended....exactly what i feel..i sabotage myself always...do well..then let my emotiona take control....how do u finally figure out what it is u r cramming the food into your mouth for??? I just cant seem to make it surface....
  • JaneLane33
    JaneLane33 Posts: 80 Member
    Myself and being consistent. Logically I know what I need to be doing. I struggle with doing it long term. I start out great, see some results and then I sort of let things slide a bit.
  • bubaluboo
    bubaluboo Posts: 2,098 Member
    Putting it of until tomorrow....and then eating everything in sight because from tomorrow I'll be starting the diet...then tomorrow never quite comes or if it does, it doesn't last long. Once I realised that eating today because I'll diet tomorrow meant that I ended up gaining weight I decided that it was best to just start rather than waiting for a special day to arrive. That also made me realise that if I blew the diet for one day / one meal, it was better just to draw a line under it straight away and carry on with the healthy eating rather than calling it game over. The worst thing was having a dieting/not dieting mentality (which even now I find hard to break) which leads to cycles of binging and starving. Better to take one meal at a time and choose the best option. Sometimes that best option is the calorie laden one because I just need it...but no guilt, just making the next choices balance it out means that the weightloss stays on track.
  • justalittlecrazy
    justalittlecrazy Posts: 88 Member
    I've been my own biggest obstacle. Because I didn't have any health problems, I have always been like "I'm big but I'm active and I don't have any problems." Basically, I was an ostrich sticking my head in the ground. You don't get to be 300+ lbs forever and not develop health problems. So I had an extremely unexpected health scare and had to decide if donuts and double quarter pounders with cheese were better than living a long, happy life. They aren't and that was that.
  • Gingerspice45
    Gingerspice45 Posts: 137 Member
    stress and depression. I have problems with emotional eating as well. Trying to get these problems in check.
  • Ashantih87
    Ashantih87 Posts: 6 Member
    I'm a stress eater with a sweet tooth. I procrastinate when it comes to working out. A workout buddy would help but now I take my son for walks, so he's my buddy.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
    Consistency. I do great for a few weeks then crash and burn. Sometimes I can keep it going for months on end but some days I really struggle for motivation between school, work, and lack of sleep.
  • Quasita
    Quasita Posts: 1,530 Member
    Knowing that to reach my goal weight in a healthy way, I still have over 2 years of work to go... and that's without any more major health issues. Since I started losing, I have had to have 3 abdominal surgeries, which resulted in a lot of bedrest and long stretches of medical restriction to my exercise. Most people assume that I had weight loss surgery but NOPE.