BEFORE AND AFTER - how diiiiddd you do it?!?

prplangl4

Been seeing a lot of before and after photos and progress pics - WOW!!! SO IMPRESSIVE! :drinker:

many post how much they lost, fewer post how long it took them to get those results, and far less share their secret to success and what they did to accomplish it (workout regimine, eating habits, motivation, etc)...

To all our MFP All Stars, (1) what are your before and after results, (2) what did you do to get there and (3) how long was your weight loss journey?!?:bigsmile:

andtian

I agree with you Kristy....Please MFP stars help us who are starting and need some guidance.

prplangl4

bump lol

godroxmysox

bump for later....when i reach my goal, i will share

carrieann58

Bump

DrewD2011

In the Spring of 2009 I finally joined a local La Fitness, signed up for Weight Watchers for Men online and bought a Polar FT7 HR monitor.

On 4/27/09, I weighed a bit over 275 lbs. (at 5’ 4”) and had stopped any regular exercise routine. My health was a major issue and I had problems ranging from borderline (essentially there) Type 2 Diabetes, neck pain, back pain, knee pain, constant heartburn & poor liver tests.

I feel that Polar HR systems, La Fitness, WW and now MFP.com have literally saved my life! Today, 2 years after the start of this journey, I am less than 175 lbs. and feeling great!

Today, I do not and will not skip any daily workouts. I use Polar products to focus on Zone 2 (Fat Burn) and Zone 3 (Intensity) training. The first time I got on an elliptical I ran 2 miles in 25 minutes. Now, I average over 345 visits to the gym each year (I just completed my second year), my routine is an 60 minutes+ (8-9 mi./day) every day on the elliptical and 4-5 hours of tennis a week!

I am now in the BEST shape I have been since high school (25 years ago). I have dropped over 100 pounds! I have lost 14 sizes on my waist (from a 48 to approaching a 34), 5 sizes on my neck – a 22 to below a 17 and 4 shirt sizes – a 4X to L. I believe the program has worked for me because this time I started with exercise not fad dieting.

I am now in Phase 2 of monitoring/tracking my workouts. In April this year, I graduated to using a Polar FT 80 watch. I now load all of my strength training workouts & AB workouts into it. Initially, I only wanted only to focus on Fat Burn and Recovery. Now that I am below a 30 BMI, I can push it!

I am addicted to polarpersonaltrainer.com (Drew 2010) and am regularly in 8-10 Challenges all the time The community provides great support! I pore over the charts/graphs and they are a great source of pride and motivation. I post milestones on fb and now inspire many others. I am starting to get quite a following of people that are participating and using the same methodology I have adopted.

I feel great. I have 0 health issues. Recent lab reports show normal glucose, great liver, a cessation of my chronic neck, knee and back pain and I don’t take ANYTHING for meds.

MFP has been a great new substitute for WW online. Thank you Marlane! I did not like the changes to WW last year and MFP let's me eat the way I was eating (when I was successful with my weight loss)...and watch that portion control! I know what to eat...just never how much. Great IPhone app and my whole family is now on MFP! I am hooked on MFP (85 days in a row today). MFP helped me lose that last 10 (after a 14 month plateau)!

2youngatheart

bump

ShrinkingStephanie

bump

Kyokai

I have been meaning to upload photos but I have not yet. But I can provide numbers for my journey if you like.

Started February 6th, 2010 at 196 pounds. I am 5'7" and I was in a size 16 jeans.

Current weight - 123.5 and holding steady! Currently sporting a size 4 jeans.

I wanted to lose the weight the safe way and I decided to take a year to do it. My original plan was to reach 140 pounds and after hitting it - the rest naturally came off.

A few changes that I had made - I only go out to eat for lunches on the weekends. It is sort of like my treat to myself and to save my dishwasher. LOL But I still make smart choices while being out. I do have that occasional pizza and even indulge in Greek food on occasions, but I fall back into the healthy foods once again through the week and it evens out.

kirianna55

bump

prplangl4

In the Spring of 2009 I finally joined a local La Fitness, signed up for Weight Watchers for Men online and bought a Polar FT7 HR monitor.

On 4/27/09, I weighed a bit over 275 lbs. (at 5’ 4”) and had stopped any regular exercise routine. My health was a major issue and I had problems ranging from borderline (essentially there) Type 2 Diabetes, neck pain, back pain, knee pain, constant heartburn & poor liver tests.

I feel that Polar HR systems, La Fitness, WW and now MFP.com have literally saved my life! Today, 2 years after the start of this journey, I am less than 175 lbs. and feeling great!

Today, I do not and will not skip any daily workouts. I use Polar products to focus on Zone 2 (Fat Burn) and Zone 3 (Intensity) training.

I am now in the BEST shape I have been since high school (25 years ago). I have dropped over 100 pounds! I have lost 14 sizes on my waist (from a 48 to approaching a 34), 5 sizes on my neck – a 22 to below a 17 and 4 shirt sizes – a 4X to L. I believe the program has worked for me because this time I started with exercise not fad dieting.

I am now in Phase 2 of monitoring/tracking my workouts. In April this year, I graduated to using a Polar FT 80 watch. I now load all of my strength training workouts & AB workouts into it.

I am addicted to polarpersonaltrainer.com (Drew 2010) and am regularly in 8-10 Challenges all the time The community provides great support! I pore over the charts/graphs and they are a great source of pride and motivation. I post milestones on fb and now inspire many others.

I feel great. I have 0 health issues. Recent lab reports show normal glucose, great liver, a cessation of my chronic neck, knee and back pain and I don’t take ANYTHING for meds.

MFP let's me eat the way I was eating (when I was successful with my weight loss)...and watch that portion control! I know what to eat...just never how much. I am hooked on MFP (85 days in a row today). MFP helped me lose that last 10 (after a 14 month plateau)!

Wow so impressive!!! great job and I'm happy to hear your health is back in check!

I'm going to check out those watches and polarpersonaltrainer.com --> I'm afraid I'm entering a plateau so I wanted to crank it up a knotch (I can never break past 164!!! so annoying!):explode:

I'm so glad I came across your post - I will definitely remotivate myself to not skip a day of working out (last night I got home from work 10:30pm and the gym was closed so I started laundry and through the rain I walked down around the block, came back 20 mins to switch and then walked all around an entire neighborhood at midnight!),,,I was determined to get a workout and avoid a big red X on my calendar for the day!)

Thanks for sharing your post!:drinker: <---thats sooo water! If I'm feeling frisky I'll throw in a zero calorie powerade! :laugh:

PhoenixRising17

bump...I love the inspiration you all give with your before and after stories and advice...it really makes me feel like I can actually do this!

DrewD2011

Thank you all for listening! Good luck on your journey!

ShrinkingNinja

I don't know if I'm really considered an all star... but here is my story.

5ft 4

SW 295.5
CW 197

Took me since 4-19-11 to go from 275.5 to current weight.

What did I do? Read the Rosedale Diet by Ron Rosedale and Mastering Leptin by Byron Richards. Followed their suggestions of meal timing and foods to avoid.

I take karate, kickboxing and do p90x.

gatorflyer

Rather than post all that, I'll just send a link to my 8 month progress check in. I think I answered the questions you asked. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/gatorflyer

mocklin

thanks so much for sharing all that info. It's really helpful. I'm going to check out polarpersonaltrainer.com.

brittaney10811

I don't know if I'm really considered an all star... but here is my story.

5ft 4

SW 295.5
CW 197

Took me since 4-19-11 to go from 275.5 to current weight.

What did I do? Read the Rosedale Diet by Ron Rosedale and Mastering Leptin by Byron Richards. Followed their suggestions of meal timing and foods to avoid.

I take karate, kickboxing and do p90x.

HOLY COW!!!! you lost around 80lbs in 2 months?!?!?! is that right??

if so, that's UNBELIEVEABLE!!! Great Job!!

and even if it's a typo, that's an incredible amount of weight to loose, keep it up girl!!!

mocha76

bump

txsarge17

I didn't have a lot to lose, but hated the way I looked and felt. I was at 240lbs at my heaviest, and am 6'. I started with portion control and less fried food about a year ago. Then I started trying to work out on my own. In January/February time frame I decided to get real and started focusing on eating healthy food with the very occasional cheat day. I also completed Insanity. One cycle got me down to 186 and 14% body fat, and I feel great!

Right now I'm 1lb away from my goal, but have decided I don't care about that pound. I just started a P90x / Insanity hybrid, and plan to increase muscle mass. Not looking to be a body builder, but I'd love to look like the guys on the cover of Men's Health!

Debkam

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mauryr

I wouldn't consider myself a "star" by any stretch, but I feel that I've been successful with MFP, and I'd be happy to share the method that worked for me.

When I started to seriously try to get back into shape about 8-9 months ago, I was 49 years old, quite overweight - 224lbs at 5'7", BMI of over 35, which is well into the obese range. I'm now at 158, BMI just under 25 (my goal).

When I started out, I had not done any exercise, or anything athletic - ever - in my life. I have been a perennial nerd-geek - and I still am.

I suddenly found myself with quite a bit of motivation - my marriage dissolved, which in turn made my existence much more important to my daughter's well being. Combined with the ever increasingly bad news the doctor gave me about my state of health it was time to act - I hoped that it was not too late, and that I was not too far gone. And, I found myself (unhappily) back in the dating pool, as a "mature" person.

So, at age 49, it was time for a significant change.

As you can see, motivation is important. If you are still young it will be easier for you, and please believe me when I tell you that it's a worth-while investment in your future well-being to take care of yourself. Don't make the mistakes that I did - don't wait for a marriage to dissolve, or worse, a heart attack or other illness. Don't wait. If you do, you'll eventually get that "motivation", the hard way.

Enough with the sermon.

The method that worked for me is quite simple, and it seems to be the MFP mantra: Calories in < calories out. Every day. No exceptions. And get some exercise, for crying out loud.

I said "simple" , not "easy" (though after the first few weeks it's not really that hard, either - the benefits make it a pleasure, as a matter of fact).

Before I started dieting - actually, a month or two before I found MFP, I joined my local YMCA. I tried to learn racquetball, which I was terrible at doing because, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a nerdy, geeky guy, and that has a corollary that I'm also a bit of a spaz - and I'm being kind with that characterization. It was embarrassing for me to even show up, because the rear wall of the racquetball court is glass, so I was able to be seen in all of my klutzy, doughy glory by all. I swallowed my pride, and kept on.

It took a while of lonely practice, but after a few months, I was invited to play a game with a couple of other guys, and I accepted. At that point, I had never sweated so profusely in my life as I did in that first game. And I had to quit, after only about 7 points. But, I kept on, and started playing with them regularly. (BTW, I played those very same guys, this very morning). I started losing weight at this point, but not too, too much.

I found that I liked r-ball, even though I wasn't very good... but I was, indeed, getting better. I started playing much more often, up to 5 days a week, sometimes 6....

At about that time, I found MFP. The simplicity of the plan, and the ease of use of the android app made it easy to start. I set as my goal a weight of 159, which was what I'd have to weigh to have a BMI of 25, or "normal". I went the 1200 cal/day route, and at first, I didn't eat my exercise cals back. I started losing weight quite smoothly and predictably, at about 2.5 lbs/week. I found that the clarity and focus that the app gave me regarding my intake made it easy to control my eating habits. I had never really thought much about it before, but with all of the facts so easily available, I had the "feedback" I needed to make it easy to govern my consumption. This was a critical piece of the puzzle, and now you have found it, too!

As far as my eating habits, I eat what I want to, just in a controlled way, taking into consideration that if I splurge, I will have to make up for it later. That's a big disincentive for Fritos, and a big incentive for veggies.

All of that r-ball playing led to a shoulder injury - rotator cuff something or other. I had to take a couple of weeks off to heal. I was unhappy about this, because the new diet and all of that exercise was paying off, with my weight coming down noticeably, and predictably.

But not being able to play r-ball is what led me to discover the elliptical trainer. I noticed that the folks who used it regularly were in good shape, so it made sense that this would be a good thing to do - duh. So, I gave it a try. The first time I did, I lasted a whole 3 minutes, again, dripping with sweat. I remember feeling looks of scorn as I walked away, huffing and puffing. But still, I kept on - I returned the next day to try again, and the day after....

I was increasing my elliptical use quite steeply, and kept using it even after my shoulder healed up. After a couple of months I was able to do an hour, albeit with great sweaty effort. I did the elliptical 5 days a week for a few months, usually between 30 and 60 minutes a day, depending on if I had an r-ball game or not.

The pounds kept coming off, and my BMI crossed the threshhold of being merely "overweight". Better still, my doctor told me that (almost) all of my issues, notably blood sugar, cholesterol and lipids were all normalizing. My resting heart rate went from over 90 BPM to under 60. My blood pressure, which was only a little high to begin with, became normal.

The graph of my weight was a nice smooth line, gently descending at a rate of about 2 lbs oer week. My health was getting better, and my clothes were falling off of me. I got some new ones, and I actually went out on my first date in over 20 years. I kinda feel sorry for her, as I was so inept. I'm getting much better at it now.

I was approaching "normal" BMI - my goal - when I was hit with the dreaded "plateau". It seems that the closer you get to "normal weight", the harder it is for you to lose more. It's very frustrating when what you've been doing so successfully no longer works.

I did a bunch of stuff trying to break the plateau, which has now lasted for several months (yes, I think it's still going on now). I added a variety of cardio exercises - including the treadmill and the rowing machine - and I bought some dumbbells, and added a small amount of weight training - which has been beneficial to my r-ball, and the way my clothes fit. (I've lost 9 inches around my waist - from a 38 to a 29)

And that brings us to today, a couple of days before my 50th birthday, and about 8 or 9 months in. After starting at 224 lbs, I am right at my goal weight (a little under today, at 158), but still struggling to break this plateau - which I will do, eventually. All in all, I'm quite happy with my progress, and I expect to lose about 5-10 more lbs, then enter the next phase, maintainance, with it's new challenges.

I hope you folks who are new here see a theme in my little tale, which is "keep going". It might be hard, or embarrassing, but if you wish to succeed, perseverance and overcoming discouragements are necessary ingredients.

There is a quote (which I stole from someone else here at MFP) in my signature, below, that might be of interest to you, as well. The next time you face the temptation of self defeating behavior, whether it's the temptation of a food you'd like to eat, or the temptation to blow off some exercise, it might help you to think of those words. I do.

I would wish you luck, but for the majority of us, luck is not necessary, as your success is in your own - quite capable - hands.

CoryIda

90 pounds and 73+ inches in 9 months -

Eat nutritious, well-balanced meals and snacks (including the dreaded "carb," which isn't so bad as long as you choose healthy versions like whole grains and fresh fruits), drink LOTS of water, and move your body.

That's what I've done. No magic pill, no crazy diet, just practice a sensible, healthy, active lifestyle.

CommittohealthCHANGED

I decided in 01/2010 to lose weight due to different health problems. I had my well women and my results was awful. My blood work was abnormal, cholesterol was high, iron was low (anemia). I left the doctor office with a prescripion for high blood pressure and iron pills. While I was driving I was thinking I am 39 years old and turn 40 years old next year. Well ton of bricks hit me hard my mother had open heart surgery at 40 years old. I asked myself DO YOU WANT THAT OR DO YOU WANT TO DIE EARLY. I decide I wanted to live and be healthy. I lost 66 pounds in 1 and 1/2 years. I started out weighing 242 pounds with 35% body fats and now currently weighting in at 176 pounds with 28% body fat. I was wearing a size 18-20 in pants and a xl-2xl in shirts. I am currentl wearing 8-10 in pants and medium-large in shirts. My last check up with my doctor was great. I don't need to take any other medicine beside the blood pressure medicine which is a low dose. I love being healthy and enjoy the weight loss even more. My journey has encourage my husband to lose weight. my hubby lost 70 pounds. he started out weight at 272 pounds and now weighing in at 189 pounds. He is not as deidicated as me but he working on it. Heres is by pics.

kathvg

what great stories/pics from ALL of you!!!
i am still working on my weight loss but so far i have done it like most people on MFP...holding myself accountable for what i eat and being more active! i have also dabbled with the 17 day diet over the past month or so but it kind of lost me/my interest at the start of cycle 3. i HOPE to get back on it in the near future though as my bff has had great results with it and i know i can too
a BIG CONGRATS to everyone who has taken great steps towards improving their health and good luck to those who are just beginning their weight loss journey...

CommittohealthCHANGED

I decided in 01/2010 to lose weight due to different health problems. I had my well women and my results was awful. My blood work was abnormal, cholesterol was high, iron was low (anemia). I left the doctor office with a prescripion for high blood pressure and iron pills. While I was driving I was thinking I am 39 years old and turn 40 years old next year. Well ton of bricks hit me hard my mother had open heart surgery at 40 years old. I asked myself DO YOU WANT THAT OR DO YOU WANT TO DIE EARLY. I decide I wanted to live and be healthy. I lost 66 pounds in 1 and 1/2 years. I started out weighing 242 pounds with 35% body fats and now currently weighting in at 176 pounds with 28% body fat. I was wearing a size 18-20 in pants and a xl-2xl in shirts. I am currentl wearing 8-10 in pants and medium-large in shirts. My last check up with my doctor was great. I don't need to take any other medicine beside the blood pressure medicine which is a low dose. I love being healthy and enjoy the weight loss even more. My journey has encourage my husband to lose weight. my hubby lost 70 pounds. he started out weight at 272 pounds and now weighing in at 189 pounds. He is not as deidicated as me but he working on it. Heres is by pics.

Edit: Forgot to say I lost the weight doing Beachbody programs. I started with Insanity (2 rounds) 4 months. Then I took a break and ran on the treadmill for about a month. Then I did Rev abs. Then Chalean Extreme along with Brizal butt lift (hy-bird). I am currently doing Isnaity Asylum. After asylum. I wiil be doing another Hy-bird (asylum and P90X).

LTRUITT3

bump

ShrinkingNinja

I don't know if I'm really considered an all star... but here is my story.

5ft 4

SW 295.5
CW 197

Took me since 4-19-11 to go from 275.5 to current weight.

What did I do? Read the Rosedale Diet by Ron Rosedale and Mastering Leptin by Byron Richards. Followed their suggestions of meal timing and foods to avoid.

I take karate, kickboxing and do p90x.

HOLY COW!!!! you lost around 80lbs in 2 months?!?!?! is that right??

if so, that's UNBELIEVEABLE!!! Great Job!!

and even if it's a typo, that's an incredible amount of weight to loose, keep it up girl!!!

I wish.... That was a typo.... 4-19-10 was the right date.

jojoof4

bump

Hearts_2015

bumpin to read some later

jujudot

bumpity bump


Thanks for all that have shared!!

ImperfektAngel

:-)