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

ginmo333

bump...want to know all the secrets too

smpaselk

Loved your story its sounds a bit like my own! you go girl!

lovemyhellokitty

bumpity bump... LOVE this thread

ashesoh1234

Awesome! Thank you for sharing!

MelanieP_TX

Ok so I cannot get my pics to not BE HUGE so here are direct links- PS you all look amazing!

I started back in April 2010- I am down 77 pounds all by logging in almost everyday and exercising.. I never in a million years thought I would have come this far and honestly I still don't believe it. There is no magic pill, quick fix, or diet that works!! All you need is support and determination and you will get there, I promise you that!!

http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee479/mp31976/204602_1785153546720_1175946835_31682637_640181_o-1.jpg

http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee479/mp31976/208250_1785244989006_1175946835_31682855_4700681_n.jpg

http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee479/mp31976/47636_1806312677289_1224070298_32128283_2768025_n-1.jpg

MjDavis1981

Drew that is an awesome story. Can't wait to post my success.

bellinachuchina

Stats:

5'2"

SW- 244lbs.

CW- 134lbs.

Journey- April 2009 to March 2010

Maintainance Length- 1 year

How- 1200 cal diet, logged everything consumed daily, low or nonfat (30%), low carb (35%), low sugar, low sodium, high protein(35%), high fiber, some tae bo & swimming, no consumption of exercise calories, relentless mindset

Edited to add:

To maintain, I consume 1400-1700 daily.

lshere

wow you look great

WalkingGirl1985

I started April 2010, and lost 56 pounds to this point. I walked off my weight for the most part..watching my portions, trying to eat as healthy as possible. I have photos in my blog..(myfitnesspal.com/blog/walkinggirl1985- or however you do it) and also in my photo album if you want to see results. :happy:

blackchick41bb

great thread,will love to see more of this

blackchick41bb

bump

BeachGurl815

Great thread! Keep your stories coming!

rosemiller11

bump

blackchick41bb

keep um comminh\g

TaneeisFitforLife

My stories are here:
http://www.thatsfit.com/2011/06/07/tanee-weight-loss-170-pounds/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

and my blog that is a little more detailed is
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/TaneeisFitforLife/view/losing-a-person-49249

k2d4p

I go into a lot of detail in my success story blog. It tells of my exercise and diet. Just click on the link in my signature. (it has pictures too)

sarahbear1981

bump I want to see more of these. You are all so inspiring

2stepz

bump

Nini_Soto_

Bump

grimnir

This topic is awesome. I find it really helpful.

I just joined a month ago in the hope of losing 80-100 lbs, but I'm currently about 150 lbs below my peak weight, so I figure I might as well share.

At my biggest, around my 25th birthday, I weighed ~465 lbs (the doctor's scale only went to 450, and I don't know how much to trust the gas station bathroom scales, not to mention that I've never been big on weighing myself). I wore the largest size most clothes were available in at casual male, and they were snug. 6xlt. 60x34 pants (I'm 6'7"). I couldn't fit into the largest of suit jackets in the store. I struggled with suicidal depression, I was sick a lot, I'd self-medicate with cannabis most of the time just to deal with reality. I got into meditation, and did an all-natural food diet for like a month, and started feeling better. I made some minor progress towards improving my diet, following that, thinking about eating better even if I often fell down and ate at the buffet or McDonald's or downed a couple bags of chips. That was when it started, beginning to make the mental changes. I moved to Seattle into a house with a bunch of other musicians, mostly vegetarian anarchists, and I'd cook more. I still wound up eating too much McDonald's and go to the indian buffet near my house frequently, but I'd generally avoid having crappy food around the house just so I could feel less embarrassed about my poor food habits. Then in fall of '05 I moved back to Vermont to live with a really athletic vegetarian chef friend of mine, and became a vegetarian for a year, while learning a lot about cooking good food. We lived by a soccer field, and we'd play frisbee whenever it was nice, and do some other exercise besides. I didn't really diet much, and I was a MORE CHIPS AND CHEESE kind of vegetarian, and I ate a lot of fake meat, but I did lose weight, despite still struggling with depression.

Then I moved to Washington DC, in August '06, when a friend got me a job at a guitar shop. On the way down to DC, I weighed myself at a service area, at just over 400 lbs. Certainly a lot less than at my peak, but still I generally wore a size 58 waist and 5xlt shirt. At work, my feet hurt incredibly, like I'd barely be able to walk at the end of the workday, from all the standing. It was completely untenable, and it was a heck of a wake-up call. I decided to diet more seriously, or I'd be dead soon enough.

The diet I worked out was to eat absolutely no sugared drinks, candy, beer, or fried food for the duration. I decided I'd eat whatever I wanted for the first meal of the day, if it were 800 calories or 2000, so long as I stuck to the rules. Then I'd limit myself to 500 calories for the other two meals of the day, generally aiming for ~300. Usually I'd go to the diner nearest my house before work, usually going for a turkey dinner for days I'd go in at 1, or a big breakfast for mornings. For lunch at work I'd go to subway and eat a six inch sub with baked chips, or I'd put cheese on it instead. For dinner it was usually a lean cuisine dinner or similar, around 300 calories, though sometimes I'd have a serving of nuts or something to kick me up to 500. I'd be incredibly hungry in the evenings.

There were some things about the diet that were not at all healthy, even aside from the microwave dinners and sausage breakfasts. Each day I'd usually have two diet energy drinks, and we smoked inside the apartment, so I'd basically chain-smoke all night. The kitchen was tiny and dark, with nearly no counter space, so we never cooked. Not only that, but I did no exercise other than standing and walking around at work, and I lost enough muscle mass over the diet that I was noticeably weaker moving heavy boxes off the top shelves of the store room at the end. Worst of all, I lived with alcoholics at the time, and I drank like a fish the whole time. I'd have between 10 and 20 shots of straight gin or whisky each and every night. I know that's like an average of 1500 calories from alcohol, so it should have totally messed up my results, but it didn't. I hypothesize that the lack of volume to it and my empty stomach meant that it was all processed by my liver. I don't really know. Apart from thanksgiving, christmas, and new years, I didn't take any skip days.

Anyway, the diet worked great. I lost ~80lbs in just over 5 months, leaving me around 320lbs. By the end, I felt much better, and I was thin enough that I started getting a lot more attention from girls. I started going on dates again, and started going to restaurants again. I didn't really care that much that I wasn't actually healthy yet, I was just high on life, so I didn't bother continuing the diet. I stopped at the end of February '07.

Since then, I moved to Portland, OR, and I've been maintaining my weight at ~320 lbs pretty darn consistently, like if I noticed my jeans getting a bit more snug from a bout of overeating the junk, I'd sort of cut back for a few weeks until they loosened up again, though it was never a big deal one way or the other. Figure 2800-3800 calories a day, though I never really tracked it, and not too consistent about it either. For the last several years, I've been swordfighting in the park with kendo weapons and improvised pads, lacrosse helmets, etc on the weekends, but other than some mild walking around the neighborhood that's about it for exercise. The problem is, the gout and achilles tendonitis I first started experiencing at 400lbs has kept coming back, and I'm still nowhere near healthy, not to mention that the ladies of fit and trim Portland tend to be a bit more picky, not to mention less impressed by my other traits, what with all the musicians around town. Worse though, the rush of being lighter wore off years ago, and I'm just not happy with where I'm at anymore. I tried starting a diet at the beginning of the year, but without tracking and support, it went by the wayside shortly thereafter.

Anyway, to bring us up to date, I'm working with a personal trainer, am eating pretty healthy in a way that I enjoy, and seem to be having very little problem keeping myself in the weight loss zone this time, mostly by spreading the calories I'm allowed throughout the day and watching my balance of carbs/fat/protein and what different amounts seem to do to my mood and energy. I dropped an entire pant size in the last month, and am now smaller than I've been in fully 15 years. I'm hoping to hit 240 lbs by the end of the year, and get down to 225 by my birthday at the end of March, with considerably more muscle than I now possess. I really like MFP. It turns a confusing, murky process into a MMORPG, full of min/maxing stats and figuring out how to maximize my enjoyment while losing weight. Right now, with advice from my trainer, I'm at 30% carbs, 45% fat, 25% protein, and enjoying it greatly. I have no doubt that I'll be here through to my goal. I'm especially looking forward to skiing this winter without major foot pain, for the first time since I was 16 years old.

mtkautz

bump

Lo2101

bump

missymarea

Bump....

jody0912

Your stories are so inspiring - thank you for sharing! I will keep telling myself: just keep going.

IamFocused

Bump!!

grimnir

Anyone else got a story? I'd love to hear it...

AmberBarrios

I am not on the all star team just yet. LOL But I will be there soon.

The first thing I want to tell everyone starting out is, don't gauge your success by the success of others in terms of time.
I would get so discouraged when I would see my MFP friends who started months after me by passing me in lbs lost that I nearly gave up. I got stuck for several months and have just recently started to drop again. Our bodies all work in different ways. You just have to keep pushing till you get where you need to be.

I have lost 61lbs so far and I have been at it since May 4, 2010, I spent 6 months stuck in a plateau but didn't let it do me in.

Good luck to everyone who is continuing or starting their journeys, only you can change you!

Kittyfeliz

bump

neoblues856

Im not an all star either but wanted to share and hopefully motivate someone else:)
My starting weight was 265 and now im down to 174. It took me a year to peel the weight off.
when I first decided to lose weight I was so out of shape that the only thing I could do was walk so that's what I did.
At first it was very difficult and I was way out of breath before I got around the corner but my daughters encouraged me to keep it up and before I knew it I was walking around the block as I grew stronger I threw in exercise videos and weights.
And as of today I exercises everyday for atleast a half hour (cardio) plus I still walk daily.
I aim at 1200 calories daily and I drink lots and lots of water with an occasional diet pop now and then.
My goal is to lose a pound a week but I don't stress about it I just keep moving.

The best advice I could give anyone is just to get busy doing some kind of activity anything that gets you up and moving! Then slowly make changes as your ready. The weight will come off and you'll be motivated to keep it up! Just don't give up.

Alidecker

I don't really know what my aha moment was, but i was on vacation, went to lunch with my best friend on a Friday in September 2009, on the way home, I drove by a gym that had opened about 6 months earlier and I went in. I told myself I was just going to check it out....I signed up for a year membership. I got two free personal training sessions with my membership. I tild mysel I wasn't paying for a personal trainer until I proved to myself that I would actually go to the gym....after the 2nd free session, I signed up for 12 more. I have been going to the gym 5-6 days a week ever since (except for a few illnesses and injuries)

My first real (or paid for) session with my trainer was hard, he weighed me...320 pounds and we discussed goals and nutrition. My first goal was to lose 25 pounds by Christmas. Hit that before Thanksgiving Lost 50 pounds by the middle of January, 2010. In April I had my first minor stall - had to have my gallbladder taken out. Apparently this is an issue with weight loss. Took 10 days off, then started back at th gym. Hit the 100 pound mark at the end of May 2010.

By the end of the first year ( September 2010), I had lost 125 pounds. Things slowed down and I have been stuck between 186 and 188 since October (134 pounds lost) I am still trying to get to 175. In December, I had hip surgery and couldn't work out for 6 weeks. It was hard to deal with mentally. I had two fears...one that I would gain 30 pounds and two, I would not want to get back to my routine. Niether happened. I stayed the exact same weight!

My normal workout weeks now consist of M W F doing resistance training with some cardio, and all Cardio on T Th. Saturday I usually do a group fitness class which I love. Sunday....if I missed a day during the week, I usually go swim about a mile or so. Lately I have been doing some different classes to mix things up. TRX Circut training is what I am doing now. In the last month or so, I haven't lost any weight, but I have gone down a pants sixe

My diet....not always great. If I could get that under control, I would probably be at my goal weight. I try and eat between 1500 and 1750 calories a day. I eat 6 times a day, trying to get more protien, but not doing great at that either I didn;t give up alcohol completely, but I limited it to weekends, unless I am on vacation. When I gave myself that rule, about March, 2010 it helped with the weight loss. I eat a lot of fruit and try to eat more veggies, but mostly I worked on portion control. My personal trainer was a huge help with my workouts and my nutrition.

I love working out now, hate missing workouts. Who knew? Too bad I didn't do this 20 years ago, but I'm doing it now!