50 lbs in 6 months!

PedalHound

I began my journey to a healthier self and started MFP all in the same day. June 8th of this year, 1 day shy of 6 months ago. I was amazed by how easy it was to follow the numbers, create even healthier meals and actually eat regularly throughout the day! I have two young children ages 4 and almost 2 and I wasn't eating regularly although it was pretty healthy food. I eat my work out calories (after subtracting the 20 cals per 10 minutes that I'd be burning just sitting there, of course!), I eat whole foods and not processed, dyed, flavoured, artificially-sweetened ones, and I eat every 2-3 hours. I'm careful with sodium, I get lots of fibre and balance my carbs/fats/proteins thoughout the day plus I get at least 8 8oz glasses of water into me. This all ads up to having lost a healthy and steady amount of weekly weight (except for the few weeks in the fall where I plateaued due to eating too few calories - only 1200 a day) and to my AMAZEMENT I have suddenly crossed the 50lb mark in my loss. :noway: I knew it was coming, I could see the numbers, but this has struck me like nothing before. You can't fake that number. That's not water weight or those first easy 5 to 10 lbs of recently added fat that your body isn't too attached-to. It's all a success but I honestly never thought I could do it. In any other year those 6 months would have been spent lamenting my shape, wishing for the magic key, or planning on starting "tomorrow". Yay me :bigsmile:
So keep plugging away. Where might YOU be 6 months from now if you do!!

PedalHound

I began my journey to a healthier self and started MFP all in the same day. June 8th of this year, 1 day shy of 6 months ago. I was amazed by how easy it was to follow the numbers, create even healthier meals and actually eat regularly throughout the day! I have two young children ages 4 and almost 2 and I wasn't eating regularly although it was pretty healthy food. I eat my work out calories (after subtracting the 20 cals per 10 minutes that I'd be burning just sitting there, of course!), I eat whole foods and not processed, dyed, flavoured, artificially-sweetened ones, and I eat every 2-3 hours. I'm careful with sodium, I get lots of fibre and balance my carbs/fats/proteins thoughout the day plus I get at least 8 8oz glasses of water into me. This all ads up to having lost a healthy and steady amount of weekly weight (except for the few weeks in the fall where I plateaued due to eating too few calories - only 1200 a day) and to my AMAZEMENT I have suddenly crossed the 50lb mark in my loss. :noway: I knew it was coming, I could see the numbers, but this has struck me like nothing before. You can't fake that number. That's not water weight or those first easy 5 to 10 lbs of recently added fat that your body isn't too attached-to. It's all a success but I honestly never thought I could do it. In any other year those 6 months would have been spent lamenting my shape, wishing for the magic key, or planning on starting "tomorrow". Yay me :bigsmile:
So keep plugging away. Where might YOU be 6 months from now if you do!!

cheermom11

That's fantastic! Congratulations!! :drinker:

pjlim

I believe Congrats! is in order. Way to go! I hope to follow your success.

melissa91971

Way to go!
I looked at your before and WOW! I posted several pic of me currently so that as I get closer I can update and show my progress.
I believe I can do this because this time it is for my health and my thought process is different than the other times in the past.
I am looking forward to the day I can inspire other the way you just did me!:smooched:
~Mel

Mangoaddict

I love your story! Gives me hope Many congrats to you for your hard work. Keep it up!:flowerforyou:

jimswmn

Congrats!

healthier4me

Awesome...congrats on all your hard work!!!!

Thanks for sharing your journey. You are an inspiration to us newcomers!

arewethereyet

kjllose

You should be so proud of your accomplishment. Congratulations on a job well done. :flowerforyou:

pixiestick

Thank you for the last sentence of your post. To know that someone knows success is inspiring, but to have a successful someone inspire you to join them is very special.

Thanks.

PedalHound

Thanks so much everyone!!!

willywonka

That is awesome, congratulations!!!
You look wonderful

shoppingqueen34

How awesome!!! :flowerforyou:

GettingThin08

OMG how did you do it?

Phoenix_Rising

'Atta girl!! :drinker:

PedalHound

OMG how did you do it?

Well, like my first post said, I keep within my calories with whole, healthy foods (nothing artificial, only ingredients that I'd find in my own kitchen and not chemicals or additives, nothing "diet" and no refined or artificial sweeteners). I get complex carbs and protein with every meal (5 to 7 times a day), I get between 25 and 35g of fibre a day, keep my sodium under control (mine is never over 1550 but I had hypertension during my last pregnancy so I have my limit set lower since I have a physiological susceptibility to blood pressure issues). I drink 8 x 8oz glasses of water a day (and when I work out, I drink to thirst to replace the lost fluid and I don't count that in my daily water consumption because it's just putting back in what I sweat out). I get 45 to 60 minutes of cardio 4 days a week and weights 2-3 days a week plus some light exercise like walking, yoga or pilates on non-workout days. Every 6 weeks I take 7 days off of scheduled work-outs to recover fully and avoid over-training. I always eat my exercise calories but I also make sure to subtract my resting cals from that number before adding to MFP so I don't over-eat. For example, if I burn 400 calories in 60 minutes of exercise I only add 280 cals to MFP and only eat an extra 280 cals. Most people burn between 15 and 25 calories every 10 minutes just sitting still doing nothing. If you have a heart rate monitor you can check this by sitting and reading your heart rate for 30 minutes and dividing by 3. When you work out, you need to subtract that number for every 10 minutes of exercise. So 60 minutes is 6 x 20 = 120, 400 cals burned - 120 resting cals = 280. It's a really common mistake that can hold people back from loss!
The biggest thing is not letting the set-backs keep you back! This is LIFE! REAL life. There will be parties and dinners out and drinks with friends... every day won't be a perfect day. Learning to move on from the less-than-perfect days and live a healthy, balanced lifestyle with your best nutritional choices 80% of the time is the road to success.
And one thing I used to want to deny is that exercise is important for a lot of reasons (cardiovascular health, bone strength and so on) but it is your NUTRITION that holds the key to a trim and healthy body. I've always loved exercise. It was realizing the actual power of food that has unlocked this for me.

Good luck!!!

kellch

That is awesome lady :flowerforyou: :drinker: WTG :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

Kateeliz

:drinker: :flowerforyou: Congrats! You are such an inspiration to me

Juliebean_1027

Awesome job girlie! You've come so far! :flowerforyou: :drinker:

pdxmomof2

Congrats! You rock! :bigsmile:

jojo52610

WTG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drinker: :drinker:

janiebeth

Just loved the dancing banana - had to bump it..

Way to go PedalHound!! That is an awesome journey you are on.. You Go Girl!!

J

AJCM

That is amazing and you look wonderful in your pic!!! 50 lbs - wow! You are such an inspiration that it can be done, and I LOVED what you said about 50 lbs being the real deal, that's not water weight! That's hard work and sweat!

Congrats and keep going!
You might just inspire me to do another 10 lbs....
:flowerforyou:

cettefille

Congratulations.

I hope I can maintain the type of determination and motivation as you have, and I hope that in 5/12 months I too can say that I've lost 50 lbs already.

plantlady99

Congratulations to you Congratulations to you!!!!!


What a great story and inspiration. I also want to see my goal in at lease 6 months. Thank you so much again for your story.


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

Kathy

nickybr38

I began my journey to a healthier self and started MFP all in the same day. June 8th of this year, 1 day shy of 6 months ago. I was amazed by how easy it was to follow the numbers, create even healthier meals and actually eat regularly throughout the day! I have two young children ages 4 and almost 2 and I wasn't eating regularly although it was pretty healthy food. I eat my work out calories (after subtracting the 20 cals per 10 minutes that I'd be burning just sitting there, of course!), I eat whole foods and not processed, dyed, flavoured, artificially-sweetened ones, and I eat every 2-3 hours. I'm careful with sodium, I get lots of fibre and balance my carbs/fats/proteins thoughout the day plus I get at least 8 8oz glasses of water into me. This all ads up to having lost a healthy and steady amount of weekly weight (except for the few weeks in the fall where I plateaued due to eating too few calories - only 1200 a day) and to my AMAZEMENT I have suddenly crossed the 50lb mark in my loss. :noway: I knew it was coming, I could see the numbers, but this has struck me like nothing before. You can't fake that number. That's not water weight or those first easy 5 to 10 lbs of recently added fat that your body isn't too attached-to. It's all a success but I honestly never thought I could do it. In any other year those 6 months would have been spent lamenting my shape, wishing for the magic key, or planning on starting "tomorrow". Yay me :bigsmile:
So keep plugging away. Where might YOU be 6 months from now if you do!!

Wow. That's quite a story!!!! My goal is to be somewhere near my goal weight by my birthday (august) so we'll see. That's eight months. It could be 50 lbs by then!!!!

Thanks for sharing your story.

MsEmerald

Congratulations you are such an inspiration!!

However, I did not know that losing weight was so technical. I still don't understand how to add or subtract exercise calories. I'm doing everything I can to keep my calories at 1200 a day. However you and other successful MFP members have shared advice about exercise calories, BMR, etc. It's all a bit technical for me. Can I have the same success as you if I stick to my 1200 calories a day and exercise 30-60 minutes 4-5 times a week?

PedalHound

Congratulations you are such an inspiration!!

However, I did not know that losing weight was so technical. I still don't understand how to add or subtract exercise calories. I'm doing everything I can to keep my calories at 1200 a day. However you and other successful MFP members have shared advice about exercise calories, BMR, etc. It's all a bit technical for me. Can I have the same success as you if I stick to my 1200 calories a day and exercise 30-60 minutes 4-5 times a week?

I'm a personal trainer (and science nerd) and the quick answer is probably not. And I have to preempt that the best we can do is work with estimations unless you go get a whole scientific work-up done to calculate your actual BMR and metabolic info, but given that we're working with averages you have to keep in mind that for a woman about the lowest daily caloric intake that will allow your metabolism to function like it is supposed to is 1200 a day.
With the weight you've got yet to lose you may be able to get away with that for now (when you have more weight to lose your body is slightly better able to handle a bigger calorie deficit in theory but again your specific body may not agree with that. They key if you want to go down to 1200 cals a day though, is if you do exercise you MUST eat more. We lose weight by calorie deficit. Our bodies need more than they are given so they use fat. Basic, yes? If your metabolism of fat shuts down when you get fewer than about 1200 calories a day, you won't burn fat. If you only eat 1200 calories AND you burn MORE calories by exercising you are giving your body fewer than 1200 calories a day and you won't burn fat. And the more weight you have to lose, the more calories you burn with exercise. You may be burning up to 1000 calories on 60 min exercise days if you're working at the top of your ability. If you only consume 1200 calories in food your body thinks you're getting 200 calories that day!!! OUCH! Over time, that will actually cause you to GAIN weight.
So to create the calorie deficit that gets our bodies to burn fat I would honestly say (knowing your "lbs to go" only) that you should either try to get into the practice of calculating and eating your work out calories AND increase to 1300 a day OR you should eat 1800 - 2200 calories per day if you are working out at a medium to high intensity 4-5x a week for 45 to 60 minutes. If you try to take the calorie deficit from diet AND exercise without putting calories back in for one of them, this won't work for you. I know that was just another heap of technical but there are the facts!! :flowerforyou: