how did you lose the way, in steps please. thanks

MinnieInMaine

Track food - and be perfecly honest, even on the bad days

Exercise - do what makes you happy so you stick with it

Eat what you enjoy - some concept as the exercise. If you try living on rabbit food or cut all carbs and it drives you insane, guess what? That's not going to work in the long term. You might lose but then you'll gain it right back when you give up. Concentrate first on having healthy portion sizes then start making substitutions. Make sure all changes in your diet are ones you can live with long term.

Don't just focus on that number on the scale but also take measurements, pay attention to how your clothes are fitting and how your body is changing all the time. If you are truly aware, you will never be disappointed because there will always be something that's changing (assuming you're doing it right).

Everyone's different. I eat back all my exercise calories and go over several times per week and still lose. Others barely reach their calorie limits, don't eat back their exercise calories and lose. Try different things, give them at least 2 weeks to see the results, then try something new if that doesn't work.

Remember that what you start a new exercise or increase your intensity, your muscles will react by retaining water. This does not mean you've built muscle but you're on your way to that result and it's a good thing. Give it some time and the water will be released. See 2 paragraphs above - that # on the scale is not everything.

Track your sodium - even if you stay in your calories, if your sodium is too high, you'll retain water and lose slower. Plus, high sodium's not healthy. A great way to have less sodium is to eat more fresh/whole foods and stay away from the frozen/boxed/canned stuff.

Which brings me to the next thought - read labels, they're handy tools!

And finally, drink your water

ETA: just thought of another one - it can make life easy to eat the same things every day and do the same exercise routine every day but your body may stop reacting after a while. If you reach a plateau, try changing things up and see if that helps.

Missevanston

BUMP!

jenndeberv

24 day challenge has been awesome for me and my husband. You can check out my profile if you want to read more.

tameko2

Step 1: I started just trying to eat a tiny bit healthier. I didn't calorie count or record what I ate but I started making slightly better choices and eating slightly less. Probably did more on the portion control side than on the type of food I ate side since overeating was my big problem.

Step 2: I started going for walks every day. Just walked over to the park and walked in my jeans and flipflops.

Step 2.5: (kinda at the same time as the walks) I started logging my calories every day and eating within my MFP goal.

Step 3: I went and got real workout clothes (shoes and pants) and kept walking, longer

Step 4: I started working with a personal trainer 2 days a week, and also started adding more strength training in the form of pushups/situps/bodyweight at home exercise.

Step 5: I started focusing on getting more protein daily. Didn't focus very hard.

Step 6: I added some jogging to my walks.

Step 7: I *upped* my calories which had been dropping as I lost weight -- but my exercise had been increasing this whole time and my fat stores had shrunk. I got more energy and immediately dropped 2 lbs after a short plateau.

Step 8: Found out my last 8 lbs of loss was 5lbs fat 3lbs lean and am refocusing harder on protein daily. It sucks. Ihope ot works.

obviously there will be more steps eventually. I'm still in progress. Currently working on adding weight, more pushups, and doing a pullup!

jessikas5

Great topic, so much helpful advice. Thanks!

meosha30

I have decided to take control of my body and get back to doing the things I enjoy. I thought back on my weight loss in 2008 and all of the resources I had, so I decided to log on to the 50millionpoundchallenge website when I did this I was reminded of the meal plan. I made my decision then to print out the 30-Day Meal Plan and its grocery list to get started. I started following it and was worried about how much food I had to eat. I started researching and found MFP and started counting the calories it require me to eat. It is more than my MFP calorie goal, but I decided to stick with it for these 30 days since it had me losing a good amount of weight…7 lbs in 10 days. I just started going to the gym after the 7 lbs being lost because I was thinking how much more it could be if I was doing cardio and resistant training. I plan to go to the gym 5 days doing, 3-cardio & 2-rest days.

I wish everyone the best of luck on their journey.

marky54

This is how I did mine:

1. I went to see dr. make sure everything was working the it was suppose to. I complete physical (wanted so see if I had any excuse for being fat, and it turns out I didn't...lol )

2. I started logging in EVERYTHING i ate on MFP, this made me aware of what I was eating

3. Started substituting and doing research on better foods that I like and making better food choices

4.. I started doing the Wii dance for 30 minutes each morning.

5.. I started walking at lunch for 30 min. each day

6. Started getting up earlier and doing kickboxing in the mornings for an hour

7. started jogging for 30 min at lunch

This all happened in a 6-7 month period or so, and 20 pounds down. Good luck on your journey, and you can still have chocolate and what you want as long as 80-90% percent of the time, you make good healthy choices

Remember, you didn't put (x) amount of weight over night, so don't expect to lose it over night

I use the Wii too. 40 mins free jogging most days but up the to 90/120 mins on days off.

Using MFP has been a massive help and now I've lost 30 pounds since June 6th.

Rae6503

For the first 9 months I just tried to eat "well" without counting anything or being too strict. I'd work out occasionally, but nothing regular. I lost about 18lbs that way.

In May I started Turbo Fire. In June I started counting calories on MFP. I eat between 1800-2500 calories. I've lost about 12 pounds this way.

dgarblik

I love this topic! Bumpp

MisterDubs303

bump

uchaniece

thanks everyone :blushing:

SMarie10

What a great topic. Helps me to read the other peoples approaches to remind myself that there is a method to this MFP madness and it's not magic and doesn't happen overnight. If it was easy, we wouldn't need MFP. Definitely a good bump topic

BTW, has anyone given up drinking alcohol as part of their healthy steps. I did it for three months and need to do it again.