How did YOU reach your goal?

ohheyy125

It seems like a lot of people have different approaches. I'd like to see what actually worked for everyone. A lot of people just starting out have all of these great new diet ideas but who says they will actually be successful?

Right now I'm eating between 1200-1400 calories/day and burning 1200-1500 calories/week at the gym, and I gained a pound. I'm hoping its water retention because I've been slacking on drinking my daily 8 cups of water/day. Upping the water, chilling on the sodium, and we'll see what happens. BTW I'm 5'2, 136 lbs and the goal is 125 lbs.

So what did you do to lose weight?

ohheyy125

Anyone? Is this going to be one of those sad unanswered topics =(

I'm just going through success stories and not too many people are saying how they got where they are so I figured why not compile a bunch of them together.

kath134

Just starting with MFP -- time to get real and accountable. so i don't have too much advice yet.

i have same calorie range: 1200-1400. i practice [and teach] power yoga a few times/week and am kicking in the cardio with 30 day shred.

Laura8603

I had weight loss surgery 4 years ago. I was 200 pounds overweight and was never going to lose it and keep it off without help. I busted my *kitten* to lose it and still work hard everyday to keep it off. Life is good!!

kenziestx

I'm in the same boat. I was eating between 1200-1400 calories and dropped 9 pounds in the first 4 weeks, then 3 addtional pound. At 6 weeks I stalled. I'm at week 13 now and I still havn't lost anything else. I am even exercising more. I used to just do cardio 3 days a week, but I have upped it to 5 days for the last month. I have been going harder and longer with no results. I started the 30 day shred yesterday and am hoping to see some results. I have seriously been thinking about upping my calories to around 2000/day. I have been reading a lot of things that say you need to eat at least your BMR, which for me is 2032. I'm scared to do it and put on any weight though. It's just frustrating, I've been at it for over 3 months, and working really hard with hardly any results.

LorinaLynn

I started at 1200 (plus exercise calories) and realized within a few weeks that I wasn't going to lose 2 pounds a week without the help of a stomach flu, and changed my calories to 1 pound a week and got 1350 (plus exercise calories). Stayed there until I got within about 10 pounds of my goal, then switched to .5 pounds a week (about 1500 plus exercise calories).

All told, I lost 25 pounds in 6 months, averaging about 1700-2000+ calories a day, exercising by running and doing light circuit training (body weight and 5# dumbbell stuff).

AFTER reaching my goal weight, I started heavy lifting, and that's what really transformed my body. I wish I started sooner.

I'm currently maintaining at about 2300 calories (I'm a little under during the week to allow wiggle room on weekends when I don't log), running 2-3x a week and heavy lifting (stronglifts 5x5) 3x a week.

LoraF83

I'm not at goal yet, but I'm getting pretty close (to my original goal anyway, I was overweight enough not to know what goal weight to pick....I literally had no idea what my body would/could look like at a much lower weight. I'll probably shoot for another 10-15lbs after I hit this goal).

I started out at 1200 cals, couldn't do it and upped to around 1400-1500. My hair fell out and I had no energy. I was exercising 5-6 days a week at the time. I did my research and started doing TDEE-20%. So right now, I'm losing about 1lb a week on 2000 cals or so. No loss in the last few weeks, but I haven't been counting calories very much due to holidays.

I run 2-3 times a week, take a spinning class once a week, and I do strength training 2-3 times a week. Over the summer, I was also pretty lax on my calories - and I only lost 4lbs from June to September. I did however, lose an entire pants size. Thank you strength training!

I plan on being able to maintain on 2200-2500 calories, depending on my final weight.

rudegyal_b

i did a series of short lower cal cycles (1300-1600) for about 2 weeks at a time then went to maintenance. i have good muscle definition for someone who's dieted down so i think short cycles were the trick. i began lifting heavy about 3 months into starting MFP, as well as running and turbofire. i never gave up even when it seemed nothing was happening. stay on plan and things will fall into place. ive surpassed my goals 3 times now.

Chief_Rocka

Monitoring progress and adjusting calories as necessary + patience

Sarauk2sf

What worked for me (just a couple of pounds away from goal):

1) Eat mostly nutritious foods at a reasonable (ie 1lb or less) deficit
2) Hit my macros (1g of protein per lb of LBM, 0.35g fat per total body weight as a minimum)
3) Strength train
4) Take a diet break every couple of months
5) Try to get enough sleep
6) Be as accurate in my weighting/measuring/logging as possible
7) Eat ice-cream every day

ChangingAmanda

Preface this by saying that I've only been doing this for a few weeks so I am no expert. Changes I made:
1) Reduced calorie intake.
a) The first five days I tried for 1270 calories based on the MFP default and felt awful. I upped my goal to 1600 and have felt very good since then.
b) I log everything with the exception of Thanksgiving day and the Saturday after because I was with family. If I can't find it on the package or if the restaurant doesn't have nutritional info online (mom & pop type places), I choose the highest calorie option in the food search.
c) I've also stopped eating out/ordering in as much - went from 6+ times a week to 4 or 5 times the past month.
d) I stopped drinking soda - 4-6+ a day to a grand total of about 8 in the past month.
e) I was eating back half my exercise calories. Now that I have a heart rate monitor that will more accurately track my exercise calories, I'll eat back more.
f) I still eat everything I used to, just much less of it. If I want ice cream and it's in my calorie budget, I eat it. In the past I haven't been successful if I cut out all the "bad food" so this time I'm changing my focus.

2) Exercise & track calorie expenditure.
a) My gym offers a fee based small group training that's a good cross between a large group exercise class and personal training. It's 12-16 exercises in a circuit training situation using all sorts of exercises, weights, bosus, balls, etc. Even tho I'm so overweight and out of shape, I try to do each exercise as intended but do ask the coaches for modifications if they're too hard or causing pain in my knees or feet.
b) I bought a Fitbit One to help track normal daily activity. According to it, on non exercise days, I expend an average of 2600 calories a day.
c) I bought a heart rate monitor because I wasn't impressed with the calculations MFP was giving about exercise expenditure. The Fitbit is helpful if you're doing something like walking/running, but not as good for circuit training, group exercise, etc. My first night wearing it at class it calculated I burned about 488 calories in 60 minutes. According to MFP, the calories for 60 minutes was close to 800. Huge difference.

3) Drinking water. I drink 12+ 8oz per day. I have a 24oz Contigo water bottle that I take with me everywhere. I'm lucky that both my home fridge and my work place have a filtered water system.


So that's what I've done so far and so far I've stuck to it longer and have lost more weight that in the past. I realize I have a LONG way to go, but I'm feeling better about this than ever before. Hope this helps.

ohheyy125

Great info so far!

I'm in the same boat. I was eating between 1200-1400 calories and dropped 9 pounds in the first 4 weeks, then 3 addtional pound. At 6 weeks I stalled. I'm at week 13 now and I still havn't lost anything else. I am even exercising more. I used to just do cardio 3 days a week, but I have upped it to 5 days for the last month. I have been going harder and longer with no results. I started the 30 day shred yesterday and am hoping to see some results. I have seriously been thinking about upping my calories to around 2000/day. I have been reading a lot of things that say you need to eat at least your BMR, which for me is 2032. I'm scared to do it and put on any weight though. It's just frustrating, I've been at it for over 3 months, and working really hard with hardly any results.

I started with 3x/week gym too, now it's 4-5x and starting 30 day shred on top of that. Somethings gotta give.

Also glad to see I could potentially eat more than 1200-1400 calories and still lose.

jackpotclown

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I want you to think of what you ate today. Got it? Now cut that in half, this is called a diet, people, everyone start one today! Darcy, you should stop eating. You see, when you skip a meal, your body feeds off its fat stores. And if you skip enough, maybe your body will eat your *kitten*! \m/

shyeban

So far I've lost 30lbs. This has been eating less and moving more. Eating about 1500 calories, cycling and doing Zumba.
The next 20 are proving more difficult just because I have less time and less motivation... But maintaining doesn't seem to be a problem.

fcp1234

How did I reach my goal? I cant answer that. I have a new goal every so often

How did i lose weight? : Easy, counting calories, working out and being patient.

EatClean_WashUrNuts

Why is this in the Success Stories?

krickeyuu

5"4" 52yo
SW=153
CW=132
GW=130 (or maybe 125)
Started this journey January 16, 2012
I decided to eat TDEE for my goal weight of 130lbs. I have a desk job and I am not that active after work either so I used sedentary. For me, that was about 1500 calories. At first, I just ate whatever I wanted within that caloried deficit--basically same stuff I ate before.
I did mostly cardio,about 5 days per week for 45-70 minutes. I ate back my exercise calories.
In May I joined MFP just for logging into the database. Later I started reading the forums and started making additional changes.
Now I have my macros set to about .8 grams of protein per lb of LBM and .5 grams of fat per lb of LBM and them the rest carbs. I have fiber set to 28 grams and soduim to 1600 grams. This has REALLY cleaned up my eating. I still drink a glass of wine every day.
I have consistently lost .5 lb per week, so 2 lbs per month. Since eating cleaner in the past several months my blood pressure is lower, my IBS symptoms are fewer and I look and feel much better.
I am about to start lifting heavy to reshape my body.

This is what worked for me.

kenziestx

*I hope that you are joking....I can't tell. But just in case I posted something below.

kenziestx

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I want you to think of what you ate today. Got it? Now cut that in half, this is called a diet, people, everyone start one today! Darcy, you should stop eating. You see, when you skip a meal, your body feeds off its fat stores. And if you skip enough, maybe your body will eat your *kitten*! \m/

But your body will start feeding off of your muscle mass too, not just your fat. Who wants to be "skinny fat"? Not me. We are not on diets on MFP, we are here to change our lifestyle. We want to be smaller, but healthy. I don't care if it takes me 2 years, I'm not going to starve myself to lose weight. That is just dumb.

sandradev1

I only joined 7 weeks ago but have lost 7 pounds and feeling pretty good. I have been between 20 and 30 lbs overweight most of m y adult life, despite trying various methods and slimming clubs. I came across MFP by accident when looking for google apps for my android tablet. I decided to try it just to see and have been amazed at the results.
This started me thinking about the theory behind 'eating correctly to ideal weight/health'. I realised that I had only been successful and got to my goal weight 2 times in my life. Once when I became a gym junkie, going every single day doing hour class and then gym circuit on most days. This gave brilliant results and I remember telling everybody how I had done it by sheer hard work as I had not changed my diet at all. consequently I could no longer afford the time or the money to continue at the gym and the weight eventually piled back on. The second time I got to target weight was when I attended a slimming world class and faithfully followed it to the letter. At this time I did not do that much exercise.
All other attempts of dieting and cycling etc have failed until now. I now realise that the theory of eating under your TDEE is definitely the key. It is not just pure luck, or your frame of mind etc etc. When at the gym I was eating my normal diet but working off - big time - most of the calories. When with slimming world I was controlling what I was eating, which is much the same as now.
The difference for me this time, is that I now understand what my body is doing rather than blindly following what I have been told to eat. I also realise then WHEN I reach my target this time I need to continue to monitor my calorie intake over expenditure to ensure I stay at target weight and healthy. I have spent a lifetime trying to do this, so if this takes me 30 weeks to lose 1 lb a week, that's no time at all in the grand scheme of things.

jonesie84

I hope this helps you

I workout 30-45min 5x a week. Mostly elliptical and running/walking on the treadmill. i just recently raised my calorie intake to 1400-1600 because i have been told I'm not taking in enough calories for what i burn in exercise. I also measure out an exact portion of something so i know its calories. i love my measuring cups! I do eat more fruits and veggies, but i still enjoy what i like. For example...instead of 4 pieces of pizza i eat 1 maybe 2 depending on my calories. I'm about 15lb from my goal weight! Its taken me since Jan 7th of this year to lsoe 45lb so dont rush it. Good luck!


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Angellaree

**bump**

djames92

just had extreme motivation and didnt let anything get in my way no cheat days no nothing just eating healthy

LadyIntrepid

I had a little more weight to lose, but like you, I was in the not having to lose a whole bunch zone. I made sure to NET 1200-1500 calories daily, and really started to see movement when I hit the gym 5-6 days a week including 3 1/2 hours of weight/strength training and another 4 or so hours of cardio, not to mention walking the dog daily and being up and about quite a lot. Everyone's different, but this is what's been the magic formula for me.

All that and patience. Patience patience. When you don't have a lot to lose, it's definitely a slower process.

dhiammarath

Diet and exercise. I kept to about 1200ish calories for a while, then upped it when I upped my exercise. I'm not real awesome at adhering to my "limit", but I'm very hard on myself in terms of expectations, so I don't really have "cheat" days. Instead, I try to live in moderation. My diet isn't super clean, super fancy, or even super anything, and that's mainly because I'm changing my lifestyle to fit my needs and what I KNOW I can maintain going forward. But I'm under my calories, I get my nutrition, and the thing I miss most is all the Starbucks I used to drink!

I think the biggest thing is find something that works for you in both the short and long run. Each person is different!

Ewaldt

I think the key is just to realize that it IS going to take time if it is something that you want to be able to keep up. If your goals are too fast, you are most likely overworking yourself, which is not something that you will want to stick with after you reach your goals, which leads to a regression to your former lifestyle, and losing all of your progress. If you are in it for the long haul, your expectations of yourself must be realistic and achievable because if not, you will never be able to stick to them.

drusilla126

When I started I dropped myself down to 1200 calories and was working out at Curves on top of that. I quickly started feeling like death. I read up on BMR and found that my body needed at least 1600 calories or so so I could function in a coma so I quickly (and hesitantly) upped my calories and also started eating back my exercise calories. In addition to counting calories I'm at Curves 5 days a week. I've been doing this since the end of February and found out yesterday I am down 70 pounds. No plateaus, no starving and no push ups.

staceyseeger

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I want you to think of what you ate today. Got it? Now cut that in half, this is called a diet, people, everyone start one today! Darcy, you should stop eating. You see, when you skip a meal, your body feeds off its fat stores. And if you skip enough, maybe your body will eat your *kitten*! \m/

I know what movie that came from! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

BurtHuttz

I ate above my BMR and below my TDEE. I was hungrier than usual at first so I started eating smaller portions with greater frequency. As I incorporated more and more exercise, I still ate between my BMR and TDEE. I incorporated more protein in the mornings. I've hit a few bumps in the road with respect to exercise recently but have kept my calories in check and have not gained.

Since the turn of the year I've lost 15% of my body weight, probably reduced my body fat by 20%, and increased my lean muscle mass.

I have not been super crazy motivated, obsessed, nor have I worked crazy hard.

Tortoise, not hare.

amiscci

Started out at 1200 calories and after about a month of starving and feeling awful, upped it to close to 1400/day-- which felt much better! Shared a personal trainer 3x a week, mostly resistance training and moderate weights, and have gone religiously.
I now have a flat belly, smaller hips and a hint of abs!

Lost about 28 lbs in 8 months, no real plateaus but the last 8 lbs or so came off much slower and with greater effort.
In all, I lost about a 3/4 lb - 1 lb a week. I'm 52 years old, 5"5.5 and now weigh about 124 lbs. I'm newly working on maintenance
and trying to stay in range of 124-126 and have upped my calories to about 1700/day.

I worked hard at it and was consisent and committed. I had the occasional splurge and cookie, but
overall greatly improved my diet to stay within calories and macros. Slow and steady.

di1428

Love reading success stories too....

wouldnt say mine is a success story YET but i have had some success...

April 10, 2012 i started (once again) this journey of losing weight. but this time i took a different approach.
After my doctor telling me i was headed for diabetes, i still didnt do anything right away..
it was actually close to a year later...
my doctor recommended south beach diet.

instead of starting "tomorrow", i downloaded the southbeach diet and read it and reread it and
put out a date of starting for april 10.
and since then i have lost 45 lbs so far......the most i lost probably ever...and more importantly
this past physical, all my blood work was back to normal

i am not done, i am not even thinking of my final goal weight. it was too overwhelming so
i am doing it in "chunks". first goal was 25lbs, then 40 total and now im working on my 60, with
15lbs to go than will re-evaluate and make a new mini goal. this seems to work best for me.

the last two months though i have hit a plateau. but will say even though its frustrating, i am proud that
i didnt give up. in the past i'd get discouraged and negitive and then we all know what happens, the weight
comes back, and then some.

so joined MFP last week in hopes of shaking things up and keeping track of my food better.