Hello everyone! New girl here..!

tabbyanny

Good morning! My name is Tabitha and I have been using myfitnesspal for about a week and a half now. I absolutely LOVE it! It makes it so easy to diet! My dietician put me on a 1500 calorie diet, so I have to add 300 to the 1200 the site gives you, but that's no biggie. I weighed about 145 after high school and started gaining slowly when I got out on my own. I had my first child in '01 and that really started my journey into obesity! Then I had my second child in '07 (at 235lbs) and lost 24lbs a few months after that. Then I just could not get that extra pregnancy weight off....."pregnancy" weight.....right! I tried a whole bunch of different diets and exercise routines and got discouraged everytime and ended up quitting and reaching for the first cookie I saw to console my poor little chubby broken heart! When I realized that I was not fat from kids....I was fat because of my own poor choices and laziness, I decided it was time! So, I started a Dr supervised ketogenic diet in March '09 at 5'6" and weighing in at 211 with a 44.5% body fat percentage (that's almost 94lbs of fat!). If you don't know what a ketogenic diet is...it's basically dr supervised starvation! I was allowed only 500 calories of protein per day...that's it!!! When I was allowed to start incorporating carbs, I was only allowed 20-25g per day and that had to be from a list of fruits and veggies I was given (which was a very short list)! I did that diet for about 3 1/2 months and got down to 165 and 35% body fat.....that's almost 50lbs.....in 3 1/2 months!! Hardly sounds healthy, right?? It was SO hard!! They even wanted me to exercise like 20 min a day. How are you supposed to exercise with no carb intake?? I had NO energy and was trying to do cardio everyday. They gave me vitamin B12 and B6 injections and they did help, but they were not enough to keep my energy level where it should be. I was miserable and hungry the entire time, but I was so desparate to lose weight that I would have done anything! Well, when I came off that diet I immediately gained 15 lbs in a matter of weeks... You can imagine why! I didn't start shoveling everything I could find in my mouth, I just started eating normally again and my poor starving body clung onto everything I ate! I was so upset with it, but I just couldn't do it anymore. I'm not sure, thinking about it now, how I did it for so long! Anyway, I started seeing a dietician about a week and a half ago and she put my on 1500 cals a day, told me to drink 100 oz of water a day, and to do at least 120 min of cardio per week, and is giving me vitamin B injections for energy. So far, so good! I've come to realize that I didn't really eat 1500 calories a day anyway! She gave me this site to help count and it has made it SO easy!! I weighed 180 the day I started and this morning I am at 174! I have been doing an AMAZING kickboxing/dancing cardo dvd that is so fun that I look forward to doing it everyday! It's about 47 min long and that time goes by so fast that it doesn't even feel like it's been almost an hour. It is very high impact and I sweat more than I do after a jog, but SO fun!!! I surpass the 120 min per week standard by far! I am very pleased with myself and can actually feel and see most of the muscle my body has to offer! I feel so strong...it's amazing! Unfortunately, I don't think my extra belly is going anywhere with diet and exercise, so I may be looking into a tummy tuck, but that's a while away still! I still have about 30lbs to lose and I will not stop until I do!

JenS2009

What a story! Congrats on losing weight the "right" way! After all of my crazy diet attempts, it really is true that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is from good ole diet and exercise. Watching calories and sweating is what works, and your loss is awesome! Keep up the good work!

Families_R_Forever

WOW it sounds like you have had one heck of a journey so far. I love this site too!!! It sounds like you have a good game plan and are already off to a great start! As for the 1500 cals...you should be able to manually set the amount of cals you want...I think anyways. Mine is set for 1350, but with the exercise it ends up being around 1500...GOOD LUCK!!! HEIDI