I see so many people on here losing 100+ lbs within a year!

librarianjenne

I'm actually struggling to eat enough calories. If I don't force myself or think about it, I seem settle around 900 or 1000. I think this is part of why I'm having a hard time losing weight. I'm a gluten-free vegan, which makes it even tougher (though even when I was an omnivore, I still tended to sit at around 1000 calories a day.) I'm trying to get up to 1400 (I exercise almost every day) but it's a bit of a struggle.

symonspatrick

The only thing that has helped me to lose weight is to eat and drink less calories. Patience and perserverence seem to be the most difficult part of losing weght for me. 100 lbs in a year is about 2 lbs per week average which is easier to do for someone that has more than 100 pounds to lose compared to someone with less to lose. We are all different and need to do what will work for us. What has worked for me may or may not be right for someone else. Just a 500 calorie per day cut would be 52 pounds lost in a year. Eat 250 less calories per day and burn an extra 250 calories per day with exercise would be one possible way to do it. Others have done it and we can do it too!

roxy_babya2

[/quote] Stop eating half your exercise calories back for a few weeks and see what happens.....Some days eat none of them back and then other day eat quarter of them back if you're really hungry you might be off on how many calories you are really burning. Stick with it, it will trend in the right direction keeping up with it. Good luck, you're doing a great thing for yourself :-)
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Thank you. I will try that and see how it goes!

roxy_babya2

A big red warning flag here is the 1200 cals a day. That sounds too low to me, especially with exercise.

Don't ever pick an arbitrary number, and don't fall prey to the more exercise/less food is better idea. Spend some time to calculate your TDEE and settle on a modest deficit allow you to lose between 1 and 2 lbs a week. 2 lbs a week is 104 lbs a year. If it turns out to be 1200 cals so be it, but i am skeptical it will. I believe in eating back your exercise cals and maintaining a modest deficit. The tortoise wins in this race, slow and steady, maintain your muscle, and eat enough food (of the right kinds, of course). It's great to have a goal but don't be in a rush.

If it matters, I lost a bunch more weight (before I joined MFP) than my profile shows. I went down about 60 lbs in 6 months and I believe now that was probably too fast, and I'm much bigger than you! Best of luck!

Thank you for the advice. I will recalculate my TDEE and go from there as well!

roxy_babya2

The only thing that has helped me to lose weight is to eat and drink less calories. Patience and perserverence seem to be the most difficult part of losing weght for me. 100 lbs in a year is about 2 lbs per week average which is easier to do for someone that has more than 100 pounds to lose compared to someone with less to lose. We are all different and need to do what will work for us. What has worked for me may or may not be right for someone else. Just a 500 calorie per day cut would be 52 pounds lost in a year. Eat 250 less calories per day and burn an extra 250 calories per day with exercise would be one possible way to do it. Others have done it and we can do it too!

Thanks!

Josedavid

Good morning Roxy,

Well, I can only tell about my own experience... of course that was not 100+lbs (which by the way I use KG) but it's been almost 80lbs. It is true that I lost the big chunk during the first 7 months but it is also true that when I visited the nutritionist he told me: "Jose, you are a very easy case... you have no genetic problem, you are still young... If you just take care with the food and do sports the Kg will start dropping down" But he also added: "In spite of what I said right now you should consider yourself as a chronic patient... you are not sick or ill but you are one of these persons that gain weight easily so consider your weight control as a priority for the rest of your life"

Well, I thought about that... at the same time my wife told me that we would have a baby because she was pregnant and a thought stroke my mind:
"What kind of dad am I going to be? I will want the best for my coming son and that includes healthy life/food but if I dont lead by the example it will be very easy for him to ask me back: "Why you dont do what you ask me to do?""

One day I began with MFP and at the same time I started the Couch to 5 K (c25k.com) program. At that time, more than 600 days ago I was not able to slog (jog slow) for more than... let me remember... 0.5mts? (you convert it to miles, yards, or whatever you like...)

All the beginings are tough and mine was not different... but I understood my fitness/nutrition as a medicine for an ill man, me. I hitted the gym 4-5 times a week, cardio, then weights (and I am not going to step into the debate about weights yes/no/maybe) because I'm just saying what I did.

Weights bored me to death... but I found TRX and I started using it... I live in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia... you should see the faces of the dudes at the gym when I hooked my TRX in the squat frame for the first time and started doing the "weird" exercises... LOL!

The nutritionist told me to write down in a piece of paper what was my food intake for a whole week and when he checked it he said: "OK, Jose, you are doing just the way you have to do... right! Just keep going on this way"

He requested some blood tests and he "adjusted" a couple of details in my food intake to make sure that it was well balanced but that was it.

And the weight kept dropping down...

In 7 months the tough part was over and if you see your weight numbers as a curve graph you see that you are going down like a missile but now you have to make some other "adjustments" to get a smooth "landing" in the line of your target weight.

Because what you lost in the last months is not going to happen now and if you still lose weight is not gonna be ever at the same pace... if that happens, get scared!!

And here we go to the next step... maintaining. To maintain your weight you should allow yourself for a "certain" fluctuation. Mine is +- 2Kg (approx 4lbs). But do not relax! You still have to have an eye in the scale/food/sport

In the sport side... I graduated from C25K (you can see my progression and personal bests in my profile information, if you friend me) and started feeling like needing more... so I shifted to 8Km, to 10Km and nowadays my regular runs are 10Km (around 52-53min and always around 1000Kcal burnt (again, I am not gonna discuss if my calorie expenditure is accurate or not because I tried with many different HRM and yes, is that number)).

I ran last year my first Half Marathon and by now I ran a total of 3 Half Marathons. Now I am thinking about registering for 2014 Dubai Marathon... we will see.

Because I was spending so much time reading about sports and nutrition I used that to become Personal Trainer, which I enjoy now a lot!

Fatburners? Wow... such a topic uh? Well, I must admit that I used them... but I first read a lot about them and secondly I know myself very much.
They are not the "magic pill" ever... I tried some different ones. Some of them gave me a very bad mood all day long, rejected! Others just tasted awful, rejected! And there are some that works fine with me. They only help you in a certain way... you should not expect to take them, sit down and for them to do the hard job alone! U keep training, eating clean and they will help you with an "extra" maybe 1/2 - 1 Kg every 3-4 that you lose by yourself... at least it works like that with me.
Now I only use them if I am in a plateau... and no, plateau is not 2-3 weeks with the same weight... plateau is 2-3 months of healthy food and training no reaching your "reasonable" target.

Do I do everything perfect? no! not at all.... Am I a great Personal Trainer? no! I have a lot to learn from a lot of people... Should anybody follow me blindfold? no! no! and no! this is a knowledge process... we all react and adapt in many different ways to the same training / food

The golden triangle for me was this: "Good nutritionist + good trainer + good pshicologist" because all of them help you... and moreover... Set reasonable and reachable mid targets to finally reach the main target!

I hope this "disertation" helped you in any way!

Best Regards / José D.