I Met My Weight Loss Goal and So Can You!

powrwrap

I met my weight loss goal, and so can you!

I'm 6'3" and 55 years old. I started at 229 lbs. the day after the Super Bowl. (One last fling! LOL.) Today I'm at 205 lbs. That was my weight during college. I'm thinking of going to 199 lbs since I weighed 195 lbs. when I graduated from high school, plus I want to see Onederland.

At the end of January I was told by my doctor that I would need to lose 25 lbs. and go on high blood pressure meds. If I didn't do it, he said, I would have a stroke. Astonishingly, the chain of clinics covered by my health care insurance does not have diet plans or a comprehensive weight loss plan. I could see a dietician, if desired. I passed on that, reasoning in the internet age there must be free resources out there. After searching I settled on MyFitnessPal.

What a great resource. It's so simple--if calories in is less than calories out, you WILL lose weight. Essentially, it's a math problem. MyFitnessPal forces you to examine your calorie intake choices and modify them to get a net negative result on a daily basis. Once you know the number of calories you can't keep stuffing things in your maw without consequences.

You can do this! Log everything you eat. Don't cheat. Enter it into your daily logs. Be sure you have a net loss of calories at the end of the day. One day I only had two calories left in the bank. Only two, but I was winning.

I found MFP's predictive weight and time frame was amazingly accurate. When you close out the day MFP will give you an estimate, for example, "If every day was like today you will weigh 202.5 lbs. in 6 weeks". Uncannily accurate. When I started it predicted I would weigh 205 lbs. in mid-May. It's May 23rd.

I exercised, but just barely. I have a rowing machine I would use a couple times a week, I've since quit doing. I do pushups, situps, and dumbbells. Some stretching exercises. Really, not very much.

I cheated. I drank beer. I ate ice cream. I ate cookies. Potato chips. But not very often, (OK, I drank beer every weekend.) My weight loss graph looked like the teeth on the edge of a saw--going down during the week then rising on weekends, then going down during the week. But it was constant progress downward.

Some things I found that helped me:

1. I used a food scale. Use a food scale for accurate measurements of what you are in-taking.

2. Bookmark the USDA calorie searchable database. Use it in conjunction with your food scale, especially for meats. Here ya go: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

3. When you use the database to enter foods into your logs they will automatically get placed on your "Recent" list and "Most Used" list. You will be using these lists a lot. These lists are sortable so pick and choose entries carefully--for example I liked generic descriptions instead of brand name descriptions. For example, I would rather see "Cottage Cheese, 2%, 1/2 cup" rather than "Kraft Simply Cottage Cheese 2% , 1/2 cup" because it made more sense to my brain to look up cottage cheese instead of Kraft. Plus, do you have any idea how many foodstuffs Kraft makes?

4. You can eat a lot of vegetables which will fill you up and are not heavy in calories. Plus the fiber is good for you.

5. Village Hearth Light Bread. 40 calories a slice vs. 70 calories a slice for regular bread, almost a 2 for 1 deal. More fiber too. Tastes great.

6. Instead of milk at meals, I had Coke Zero or ice water. Easy 120 calories saved.

7. Turkey burgers instead of hamburgers (90 calories saved). No cheese (another 80 calories saved). If you can, skip the bun--easy 100 calorie savings. There's 270 calories saved, why, that's 2 beers!

I could go on but you get the idea.

I did a daily weigh-in, right after breakfast. Kept me motivated. I never friended anyone on MFP but I found the photos in Success Stories forum to be highly motivating. I would post photos, but there isn't a very dramatic difference.

Well, I've rambled on long enough. My main point is that: You Can Do This!

BigBrunette

Great post. And good for you!

sunshinesquared

Awesome job...congrats!!!