anyone slightly overweight like me?

*raises hand* Me! Me!

Actually, I'm not overweight for my height, but I am carrying too much weight for my frame and definitely too much fat. I have about 15-20 pounds to lose.

I, too, remember those halcyon days when if I gained any weight, I just had to workout a couple of times and it was gone. I wish I hadn't taken it for granted.

I am 30 years old, 5'6'' and 143 lb. My goal is 135, but I am going to have to put on muscle to fix my abs... Wrecked by two babies.

Hi there, I'm overweight also. I'm 26 years old 5'3" and my weight starting out was 167lbs I'm now 162lbs but have a ways to go. I'd like to be 140lbs. So i'm right there with you. I'm gonna add you so we can help each other. Keep your head up!!

I'm soon to be 28 Before I joined MFP I was 175lbs+ and very overweight for 5.7"

I got down to 168lbs before starting here. With a goal at getting to 10 stone (140)

I've given myself a goal of 12 weeks whilst Im on a reduced net of 1200. (1900-2200 is my TDEE)

So far I'm into my 10th week now (weighing every Friday morning)

I've averaged a 2.5lbs loss and almost 1% reduction in BF each week.

I put it down to pre-logging a few days ahead, drinking lots of water, eating in moderation, cutting down on anything with empty cals (beer, takeaways, Choc etc) and walking 1 - 2.5 hrs a day.

In less than 3 months it's undone about 5 years of bad eating and I've got a visible six pack again!

I have more time today, so I will bore you with the specifics of my weight story.

I was a very skinny child who grew to a very skinny adult. I'm originally from the South and there was a lot of fried food and sweets in our diet. My mom became a nurse when I was in middle school and worked a 2-11 shift, so I was left to my own devices regarding food beginning at age 13. I recall a couple of days each week where I would sit and watching TV all day while eating an entire box of cereal, usually Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, or Corn Flakes with a lot of sugar added to the bowl, all topped with whole milk. I also ate a lot of fast food and sweets. With all that, I couldn't gain weight if I was paid to. I was 5'9" by age 14 and topped out at a whopping 125 pounds. My internal health was also good despite my diet. Now, I did get outside with my friends most days and I rode my bike around the neighborhood a lot, but I think genetics overcame my sucky eating habits more than my activity level did.

I didn't start eating healthier and considering nutrition until my mid teens. There was no specific trigger. I just decided when I was 15 that I'd like to start eating a more balanced diet and work out. I still ate junk, but less of it. I switched other foods to low fat and no fat everything (which I learned long ago was unecessary and extreme). I also started doing Denise Austin's "Getting Fit" show. I grew a final two inches by the time I was 16 and weighed about 140. When I changed my eating and exercise habits, I lost 15 pounds tout suite.

I'm not going to pretend that I was consistent with exercising. From my teens to my late 20s, I had phases where I would work out regularly and long stretches where I did nothing. My body maintained its weight so effortlessly that I didn't feel the need to be consistent.

I did notice that my body had its set points. In my late teens/early 20s, my body would get to 130 and automatically drop the weight to 125. As I got older, that set point seemed to go up in 5 pound increments. I would get to 135 and drop to 130, I would get to 140 and drop to 135, and so on. All without any effort on my part. Just my body resetting itself. I went from a size 4 at 125-130 to a size six at 140-150, so I didn't care much about the gradual weight gain.

In 2008, I had to purchase double digit jeans for the first time in my life. Size 10 is not big, but for someone who was always in single digit sizes, it was like a Rubicon. I weighed myself and discovered that I was 162 pounds and it freaked me out. I started eating "healthier" and was consistent with working out (30 minutes cardio 4-5x per week, body weight and light weight calisthenics). For the first time, I actually had to work to get the weight off.

The reason I put "healthier" in quotes was because I really wasn't eating healthy with all the low fat/no fat stuff. My weight was not budging. I kept a food diary for a week and discovered that I was only eating 1100-1200 calories per day. I wasn't eating that little on purpose, I just didn't know. I ditched all low fat and non fat foods and got my calories up to 1800 per day and the weight flew off.

As soon as I hit my goal and got my body back, I started slacking off again. It took nearly two years for the weight to come back and then some. I weighed myself in December of 2010 and I was 170 and a tight size 12. That was the impetus I needed and I cleaned up my eating and started my exercise routine again. However, I joined MFP a month or two later and discovered that everything I was doing was apparently wrong. I experimented with many things as far as eating and exercising that just did not work for me.

In June of last year, after almost no progress due to all the switching about that I was doing, I started doing Turbo Jam consistently and I was a lose size 10 by September. Unfortunately, a series of illnesses and an injury basically shelved me altogether or interrupted my exercise routine until February of this year and I lost my progress. I started experimenting with different routines again when I got back in the saddle. I got some results, but nothing like I did following the cardio/calisthenics model. You would think that since TJ follows that model that worked for me in the past and that I got the best results of anything I tried last year from it, that I'd know that those are the types of workouts I need to stick to, but I'm apparently a slow learner.

I sat down and really thought about my goals a couple of weeks ago, because regardless of what anyone else thinks, I'm the only one who has to be happy with what my body looks like. My ideal is the only one that's important. I decided to go back to cardio/calisthenics and I definitely feel that I'm on the right track. Working with my body instead of against it should have been pretty obvious.

So while I *only* have 15-20 pounds to lose, it's been a long road this time. Though admittedly a lot has been my doing, that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. But as I said, I'm back on track, will do my best to stay consistent, and get out of my body's way.

Sorry for the really long ramble, but I had to get it out.