Its great reading seeing success stories but...

thats because everyone does someply completely different.

Even if I do running and you do running - we still eat with different forks and pee at different times.

You know how we all did it?

Trial and Error
practice makes perfect
Just keep swimming
If at first you dont succeed
plan b
plan c
try harder
try something else
eat something else
dont eat something else
plan f
start over and retry all those things
do it again
do it harder
do it faster
do it slower
sweat
cool down
sweat
eat
shower
read
learn more
learn WAY more
trial and error
practice makes perfect
succeed.

Just quoting this so it is forever in my comments log. Carry on.

What has worked for me:

Educating myself on better choices of food and then applying it, despite how much kicking and fussing my entire family does. I buy the food, I cook it, they can eat it or go hungry

Using a food scale is absolutely critical for me, especially at the begining. Its rather eye opening to see how much a portion size is. Some foods I found out I was eating too much, and some! I found out I wasn't eating enough. LUCKY ME! WOO!

Walking every other day (minimum) at least an hour at a time, though now that I am clipping along on a dreadmill at 4mph I only endure it for 45 minutes at a whack (daily though!)

Prepping snacks ahead of time so when the munchies strike I can just grab something healthy rather than kicking into graze mode and nibbling a lil bit of everything while searching for SOMETHING to eat.

I do 3 "meals" a day and 2 "snacks" a day and spread out my calories accordingly. I don't skip breakfast, never USED to be a bfast eater, but am now and kind of appreciate it as working out leaves me FAMISHED even after a solid breakfast.

I follow MFP suggested goals and use them more of a guideline, rather than THE RULE. I do try and stay within the suggested amounts, but I pay attn to as many of my macros as I can, esp the sodium as it plays havoc with my weight. I actually rarely pay attn to the fat on the goal list, :laugh:

While I do a daily weigh in I do not think its necessary for a healthy weight loss to do so, I just do cause I like watching how certain foods impact my weight on a day to day basis. I would caution that it CAN be a bit addictive making plateaus hard to wrestle with emotionally.

Water. I HATE water. I can't stand the TASTE. GACK. However, I drink about 15x8oz glasses per day.

oh, and most importantly. I never deny myself anything. Moderate it, sure. But why deprive yourself of something 'forever' when a taste of it could curb that craving? Frankly, that doesn't mean I go out and hit BK or McDs every day (lucky ppl who can eat that much sodium!) but the times that I do, I just pick what I feel is the healthiest choice, add water, and enjoy it. Dont set yourself up to fail by having freshly made cake sitting around the house every single day, unless you have more willpower than me- but every now and then bake a cake, have a small slice, freeze what you don't eat (in small serving sizes if you want to!)

I have about 40 choc chip cookies sitting on my sideboard right now, and because I had one last night when I was craving them, meh I don't want one right now Last year the cookies wouldn't have made it into the oven >.>

ETA: I suppose I should add that I log every single piece of food I stuff in my mouth on MFP, good, bad, or salty not to punish myself but to keep myself accountable, and see the weight increase/decrease and be able to trace it back to whatever food or non exercise caused it. Plus I use FitBit to keep myself on my own toes activity wise.

Joined MFP July 18 and had already lost a couple of pounds before that due to some changes in our household. Set my starting date/weight back to where I knew I was 7/4 or so. I had ~ 85 pounds targeted loss @ 1.5 pounds per week. I chose lightly active since I'm on my feet a lot at work and frequently bend, lift, or squat during the day then stay on my feet part of my evenings with household chores. I took what MFP gave me initially for calories (1350) and macros and set my exercise goals low @ 2 x 30 min per week, because like another poster, I didn't want to set the bar too high initially, fail, and have to push past the psychological barrier of immediate failure. I only count calories burned from intentional exercise or an activity that falls far outside of something I might do on a normal day. (Although, so help me, I seriously considered counting calories burned from spending 2 hours scrubbing down the bathroom my 8-year-old puked all over late last night.)

Within a few days I altered the macros and exercise goals because I was keeping within calories, but the macros didn't fit what I ate nor what made me feel good (energetic and not shaky). I reduced the carb percentage and increased protein and it seems like even the fat just a little. I added 1 more 30 minute exercise session. I believe both of the exercise settings had burn goals set by MFP automatically. I was losing at a rate exceeding my goal and wasn't struggling badly, so I left things that way.

Then there was the weigh-in day where MFP prompted me saying I'd lost more than 10 pounds since my goals had been calculated, so I should let MFP re-evaluate. My daily calorie goal dropped from 1350 to 1270. I thought that a bit much since I was outpacing my loss goals and again I want to ensure the likelihood of success. After all, I've dropped 40 pounds about 5 years ago, but it took a year to do it, I was frequently plateaued, I didn't really enjoy my food much nor feel satisfied very often, and I gained it back plus about another 7. I'd rather go slow and make changes that stick.

So I left the per-week loss goal at 1.5 pounds, put calories up from the new suggestion to 1300, and put the macros back where I had moved them to before. I think I slightly increased my exercise burn goal calories, but left the number of days/minutes the same. I continued to lose. I have made one other small tweak since then. I just hit my mini-goal of 20 pounds down by 9/1, but it took a little extra work. The extra effort didn't kill me and I knew my exercise goals needed improvement, so I increased the weekly calorie burn goal another 100 or 150 I think and set sessions to at least 4 per week. I'm still losing @ a smidge over 2 pounds per week average, which exceeds my goal a little, so I'm pleased.

Other things that seem to affect my progress:
1) Drinking plenty of water. I decided to only count plain water in the tracking tool. If I don't get at least 8 glasses daily I don't seem to feel as well or lose as steadily as I do even if drinking plenty of fluids in the day (I drink some coffee, some decaf iced tea, and the occasional diet soda).
2) Amount and quality of sleep. If I consistently get less than 6 hours a night, I don't feel so great and loss doesn't continue as smoothly.
3) Hormones, but not at my period as I would have expected. There is a specific week in my cycle that I don't tend to drop anything and may even creep up slightly. I have just decided to ignore that week each month. :bigsmile:

I'm hoping to get to my next mini-goal of 30 pounds down by 10/1, but it's going to be pretty tight to get there. If I miss it just a little I'll set a new mini-goal for 11/1 and try to decide what small change to make hitting that goal more likely.

OP, what goals/ideas do you have for your journey?

Not many have shared HOW you have done it? With so many variables it all gets confusing I would love to know what worked, MFP settings, sticking around BMR etc? Its great to see that something is working tho! :]

HOW to lose 60lbs ---> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

HOW to get Abs ---> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/746754-how-to-get-abs-with-pics

HOW to prepare for vacation body blueprint --> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/745151-i-got-a-compliment-from-rusty-moore-from-fitness-black-book

This is what you did, and it worked, and you look fantastic, but these are not requirements to do it, correlation =/= causation.

You lost fat due to caloric deficit, and maintained, or gained lean muscle by getting enough protein and by incorporating strength training. It is not more complicated than that.

Your route was one way, but you stating How to get Abs, there is only one way to get abs, have a low enough body fat %, no ab work necessary. You did ab work, but the reason you have abs is due to BF%, even if you did no direct ab work you would have had a six pack.

How to lose 60lbs, stay in a caloric deficit and give it time (not too large of a deficit so you don't lose much muscle). No cardio required, but you can choose to use exercise as a tool to achieve the desired deficit, but can be doe on diet alone.

I am not bad mouthing your plan. I just wanted to point out what is necessary vs. specifics that individuals did, which greys the water. But telling people this is how you do something when it will probably work, but what I stated above is how, you just showed them how you incorporated those key things.

You are so right. I'm sure that eating less and working out won't work for anyone else except me. I should never have posted what worked for me. So sorry. I will just go back to living my dream. Have fun with yours.

thats because everyone does someply completely different.

Even if I do running and you do running - we still eat with different forks and pee at different times.

You know how we all did it?

Trial and Error
practice makes perfect
Just keep swimming
If at first you dont succeed
plan b
plan c
try harder
try something else
eat something else
dont eat something else
plan f
start over and retry all those things
do it again
do it harder
do it faster
do it slower
sweat
cool down
sweat
eat
shower
read
learn more
learn WAY more
trial and error
practice makes perfect
succeed.

^^^this^^^ ABSOLUTELY!!! And no matter how many times you stumble... never, ever give up on yourself!

I do a Split style workout for strength training:

Chest
Shoulders
Back
Chest
Arms
Legs

I do chest 2x a week because I don't exactly have the best chest genetics. (This was also a recent change, maybe 2-3 months ago)

I also do cardio once or twice a week (maybe more).

Then I simply do calories in versus Calories out, and shoot for 100g of protein a day.

I usually attempt to go 500 under daily.

Nice and simple.

Your chest looks pretty good to me :bigsmile:

Oh! Right, we were talking about exercise/food stuff *fluster fluster* This actually sounds like a solid simple system. Congrats on your successes!

5'5".... 162 -> 124

I did the 1200 calorie thing for probably about 2 months straight.. and that's when I lost a bulk of the weight.. but I was so unhappy and felt sickly all the time. So I decided to up my calories. First 1300.. then 1400.. then 1500.. and now I'm set at 1600.
Working out used to be a big part of my routine in the beginning.. but as my life got busier I found it harder to find time. *Big excuse I know.. but realistically I just started my first year as a teacher and I literally have NO time. So instead of focusing on not being able to workout momentarily, I decided to focus on what I could control - my food.
I TRACK EVERYTHING. EVERYDAY (I think I'm almost at 170 days in a row right now). This holds me accountable for EVERY choice I make - which helps me make better choices. If I ever go over on my calories (like 100 or more).. I "roll them over" into the next day.. which means I add them onto the next day so I'll be forced to eat a little less. I HATE when I start out the day with less calories than normal because of this.. so it works as a consequence for eating over. This also motivates me to make better choices so it doesn't happen. This also means I do not do cheat days! The way I see it is that your body doesn't know you're having a cheat day.. it's not like "Ohhhhh okay... cheat day? Then I won't make these calories make you fat!!" - Doesn't work like that. ANYTIME you put food into your body.. it counts. I always remember that it counts.
Really my success has just been constantly making good choices. I do not eat the healthiest (too many carbs.. not enough protein).. I know that.. but it is maintainable for my life.. so I'm happy.
Hope this helped.

this really helped me!! thanks!!

Not many have shared HOW you have done it? With so many variables it all gets confusing I would love to know what worked, MFP settings, sticking around BMR etc? Its great to see that something is working tho! :]

MFP + eating back all exercise calories...that is all!

thats because everyone does someply completely different.

Even if I do running and you do running - we still eat with different forks and pee at different times.

You know how we all did it?

Trial and Error
practice makes perfect
Just keep swimming
If at first you dont succeed
plan b
plan c
try harder
try something else
eat something else
dont eat something else
plan f
start over and retry all those things
do it again
do it harder
do it faster
do it slower
sweat
cool down
sweat
eat
shower
read
learn more
learn WAY more
trial and error
practice makes perfect
succeed.

^^^ love this

This is my 2nd day back using MFP. I am only eating 1500 calories a day and not exercising for the first month. I want to establish good healthy eating habits and a pattern before I start trying to exercise and then get overwhelmed with all the changes and quit. One day at a time.

^^This is a BRILLIANT plan! :drinker:

yeah it is huh? I did this and it totally made losing weight a lot easier!!! 45lbs in 2 1/2 months