Calling all 20-somethings!

You put on 30lbs from birth control. At least it wasn't 60 lbs from a baby. Silver lining? lol

Your story makes me want to ask my own doctor about thyroid issues…I’ve always felt like I have some sort of metabolism problem because nothing has ever seemed to work weight loss wise for me except extremes…..

Anyway…..hi there! 23 here, and I've been battling weight issues since I was in middle school. I'd been a chubby kid for a while, but around sixth grade the doctor first told my mom my asthma would get better if I'd drop some weight...so thus began what has now been 10+ years of off and on dieting, always obsessing over my size, losing and gaining weight in healthy and unhealthy ways. There's been several times I would lose substantial amounts of weight such as in my junior year of highschool when I dropped around 50 pounds. Got a lot of attention and praise for it...even won a 'senior superlative' for "Most Changed" since freshman year. Then college came...and my freshman fifteen was a freshman fifty+ or so....stepped on the scale this time 8-9 months ago and weighed the most I ever had in my life...after noting all my clothes including my size 14 jeans were super snug. I had maybe 3-4 outfits I could wear. Late last fall I began a diet which was pretty innocent at first, if a bit extreme, and it quickly spun into a very unhealthy pattern on restricting my food to almost nothing (taking several vitamin supplements to try and mask the lack of nutrients) and working out until I was in physical pain. I ended up losing 60 pounds in just a few months on this dangerous plan, but a few weeks ago I could just FEEL what damage I’ve been doing to my body and decided to get right before I seriously harm my heart or other organs or lose myself inside an eating disorder and become someone I don’t recognize.

I’m at my goal pants size now, and within 8 pounds or so of my goal weight…but I really just want to be healthy and in shape. I understand since I went about things so unhealthily I’m going to need all the help and motivation I can get in order to keep this body and do it the healthy way…slowly transitioning back into a way of eating and working out that is not so disordered. Not going to lie, getting all the calories I need is hard to do sometimes, especially when being more healthy has made my weight loss a lot slower these last two weeks. I need lots of support and motivation to be good to my body since I’m sadly really hard on and critical of myself. Trying to get over caring about the scale and get to caring about me….but it’s hard!

I’m always open for new friends and will certainly encourage and motivate anyone looking for a healthy lifestyle who will repay the favor, so feel free to add me! : )

Hi! I'm Deirdre, I'm 22 years old, a graduate student, and I have hypothyroidism. I gained all my hypo weight when I was 8-18, and these past four/five years have just been trying to lose it since my hypo dosage was evened out. It's hard but the success you feel when you are working for it is such a reward. I have about 35 lbs more to get to goal, but from there I will probably want to lose more. I've never seen my body at goal before, so it will be very interesting!

I've added you just there. Having friends is so important to keep you motivated. Good luck!