The Former Morbidly Obese

I'm still in the morbidly obese category, even after losing over 100 pounds - that gives you some idea of how much i had to lose. I hope I'm allowed to answer?

Start eating healthier - smaller portions of better quality food.

Move more - everything counts when you have a lot to lose. Walk farther to the grocery store, start playing Wii, walk around your house a few times each day.

A little bit at a time.

You've already lost 6 pounds - you're on your way! Feel free to add me as a friend.

Cutting calories to a reasonable deficit (TDEE-20%), adding in healthy snacks to reduce snack urges, taking up an exercise routine, and really most importantly loving myself and forgiving myself for being so fat. Coming to terms with my weight and self and letting go of the comfort/guilt I attached to food was hard but so worth it.

you have to really, really want it. then you have to really, really commit to it. take each day as it comes, as it does gets easier along as you start shedding the weight. find foods you like and incorporate those into your day, staying within your calorie goal.

if youre having portion problems, weight watchers is a good place to start. thats where i started, i totally forgot how to eat and what a normal portion was. still eat the foods i love, and dropping the pounds.

Wow that is awesome!

You can do it!
I did and I am 60 years old,
my only regret was I did not do it in my 30"s
Do it for yourself and you will find yourself.

one day, one meal, one workout, one choice at a time....

and as some one already said....you have to really, really, really want it...

once you stop make excuses and get really honest with yourself, and stop fooling yourself into believing that "you can just go on a diet when you are ready"...

one piece of advice that i can give you is never, never, quit! if you have a bad day/week/month then you have to just pull up your big girl panties and get right back to living a healthful lifestyle....

i know some people who never fell off and lost weight quickly...but that just didnt work for me...its taken me two and a half years to lose almost 150lbs and its been HARD! but worth every single bit of the hard work that ive had to put in!

and as some one already said....you have to really, really, really want it...

This is a really important thing, that I don't think can be said enough. Also, though, you have to really, really want it for -yourself.- If you try to do it for anyone else, you'll be a lot less motivated and less likely to follow through.

Been there. I suggest you start slow. Don't focus on changing food choices right now. What you want to do is get out there and walk for about 30 minutes each day. If your knees can't handle that, I recommend an indoor swimming pool. Get your heart pumping! After a week gradually ease up on your food intake. Eliminate the junk food slowly. If you start feeling deprived you will lose the battle. Each week add a little more exercise and each week make healthier choices at the table. Keep it even. Within the first couple weeks you'll find that losing weight at this point is so easy. Once you get down to my size, it's when the real hard work begins. Best of luck!

Find your reason to want this, the reason that really means something to you. It doesn't have to be a good reason, it just needs to mean the world to you. You will need this reason often-it will carry you through the rough patches. My reason is in my profile, but is likely meaningless to you. But find something that means as much to you as my reason means for me.

Find healthy food that you actually like to eat. You need to make changes you think you can stick to forever. If you hate celery, dot eat it. Find something you DO like that is reasonably healthy (or at least healthier). Eat that. Don't think you need to starve to lose weight-you don't. I eat all day long, and make room in my life for cookies and cake and pizza and bacon cheeseburgers. Not all the time, but the prospect of life without goodies is unfathomable. I don't eat anything that I don't like. Make sure you do the same.

Move more. Don't go into the fitness forum and read about people doing HIIT and going for 10 mile runs. If you can manage walking at a slow pace for 5 minutes, that's awesome! That's 5 minutes you weren't moving before. Build up to 10 minutes or whatever. Point being to compare you to you. Progress on where you are. Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Only you know what you can do-and congratulate yourself for every accomplishment.

Realize there is no "done". This will go forever. Whatever you do to lose weight is something you need to do for the rest of your life. Set goals based on behaviors you can control (what you eat, how much you exercise). Meet those goals and the weight will come off.

Lastly, we are humans. We all mess up. We all have days where we make not the best food choices (go find the "how much is the most you've ever been over" thread for examples). What makes the difference is that a cookie puts you over by 200 calories. That's 200 calories. If you turn that into "I've failed, I suck, I blew it and might as well start over tomorrow", you'll be over by 3000 calories by the time you're done. Learn to accept that you ate a cookie and life will go on and you'll survive and keep going and like all those posting that they have been over by 4-10k calories in a day, you'll have success.

Best wishes.

You do have to really want it. You have to want it so much that when you think you want the cake, you remember that you want something else more. You have to want it so much that you find the extra hour that you didn't know existed, so that you can exercise to meet your goals.

You have to want it enough to make those changes that you know already need to happen, and you stop finding excuses and start finding solutions and ways to make it happen.

It does take some adjustment! And we all have good days and bad days. But there is never a point where you throw in the towel and choose to stop trying. You just pick it back up where you left off and keep on trucking.

For me personally, planning is key. Plan out your meals for the week and go grocery shopping to make sure you have all the ingredients. When I don't plan out our meals ahead, we usually wind up with takeout because it is quick and easy. Also, when I know what we are having for supper, I can pre-log all my food for the day each morning. That way, I know if I have a few extra calories to play with that day (in which case I may allow myself a little treat) or if I will be a few over and have to add in an extra workout or two (maybe walk or bike an extra 30 minutes.) But it's all in the planning (at least for me!) Good luck on your journey!

It is exactly what you said....a lifestyle change. It's good to know that you are starting out looking at losing weight in a healthy perspective (a lifestyle change). It cannot be done in one day. It's one day at a time and each day you gain more and more information and motivation to continue on and see what new and positive steps you can make toward a healthier life. Don't look at it as just losing weight and looking good, keep in mind that it's about your physical heath (and emotional health too). It might sound cliche to say that all you need to do is to take the first step, but that is exactly the answer. Just do it, like Nike says.

Start reading anything and everything you can about nutrition, how the body works/metabolizes food, what works with your body and not against, etc... Gradually, you see yourself make lots and lots of changes along the way and the progress WILL show. I know what I'm talking about. I was 360 lbs and lost 220 in less than a year by doing nothing more than eating healthy and exercising (once I was able to loss enough weight to walk more than 5 minutes at a time). I kept it off for 3 1/2 years before gaining a couple of pounds back when I took a short sabbatical (I have 20 to lose right now).

I changed my eating habits by looking toward very low carbs and high protein. I also included eating according to the glycemic index. I was a severe Type II diabetic, so eating in the manner helped my blood sugar levels and as soon as they were stable, the weight really flew off as the diabetes was not hindering my ability to lose the weight.

Stay on MFP. The MFP community can really give you support and motivation! Measure/weight your food (at first it's a pain, but soon it will become second nature). Do NOT look into quick fixes, they only lead to disappointment. Do it the healthy way! At the same time, don't try and eat the standard (and stupid) 1200 calories MFP is defaulted to. Talk to a nutritionist, your doctor - if you have a good one, or a physical trainer and get an idea of how many calories you should be eating a day. I try to eat around 1300 to 1600 - depending on my weight and how much I have worked out that day. I'm supposed to be eating 1600 a day, but sometimes it is hard to reach that caloric intake - which is funny, because I used to have no problem eating 4000+ calories a day.

Stay the course. You CAN do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't morbidly obese, but I was just under the "obese" category at 215. I lost 90 lbs. I did it by tracking my food intake and making healthy and sustainable choices. Planning ahead is crucial, and remember - It's not about starving yourself. Choose food that you know is going to fuel your body in a positive direction, like lean protein, veggies and fruits. Healthy carbs like potatoes are good too.

I also cut ALL sugar soda and juices out of my diet. They are empty, unnecessary calories with no nutritional value whatsoever.

It's also good to allow yourself a treat once a week, like a slice of cake or pie. Just don't overdo it.

Slowly but surely. We are doing it and so can you. No big secret. Just lower calories. And exercise is always a good idea. It takes a long time so patience helps. Oh also you can never give up no matter what happens. Yes, you can do it.

When I started, I was stubborn about what I would do and I wouldn't do. Looking back, I think that is one of the things that has made me successful. Another thing that also helped has been gradually willing to do some of the things I said I wouldn't. Well meaning people just didn't understand how some of their suggestions, early on, were NOT helpful!

I read a blog last night that said something along the lines of no matter what you chose to do to lose weight, if you are to be successful losing A LOT of weight, at some point you have to make the method your own. It has to fit who you are and what you can manage and what fits with who you are called to be.

That is SO true! I already had a fairly decent understanding of nutrition before I started, so when folks kept pushing "diet plans" on me I balked. I'm 100% certain that if I had followed a plan I could have lost it faster, but I'm also almost certain I couldn't have done it AT ALL. I needed to start where I was and make small changes as they made sense.

Early on it made sense to cut back on sugar and simple carbs because they made me feel bad when I ate them, but it just didn't make much sense to me to radically change my diet to up my protein to a level that I wouldn't have been able or happy to sustain. I was opposed to a diet high in animal protein for all sorts of reasons. 11 months into my journey, I re-evaluated and decided to increase my animal protein for a while to see what would happen.

But in the end, for me, I think the reasons this is working is because I've used my experience and MFP as diagnostic tools, not "The Diet Police" that they are for some people. If I eat it, I log it. Reese's cups, birthday cake, milk shakes... whatever it is. I may initially eat it because of poor choice or frustration or poor planning, but it all becomes part of the research! How did I do that day, overall? What sort of impact did it have on my loss? What sort of impact did it have on the other choices that day? How about my sodium, protein, fat intake on those days? Was it worth it? Is there some way I could either plan for it or prevent it?

Everything can be a learning experience, even if it is a setback!

I wouldn't do anything in the beginning that I wasn't willing to do everyday for the rest of my life. But I found that there were lots of things I could seriously consider doing every day if it would help me to be more healthy. The further I've gotten down this road, the more changes I'm willing and able to make, and the easier they are sustain.