How do I lose 50 lbs?

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JazzaDark
JazzaDark Posts: 5
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. It's reaaaaally hard for me to deny junk food, and I find myself eating junk food because I'm too easy on myself .-.
I'm going to start doing Zumba and yoga, and I walk home everyday too. I'm at 198 lbs right now, and my main goal is to get down to at least 135 lbs. I'd be happy to lose at least 40-50 lbs instead though, which puts me around 150.
So, do you have any tips/how long it took for you to lose his much?
Thank you for your help and time! :)
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Replies

  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    First tip, don't buy the junk food. If it isn't in the house it won't haunt or tempt you.

    You can do it, if you're diligent you can do it by the end of the year. It took me 4-5 months to lose 25 pounds, I was strict about logging everything and made sure I worked out atleast 30 minutes every day. I ate all homemade and natural foods, and had a cheat meal every 2 weeks or so.
  • Pearlyladybug
    Pearlyladybug Posts: 882 Member
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    just keep logging, keep to your goals you will loose weight.No one can really say how long as everyone is different

    Edit: Its taken me 8 months to loose 10kgs. a lot slower than i wanted to but slow n steady wins the race!
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
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    Use MFP as it was designed. Set a realistic weekly weight loss goal and eat back most of your exercise calories. MFP is an awesome weight loss/fitness tool, and it works! You don't have to give up junk food - unless you want to. Moderation works well for me. I aim to fuel my body with lots of healthy, clean foods, but I also treat myself to a beer or a brownie when I want it. Eat and exercise in a way that is sustainable for you long term, and you should be fine! :smile:
  • DesignGuy
    DesignGuy Posts: 457 Member
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    You're young. Just get active and try not to eat like complete crap.

    Not buying junk is a good tip. No point in tempting yourself.

    Don't worry about the end goal. Just get going and take it a day at a time. Let life evolve.
  • Pip_squeak83
    Pip_squeak83 Posts: 26 Member
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    From the department of redundancy department.....

    Everything you have heard thus far is good info. Just know that you have to take it one meal at a time and one day at a time. I will only add this.......

    "You are what you eat!!! So don't be fast, cheap, easy or fake!!!"
  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
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    Use MFP as it was designed. Set a realistic weekly weight loss goal and eat back most of your exercise calories. MFP is an awesome weight loss/fitness tool, and it works! You don't have to give up junk food - unless you want to. Moderation works well for me. I aim to fuel my body with lots of healthy, clean foods, but I also treat myself to a beer or a brownie when I want it. Eat and exercise in a way that is sustainable for you long term, and you should be fine! :smile:

    This!
  • SteelySunshine
    SteelySunshine Posts: 1,092 Member
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    I wish someone would have told me this when I was only 50 pounds overweight. Fifty pounds sounds like a lot. But in terms of how fast you can lose it's not that much. In other words your body thinks you are already close to goal weight, so it isn't going to be happy if you try to lose more than a pound a week, that is just how it is. Think of it this way, your BMR isn't much higher at 50 lbs overweight than it is at your ideal weight. At your weight your BMR is only 500 calories or so more a day than if you were at your ideal weight, that is slightly less than two candy bars. So, it would be rather hard to drop down 1000 calories. It is much more realistic to drop 250 calories from what you are eating currently and do some exercise to increase your calorie burn by 250 bringing you to a loss of a pound a week. In just a couple of months you may not be at goal, but you will be feeling a lot better. Just losing 10 lbs back in December made me feel a lot better and I have so much more to lose, but I am very close to the memory of how sick I was feeling back in October and how sick I felt with the flu back in February when I basically couldn't do any exercise at all.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,568 Member
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    With moderate calorie deficit and patience.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • grau62000ameze
    grau62000ameze Posts: 28
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    just keep logging, keep to your goals you will loose weight.No one can really say how long as everyone is different

    Edit: Its taken me 8 months to loose 10kgs. a lot slower than i wanted to but slow n steady wins the race!
    am quotihng this cos mine even seem slower than yours
    but i know i(and all) wil get there with consistency
  • middle_path
    middle_path Posts: 7
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    Can you lose ten pounds? Just do that five times. :)

    Seriously, though, just take it slowly. Shoot for a small 500 calorie/day deficit, and you'll be down 50 lbs in less than a year.
  • sunman00
    sunman00 Posts: 872 Member
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    I actually think this can be very difficult for young people because you have youth, vigour, & time on your side so deep down it doesn't seem that important, and you can get round to it later

    but somehow you've got to try to play the long game, which is simple, obesity leads to health problems, period

    my daughter used to smoke & asked my help in getting her to quit; I took her to a radiotherapy ward at the hospital; there were at least 50 people in there with hacking coughs all waiting to have their tumours blasted by radio waves. These once young, proud, cool looking people were old in face & desperately ill. she quit that day.

    so the next time you see an obese person gripping a rail to go down 3 stairs, or struggling to get out of their car, or going down the road in a motorised wheelchair, try to see them as a hot dog, or a burger with fries; associate the junk food with this condition, because one leads to another

    fish & chips is a mainstay of 'the Great British Diet', innocently we all enjoy it, mainly on a Friday night over here; I've enjoyed a 'packet of chips' all my life, but I haven't touched one in calendar 2013, nor any other trans fat; I had the motivation of a new baby Granddaughter to start all this but now after 4 months or so it's bcome ingrained, I simply could not put a french fry in my mouth, once you've started it becomes easier

    good luck :flowerforyou:
  • runlilyrun
    runlilyrun Posts: 140
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    fish & chips is a mainstay of 'the Great British Diet', innocently we all enjoy it, mainly on a Friday night over here; I've enjoyed a 'packet of chips' all my life, but I haven't touched one in calendar 2013, nor any other trans fat; I had the motivation of a new baby Granddaughter to start all this but now after 4 months or so it's bcome ingrained, I simply could not put a french fry in my mouth, once you've started it becomes easier

    good luck :flowerforyou:

    You're clearly going to the wrong chippie if they serve chips like French fries!

    The trick for dealing with Fish & Chip nights, I find, is to go for mushy peas or baked beans instead of your chips - maybe share a small portion of chips with a friend or family member.

    But actually there have been studies showing that out of all takeaways in the UK fish & chips is healthiest because the fish is usually unadulterated, and since the chips are usually quite thick they're less fatty than the little thin French fries (surface area/volume ratio) - and there are none of the creamy sauces you get in some international takeaway meals.
  • SurfyFriend
    SurfyFriend Posts: 362 Member
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    What I found to stop eating junkfood....
    Instead of saying "I will eat no junkfood ever again"
    Say "I will eat a salad every day".
    If you add good foods, you'll start craving them, even if at first you hate them :)
  • tbrain1989
    tbrain1989 Posts: 280 Member
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    What I found to stop eating junkfood....
    Instead of saying "I will eat no junkfood ever again"
    Say "I will eat a salad every day".
    If you add good foods, you'll start craving them, even if at first you hate them :)

    absolutely this, dont worry about what you cant have and start with what you do have... it takes 11 days to make a habbit but about 6 weeks to break one
  • michelle7673
    michelle7673 Posts: 370 Member
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    I am working on losing 44 -- at least as a re-evaluation point. So not that far off from what you are trying to do.
    I have lost 16-17 pounds in a little over 3 months....and that doesn't include those first few pounds people tend to lose quickly, as I was tracking, etc for several weeks before my first weigh-in.
    Set up a good plan, with a moderate deficit. I use the MFP calc to lose 1 pound a week, but I am losing faster than that. I eat back the majority of my exercise calories. I eat a lot of lean protein but I also eat treats (very frequent frozen yogurt, for example), go to Starbucks, Chipotle, etc.
    Be diligent and precise about tracking, but don't get wrapped around the axle about whether the exercise burn counts are exactly right, meal timing, excluding foods, etc, etc. Just pick a simple plan and stick to it. And then just live your life and let it become second nature. It may seem like a long way to go, but once you get some pounds off, it's not as much about rate as the total....like money in the bank....I may only lose another pound this week, but then its 18 total. Soon 20 and soon halfway.
    The one thing I hear most consistently from people who have done it is "I wish I'd started lifting sooner." So think about that, too.
    Honestly, it's not magic and it's not rocket science....maybe it takes time and patience but it's achievable.
    Feel free to add me as a friend if you like -- I think the accountability of people looking at my diary has helped a lot!!!
  • aviduser
    aviduser Posts: 208 Member
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    Most of the advice above is great. My own two cents, as someone who has lost 50 lbs and kept it off now for 2 years, is this: you did not gain the weight in a week, a month, or probably even a year. Set MFP for a loss of 1 lb/week and try to come in under your calorie allowance everyday--even if only by a little bit. Some days will be better than others. Learn what foods are more filling while being less calorie-intensive, and limit the calorie dense foods. For me, it was ok to exceed my allowance ONE day a week. Watch your alcohol consumption--those are just empty calories. And in my view, alcohol fat is very unflattering.

    Exercise is important. Cardio will enable you consume more calories and still maintain a deficit. Weight training will increase your lean muscle mass which will (a) burn more calories and (b) add nice tone to your body, which will slowly be revealed as you shed the fat.

    Learn how to eat healthy. I won't tell you to never enjoy some of your favorite junk food, but if you are eating it regularly, you will never stop craving it. I suggest avoiding it for a week or two to allow you body to stop craving it. Substitute fruits, or other healthier snacks.

    I read an article that said it take 90 days to change a habit. That is consistent with my experience. I logged every single thing I ate for well over a year, including ketchup, mustard, salad dressing, other condiments, etc. Even now, 2+ years on, and now below my original goal weight of 180, I still log every day. I missed one day in 2+ years because I was staying somewhere without any cell reception or Internet connection. Logging will teach you how the foods you put in your mouth affect your body. Learn that lesson because you will need to live that lesson in order to keep the weight off once you lose it.

    Finally, for me, at least, it has been helpful to find a physical activity that I really really enjoy. For me it is cycling. For you it could be running, tennis, swimming, triathlon, rock climbing, whatever. Just find something you love and do it. HIgh levels of activity will help to keep your metabolism high, which will help you lose weight and keep the weight off.

    You can do this. Just take it one day at a time.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    Mostly more of the same...

    Giving up junk food is not easy. Get over it and do it anyway. Some things that are hard to do are worth the effort. This is one of those things. Getting started on an exercise program is hard. If you stick with it a little while it gets a lot easier. I also recommend cardio, mostly because two of the better ways (IMO) to get it are running and cycling which are things you may come to enjoy.
  • 2aycocks
    2aycocks Posts: 415 Member
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    I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. It's reaaaaally hard for me to deny junk food, and I find myself eating junk food because I'm too easy on myself .-.
    I'm going to start doing Zumba and yoga, and I walk home everyday too. I'm at 198 lbs right now, and my main goal is to get down to at least 135 lbs. I'd be happy to lose at least 40-50 lbs instead though, which puts me around 150.
    So, do you have any tips/how long it took for you to lose his much?
    Thank you for your help and time! :)

    Here is a diet that works every single time. EAT LESS..... MOVE MORE!
  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
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    Do you really want to let junk food control your life, your health and they way you look? Your question sounds to me like you are asking for advice on getting control over your impulses.

    1. Be prepared for temptation. Pre plan what you are going to eat, then stick to your plan. Do not plan anything into your menu that is not already in your fridge/pantry. If you have to go to the store, try to do so the day before you plan on eating anything. Always bring a list, and don't buy anything that isn't on your list.

    Something will come up every day that will tempt you to eat junk. You need to be ready for the barrage of junk food in the world, and get your mind right to resist it. Having healthy snacks that are ready to eat instantly are excellent tools to keep on track.

    2. When you successfully resist temptation, give yourself a big high five. Mentally reward yourself for not caving into your weaknesses. Go way, way over the top in feeling good about passing up that junk food item. This is called creating positive associations, and the more you do it, the better you will be at achieving your goals.

    3. If you feel your will power slipping, give it a super boost. If I just can't resist some chips or whatever, I just look up photos of skin diseases on google. This is very effective at creating a negative link between the tastes of junk food and that icky feeling you get from being grossed out. If you are still not able to let the junk food temptations go, try eating it while looking at all manner of gross stuff online. After a very short while, you will be so grossed out by just thinking about the junk food, you'll appear to have perfect control. (Note, we probably should be grossed out by junk food considering how bad it is for our health).

    This is how your brain is designed to work, you learn how to avoid things that are unpleasant and seek things that are pleasant. It is possible to reverse what would be considered normal through this kind of mental hacking.

    Just try eating a chocolate candy while visualizing it as poop. Ew? Totally. It is also effective.
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
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    I started MFP on July 1st last year. It can be done.

    1... replace the snacks. Try sugar free options or go with fresh fruit. Baby Carrots with Peanut Butter. That kind of thing.

    2 Salt makes you retain water. Try to stay under if you can. I have found the highest ammounts are in the processed food IE frozen meals. One a day and you are over if you are not careful.

    I try to do something every day. Sometimes I'm lucky and get the good machines at work and burn 300 or more calories... sometimes it's only 100 on others and i try to go to the gym those days.

    You have to find a routine that works for you. Good Luck on your journey. It can be done.

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