I am afraid to even post this...

Hello!! I bet you are thinking - I never thought I would get so many replies! I remember starting mfp and never dreaming I would come as far I have come today.

SW - 362lbs
CW - 220lbs
GW - 160lbs

I have been using mfp since Oct 2011. When I started I soon learned that losing weight is a lifestyle change and NOT a diet. Eat to live, DO NOT live to eat is my motto. I remember walking on the treadmill for the first time and could barely walk 1.8 speed for 30 minutes - I now run for 5mins and walk at 3.3 at a 15.0 incline for 25 mins.

I am sure everyone gave you lots of suggestions and recommendations so I will say GOOD LUCK and remember slow and steady will lead you toward your goal. No one says it is easy but I can assure you it is worth it.

Closing motto - Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels!

Best Wishes on your journey!

Hey Mate...good luck on your goal..... Have a look at this for inspiration...It worked for me...This guy has done an amazing job. His name is Pu_239 look him up and invite him as a friend.

Fred :-)) http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974665-success-stories-any-method

Thank you for saying what so many people feel regarding discomfort and shame about weight. But it's also about how food becomes such a source of comfort during those times of stress, loss or even happy times. LIke you, I felt I could never get the weight under control. However, I was lucky enough to join the YMCA Diabetes prevention program (I'm pre-diabetic). It's a free 16-week program where you learn what and how to eat. It's very supportive. The program is proven to be successful. It's not the least bit judgmental . Maybe NJ is offering this program? There are many aspects to the program - you're not alone, you keep a food journal, you get weighed each week but the focus is less on weight loss and more about eating for a healthier life. Yes, anyone can read about fat having 2xs the amount of calories as sugar, starch or protiens (thus by default you reduce weight by reducing fat) but it's far more important to be with people, one hour a week, attending this educational forum with you. Now I keep within 42 grams of fat per day (your daily fat intake would be 55 per day). I think of food alll the time but I'm making big progress with replacing very high fat foods with lower fat foods. There is much more to the program than what I'm describing. I do hope this helps in some small way. There is hope.

At my heaviest I was 301 lbs but I am only 5' 2". I have lost 115 lbs it wasn't easy but if your mind is set you can achieve all things. My fitness pal is a great way of keeping things in your power. I have been using My fitness pal since the end of December. I do water aerobics and treadmill a few ideas for you, water aerobics helps you move without the weight being a factor as much. You can do this there are many people here to raise morale, and encourage each other. Not all my loss was using My fitness pal but it helped so much more than on my own. No need to fear we all understand.

Congrats on being brave and for joining.....you can do it. Feel free to add me for support and friendship!!!

Tom- I can totally understand what you're saying. Don't give up! When I was a teen, I was the only ne in my family who WASN'T skinny. My mom would always call me fat, but never did anything to help; like change the meal items. When I recently had gallbladder surgery, I gained more weight-I didn't realize I had to change my habits then. The only good thing about it is that I have support from the 'myfitnesspal' community.

All you can do is take one day at a time. And keep track of all you eat; I'm sure you know all that already. And, if you believe, say a prayer---I will be.

Now let's talk cats (I have 3)--HA! HA! just kidding.

If you ever need someone to talk to, send me a message.

A big contrats to you for reaching out! You can do this!

Hello Tom,

I can totally relate to what you are going thru right now. When I started my quest to drop a few pounds I had to do it for my health. My doctor, god love her because she has such a no non sense approach to things told me, you have two options, get a gastric bypass surgery (which I did not want) or get the weight under control so that my heart rate, BP, cholesterol etc would be under control. She gave me 45 days to lower my BP, if not she was going to put me on medicine. 45 days later first goal met, no medicine needed. She then recommended me to a 'health coach'. thank god this person was not a dietician because I cant stand skinny people that like to tell me at over 400 pounds I need to eat more vegetables....geez really you think???? So my insurance offers sessions with a health coach at no cost. I would go to visit this lady every two weeks for 30 minutes. During these sessions she would review what I was eating and what my activity levels were etc. She was a fantastic resource in my life at that time. I was not on any diet per se. She would look at the meals I was eating and we would start to make small changes to it two weeks at a time. One thing was going from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Jiff and Smuckers jelly to natural peanut butter and natural jelly. Reason was for the reduced sugars in each. Then we looked at cheese, again a small change but when you look at the sodium between regular white American cheese and low sodium American cheese there is a difference and when you add it up over the course of a week the difference is significant. IT IS NOT EASY I KNOW. I am a creature of habit. I found foods that I could live with and salads for that matter as well and started to make small changes to my eating habits. Going back to the health coach for a moment she was a great resource and never told me I needed to eat more vegetables or needed to do this that or the other thing. She would offer suggestions to me. For instance I love yogurt and would have that and oatmeal everyday for breakfast. Rather than just have a regular yogurt that is loaded with sugar etc she asked me if I ever considered Greek yogurt. I told her no I have never tried it and that she was nuts for even suggesting I try. Then I tried it and love it. Once again a small change but I got rid of un uneeded sugar. If your Health care insurance offers a health coach you should explore that. I wish you the best of luck!

Regards,
Laird

Congrats on your journey. Just know that you CAN do it! My ex was 450 at 5'8". He is now under 200 and doing well. It takes time, it takes patience. You can do it!

Hi Tom,

My name is Lucy, I was up to 350 lbs in January of 2007. I didn't even know how much I weighed because my scale kept saying "error". I got a 2 free week gym membership and decided to go and that is when they weighed me there and i was shocked at how much I weighed. So i just started working out and counting calories. I lost a total of 70 and plateued for 3 years no matter what i did. I still worked out and counted calories. I gained about 10 lbs back. A lot of my friends had weightloss surgery and kept telling me to do it, but i really wanted to lose all my weight on my own with no need of WLS. Well after being unsuccessful I decided to find out more about the new WLS they had out there which was the Gastric Sleeve. So I decided to do that, even though a lot of people were against me doing it. At that point i was 290. I had it in July of 2012, so I am not even a year out but have lost weight slowly with it also. I don't know what is it about my body that it just tries to hold on to fat. I am still 216 lbs as of today. However someone thought i was around 150 this past weekend... yeah right.. i wish. So anyways i still think this was the best decision i made, i am no longer taking high blood pressure medicine after over 10 years of taking it.

You will lose weight on MFP if you eat the calories you are suppose to eat, but once you hit that frustrating plateau and your last resort is WLS you can contact me on here with any questions you may have.

Good luck buddy. U got this.

Lucy

Hello,

I started MFP a few years ago. However, I did not become serious about logging until January. Its true, if you can stick it out for 30 days, it becomes addictive. Make sure you log everything you eat or drink. You will learn so much about yourself.

I started with exercising only 20 minutes of walking 3 times a week, that was in January. I continued to add more time every week. Then I took the small amount of money I recieved back at tax time and paid for a personal trainer for 6 weeks. I only went to trainer for 1/2 hour twice a week and walked or rode the bike until I was up to 40 minutes.Before I knew it I started feeling so great that I started taking the classes at the gym.

At first I did not see the results I thought I should as I assumed I should lose 10 or 20 lbs in a month. I was told by the trainers at he gym that your body goes through a lot of changes when you don't diet, but cut calories and begin to exercise regularily. Its now the beginning of June and I have lost 19 lbs. I still have 60 or 70 pounds to lose, but now that I have made this a lifestyle I know it will happen.

The best advice I can give you is to get friends or family involved and let others view your food diary on MFP. It will help you stay accountable. But, NEVER lie about what you eat in your food diary. We all have bad days. Another thing I did was joined a weight loss challenge with friends. We all support eachother and are doing a 5k together.

No matter what, you have to exercise and eat less. ON less calories, you really can feel full and satisfied eating 6 times a day. There is not a magic pill or diet that will ever help you forever. As you know, diets don't work. Maybe give yourself one bad meal a week, but do it in moderation. Use a measuring cup to make sure you don't eat 2000 or 3000 calories when you eat the one bad meal. You will learn a lot on this site!

As far as a budget, I am on a very tight budget and only have $200 to $250 a month. It takes planning and going to the store weekly. You will be eating a lot less and that alone will save you money. Buy meat and fish on sale and freeze it in portions for 2-3 days. Lettuce (which I am sick of) and frozen veggies are cheap... so is yogurt and oats. I hope all of this helps

Dont give up! You CAN do this! You HAVE to do this!

If you put your mind to it you WILL succeed... Especially with all of us by your side.

Welcome! Sent you a friend request, I'm also in Northern NJ. You can do this! I'm going to link you to an article that helped me (well, a blog that helped me!) http://zenhabits.net/normal/ It's called Zen Habits and encourages slow, progressive change instead of burning yourself out on things. It's a healthy way to approach a total lifestyle change.

Just realize that this won't happen overnight but it WILL happen. Welcome to the MFP community. Can't wait to see you progress!

PS: I'm a real person, not advertising that blog but it was a major eye opener for me so I wanted to share it, I hope that's ok.

Hey Tom,

I just wanted to let you know that I'm so happy you are here! I'd love to cheer you on and help any way I can, I'm sending a friend request your way and I promise I won't talk about cats Welcome!

Melisha Murray