Any Ladies who started at or are around 230 lbs.?

At the end of my last pregnancy I topped out at 228 because I took the expression "eating for two" literally and thought my tiny baby in utero needed to eat like a grown man... a grown man who eats a LOT of ice cream. I breastfed for the first year and was pretty hopeless about ever losing any weight - mostly because I was so attached to my baby and had no time or energy to put in the effort to get it done. When he stopped nursing in December of 2012 I thought maybe I wanted to try to lose weight, but I just felt so big and fat and overwhelmed that it was too hard to try... so I didn't. Then in January of 2013 I read an article from a woman just like me who actually went from morbidly obese to healthy. She wasn't a commercial, she wasn't selling anything, she was a real mom with a real life and a real commitment to being a healthy example to her kids. That really resonated with me. So that day I decided if I was going to lose weight I needed some help, so I researched some resources and decided MFP was a perfect fit for me. I was at 205lbs.

According to my husband, I don't know how to do anything halfway (a blessing and a curse - ha!), so I started logging everything I ate and joined a gym. I have several friends who do okay with home workout programs or running, but I know me, and I'm never going to do as much at home as I will in a class full of people with someone yelling (lovingly, of course) at me to push harder. I started off doing 6 days of cardio. Once I noticed my cardio fitness had improved (probably about a month in), I started lifting twice a week. Lemme tell ya, lifting makes a HUGE difference!

Today, I weighed in for the first time in the 160s (169.0!!!) I'm 5'4". Last summer I wore jeans and Tshirts all summer long because I was so embarrassed about the way I looked. And the pool? Forget it! I sit here now typing this in a tank top and shorts (NSV anyone?!?). In January I wore size 18 pants and XL/XXL shirts. Today I'm wearing size 10 bottoms and M/L tops. My favorite classes are Body Combat, Sh'bam, and Body Pump (lesmills.com). I have also started doing Body Attack which is super hard, and I'm proud of the fact that I can now make it through a whole class with all the high options!

Here's my current routine:
Monday: Sh'bam (cardio dance) and Body Pump (weightlifting)
Tuesday: Body Attack (high cardio) and abs
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: Body Combat (kickboxing/mixed martial arts) and Body Pump
Friday: CXWorx (core training class) and Sh'bam
Saturday: sometimes I do a cardio class, and sometimes I just do something fun and active - like racquetball with my husband or soccer with my kids
Sunday: rest
Sometimes I also throw in a little Zumba or Yoga to change it up. I don't ever count cleaning/yardwork/housework as exercise in my diary because I did that stuff when I was fat, and I don't want to be fat anymore.

Good luck to you in figuring out what works for you!

great going hope to be there one day

I started at 262 and now am at about 229. My goad is 150 and believe me, this is a very long process. I have arthritis in both knees, and love sweets, so lots of obstacles. I do most of my cario through aqquafit, but three times a week, I do get on the ellipticals and do some exercise with a trainer.

Height: 5' 8"
SW: 223
CW: 150
GW: 140

I started out walking on the treadmill first and the elliptical. I would walk on a incline and a fast pace. I worked out for 45 to 60 minutes 3-5 times a week At first. I started my weight loss journey at the end of March of this year. I now try to jog/ run 3-5 times a week and still do the elliptical . I still walk as well but now walk faster than I did in the beginning. I have just made my work outs harder. I was able to run 4.09 miles in 45 minutes the other night and last night I was able to run 36 minutes out of my 60 minutes on the treadmill. I try to work out 5x a week but I keep the diet clean so if I can't for some reason the it isn't too big of a deal. I've gone from a size 18 pant and XL shirt to a size 8 pant and medium shirt.

I started at 250lbs. I got down to 210 just by walking....a lot

I started at 260 and a complete couch potato. I am down to 220 (this is not all shown on MFP). First I started with Zumba, then moved on to a cross training class and ended up in a bootcamp program provided by my employer. Tried swimming but it did not take. Started the Couch to 5K program in the spring finished a Warrior Dash in September and a 10kthis past weekend.

Don't let your current size keep you from any activity you want to do. Find something fun, set a goal and go for it. My workout week looks like Run/walk on MWF and Xtraining T TH. I usually don't schedule anything for the weekends but I am active with other stuff.
Good luck and I hope you find something you like.

I started at 227. My routine when I started was a half hour of cardio (usually a regular exercise bike and/or walking on the treadmill) and 45 minutes or more of strength training. I split it between upper body and lower body and was doing 3 sets of 13. As I got stronger, I upped that to 4 sets of 13. I also tried to go for walks on non-gym days and to do yoga once a week or more.

As I got stronger and a bit fitter (I'm still not sure I'd call myself "fit," but I keep trying!), I started mixing things up. Most of my cardio now is a combination of the arc trainer and the Expresso bikes at my gym. I usually do closer to 45 minutes of cardio now on a day when I'm doing strength training, too, or an hour when I'm not. I do less strength training now, but I'm able to lift a lot heavier than I used to be able to. Sometimes I feel like I accomplish more in 25-30 minutes than I used to in 45. I also split my strength training now between upper body w/ machines, lower body, and upper body w/ free weights.

I plateaued for almost a month, which was frustrating, but I cut my calories from 1800 to 1770 and have been pushing myself harder during workouts and have slowly started to lose a bit again. I'm about 1/3 of a way to my goal weight. When I started, it seemed more like my dream weight than my goal weight, but I see that if I keep doing what I've been doing, it's a dream that can come true!

Started at 228 this past April. When I started I couldn't walk 50 feet without being out of breath, now I"m walking .75 miles during lunch at work daily, then when i get home I walk at least half a mile to 1.5 miles daily. My big thing was keeping track of my food intake...but I'm amazed how much I've lost. Need to add some weights to it soon.

I "started" at 260 -- I say "started" because that was my peak recorded weight at the doctor's office about a year before she told me I had lost 30 lbs in the previous year (I didn't weigh myself at the time). The first 25-30 lbs came off through no real deliberate effort -- first I got sick, then I took an incredibly physically active vacation, then I experienced a ton of worry and stress associated with helping a dear friend through a terminal illness. Having noticed that I needed a smaller size of pants without much conscious effort on my part, I started to make a conscious effort. I made slightly better food choices and resolved to always take a walk on a nice day. This started as walking about an hour around 3 times a week, but pretty quickly became waking much further distances in the daily hour 5 times a week. Then the logging food, counting calories and real effort at fitness walking. I walk 2-7 miles a day (average 25 per week) at around 4.5 mph. I also make an effort to be physically active on weekends -- canoeing, hiking, whatever. It's been about a year and a half and I'm down 97 lbs. I'm at the point where I'm increasing my calories and tapering off towards maintenance. The exercise has been great for me physically, but even better for me mentally. Daily exercise now is more about what makes me feel good physically and mentally, than it is about what makes me lose weight.

SW:283
CW:240
GW:140
I lost 42 lbs walking and drinking water. Now I got to lose 100 lbs to get to 140. I am starting to jog and jump rope. I really want to get into a size 4. People started to see a change when I lost 35 lbs.

I started AT 230 lbs 119 lbs now (5'4").

Depends on what I'm doing. I was hit by a car while doing a 100-mile bike ride for charity and I still can't bike or swim so I've been slowly building myself back up with Spin and BodyPump at the gym and I've slowly increased my running speed and mileage and I'm doing Disney in January (5K Thurs, 10K Fri, HM Sat, marathon Sunday) and I've gotten really into running since I can't do the other two (I'm a triathlete) but I also like Zumba, TurboKick, etc., I just can't do it right now because it hurts to bounce. I just upped my mileage last week so I'm taking 1-2 weeks off spin before I retake them. I was doing 3 BodyPump, 3-4 spins, and running 10 miles a week. Now I'm running 20+ miles a week and 3 BodyPump and I just did a Pilates and will do a Yoga after my long run Sunday. Plan to settle until January into the 20-40 miles a week running, 2-4 spins, 3 BodyPump, 1 Pilates, and 1 Yoga.

I started at 304 but currently around 220.

I'm not a big fan of long workouts, so I like to distract myself or split my workouts across the day. I do incline walking (on treadmill or outside on an inclined street) every day whenever my back isn't acting up and it burns a whole lot of calories. I basically just zone out while I listen to audio books. I also do some compound dumbbell exercises like lunges/curls and weighted squats, and some body weight like pushups, dips, bridges and attempts on pullups.

Just starting at 225lbs.

So I have an interesting story.

In 2009 I weighed 235 pound and was 5'4 inches tall. That was the biggest I was in my entire life and I was unemployed. How do you lose weight when you have no money and your mom despises you because you live there rent free? I also lived in a tiny bedroom, had no workout machines, was too afraid to go outside because of my appearance, had asthma but i did have a computer.

On a random October day I came across a show called Biggest Loser and it blew my mind. If these people who weigh in the 300 pound range can lose weight, that's embarrassing to say I can't. It empowered me but I had no money only food stamps. I started doing research on the internet and found MFP which would help me with all the tracking of my calories and workouts. I went to the library and realized that they had everything. My library had all the biggest loser books, dvds, P90X etc... I started on the biggest loser dvds in my tiny room with a pair a 5 pound dumbells, started getting healthy foods with my foods stamps instead of all the garbage I was getting and I tracked everything on MFP. At that time, that was literally the only thing I could do from making myself go crazy.

When spring came around, I already was out of the 200 pound range and had my bike fixed so I could start looking for a job and I landed a perfect one. I started working at Whole Foods Market in June 2010 which was perfect. They have weight loss support programs for their employee's and I got off food stamps my first month working there. I rode my bike to work everyday 7 miles there and 7 miles back except in winter.

It took me 2 years to get down to 135 pounds. I had a lot of pitfalls but I still kept persevering because I thought of those 300 pound people on the biggest loser and I worked at the healthiest grocery store who supported my goals which helped. This was the best time in my life. My weight loss resulted in me getting off food stamps and getting my own apartment.

Now I am starting over again. Life took a turn for the worse for me when I was skinny. I started hanging out with the wrong people, forgot about my diet and workouts, lost my job etc... and all the weight i lost came back
within 2 years. I really don't wanna talk about what led me back here again but it is what it is. The thing I want you to know is that it is not impossible, it takes dedication, hard work, and reading. You can do it. I am doing it again myself and I know I am going to do it because I have already experienced it. You have no idea how rewarding it is when you reach your goal. You basically turn into the princess at the ball and you feel strong, invincible, empowered. Your not tired anymore and the world looks more colorful. And you make your sisters jealous. lol. That's why I wanna do it all over again. Hope this helps give you some inspiration.

I'm 47 and I started at 241. I do 15-20 mins of cardio 4-5 times per week at the gym. I do the cardio first to warm up, I switch out elliptical/bike/elliptical/arc trainer. Then I lift. I do arms/back on one day, legs the next, then abs the next. I do low reps with heavy weight to burn fat. The way I see it is, it doesn't matter how firm I get my abs if there is a thick layer of fat over them hiding them, right? I also follow nerdfitness.com, but only for the workout advice (they do Paleo and I dont, so I don't follow the eating part of their plan.)