How did you lose your first few pounds?

hellohappycarla
hellohappycarla Posts: 85 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What did you do? How were you able to start? When did you start noticing the results?

I have to be honest. Although i have been logging in for almost a week now and i heard/read that this is the best place to start, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that it is possible for me to lose weight. Like, since I still haven't seen results in me yet, in my head, I feel like it won't happen. I'm not sure if any of you out there get what I mean. Anyway, this is why I am so hungry for information on how those who have had success with weight loss were able to start the whole journey. Were you able to see results after a week? A month? What triggered it? What made it happen?
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Replies

  • catjrow3
    catjrow3 Posts: 532 Member
    Cheri, it might help to get some good suggestions if you open your diary so we can help you. Have you cut down the calories? Maybe cutting down the carbs some, and replacing with some veges? What are your normal eating habits since you started changing things to lose weight?

    I started with lowering the calories and cutting down the carbs, and drinking a ton of water!!
  • BadassCrossfitMama
    BadassCrossfitMama Posts: 110 Member
    I started by making up my mind that I wasn't going to go at this halfheartedly. I was going to go into this as a lifestyle change not a diet. I was going to do this and in a year from now be a better person and not be in the same spot because I gave up. Once I resolved that I started to build a support network, I cannot stress how much having a support system in place will help you achieve your goals. Then I just started walking, the don't think twice about it get up and go kind. I made realistic goals, 10lbs per month to lose, finish c25k, be active 4 days a week. I also didn't go into this with the mindset of oh I will NOT ever eat that again. I still eat out just not 3 meals a day every day.

    My trigger was watching extreme weight loss on ABC. It really hit home, I was headed back to my heaviest which was 260+ and I had worked hard the previous year and lost 30lbs. So June 5th I decided I had, had enough. Weighing in at 247 I started from there. I've since lost 14lbs. I lost 3.5lbs my first week. Then I stalled, 1200 calories weren't working even with all my exercise and clean eating. So I looked up TDEE and calculated mine and upped my calories to 1600 and now I'm losing about 1.5 - 2 LBS per week.

    Hope this helps some :)
  • zombiemomjo
    zombiemomjo Posts: 494 Member
    I just started moving and logging. I quickly saw that exercise made me feel good, and it allowed me to eat more calories. Then I made sure I found exercise that motivated me. Rockin Body was awesome! I love to dance, and Shaun T was so goofy and motivational. It kept me pushing play every day. Then that workout got easier, I stayed under my calories, and the weight starting coming off. It was just finding the RIGHT program that clicked for me. I'm no longer losing (just can't find that magic formula) but I'm now LOVING the fitness aspect. The pounds are annoying when they don't go down, but knowing that I'm stronger and have muscles now that I never had is what keeps me going.
  • glin23
    glin23 Posts: 460 Member
    I joined a gym and started working out. Eventually the scale went down.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    I figured out how many calories it would take to maintain the weight I wanted to weigh and I ate that much. Simple. I lost my first 40 lbs that way.
  • __Di__
    __Di__ Posts: 1,658 Member
    What did you do? How were you able to start? When did you start noticing the results?

    I have to be honest. Although i have been logging in for almost a week now and i heard/read that this is the best place to start, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that it is possible for me to lose weight. Like, since I still haven't seen results in me yet, in my head, I feel like it won't happen. I'm not sure if any of you out there get what I mean. Anyway, this is why I am so hungry for information on how those who have had success with weight loss were able to start the whole journey. Were you able to see results after a week? A month? What triggered it? What made it happen?

    I stuck to 1200 calories per day, did my exercise, logged all food and drink. Yes, I did lose weight within that first week.
  • A_Fit_Mom
    A_Fit_Mom Posts: 602 Member
    I started logging and started with walking on the treadmill at about 3.5 speed and then went on from there.
  • mandasalem
    mandasalem Posts: 346 Member
    What did you do? How were you able to start? When did you start noticing the results?

    I have to be honest. Although i have been logging in for almost a week now and i heard/read that this is the best place to start, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that it is possible for me to lose weight. Like, since I still haven't seen results in me yet, in my head, I feel like it won't happen. I'm not sure if any of you out there get what I mean. Anyway, this is why I am so hungry for information on how those who have had success with weight loss were able to start the whole journey. Were you able to see results after a week? A month? What triggered it? What made it happen?

    I'll be honest, even though the scale started moving for me pretty quickly, it's taken me almost this entire time to realize IT'S WORKING. (I've dropped 16 lbs, half my goal.) You'll notice things soon, but if you're anything like me, you'll brush it off and say it's nothing, or you're imagining things, or you have so far to go that it doesn't count.

    Every bit counts! Every smidge of looseness in your clothes and every ounce off.

    - Log everything
    - Move more. It doesn't have to be drastic! Just move more! Make a conscious effort and stick to it.
    - Make friends on here! Encourage and be encouraged. It will help you, cheer you on, and make you stress less about "bad days" or if your numbers aren't where you think they should be.
  • Zomoniac
    Zomoniac Posts: 1,169 Member
    Ate less. It worked.
  • k9runner1963
    k9runner1963 Posts: 108 Member
    All of the above and take measurements. Sometimes if you are exercising and tracking your food, the scale may not show a change but the measurements will. Good Luck!
  • twosixeight
    twosixeight Posts: 24
    Even though I just started a week ago, I can tell you that my decision to do this (unlike many failed attempts before) was to do what I knew I needed to do and all I would need to do to lose weight. I wasn't going to be good some days and off the wagon the next day. I promised myself I would give myself the best chance, a 100%, to do this right.

    Even thought I've only lost 6 pounds so far, I can tell you that I even though I don't see a difference in the mirror (even though my husband claims my butt looks and feels tigther), the major difference I've "seen" is how I feel. I feel happier, I have more energy and my body overall feels like its working hard to get back to were I need to be physically. To me, its a sign that I'm on the right path and as I continue down this new road and work hard, I'll soon see the changes in the mirror as well. For right now, I'm more content with the changes inside.
  • TheRunningGuppy
    TheRunningGuppy Posts: 651 Member
    I decided I was done being fat. So I started logging my food, and I started walking. Eventually walking wasn't enough, so I started running.
  • KristyAnn81
    KristyAnn81 Posts: 128 Member
    I jumped in feet first. Let my husband finish off the junk food in the house, lol, and bought lots of fruits and veggies. Started exercising and following calorie guidelines. I also know I lose weight faster when I limit carbs too, so that's how I started with the diet too.
  • norrisski
    norrisski Posts: 1,217 Member
    Life altering stress.
  • BluejayNY
    BluejayNY Posts: 301 Member
    I lost all the weight about 6 years ago. I stopped eating a milkshake every night. I stopped eating high calorie fast food for lunch. I parked my car farther and walked. The weight melted off. I didn't think much of it at first and I didn't obsessively weigh myself or anything. I would say after losing the first 20 I got pretty excited about it. Then I started counting calories and dropped the rest of the weight that way.
  • HealthWoke0ish
    HealthWoke0ish Posts: 2,078 Member
    My approach has been incremental. The thing that helped most (and that continues to help) is that I try to focus less on results and more on process. I weigh in once a month. I'm always excited to see what's happened over the previous month...but I'm most interested in the number on the scale as data to be used in adjusting my approach (i.e., the scale is one of the factors that helps me determine how I'm doing).

    How did I lose my first few pounds? I stopped drinking soda. All other factors remained the same, but I stopped drinking soda. I probably lost 20 lbs during the first few months after that. Then I started limiting my portions at meals to one plate (it didn't matter so much what or how much of that thing was on the plate...I would just have that one serving); result = more pounds lost.. After that, I started counting calories...I didn't even do the metrics that told me how much I ought to eat...I just counted/recorded so I could see where I was/how I was doing. After that, I input my info into MFP and started eating according to its calorie restrictions. Even more weight lost. Finally, I started exercising (and a few months ago, I added running to my repertoire). Thus far, I'm down about 150 lbs or so from where I started. I've got around 30 lbs left to go to reach my goal...I'll re-evaluate once I'm there.

    Good luck to you...you CAN do it! :)
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
    What did you do? How were you able to start? When did you start noticing the results?

    I have to be honest. Although i have been logging in for almost a week now and i heard/read that this is the best place to start, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that it is possible for me to lose weight. Like, since I still haven't seen results in me yet, in my head, I feel like it won't happen. I'm not sure if any of you out there get what I mean. Anyway, this is why I am so hungry for information on how those who have had success with weight loss were able to start the whole journey. Were you able to see results after a week? A month? What triggered it? What made it happen?

    For me, exercise is the thing that makes me lose weight. I've always eaten healthily, so I have nothing I can give up, I almost wish I'd been someone who ate loads of junk or drank lots of alcohol, because I could change my diet more drastically! Increasing what I eat has helped me though - I was someone who always had that 1200 calorie a day mindset.

    I put on weight in pregnancy, so maybe that makes a difference. I'd always been active before, and carried on going to the gym in my 1st pregnancy, but let myself go in my 2nd. I only went to the gym a few times. I also ate a few too many sweet things, and my restrictive 1200 calorie diet beforehand came back to bite me as I craved carbs when I hardly allowed myself them before. So I put on lots and lots of weight.

    I went back to the gym when my daughter was 7 weeks old. I went 5 times a week and had personal training sessions for 2 of those, so I did lots of strength training too. I got weighed by my PT once a month, and also or measurements done. My weight loss was quite slow in the beginning, but I lost a lot of inches.

    I guess it was obvious after the first month or two, but more to other people than to myself. I find the tape measure is better than the scale, and also having photos to compare is helpful too.

    I've lost 66lbs and when I see people I haven't seen in a while they are shocked and tell me how amazing I look!
  • SimplyDenyse
    SimplyDenyse Posts: 124 Member
    Wow you got some great replies already!!

    For me I started with one goal at a time. I proably would have had faster results if I just went all in but then again I probably would not still be here either because I would have already given up.

    1) open up your food diary and log honestly.
    2) don't starve yourself and don't forbid yourself from eating certain things if you love it but limit the portions.
    3) you have to really want it to make it happen. That part alone was the hardest for me. Yeah I wanted to loose but I wasn't willing to put in the workouts or control what I ate. Until I fully wrapped my mind around this I didn't see real results.
    4) find good motivating friends on here. The contacts Ive made on here motivate me SO MUCH!! I hardly have any IRL friends that motivate me to workout exctera. This site has helped me to find like minded individuals and that alone has helped me so much.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    I didn't start to notice the results in myself until I'd lost my first 20 pounds, even though the scale was showing me a consistent loss every week. My friends started to comment around 15 pounds when I got all dressed up for a wedding.

    For me, I bought myself a calendar and gave myself a sticker every day that I kept to my goals (1700 calories and 20 minutes of exercise). It's a silly reward system I learned in Kindergarten, but it gave me a simple way to see if I was skipping too many days and let me have a little non-food reward every day.

    My early exercise routines were things like Bellydancing for Fitness and Richard Simmons' Sweating to the Oldies. I was looking for something fun and slightly ridiculous that wouldn't feel too hard to do. I made it a point to try a new, healthy food or recipe every week. I was constantly looking for variety in my diet so that I wouldn't get sick of the same meals every day.

    I've changed things a lot since then, but I think having an easy plan in place really helped me. I know you'll find something that works for you.
  • SJVZEE
    SJVZEE Posts: 451 Member
    What did you do? How were you able to start? When did you start noticing the results?

    I have to be honest. Although i have been logging in for almost a week now and i heard/read that this is the best place to start, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that it is possible for me to lose weight. Like, since I still haven't seen results in me yet, in my head, I feel like it won't happen. I'm not sure if any of you out there get what I mean. Anyway, this is why I am so hungry for information on how those who have had success with weight loss were able to start the whole journey. Were you able to see results after a week? A month? What triggered it? What made it happen?

    I didn't join this site until I was in maintenance and looking for info on fitness. I lost all my weight doing alternate day intermittent fasting :)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    My start point was a little strange - quinsy (tonsillitis with a turbo charger....).

    As I could barely drink let alone eat I lost quite a few pounds very quickly. But it was of those "eureka" moments where it just stripped away any excuses and left me with the really very obvious conclusion that if I ate less than I burned I would lose weight.

    So blaming the person who wrecked my knee twenty years ago for me being fat really couldn't be justified any more, responsibility for my diet and lifestyle is mine and mine alone.
  • lklkl5
    lklkl5 Posts: 113 Member
    When starting out, I decided I was done with diets. We were going to make a lifestyle change. I logged everything every day. Just the logging increased my awareness about making better choices. This led to me eating smaller portions and fewer calories. Our motto early on was basic "eat less and move more". No big secret! The scale started moving early and my motivation increased. I began looking for new foods to introduce, new ways to prepare foods and new recipes. Never felt deprived. I did go through a stint of scale obsession along the way though! Anyway, 57#'s later I still log my food and try new recipes etc.... I have drastically increased my exercise to include things I enjoy doing. I regularly cycle, walk, play tennis and our latest addition is kayaking. I still eat out, just make better choices and it is a treat instead of the norm. I enjoy parties etc... and will bake an occasional batch of cookies. You will be surprised how after eating better a lot of those old foods are "just not worth it". That is my new litmus test. Sometimes it looks so good, and when you take a bite "it's just not worth it". Set it down and move on. I save my calories for yummy delicious foods only! Good luck I know you too can be successful.
  • jwdieter
    jwdieter Posts: 2,582 Member
    I logged a day, which let me know my actual caloric intake was significantly higher than my goals.
    I put in 1 lb/week. I logged everything. I exercised. I ate back my exercise calories. It worked immediately.
  • michelehindman
    michelehindman Posts: 6 Member
    What did you do? How were you able to start? When did you start noticing the results?

    I think realistic expectations and patience are what helped me. I realized that setting myself to lose 1 pound a week, while knowing that everyone's weight can fluctuate up to 5 pounds from one day to the next meant that I just had to be patient. I wasn't going to see immediate, consistent results on the scale in one or two or even five weeks.

    Now I've tracked my calories every day for 6 months and found myself 35 pounds lighter—just by being patient and consistently meeting my goals.
  • hellohappycarla
    hellohappycarla Posts: 85 Member
    I don't think I can open up my food diary just yet, lol, it's too embarrassing! Haha! But I have been trying really hard to cut down on my carbs. Where I am from, white rice is a meal staple so I am trying my hardest to avoid that and during the times when I can't, I just eat around 3 spoonfuls of it. I drink diet soda though and I love sweets. Will try to cut out on these as much as I can.
  • hellohappycarla
    hellohappycarla Posts: 85 Member
    My trigger was watching extreme weight loss on ABC. It really hit home, I was headed back to my heaviest which was 260+ and I had worked hard the previous year and lost 30lbs. So June 5th I decided I had, had enough. Weighing in at 247 I started from there. I've since lost 14lbs. I lost 3.5lbs my first week. Then I stalled, 1200 calories weren't working even with all my exercise and clean eating. So I looked up TDEE and calculated mine and upped my calories to 1600 and now I'm losing about 1.5 - 2 LBS per week.

    Hope this helps some :)

    Thank you for this! I am planning to surround myself with health magazines so I will have a constant reminder that I have to keep a healthy lifestyle =)
  • hellohappycarla
    hellohappycarla Posts: 85 Member
    I stuck to 1200 calories per day, did my exercise, logged all food and drink. Yes, I did lose weight within that first week.

    Thank you for this, I still find it hard to stick with the 1200 cals/day that I have set for myself but I am now making a mental note that this is what I should really aim for. Again, thanks! =)
  • hellohappycarla
    hellohappycarla Posts: 85 Member
    I'll be honest, even though the scale started moving for me pretty quickly, it's taken me almost this entire time to realize IT'S WORKING. (I've dropped 16 lbs, half my goal.) You'll notice things soon, but if you're anything like me, you'll brush it off and say it's nothing, or you're imagining things, or you have so far to go that it doesn't count.

    That's funny, I feel the same way. Like it's hard for me to believe any improvements I see. Maybe because I have been in an accordion body mode for so long that I am refusing myself to believe that the improvement is for real. So, ok, note to self, count every little bit of calorie off. Thank you!
  • cavia
    cavia Posts: 457 Member
    I struggled for over 2 years to get my Synthroid dosage to a level where I felt normal and healthy. Once that happened, it was on to tackle the weight. I was going to give it my all, not really believing I was going to be able to lose much, if anything. I started reading the forums on a popular bodybuilding site where I saw hypothyroid ladies with beautiful bodies posting how they achieved their physique by weighing their food and lifting heavy. That flipped a switch for me because I had been resistant to the idea of needing to weigh my food. It gave me a glimmer of hope, which scared me, because I knew if it didn't work I would be gutted.

    I dusted off my food scale, found out I had somehow created a profile here a year earlier (no memory of doing this), joined a gym and got a personal trainer. I guesstimated my maintenance calories and tried to end each day with a 300-500 calorie deficit. I lost the first few lbs rather quickly. I believe I was losing 1.5lbs/week*. Got to 5 lbs and thought, this is water weight, it'll slow down for sure. Got to 10lbs I believe around Easter and thought, surely I'm going to stall - there's no way it can be this easy. Once I got to 15lbs, I allowed myself to believe I was really doing it and I actually had a chance to achieve a lean body once more.

    As my body adjusted to the increased protein intake, the *ease* I experienced earlier has dissipated into raging hanger. I'm 8lbs away from the original goal weight I set back in February. A goal I didn't think I had a chance in heck of attaining when I set it.

    For me, I owe it all to the food scale.
  • __Di__
    __Di__ Posts: 1,658 Member
    I stuck to 1200 calories per day, did my exercise, logged all food and drink. Yes, I did lose weight within that first week.

    Thank you for this, I still find it hard to stick with the 1200 cals/day that I have set for myself but I am now making a mental note that this is what I should really aim for. Again, thanks! =)

    Yes, I have to admit, 1200 calories doesn't leave very much room for treats lol. I have to ensure I eat quite a bit of protein, that keeps me full for much longer.

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