Losing Weight is Hard

That's tthe story of my life!!! I'll do good and stick to being healthy for a short period of time, then BAM!!! I go on a binge and eat and eat and eat!!! I've now committed myself to following through with healthy eating and exercising. It's been a little over two weeks but this time I'm holding myself accountable more!!! Good luck with everything!

...I agree, loosing weight is hard.

Hi everyone. I'm Christopher.

I am just starting to take my weigh loss journey seriously. I'm tired of being tired, and exhausted just for reaching for my remote to turn the TV on. (That was a joke, praise God it's not that bad.)

But in all seriousness, for my age and height, my weight has gotten out of control, (im 26yo/5'7"/ 320) and I am finding some will and some time to do something about it. I am tired of the fatigue and sick of the judgment, because my weight is not who I am.

Seeing as though I made the decision not to die when I reach 30, I have joined a local gym and am seeing where this journey takes me.

Be encouraged everyone! I know it's gonna be a loooooooooooong road ahead, but I have to start somewhere. If only I had this bright revelation 10 years ago......

Good day everyone!

Yup, been there my whole life.

It comes down to willpower, and it is very hard to sustain.

Here are some things I can share since my starting again April 19th 2013. I am now on the longest diet period I have ever sustained. 2 weeks ago I bought a gym membership and started going to the gym again, something I have not done in 20 years.

1) I suggest starting fitness in stages. I personally could not handle the stress of dieting and working out simultaneously. So first I tackled the diet. I worked on that for about 3 months until I started seeing a steady weight decline and was down 20 pounds. Then I started the exercising.

2) Track your food religiously by using this web site. You have to eat a calorie deficit.

3) You are going to be hungry. I'm sorry, I wish there was an answer to this, but there isn't. You can reduce hunger somewhat by eating a low-carb diet. This helps stop swings in blood sugar that can lead to crashes in blood sugar that cause you to feel ravenous. But for me, if I'm losing weight, I'm hungry. All. The. Time. Sometimes I go to bed early at night because I've eaten all my calories for the day and I'm so damn hungry I just want to go to bed to escape it.

4) If you are like me, you have probably derived much of your daily satisfaction in life from eating. Eating is not just for survival, it's a source of pleasure. That is going to have to change. Your relationship with food is going to have to change. You are going to have to approach food in a much less fun manner. In this regard, eating "clean" or low-carb is good because there are not many clean or low-carb foods that have the pleasure potential that foods like pizza or hamburgers or milkshakes are. When you switch your diet over to boring foods food becomes...boring. And that's a good thing.

5) You'll lose your first 10 pounds within 2-3 weeks. And then you will plateau for about a month and a half, which is a huge confidence-sapper and willpower-sapper. It makes you feel like you are wasting your effort and why are you suffering so much for no gain. You have to push through that. Your body figures out what is going on with the calorie deficit after about 2 weeks and slows down. You have to push through and after 6-8 weeks it gives up and starts burning the fat. Watch your reports and you will see it happen. But you have to stick to it. If you can make it 3 months, you've got it made.

6) I recommend weighing in every day. It's not terribly useful because your weight can fluctuate a few pounds every day. But it gives you a very fine granularity on your weight loss chart and I find it personally highly motivating and it helps keep me focused on the task of weight loss. Every day I get up eager to get on the scale and see if I have hit a new low. If it goes up it is depressing but it inspires me to drive it down again.

7) Get some "good" friends here on MFP. I purposefully sought out very fit friends as they are inspirations for me. But you also need friends that actively post on your status updates. It's not really important what they say - what is important is that you know they are watching you. I don't want to be a fatty disappointment in front of my fit MFP friends. This is one of my biggest motivators and the single biggest benefit I get out of this web site.

Steve

Hi!

I have the exact same problem. And when I declared it to facebook in a fit of frustration one day, I found that so many of my friends did too. So first, know that you are not alone in this!

I don't have the magic formula, but I have found some things that really help me.

1) Don't go too extreme on my good days. Habbits like cutting my calories lower than my goal, working out past when my body was telling me to stop, and never indulging were setting me up for failure in a week or two. Now I make sure that I eat all my calories for the day, take rest days from exercise and have a small treat every once in a while.

2) Be intentional about indulging. Now I have a goal of 1-2 indulgences a week so I don't feel deprived. I only have a serving size and I pay attention to how it makes me feel when I'm eating it. Does it make me feel satisfied or just make me want to eat 12x more? If it's a trigger, then I try to avoid it and pick something more satisfying. Taking that moment to stop and assess can also prevent me from going into a tail spin.

3) When I feel myself slipping into a bad mindset, I take a moment and stop. I made a list of things I can do at that moment to prevent it. My list has things like:
-Take a nap. (Being tired is the enemy)
-Exercise
-Eat a healthy meal
-Call a friend
-Check in with myself emotionally and name how I am feeling
-Check in spiritually: pray, read, etc.
-Take some time to relax in whatever way works for you
-Journal

4) Forgive yourself. If you do go on a binge, wollowing in shame isn't going to help. Forgive yourself and start fresh.

I hope that this helps!

I have a similar problem, and the only thing that seems to be working for me is to log all of my food, even when I binge. I usually find I didn't eat as many calories as I thought, and I can move forward the next day instead of waiting to start again next week, month, or whatever.

The binge eating often can come from the all-or-nothing diet mentality. If you look at food as just fuel - nothing good about it; nothing bad about it; no foods off limits - and just figure out how much you need you can go from there.

Don't freak out and think, "Well as long as I'm going to have to eat food I don't like and be restricted, I'll go as hard at it as I can so it comes off fast and I don't have to do it for long." That's never going to work. Just figure out your expected maintenance calories and go from there. Set a goal to lose 1 lb/week... no more than that. Even to start you can set your goal to 1/2 a pound weekly so you get to eat more. Once you feel comfortable at that level, you can cut out a bit more to a 1 lb/week goal.

You don't have to restrict down to nothing to lose weight. It's not as hard as it seems.