how did you loose 100lbs

This the best thread ever! Why not ask the people who actually did it. Yes. Brilliant.

As I read through these inspiring replies, I see alot of you have lost this massive amount of weight in a year, or months, or in some cases longer, but I've been on this site, for over 3 years now and I'm at my heaviest (well...trying to maintain this downward spiral currently)

But what I'm rambling on about is that you guys found that real "motivation" or wake up call that made you actually do it. What frustrates me is why have I not found it? What am I missing? I can only assume you ugys felt that way at one point? Maybe I'm wrong.

Keep up the posts these are great. I can always take tidbits out of everyone's posts.

how did you loose a 100 lbs and how long did it take

I'm currently at 99. I hope you don't mind my jumping in on this one

I've been at it for 22-months and with MFP for 16-months.

For the first four months I just cut my portions, a big bowl of cereal instead of a box. One plate at dinner instead of two--that kind of thing. I also started moving. Before I began my day consisted of:

Wake-up
Sit on couch
Eat
Sit on couch
Eat
Get mail
Sit on couch
Eat
Sit on couch
Eat
Sleep

I didn't do laundry or cleaning other than doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen a few times a week. I left the house to shop four to six times a month.

So for me when I say I started moving more I literally mean that. I got off the couch, I did my own laundry, I got out of the house two to three times a week. I started taking care of other people's kids daily (on and off the floor all day!) I moved house packing and un-packing. Nothing fancy, not a bit of 'exercise'.

By December things were really moving along and I knew I had to do more so I remembered someone telling me about MFP and I joined. I didn't use MFP by the book for a long time. Read on these forums nightly. I played with the food diary and recipe section. I hit a rough patch last summer and while I never gave up eating less and moving more I gave up emotionally on the idea of weight loss. I figured out I needed to actually set MFP up to get an accurate calorie amount (before I just went with 1200) and started losing weight again when I started eating more. I'm glad I never gave up completely.

I still don't measure every food every every time (but I do every now and then). I figure I have to live the rest of my life without thinking, "OMG! I need to measure that!" I guesstimate almost exclusively but this is not a race and I'm not in a hurry and I would bet real money that I'm pretty darn accurate. I never cut out any specific food but I try to make choices that are the best I can in the situation I'm in. I splurge but I don't over do it.

I lost a total of 70-pounds before I made friends or logged every day. From Jan to June I logged every bite, sip or taste of everything I ate and I made friends here. I had slip up in March and April and gained . I may be losing my weight more slowly (only 27-pounds so far this year) but I'll take it.

I've learned you have to do what works for you. Setting deadlines doesn't work for me. Setting goals does. Rewarding myself for weight loss doesn't work. Celebrating (even on a very small scale) even when I don't feel the magnitude of this weight loss does, eventually work.

This is not my first venture into weight loss but it will be my last. My entire mind set is different. I want it for me, for my life. Not for someone else and not solely to look good (although that is a bonus!)

Just keep going. If you fall get back up. If you mess up keep going (and don't beat yourself up!) just don't quit and you eventually will get there.

I posted this on your wall too, but figured I'd share here as well.

I lost 110 lbs in about 10 months (from roughly July of last year until mid-March of this year). My "success" story is here as well:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912120-from-fat-to-fit

At any rate, I started with a low-carb diet to lose some weight quickly. The main reason for this was that I was obese and couldn't really walk/run or do any exercise without severe pain in my legs.

Once I had lost about 45-50 lbs, I ditched the low-carb diet and switched to calorie counting with My Fitness Pal. This was late October/early November, I used MFP's pre-defined settings of a 1.5 lb/week goal which, for me, equated to about 1500 calories per day. I tracked religiously and never once exceeded my daily goal. In addition to tracking, I added exercising and was doing walk/runs daily. I quickly ramped up my distance and basically became a running addict. To this day, I still run nearly daily.

By mid-March, once I got down below 190, I decided to just maintain. My weight has stayed in the 183-188 range since that time. I like this weight. From my previous tracking, I developed pretty good eating and exercise habits. So, I don't really track my calories any more. I do however, still track my weight and exercise and remain conscientious about what I eat. As you may notice from my profile, I set my new baseline at 190 lbs because I don't have plans to let myself exceed that weight again. I want to look to the future rather than be reminded of or live in the past. Effectively, I feel like I closed that chapter of my life by shedding the weight.

BAZINGA. HECK. YEA.

Ate less, moved more, lifted heavy things. Took about 18 months. I will add, that it helped to track every thing. Not quite done, still got some toning to do, but I'm pretty much where I want to be. Not really sweating these last 15lbs as long as the inches are coming off.