HEY ALL! I'm new to MFP. 100+ lbs to lose!

I also just sent a request. This is my second time around and I have about 100 pounds to lose. I knew I was overweight but I recently went to my cousins wedding and when I saw the pictures . . . whoa! That and all the dancing killed my knees so now I am on a journey to lose all this bulk and become active. The next wedding I go to I will be a dancing fool!

I have sent requests as well! I have about 60lbs to lose but know that with support we can all do this!!

Laura

I have more then 100 +. When I started I weighed 355+, and today when I weighed myself I was finally under 300. I haven't been under 300 for 10-11 years. It the first step, next is under 200, then so on. My ideal weight is 115-120. I need to loose 170-180 more, but I know it will be done. If anyone wants to add me feel free, I share diary and hope to help.

You can add me! Anyone can add me - just drop me a line.

Forgive me if anything comes off as rude, insensitive or fat shamey-ish. Nothing I say is meant that way. (and apologies for the wall of text)

1. You are the only person that can lose the 100 pounds you intend. Plenty of people can help you along the way, all you need to do is ask for help. But ultimately it's you who chooses to either have a piece of cake or an extra five minutes on the treadmill. Nobody can do it for you.

2. If you do everything perfect and you have a plan of 1 pound a week it will take you two years to lose 100 pounds. It takes a long time to lose weight. I just went over 50 pounds lost and I'm almost at my one year mark. It took time to put the weight on. It takes time to get rid of it.

3. There are no shortcuts. No magic fat loss pills, no super shakes, no anything like that. By definition, weight loss occurs when you retain fewer calories than you burn. It's math and this site is designed to help you with the math. This is how it works for everybody who loses weight successfully. But if the system doesn't seem to be working, figure out what needs to be tweaked with it and do it. You rule the tool, the tool does not rule you. If your body is gaining weight then the tool needs adjusted. Also follow the next step.

4. BUY A FOOD SCALE! One of the biggest reason people can use a site like this and still not lose weight is being honest about the food they eat. A bowl of cereal is not a serving size. A cup of milk is not as big as you think. Measure and weigh everything and spectacular things will happen. If you find yourself getting stuck this is the first thing to take a look at. Even professionals get hit with this one. We all overestimate, you will too. There's no estimation when you measure and weigh things perfectly.

5. Don't eat back your exercise calories. Or worry about exactly what time a day you're eating, or how many meals, or good carbs vs. bad carbs, or "eating clean", or about a thousand other silly things that may have a hint of truth to them, but only detail about 1% of the weight loss you should be focusing on. The other 99% is exercising and KNOWING that you're eating the right amount of calories.

6. Do cardio AND weight training. The cardio will help you burn calories. The weight training will help you build muscle, which will, in turn, help a bit metabolically. The weight training will do more for your appearance than anything. You can do cardio until you're a rail, but you'd still be what's called "skinny fat" where you have no muscle tone. Seeing a muscular change in the mirror will do more for your esteem than 10-20 pounds of weight loss. People will notice much faster with muscle gains as well. Trust me on this.

7. Do exercise that you enjoy. If you decide to jog for your cardio and you absolutely loathe cardio YOU WILL QUIT! But you don't want to quit. You need to find a method of exercise you enjoy doing. And be sure you can find both cardio and weight training you enjoy. Otherwise you'll fail in this department. People do what they like, not what they hate.
8. Be willing to try new things. Get in the gym with all the muscle heads and pump some iron. Try swimming laps. Get into a spinning class. Try new things and stick with them for a while before deciding if you love them or hate them. You may find a bunch of fun things you never knew you liked to do. Have fun.

9. Take pictures right now. Go into your bathroom, set up your camera, strip down to your underwear and take pictures. Take one front facing unflexed, one side facing unflexed and one back facing unflexed. Now take a front facing picture while flexing your biceps and abs, and one back facing while flexing your back and biceps. Month to month you may not see too much progress, especially the heavier you are. But after time you'll start to see a significant change. This is important for you to see that you are, indeed, making progress. If you don't take pictures it won't feel like progress.

10. Don't quit. Don't stop logging. Occasionally you should take a sanity day, but try not to go crazy on break days and try not to take too many. Everybody cheats. Everybody goes over on calories. The ones who do the best are not the ones that cheat, but the ones that control their cheating. If you go over calories some day don't just go off and eat a full pizza just because it's a bad day and you may as well go over good. Little cheats will get you so much farther than big ones. But overall, don't quit. A bad day is just one day. This is the rest of your life.