30-40 lbs lost in your 1st yr-Nothing over 40 lbs please.

My one year MFP anniversary is coming up in a week and I have lost around 45 pounds in that time (sorry, it is over 40 pounds).

I have to say, though, that your perception that your loss is an embarrassment instead of a victory saddens me.

Why in the world would you feel that way? You have worked very hard to achieve what you have achieved. Thirty-two pounds doesn't just fall off without a lot of effort, both in controlling what you eat and in improving your activity level.

You said yourself that in the last year you have:
a) lost 32 pounds
b) lowered your blood pressure medication
c) reversed your anemia
d) increased your walking from 45 minutes a week to 5-6 hours per week

I'm sorry to say that I do not know how you feel, not because I have lost more than 32 pounds in the past year, but because you don't seem to be able to congratulate yourself on all the hard work you have done.

Please be kind to yourself and worry less about the eight pounds you haven't yet lost and instead concentrate on the thirty-two pounds that you have.

You should be proud of yourself! Celebrate your achievement! Well done!

If you lost faster you might have loose extra skin.:flowerforyou:

I hit my year of logging consistently (joined in 2011, fell off the wagon for awhile) on 8/8. In that time, I lost 32 lbs as well. In the 3 weeks since then, I've lost 5 more lbs so I'm up to 37 now. It's nothing to be ashamed of! You have stuck to it when many people crash and burn, or worse, keep telling themselves they need to do something but never do. You have reversed health problems! You have done amazing!

To me, the slower weight loss was worth it because it seemed more sustainable to me for the long run- I still was eating everything I loved rather than cutting x or y out (albeit measuring my portions of these things), and I wasn't going to the gym for hours at a time (which I would dread and not do after awhile).

I hope that you can look on what you've accomplished as a victory eventually, because truly it is- it's not all about the number on the scale!

I think I lost about 40lb in the first year. It was different for me, because I'd deliberately aimed to lose slowly for various reasons. I do think there are advantages to losing slowly. As somebody said above, it's more sustainable. I felt I had to diet in a way that I could keep up indefinitely, through maintenance. It's unusual for people to successfully lose a lot of weight and keep it off long term - it's keeping going with it that's the difficult part, and you seem to have nailed that. You shouldn't feel embarrassed at all!

My one year will be mid october. I thought I would be further along too. I had to rethink my goals. I only have about four lbs left to go, but I've been losing weight so slowly these last few months it will probably take me till October to get rid of these last four :sad: sometimes I do feel a bit silly when I see my ticker next to someone who has lost so much more than me in half the time. But hey I fought hard to lose those 32 lbs! Gotta be proud

I just passed the one year mark and am up to 32 pounds lost. Although I would have liked to be at goal by now I'll take 32 pounds. It's much better than 0. It will take a little longer but I'm okay with that. As long as I keep progressing. Plus I'm kinda freaked out about maintenance once I do hit goal.

You not only lost 32 pounds, you lost the 32 pounds that you didn't gain.

At 8 months in, I'm only down roughly 20 pounds. So, if the pattern holds, I will lose about 30 pounds this year. I have a total of 65 pounds I'd like to lose from when I started. I've been frustrated that I haven't lost weight more quickly, too. However, when I look at people who have lost a lot of weight quickly, I don't always know their back stories. I don't know if they had surgery to lose the weight, if they are doing it in a dangerous way like super low calorie, if they were morbidly obese to begin with, etc.

I know that in the past I've lost weight quickly through Weight Watchers and then gained it all back and then some. This time I vowed not to do it that way and to lose in a sustainable way. This time, I care more about inches, exercise, and the way I look and feel. I actually put the scale in the closet and stopped obsessing about it. Now I weigh myself once a month instead of daily or weekly. I put my bodymedia band in the dresser drawer and stopped obsessing about every little calorie burned. That is not sustainable. I'm not willing to wear an armband for the rest of my life. I'm not willing to wake up at 4 a.m. to exercise for 2 hours everyday. That is not my reality.

I am willing to log my food, to eat around 1700 calories, to exercise 30 minutes a day with cardio half the time and strength half the time. I'm willing to do all of this to lose the weight slowly in a way that I can actually keep it off.

Good luck to you in your journey. I'm willing to take another year or even two to ultimately get where I want to be. No matter how long it takes, the end result in your health and how you feel when you look in the mirror will be worth it.

I think about all the years in my life where I gained and didn't even care. I still have until December, so I've started pushing hard again, but I'm still around 30 pounds down in 8 months. 32 pounds lost is a big deal. Congrats!