success stories for 5'7-5'8 ladies...

I absolutely ditto what she said!! I have never received compliments about how I look until I started losing weight. It is so nice to hear people say nice things about me. That is what keeps you going. It'll happen. One day at a time. Can you afford a personal trainer? I see that a lot of trainers are now doing small groups (2-3 per group). This is what I do and it's where I really see results (besides MFP). Keep at it!

I am in a very similar boat to yours, the weight is coming off really slow. All I can say is keep at it, watch your calorie intake, and try to do a little bit of exercise everyday. The weight is meant to come off slowly, none of us put this weight on overnight so it is not going to come off overnight. The hard part for me is keeping at it for more than a week. I find it helps to set small goals for myself every week, while having bigger goals for the long term, sometimes you'll find that your long-term goals change as your lifestyle changes.

Stats
College hit high of 240
starting working out but not counting calories leveled out to 220
had baby and after breastfeeding was at 210
starting using MFP in September 2013 down to 193
Goals
Hit weight of 150 at some point
Run a 5k this coming summer
Have a healthier lifestyle for myself and my family

I'm 5'7'' and have gone from 160 to 135 in a little less than a year (started 1/15/13). The last 5 I've lost came off super slowly because my deficit is smaller now. I'm eating around 1500 calories now. I eat back some exercise calories, but rarely more than 350 calories. If I eat more than 1900 calories a day, even with exercise calories, I'll maintain and not lose. When I started losing weight, I did 4 weeks of no alcohol, no sugar, no dairy, no coffee, no red meat, and no gluten. I lost 10 pounds without counting calories.Then I joined mfp and started doing 1200 calories. I was pretty hungry, but I did 1200 for awhile. I gradually increased it to 1300 then 1400 then 1500. I workout 3-5 days a week, boot camp, HIIT, yoga, and pilates. I'm planning to go down to 130 or 128, and then focus on body composition and building muscle/lowering bodyfat %.

I'm 5'7" and joined MFP two months after my son was born. I was 255 right before delivery, and shortly thereafter was about 230. Before I joined MFP, I gained back 5.8 lbs, putting me at 235.8 lbs.

I started doing 1200 calories, which I now realize was too low, and about 4.5 months after starting MFP I started the Couch to 5K program. I finished that (it's a 9-week program) and continued running, then I got into Spinning. I loved it so much I became an addict and would Spin 3-4x/week and run 2-3x/week, leaving me with one day off/week.

All this time I was eating 1200 calories and not eating back exercise calories for the most part, though if I had a particularly tough workout (like a Spinning Tabata class), I'd eat a little more. Eating-wise, I was not happy, as I was starving all the time (in the literal sense).

11 months after starting MFP and 13 months after my older son was born, I had lost 82 lbs and weighed 153.8 lbs. I was wearing a US size 6 pretty consistently, and in some brands I wore a size 4 or a 2. I could wear anything that was a small or extra-small, which made shopping the clearance racks super easy!

I'm a pear shape, so I tend to have saddlebags and fat knees, and my waist is pretty tiny (25" at the smallest point).

I wish I had focused a bit more on eating more and building muscle because even though I worked out a lot and had a good cardio base, I was still pudgy and had lots of wobbly bits, as the Brits would say.

Last August/September I got pregnant again and planned to only gain the recommended 25-35 lbs while pregnant. Due to minor bleeding issues I had to stop Spinning and running, and then walking got scratched off because I screwed up some tendon in my leg that acted up any time I walked for more than a few minutes. (Even a jaunt across the mall put me in pain.)

Unfortunately even though I ate better during my second pregnancy than my first, I gained even more weight. I started at probably 165 (I'd gotten lazy with my eating/logging between March and August of 2012) and ended up 240 before delivery. I'm breastfeeding this time (my first was mostly formula-fed), which is SERIOUSLY messing with my weight loss. My weight dropped from 240 before delivery to 220 a couple of weeks later, and today I sit right above 200, 6.5 months later. It's not widely publicized (for obvious reasons), but breastfeeding can sabotage weight loss for a lot of women!

I'm eating 1800 calories/day but am breastfeeding still, though even after he weans I don't plan to lower my calories much. I plan to use the In Place of a Roadmap plan that is very popular here (TDEE -20%). No more 1200 calories for me!!!

So I've gotten down to a very lovely size doing MFP, and I can't wait to get there again! I assure you that it's possible, even after having kids. Persistence is key. Some weeks I'd lose a lot, others I'd be stuck or show a gain.

ETA that I am 33. I was 31 when I started.

I'm 45 and 5'8". I started at 162 lbs and a size 10/12, got down to 134 lbs and a size 4 (or a 2/4/6, depending on brands!). Had my best success with the TDEE method, starting with a 20% cut, and then dropping to a 10-15% cut, and grabbing the heaviest weights I can get my hands on. No gym membership and no space or $$ for a bench and barbells at the moment, so I do my best with my dumbells (a set of 20 lbs is my heaviest at the moment) and body weight exercises. Three days a week with the weights, three days running 3-5 miles, currently eating around 2100 cals a day.

I'm still working on lowering body fat percentage, and less concerned about scale numbers now. Current weight fluctuates between 135-140 lbs, still wearing the size 4 jeans. :bigsmile:

SW 253 size 22

CW 195 size 16

My 1st Goal is to be a UK size 14, the weight for me is insignificant.

Sorry forgot to put I'm 5ft7

Hi everyone -

5'7 here! I started at 222 in Sept/Oct 2013, and successfully went down to 175 as of early December. That consisted of varying deficits (at one point eating at 1200, up to 1700, then back to 1400). Given my intake fluctuations, it's probably not a surprise that I'm at a bit of a plateau now, which has brought me to peruse the forums and find this great thread. I get a lot of inspiration and advice from MFP gals, so thanks to everyone for sharing. Always trying to improve and grow and of course.. get healthy

Thanks for the inspiration & happy holidays!

You are ALL SO INSPIRING! I'm 5'7" and this is all very lovely, helpful advice. Thank all of you!

I just wrote a huge post earlier about my weight loss.

I'm 5'7 and I weighed 193lbs.

Over the course of the last 8 months I've lost 31lbs. And the weight did NOT come off fast. It's been the most tedious annoying process, haha. But here are my photos.

From April 2013 to December 2013.

My success story is a work in progress, but I feel good and I feel healthy, so I still count it as a success! I'm 43 yrs old and 5'7.5". I hit my highest weight of 197 a couple years ago and just felt completely depressed, out of shape, and unhappy with myself. I then began my current journey and got down to 165 last year, then slowly gained 15 lbs back as soon as I quit logging. Exercise is not a problem for me, I love it and I exercise hard, but my eating habits continue to sabotage me if I don't keep track, so, as of October, I'm back to logging my calories and paying closer attention to what I eat and, as a result, I'm back down to 171. I feel the best I've ever felt and for the first time in my life I'm comfortable in my own skin.

The main things that seem to work for me are logging (no matter how ugly the truth), and forgiving myself when I've had a bad day, then pulling my pants up and getting right back to it the next day. One of the most important things I've learned is to stop being so negative about myself. A bad day/week does not make me a failure, it makes me human.