New Goals

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alyssa83202
alyssa83202 Posts: 334
in Motivation and Support
When I first started on this website, I was sure that I could lose 2 or 3lbs a week without too much difficulty, especially since I was planning on starting these diet pills from a medical weight loss clinic. Luckily, I joined this site about a week before I was scheduled to start the pills, and by exercising and logging my calories, I realized that I could do this on my own and decided to save my money and skip out on the diet pills.

I had my goals set to lose 2lbs per week, but since it would require eating less than 1200 calories a day to do so, my actual goals changed to 1.4lbs a week. Still, I continued holding onto my goal of losing 10lbs a month so that I could reach my "magic number" of 125lbs in May of this year.

Lately, I've realized that I feel discouraged anytime my weight doesn't go down when I weigh myself in the morning, and I have a hard time being able to eat back 700 exercise calories without feeling like I'm failing. I really want to do this the right way, and not only do I want to be thin, but I really want to be in great shape. I've decided to let go of losing 10lbs a month, which is most likely unrealistic, and instead I plan to use my 1.4lb a week estimate as a benchmark. I divided the 40lbs that I want to lose by 1.4 and learned that it should actually take me about 7.5 months (not 4!) to lose the weight, so I made a table for each week and left the column beside it for me to record my weight as the time comes. I realized that if I keep 10lbs a month in my head, I will only feel discouraged if and when I don't meet that goal. Instead of putting myself in a position where I'm likely to either give up or go about losing weight the unhealthy way, I've decided to look at my goals realistically and give myself the time I need to do it right!

Replies

  • SamWTFx3
    SamWTFx3 Posts: 76
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    Hey, that sounds really awesome! I should do something like that.. I'm only aiming to lose 9.2 pounds, but I lost 7 pounds before the summer, and I couldn't really tell the difference! So who knows, maybe when I reach my goal, I'll want to make another goal.
  • teerene
    teerene Posts: 16
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    Congratulations !!!!
    That is a great new outlook.. I started this process thinking I would lose 75 lbs in a year..that did not happen... but I've lost 57lbs and will just stick it out till all 75 lbs are off for good.
  • Scarletblue
    Scarletblue Posts: 255
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    sounds good to me.....eat right and exercise whether your losing pounds or just inches at first you'll be feeling better either way.
  • alyssa83202
    alyssa83202 Posts: 334
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    Thanks everyone!
    I've been exercising so much more than I ever have! My exercise goals are 60minutes, 6 days a week at minimum and so far I've surpassed them! Even if I don't lose weight as quickly as I'd like to, I KNOW that I'm increasing my health and fitness and that makes me feel pretty good! :)
  • vero_1
    vero_1 Posts: 85 Member
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    Another thing to keep in mind is that as you exercise your muscle mass also increases so maybe you are not seeing the number drop fast enough because as fat is being lost it is also replaced by lean muscle! I have one of those scales that gives you your weight and percentage body fat and I can tell you that the in the first 4 days of being in MFP I lost 2 lbs of weight and was showing 35% body fat... well, I started exercising too and thought I would see the scale go lower but it's been 4 days and not a single pound lost of total weight! The scale, however, now tells me that I am at 34% body fat! So, I have not lowered my total weight but I sure have lost fat and gained some muscle in the process and soon the extra muscle will be helping me burn the extra fat at a faster rate!!

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