1 Year, 100 Pounds (Almost)

I’ve been on MFP for just over one year now, and while I’m not done losing yet, I definitely consider what I’ve accomplished to be a success: nearly 100 pounds in the last year. I’ve done this entirely by using MFP, the way it was designed. I’ve been adding exercise in over time, but it’s more because it feels good to feel fit rather than to help me with my weight loss.

Stats: 5’9”, Female, 24, Start: 343 pounds, Current: 243 pounds, Goal: 170 pounds. I started at a size 26 US and I’m currently a size 18 US.

I’ve been the fat girl my whole life. In elementary and high school I was the biggest girl in a class of about 100 people. Throughout my childhood I always told myself that I’d get taller and it would get better, but that’s not how things work. As I got older, I just got bigger, primarily because of family eating habits. I really looked up to my dad and I got a lot of his eating habits; what I didn’t get was his activity level. By the time I graduated high school, I was just about 300 pounds.



This got a little higher in college, up to 315, but then after college when I worked in an office and wasn’t walking to and from classes everyday, my weight quickly hopped up to 340.



While I never really avoided the camera, as time went on I just sort of didn’t aim to be in the picture. There are only 14 pictures of me from when I graduated college in June 2012 to when I started MFP in July 2013, so finding a before picture is a bit of a challenge. I’ve got a few though:





Despite being morbidly obese for most of my life, it was never a source of deep depression or self-loathing or anything. If anything, I consider myself almost aggravatingly happy and optimistic. My reason for losing weight was primarily for tangible health reasons (versus theoretical health reasons like I might one day get diabetes or have a heart attack). There’s a history of weight-related infertility in my family. Last July I had reasons to start being concerned about this, so I went to the doctor. The first thing she did was hound me about my weight before she even knew why I was there and told me to walk half an hour a day (I walked 3-5 miles a day in college and was still 300 pounds), then offered to refer me to a free nutritionist. I got a different doctor next time, but still decided to see the nutritionist because of the general concern that my weight would make it impossible to have kids. In preparation for this visit I was told to log my food, which led me to My Fitness Pal. I haven’t looked back since.





And to top it off, a few similar pictures to show off the changes:




This is my favorite. Just after starting to lose weight I spent a lot of money on a lovely corset. When I wore it in the “before” picture it was as open as we could make it, and I still could have used an extra inch or so. Recently we took a picture of the corset on me now:



Perhaps the most common question I get about my weight loss is “Do you feel different now? Better?” This is a complicated question. On the one hand, I do feel better. Because I’ve been exercising I can run, go up stairs without dread, and I’m pretty strong too. Not to mention I don’t have this awful fear that I’ll break a ladder if I stand on it, or that I won’t fit in the seats when I go to the fair in a couple weeks. Those bits are nice. I also have collarbones for the first time in my life; I can feel them. That still weirds me out a little.

Do I feel different though? Not really. I didn’t feel like I was fat when I started, though it’s clear in the pictures and by the numbers that I was. Now that I’m 100 pounds lighter, I still feel the same. Every time I go shopping I hesitantly grab the size that I theoretically am (18 right now), and still can’t believe it when the clothes fit. When I look in the mirror, I’m still the same general shape, simply smaller, and I can’t tell that I’m smaller without comparing it to something. I’ve also been taking mostly-naked pictures every month this year, and every time I have to look back at the beginning to remind myself that I really am a much smaller person. So in short, take pictures, because it’s hard to notice the changes. They take so long that you forget what you used to look like, and the new you is just the normal you.

:drinker: Here’s to the last 70 pounds and a new me that I’ve never seen before. I couldn’t have done it without MFP.

Bonus commentary: I know I wondered about it when I first started, and I’m sure lots of other people are. Loose skin. So far, I don’t really have any. I do have some skin that’s loose, but I don’t notice it on a regular basis and I definitely can’t see it when I’m looking in the mirror. We’ll see what happens in the next 70 pounds, but I’ve been lucky so far.