Question for people who have lost a lot of weight and kept i

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  • TheNewMrsDemo
    TheNewMrsDemo Posts: 26 Member
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    bump
  • BuckeyeLuvvvva
    BuckeyeLuvvvva Posts: 48 Member
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    All of these are great! When I hit my initial goal weight of 120, I had a great deal of anxiety about gaining it all back overnight. But here I am, one year later, and about 8 pounds lighter, and with a fraction of the anxiety I had before. These are the best pieces of advice I can provide:

    1. Drink water and lots of it
    2. Listen to your body! First of all - are you hungry? If so, what do you WANT? What sounds good? How can we work that in? By knowing that nothing is off limits I don't feel like I'm one hershey kiss away from gaining back all the weight and then some on a crazy binge...
    3. One crazy binge will not undo everything! Own up to it, be accountable, don't beat yourself up too much, learn from it, move on!
    4. Exercise
    5. This is LIFE not DIET, be realistic and enjoy the journey : )
  • lorriefagan
    lorriefagan Posts: 32 Member
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    Wow such great advice...keeps me motivated and on track!
    Thanks!
  • Alidecker
    Alidecker Posts: 1,262 Member
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    I haven't hit my goal yet...pretty much been stuck in the same 5 pound range since October, but I have lost over 130 pounds in the last year and a half.

    Don't beat yourself up over a bad meal or a bad day, just get back on track as quickly as you can.
    If you are really craving something, have it...just don't eat as much of it as you used to
    Find support. If your family and friends aren't good at supporting you in this journey, use forums like this. Luckily I have had both.
    Find exercise you enjoy since you will be more likely to do it.
    Eat often, don't let yourself get to hungry. I eat 6 times a day usually. If I don't and let myself get to hungry I end up eating more
    If you can afford a personal trainer, get one. Love mine, he keeps me motivated and he is someone to truly be accountable to.
    You aren't on a diet...you need to plan to eat this way forever.
  • DowntimeDesigns
    DowntimeDesigns Posts: 134 Member
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    Before MFP I started at 245... and the ONLY thing thats been able to help me lose weight/keep weight off is JOGGING/RUNNING.

    My diet hasn't changed TOO drastically (chicken over red meat, minimal Soda, etc.), but running has been the key for me!
  • jer2kat
    jer2kat Posts: 71 Member
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    Bump, I've been struggling lately and everyone has offered some great advice!
  • jnam7619
    jnam7619 Posts: 6 Member
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    Wow, I really like how you have used pictures of yourself slimming down on your ticker. What a good idea!! Congratulations on your weight loss. I just started last Saturday and want to lose 68 pounds. It really does help to get on here and read the stories of people who have lost weight and see their pictures. I am so glad I was introduced to this site, I don't think I could have done this without it. It is so easy now to track what I am eating.
  • cccathyyy
    cccathyyy Posts: 207 Member
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    bump
  • nickiben
    nickiben Posts: 117 Member
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    Whats does BUMP mean??????
  • atrayubrandy
    atrayubrandy Posts: 188 Member
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    BUMP means that people are trying to "bump" this topic up to the top of the forum topics. If a person comments on a topic, the thread will go back to the top in the forum so more people see it.
  • Hsanders3961
    Hsanders3961 Posts: 245 Member
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    BUMP means that people are trying to "bump" this topic up to the top of the forum topics. If a person comments on a topic, the thread will go back to the top in the forum so more people see it.

    And thank goodness for Bump. This is a GREAT forum post....so glad I read it!
  • katerinab
    katerinab Posts: 107
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    Learn to love vegetables - try new ones, embrace the old ones. Just learn to love them, because you can eat an absolute crapload of them and still have room for other food.

    Learn how to make your favorites healthier. Feel like having a burger? Don't go to a restaurant and get it, because most restaurant burgers I've found are at least 1000 calories. Get some lean ground meat of your choice, season it well, get a low calorie bun, and top it with whatever and you're gonna cut it WAY down. Baked instead of fried. Egg whites instead of whole eggs. Diet soda instead of regular. Etc.

    Don't be afraid to go to restaurants, but do your homework before you go. Choose your meal ahead of time - check nutrition information on their website, or use a tool like MFP to estimate what your meal might be if they don't have info available.

    Get a fitness buddy. A buddy who isn't afraid to kick your butt and motivate you to keep going, cheerlead for you when things are good, complain with you when things suck, etc.

    And most importantly, don't let a slipup get you down. Whether you're hanging onto the wagon with the tip of your pinky finger or whether you've fallen off completely - the next meal is a new meal, the next day is a new day, and it's all an opportunity to do better. You will only fail if you give up.
  • miabrown66
    miabrown66 Posts: 70
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    Bump.
  • ImperfektAngel
    ImperfektAngel Posts: 811 Member
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    I lost 60lbs so far as of May 2010
    on days I workout this is what my eating looks like--->135g Protein, 135g Carbs and 60g Fats on days I do not work out this is how my eating looks, 135g Protein, 33g CArbs and 105g Fats. Days one does not workout carbs are not necessary. These are all lean proteins, good carbs (brown rice, whole grain bread,) and good fats (avacado, nuts, olive oil, cheese). It is all a lot of calculating and reading labels, takes lots to get used to but you do in time. I have a very inexpensive scale I got at Target to weigh my food, couple of measuring cups, measuring spoons. I workout at least 4 times a week for an hour but I workout hard! My goal is to keep improving in distance! I run on a treadmill and do the elliptical. I record my distance each time and try and beat it at my next workout! Lots of dedication and discipline is needed, it's not easy! Good Luck to anyone trying to lose weight :)
  • quilter1951
    quilter1951 Posts: 16
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    get a bike and ride every day you can..i started Tops ( take lbs off sensebly) may 2010 and lost 25lbs in 6 months,but starting in july i rode everyday because our town has a walking,bike trail..it made all the difference, i worked up to 2 hrs aday..stoped riding last two months and not going to Tops and have gained 7 lbs back...can't wait to get back home to my tops group, (snowbird)...
    So going to try this till i'm back home!!! and getback on my bike noww....you can find Tops group online by googleing Tops weightloss and then your zipcode..if there's a goodactive group inyour town it can work well....
  • quilter1951
    quilter1951 Posts: 16
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    forgott to say i'm 60 yrs old ,and on a good day now i've done45 miles!!so i challenge you younges to try 15 miles a day
  • jbrown01
    jbrown01 Posts: 3 Member
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    Change how you think about food. It's fuel. It's not a way to comfort sadness, or celebrate happiness. It's not a substitute for something else missing in your life. Part of the problem is that in this culture, with things like Thanksgiving, birthday cakes, dinner parties, etc. we associate food with other things. Eating a ton at Thanksgiving is fine if you're a pilgrim and you walked 5 miles to the party and you eat like that once a year. You have to get pleasure out of other things in life, not food. Certainly, to lose weight, and occasionally to keep it off, you have to suffer. No one likes to admit that or talk about it, in fact, people spend a lot of time obsessing about how to avoid it. As a culture, we're pretty much soft. You'll suffer, accept it, move on. It's helpful if you have a spiritual life that gives that suffering meaning. Develop your inner masochist a little bit.
  • ALW65
    ALW65 Posts: 643 Member
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    I've lost 75lbs and kept it off for almost 5 years now. I lost the weight by eating 6 smaller meals a day and using the mantra "eat to live don't live to eat." I'd keep reminding myself during moments of temptation that the first few bites of anything always taste the best so only have a couple bites and stop. It worked for me. Then, when I started seeing results it motivated me to keep going.

    My best advice is not to beat yourself up. I was always on that constant roller-coaster ride of eating perfectly for two days and then having a piece of cake and deciding "well, that's it! I've ruined my diet. I'll try again next Monday." And until Monday I'd eat everything in sight. Then, I'd start the process over again. I was very erratic.

    Don't do that! Just take it one day at a time. Also, I would weigh myself daily and then record any weight loss on a giant calendar in my room. I'd ignore any weight gains. So, lets say on Monday I weighed 233.6, Tuesday 232.8, Wednesday 233.4, Thursday 231.9, Friday 232.4. I'd show it as Tuesday 232.8 (-.8), then I'd skip Wednesday and post Thursday 231.9 (-.9), and skip Friday. That way it always looked like a loss to me. I'd no longer beat myself up or cry over gain days. I'd just ignore them and get super excited when I'd lose more than my personal best. That was a big turning point for me. That's when I really started to lose the weight.

    Also, I didn't exercise that much. I know it sounds counter-intuitive. But I stopped thinking "I need to exercise today" constantly and just relaxed. Someone once told me that unless you are training like an Olympic athlete, you aren't going to burn enough calories to make a big difference in your weight. I fully believe that now. Exercise is great for helping you tone up and it certainly has it's health benefits but for weight loss I see it as being somewhat irrelevant (making a very slight difference at best...and certainly not worth beating yourself up over if you miss a workout). I'm sure it's very controversial to say that on here but I'm just trying to let you know what helped me lose 70lbs...it wasn't exercise. Instead, I focused more of my efforts on trying to change my diet. Once I got down to a healthy weight I started adding exercise back in to my routine but still only 20 minutes a day.

    I still have a little ways to go. I want to get down to 135lbs and I'm trying to tone up hard core for a trip to Vegas in June. But I've been holding steady at between 150-165 since 2006. It's great knowing you can go in to any clothing store and they'll have your size. It's great knowing that you can go to amusement parks or airplanes and not have to worry about the seat belt not fitting. It's great knowing you can stand on a chair to change a light bulb without the fear that you're going to break through the chair. It's great eating in public without feeling like someone is judging you. But I think my favorite thing of all is going to sleep at night without fear that I'm going to stop breathing because my body is so heavy. I had horrible sleep apnea before.

    I love this line: " I'd keep reminding myself during moments of temptation that the first few bites of anything always taste the best so only have a couple bites and stop. " You are so right about that, and I need to try to adopt that strategy...thanks for framing it in such a nice way...let me put away those York Peppermint Patty Pieces right now!!!
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    I've lost 75lbs and kept it off for almost 5 years now. I lost the weight by eating 6 smaller meals a day and using the mantra "eat to live don't live to eat." I'd keep reminding myself during moments of temptation that the first few bites of anything always taste the best so only have a couple bites and stop. It worked for me. Then, when I started seeing results it motivated me to keep going.

    My best advice is not to beat yourself up. I was always on that constant roller-coaster ride of eating perfectly for two days and then having a piece of cake and deciding "well, that's it! I've ruined my diet. I'll try again next Monday." And until Monday I'd eat everything in sight. Then, I'd start the process over again. I was very erratic.

    Don't do that! Just take it one day at a time. Also, I would weigh myself daily and then record any weight loss on a giant calendar in my room. I'd ignore any weight gains. So, lets say on Monday I weighed 233.6, Tuesday 232.8, Wednesday 233.4, Thursday 231.9, Friday 232.4. I'd show it as Tuesday 232.8 (-.8), then I'd skip Wednesday and post Thursday 231.9 (-.9), and skip Friday. That way it always looked like a loss to me. I'd no longer beat myself up or cry over gain days. I'd just ignore them and get super excited when I'd lose more than my personal best. That was a big turning point for me. That's when I really started to lose the weight.

    Also, I didn't exercise that much. I know it sounds counter-intuitive. But I stopped thinking "I need to exercise today" constantly and just relaxed. Someone once told me that unless you are training like an Olympic athlete, you aren't going to burn enough calories to make a big difference in your weight. I fully believe that now. Exercise is great for helping you tone up and it certainly has it's health benefits but for weight loss I see it as being somewhat irrelevant (making a very slight difference at best...and certainly not worth beating yourself up over if you miss a workout). I'm sure it's very controversial to say that on here but I'm just trying to let you know what helped me lose 70lbs...it wasn't exercise. Instead, I focused more of my efforts on trying to change my diet. Once I got down to a healthy weight I started adding exercise back in to my routine but still only 20 minutes a day.

    I still have a little ways to go. I want to get down to 135lbs and I'm trying to tone up hard core for a trip to Vegas in June. But I've been holding steady at between 150-165 since 2006. It's great knowing you can go in to any clothing store and they'll have your size. It's great knowing that you can go to amusement parks or airplanes and not have to worry about the seat belt not fitting. It's great knowing you can stand on a chair to change a light bulb without the fear that you're going to break through the chair. It's great eating in public without feeling like someone is judging you. But I think my favorite thing of all is going to sleep at night without fear that I'm going to stop breathing because my body is so heavy. I had horrible sleep apnea before.

    I will say exercise is very, very important when dieting. When you diet you lose muscle mass along with fat mass. We diet to shed fat, not muscle. Heavy weight lifting builds muscle which increases your metabolism and you burns more fat during rest and normal daily activity. Cardio is good for your cardiovascular health. So if you are interested in shedding fat not muscle then YES EXERCISE - AS IN WEIGHT LIFTING. And there is no such thing as 'toning' through cardio or strength training. Our muscles do not get 'tighter' or 'harder'. They get smaller (lean muscle mass loss) when just dieting and doing cardio and they get bigger when weight lifting (you will not bulk up. It's hard enough for men to build muscle). Strength training while dieting will help combat that muscle loss. There is such a thing as "skinnyfat".

    You will burn enough calories to make a difference. I'm 5'2" and 123lbs and I burn a good 300 calories during a 40 minute cardio/strength DVD. It only takes a 500 calorie daily deficiency to lose a pound a week. The bigger you are the more you will burn.

    Edit: In fact read the link in my post: "And email response that might help some..." It's from a trainer and she discuss 2 different clients (one doing just cardio and one doing cardio/weight lifting). We all have 6-packs. We just need to burn off the layer of fat covering them. And not exercising or doing just cardio won't do that.
  • mauck1975
    mauck1975 Posts: 77 Member
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    bump:)

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