Yeah, you're not alone in this...
VernerDixon
Posts: 38 Member
Yeah, you're not alone in this.. After talking to a lot of people on MFP, I'm picking up that a lot of people were in shape, and through whatever series of events, are not anymore and would like to get back into shape and be active.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your weight loss journey?
What have you struggled with the most?
Share your story.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your weight loss journey?
What have you struggled with the most?
Share your story.
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Replies
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I was a lean athletic kid and ended up getting really sick (whooping cough) when I was about twelve. I lose a huge amount of weight and at my worst was about 88lbs very sickly not even strong enough to get off the couch most days. The Doctor filled me up with steroids to keep my lungs strong, I got better after almost 8 months of battling and was able to keep food down rather than coughing it back up.
When I got better and was eating, my parents gave me all they could to strengthen me back up help me gain weight and not be a walking skeleton. I gained some weight started easing back into my life but still was babied, and developed some bad eating habits. I started to get bigger and bigger, despite playing sports 3-4 times a week..trying to cut down didn't do me any good I still kept gaining and gaining and found the things I loved to do..baseball, biking, street hockey, were very difficult so I stopped.
Leaving high school, and getting into work I became more sedentary, but tried to keep active through sports but nothing worked my weight would fluctuate. Labor intense jobs or office jobs, either seemed to make a difference.
Tipping out at 425lbs, I found out I had sleep apnea and damaged my heart pretty bad as a result, I was treated and thought I may now finally start losing weight and was given a referral to a weight loss clinic. I battled though 4 appointments a week and what felt like a job..weigh ins, classes, counting calories and after 4 months only lost 10lbs, I stopped going, to me it felt too much like a job.
It wasn't until a friend of mine said "You know, you are less than 100lbs away from being as heavy as Andre the Giant" that I realized I need to change in a drastic way. With the help of a few friends I figured out a happy medium and gave up a bunch of foods I liked and figured out a nice calorie deficit. Stopped drinking pop, juice, alcohol, eating fast food. I started exercising, because of my weight I started with walking about 2k per day.
So in April of this year I started my journey. I struggled at first as it was a big change but it became easier and easier. I set milestones for myself, so whenever I hit a milestone I'd reward myself with a non-food related gift. With the goal of hitting 250 and getting myself a motorcycle.
After a month I was down about 4lbs, I wasn't happy with my results but found my exercise to be getting easier. I started doing Yoga at home in addition and stopped eating most anything processed. Two months I was down 15lbs, but stalled I became really unmotivated as I went about a month dropping only 2lbs then it happened month over month as I increased my exercise adding in resistance exercises, occasional interval training, I was dropping 10lbs + per month. I am down to 360 presently in 6 months.
The last 6 weeks I have been walking about 40-50k per week, I just started tracking my foods on MFP over the last 2 months to make sure I wasn't working at a disadvantage and still my pace has continued.
My biggest struggle I thought would be the food or the time to exercise but its not, its the scale. I found myself living and dying by what that scale said, knowing full well that measurement is a better indicator.
Once I got over that, and saw the results I starting moving forward. I am trying to come up with the money to join the Gym but so far I haven't needed it. I still have a ways to go, but its working and I am finally confident I will get there.0 -
amen0
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Biggest challenge was when I couldn't lose. After they fixed me...it's all downhill from there!
Giving up the sweets, fried foods and red meat was tough. I liked cheeseburgers and fries! Cake! Donuts, ice cream, all of it. I was quite a perturbed woman. The spoiled child inside me did not want to do that. But I told it to shut the hell up and go to it's room. It behaved much better after a while.
Scale fluctuations sucked. Still not my favorite, truth be told.
Now, the hardest part is having lost SO MUCH weight and still being so fat. I'm where most people are when they start. It's such a long road to a good body. And it keeps getting harder! Frustrating.
Also the loose skin, which is now everywhere. It started in a few places, but now covers my whole body. I worry that when I'm done, I won't even look good. I'll just be smaller.0 -
I'm fortunate that weight loss was not much of a struggle. At age 60 and female, I lost 63 pounds in 53 weeks averaging 1.1 pound per week through an eat less/move more action plan.
Maintenance is a different story. While I look in the mirror and am pleased with how I look, I have a little devil sitting on my should saying, "Eat. Eat. You can eat more now. Go for it". I've upped my calories and have maintained for 4 months but old habits are trying to creep back into my eating behavior.
The other thing I struggle with is other people and their comments. Yes, I know I should ignore them. When I was 203 pounds no one told me I was overweight or out of shape but by golly there are now folks who have a burning need to tell me I'm too thin. I'm 5'6 and maintaining around 140. Hardly a light weight but lean through my exercise and food choices. My closest friends are proud of my accomplishments. It is the other folks who have only known me during my "fat years" that have the need to speak out and be "critical". When they ask me how much I weigh I tell them "140 +/- depending on the day" and they want to argue with me as if I am lying to them.
So the struggles: old habits wanting to creep back and other people's overt reactions.0 -
Thank you to all those who have left feedback so far... Anyone else care to share?0
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I used to be a mechanic so was on my feet allllllllllll day! Got sick of the cold, got an office job, indulged in "chippy friday" every week and boom! 4 stone on a year!
Working 8 till 6 every day in a high pressure job meant I really, really struggled to fit exercise in as I again often burnt out at the end of the day. I would sicken myself off by going running for a week straight, then my legs would hurt and I'd gain water weight so I would become discouraged and give up.
My biggest challenge was mental, it's a marathon not a race.
I would drop ten pounds on a fad diet, be really pleased, "treat" myself to a takeaway and then it would start again.
Having realised slow and steady wins the race, I am well on my way to a healthier me, not just me who weighs less ☺
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I just really like food too much.
I lost a bunch, and have maintained the loss for a long time now. I'm now actively trying to lose more, but once you hit a weight that is 'easy' to maintain while still eating whatever the hell you want (just in smaller portions), it's pretty rough to give that up.0 -
One of my biggest challenges was that just about everyone else around me (mom, sister, aunt, cousins, grandmother, etc.) were all (and still are) overweight. They all just "accepted it as their fate" which never even occurred to me. I've had many ups and downs as far as eating healthy and working out, but the problem was, instead of being encouraged or just plain accepted for it, they all said I had an eating disorder. Um, me??? Not you all - the binge eaters and couch potatoes? Almost all of them are also diabetic, refuse to monitor their eating and will not exercise at all.
Thankfully, I'm an introvert, have always been the black sheep of the family, and am the farthest thing from a "people pleaser" as you can get, so instead of letting it hinder me I just live my life for me; no one else. Sad that they all group together and "tsk, tsk" me for my lifestyle instead of doing something about their own, but that's their choice.
I hope I don't come across as preachy or saying that I'm better than them or anyone else, because I know that's not true. Just trying to answer your question as best I can.0 -
I've never been classified as medically overweight, but I was on the border. About 170 lbs at 5'10. I worked part time while going to school full time, and I just didn't want to make the time to work out or plan my meals.
Sometime after college I just decided I wanted to be "in shape." I started lifting weights, eating better, I started my first bulk in January 2012. After a successful bulk, I cut down to 154 lbs and was feeling really good. It was then I made the decision to compete in bikini, hired a coach, and got to work.
Without going into too much detail, the competitors' life is not for me. I got really depressed. Even though I was building muscle and getting leaner, I got less and less satisfied with my body. I started binging. I started fasting to make up for the binge. I tried everything to please my coach, to fit in with the other girls on my team with their 14% body fat. I developed an eating disorder. I developed BDD. It was bad.
I quit the team in May 2014, and took two months off tracking. Of course, this lead me almost back to where I started. I'm close to 170 lbs again. Of course, my body fat is much lower than it was five years ago thanks to all the weight lifting, and I do look pretty different than I did last time I weighed this much.
But trying to repair my relationship with food while still trying to get back down to 150 lbs has been hard. I went to therapy for three months, but the bills piled up and I had to stop. I feel the ED on the edges of my mind. I feel the obsession over food. I feel the compulsion to over exercise. I feel the need to fast for the day. It sucks, and it's hard to ignore. I'm doing my best to lose the last 18 lbs before next summer by losing at a rate of .5 lb a week. Slow and steady. I set myself a calorie minimum, so I can't be tempted to restrict too much. I try really hard not to go to the gym twice a day. I try not to deny myself the foods I want because they're not "healthy" or "clean," I just promise myself I'll set aside enough calories to have the food tomorrow, or the next day.
I can't weigh myself on the scale without triggering, so I'm trying to rely on the way my clothes fit, measurements, and how my body felt/fit when I was 154 last time.
It's every day. It's all day. It's difficult, and I'm trying.0 -
My story: I was never a tiny girl by any means, but I was healthy. I'm 5'7. In high school and the first couple years of college I weighed about 150-160, size 10. I looked great - I'm not petite, I definitely have a bigger bone structure. So, a size 10 looked good on me. Then it happened. My second year of college I got into a near fatal car accident. I hit two tractor trailers head on. I almost died.
Hospital for a few months, then lived in a nursing home for a few months - at 19 years old. I missed a semester of school, I still to this day have scars everywhere. My self-esteem went way down. Looking back, I wish I had gone to therapy to work through accepting the permanent changes in my body. My knees are destroyed.
I broke all the bones in my legs and arms...fractured my hip, broke my nose and fractured my hand. Exercise has never been my favorite thing to do but after my accident it was painful to exercise. (Sigh). So, I kept putting on weight. I turned to food for comfort, and I didn't exercise. Now, I have about 104 pounds to lose. There wasn't some light bulb that went off like "Now's the time to change!" It was a slow process of facing the fact that I need to lose weight for my health, for my knees, for my self-esteem.
Scars should not define me. I lost myself after my accident. Now, I'm finding myself again, and it feels great! I'm about 12-15 pounds down and every day this change in lifestyle gets a bit easier. It's no easy task, don't get me wrong. Some days I want to give up. Especially when I look at my thin, fit co-workers. But, I feel good that I've accepted the challenge to get stronger...to not let me accident define me.
No matter what has happened to you in your life, embrace it along your weight loss journey. You are you for a reason. We are all overweight for a deeper reason, it's not because we love food. Find out what's bothering you - address it! Seek help, guidance, advice. Surround yourself with positive people that support your journey. MFP has been very helpful to me, not just because I know how to budget my calories now, but because I can come to these forums and learn about healthy living. I can find support.
We are all like drug addicts or alcohol addicts - our addiction is food. We can do this though. We have been through worse. Don't give up hope. Take it day by day. Think of the end result - a happier, healthier you! Good luck to you all on your goals - you can do this!0 -
When I was growing up, I always had access to junk food and as long as I can remember I've had an intense sweet tooth. I played some sports in elementary school but I hated them so I stopped and instead replaced that time with watching television while shoving various horrible foods in my face.
When I got into my teens and was more aware of my size, I thought it was just my destiny and that my weight was determined by genetics. My parents were a normal healthy weight, but for some reason I thought your weight was out of your control for the most part and it was just the body genetic chance gave you.
As an adult I never weighed myself except for a few rare instances, and since I rarely go to the doctor I really never knew my weight, but I knew I always was hovering around 200. In college I decided to go on a healthy stint and I lost a little, got down to 185. But when I graduated and moved back home, I stopped all that. I got a desk job and that was really my downward spiral.
I always wanted to lose weight, but I was under the impression that it was extremely difficult and I struggled immensely finding motivation. My first step was sometime last year, I got a "dance fitness for beginners" DVD and tried eating less. Since I never weighed, I will never know if I lost anything. Anyway the DVD made its way to the back of the shelf collecting dust.
Early this year, my boyfriend took me to Jared's to pick out an engagement ring. I started looking at wedding dresses online at the Plus Size and was saddened because I knew they would all look bad on me. Then it occurred to me that I didn't have to condemn myself to a plus size dress.
In March, I ordered Hip Hop Abs and a scale. I was disgusted to see that I weighed 210 and since I had already been trying to eat better, I may have even been heavier before. After Easter I started MFP. At first it was discouraging when I still was disgusted with my reflection in the mirror but I didn't give up. Being a perfectionist, I never let my calories go over my goal.
Here I am 6 months later, still at it. I've lost 43lbs and my boyfriend, now my fiancee, has been doing this with me and has lost 50lbs. I'm in size 10 jeans, the smallest I've ever worn, and am starting to enjoy clothes shopping. I'm officially out of plus size clothing and am very much looking forward to trying on wedding dresses this Spring.
You're all doing an amazing job...keep it up!0 -
^^^ Aww way to go!0
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Awesome and inspirational stories! Thank you and let's keep it up!
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