lose 70 lbs, is it possible?

You can indeed lose seventy pounds. It's a little fast. I don't like deadline weight loss goals, preferring to set weekly/monthly targets around habit change. I still weigh myself though. In the past eighteen months I have lost over eighty pounds. I had a lot of help along the way, including a dietitian and surgery.

I have averaged 1/2 pound a week but it goes up and down a lot! Don't become a slave to the scale.

The Dietitians of Canada advise to be suspicious of any plan that promises more than 2 lbs loss per week.

http://www.dietitians.ca/Nutrition-Resources-A-Z/Factsheets/Weight-Loss-and-Control/Guidelines-for-Choosing-a-Weight-Loss-Program.aspx

I've blogged about goal setting here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/jgnatca/view/setting-goals-715717

lawlifehanna wrote: »

I made some quick calculations, and 13 months is a full year (52 weeks) + 4 weeks, so 56 weeks. That would mean exactly 1,25lbs per week. I think it's doable, but difficult.

My doctor-recommended goal was 1 pound a week and I started when I was 37, making it my goal to lose 100 pounds by the time I hit 40. That gave me time to compensate for any fluctuations. I met my goal when I was 39 and now working to get back to where I was. (Thankfully, a lot of my gain over the years was muscle, something I had been trying to do after losing the 100 lbs.). That said, as we age, our metabolism changes and makes it a little harder to lose the weight. Just be aware that losing such a large amount in a short time may not yield the best long-term results, meaning there's a better chance of you gaining it all back.

Sure, it's possible. You might not do it--loss slows down as you get closer to goal--but chances are that if you lose 56 instead (1/week) or even 40 you will still feel great. Having big goals to work and a planned time frame motivates me, so I'm inclined to encourage you, but the only thing I'd be careful about is that for some people setting a huge goal and not making it feels like failure and it may simply be that you don't mind a lesser rate of loss as you make progress.

I lost 90 pounds in 11 months last year (I started around 220 and am now around 130), but the rate definitely started faster, maintained at about 2 lbs/week for a while, and then gradually dropped off. I've been mostly maintaining at 130 since early December (holidays) and am hoping to lose the final 10 or so lbs at maybe .5 lbs/week. The key thing for me, however, has been that it made a huge difference when I hit below 200 and another huge difference when I was 180 and started to feel like I could move like myself again, and still more at 150, and on and on. At this point I don't care that much when I hit goal so long as I make progress. (When I started I vaguely wanted to by my 45th birthday which was early December, but I knew it probably wasn't realistic and I didn't focus too much on date goals once I got started.)

One thing I'd recommend is that in addition to a broad overarching goal that you set mini goals. See losing the first 10 as a major milestone, because it is. Also, give yourself some goals that you have more control over than the scale, like hitting your protein macro and staying under calories every day in a week or adding vegetables or working out 3 times per week or walking every day, whatever fits with your goals and lifestyle. That's the kind of thing that for me takes focus off the scale and has really helped with the lifestyle modification.

Anyway, welcome and good luck!

I have about 55 pounds to lose and for the first time I'm not focusing on how long it takes but just getting it off . Feel free to add me as I'm always looking to extend and expand a support network. I'm also blogging about my weight loss journey :-) https://awordygirly.wordpress.com/