60lbs to lose and feeling like I have a mountain to climb!

You can do this! Log your food, get some exercise and eat clean 90% of the time. Add me and I'll cheer you on!

If u know how how to add me, we can encourage each other! Lol, I'm new n not sure how to yet!

I have lost and gained the same 30 lbs for at least 10 years. Unfortunately, I am back up at my highest weight (one pound heavier than I was with a full term pregnancy with my first son). I understand how you feel. I actually should lose 80 pounds for my BMI to be in the healthy range. It is so overwhelming that I give up too easily. This time though, I really want to get healthy. The weight is less of an issue than being healthy and around for my 3 boys. They are getting older, and if I am going to keep up, I've gotta get healthy. I have used MFP before, and lost, so it very doable if you take one day at a time and log everything. Good luck!

I believe in a balanced diet. until I started tracking my food I didn't realize how many carbs I was eating. I didn't realize how many carbs fruit had and how well it was hidden in other things. I know someone else said you will learn a lot from just tracking your food. I would honestly eat how you would normally eat for a few days and then assess your nutritional intake for those days and see where you have too much and where you are lacking.

I am a believer in a balanced diet, with lots of exercise. I lost 50 lbs about 4 years ago, doing just that. Over the last 6 months I have gained about 15 lbs back (divorce stress). So I am working on getting back to my idea weight. I truly believe I was able to keep the weight off (for the most part), because I did not eliminate anything from my diet. Frankly, I don't want to live in a world without peanut butter. So, maintaining for me was easy to do, because I never deprived myself of anything. I am happy to offer my support, if you would like to friend request me. Good luck! You. Can. Do. It!!!

Hi there~ I did the South Beach diet a few years ago and while it taught me lots about good vs bad carbs, I didn't sustain it because I too am a carbaholic! A lot of LC recipes are super high in fats for me too so I have to modify them. This go around I'm tracking calories and keeping strictly to my Macros. So far so good! You still need to substitute what we would normally use bread or pasta or potatoes or rice for, but it's working. The Cauliflower Miracle Rice is amazing! I use lettuce wraps for sandwiches, or take lunch meat slathered in Laughing Cow wrapped around cucumber, or peppers or celery. I found a GREAT recipe for lasagna using zucchini and eggplant instead of noodles and Italian chicken sausage instead of pork sausage. My family loves it almost as much as my century old family recipe. There are lots of terrific recipes on Pinterest. I have my macros set at C 25%~ F 35%~P 40%...... This allows me enough room to have a normal starchy carb once a day, but my focus is on good protein and the good carbs. One day I had oatmeal, last night real rice with homemade chicken curry that had sweet potato in it, tonight I'll get 1/2 c mashed potatoes with my pork tenderloin and brussel sprouts. I also have those sandwich thins in my freezer when I just need that toast or real sandwich thing. I also am trying zoodles which is okay texture wise and I like squash so.....but can tell you I never got past those weird 0 carb fish noodle things I got once LOL. There are definitely vegetables that are higher on the glycemic index that turn to sugar carbs on me (like carrots! Who would have thought? ) just keep an eye on your macros and have fun experimenting! Friend me if you'd like!

I understand how overwhelming it can feel – when I started I knew I had over 200 pounds to lose. Talk about daunting! You have to break it down into smaller goals and aim to do this for overall health and fitness, not just the number on the scale. That perspective helps me a lot. I've been a yo-yo dieter my whole life and I'm now determined to end the cycle. I'm focusing on eating in a way that is healthier but also still satisfying – no food is off-limits, but I have to plan more to include certain things. My aim is to create a way to eat that I can live with forever and that will keep me healthy and at goal. I think I finally landed on it! Down 69 pounds as of today and feeling great.

It can be done. Feel free to friend me for support!

It's all about setting small goals and taking it one day at a time. You'll get there be patient and disciplined in your nutrition. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I recommend looking into some paleo recipes, I've never lost weight faster.

As for your question about carbs, yes, it's been shown that eating higher protein & lower carbs leads to more weight loss. See this blog post to read excerpts from the studies & click through to read the originals if you want to.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-08-09-high-protein-diet-685553
Try 45% carbs, 20% fat, 35% protein to stay within the healthy macro ranges.

carol060606 wrote:

break it down into chunks and try and go for 10lbs at a time, I turn 40 in 4 weeks and would like to lose 10lbs for then so its a good starting point.

When I started, I had 110 lb to lose, and over the last year I've averaged 1.5 lb per week loss. Of course, I had some weeks where I lost 4 lb, and an entire month where I stalled & lost nothing. It's not linear. One week I lost 4, the next week 1, the next week 2... it just happens.
All you can do is trust science, keep eating fewer calories than your body needs, keep exercising every day, and the weight will come off.

Starting with 60 lb to lose, it would be reasonable to aim for 1 - 1.5 lb per week at first.
When you get down to about 40, 0.5 - 1 lb per week.
As you get closer to your healthy goal weight, even 0.5 lb per week will be a victory.

Realize that as you lose weight your BMI will drop, and you will need to eat fewer calories in order to keep losing weight. When you hit a plateau, drop 50 calories. You can also increase the intensity &/or duration of your exercise. For example, instead of just walking, find a place that's hilly or use the hill setting on the treadmill (or just give it a few degrees of incline in a steady state).

Take a piece of notebook paper, or maybe make a word document, and list every mini-goal, every 5 lb you'll lose, every time you drop 1 BMI number, when you'll go from obese to overweight to healthy... you need lots of little victories. Write down the date you meet each goal. Decide on little celebrations - new earbuds, cute socks, a massage, dye your hair, go for a hike in a park you've been meaning to visit.

I did a newbie help post which compiled links to lots of helpful info, including sexypants, accurate logging, goal-setting (including weight, calories, and macros), and motivation/encouragement.