50 lbs in 6 months!

OMG how did you do it?

Well, like my first post said, I keep within my calories with whole, healthy foods (nothing artificial, only ingredients that I'd find in my own kitchen and not chemicals or additives, nothing "diet" and no refined or artificial sweeteners). I get complex carbs and protein with every meal (5 to 7 times a day), I get between 25 and 35g of fibre a day, keep my sodium under control (mine is never over 1550 but I had hypertension during my last pregnancy so I have my limit set lower since I have a physiological susceptibility to blood pressure issues). I drink 8 x 8oz glasses of water a day (and when I work out, I drink to thirst to replace the lost fluid and I don't count that in my daily water consumption because it's just putting back in what I sweat out). I get 45 to 60 minutes of cardio 4 days a week and weights 2-3 days a week plus some light exercise like walking, yoga or pilates on non-workout days. Every 6 weeks I take 7 days off of scheduled work-outs to recover fully and avoid over-training. I always eat my exercise calories but I also make sure to subtract my resting cals from that number before adding to MFP so I don't over-eat. For example, if I burn 400 calories in 60 minutes of exercise I only add 280 cals to MFP and only eat an extra 280 cals. Most people burn between 15 and 25 calories every 10 minutes just sitting still doing nothing. If you have a heart rate monitor you can check this by sitting and reading your heart rate for 30 minutes and dividing by 3. When you work out, you need to subtract that number for every 10 minutes of exercise. So 60 minutes is 6 x 20 = 120, 400 cals burned - 120 resting cals = 280. It's a really common mistake that can hold people back from loss!
The biggest thing is not letting the set-backs keep you back! This is LIFE! REAL life. There will be parties and dinners out and drinks with friends... every day won't be a perfect day. Learning to move on from the less-than-perfect days and live a healthy, balanced lifestyle with your best nutritional choices 80% of the time is the road to success.
And one thing I used to want to deny is that exercise is important for a lot of reasons (cardiovascular health, bone strength and so on) but it is your NUTRITION that holds the key to a trim and healthy body. I've always loved exercise. It was realizing the actual power of food that has unlocked this for me.

Good luck!!!

Congratulations you are such an inspiration!!

However, I did not know that losing weight was so technical. I still don't understand how to add or subtract exercise calories. I'm doing everything I can to keep my calories at 1200 a day. However you and other successful MFP members have shared advice about exercise calories, BMR, etc. It's all a bit technical for me. Can I have the same success as you if I stick to my 1200 calories a day and exercise 30-60 minutes 4-5 times a week?

I'm a personal trainer (and science nerd) and the quick answer is probably not. And I have to preempt that the best we can do is work with estimations unless you go get a whole scientific work-up done to calculate your actual BMR and metabolic info, but given that we're working with averages you have to keep in mind that for a woman about the lowest daily caloric intake that will allow your metabolism to function like it is supposed to is 1200 a day.
With the weight you've got yet to lose you may be able to get away with that for now (when you have more weight to lose your body is slightly better able to handle a bigger calorie deficit in theory but again your specific body may not agree with that. They key if you want to go down to 1200 cals a day though, is if you do exercise you MUST eat more. We lose weight by calorie deficit. Our bodies need more than they are given so they use fat. Basic, yes? If your metabolism of fat shuts down when you get fewer than about 1200 calories a day, you won't burn fat. If you only eat 1200 calories AND you burn MORE calories by exercising you are giving your body fewer than 1200 calories a day and you won't burn fat. And the more weight you have to lose, the more calories you burn with exercise. You may be burning up to 1000 calories on 60 min exercise days if you're working at the top of your ability. If you only consume 1200 calories in food your body thinks you're getting 200 calories that day!!! OUCH! Over time, that will actually cause you to GAIN weight.
So to create the calorie deficit that gets our bodies to burn fat I would honestly say (knowing your "lbs to go" only) that you should either try to get into the practice of calculating and eating your work out calories AND increase to 1300 a day OR you should eat 1800 - 2200 calories per day if you are working out at a medium to high intensity 4-5x a week for 45 to 60 minutes. If you try to take the calorie deficit from diet AND exercise without putting calories back in for one of them, this won't work for you. I know that was just another heap of technical but there are the facts!! :flowerforyou: