40 pounds to lose! Need some motivation!

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Hi all!

Like many of you, I've been struggling my whole life with weight. I've yo-yo'ed up and down for years. I lost about 15 pounds before my wedding in 2012 but since then I've gained 25 back (ugh!). Which means I'm the BIGGEST I've ever been. I've tried multiple diets and have attempted MFP before but never end up sticking to it. I'm feeling really determined now and was hoping for some motivation to keep me going which is why I decided to reach out to the MFP community. I am in two weddings early next year and my husband and I are hoping to start a family sometime in 2016 so I really want to be as healthy as possible. Especially with guaranteed weight gain from being pregnant!! Reading through your stories is an incredible motivator, and I'm hoping to one day be feeling as healthy and happy as many of you do since starting your journey!

Start weight: 179
Goal weight: 140

I'll be taking some before pictures today (eek!)

Any advice, motivation, eating tips, etc is so appreciated! And for those of you that have lost this amount of weight... does anyone have a time frame around how long it may take? I'm hoping to exercise for at least 4 times a week x 30-45 minutes and of course sticking to my daily calories.

Thanks!!! :)

Lauren

Replies

  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,268 Member
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    Good luck Lauren!! Just wanting to do this for yourself is great motivation. If you need more, then tell yourself you'll reward yourself for every 5 or 10 lbs lost. I usually buy myself some new clothing. once you see that sizes are dropping you'll want to stay with it.
  • culb2012
    culb2012 Posts: 10 Member
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    Hi Lauren!

    It sounds like you have some really good "WHYs," and those are really important for success. :) When you have a big goal like that, the best thing you can do is make yourself a road map and reverse engineer your goal. If you're going to try to lose 2 pounds a week, that would take you 20 weeks. But, you also want to make sure your goals are realistic with your schedule and what you can do. How do you lose 2 pounds a week? The simple science is a calorie deficit. You need that 3,000-3,500 calorie deficit for each pound. So you have to decide if you can maintain a 6,000-7,000 calorie deficit each week. So look at how many calories you're burning per day and how many you're eating. If you have a heart rate monitor, that's the very best way to determine what you're actually burning. I just got one of the FitBits with the heart rate monitor and I LOVE it. I was overestimating my calorie burn before... so that's a bummer, but at least now I know what was going wrong. :) If you think it's realistic for you to get that deficit each week, circle that day on the calendar and go for it! :) If you think maybe the time you have to exercise isn't going to allow you to quite get there, what about 1 pound a week or 1.5 pounds a week?

    Also, it may also help to break a large goal like this into smaller goals you'll be able to attain more quickly so that you are seeing progress and gaining confidence. :)

    I hope that helps! Good luck, girl! You got this! :)
  • laur0387
    laur0387 Posts: 4 Member
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    Thanks so much amgreenwell and culb2012! All great suggestions. I definitely want to get a fitbit. Is there one that you recommend? The wrist one seems like the better choice but if anyone currently uses one I'd like some feedback!
  • erincricket
    erincricket Posts: 26 Member
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    Hi Lauren. I have a wrist fitbit that only does steps, and it interfaces with Mfp. I'm thinking about buying a Hrm as well. One thing that has helped me is the TDEE, it gives a few more calories to eat rather than the standard MFP 1600 calories. Also, I have 40 lbs to go, but I'd be happy at 160/65. I'll add you as a friend if you don't mind. :)
  • NicoleS9
    NicoleS9 Posts: 62 Member
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    Good luck!!! You got this and you have the best motivation - to get healthy and have a baby! I lost weight before getting pregnant and I'm really glad I did because losing weight after having my baby takes a long time! I had to see a fertility specialist because of my endometriosis, and he told me the number one reason for fertility issues in his office is being overweight (I was surprised!).
    - I'd also recommended Spark People. I actually like spark people way better than mfp, but mfp has been handy on my phone. Sparkpeople has daily recipes too, which is a fantastic guide whether you use them or not.
    - You can do it!!!!
  • NicoleS9
    NicoleS9 Posts: 62 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Oh- eat a lot of organic fruit and veggies - and ask your doctor to write you a script for a good prenatal vitamin for the folate and dha!
  • laur0387
    laur0387 Posts: 4 Member
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    Thank you Erin and Nicole! I decided to go with the FitBit zip since I'm mainly using it to track calories burned and meet my exercise goals.

    Nicole, I've heard so many times that being overweight can decrease your fertility substantially and that is definitely a huge motivator! Did you have a hard time getting the weight off after the baby or were you right back on track? I have a ways to go before that part, just focusing on getting myself healthy first :smile:

    Thanks again everyone!
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
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    At 170 you won't have any decreased fertility I wouldn't think. I was 195 when I got pregnant with my first and a whopping 215 with the second. I'm only 5'3" and I was 32 with my first and 34 with my second. I will say the heavier you are, the higher risk your pregnancy and with my 2nd I had fat people issues once I got really big.

    I lost 40lbs over the last year. In the beginning it was easy, now it's tougher to lose. Kids are 4 and 2 now.

    I'd like another, but I want to get down another 15lbs. That will actually put me around 170 lbs. I need to get to 175.4 to be overweight instead of obese. I'm 188 right now. Clock is ticking.
  • NicoleS9
    NicoleS9 Posts: 62 Member
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    laur0387 wrote: »
    Thank you Erin and Nicole! I decided to go with the FitBit zip since I'm mainly using it to track calories burned and meet my exercise goals.

    Nicole, I've heard so many times that being overweight can decrease your fertility substantially and that is definitely a huge motivator! Did you have a hard time getting the weight off after the baby or were you right back on track? I have a ways to go before that part, just focusing on getting myself healthy first :smile:

    Thanks again everyone!
    It has been seven months and it is taking a looooong time! I ended up over 209lbs when I gave birth and I'm down to 169. I'd love to go back to my original weight of 140, but I might settle for 150 at this point! I'm committed to losing weight in a very healthy way since I am breastfeeding. My nutrition counts for two, and that is a Great motivator!

    Side note, a few of my friends husbands had to lose weight to help them conceive too!

    You can do it! Keep your eye n the prize and think about what is important. Ive been telling myself, " what matters more, my taste buds on my tongue or my son and my health!" It helps me!
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
    edited February 2015
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    I've lost about 70 lbs overall, around 47 since I joined MFP, and ~35 lbs since last July when I finally got serious about it. Since July I've been pretty conservative, aiming for about a pound per week loss. The last time I looked I think I'd averaged right around that over the time period. Things are slowing down the last month or two between the holidays and getting pretty close to my goal weight. It's always said that the last 10-20 lbs are the hardest, and I'm at about 15 to go.

    Regarding the Fitbit, I've owned 4 of them and they are ok but I have found them fairly easy to fool inadvertently, particularly the wrist-based models. For example, rocking in a office chair caused Fitbit Flex to trigger a step with every back-and-forth of the chair. Also, I, my wife, and others I know have had a number of reliability issues with the hardware. That's why I owned 4 of them. Their customer support is good but at some point it's just a problem.

    I've been using a Garmin Vivofit for the last year or so and I'm much happier with it than I was the Fitbit devices.

    My best advice is to set realistic goals and to not sweat the small stuff too much. Too many people come here planning to lose 20 lbs in a month or some other such silliness. It's just setting yourself up for failure. Realize that, roughly speaking, it takes 3500 calories *above* your maintenance level to gain a pound, and 3500 calories *below* your maintenance level to lose a pound. It's going to take time to lose weight but by the same token, if you go off the rails one day it's also probably not going to really make any difference. If you have a bad meal, or even a bad day or weekend, pick yourself up, get back on the horse as soon as you can, and don't beat yourself up about it. In the grand scheme of things it's not going to have any real effect unless you're doing it all the time.

    Good luck, you've got this!
  • culb2012
    culb2012 Posts: 10 Member
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    I have the Fitbit HR, Lauren. :) It is worn on the wrist and also measures your heart rate continuously. It counts your steps and your sleep and all sorts of other things. I also just figured out today that I can link it to MFP, lol. I'm very happy with it. :)
  • laur0387
    laur0387 Posts: 4 Member
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    Nicole and ntnuk, awesome job!!! Love hearing stories like that :smile: I'll keep you all posted on my progress!! Have a great weekend!