It's not that hard..
257_Lag
Posts: 1,249 Member
This morning I hit -60 pounds. It's been 28 months from a high of 257. People usually say something like "Good for you! Losing weight is SO hard!" Usually I just say thank you and occasionally I will voice what I am thinking "It's really not that hard."
I will admit this is the first time I ever tried to lose weight other than the occasional short lived fads but I really feel that armed with proper knowledge, dismissing all those myths you always heard and having of a terrific tool like MFP had made this SO much easier than I ever thought possible. Not "easy" by any stretch, just not that hard.
For those of you with some success, do you agree or disagree?
I will admit this is the first time I ever tried to lose weight other than the occasional short lived fads but I really feel that armed with proper knowledge, dismissing all those myths you always heard and having of a terrific tool like MFP had made this SO much easier than I ever thought possible. Not "easy" by any stretch, just not that hard.
For those of you with some success, do you agree or disagree?
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Excellent work, congratulations!0
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Well done you! I think if you get into the right frame of mind it is easier than trying to fight all those cravings. Having said that, I do find some days harder than others. Today I managed to say no to a Snickers Brownie (that was quite hard!) but on a different day I may have caved. I agree that MFP is a great help though.0
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"It's really not that hard."
It is "that hard", and you are undercutting the work you put into losing the weight
I get irritated when people say how luck I am to be able to lose weight. B*thc please, luck had nothing to do with it. Walking 4-8 miles a day, coupled with running 9 miles a week and eating less does.0 -
I agree. I crossed the 50 pound mark today. Is it hard? Not really. It was the breaking of old habits that was the hard part to me. But the actual process? No.0
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i would agree, mostly. I was shocked at how easy it has been to lose weight once you get the process down. Changing bad habits was tricky, sorting out my emotional issues surrounding food was tricky, eating less and exercising was easy! There are easy bits and difficult bits. I think the reason i waited so long was because i thought losing weight was going to be hell, but its not. I eat enjoyable foods, i dont starve myself, i enjoy the exercise. It's good!0
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First, let me say congratulations! Second, I agree that with the right attitude (not viewing a diet as punishment), this isn't hard. In fact, I'm loving it.
Lastly, I'm sending you a friend request.0 -
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This morning I hit -60 pounds. It's been 28 months from a high of 257. People usually say something like "Good for you! Losing weight is SO hard!" Usually I just say thank you and occasionally I will voice what I am thinking "It's really not that hard."
I will admit this is the first time I ever tried to lose weight other than the occasional short lived fads but I really feel that armed with proper knowledge, dismissing all those myths you always heard and having of a terrific tool like MFP had made this SO much easier than I ever thought possible. Not "easy" by any stretch, just not that hard.
For those of you with some success, do you agree or disagree?
The concept it easy and people make that part of it WAY harder than it is. You see that by all the dumb threads in the forum such as detoxes and fad diets.
The actual part of sticking to the concept and maintaining it is the hard part and I think that is what people are referring to when they say it's hard. I've found it somewhat easy but I can certainly see how some people, especially with emotional problems and eating disorders, could have a hard time.0 -
coreyreichle wrote: »"It's really not that hard."
It is "that hard", and you are undercutting the work you put into losing the weight
I get irritated when people say how luck I am to be able to lose weight. B*thc please, luck had nothing to do with it. Walking 4-8 miles a day, coupled with running 9 miles a week and eating less does.
I'm not saying anything we have done is easy or that we shouldn't be proud of it, just that I imagined the process to be hell as rawk_fairy_666 mentioned, I found the hardest part was sticking with it for so long once I found what worked, I couldn't agree more with ncboiler89 comments.
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I would agree that the process itself is not difficult for me. But the length of time it is taking to get there is. The first year was super easy IMO. The past 5 months have been the worst.0
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Um...congrats? For a lot of people, it is that hard.
I agree that the concept of losing weight is simple. Eat less, move more. But actually putting that into practice is not easy for a lot of people.0 -
This morning I hit -60 pounds. It's been 28 months from a high of 257. People usually say something like "Good for you! Losing weight is SO hard!" Usually I just say thank you and occasionally I will voice what I am thinking "It's really not that hard."
I will admit this is the first time I ever tried to lose weight other than the occasional short lived fads but I really feel that armed with proper knowledge, dismissing all those myths you always heard and having of a terrific tool like MFP had made this SO much easier than I ever thought possible. Not "easy" by any stretch, just not that hard.
For those of you with some success, do you agree or disagree?
I've lost almost 60lbs and I've been maintaining for over two years now. Weight loss and maintenance are pretty simple-calories, math and eating at a deficit/maintenance. However, starting out it can be very overwhelming trying to sort through all the rubbish and getting to that simple truth. Also, there are factors that can make the process more challenging, like people who are dealing with issues like binge eating, medical conditions etc.
For me-yes it's been pretty easy going, but I also realize others have to deal with things in their lives that I don't have too, which may make their journy's more difficult/different than my own.0 -
Congratulations! I understand what you mean. But I also understand the "it's so hard" sentiment as well.
There is so much (mis)information out there...you should eat this way, don't eat after 6 etc. etc.
Getting started can be tough and overwhelming. It took me a little bit to figure out what worked for me, but once I got into my groove the weight and inches melted off of me.
Now keeping it off is another story, but I'm doing well and I work at it everyday.
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I get it.
I don't think its that hard either. The first week was hard. After that, it really wasn't.
When people ask me how I've lost weight I usually say "calorie counting and exercise and a lot of hard work." But then I feel weird because I don't really think its been that hard.
I get that it's hard for some people, but when I get into the groove, I just sort of run on autopilot and it happens.0 -
I agree... I mean it takes work, willpower and dedication, but if you are ready and willing then it doesn't feel that hard (to me!). I actually get annoyed because my whole life I've heard how hard it was to lose weight, and it was always portrayed to me as being so hard, it was practically impossible. It wasn't until I grew up, and moved away that I realised that it simply just meant eating less than I burned, and didn't require intense workouts, or starving yourself with only lettuce for months. If I'd known/realised that I could do it earlier, I might have tried to lose weight before now. For me, the rhetoric about it being so hard simply made me not want to try, and sadly, I think that's the case for a lot of people.0
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LovingLife_Erin wrote: »I realised that it simply just meant eating less than I burned, and didn't require intense workouts, or starving yourself with only lettuce for months. If I'd known/realised that I could do it earlier, I might have tried to lose weight before now.
Exactly! At first I thought I had to cut out things like pizza, candy and ice cream etc. I don't. I just have to look at my day/week and work the calories in. When I did I was miserable, I'd eventually binge, give up/feel deflated and repeat the cycle.
It really does comes down to eating less than you burn consistently and you don't have to starve yourself/eat diet foods or do hardcore workouts.0 -
Get yourself down to 5 lbs from goal and then come back here and tell us about how easy it is to get to goal.0
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Get yourself down to 5 lbs from goal and then come back here and tell us about how easy it is to get to goal.
I'm not the OP but I had no problem losing the last few pounds, transitioning into maintenance and staying in maintenance for over two years now. It really is pretty simple-figure out what your needed calorie deficit is and then stay within those parameters. You will need to adjust your deficit as you go along, but that's just some simple math. Also, as you get close to your goal weight you'll want to adjust your weekly weight loss goal down to .5lb a week. But again, pretty simple math to figure this out 0 -
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I would agree that the process itself is not difficult for me. But the length of time it is taking to get there is. The first year was super easy IMO. The past 5 months have been the worst.
This is kind of where I am. I've lost 74 pounds in 17 months. I have a ways to go yet, so starting at such a high weight made the first 11-12 months easier. But that was only after the struggle of getting into a groove with workouts and logging food. I'm 51 years old, and it never clicked like this before. So yes, it can be easy, once you get your system figured out.0 -
I think it is somewhat hard the first time you try to lose weight. I've done it so many times, it's very, very easy for me. Keeping it off long-term, however, is extremely difficult for me.
Congratulations on your weight loss.0 -
I don't doubt the last 5 or 10 will be a struggle and I look forward to finding out!
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I have always said that I think losing weight is really kind of easy if I am committed to it. There is another thing that is easy for me too...gaining weight.
Yep, same here.
I even find maintaining weight can be easy, if I'm committed to it.
What's hard is getting committed to it when you aren't.
I maintained for 5 years last time without much problem and lost my commitment/caring. I wish I knew how to make sure that doesn't happen again.0 -
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This morning I hit -60 pounds. It's been 28 months from a high of 257. People usually say something like "Good for you! Losing weight is SO hard!" Usually I just say thank you and occasionally I will voice what I am thinking "It's really not that hard."
I will admit this is the first time I ever tried to lose weight other than the occasional short lived fads but I really feel that armed with proper knowledge, dismissing all those myths you always heard and having of a terrific tool like MFP had made this SO much easier than I ever thought possible. Not "easy" by any stretch, just not that hard.
For those of you with some success, do you agree or disagree?
This is not my first time trying to lose weight. Using MFP to track my caloric intake and exercising moderately has been the easiest I've ever lost weight- ridiculously easy compared to all the other things I've tried in 15 years.
It does take some patience and some determination but I don't really feel like I am working hard.
I've lost 22 lbs and have about 30 more to go so maybe it will feel more difficult as I get closer to my goal.
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Completely agree, it's really not that hard. It just takes dedication and discipline. Losing weight is easy once you've seen through fad diets, junk "weight loss" products, etc and realized that if you burn more calories than you eat you'll lose weight.
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It's simple but not easy. If it were truly easy, no one would be overweight. Once you understand the process, it's simple, but it still takes dedication and lots of patience.0
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I wanted to add that I think the hardest part for me is patience.
Calculating and sticking to a calorie deficit is easy for me. It's only hard to continue to trust the process when your weight is fluctuating around instead of going down down down. Having the patience and trust in the process is the hardest part for me.0 -
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It's easy in the sense that you really only have to do 2 simple things to make weight loss happen, the two things being exercising/moving more and eating at a calorie deficit.
The hard part is staying motivated and staying focused. Actually going through with the 2 simple things is hard too. Sometimes I just want to stay home and eat all the Taco Bell...0
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