Success stories and continuing ones for females 5'3 and under

5'3". I started normal weight and wanted to lose about 10 lbs for vanity reasons. I lost the weight over about 2-3 months. I ate around 1400 calories, ate back most of my exercise calories and exercised. I do yoga, pole, running, and weight lifting. I maintain now on about 2000 calories on average. I only watched calories, I didn't weigh my food, and working night shifts I probably drink way too much diet coke and red bull but it didn't hinder my loss.

I'm 43yo. 5'4" and started at 156lbs about 7wks ago. I'm now 145.

My diary is opened if you want to see what food looks like for me. I'm being very careful tracking calories, and since buying a gram scale my weight loss has been consistent. My weight loss had stalled and I learned it was because although I was making good food choices, my portions were too big.

I'm working out 4 days (sometimes 5 if my schedule allows) a week and concentrating on weight training with 25-20mins of cardio 3 times a week.

Learning to count calories and eat the right portion sizes is the best thing anyone can do to get the weight off.

Hi I'm 5ft 3 and am currently 108 lbs. Started at 143 and lost the weight very slowly. A pound a week since September 2014. I logged meticulously and also did about an hour of cardio I.e running, elliptical, hula hoop etc...for 5-6 days a week. Am currently maintaining on 1330 calories a day and eat back my exercise calories. I'm 44 (almost 45) and until I joined mfp and started logging was only losing a pound here and there then regaining. Have a great friends list which also helped.

I'm 5'4.5", so just a tad bit taller
Highest adult weight: 260 lbs
Weight when I started using MFP: 218 lbs
Current Trend weight*: 127.8 lbs
This mornings scale reading: 126.9 lbs
Lowest recent scale reading: 126 lbs

I was around 150 lbs 6 months ago.

I lost some weight on my own before joining MFP. I was way over restrictive and couldn't sustain it. If I remember correctly I gained about 20 lbs of the around 60 lbs I had lost the year prior to joining MFP back. I didn't make lifestyle changes. It was more of a short term term diet that I had put myself on. I was able to keep it up for about 6 months before I couldn't take it anymore. Kept the weight off for about 2-3 months and then started gaining some back. I, thankfully, caught myself before I had undone it all.

I found MFP in Nov of 2012, but didn't start actually using it until March 13, 2013 when I was back up to 218 lbs. I set up MFP with a goal to lose 2 lbs a week, but I think I lasted all of a week with that goal before changing it to 1 lb a week. I started lurking in the forums and found lots of useful information. I'll post some of the threads that I consider to be useful down at the bottom of this post.

I was gifted a Fitbit Zip at the end of April by my husband. He knew I was looking at them and wanted one; he didn't know which one so he grabbed a zip because it came in bright pink. I started using that to monitor my activity and allowed it to make adjustments to my calorie goals here. Boy was I surprised to find that I was so lazy that even with MFP set to Sedentary, Fitbit was taking away calories and working out was just bringing my adjustment to 0 (meaning I was meeting the calorie burn MFP expected of a Sedentary person with my stats). By September, I had enough data from my food logs and Fitbit to determine that the Zip was underestimating my activity level by about 200 calories per day on average.

I bought a HRM for my workouts shortly after getting the Fitbit. I used this for any activity that wasn't walking and logged it in MFP with the correct start time/duration (start time is something required when logging activities when a Fitbit is connected to MFP).

Around June, I ended up purchasing a food scale so that I could be more accurate with my food logging. This was an eye opener and I started weighing all foods I made at home (still do). The best part is it required less clean up than measuring cups.

By September of that year, I had lost about 48 lbs from my start on MFP and about 90 from my highest weight. I had to stop at this point though, because I became pregnant with my second son.

Fast forward to now. My youngest was born at the end of May 2014. I went back to using MFP just as I had before pregnancy a few weeks after he was born. I wasn't able to start exercising until September (recovery from 2nd c-section), but I did start up about mid-September. The only major changes I've made is that as of Feb this year I am using the Fitbit Surge (no longer using Zip & HRM) and I joined a gym.

My favorite thing about the tools I have been using to help me with this process is that I don't have to cut out my favorite foods. Sure I have to watch my portion sizes, but that's where a food scale and my food log come in. I don't feel horribly restricted which makes it easier than what I was trying to do before using MFP (not that it's completely easy, it's not, but it is easier now that I'm not restricting myself to a small selection of foods).


After my first son was born (260 lbs):


My second pregnancy:


2 weeks Post-Partum(in the 190's):


And current:


Helpful threads:
Logging Accurately Step by Step Guide
A Guide to Get You Started on Your Path to Sexypants

Hi

Hang in there! You can do this! :]

I'm 5 ft 2 and I started out at 157 lbs at the end of April 2015. I am now hitting 126.

This is totally achievable, I promise you that. You just need to dig deep and find that willpower, dedication and strength. I have the biggest appetite ever so if I can do it, you definitely can!

I haven't got any pictures uploaded onto my computer just yet but I definitely will once I've finished.

How I did it? A sensible calorie deficit and some regular exercises. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that! Good luck!