Discouraged about how much I have to lose...

I have a friend who turned 30 in a similar position and with a growing number of health issues joined up to a local slimming club with a couple of friends and knuckled down to what will be a 2 year effort for her too.

"Thirty and thin" might be a goal to aim for. Find changes to food and activities that you like and can sustain.

Set weight loss milestones and only focus on each milestone at a time. It could be 20lb or 10kilo milestones, reduction in clothing size etc.

I also think you need to start looking at the positives over what you perceive to be negatives (eg time to reach final goal weight) such as all the achievements to be made along the way...reduced blood pressure, improved health, doing your first first run/walk, dancing, swimming, exercising, reduction in clothing size, being able to buy clothes of the rack, I am sure you will be able to list a whole lot of achievements to come that are relevant to you.

I'm 5'0 and weight 243. I lost 25 pounds earlier this year and then gained it all back. Yes, it's unfortunate that I gained it back, but the upside is that now I know I can do it and it's not nearly as torturous as so many people make it seem. There's no point in waiting to start or procrastinating. Once you start trying you'll start to gain more respect for yourself just for the effort. I hate that I gained the weight back, but I love that I lost it at all and now I'm preparing to start all over again from scratch and do better to maintain it this time. There's no shame in falling short. The shame is in not giving yourself a chance. You're capable of whatever you say you're capable of and you deserve a healthy lifestyle.

When I first started my weight loss journey, I refused to look at the scale for the first month. I stepped on once to get my starting weight and then didn't check it again until 30 days out, after consistently logging my food. It took the pressure off of me to see results right then and there. When I saw that I had made progress just by trying, I was elated! Also, I like to cook so, I had a lot of fun looking up and trying out new recipes. I also researched cardio exercises. Walking is best for beginners and once that got to be too easy and I wasn't burning as many calories, I'd try jogging intermittently I started with 30 minutes of walking. My next stage was 9 minutes of walking 1 minute of jogging. Then 8 minutes of walking 2 minutes of jogging. Then 7 minutes of walking and 3 minutes of jogging and so on and so forth. On the days I didn't feel like getting on the treadmill, I took my jump rope outside and set a goal to jumprope for the entire duration of one of my favorite songs. Most importantly though, I stopped telling myself that I could not do it and that I was fat and nothing was ever going to change. Your mindset is most important of all. Getting started is only as hard as you make it.

You need friends on mfp it has helped me alot since i dont have a lot of family support it just me and my husband and he is not over weight so if you would like to add me you can i still have all most 100 lbs to lose

2 years are going to pass whether you lose weight or not. In two years, if you don't start today, you will be wishing you did. It will be a cycle you will never escape if you don't get working now.

Start easing into it. Set yourself one goal at a time. Maybe one week it could be walking more. Next week it could be drinking more water. Little steps with yield big changes. Not everything needs to be done at once.

It doesn't matter how much you have to lose. I have to lose half my body weight to be on the slim side, but right now I am happy with just the 13kg I've lost so far. Every little bit will make you more excited, no matter how long it takes you!

The 2+ years are going to pass whether you're losing weight or not, right? You might as well work on losing the weight so that 2+ years from now you're in maintenance, not still looking at 2+ years of losing.

Just do what you need to do without worrying about the time, because that's time is going to pass just the same either way.

chulipa wrote: »

You need friends on mfp it has helped me alot since i dont have a lot of family support it just me and my husband and he is not over weight so if you would like to add me you can i still have all most 100 lbs to lose

I would feel overwhelmed too. But just start.

Doing something will feel better than doing nothing. Taking a stand will move you forward; caving into a feeling of defeat will keep you stuck.

Press on. Believe in the small doses. You. Will. Get. There.

I understand the overwhelming feeling when looking at the long-term weight loss. I worked out that I needed to lose the equivalent of one and a half times my oldest daughter when I started. Over half of my body weight (actually closer to 60%) at the time. It seems completely insurmountable and that's enough to put anyone off even trying.

However, the weight isn't going to miraculously disappear. I've spent long enough ignoring my weight issue to know this.

I told myself that there was only one person who can make a difference and that the time to deal with it was then. Not the day after, not the following week/month/year. I'm now 15 weeks from that day and 48lbs lighter. I am SO glad that I decided to start dealing with my weight all of those weeks ago as that's 48lbs I don't have to deal with any more. I feel so much better and I'm fitter as I walk miles (believe me, the first walk I took once I started was a killer. I had to rest for a long time before walking back again). And the long-term goal doesn't seem so bad any more either, because I KNOW that I will get there, and I will maintain that end goal, even though I am still taking it one day at a time and one lb at a time.

I think that what I'm trying to say is that you have to start somewhere and at some point. Why wait? Now is better than tomorrow, or next week, or next year.

Best of luck

ditsyblond17 wrote: »

Those are great ideas! Thank you!!

Sometimes it's nice to just feel like I have support. I have NO ONE supporting me in my imediate family or life. It's rather sad and pathetic. It's hard to keep going when surrounded by other fat people that don't want to change. But I need to realize, this is for me, not them! I am going to be the one happy and fit, and hopefully, I will lead by example.

Have you guys ever wondered what it's even like to be "thin"? I've never been thin in my entire 26 years of life. EVER. I can't even begin to fathom how it will feel. In a way, I'm terrified of the unknown about it too. I think that may have a lot to do with it, as well.

Remember what you said here today. When you have lost your weight (yes when), perhaps they'll see that they can too. And then you can show this to them when they ask you the same question.

If the big picture is overwhelming you---don't think about that, just start, and say "I'll see how far I can go". It's important to start. Get your digital food scale, start weighing and measuring everything and try to stay within your MFP calorie goal. Will you make a mistake? Will you backtrack? Sure. Everyone does. Just get back on track the next day and keep on truckin'. Try to move more. Walking is good to start, if you have access to a pool, swimming is easier on the joints. As you lose and feel better, you'll branch out with other exercise. People, and especially family, may say dumb things. Be prepared. Do not let them derail you. Weight loss and fitness are just small everyday things--it's not as hard as you may think. Start today, and in 2 years (which will fly by) you'll have a success story for us to read. Best of luck--and NEVER give up.

It's not necesary to start hardcore workout from the beginning, jogging few times a week 20min in the morning more then enough to boost your metabolism. Weight loss is mostly about right nutrition, keeping it strict. P.S from personal experiance, and if you dont like feeling starving I recommend looking into ketogenic diet.