Feel like a failure... 50lbs just seem undo able

start small - start by weighing all your food for example, without sticking to a specific calorie target. eat whatever you want but weigh it/log it all. go on a walk for 10 minutes a few times a week. try that for a few weeks and see what happens. for some people having a deadline works great, for others, having a deadline to lose a certain amount of weight just adds stress.

I started doing it and then the motivation came.


Be consistent in logging
Weigh and measure everything
Make small changes every week
-drink more water
- cut down on soda
- Cut down on junk food
- Find lower calorie ways to cook (bake vs fry)
- start purposeful exercise for me it was walking

Once you find you are able to control what goes in your mouth, start moving more.

I found a sport I enjoyed. Golf. Then I added time at the gym with a trainer. Now I play volleyball once a week. Next week I'm starting squash.

I lost 18 pounds so far. 20 more to my first goal and 40 to my ultimate goal weight. It took me 3 months so far. It may take me a year. But that's ok. Slow and steady. Consistency. When the numbers start to drop the motivation to continue will follow.

THe big fat pic is me at 225. The one next to it is about 200. The one in the grey shirt is 180ish. I am currently 175. 49 pounds down with an end goal of 145-150. It has taken me 160 days so far. And yes, that sucks major monkey butt. But I figure at my current rate, I'll be done by March. Yeah . .6-7-8 months to lose about 80 pounds.

I'm learning something now that it's mostly food that you need to work on it's most of the battle and battling with your mind that you want to make small changes. I've been finding out that I can exercise as much as I want but if I don't reduce some calories at first and then change the foods like get in more vegetables and some fruit etc. I'm not going to see much in the way of change. I liked a lot of the advice up above and photos very helpful, everyone can take something away from all this.

Do you like your life as it is? Do you feel fit and healthy? Are you doing all the things you want to do? If so stay the way you are.
If your weight is causing you problems and you want to change then MFP is a great tool to help you make changes. It will take time... probably a year at least. Your weight is not going to go down every week. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10179969/weight-loss-flow-chart-2-0/p1

I've never personally been successful with deadlines on weight loss. I'd focus on getting through each day/week at a time for now.
Start logging what you normally eat. Look at it honestly. Are a lot of your calories coming from certain foods or drinks? Are you getting enough protein? What kind of pattern do you see?
Work on weighing, measuring and logging all your food and drinks as accurately as you can. Then work on sticking to your calorie goal. Work on reducing portion sizes of higher calorie foods and increase portions of lower calorie foods.
If you can't image giving up a food forever then don't. A diet isn't going to help you if you can not sustain it.
Plan your eating as much as you can. If you eat out look up nutrition info and make a choice in advance. I have found pre-logging my whole day to be really helpful.

If you eat your emotions or stress eat then you need to find a different outlet to manage that.

Every day is a new day. You don't have to be perfect.

No deadlines, no milestones, no pressure.
I'm not looking at it as a diet, more of a complete life overhaul!
I'm weighing everything and am trying to make the healthiest choices I can!
My goal from the start was to lose 86 lbs. I'm only a week in and have lost 6'7 lbs!
I know most of this will be water weight but I don't care, it still motivates me! Plus i'm making sure I get my 2 litres a day!

The worst thing you can do is nothing... The second worst thing you can do is whatever you think you 'should' be doing but don't really want to do! I decided I was only going to do what I liked, no matter how long it took. I did not set weight or time goals or deadlines. Instead I set up 10-week sessions. I had been inactive and out of shape for about ten years so I calendared one ten-week session for every year of sloth & inattention. I found MFP & it just reinforced my inclinations. Eat clean?... Nice but not necessary! Spot tone (my former bane)?... Myth! Juice cleanse? Just nope!!! Hahaha. The first session I simply tracked a calorie deficit and walked. I liked it. The second session I got interested in macros and noticed I feel better with a little bit more protein than I had been eating and a little less sugar (that's just me, listening to my own body, not recommending anything to you). Now I'm in the third session & im giving yoga a try, and doing a big hiking challenge. I have averaged about one pound a week weight loss. Sometimes it picks up steam & looks like 1.3 or 1.4 a week but then a little plateau will come along and cut that number. At the holidays I ate at maintenance & for the first time in my life really understood what that meant! And I didn't gain but enjoyed the break immensely.
Stop kicking yourself NOW. Treat your sweet self & your body like the fascinating travel companions they are on this long strange journey we call life. Do the things that pleasure, delight & entertain your travel companions and they will reward you with health and happiness. XoL

Here are some posts you might find helpful.
Definitely read sexypants.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819925/the-basics-dont-complicate-it/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/872212/youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1


"Most weight loss occurs because of decreased caloric intake.
However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engaged in regular physical activity."
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/physical_activity/index.html


Goal setting, including weight, calories, and macros
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-06-08-setting-goals-667045

Motivation & encouragement (explained in blog post)
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-07-24-motivation-encouragement-680938

- Set small intermediate goals & celebrate every one.
- Take measurements.
- Take pictures.
- Weigh yourself regularly.
- Be flexible; forgive yourself.
- Celebrate the non-scale victories (NSV's)
- Don't give up!!!!
- Don't make any food forbidden.
- Eat real food; less processed is better.

Starting small works well for a lot of people. It's ok to start small and build on your small successes. Large goals are made up of many smaller ones, so breaking your goal down into smaller steps will help you keep on going. What I did was log everything for a couple of weeks to see what patterns there were. Then, I started making one change at a time, giving myself time to get used to that change before another one. Yes, it's slow! But here at the end, I'm confident that I'll be able to keep the weight off, which is worth it!

As for motivation, that has to come from you. You have to take a good, honest look at why YOU want to lose weight. And it doesn't have to be 'to get healthy'. That wasn't mine. I knew I needed to lose weight, my doctor told me to lose weight, but it wasn't until I got my wedding pictures back that I found the motivation to do so. I look fat in those pictures, and I didn't want that. That was my motivation for losing weight, and it worked. So find your OWN motivation, not what you think it should be or what others tell you it should be. That's how you'll keep on the track. You'll pause along the way, and sometimes you'll wander off to the side a bit, but as long as you come back to that track and keep going, you'll get there.