60lbs to lose by August 20th 2016

jseltzer108 wrote: »

Hi I think it would be great if we could help each other stay motivated. I want to lose 30 pounds by May and I'm having trouble sticking to my diet. Any ideas? Feel free to add or message me

For a start, don't call it a "diet". Think of it as a lifestyle change, unless you plan to put the weight back on after whatever event you're trying to lose for.

30lbs by May is very ambitious - it might be possible, depending on how overweight you are right now, but it's more than 2lbs a week. It's quite likely that trying to lose that much will leave you feeling very hungry, which may be why you're having trouble sticking with it. How many calories per day are you aiming for?

Instead of focusing on being a particular weight by a certain day, you could try just making better food choices, watching your portions (weigh everything!), and aiming for a smaller calorie deficit. You're bound to see changes even if the scale doesn't drop as fast as you'd like. Measure yourself too, and take note of how your clothes fit! Seeing even small amounts of progress will help motivate you to stay on track with the changes, especially if you start feeling better about yourself.


@628462 - what do you mean by "ate healthy"? Are you eating at a calorie deficit, or just trying to choose fruit over chips? The only way to get the weight off is to eat less than your body burns - make sure you're weighing your food so you know exactly how much you're eating, as it may be more than you think.

It's normal for your weight to fluctuate day to day (I just started weighing myself daily and I'm seeing this in action - it's hard to get your head around it to start with) and I think women see that even more. I've also read that starting (or changing) an exercise plan can lead to your body retaining water for a few days. You said you were 'bad' for a couple of days, so if you ate a lot of salty foods or high calorie stuff it might have affected your progress too.

Try not to worry about it too much - everything I've read here says your weight will fluctuate, it will stall, it will go up before it goes back down... it's all normal. Just stick with it, and try and measure your progress in other ways if the scale isn't cooperating.

Good luck!

(Sending out some friend requests. )

60 lbs is literally the amount I need to lose. End of August is a good goal for me.
I'd love to support people as well. Feel free to add.

SueSueDio wrote: »

Go for it! Just don't starve yourself in the process.

(And try not to be too disappointed if you don't make it - any progress in the right direction is awesome regardless of how far you get!)

Thanks! Yea I agree any progress is good progress

Hi I would love to join this amazing journey with all of you:) I'm 20 years old and my highest was 240 and I've dropped about 30 pounds and I'm now struggling to lose more.. My goal is to lose 45 pounds by the end of June and I would be so happy if you all would help me to get motivated again and I would be so happy to help you also.
Feel free to add or message me
LETS DO THIS TOGETHER!:)

Count me in! I just joined and would love to lose at least 40 lbs by August...half of what my goal is

How is everyone doing? I am in week #5. I lost 10 pounds but gained this past week and am losing motivation. My hunger and cravings seem to be increasing! This is getting harder for me.....

My goal is to lose 10 lbs by May 21st , thats when my wedding is. It seems like its harder for me to stay motivated without friends support, also it sucks not seeing results right away haha. Anyhow im open to friendships and recipes : )

MissAnisha wrote: »

My goal is to lose 10 lbs by May 21st , thats when my wedding is. It seems like its harder for me to stay motivated without friends support, also it sucks not seeing results right away haha. Anyhow im open to friendships and recipes : )

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!

I've read that if you don't have much to lose it can take longer to see results, and also that it's better to aim for a 0.5lbs/week loss rather than anything higher. Make sure you're not cutting your calories too low, weigh everything, and don't panic if you don't see much movement!

Look at other things like your measurements and how your clothes fit if the scale isn't being cooperative - you're bound to look and feel better by your wedding even if you don't lose the whole 10lbs.

My first goal is to weigh 150lbs.. I'm 5'5, 20 years old and my starting weight on the 5th of November 2015 was 207lbs!

Today I'm weighing in at 174.6lbs, so 32lbs down so far and 24.6 to go!

I'm hoping to reach goal by 24/05/16 - my 21st birthday!

Anybody similar feel free too add!

Thanks for the responses everyone! I definitely need to increase my protein! If only I could afford sushi for dinner several times a week! I know I should be happy with 2lbs/week loss and I am, but I also have so much to lose and it is a long road to august! So on gaining weeks it is very discouraging when I still feel like I am trying so hard!

Don't dwell on it - just keep doing the best you can day by day, and eventually you'll get where you want to go! It's not failure unless you stop getting back up when you fall down.

My weight has been up and down like nobody's business, and I can't seem to pin it down to anything in particular (although maybe I just need to look harder! ), but the overall trend is still downwards so I'm trying not to worry too much about the actual number on the scale. I know it's hard to see it go up, though, especially if you feel you've been doing well! If you don't already weigh yourself every day, and you feel like you could handle seeing the fluctuations, try doing that and keeping a record of it so you can start to see what's happening with your body. It might help you to realise what's normal for you, and also to see if what you ate the day before has had a dramatic effect (too much sodium etc.).

Now, I'm going to say some things and it may sound a bit judgy, so I apologise for that (I'm certainly nowhere near good at this myself!) - but I took a look at the past few weeks of your diary and it looks like you do pretty well on some days but then you undo it by going way over on others. While it's true that a couple of days of poor choices won't wreck all your previous work, if for example you eat well during the week and then have a blow out over the weekend, you do risk wiping out your deficit for the whole week and not seeing any progress at all. And if you keep following that kind of pattern, you're not going to get anywhere. It's better to try and fit in 'treat foods' regularly during the whole week rather than overindulging on a couple of days.

There's an awful lot of cheese and alcohol in your diary, especially over the past couple of weeks, and those calories really add up fast! If that's something you enjoy having then perhaps it would be a good idea to look at other areas you could cut back a little to make room for them.

Try to log everything you eat and drink - weigh it too, don't just go by 'half a cup' or similar volume measurements for solid foods. (Especially cheese - and bear in mind that, as someone said in another thread, a cube of cheese is a sad little thing, but a mound of grated cheese looks like so much more for the same weight!) If you're trying to increase fats and protein for satiety, make sure to keep an eye on the overall calorie intake as well.

Also, how are you measuring your exercise calories burned, and how confident are you that it's accurate? Most days you've logged, there's close to (or over) 1,000 extra calories from exercise. I can see you're not eating all that back every time, but when you are it could be causing you to go way over your limit if the recording isn't accurate. I'd take a look at that as well.

Finally, it's hard for me to tell exactly what your regular intake goal is, but it looks like it's close to 1,200 when you don't add in exercise. I don't know what your weight is other than "in the 200s", but your goal may be too low. I'm 207 and aiming for 1,400 (not including exercise) - some days I go a bit over, some I'm a bit under, but overall I am steadily losing weight. MFP based my original goal of 1,500 on a basic burn of 2,000 per day, which I now know from my tracking is incorrect for me personally - I burn closer to 1,900, so I adjusted my goal down a little and started losing slowly again. Believe me, I do understand the want to lose it all as fast as possible! But if you try and cut it too low, you'll be hungry and miserable and won't stick to it.

Try to think of this as a lifestyle change and not a "diet" - you need to find a way you can eat for the rest of your life and keep the weight off, and if you're too low now you won't have anywhere to go when you get closer to your goal. It's better to lose the pounds more slowly but to stick with it and keep them off, than to keep giving up and starting over. 1lb, or even 1/2lb, a week that stays off is better than losing a bunch quickly and then putting all that and more back on and having to start again. There are clearly foods that you really enjoy and want to be able to have, so you may want to accept losing more slowly so that you can enjoy those things without feeling guilty.

Okay, that turned into way more of an essay than I intended when I started - sorry about that! But what I'm trying to say is, if you really want to lose the weight then do your best to make sure you're logging both food and exercise as accurately as possible, and don't sabotage your own efforts.

And don't give up! You can do it, if you really want to.

Goldfiver wrote: »

Hi there. This year I am loosing 45lbs for ever. Last year I was called fatso, obese, and told by girlfriend that my best feature was my face, and she was not attracted by my physic as I let my fitness go away for a while. Friends needed to keep me motivated too and I will post pictures of any progress.

andreapaul2016 wrote: »

Goldfiver wrote: »

Hi there. This year I am loosing 45lbs for ever. Last year I was called fatso, obese, and told by girlfriend that my best feature was my face, and she was not attracted by my physic as I let my fitness go away for a while. Friends needed to keep me motivated too and I will post pictures of any progress.

Not sure how to add friends. But I'd like to be your friend. Can you please add me. I need motivation as well. We can support each other.

628462 wrote: »

How do you stay motivated and disciplined every moment of every day?

Who, me?!




Oh dear... I'm sorry.

The thing is, I don't. Look back over my diary if you want, and see the number of times I went over my limit, the days I was too lazy to exercise, and the day I had THREE Fudgsicles for treats because I couldn't resist going back for another one, and then one more, in the space of an hour. (I had to stop myself having a fourth!)

I eat pizza and burgers because I love them. I have bacon and eggs. I try to fit some chocolate into my life most days. I have a glass of wine or a can of cider sometimes (we don't drink much anyway, but it's nice now and again). I am one of the least disciplined people I know, but I keep at it because I really want to lose this excess weight, however long it takes. I'm only human, I don't always resist temptation.

What I have managed to do is to stop myself from eating way too much, which I would have done in the past, and not let a couple of bad days turn into a week of overeating followed by giving up. There are also times when I think about the amount I have to lose and it feels impossible to do it, I become sure I'm going to give up long before I get there.

I do two things - first, I broke it down into smaller goals and started focusing on just 10lbs at a time. (I finally reached the first ten, after 6 weeks of changing my habits.) Second, I try to take it one day at a time. Just one more day of making better choices. I remind myself how I succeeded at breastfeeding my son, something that I thought should be so natural and easy but for me was so damned difficult and I was having so many issues that even medical staff kept telling me to give up. I fought them and insisted on "one more day" of trying - every single day despite the difficulty and pain - until those single days turned into eleven months of success. I'd desperately wanted to feed him for six months and felt I wouldn't even manage six weeks, but I did it one day at a time.

That's what I'm trying to do here - if I eat too much or feel I made some poor choices, there's always the next day to try again. And I'm trying hard not to restrict the things I love, or to feel guilty about going over my limit. My husband wants to go to Pizza Hut for lunch tomorrow, and I'm not going to scour the menu looking for the least-calorific option. I'm going to eat the things I really like, enjoy them and the time with my family, and not worry about it. Then I'm going to have a very light supper, and carry on the next day as if there's nothing to worry about - which there isn't, as long as I don't do that every few days! It also helps to know in advance that these meals are coming, so I don't eat half my daily calories beforehand!

Turning into an essay again, sorry!

To answer your question about measuring - I bought a digital food scale and weigh what I can, but sometimes only once. For example, if I need a 'cup of rice' I'll measure out a cup and then weigh it. Once I know how that compares to the nutritional information on the package, I'll know if I need to adjust the amount of calories and from then on I'll just use the cup. Things like vegetables, meat, cheese, I weigh every time. Liquids are measured with cups or spoons, but again for things like milk and juice I measured once, noted where that amount came to on my usual glass (luckily it has a pattern with lines on it!), and now I just pour it in up to that line. I'm lucky that at the moment I have the time to mess around and weigh everything, and I'm hoping that by the time I find a job I'll be much better at either estimating portions or will have some sort of weekly routine figured out for making lunches! It's a learning process, but I'll get there eventually - I don't really want to have to weigh and count calories for the rest of my life (although I will if I have to!), so I want to teach myself about good portion control.

I hope that helps a bit! For you, if you're very stressed right now I'd say just focus on doing whatever you can to help you along your journey. Even just getting into the habit of weighing and logging whatever you can will help, regardless of if you go over your calorie goal. Doing a bit of exercise when you can is a good habit to get into, although apparently not necessary for weight loss, and walking is supposed to help relieve stress too. Don't beat yourself up for not being perfect, celebrate the little successes instead and just keep at it. One day at a time.

Buckeye_Girl wrote: »

Hello there I have 55 pounds to lose and would like to lose it within this year. Plus summertime will be here soon! We can support each other. Feel free to add me.

Last summer I was so uncomfortable and hot with my extra weight, not this year! Feel free to add me!