Seven weeks in... 20lbs gone! Looking for Fitness Pal support friends

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Hi Fitness Pal fans! I've enjoyed my app and my results so far. It's been a real challenge to remain motivated but I'm on a mission to remain focused on my goals! Looking for online support friends to share this experience with.

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  • WordWhisperer
    WordWhisperer Posts: 33 Member
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    Nine weeks, 25 pounds... we are practically twins! :)
  • missqueen1
    missqueen1 Posts: 1 Member
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    Hello,
    Do you mind sharing how you have had your successes and body types? Have you added exercise regimens, change diets or both?

    If you don't mind sharing some of your tips, I would greatly appreciate it.

    Thank you in advance.
    Queen
  • wildeyezz
    wildeyezz Posts: 84 Member
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    Wow! Good job on your progress! I have lost 40 over 1 year. I'm pregnant now and have maintained well throughout my pregnancy. Feel free to friend me.
  • JeanJeannie0001
    JeanJeannie0001 Posts: 2 Member
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    Great stuff! It's inspiring to hear good success stories. Can you share you eating plan and your exercise habits? Thanks.
  • Ivoreegurl
    Ivoreegurl Posts: 3 Member
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    Nine weeks, 25 pounds... we are practically twins! :)

    How did you lose so much in just 9 weeks?
  • Skillet007
    Skillet007 Posts: 55 Member
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    I've lost close to 25 lbs in 9 weeks as well! (I started my weight loss journey a few weeks before getting MFP). It's slowing down a bit now but becoming a more steady loss. My goal is to lose between 80 and 100 lbs, so between 60 and 80 more to go! Keep it up! I'm also looking for new friends as well!
  • melsouth1972
    melsouth1972 Posts: 198 Member
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    6 months 5stone 7pound gone - I've worked like a beast to do it. Feel free to add me :)
  • WordWhisperer
    WordWhisperer Posts: 33 Member
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    Ivoreegurl wrote: »
    Nine weeks, 25 pounds... we are practically twins! :)

    How did you lose so much in just 9 weeks?

    I'm afraid it's probably down to the simple fact that when you have a million to lose, you lose those early ones faster.

    That's not to diminish the work I've done - I added a fitness tracker for step counting first, then slow lunchtime walks (I'm talking 30 minutes per mile slow), then short walks in the evening too (about 20 minutes). I got serious about logging meals a week or two in, and I've stayed within my daily calories all but a handful of days (eating back no exercise calories).

    But in all reality, it just comes down to two things: having so much to lose, and going from zero activity or accountability to 10,000 - 12,000 steps a day, and calorie counting (1500 per day).
  • WordWhisperer
    WordWhisperer Posts: 33 Member
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    Great stuff! It's inspiring to hear good success stories. Can you share you eating plan and your exercise habits? Thanks.

    To keep things easy for me to manage in a very busy schedule, I eat a lot of the same thing every single day. I intend to vary that with time, but I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible for now.

    I have oatmeal in the morning, sometimes with walnuts or almonds in it, and lunch lately has been bagged salad with cucumbers, green peppers, and grape tomatoes added in. If it's a good day, I will add cheese, but I'm trying to learn to live without. Dinner is more complicated because I have to cook for people who have a lot of sensitivities, so I'm pretty much just making the dinners I always made before, only now I weigh and measure everything. Snacks are generally protein based because I have to watch that really closely - some turkey slices, a little cheese, some cottage cheese with fruit mixed in, a boiled egg, and of course fruit like a tangerine or an apple.

    Exercise was 100% walking for me until two weeks ago, when I injured myself and had to switch to an exercise bike. I know it sounds overly simplistic, but my "plan" was to log more steps every day than I did the one before. I went from 3000 on the first day I had my tracker (Dec 24) to a consistent 10,000 by January 11, where I stayed (varying between 10 and 12K) until my injury. Now I'm back down to about 5,000 per day.

    I really want to stress that I just squeezed those steps in wherever I could (which for me was a 2500-3000 step walk at lunch and another one or two walks of 1500-2000 after work), and they were at a snail's pace. I have not been killing myself here. It wasn't about weight loss for me. It was about building up strength. So I just did what I could.

    Now, I'm on an exercise bike and I'm doing three sessions a day of somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes each, depending on how I'm feeling. Again, this is not at a wild pace. Maybe like 7 mph?

    But in a nutshell, my exercise plan was to just do more today than I did yesterday. That has been enormously motivating for me, and do-able.
  • WordWhisperer
    WordWhisperer Posts: 33 Member
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    missqueen1 wrote: »
    Hello,
    Do you mind sharing how you have had your successes and body types? Have you added exercise regimens, change diets or both?

    If you don't mind sharing some of your tips, I would greatly appreciate it.

    Thank you in advance.
    Queen

    I don't intend for this to come out as funny as it will, but I don't actually know what kind of body type I have. Is round a body type? :) Truly, I've never known much of anything about my body, so this is all new. Can you give me some examples of body types? Is this maybe like being pear-shaped or apple-shaped? Because if so, I'm sort of half apple, half pear. My tummy and hips are my biggest problem areas.

    I posted a couple of other replies above this one about exercise and diet, but I'll add here that the one thing that changed it all for me was getting a fitness tracker. I wanted it for sleep tracking, as I wake exhausted and had some suspicions I wanted to confirm, but it turns out that I just cannot resist the allure of racking up steps. :)

    Honestly, it changed my whole life. It made me go from "OMG this spot is so far from the door" to parking at the last spot in the lot. And I think this way about everything now. Sure, I'll go put the laundry away. It's 100 steps from the dryer to the drawer and back. Why yes I will walk the dog for you; it's 1600 steps around the small path.

    Pretty quickly, I noticed the calorie burn numbers and that led me to MFP, which led me to tracking my calories, which rather quickly led to reducing them (by changing food choices and by measuring / weighing all the things I normally eat).

    While my life is radically, insanely different than it was nine weeks ago, it is still pretty much pathetic compared to people I consider athletic. What exercise I get is at my own pace, walking only until I recently switched a stationary bike due to a foot injury. What food I eat has to be easy, fast, and acceptable to the other people in my house. So in a sense, I've gone through a metamorphosis. But, I'm cognizant that I'm a long, long way from where it can eventually end up.
  • Mzsoblessed
    Mzsoblessed Posts: 2 Member
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    Nine weeks, 25 pounds... we are practically twins! :)

    How did u donit
  • Mzsoblessed
    Mzsoblessed Posts: 2 Member
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    Nine weeks, 25 pounds... we are practically twins! :)

    How did u donit

    Do it
  • JennK730
    JennK730 Posts: 62 Member
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    Good job. Add me as friend if you like to.
    I am starting a 30 day walking Challenge March 1...tomorrow