I'd like to hear weight loss stories.

katt22km14
katt22km14 Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've just began my weightloss journey, for the millionth time, 3 days ago. Through many failed attempts I feel this one is it. Instead of fad diets, expensive pills, ect.., I've been trying to eat better, and I'm actually exercising. I cut out most sweets 2 months ago, and sweet tea (my addiction) a week ago. I figure I'll treat my self to one 8 fl oz glass a week of tea, better than 32+ FL Oz a day. I use mydiarynet for my diary and calorie/ exercise counter. I have my calorie intake set at 1450 ( It seems high to me considering I dont eat much) But according to my app, it's lower than what I should have at around 1650. I've been exercising with walking, light jogging, and bicycling for cardio and light 5-10lb free weights for strengthening. I'm burning between 500-1100 calories from exercising. According to my app I should be losing around 12-15 lbs monthly. Does that seem accurate? My goal is at least 35 lbs in 4 months. Am I setting myself up for failure? I want to lose at least 60lbs long term. I'd like to hear some success stories.

Replies

  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
    I doubt you're burning 1100 calories doing the exercise you're doing. Maybe if you're heavy, you could be burning 500 but depends on how hard you're working out and how long. I do very intense workouts for an hour and only burn 200-300 in an hour. So you may want to reevaluate your estimated calories burnt.

    35 lbs in 4 months may be pushing it since it averages out to just over 2 lbs a week. I would personally aim for losing 1.5 a week instead of 2. You can eat more, which will keep you from getting burnt out too quickly. Longevity is important.

    I'm down 85 lbs in the past 14 months. I didn't exclude the foods I love from my diet. I kept my protein up. I exercised most days and ate back half of my estimated calories. It wasn't a race to lose the weight...it was trying to live my life in a way that was manageable forever.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,175 Member
    If you're trying to lose 60 pounds total, then 12-15 pounds monthly is very aggressive, may be difficult to sustain long enough to be successful, and could result in your losing more muscle along the way than is really necessary. I'd suggest going a little slower.

    There are no particular foods you need to avoid, as long as you get well-rounded nutrition overall.

    My story: I started losing weight in April 2015, and lost around 60 pounds by the end of the year. I'm now about 64 pounds down, and working on maintaining the loss. I am way older than you, at 60, and my starting weight was 183. I've been quite active for a long time, and didn't change my activities much while trying to lose weight.

    I also didn't dramatically change the types of foods & meals I ate, but would review my diary & decide whether certain things were worth the calories they cost me, for the tastiness, satiation, and nutrition they gave me. That let me to reduce certain foods, and increase others. But I still eat treats, drink alcohol sometimes, etc. Unless it was a true special occasion, I tried to stay within my calorie goal.

    I just followed the standard MFP process of logging my food & activity, and keeping my eating around my calorie goal (eating back all my exercise calories). At first, I lost around two pounds per week. When I got around 20-30 pounds from goal, I started eating more, reducing my loss rate to 1.5 then soon 1 pound per week. At my age, I totally can't afford to lose any more than the minimum of muscle: It's too hard to get back.

    At about 10 pounds above goal, I increased my eating again to lose 0.5lbs/week, then soon started gradually increasing calories by 100 or so per day, every week or two, to sort of coast into my maintenance weight rather than having an abrupt change.

    That's it. There are more details on my profile page, if you care.
  • KatherinePM
    KatherinePM Posts: 22 Member
    I've lost 20kgs. :smile: I lost between 16-18kgs on Michelle Bridges 12wbt in 4 months. It's a bit pricey but it works. And the rest I have lost on my own. Only have 4 kgs to get down to my 'goal weight' and maybe an extra two for my wedding date! :smile: there are other programs like fitgirlsguide on Insta and a few others by I liked MB as the program is devised my nutritionists, dietitians, Drs consultants and fitness professionals. It's really sensible too! Good luck x
  • lemonychild
    lemonychild Posts: 654 Member
    Go to the success forum and you shall see plethora of them
  • katt22km14
    katt22km14 Posts: 6 Member
    victoria_1024 wrote: »
    I doubt you're burning 1100 calories doing the exercise you're doing. Maybe if you're heavy, you could be burning 500 but depends on how hard you're working out and how long. I do very intense workouts for an hour and only burn 200-300 in an hour. So you may want to reevaluate your estimated calories burnt.

    35 lbs in 4 months may be pushing it since it averages out to just over 2 lbs a week. I would personally aim for losing 1.5 a week instead of 2. You can eat more, which will keep you from getting burnt out too quickly. Longevity is important.

    I'm down 85 lbs in the past 14 months. I didn't exclude the foods I love from my diet. I kept my protein up. I exercised most days and ate back half of my estimated calories. It wasn't a race to lose the weight...it was trying to live my life in a way that was manageable forever.

    My workouts vary from light to moderate according to what I'm doing. I get up in the morningsame and have a cup of black coffee and do stretches, I go for 2 to 3, 30-45 min walks a day. I've been cycling for about an hour in the evenings every other day. And it may be wrong, but that'd just what my app says, I didn't say it was alway 1100, that's been 1 day, of the now 4 days that I've actually gone the extra mile to exercise. The other 2, one was in the 500 range and the other, 700. I have all day free, so I try to keep moving and not being a couch potato for long periods. And I am 212 and 5'8. My normal range is around 140.

    It's not the amount of food i eat, it's the type of food. When I say cut out sweets, I mean of my daily life, I'll have some from time to time, but they were an everyday thing for a while. And sweet tea, the sugar really cuts into my calories so I cut it out except once a week. I still have camamile tea, and unsweetened tea.

    Thanks for your advice, it's difficult not to want big results fast, but I'm determined to see this through to the final weightloss and the healthier lifestyle.

    Congrats on your weight loss!
  • katt22km14
    katt22km14 Posts: 6 Member
    Its not that I want 12-15 lbs lost per month per say, it's just what my app says. It calculates my fewer calories than weight maintenance plus calories burned from exercise. Today I had 1456 calories less than needed for weight maintenance + 586 from exercise.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    @katt22km14 Why are you using mydairynet when you could be using MFP for calorie counting, exercise logging, and chatting on the forum for free?
    With a diary on another site it will be difficult for people to give you any advice if you need it.

    I counted calories, ate and drank the things I liked in portion sizes to fit my deficit. Exercised for the health benefits.
    MFP helped me reach my goal and maintain it for over 6 years.

    Cheers, h.
  • size102b
    size102b Posts: 1,370 Member
    94k1oqw1rwd9.png
    4y51t31jx2tz.png

    Aged 43
    Lost 71lbs 6 dress sizes in 11 months
    On 1500 calories a day
    Lots exercise
  • katt22km14
    katt22km14 Posts: 6 Member
    size102b wrote: »
    94k1oqw1rwd9.png
    4y51t31jx2tz.png

    Aged 43
    Lost 71lbs 6 dress sizes in 11 months
    On 1500 calories a day
    Lots exercise




    You look fantastic!!! Congratulations!! You're hard work has paid off!
  • katt22km14
    katt22km14 Posts: 6 Member
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    @katt22km14 Why are you using mydairynet when you could be using MFP for calorie counting, exercise logging, and chatting on the forum for free?
    With a diary on another site it will be difficult for people to give you any advice if you need it.

    I counted calories, ate and drank the things I liked in portion sizes to fit my deficit. Exercised for the health benefits.
    MFP helped me reach my goal and maintain it for over 6 years.

    Cheers, h.



    I use the other diary because it's more user friendly. And congrats on the 6 years healthly
  • RedLipsRedDress
    RedLipsRedDress Posts: 125 Member
    Here is my advice on making this time different: don't overdo it and don't set a deadline for your weight loss. Believe it or not, there will be days when you can't exercise or when you can't eat right. At the beginning everyone is enthusiastic, sometimes so much that at some point they can't keep up, get discouraged and then quit. Don't quit. If you're feeling that today you can't keep up, try eating at maintenance. Don't rely on the calories you think you've burnt. There is a lot of good advice here on the forums. It has helped me a lot so far. Also the support from friends here. Can't say my story is a success story but I'm going in that direction and never looking back. Lost 40 lbs so far without going too crazy, just logging every day and eating between 1200 and 1500 calories almost all days. Sometimes I go over, sometimes I go over a lot... next few days I drink a lot of water and try to slowly go back to normal. Work out when I want to, don't work out when I don't want to. Taking it one day at a time... I have 26 lbs to lose until I reach normal weight. Honestly, I don't care if I will lose it in 3 months or a year. It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop. I have at least 10 or 15 friends on my fitness pal who were very determined but gave up. Some of them lost a family member, some of them have problems at work, others had injuries. These things happen. You have to be prepared, think about why you failed a million times before? I have, too. My top reasons were: I don't have money, I don't have time, I haven't slept well in months, I don't have energy, I'm stressed, I'm sick. These still occur now and then. Plan ahead how to deal with problems and excuses. I hope this helps. Good luck.
  • katt22km14
    katt22km14 Posts: 6 Member
    helenapanda wrote: »
    Here is my advice on making this time different: don't overdo it and don't set a deadline for your weight loss. Believe it or not, there will be days when you can't exercise or when you can't eat right. At the beginning everyone is enthusiastic, sometimes so much that at some point they can't keep up, get discouraged and then quit. Don't quit. If you're feeling that today you can't keep up, try eating at maintenance. Don't rely on the calories you think you've burnt. There is a lot of good advice here on the forums. It has helped me a lot so far. Also the support from friends here. Can't say my story is a success story but I'm going in that direction and never looking back. Lost 40 lbs so far without going too crazy, just logging every day and eating between 1200 and 1500 calories almost all days. Sometimes I go over, sometimes I go over a lot... next few days I drink a lot of water and try to slowly go back to normal. Work out when I want to, don't work out when I don't want to. Taking it one day at a time... I have 26 lbs to lose until I reach normal weight. Honestly, I don't care if I will lose it in 3 months or a year. It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop. I have at least 10 or 15 friends on my fitness pal who were very determined but gave up. Some of them lost a family member, some of them have problems at work, others had injuries. These things happen. You have to be prepared, think about why you failed a million times before? I have, too. My top reasons were: I don't have money, I don't have time, I haven't slept well in months, I don't have energy, I'm stressed, I'm sick. These still occur now and then. Plan ahead how to deal with problems and excuses. I hope this helps. Good luck.

    Thank you!! And you are a success story! 40lbs is a big accomplishment. And I agree, there are things that get in the way and you can't exercise or work out. But no need to let a bad day halt progress. And 30lbs in 4 months would be amazing for me, but I'd be happy with 20.. even 15. It's not a deal breaker if I miss that mark, I just want to push. I miss being a size that it didn't hurt to run, I've always loved to run.

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