192lbs to lose!

Hey there! I have one semester of nursing school left. It's been really hard doing that overweight!! I'd say surround yourself with as many people as you can that have health goals. Adding people here on mfp can be a great motivation! Good luck and congrats on graduating

My advice is learning to - or start making time for cooking. Home cooked meals are a great start since they're low in calories and are plenty more healthy for you.

Think I sent you a friend request. If not feel free to add me

Water fasting somewhere in this journey might be helpful.
Not extreme but will help.

Do what works for you. Don't try to lose too fast and find an eating and exercise plan you can stick with for the rest of your life. I have battled my weight my whole life but a year and a half ago I decided to get serious. I have lost 83 pounds on MFP and 20 before that. I have 10 to go. I started slow with exercise just walking because I was so out of shape. I still only walk but I take more strenuous routes and walk longer than when I started. Make sure you log all your food no matter what you eat. This is a process and in order to lose and keep it off you have to be able to live with it for the rest of your life. Throw away the idea this is something you are doing just till you lose the weight. When you reach maintenance you may get some calories back but you can never eat the way you did before. I feel great and my tastes have changed but it took a long time to get here. It was worth evey step of the journey. Every pound you lose will make you feel better. Take your time and learn everything you can along the way. Good luck!

basketballandpoker wrote: »

Water fasting somewhere in this journey might be helpful.
Not extreme but will help.

Fully agree. A lot of people demonize it, but I did it about 17 years ago. Healthiest I have ever been. I only recently started reading about it and learning even more about the benefits.



Keg61990, YOU have to want this. It's as simple as that. No one can do it for you and there are no shortcuts. It will be hard, but worth every drop of sweat and every counted calorie. If you really want it and can kick some a.s.s, keep reading! (of course you can)

Here's my story, hopefully you can gain (or lose.... get it? lol ) something from it:

I had been overweight all my life until one day about 17 years ago. I was finally fed up enough to do something about it. That day I started counting calories, eating healthier and trying to run. I couldn't really run, so we'll more accurately call it "walking with exaggerated arm and leg movements". LOL I absolutely HATED running and I was embarrassed of how I looked and how slow I was so I would wake up at 4 am and do it before most people were awake. Little by little I got a tiny bit faster and went a little bit further. Even though I hated it, I knew it was good for me so I stuck with it. A few years later I was running 10 miles a day because I actually enjoyed it. Crazy! It becomes very therapeutic.

Within 6 months I went from 275# to 145#. I had never heard of counting macros, only calories, so that's what I did.

To lose 130 pounds that quickly, I ended up fasting most days and when I did eat, it was almost entirely vegetables, fruit, fish and chicken. It's always been known these foods are healthier for us, so that's what I ate.

Most eating days were only around 300-800 calories though with higher calorie days occasionally mixed in when I just couldn't function. I usually ate only one meal. I called it "Linner" (lunch/dinner) in the mid-late afternoon. I also drank tons and tons and TONS of water, which is critical for elasticity of the skin and also keeps your body functioning and keeps you full so you don't feel like you're starving. (do have to be careful because you can drink too much, but you can tell when you don't want to drink more). Some days I drank up to 3 gallons when it was hot as hell and I worked out for hours on end. Most days about 1-2 gallons though.

When I had a check up at the end of the diet, my doctor said I was healthy as a horse. She was impressed how fast I got into great health. So much for needing to eat a minimum of 1200 calories a day, most days I had zero. Never had loose skin and didn't get skinny fat (didn't get shredded either, but very athletic).

I kept that weight off for about 11 years.

After some injuries, getting older, lazier and eating poorly for a few years, the bad eating and inactivity caught up to me again. I realized my weight had ballooned back up to 267# and I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I didn't want to go on meds so I made an immediate change last July. Blood glucose numbers were consistently in the high 200's. Now I am generally between 90-105 with very little fluctuation even after eating. I'm 193# now with about 30 more pounds to drop. Can't kick my hiney/work out the way I used to, so I've had to focus more on nutrition with light exercise/weight training.

In any case my point is, weight loss is energy in, energy out. Very simple. You can lose weight eating twinkies if you cut calories (it's been done). The real question though will always be: Are you healthy?

If you want to be healthy, take in clean fuel (whole foods).

In this last year I have used LCHF, LCHP, and now I go with 40%C, 25%F and 35%P....it all works! The only part that really matters is that you have a caloric deficit and try to eat real food not processed garbage.

I am now committed to make sure I'm healthy forever, not just skinny. So I will always focus on clean, whole foods.
The bulk of my diet is leafy green salads and a mix of vegetables (eat the rainbow of veggies and fruit), I especially like raw broccoli, after veggies comes a lot of venison, fish, chicken, nuts, seeds and homemade peanut butter and jelly. (I make it so I control whats in it)

Remember, even though it can taste amazing and be a real treat, food is nothing more than fuel. If you want to be truly healthy, take in clean fuels. Don't get wrapped up in high carb or low carb....a lot of people demonize carbs now a days, but it's all about the source of the carb. Eating tons of carbs can be great, as long as it's NOT in the form of simple refined sugars, especially while overweight! That's a recipe for type 2 diabetes. Ask me how I know. lol

If God forbid you have or get diabetes, you can get rid of it by fasting and eliminating processed garbage. I'm not the only person to do that, people far worse off than me have done the same. Meds are not the answer.


To promote fat loss and stabilize my blood sugar I now fast 22-23 hours per day. Around 6pm each day I have an hour (sometimes two) window of eating and I stuff myself with clean fuel until I don't want to see food again that day. It's extremely difficult to get calories over 2000 doing this and my weight goes down almost every single day. Most days I take in around 1000-1300, but take in over 2000 when I weight train.

A 16/8 schedule of intermittent fasting is a great start if you go down that road. I think it's a lot easier to control your calories (and macros if you care) on 1-2 meals than 3-6. I also like to eat one big meal because it makes me satisfied. Eating numerous small meals never works for me. Once I eat, it triggers hunger and I can be ravenous. So I end up overeating the rest of the day. This way I just gorge myself once and don't want to see food for a week. I'm honestly never even hungry by the end of the day but it's a nice mental reward to eat.

As for water fasting, some people act like you're killing yourself, but our bodies are way smarter than that. If you're very overweight, you have fuel/nutrients stored all over you. Your body stored it there during times of excess for times of famine. You've lived in the excess, time for some famine. With fuel stored all over your body, you really don't need to keep filling the tank. Start off slow though. Don't expect a 10 day fast your first time. Start with
a light schedule of intermittent fasting first, then try a 24 hour fast, then a 48, etc. Break them up. I like doing a 2-3 day fast once per month now.

Should you embark on fasting or even intermittent fasting, please be sensible, careful and have someone keep an eye on you. At minimum take your Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose and Resting Heart Rate before you start and every few days. Our bodies are pretty good at self-regulating (homeostasis) but if you don't feel well or numbers get bad, break the fast with small easy to digest meals. The ultimate goal is always health, not smaller jeans, they are merely a byproduct.

We reach our goals by crushing obstacles and embracing defeats. There will be setbacks along this journey, they should only motivate us to work harder! We never lose if we never give up!


YOU CAN DO THIS! Kick a.s.s!!!!

Add me! I just had gastric sleeve surgery 3 weeks ago and have 100+ pounds to loose. I too have gone through bouts of loosing and gaining large amounts of weight several times in my life but with some health issues, this time I had surgery. I'm just beginning ... so we can do this together

Ok so this is ALL new to me but I am ready for a change!

I am at my all time high 341.6 (lost 6 pounds in the last month). Over the last year I have gained 39 pounds...I want to cry right now! I want to get down to at least 200 (220 would be good too). My issue is 14 years ago I was involved in a bad wreck that broke my ankle (I have a plate and 8 screws in my left ankle) and broke my femur (a rod there). Working out is hard...I know if I lost weight the pain would go but after a few days of a simple workout (biking and treadmill in a gym) I am so much pain...I try to push through but the pain get so unbearable I just want to breakdown! I have no one that wants to consistently work out with me to push me (my son has gone with 2 times in the last month. My family tries to encourage me but I hate always going alone.

I truly feel if I set lower goals like get below 300 then aim to get to 275 etc is better then saying I have 141 pounds to lose...I think that is why I give up so easy too! I know losing the weight is possible...I just sometime wish it would happen faster or something would happen so I can see the work is paying off!

My heaviest was over 350lbs. I say over, and not an exact number because my scale only goes to 350.
I had to overhaul my lifestyle. Diets don't work, they really don't. You have to change in order to change. It's not that hard once you get started.
At first it will be difficult, but give yourself one month of learning how to eat correctly, then eat correctly. 30 days will turn a change into a habit. Then do the same for working out, 1 month. You will develop the habit of working out. At first I was nervous about going to a gym, after two days I realized - no one cared. No one stared, no one judged, people go there for themselves.
I am currently at 188lbs and at 28% bodyfat. I went from a 3X to a 31 in juniors. It just takes time and persistence.