100 lb to loose, new to this and lookin for friends.

Hi cherrycokehair and others,

I've never posted anything to any "social media site" but felt moved to share my story for the first time on this thread. You see I lost 120 lbs (270 to 150). And I tell you that not to brag but to tell you it is very, very possible and actually, in retrospect, it's not that hard. When people ask me how I did it, I answer "diet and exercise" (they always seem disappointed with that answer). Anyway, step one is to figure out how many calories a day you are eating. Log everything and be honest with yourself (lying to yourself is never good). Buy a scale and a good set of measure cups and spoons. Measure everything and log it all.

Step two is figure out a calorie count you can eat where you will lose weight. You see, you MUST eat less calories than you burn. That is the only way to lose weight. Period. The only reason you have extra weight is because you ate more than you burned. That's the bottom line. You can use the MFP tool to give you a calorie count that should work for you. My first number from MFP was 1800 calories per day.

Now, you have to learn WHAT to eat. I will tell there are two things you must eat - lean protein and high fiber. Fish, chicken, eggs, complex carbs, veggies. These things will keep you full. Eliminate ALL empty calories, you have no room for them. I was surprised how much I could eat with 1800 calories. It helps if you dedicate yourself to cooking/preparing everything you eat for the next year. This is inconvenient but it's the only way to really control what goes in your mouth.

Eating less calories than you burn will get you losing weight, but if you want to lose weight faster, start exercising. Start with walking. 30 minutes a day. Then work up to some kind of cardio (i.e. elliptical, jogging, biking, etc...). Now here is an important point. Start doing resistance exercises (i.e. lifting weights). If you don't do this, your body will start using muscle as fuel to make up the calorie deficit. And that is counter-productive to what you want to do - lose fat. Losing muscle will also lower your metabolism so you end up burning less calories per day (again, counter-productive). You want to do a combination of cardio and resistance training. Very important. And always remember this - you can NOT out exercise a bad diet. You must get the diet straight first. Exercise will accelerate the weight loss.

Lastly, on motivation, it's really not about motivation (you seem to have that), its about discipline. So, when you are offered empty calories, you have to get it in your head that "I just don't do that anymore". That's who you are now. Donuts don't temp me, I just don't do that anymore. Its the same as if someone offered me a cigarette, I just don't do that. If it isn't helping you meet your goal, don't crave it and feel like your denying yourself, just rule it out completely. I don't know if this will work for you but it is how I approached it.

Good luck.