100 lbs and Plus without surgery

I have lost 30 lbs and still have 170 lbs to loose...I am not sure if I can do it without surgery BUT going to give it my best shot.

I am doing it because I want to be healthy for my son.

I love the freedom of cal counting xxxc

I did it. Persistence, patience, realistic expectations. Low and slow. It's a long game. First it takes a long time to lose the weight, and then the rest of your life to keep it off.

Today is my 995th day on MyFitnessPal.

I lost 100 pounds since my heaviest, well I guess now 95 pounds now since a couple of bulk/cut cycles. What worked for me to lose it (and to keep it off the past few years) was to realize the best way to lose the weight was slowly and in a way that would require the least amount of change to my daily life. I focused on making small changes that were sustainable for me and didn't worry about any special diets or quick fixes. I also had to realize that no one else could motivate me to lose the weight and that I would eventually lose motivation myself. I prepared myself for that moment the motivation would fade by strongly ingraining new habits and practicing the willpower to just do it even when I didn't want to.

ive lost right around 100. all through calorie counting. i used to exercise almost every day but 'life' makes that near impossible now, but im still losing on a deficit alone.

I have several close family members who have had gastric bypass with varying success and terrible long-term side effects, and I know that I am just not strong-willed enough (or medically compliant enough) to go that nonreversible route.

I started with 102# to lose. I'm down 34# since my highest weight in November of 2016, but I have only been seriously logging every day for the last 211 days, and just added exercise in the last 3 months. Now I run 3x/week with C25k for my heart and lift weights 3x/week for my bones. I have a reasonable calorie goal and am usually within range and never feel deprived because there are no "bad foods". I'm averaging 0.75#/week loss. It has finally clicked with me that slow and steady will help me be successful in the long term.

150 lbs lost. I was motivated to do it without surgery because I know just enough about surgery in general that it scares the crap out of me if not absolutely necessary. I also read alot about complications after surgery and relapse rates. I figured if I could lose x weight to qualify for surgery, then I could lose the rest without surgery too. All told I considered surgery for about an hour.
To lose, I logged in MFP, kept within my calorie goal, and started strength training with a personal trainer because I was horribly unfit. I logged for about 3 month, 25 lbs, then tried without loggin. I continued to lose every month for 2 1/2 years, so I've never gone back to logging, except for a few days here and there if I wanted to check my macros or whatever. Now in successful maintenance for 1 year.
The most important thing I did, before my first meeting with my trainer, was decide that whatever changes I made would HAVE to be for the rest of my life, and that I would not do anything while losing that I wasn't willing to keep up forever.
The motivation to keep going is and was looking back at my progress pics to remind myself of where I was to begin with, and remember how awful I felt then compared to all things I enjoy doing now.

You know, seeing the posters at the local clinic of "bariatric surgery candidates" when they instituted the bariatric surgery specialty three years ago was one of the things that motivated me to lose weight. I was the same height and weight as several of the women in the posters. I was 270 lbs at 5'9".

Today I'm between 155-160 depending on the day and time of month. So averaging about 112 lbs lost.

Last time I went in, I saw their "before and after" posters. I've lost more weight than ANY of the bariatric surgery people featured in those posters have.

Also, my mom has successfully gone from 527 lbs to 300 lbs using MFP, and she's completely wheelchair-bound. She's working on getting down to 200. It definitely works.

That's 110 pounds and no surgery.

My loss used to be about 120 pounds a few months ago but I regained some. That's one thing you need to understand, setbacks aren't failures, they're learning opportunities and you just dust yourself off, take what you've learned on board and move on, for as many times it takes. The earlier you are able to catch any regain the better, but even if you happen to regain more than you bargained for, giving up is a worse option than moving on. Consistency is more important than perfection, and whenever you find something that makes dieting feel easier, add it to your strategies. Self-torture is not the point nor the norm in successful weight loss, no medals for that, and it's not a cop-out to do things that make it easier for you. You'll find yourself learning new strategies constantly, even years down the path.

Log everything you eat, even if you are having an "IDGAF" day. The simple act of logging makes you more aware of your intake and you may end up with a 3000 calorie day instead of a 5000 calorie one even without trying to consciously control it.

Don't use the scale to judge your worth, your body has a mind of its own when it comes to fluctuations, and how "good" or "bad" you are is not measured by the numbers on the scale. If you find yourself stalling or creeping up for several weeks, it simply means you need to troubleshoot and see where the extra calories are coming from, it doesn't mean you're "bad".

There will have to be a time where you need to accept that some things need to change for good, not just while dieting. It may make you feel sad or discouraged, I even went through a "mourning-like" phase because I realized I will no longer be able to just let go and eat everything every day in whatever quantity I want without thinking about how it would affect my weight, I can no longer be blissfully unaware. This doesn't mean you have to eat "diet foods" for the rest of your life, in fact that can be counter productive, but it does mean that there needs to be a permanent change in some habits and a degree of constant control over your food.

Every year you're not as heavy as you used to be is a success, even if you haven't lost as much as you'd hoped for. Remember that by simply not getting fatter every year, you're already a success story because most people keep gaining and few keep any lost weight off. Be patient and kind to yourself.

And finally, simplify. Don't get bogged down by details, at least not for a while. Weight loss happens when you eat fewer calories than you're burning, that's it. What you eat, when you eat, worrying about nitpicky details, all of that is not important. You will find your own groove of what and when to eat that makes things easier for you after a while, no need to force it, get tangled in the minutia, or jump from one fad to another.