How do you stay focused on your goals?

Your goal is to get to BMI 18.9. That is HARD. That was my goal. I'm 6 ft tall, female. I got down to 142.8 lbs (BMI 19.4) and maintained for about 8 months. The last few months on the way down I was very hungry. By the time I hit it, my maintenance calories were about 1,800-1,900/day.

That said, are you losing about .5lb/week? Are you losing more? If you're losing more than that per week AND you're hungry, your exercise could be making you hungry because your deficit is too large. Try eating back 50-75% of your exercise calories.

Since you're marathon training, be sure to fill up on filling, long burn energy sources like whole grains. Broccoli is also a great volume food with high fiber.

I'm entering maintenance now (which still requires motivation, but slightly different), but when I was losing weight, several things helped me to stay motivated. I looked through the success stories threads here, which were all inspiring. Additionally, I took progress photos of myself once every month or so, as well as my measurements, so that I could see the changes and progress that I made and keep myself on track. With respect to food, I've always kept food that I enjoyed in my diet, but in smaller portions and within my calorie goals. I try to eat mostly healthier foods, but ensure that I fit a 200-400 calorie snack or dessert into my calorie allotment most days. That helped me to stay motivated while still being able to enjoy treats every so often.

I set realistic goals, don't aim to be perfect (and don't feel guilty) and keep my eye on the long term prize.

I sympathize with what can be a grind of being in a "healthy weight" range and still trying to lose weight; I'm a 28 y/o 6'1" 174lb male trying to drop to sub 12% body fat before getting back to a lean bulk to add muscle. It can be hard to stay on the right track when hearing "Why are you trying to lose weight? You look fine!" all the time. A really useful tool I found was a spreadsheet from a reddit user that back-calculates actual TDEE from daily weight and calorie logging rather than estimating activity level and exercise calories. I struggled bouncing between 180-185 for like a year, started using this sheet in July where I could really dial in my deficit and have been steadily shaving weight, hit 173.6lbs this morning which is the lightest I've been since mid-2015. Google sheets link under "Step 1" section: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/getting_started.

Personally, I stay motivated by being a pretty vain individual and having found exercises/activity I enjoy. I was a pretty doughy and not excessively athletic growing up, lost about 30lbs at 17 and it really opened my eyes that I didn't have to be a paunchy nerd. I've always been a fan of superheroes/comic books and got into weightlifting a few years ago chasing that sort of physique and have really come to love working out that way. My wife is also a runner and she and I do 5/10ks together a few times a year and being lean helps me keep up without running all the time (which I'm not really a fan of). Effectively, seeing results motivates me to pursue further results and finding thing to do that I enjoy and solutions to eating in ways that satiate my cravings and hunger but fit within the framework of appropriate calories and is "good enough" for what I constitute is healthy eating works well for me.

Beyond motivation, fostering positive habits and structured discipline has been key. Little things like how we shop for food, habitually laying out workout clothes, planning meals ahead, getting to bed on time regularly, not carrying small bills/change for vending machines all make staying the course a little easier. I don't necessarily like setting my alarm for 4:30am to workout before work but I know I like the results when I do as that's how I can workout most consistently. I'm not one for looking at photos (either of me or for motivational). My wife and I have gotten into costuming as a hobby (I prefer not to use the term "cosplay") and wanting to do a character justice in portraying a superhero-esque physique has also been a positive motivating factor (no one wants to see Superman with love handles or a pear-shaped Captain America). We plan out a number of quasi-local events throughout the year we enjoy attending and which helps me stay on track, much like frequent races or competitions would.

Something important that I've learned is having a short memory can be an asset. Life events, special occasions, cravings and negative choices happen. Sometimes all I want is to pound a big burger, great pizza, several donuts, or an embarrassing amount of taco bell... and sometimes I choose to let that happen. As long as it doesn't become a frequent occurrence where it negatively impacts my efforts regularly, I'm ok with that. I make it a one-time choice, compensate with the rest of my day to stay within my allotment of calories if I can, and get right back to regularly scheduled programming. I don't beat myself up about it, nor do I call it a cheat meal or day, and it's rarely planned as I feel that can foster a negative relationship with food by using them as a carrot or reward for milestones and having an "on/off" or "behaving/misbehaving" dynamic.

Lastly, not to discourage your weight loss or training efforts, but a word of caution on half-marathoning based on my wife's experience: as you get deeper into your race training make sure you're eating adequately to fuel and repair your body. My wife trained for and ran a half marathon in 2016. She's never had any interest in tracking calories and is nothing short of the least metrics/analytics-driven person I know. As I watched her mileage increase I kept encouraging her to eat more, particularly more protein (which I don't think she eats enough of on a regular basis independent distance training, but I digress). She halfheartedly added a protein shake here or there, mostly to shut me up as any spouse would and I didn't press the issue as I knew I wouldn't get very far. She successfully ran her race and even did so in a faster time than she anticipated. In the few weeks after the race she divulged that she was having discomfort in her thigh/hip. This was something she had been dealing with in the weeks leading up to the race, chalked up to the increased mileage, and wasn't about to not run her half marathon. Though now she was concerned that it was still bothering her despite taking a few weeks away from running altogether. A visit to the orthopedist and subsequent MRI revealed a stress fracture in the radius of her femur, just below her hip. Luckily this didn't require surgery or therapy but had her on no-weight for six weeks, toe-weight-only for a few more and a slow reintroduction to running. I can't say for certain that this was wholly caused by improper nutrition as she likely condensed her training window and added mileage too quickly, and doesn't exactly run with great form either (in my opinion at least). I think you definitely have a leg up on her since you're already tracking calories and have started upping your mileage, but I wanted to share nonetheless.

Good luck with training for your race!

My goal is simply a weight number. When I get there, I'll figure if I want a new goal.

If I eat at maintenance once every week or two, I'm okay with that. With my workouts, maintenance can allow me to eat the "crappy" foods on occasion. I try to save it until I'm REALLY craving them, and I generally end up making one meal work for 2, but as long as I'm at or below maintenance, and it's only on occasion, I'm not going to freak out about it.

Means I'm not losing as fast as I possibly could, but it does mean the occasional 1500 calorie meal won't kill all my plans, either.

Machka9 wrote: »

AutumnSkoog wrote: »

I'm currently on a weight loss journey, and have been since after Christmas. I want to lose 15 pounds, so I've been keeping to my 1,700 calorie plan (6ft female, 154 pounds) and I workout, cardio and strength, most days of the week, including 2-3 long run days because I am training for a half marathon in June (I'm up to 7 miles in the gym now). My problem is that I have days where I want to eat really bad foods. Yesterday I ate a double quarter pounder, 10pc nuggets, and a piece of cheesecake after 10pm.

What do you guys do to keep yourselves motivated to stay on track? Do you look at photos? Just trying to get some ideas to stop myself from eating huge amounts of bad food.

A ) There are no bad foods.
Well ... OK ... the yogurt we pulled out of the back of the fridge the other day ... the one we had forgotten about ... that was bad!

B ) I use MFP to choose the amount of calories I should be consuming and then I add my exercise calories on top of that. This means that during the week, when I'm doing little-moderate exercise, I have some extra calories but not a whole lot, so I have to stick to a certain selection of food a little more closely. But on the weekends when I do a lot of exercise, I've got more calories so I can do things like eat a pizza, go out for fish and chips or whatever.

For example, about 3 weeks after I started with MFP, I celebrated my birthday by cycling 60 km and then eating half a cheesecake.


What helps me stick to it are things like:

-- having a good, delicious selection of foods to eat during the week when I have to be a bit more strict about my calorie consumption.
-- knowing that I can eat different, somewhat higher calorie foods on weekend when I put in some extra exercise, so I don't feel deprived.
-- having those exercise goals. I just completed my very first 10K run event ... that was my first goal of 2018. Next my focus needs to be on cycling because I've got a whole set of cycling goals coming up. But then I'm looking at another running event in early September ... maybe even a half marathon!
-- weighing myself every day and getting to know my patterns
-- being able to fit in my clothes!

So much what the awesome @Machka9 said!

Good luck with your HM! Good training!

Losing 15 lbs when you're already a healthy weight is a looooong process, doubly so if you're doing lots of exercise. The runger is real! Slow and steady is the way to go.

The best way is by allowing yourself things you love.

I regularly run half marathons, and ran my first marathon in August. I couldn't have done that in a calorie deficit. I'm currently trying to adjust my maintenance weight slightly down, but only by less than 250 calories / 800 kj a day.

I eat chocolate and drink alcohol in moderation pretty much every day. Fun size chocolate bars are awesome. I don't buy big bags of lollies or M&Ms for example. Known serving sizes are your friend. An 800 kj chocolate bar is perfectly within the 10-20% of treats included in the healthy food pyramid.

Been maintaining nearly 2 years, after losing 80 lbs.

You ate "a double quarter pounder, 10pc nuggets, and a piece of cheesecake after 10pm"?

It doesn't matter what time you ate. The body burns energy 24/7. It doesn't speed up when you fly over the date line.

You might be starving yourself a bit much if you needed that size dinner and worried about it. I'd only eat that amount for dinner (having had breakfast, lunch, and race fuelling) if I'd done 30 km or more.

The best diet is one you can stick to for as long as it takes.

You're so close to maintenance, you want eating habits you can live with for life, with the intermittent tweaks maintenance includes.

I stay focused by remembering the reasons I joined my fitness pal. I log my calories that I ate and drunk. I log my excercise. Most importantly for myself, I decided to no longer see myself as a "dieter" but as an athlete (swimmer). That empowers me which helps me stay on track these days.