It's September. Did you lose weight in August?

Oh and to answer your other question, my goal to lose weight and become more fit is very important to me. I try not to obsess, but it’s definitely my primary mission in life right now. For the most part, I'm enjoying this whole process.

Yes I lost 12 lbs in August and around 10 each month before that. Ive been losing around 10 a month for over a year and a half. Focusing on being active (mostly walking my dog), eating clean and in calorie deficit. I started out quiting alcohol 100% but after I lost my first 100 I started allowing myself to have an occasional drink which hasn’t impacted my results. Big reason for that is that during the year it took to lose the first 100 I learned a lot about how to protect myself from temptation (eating good clean protein rich food at regular intervals is key for me) and I also started to enjoy feeling comfortably satiated rather than stuffed. Also I broke my addiction to sugar. I still want the candy, I just don’t buy it. Sugar free gum helps me at night when cravings hit. Also halo ice cream has been a wonderful discovery for me 😋

I lost about 15 lb in August, probably a bit more - I started tracking end of July and didn't get on a scale until August 6th. August 6 to 29th went from 215 to 200. I've been sticking to 1200 calories (with the occasional but not frequent over day, mostly around socializing) and sometimes eating back a bit of exercise calories. I've also had a good handful of days when I underate - in the 800-1000 range. I've walked a lot as well, hitting 10k steps (about 5 km) most days and sometimes much more, and have done a fairly relaxed Yoga class a few times a week and went in to swim or lift a few times.

That's obviously too fast a loss (though I attribute some to the early 'whoosh') and not a sustainable way to go about anything. My excuse is that this is my first month in a new country, starting at a new school. I've been getting my bearings, exploring, walking a lot, getting lost, not figuring out where to get groceries, getting overwhelmed at an American supermarket, etc, and didn't really have a routine of any kind (or much of a social life) until school stated last week.

There's also a bit of a process of personal re-invention going on in my head, I think, so a predeliction for lots of wandering and somewhat calculative, anxious planning, and taking control by tracking various things. So calories and food and exercise, but also my classes and my grades and my spending and my productive time-use and so on...

In the past week I've been making an effort to dial it back and not get carried away. I deleted most of my daily and weekly exercise goals - steps, workouts, distances, etc - and am just down to a fairly moderate 14,500 weekly calorie target. I'm also trying to lessen my exercise time, so do actual exercise sessions - go swim, do yoga, lift - that are more interesting, challenging and actively fitness-building rather than just accumulate hours of walking for calorie burn. I was at 12.5 'movement time' hours last week (wouldn't quite call all of it 'exercise'), and as of this Saturday morning at about 9.5. So I'm not going to go swimming today as I had planned, for example, because I've hit my calorie goal already and don't want to go over 12 hours for the week (and get it even lower next week after and so on).

I'm going to go on a 10 day diet break after 40 days tracking, (which was the initial plan) so that's next week, and I will raise calories slightly when I come back. I've also taken advantage of my university's free counseling option and tentatively getting into a loose (maybe not weekly, but roughly monthly) therapy routine, where I'm hoping to address some of this tendency to obsessive behaviour.

Anyway, so, as you all know, losing weight is closely tied to a lot of other questions of personal well-being, motivation, self-perception, anxiety, sense of control and so on. So I arguably had a successful August, but maybe especially in taking steps to make it sustainable rather than just in losing weight per se.

April loss: 7.3lbs (4.6%) <--- crossed into overweight BMI
May loss: 6.9lbs (4.6%)
June loss: 7.4lbs (5.1%) < --- stomach bug at end of the month
July loss: 5.2lbs (3.8%)
August loss: 3.1lbs (2.3%) < --- crossed into normal BMI, reached goal weight.

Total loss: 30lbs (19.3%)

I started in Feb working out but didn't start MFP until April. I try to log every day. Losing weight was important to me, I have 3 children and I didn't want to bring on health issues that would keep me from being there for them as long as possible. Not just being there, but being active in their lives and setting a good example of health for them.

Logging my calories is extremely important to me because I'm still breastfeeding so it's a fine line between eating at a deficit and harming my milk supply. Also, I eat a lot of protein because I lift weights. I lift weights for some of the same reasons I lose weight, to be healthy for a long active life with my kids. Also to look good.