Over 200 - Where did you start?
dawn__westbury
Posts: 46 Member
Hi! I have around 100 pounds to lose 🤦🏻♀️ .. For those of you that have to lose or have lost a significant amount of weight, where did you start?
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Replies
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Start with small changes. You don’t need to overhaul your lifestyle overnight. I started with just tracking my food. Didn’t worry about eating super healthy or only home cooked meals. Didn’t worry about exercise. Over time as my changes became habits I would add new ones.8
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Started at about 160kg (352lbs).
Now 109kg (240lbs).
Will eventually get to 84kg (185lbs)
I started (and continue) by keeping it as simple as possible. I have 1 rule and 1 rule only.
"Most of the time eat fewer calories than I use"
That's it. I eat food I like (without moralising or judgement), track what I eat (as diligently as needed) and try to eat in a deficit most of the time.15 -
The first couple of weeks here, I made no changes to my diet at all. Spent that time getting used to weighing and logging *all* of my normal food as accurately as possible.
Once I had that basic data in place, it was fairly easy to see what the calorically 'spendy' items were in my diet. From that point, I slowly started making substitutions where I could (one tsp of sugar and a stevia in my coffee instead of 2 tsp sugar, for example), and cutting down on the portion sizes of my favourites.
It worked. Lost the 75 lbs I needed to without ever feeling deprived or hangry. That was 4 years ago.
Tl;dr? Get a food scale, make small, sustainable changes, take your time. Rapid weight loss rarely succeeds long term.14 -
Shortgirlrunning wrote: »Start with small changes. You don’t need to overhaul your lifestyle overnight. I started with just tracking my food. Didn’t worry about eating super healthy or only home cooked meals. Didn’t worry about exercise. Over time as my changes became habits I would add new ones.
This.
The goal is not to lose the weight but to have a process that you can stick to that facilitates weight loss. The more normal it feels the less you will fight it. Once you have your hunger under control the hardest part of weight loss is the mental battle.
If you are interested in losing weight in a sensible and sustainable way you are welcome to join the MFP Larger Losers group:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/133315-larger-losers
It is specifically for people who have 75 or more pounds to lose or people who started with 75 or more pounds to lose. It is also for people who started with that much that are done that wish to come by and support others in their quest to do the same.11 -
Start with logging your food. Every day. Good or bad. It's probably the single most important thing you can do to lose weight. As they say in business - what gets measured gets managed. Its the same with your health.
For my first 30 days, I only worried about accurately measuring and logging my food. Accurately measuring means actually taking out the measuring spoons and using a kitchen scale.
After 30 days of logging , I added a new healthy habit every month. This is what I did - you can decide what seems reasonable to you and tackle it in the order that will ensure your success.
Month 2 was increase my steps - striving for 10000 a day. You don't have to start there, just somewhere more than where you are now and increase your daily limit going forward.
Month 3 was increasing my water intake. I try to get 150 oz.
Month 4 was adding strength training.
Month 5 was limiting the total # of carbs I consumed. I chose 100 g. I also strove to limit added sugar to 30 g. and increase my protein intake to at least 100 g. a day. I don't worry so much about fat intake anymore, so long as I am under calories while limiting sugar and carbs. Some days I'm over carbs and sugar - you don't have to be perfect - 80% will do.
Month 6 was adding running to my workout - by then I had lost 65 pounds. I couldn't have run in the beginning, but you'll be surprised at what you are capable of doing after losing a bunch of weight. Your body is really strong right now whether you realize it or not.
I'm only 6 months into my 106 pound weight loss journey. Maybe month 7 will be getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night.10 -
Shortgirlrunning wrote: »Start with small changes. You don’t need to overhaul your lifestyle overnight. I started with just tracking my food. Didn’t worry about eating super healthy or only home cooked meals. Didn’t worry about exercise. Over time as my changes became habits I would add new ones.
This.
The goal is not to lose the weight but to have a process that you can stick to that facilitates weight loss. The more normal it feels the less you will fight it. Once you have your hunger under control the hardest part of weight loss is the mental battle.
If you are interested in losing weight in a sensible and sustainable way you are welcome to join the MFP Larger Losers group:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/133315-larger-losers
It is specifically for people who have 75 or more pounds to lose or people who started with 75 or more pounds to lose. It is also for people who started with that much that are done that wish to come by and support others in their quest to do the same.
Joined!1 -
These suggestions are terrific! I like the of idea of first starting to just log food (not changing anything else) to get in to that habit because logging can get tedious sometimes! Thanks everyone!!6
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Not sure what a "significant" amount of weight loss is, but I did start at 213 back in 2012. I'm now hovering around the 155 mark, still wanting to drop another 10 pounds ... someday. No real rush, I like the slow and steady method, I don't regain it again that way. But I totally agree with Shortgirlrunning and NovusDies, small things can make BIG changes. Logging food for a while can help you understand just how much you're actually eating, and that can give you ideas of small changes (3 cookies, not 1/2 a bag, 2 sodas a day not a 6 pack, etc) that you can make to lower your calorie intake. And don't forget, MFP remembers what you log, so things that you eat often will be listed under the meal that you normally eat them (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks) so you don't have to type everything in each time, just scroll down the list and click it. Takes some of the tedium out of logging your food.
Best wishes! 5 -
I started at 225 and I'm at 157. I will probably go until about 130 or 140. It's tempting to shoot for 125 just for the even hundred, but that would put me about 3lbs away from underweight.
I started with calorie counting, and that is still the main driving force. I have never aimed for healthier food unless I wanted it, I just ate within my calorie limit. Sometimes that felt low, so I got into step counting and eventually running, just so I could up my calorie goal.
It's pretty easy now that I've done it for a while. I know how many calories I can have if I complete my step goal and how many I can have if I have a lazy day. My Fitbit helps me stay on track because I like evenly hitting goals; I'll get up and walk just to not miss a streak.3 -
I started by using Nutrisystem. Added in a lot of walking after a couple of months. Worked for me.1
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I started last January at 273 lost about 48 pounds and gained it Back until I reached 253. I restarted end of September this year and lost 33 pounds. I now weigh 2206
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Shortgirlrunning wrote: »Start with small changes. You don’t need to overhaul your lifestyle overnight. I started with just tracking my food. Didn’t worry about eating super healthy or only home cooked meals. Didn’t worry about exercise. Over time as my changes became habits I would add new ones.
^So much this. Many of the people who started out when I did are long gone and most of them had one thing in common, an all or nothing approach. They were only going to eat kale salads and chicken with no dressing, and go to the gym no less than two hours a day. A good portion of those still here and going strong started like I did with small changes over time that were sustainable to them. There is no one size fits all plan other than start with baby steps.3 -
In the past when I started here it was how quickly can I lose the weight? I changed everything all at once, got burned out, a holiday or vacation came up and then I was just done. This time, I have started small and keep making changes once I am comfortable with my first changes. My first few weeks was just logging, then I made sure I had the correct numbers of servings of fruits and veggies. I actually gained a few pounds in my first month. I started walking - goal was just to meet or exceed the previous day's walking slowly increasing to around 9k steps minimum. Then I started reducing the amount of fat I was eating (boy was I eating a lot of chicken wings!). Then I added the exercise bike. Now I am starting to run. I am going to get back into weights soon. The important part is that I have plans for holidays and vacations. I took a maintenance break for about 3 months over the summer - just kept my weight in a 10 lb range. Now I am back to lower calories and losing the weight again. I still have wings, just not a few times a week now. I have lost 40 lbs and am still going.4
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Another great place to get support is here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10774013/women-200lb-lets-double-down-this-december#latest
It's an open group discussion on the forum. A new one starts every month. Its a place to list your monthly goals, check in for accountability, share success stories, ask for help, receive encouragement.2 -
lots of great comments here!
I started at 263, and am currently at 211 (52 lbs down) with another 50+ to go. I only wanted to add that it's important to be patient, both with yourself and with the process. I've been at this 6 months, and I imagine it'll take at least that long--if not longer--to get to my goal. and that's ok! there's a lot of life to live and enjoy along the way. try not to let the inevitable bumps in the road get you down, because you can always keep moving forward.
the thread @speyerj mentioned is great. I've found it's useful to have weekly check ins to track the process, and there are a lot of supportive ladies there. and! the group @NovusDies pointed out is wonderful--lots of useful info from others working through a large amount of loss.1 -
Start with having or finding a surefire and personalized only for you reason/motivation/inspiration for doing it all in the first place. With me [I started at 281 lbs in May], it was having hip replacements in January and April. The resulting new movement, mood and fear of being miserable and immobile again has propelled me ever since. As with rehab from the surgeries, I began my journey slowly, only doing what I was able, then adding and adjusting little by little. When I started getting better with walking, I spent weeks adding literally 15 seconds a day to my treadmill time. It wasn't until August that I (re) signed on to MFP. With that plus increased and more consistent exercise, I began to see results. My last weigh-in came in at 240 lbs the day before Thanksgiving. Unless medically required, try not to become scale obsessed. Sometimes I will let weeks go by without stepping on scale being more comfortable and secure with what I'm doing than I have been in a long time. Verify any advice offered especially in these threads to be certain that it's viable and right for you. What I or anybody posts here that works for us might not, or will be bad for you. Just be sure. Best of luck.1
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I agree with so much of the advice given here.
I started out a little over 300 lb and lost about 45 lb VERY slowly (mainly through exercise and stabs in the dark at what I hoped was healthier eating). I've used MFP for 6 1/2 years now, to lose about 90 more pounds and have maintained the loss. I still track my food 90% of the time and find when I stop, I will slide back into old bad habits.
For me a lot of the really helpful stuff in the beginning was just having a mindset that this will work and it may be slow but it's going to be consistent good progress. Then it actually "worked" a lot more quickly than I ever expected. I set small goals for myself instead of trying to focus on the final number on the scale. For me that was an excellent idea. I feel like going from say, 270 to 220, felt like such an accomplishment and even if I never got to 160-170 I would still feel like a success. Then every subsequent lower goal was just another "win"!3 -
Started at 215, currently maintaining at 110-115.
Just consistently eat within your calorie goal. That’s the only thing that causes weight loss; no need to complicate it more than that.0
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