How long did it take you?

Sammileann1314 · July 2020

To hit that goal weight.
For example, If you wanted to lose 50lbs by losing half a pound a week would it take you a little over 2 years?

Was it quicker or slower than MFP predictions?

Lietchi · July 2020

I chose a weight loss rate of 0.5lbs per week.

I've lost weight a bit quicker than that, partially because I sometimes went a bit below my calorie goal, but even when taking into account my actual calorie deficit (combining my calorie intake from MFP and calories burned from my fitness tracker), I lost weight a bit quicker than expected: 44 lbs in a year.
Could be because I overestimate my food intake when I eat out, or because my tracker underestimates how many calories I burn - whatever the reason, I'm quite happy with my progress.

Jthanmyfitnesspal · July 2020

You can think about what calorie deficit you are willing to live with. For me, a 25% calorie deficit represents almost exactly 500kcals (out of a TDEE of 2000kcals), and it just happens that a 500kcal daily deficit leads to approximately 1 lb loss per week. You will certainly notice a 25% daily deficit, meaning that sometimes you will be legitimately hungry, but I have lived with it for months at a time. (And I'm a big wimp.)

Also, consider that we are talking about an average deficit. If you set up MFP for the 1lb loss and there are certain days that you just can't stick to it, allow yourself the extra ~500kcals. There's always tomorrow.

Keeping control of your weight and fitness is a life-long endeavor. Best of luck on your journey!

MidlifeCrisisFitness · July 2020

~40 lbs - 4 years. But 2 years were more serious on eating. So probably 2 years would have been enough with the right attitude.

Shortgirlrunning · July 2020

It took me about 6 months to lose 50 lbs (which was not all the way to my goal weight). Then I lost focus and took basically an entire year off and gained about 10-15 lbs back. Got back on track this March and have since lost 20 lbs and have 10-15 lbs to go. Staying on track I should easily reach my goal by the end of the year. So I guess 2.5 years?

It wasn’t a linear journey for me and that’s okay. It’s a marathon not a sprint and I don’t need to reach my goal as fast as possible. And I think putting any kind of deadline or time expectation on your weight loss can be stressful and discouraging at times.

The MFP predictions are total *kitten*.

NovusDies · July 2020

MFP weight loss projections are worthless.

Mine are a little more realistic, at least for me.

If I am trying to lose 1 pound per week to figure out where I might be in 26 weeks I multiply 26 by .88 so I would likely lose a little under 23 pounds.

Why not 26 you ask?

I do not live in a fairy tale where my life becomes easy to manage just because I have decided to lose weight. In addition there will be holidays, special events, and vacations during which I will want to eat my maintenance calories.

If you are just starting you should probably also consider that it may take a month or more to get into your groove where you are logging correctly and you have your hunger mostly controlled.

I would advise not worrying about weight loss and focus on the daily process that allows it to happen. Make it easy and sustainable and weight loss will be the bonus prize.

missyelainious · July 2020

I started Noom in January, lost 20 and then joined MFP in March and lost 15. I'm 2lbs from goal now! So, I would say 8 months, 35lbs. Focused mostly on food as portion control was my issue. I've always eaten healthy foods and exercised, was just eating too much.

It's all about forgiving yourself when you slip up and getting back on track the next day. I weigh in every day because that way I could get used to fluctuations and not get down if I didn't lose. It's been a journey, read a lot and try new things. I NEVER thought I would do Intermittent Fasting, for example, but I tried it out and it really worked well for me.

I started out pretty aggressive at -2lbs per week and was eating 1200 calories so lost pretty fast all things considered, but 1200 can be kind of rough. I started increasing as I got closer to my goal.

playhardkf2017 · July 2020

I started in mid April at 126.2 and I'm down to 116.4 now. It has been up and down due to water weight, some food splurges and all that jazz. My goal weight is 110. I don't really want to dip below 110 but would love to work on my composition once I hit that weight. I'm already much more comfortable with my body at my current weight. I have a decent amount of strength and muscle, so the further weight loss will help define it.

When I was 126 I just felt "fluffy" and puffy all the time. I'm 5'2" and only burn about 1480 calories a day when I don't exercise, so my weight loss calories are set at 1200 or about a 1/2 pound loss per week. If I don't exercise on the weekends I'll eat 1400 calories, because I usually feel hungry with only 1200. So I try to exercise 5 days a week so I can eat about 1500 calories and feel like I'm not depriving myself by having the larger volume of food allowance (depending on exercise calories burned).

Also, in the beginning, I lost faster because I wasn't eating my exercise calories and soon learned how hungry that makes you. After I started eating the exercise calories, I lost a bit more slowly.

rockconner · July 2020

In the last 6.5 months I've lost 86#, the first 58# with WW, then 28# with MFP. I switched because MFP adds up the calories, macros, some micros, etc. WW only adds up points.

Duck_Puddle · July 2020

By straight up math, I should have been at goal weight like 7 years ago. I’ve been at this since December 2011.

But I don’t live in a vacuum.

Life happens.

I got injured (several times). While one doesn’t need exercise to lose weight, I struggle to eat less than an average of 1600 calories a day-which is what I burn being sedentary (meaning more mobile than when injured).

I have had medical issues-including multiple surgeries and a miscarriage (which was both a medical and emotional struggle).

I quit smoking, split from my partner of 20 years. While not a requirement for gaining weight-I can say that sticking with my calorie goal wasn’t exactly my priority during these periods.

My parents both died within a relatively short period of time-which included a great deal of time and effort spent with them in hospitals/hospice/courts/etc and nickel and diming my calorie intake to be under 1600 (to keep from gaining-never mind losing) wasn’t really a priority (and often times wasn’t even possible with the available options).

I’ve trained for pretty long endurance races where at some point in my training, I wasn’t able to complete my runs and workouts and eat in a deficit. So weight loss was purposely stopped.

I’ve gone on some once in a lifetime vacations where i tried some foods that were just about my entire calorie allowance-for that single food.

I’ve moved homes and done renovations where I did not have a kitchen available to cook.

I’ve lived in a pandemic and been fully quarantined twice and made do with the food I had available-even though it wasn’t “good”. Coupled with a smaller deficit than usual because I move even less than usual.

So...mfp has been telling me for years that in 5 weeks, I’ll be such and such a weight. Maybe someday I will be. I just keep going along and making the best choices I can, revel in how much better and more full my life is now (I was morbidly obese to start-now about 25-30 lbs over my eventual goal).

tuckerrj · July 2020

My original goal was to make it out of the "Obese" BMI category by dropping 45 lbs. with roughly a 500 calorie per day deficit. That took almost exactly 6 months. Only slightly more than 1-1/2 lbs. per week on average.
BTW - Everyone I've talked to states that weight loss is slower than MFP predicts.

MaltedTea · August 2020

tuckerrj wrote: »

BTW - Everyone I've talked to states that weight loss is slower than MFP predicts.

And the congregation said "Amen"

For various reasons, I tend not to mention any of my progress stats unless discussing workouts 🤷🏿‍♀️ That said, I started in December 2019 with Noom and then switched to MFP the next month.

I'm just over halfway to an arbitrary goal weight. That should happen by next spring (seeing as my weight loss is likely to slow down as I get closer to maintenance).

My vanity goal, though, is not weight but body fat percentage and I am ahead of schedule for that target (lower 20s).

The primary interest is getting cleared by my GP for not needing cholesterol meds. Ideally, that happens by the end of September when I next see her.

So, TLDR, all things remaining equal that means it took 9-10 months of focused effort to get to a clinical goal and it will likely be 14-15 months to get to a vanity goal.

paulwatts747 · August 2020

I needed to lose 37kg to get out of the obese category (from 141kg/186cm age 65 male). I've lost 17kg, so almost half way. This has taken a tad over three months. Expecting the remaining 20kg to be much slower.

missyelainious wrote: »

I NEVER thought I would do Intermittent Fasting, for example, but I tried it out and it really worked well for me.

Exactly my experience. I do 16 hours a day, sometimes more. It really helps maintain the calorie deficit and its not at all difficult.

jenilla1 · August 2020

I lost a little over 20 pounds in about 5 months. I'm a very consistent person with hitting my daily goals, and when I have a plan I stick with it, so my weight loss was almost exactly on par with what MFP predicted. I didn't mind it taking that long because for me this was a permanent lifestyle change, so there was no rush. It's easier when it's gradual (IMO.) You don't have to be super strict and risk burning out. Slow loss also helps you develop healthy long-term habits, too. I've been at maintenance for going on 10 years now, since 2011, with no plans to stop maintaining my awesomeness, so the MFP method very much worked out for me. Good luck!

HeidiCooksSupper · August 2020

I'm losing at an average of 1.5 pounds per week but that is not to say it's been totally consistent. I've experienced plateaus and whooshes -- just not extreme ones because my life is fairly predictable and I'm too old for hormonal swings. I hope to continue this rate until I get down to overweight from morbidly obese. To continue at this pace, I will reduce my calories and increase my exercise as is SUSTAINABLE for ME. In other words, if lessening my calories too much or increasing my exercise too much makes it too difficult to continue without "falling off the wagon," I will reassess. I'll use my "passive-aggressive meter" as a warning device. When I'm unhappy, I get snappish, haughty, whiny and basically passive-aggressive. If I start harassing hubby, snapping at my whiny sister, or complaining to the cat, I'll take it as a warning I need to eat a bit more or exercise a bit less enthusiastically and lessen my weight loss expectations.

Diatonic12 · August 2020

Ooo Heidi, I'd like to stop by and take you for a pickup picnic. You're such a hoot.

It took me over 2 years to release 100 lbs. I didn't lose it because I have no intention of ever finding it again and again and again....

aimeetu · August 2020

Sammileann1314 wrote: »

To hit that goal weight.
For example, If you wanted to lose 50lbs by losing half a pound a week would it take you a little over 2 years?

Was it quicker or slower than MFP predictions?

For me it was on track (what MFP would say). I lost half about a week for a year and then steady declines over the next year to reach my goal. I've lost 43 lbs. Slow and steady wins the race.

Jthanmyfitnesspal · August 2020

My experience has been that if I faithfully follow the diet and carefully assess intake, then MFP is quite accurate for me. Of course, I am in every way the average white male upon which the ("Mifflin-St Jeor" among other) formulas were developed.

These formulas are based on measured TDEEs for a group of men and women and then correlated to their sex, height, weight, and age. People can definitely vary from this estimate on an individual basis.

If you want to pull back the curtain, check out

https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

mhassan160 · August 2020

Sammileann1314 wrote: »

To hit that goal weight.
For example, If you wanted to lose 50lbs by losing half a pound a week would it take you a little over 2 years?

Was it quicker or slower than MFP predictions?

Lost 51lb in eight months have 40lb to go!

annieu613 · August 2020

My goal was to lose 30lbs (175 to 145). I started on January 6th, and I've been hovering between 148-150lbs for about six weeks. Until then I was losing around 1lb/week, but I had some personal things happen in my life and I switched to maintenance for a while. Now that things are settling down again, I'm refocusing on losing weight, and I'm hoping to lose the last few pounds.

Jacq_qui · August 2020

Definitely Slower. I got stuck for over a month at the same weight and couldn't quite work it all out. Then when I finally got to my target weight and realised I was nowhere near what I wanted to be and actually I could afford to lose quite a bit more

So still going, although technically, I've altered the goal posts twice. I reckon I have another 6months of eating at a deficit, give or take birthdays, christmas and gym reopening/ finding a way to lift heavy at home.

How long did it take you?

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