What was your final push to get serious?

I reached a point earlier this year where the number on the scale was the heaviest it had ever been. So I started getting up early, working out, eating right, etc... and the pounds started coming off. I took a trip to West Africa at the end of February and early March. (super carby foods, with irregular meal patterns as a result of our reasons for the trip, and I ended up getting off my schedule for intermittent fasting, and started eating outside my meal plan) For me - consistency is key, and this is something I will have to figure out going forward because life doesn't always result in consistency.

Then when I got home - everything locked down as a result of COVID. I got super depressed. No workout schedule, started eating gas station taquitos and slamming energy drinks to the tune of 32 ounces or more a day. In August - I got on the scale just because, and not only had I gained back everything that I had lost during the first three months of 2020, I had gained 8 pounds more.

I was the heaviest I'd ever been at 346 pounds and I could see the eventuality if I kept going like this, so I opted to actually try MFP religiously. I'd tried the fads, tried the various things, and this time - I have focused for the past 14 weeks solely on CICO.

I don't know what is different about this time internally - but it is different, and I can feel it somehow. I'm driven, and will accept nothing less than victory.

For pretty much my whole life I thought I'd always be heavy. I had one period where I achieved some success but life derailed that. This time I was spurred on by a really lucrative weight loss contest. I already knew I was pretty much as heavy as I'd ever been, and I was having trouble doing things like getting up off the floor or walking across a large parking lot without over heating. Since I stood to win a few hundred dollars in the contest, I used it as a motivation to start losing.

One of the things I did that really helped me stick with it is I looked at all my reasons for failing previously and planned around them. I made plans for what I would do in all kinds of circumstances, and I started looking at the emotional reasons for failure. I used MFP daily and got a food scale. I also had backup from the spouse since I promised her half the reward money if she helped me. She would have helped me anyway I'm sure, but the money made me brave enough to ask. (I have issues with prioritizing myself.)

That kick start, and the fact that the contest was a three month event, really helped. Then Covid happened and I started working from home. I decided to keep losing in case they delayed the end of the contest. I saw a lot of success and learned some things that helped me enjoy the experience of weight loss. Also my stress level went down working from home. So even when the contest was canceled and the entry fees were donated to charity, I kept at it, this time just for me. Now the spouse is working on losing weight too and we are supporting each other. I've lost a little over 80 pounds and my life is transformed. I have roughly 30 to go but I feel so much better.

At this point discipline is definitely part of it, but the sheer enjoyment of feeling better, enjoying the foods I make, and being able to be satisfied with smaller portions keeps me going. I crave veggies now, more than I ever craved grease. It's a funny thing but my body likes what I eat and how I move now, and it tells me so.

This is a really good, an important, question.

I lost down to my goal weight - and indeed 5kgs beyond - a few years ago, maintained (sort of: my monthly averages were creeping up gradually) for getting on for two years, then developed acid reflux and was put on a protein pump inhibitor and gained 2kgs within just a couple of weeks. Combine several months on that medication with a year's research leave with lots of conferences and no regular routine (and at best sporadic access to the pool and to both food and body weight scales), add in peri-menopause, and over the next couple of years I gained back most of what I had lost. By Easter this year I had lost back to the top of normal bmi, but put 8kgs back on afterwards, not helped by lockdown, to find myself the heaviest I have (I think) ever been. So back I came to mfp and logging my food and exercise instead of guessing.

This time I have done two things differently:
a) I have thought carefully about a sustainable exercise routine that I can do wherever I am and that does not depend on access to a pool. I am using Bodyfit by Amy workouts combined with a rowing machin, and I am really loving the fact that I have a much stronger core. Rowing works for me as I can't run due to problems with my knees, but I am also walking a lot more.
b) I have also really thought about approaching maintenance, trying to transition into maintenance by slowing my weight loss for these last few kgs, but also trying to work out strategies (warning colours on my spreadsheet cells) to trigger me to start adjusting my diet when I float back over the top of my maintenance range/towards the top of normal bmi rather than when I am hovering at the boundary between overweight and obese.

We'll see. I would love to be one of those people who can report that they have been maintaining for 6+ years and arefitter in the 60s than every before!

I'm a small woman (5'3") so even a little bit of weight on me has basically nowhere to go. Most of my adult life I carried too much weight but felt resigned to it, and my highest weight never got above 190 (still WAY too heavy for my frame). Well, I gained the "Covid 15" and then some, so recently I checked the scale and I was 207. I was deeply shocked and upset by that. That was my tipping point. I'd already been looking around for the right app/program, but that was when I decided to get serious and start with MFP. Feeling better (psychologically) already, after just 1 week. I know it will be a long slog, but at least I'm doing something now. Don't want to feel that way anymore.

I've only gained around a stone, the classic covid gain due to working from home in a high stress role, not earing right due to avoiding the shops and the gyms being shut since March the final straw for me was my riding jodhpurs being too tight to fasten comfortably and gaining the dreaded 4 boob effect in my bras. Vanity pure and simple.

My big wake up was when I couldn't fit into my "fattest" work pants, even leaving them unbuttoned with a large belt and long shirt to cover it up....

After that I dropped about 10-15 pounds, but at that point, I started to do a lot of up and down in a ~10 pound range, but still around 10-25 pounds from where I wanted to be. That said, I was more focused on my fitness at that point than my weight, and my fitness did improve over the next few years, even with a few too many "breaks" in there (but even then my breaks became a lot more active than they had been).

Now, my life is getting turned on its head again (thank you 2020), and I am positioned to either a) wallow, suffer, and be a victim of circumstance or b) take control of what I can, buckle down, and find that mental toughness muscle I seem to have let atrophy...

I've chosen b, and part of this is going to be getting rid of this weight once and for all and get back to where I should be (and where I was into my 30's). Started a program to help me re-discover that muscle (I've had it in the past, but really let it slide about 4 years ago and for various reasons, didn't re-engage with it, and am paying the price a bit now).

Hippie6464 - thought the same as you.
If I was going to pay for diabetic medication and having to take it daily - I see no reason why I cannot exercise daily and control my portion size. Too date I have lost 5lbs, small, but I can feel the difference and have no plan to stop.
Losing weight for me is slow as I do not have a thyroid, but it can be done - I lost 24lbs here about 4 years ago - this time I plan on keeping the weight off and keep the medication money in my bank account.

Long post sorry. But I think I needed to write this more for me, than for you to read all of it

Maintaining my weight has not ever been a priority for me, since I thought I had always been fat and would always be. So I gained and I gained.

A year ago I was burned out from work and other hard things we had gone through over the last few years, to the point I could hardly function and my business was doing very bad. After christmas came news of a serious brain injury of a family member with no hope to survive (he did survive, and now lives at a home trying to learn to speak and function again). Soon after came the virus pandemic that made sure my business would never have any hope again. So with all things spiraling to hell, me feeling absolutely sick, I was gaining weight by the day (I did not weigh myself, but I know). There was nothing to do other than wait, for the pandemic to stop and business starting to go better, for the said family member to wake after months of unconsciousness, for some miracle to happen that would fix our finances, for anything to happen really.

Then I got pissed off. That was the driving force

I needed to do something, so I started to clear out all the closets. I took everything out, threw more than half away and tried to organize the rest better. I went through every nook of the house, then moved on to the garage and storage outside.It was nice to work outside, and feel that I had done something with my body for the first time in ages lifting all those boxes and things. Then the thought grew that I had to take control of the things that still were in my own hands.

I took only small steps. I started working outside in the garden, I knew I didn´t eat enough vegetables so I kept a loose list of greens I ate in the back of my head trying to intentionally add more each day, that interest grew to keeping a list of things I ate- Not really trying to crop things off from the list, but adding all the stuff that was good for me. And as I added more and more vegetables, fiber, protein, nuts, lots and lots of water etc, some bad things just disappeared from my diet naturally. No room for them since I was full and not graving for them.

With small baby steps in the course of over half a year I am at the point that I take long walks several times a week, went to the swimming hall for a swim or to aqua jog couple of times a week before they closed them again, and even visited a gym half a dozen times. Now I exercise at home and there are signs that I am starting to get motivated with weight exercise. And I am starting to jog some when going out for a walk. I eat steadily 1850 cal a day with more emphasis on what I eat than trying to loose the weight quickly.

My goal is to eat as a 30 kg lighter and healthy person would eat, and I hope to get to be 30kg lighter and healthy after enough time has past. There is still pizza days and bites of chocolate every know and then, since that is the diet I know I can commit to for years to come. I am now down 16 kg, maybe more since I do not know what I was at my heaviest, and don´t really want to know. I am now in pretty good place, and I know that no matter what, I will stay on this course, because that is something I can control and it helps with all the other aspects of life.

I've been diagnosed for the first time ever in my life with hypertension, and I'm pretty sure at my last physical my annual bloodwork was borderline prediabetic.

I've been back and forth trying to rule out a thyroid problem for months, but I think we have officially determined that's not the problem (though I will likely seek out and endocrinologist still just for confirmation).

It is eye opening, and I am trying my best right now, but I am certainly struggling. I keep going back and forth with the same 2lbs of weight and cannot seem to get any further down at this point. I'm going to re-evaluate my plan and keep moving forward.

I went to a Christmas party on Saturday. It was a pajama themed party so I got a Santa onesie and I legit looked round like Santa. I put on a funny face for it but I was dying inside by how large I looked. I am serious this time. Gotta get this weight off. Stepped on the scale and I am the heaviest I have been since birthing my child.

I'm wearing out my recliner!

I spend too much time doing nothing but watch TV and play on my tablet. I gotta/wanna have a more active life but first I need new knees - - - so I need to lose weight and get strong before I schedule surgery (my self-imposed requirements).

TODAY - I decided this has to be the day I become more active in my own life! I mean, I should should be the star of my own life, right?! (movie?)

So - today is the day. I am going to tackle the every-growing 'to do ' list and make a difference in my day.

At the end of day, I want to know I was active in my own life and that I accomplished something - anything! It can be laundry, etc - just get out of the recliner and move!

Just so very tired of all that being overweight does to you. The limited clothes that you can wear but they don’t fit either, so they’re uncomfortable. Knowing you are 100% being unhealthy and allowing that which I believe adds to the insanity and keeps you eating more. I’ve tried for months in 2020 and failed. But about 2 weeks ago I thought what if you really try to stay within a calorie range, what if you really stop when you get in that range. What if you consciously buy healthy food and try. I can honestly say I feel better. After just 2 weeks! I’m not as hungry. I’m motivated about 50% of the time and when I’m not I sit with that lack of motivation waiting for it to pass, which it usually does. Water, coffee (decaf too) and gum helps. And if I cave,I log it which means less later so no freaking out. I do take one day off but I try to be mindful and while I eat more on that day, it’s usually just one very high calorie meal. And trust me your tummy will start to shrink, or your appetite and you get full faster so I pay attention to that and don’t go beyond. When I do on that cheat meal, I feel so uncomfortable after. Working out hard is maybe 2 x a week but daily I walk to my 10,000 steps and might go as much as 5-6 miles. The walking is amazing. Bundle up and let the fresh air fill your lungs. Btw I’m 5.5 and started at 164. So far 2.5 lbs down. My goal is 135-140 but right now my mini goal is getting used to this new way of eating and tracking daily. If I screw up I get right back on track the next day. Can I tell you that at night when I see my calories in goal range I am done and really proud of myself. And I’m not starving in the least.
Ok one more thing, I’m friends with only 1 person on MFP. She’s so so supportive and has lost 100lbs in a year so she knows what she’s doing. She eats different foods than me but what she does well is stay in her range almost all the time. She does allow a few days a month to eat in excess.
I was eating most every day in excess so I see this as a win so far. And hey I can’t predict the future but in short I can tell you I’m no longer okay with all that goes along with being overweight so I feel really like I’m going to do it.
Please reach out if I can do anything

first time...I had always just eaten because i was constantly hungry and shakey and just constant blood sugar crashes...Found out im hyopglysemic...just one day I decided to push past the constant hunger and blood sugar crashes and I ....felt better...went 2 days not eating feeling amazing for once. Decided to get on and focus on eating good stuff and less often and to practice working with my blood sugar levels.

I didnt want back on that rollercoaster ever again. Lost 110lbs. Got engaged to a meat eating chip devouring snacky man in a pandemic and moved...Gained back up to 145-150 range from my 130. Realized im not happy here I feel chubby and lazy and just bored and annoyed at feeling bad again. My weight limit i decided to allow was 150 tops and i was very close to hitting it. So this time around im loosely tracking calories and not really walking alot (this house is way more boring to walk around thn my old one, And aparently im now allergic to the sun so i focus on eating) mainly focusing on just good choices and feeling better and not gaining more. I know what calories look like from my time losing i mainly just have chosen to go back to the meals that worked best for me before. I cant go through the massive mental effort again as my lifes sort of hellish right now, And i dont feel good about it, But I can make better choices with my food. Thats something I can do.

My apologize for length, but others said, this was more for me than anything!

I almost didn't reply although I wanted to! I thought, how many times have you said "I'm serious this time" only to have my determination end by the weekend! I've been down this road, on day 2 so many times I can't count and I don't want to look back at my logging history to realize what that number truely is!

This week I had a follow up with my doctor so he would renew my cholesterol medication. It's been a year and he wanted to get new labs. As predicted, and I didn't spend 10 years in medical school, I'm old and fat! I was ready for the lecture, I had felt my cloths getting tighter, I had experienced the difficulty at bending over to tie my shoes, my back hurt from the time spent in the recliner!

He started by letting me know my blood pressure was high. The little nurse said I was "border line" (She's so cute), he countered that with, "we're going to put you on another medication". Yea, now I can get an extra meal a day by taken meds! We talked about what I was doing, or rather not doing. I made it sound like I was trying. In my mind I was. Smaller portions, which meant not "Biggie Sizing" my combo meal. I had been on the exercise bike 4 days a week (for the past 3 weeks in anticipation of the lecture). Then he hit me with the unexpected. "Have you ever considered weight loss surgery"? At first I was elated, FINALLY something to help. I had friends that had it and had some success. This was going to be the easy way out I needed! Bless him!

The next day, I called and requested the info from the clinic. They sent over some info as well as next steps. I started to research pros and cons. I read others experiences both good and bad and took the info and not the emotion. What I realized is that alot of people, have temporary success, but permanent implications! Some have had great success, but it came down to, you have to work and limit your portions. Additionally, WLS, would probably put greater restrictions that I may want to endulge in later in life. So, was it really the easier way? It seemed like just as much work, I just had to fix it in my head and not my stomach! I applaud everyone that has had the surgery, one size does not fit all, but I owed it to myself to try. They were going to limit me prior to surgery and post surgery, so why not see if I can do it without scars.

So here I am day two with a desire to succeed. I don't know if this is different this time! I don't know if this was my "Final Push". I sure hope so. I'm kinda betting my life on it!