Hi!

First time using this app as an adult. I used it when I graduated college and needed to lose some weight and it worked well. I went from 165 to 120 in about one year. That was well before you could sync your tracker and you had to guess how many calories you burned during a run or bike ride.

I am currently 155, wanting to get down to about 115-125. I've been in the high 1teens before and I thought I looked and felt great but it was hard to maintain. But I'd by happy with anything under 125 while allowing myself to live a comfortable life that does include brunch and BBQs once in a while.

I'm looking for friends who would like to support me during this journey. I'm an almost 36 year old woman who maintains an active lifestyle both with formal exercise and work, but I have an issue with overeating. I eat when I'm happy, sad, angry, tired, or bored. I eat when things taste good. I eat to celebrate good things. I eat as a way to relax. And I eat as a way to reward myself for completing tasks in my yard and getting thru long work days.

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    Hi, and welcome (back?)!

    With 20 or so pounds to lose, one of your options is to go for a slow weight loss rate (which can be a lower health-risk approach, besides), and let it take the time it takes. If you've gradually gained from 120 to 155 over a span of years, your average eating may not really be that much higher than your lower-weight calorie maintenance needs. (Ten pounds of gain in a year only requires about 100 calories daily of eating above maintenance, on average.)

    On the flip side, eating 100 daily calories below maintenance would result in almost 10 pounds' loss in year . . . if any of us could keep our error-tolerances in logging close enough to be sure we were hitting that, since it takes a long time to show up on the scale, amongst normal daily water weight/digestive contents fluctuations of a few pounds, that aren't fat but mask fat changes.

    So, the changes you need may not be all that radical. Personally, I felt like I got a lot of good out of treating most of weight loss as maintenance practice. (I lost 50+ pounds in 2015-16, obese to healthy weight, and have maintained a healthy weight since (up and down a bit within the healthy range). That was after multiple decades just over the line into class 1 obese.) It sounds like one area to work on would be finding other emotional outlets, self-rewards and that sort of thing . . . and some calorie-appropriate choices you can use occasionally in that picture, maybe, too.

    I'm kind of the worst-ever MFP friend (more of a Community forum gal), but I'm betting you can find a path that will be manageable *and* successful. Wishing you accomplishment of all your goals!
  • Thank you. Unfortunately my weight gain started in October 2019 so it was pretty drastic.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    So around 120 to 155, 35 pounds gain, in 20-21 months-ish? 35 pounds is roughly 122,500 calories, around 6,125 excess calories per month on average, say 204 calories per day over maintenance calories, about one serving of peanut butter, or a couple slices of normal bread (on average). Creeping weight gain is sneaky. Even a surprisingly small number of calories can lead to creeping gain of quite a large amount of weight.

    Same thing can work in reverse. If you can average a 250 calorie daily deficit, around 450 calories less on average than you've been eating, you'll lose 30 pounds in 15 months, approximately. Bigger deficit, faster loss. For only 30 pounds of loss, though, you might not want to go lots faster - maybe a 500 calorie deficit for a pound a week for the first 10-15 or so, perhaps? Useful to phase in some good long-term habits? Your call, though, obviously.
  • candysashab88
    candysashab88 Posts: 71 Member
    Same boat here friend me!