The Fight of my Life -Update WaistBasket

You know, it takes a while to figure everything out and find your way. There's nothing shameful about it. Yes, it's going to take time. Time will pass anyway. You choose. Congratulations on your loss. It sounds like you're pulling out all the stops to change your WOE and correct it. That's a good thing for your future. Keep going and don't give up--no matter what.

Its never fast enough I started at 367 barely able to walk around the block and at 60 my BP was starting to rise and then one day I decided I had to change or face chronic problems and my Dr warned me I was prone to many things that could kill me at my weight. I took over a year to lose 80 something pounds and every day I was frustrated it wasnt fast enough. I kept with it and increased my exercise kept logging my food and eventually lost over 170 pounds and honestly became a runner. fast forward to last year and I am quarantined and slowly not running much and still eating I gained almost 30 pounds. Covid weight everyone says. I got fed up and rededicated myself and guess what even though I have done it before and I am losing weight. ITS NOT fast enough.
Stay faithful to your process and enjoy the losses as they come enjoy the health benefits understand your goals and it will happen. I am 73 now I run 5 days a week close to 4 miles a day and swim every morning 60 minutes 90 laps trying to get to 10 miles a week in the pool and the weight is SLOWly coming off again
good luck and congratulations on your progress

You're practical, honest, and down in the trenches slugging it out. Good for you. Keep at it, one step at a time. You're doing well.

And let yourself voice those feelings, but give yourself other messages, too: "I'm getting stronger, I'm doing better."

Congratulations on your loss and your decision to take control of your life!! You’re going about it the right way (weighing, measuring, seeing the dietician, and posting and logging here)...it all makes you accountable for yourself and your decisions. Don’t be ashamed (we all started somewhere!)...be proud that you made this decision and just stick with it. I started with Weight Watchers many years ago, struggled on my own for a long time, eventually found an online support group called iChange which helped me a lot. I first tried MFP in 2012 when I was still using iChange and when it eventually closed, switched permanently to MFP. So as you’re hearing from many of us, this is a process that requires commitment and patience...there’s no quick easy fix! You’re doing a good job, keep up the good work!

Going through this process now to be healthier, I have wanted to kick myself for waiting so long to get serious about it. Then I realized that it was a pretty useless exercise as it changes absolutely nothing. Instead I choose to feel good about the choices I am making today and every day to change my body for the better. That positive mindset helps keep me moving in the right direction.

25 lbs is fantastic!! It may seem slow at times but those pounds add up! 43 days ago I bet 25 lbs seemed a bit insurmountable but look at you now!

Congratulations on 25 lbs! I am also proud of you. I'm glad you're still here - I believe you can do it. In fact, I know you can, because you're already doing it. If you're a "shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars" kind of person, the goals you have set may serve you well. But, if you're like me and you get discouraged when your reality doesn't live up to your own high expectations, you may want to reconfigure a little bit. It's OK to set yourself up for success by setting more conservative goals - when it comes to weight loss, slow progress is good progress.

I so totally get the impatience, wanting to get to goal weight/become a New Me like yesterday, wanting it to go faster than it should. Cultivating that patience and focusing on the day-to-day choices that serve my overall goals has been my primary struggle, even 200+ days into this iteration of my journey. I say that not to discourage you, but to let you know you're doing it right. Some days logging, exercising, just doing so damn much THINKING about food, weight loss, my body, all of it feels like such a drag and I hate it. But I do it anyway. I can scowl and grumble and cuss the whole time if I feel like I need to, so long as I do it, whatever "it" might be (updating my diary, weighing ingredients for a recipe, packing my gym bag, getting up at butts o'clock in the morning to work out).

43 days of faithful logging is a huge accomplishment. Keep that up and the weight will come off, I promise you. The way to victory is to keep it up and never quit.

It is hard to be patient. And while 25 pounds is a lot, you probably aren't seeing a difference when you look in the mirror. But your body is feeling the difference. Next time you are grocery shopping try to pick up a 25 pound bag of dog food or kitty litter and try to carry it around for just a bit. It will give you an appreciation of what you lost.

Regarding shame, I know that feeling too. But you should feel so proud for coming here and making your post. That took courage and required you to look at those feeling of shame in the eye. And when you do that, the shame starts to melt away and you can go about the hard and important work of healing your body and mind.

This is a long process, and the habits you are cultivating today are ones that you will want to do for the rest of your life. So while I understand wanting to lose weight as fast as possible, don't try to white knuckle it and make yourself miserable in the process. Eating at a 1000 calorie deficit a day right now is plenty and if that is too difficult to maintain, drop it to 750 or 500. Whatever you need to do to achieve adherence 80 or 90% of the time. Adherence and sustainability is going to get you to your goals faster than speed.

Best of luck to you! We are all rooting for you.

***I am super glad to see you around AND very successful so far!***

It is not uncommon to see people start angry and push hard yet at some point down the road they disappointingly disappear once the scale (and/or life) throws them some curve-balls and they prove slow in adjusting their goals towards sustainability.

I want you to be here five years from now. Here and successful and posting your story to others about how you changed your life back in 2021!

Anger is good when it PUSHES you to TAKE ACTION. Will it serve you well to SUSTAIN action? You and your brain hamsters are the only ones who know how your brain operates the best!

My own brain hamsters have personal evidence to believe that sustainability of effort is incredibly important when it comes to losing weight (and maintaining your weight loss), and that's our mantra which we share!

15lbs * 6 months = 90lbs. Pretty good, right?
But 10lbs * 12 = 120lbs. I think you will agree that 120 is better than 90, right?
And 10lbs * 24 = 240lbs. So 240 is even better, right? But what shape (physically and mentally) are you in when you get to that -240? And what happens next?

Weight loss is not without any side effects. MOST are good, a few less so. The good is of course that you're getting leaner and losing weight and reaping health benefits galore. The not so good? Your body is all eager to accommodate a more normal weight when you first start losing... but it won't continue to do so forever... subtle changes will take place and the longer and larger the deficit the more likely it is that these changes will be more substantial and intense and will not be aiding you in continuing to achieve your goals.

So.... how about an even better(er) RESULT. Not a plan set in stone because I tend to think that you should aim for percent deficits levels at various times, percent deficits such that you are likely to get the results you want instead of directly aiming for results and judging your success by whether you see numbers reflected on a scale!

So let's try this for a sketch of a desired future result to try to create deficits that will bring it about...
15 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 8 + 8 + 5 + 5 + 7 + 7 = 110
and then 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 +7 + 5 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 60
and then 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 3 +3 + 3 + 0 + 0 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 35
and then 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0.5 + 0 + 0.5 = 10
and then 0 + 0 + 0.5 + 0.5 + 0 + 0.25 + 0 + 0 + 0.5 + 0.25 = 2
(consider the months interchangeable... I've added a couple of months of lower loss to accommodate vacations and holidays when many people eat closer to maintenance)

And all of a sudden you're 147 lbs in 2025 and in 2026 you're posting that you went on to try and lose 0.5lbs a month for the year... but maintained / lost just another couple of lbs and you're now at 145lbs happy as a clam and continuing to do what you've been doing the past few years with no intention of changing anything!

Keep up your great work. Keep examining everything and thinking things through. And please don't let your anger stop you from adjusting. Sustainability of effort is your friend!

Looking back a year ago, I too was suffering from debilitating arthritis in my knees. I couldn't walk without my cane and was slowly progressing towards a walker/wheel chair. My Orthopedic surgeon would not do any knee replacements unless I lost 100 lbs. On my next appointment 4/16/21, I had reached that goal. Did it happen overnight, absolutely not. I knew that I did not want to return back to the way I felt and looked. It took time, patience and learning to love myself to get where I am today. I still have 60 lbs. to lose (started at 319 lbs.) I have all the faith that you will be able to accomplish the same. I wish you continued success with your weight loss journey. You are worth every minute of reclaiming your life. Be proud of your accomplishments. The loss of 25 lbs. is a good start. Just think, you have gotten rid of 100 sticks of butter from your body.

Thank you for posting this! 29 Days ago I was 354.6 and today I am 17 lbs. down. I log everything that goes into my mouth. I HATE logging, it makes me angry but I now have a really good idea of what I had been eating VS what I'm eating now.

For me each day is a new day with new challenges. Luckily I am not doing this alone, I have a buddy and we support and encourage each other with NO judgement.

I wish I could blink and be healthy but it took me quite a while to get to 354.6 and it will take quite a while to get to my first goal of 250. Be patient with yourself, be proud of yourself. This is a huge decision that you've made and look at all the support you're getting on MFP.

YOU GO GIRL !!!! Keep it up !!!!

Most folks want to lose as FAST as possible. But that can be a mistake. Diet stress is a real thing. Wish I had known and saved myself years of grief. There's a great deal of research that shows if you take a diet break periodically it will help reduce/eliminate this fatigue and make it easier once you reach your goal weight and live your life on a "maintenance" diet. From what I've read and come to know, every time you lose 10 % of your bodyweight, take one of these breaks that takes at least half as long as the 10% loss did. Eat at maintenance (little to no gain, no loss) and give yourself a break. When the break is over, recalculate what your next 10% goal is and give it another go. Repeat this process until you hit goal weight. Try it, it will result in a much better chance for KEEPING the weight off.

I started out on my life style change 4.5 years ago. Originally, I weighed 555lbs. It hurt to move, it hurt to lay down, it hurt to sit. There just were no comfortable positions. I applaud your success! You losing 25lbs is excellent. I *know* how hard it is. I still struggle sometimes because I am a control freak now about how much and what goes into my body. It has become a different type of obsession. However, my body now weighs 285lbs. Not my goal weight. I have been at a plateau for 6months. That has been discouraging, but I refuse to "just give up". I've been advised to stop the tight reign I have over every calorie and eat 2000 calories a day. (I was eating close to 1400 calories a day for most of those 4.5 years), in order to reset my metabolism again. I've worked so hard to get to where I am. I can walk a lot better. All honesty though, I have long term damage from carrying all that weight most of my life. Going today to see a doctor about my serious back pain. Anyway, I just want you to know that once you lose the initial part of your weight, it will become a struggle to see any movement downward. Don't get discouraged (easier said than done, I know). But it will be worth it to add years to your life. Your life can be beautiful again. And while I still don't feel awesome about myself, I am working on those things too by seeing a psychologist and a psychiatrist. I need this help too. A nutritionist is not a bad idea either, if you can afford it or if it's covered by health insurance. With these tools, your successes will be slow and steady and help you regain the abilities you lost by being homebound (like I was). Take care. You're important and you're unique and you bring the world to better places by being the best you that you can be. You can do this. Big hugs if you would like them.