Realistic timeframe to lose 50lbs

In harmony with others: I don't think the calendar is a weight loss tool.

Most people find staying at a healthy weight harder than reaching there in the first place - though it's common to find the loss alone plenty hard enough.

I'll always suggest focusing more on finding new, permanent, more positive routine eating and activity habits that can mostly continue nearly on autopilot long term, with good overall life balance. Other parts of life will get demanding or distracting eventually. Weight management that requires constant vigilance isn't likely to last.

Finding those permanent habits is IMO more important than how long the loss phase takes.

That said, it took me a little under a year to lose 50 pounds, and I'm a smaller person than you are plus older and 100% more female. 😉 Also, in retrospect, I accidentally lost too fast at first with some cost to energy level and health - fortunately not too severe, but enough to convince me that fast loss is a bad plan.

Best wishes!

I got a Garmin and connected it to MFP, so it would sync my exercise calories. I then set MFP settings to lose 1 pound per week. I recorded all my workouts on the Garmin, logged my main food in MFP (left about 500 calories free for grazing). I did mainly power walking every day, and in 52 weeks I lost 57 pounds.

Keep in mind that if you are lifting weights, you may see some gains from muscle growth, as well as your muscles retaining water during recovery.

small caveat, especially if you’re new to mFP and are in the habit of closing your diary.

IGNORE that message that says “if every day were like today, you’ll weigh XXX in five weeks”.

No day is ever the same and that message has frustrated most everyone here at one point or another. I finally stopped closing my diary to avoid the digital “shaming”.

I absolutely love this reason for this goal. 👍🏻

I’m laughing and loving this because, back in the day, I raced Hobie 14 “turbos”, a singlehand sailboat. I weighed so little that, even carrying the maximum amount of dead weight, I couldn’t make weight. I always had to carry an extra 20 pounds of dead weight, and would make a point to explaining to race committees at registration.

I had a pair of old jeans that I filled with lead shot, sewed the waist and legs shut, and lashed them to the mast.

I got protested several times by male racers, and the race committees looked at tiny me, versus these hotshot guys, and said, “Really? You’re going to protest this chick?”

Weight matters in weighty matters like racing.

Garmin is a sports watch more geared toward sports than smart watch features. It tracks a lot of health and wellness metrics, very detailed workout metrics, and is very accurate. Unlike the apple watch, the garmin battery last for weeks, not just days.

Back then (I was 57) I was power walking 3.5 to 7.5 miles every day at a 4mph or faster pace. I'm 68 now, and have spinal stenosis, so I don't walk that far any more because of the pain.

My plan going forward is to lose another 30 pounds, work on strength training, and work out any muscle imbalances that can be attributing to the pain.

my basic weekly plan is…

3 days cardio (one day being zone 5)

3 days strength training (mix of high/low reps, high/low weight)

1 rest day

I will I have my garmin synced to MFP, and plan to use the same method as I did before to lose the 30 pounds. Only difference now is the strength training (which I didn't do before), so I am curious to see how that will pan out with losing weight… lol

Be cautious - verify - battery life with Garmin devices. I'm not saying they don't tell the truth: AFAIK they do. But their devices have an utterly huge range of battery life, depending on the model.

Different sizes have different-sized batteries - loosely, physically bigger device allows a bigger battery that needs less frequent charging. Some display types require more power than others, loosely the brighter ones sucking more battery. Some models have solar charging during use, so only rarely need other charging. Certain functions that aren't in constant use - like GPS - use up a charge faster, too.

Last I knew, some Garmin models' charge lasted just a few days (when the battery is new), but others might go months between charges. Of course battery effectiveness tends to decline with age, so generally an older battery gradually needs more frequent charging.