Goal Achieved - 40lbs in 3 months! (w/ Pics)

Hey there my fellow MFPers,
3 months ago (actually 90 days exactly), I began my weight loss journey. I had tried using weight loss programs before, Carb starvs, NutritionKing, and even a brief attempt with MyFitnessPal, but all of them failed because I only did them to prove I could do them, but I wasnt all that motivated.

Some History:

I come from a pretty obese family, some ranging from 250-350 lbs. My family has a history of heart problems, weight issues, high blood pressure, and other serious conditions. I knew that these were things I never wanted to develop, and I knew I had to take action to prevent

Track back to earlier in the year, I was studying a ton, getting very little sleep, and in order to keep myself awake, Id eat. And Id eat terribly. My favorite late night snack was Ritz Bitz with cheese, or a Wendy's Double stack. I ate out (which nothing wrong with eating out, just not with how I was eating) constantly, and my only real attempt ever at being healthy was the fact I always drank diet, never used butter/cream cheese/cheese/etc. But in the end, I was eating terribly.

Flash to around 8/7/11, and my girlfriend, the most gorgeous and beautiful woman, was looking at some photos from the fourth of july on facebook. And then we came across these three photos:










As soon as I saw these photos, I was disgusted. I was fat, jiggly, and unnactractive. Worst of all, I could tell my girlfriend was a little grossed out. I wasnt as thin or in as good of shape when we started dating, and needed to do something. Of course my girlfriend still loved me just the same, but she is a smoking hot girl, very successful, and the most wonderful personality; and I believed the guy shes with should match that.

So after seeing these photos, comparing myself to my family, and looking at the future, I decided to jump into MFP hardcore.


I began my journey with a weight of ~184. I didnt weigh myself properly when I started, the weight was within the range of 180-185, ended up deciding 184 was a good number.

I began immediately with the calorie counting. Im a person who can only do weight loss by calorie counting. Its not about eating processed or unprocessed, clean or dirty, for me its just calories. I know this doesnt work for everyone, but it does for me. Im a person who is happy with eating just a slice of pizza, instead of eating an ginormous salad, if pizza is what I am craving, I have to eat it.

I also increased my exercise as I started to plateau on my dieting. First I was just doing Dance Dance Revolution, then did two workouts a day, then joined a once a week hockey league (I already teach karate once a week), then I started doing the 30 Day shred, doing about 90 minutes of exercise a day.

With a combination of exercise, zig zag dieting, I feel I was able to achieve my goal. I rarely ate back my calories, and only twice went over my net calorie goal. I stuck to my higher calorie days on the weekends, lower on days I have work and out and about driving.

I did plateau a few times, experienced a week of being "backed up", but in the end, I powered through.

So here are the weight loss photos:


184lbs - Here is from where I started, on 8/9/11 (actually taken on 8/10/11):










145lbs - 11/05/11 (Day 89):












Here is the final comparison photo (green lines is where I am now):





Thank you for all your support, encouragement, and entertainment. Now Im going to work on maintaining, while trying to build up muscles. Hope that all of your weightloss is going well, and I hope to be able to post some pics of me in a few months being super ripped.

Final:
Age: 20
Weight: 145
Height: 5'9"
BMI: 21.4