Any slow loser success stories?

my size 4 friend was a size 12...she has lost 30 pounds over the past year slow....but her body is chiseled...she works out hard, eats back most of her calories and loses fat while building muscle. her calf musles are SO cut.

I've been actively trying to lose weight since last November/December and have lost almost 70 pounds. In the past, I would hit that point where it slowed down and got harder and would just give up and gain it all back and then some.

I decided this time around that I wasn't going to do that. When I got to this point this time, I hired a personal trainer who got me set up with some nutritional goals and some weight training exercises and a workout schedule. I don't work out with her, but I check in with her once a month, take her my MFP logs, she weighs and measures me and looks over my logs, tells me what I need to change for the next month, and off I go. The weight loss has been pretty consistent for me and the inches seem like they've melted off. I've gone from a 24 to a 16-18.

I just keep telling myself that I didn't get fat overnight and I'm not going to get skinny overnight. Permanent change takes time, hard work, and dedication.

I've averaged 7 lbs. per month since January. I'm right on target. It may not be slow but it certainly feels slow some days! As much as we would like to magically be at goal, it just doesn't work like that so we've got to stay focused and celebrate our little victories. You're doing great!

I'm not necessarily a slow loser, because I've tried medifast and lost 30 lbs relatively quickly, but gained it back. This time around I know what my goal is and I'm taking my time getting there. I first signed on here about a year ago and have only lost about 20-25 lbs. But I'm not killing myself, I have good days/weeks and I have bad ones. But I roll with the punches and the trend has been downward, even if it's painfully slow.

I've only lost 18 pounds and I've been at this since last May. I kept plateauing, no matter what I do (exercise more, exercise less, more calories, less calories, zig zagging, eating back, not eating back, believe me I tried it all), but I've accepted it and I'll take what I can get. Compared to 18 pounds ago, I'm stronger than I've ever been, so that's a real plus too.

That's how I am, too! I'm so glad I read your post. Sometimes it's so frustrating, but when I look back at 15 pounds ago, I'm glad I'm on this journey even if it's taking longer that many MFP friends. I'm healthier, happier and my clothes fit better...

It took me about a year to lose 25 pounds, 14 of those pounds were lost in the 6 months I used MFP. I'm currently pregnant so I'm not trying to lose, but my healthy weight loss and overall good eating/exercise habits have prevented me from gaining too much weight while pregnant. I'm 33 weeks and have only gained 15 pounds. I still have about 40 pounds to lose (besides the baby weight) and I'm figuring that it will take about a year for that to come off. Slow weight loss can be frustrating, but it's a healthier way to do it. Make sure you're eating enough and when you start to plateau you should give your metabolism a jump start by changing up your exercise routine (every 4-6 weeks is a good idea) and by eating a little more for a little while. Or, you can do like some people do and give yourself a day or two "off" every week. Allowing your body more calories, even if you go over your maintenance amount, will keep your body burning fat. The extra calories let your body know that you have access to enough food, that you won't be starving any time soon. I know it sounds like the opposite of what you should be doing, but you really do have to eat in order to lose weight.

I've lost 25 lbs in a year, with breaks in between for various reasons. Plus my birth control was making it really hard to get the weight off.

I know what this feels like! I've completely changed my diet and have been excersising more and haven't lost very much at all, while I have a friend who went on a protein diet and lost 6kg in 12 days! But I realised I was feeling better, my skin was better, I was happier and sleeping better and I started to get muscle definition. So I decided to lay off stepping on the scale for a little whie because it kept discouraging me and focus instead on fitness, which motivated me to excersise so much more. Because progress in fitness can't be defined by numbers but by feeling better I wasn't so easily discouraged and after about a month I stepped on a scale and I noticed a much bigger loss then I had previously had. I'm not saying stop weighing yourself all together, but if it's dicouraging you, don't make your goal numbers on a scale. Make it a distance you can run or an incredibly healthy diet. Work towards feeling better generally.

I will be one of those stories.
Lost 25 lbs almost two years ago. Maintained for over a year. Got serious again May 1st to lose the last twenty two pounds. Lost 9 lbs by Sept 1st. Have been going up and down the same two pounds for two months. Hopefully things will start moving again.
My muscles are definitely bigger especially in my legs. I'm alot more fit.
I like eating healthy and getting stronger. Definitely will stick with it...what's the alternative. Get less fit and eventually gain, no thanks.
Having patience is a must.

Yep slow losing here (puts hand up).
I've lost 33kg (73lbs) since January this year and have plateau d for the last 3 months. I even moaned to my doctor about it lol, only to be told that it was normal, it was just that my body needed to adjust to the weight loss. Doesn't mean I'm giving up trying to move the scales just means they aren't quite as important at the moment as my measurements are showing things are still moving, in fact I've lost 2 dress sizes in the last 3 months, so I'll take it :bigsmile:

31 pounds in about 9 months, so another slow loser here. Certainly not as dramatic as previous weight loss but so much more sustainable. I'd recommend taking progress pictures and comprehensive measurements as well as looking at the scales for motivation. I still have a long way to go and find the support of fellow Mfp-ers helps a lot especially when others choose not to celebrate my achievement.

It took me a long time too. Over a year I think to lose 33 pounds. To get me through it I just tried to remind myself that weight loss is they by-product of a healthy lifestyle, not the goal. If I continued to live healthy it would happen eventually. Once you find the things you really love to do, (for me it was getting outside to run and off of the damn elliptical) everything felt like less of a chore. Also, doing p90x helped, because it gave me a finish line of 90 days. (I also lost the most weight in the fastest time doing P90X.

Stick with it. We all lose differently. Losing at a slow rate generally means you are losing fat and not muscle.

Good luck!

An earlier poster suggested zig zagging and I agree.
I didn't see any cardio on your profile. If you are doing some sort of cardio and eating back your calories, do you have a HRM?
I eat back my exercise calories and found out I was way off on how many calories I was burning, (and of course eating back).
After 30 min. on the elliptical MFP said I'd burned over 400 calories, the machine read-out said 230, but my HRM totaled a sorry 98. I knew the 400 couldn't be right, but had been eating back the elliptical's 230. No wonder I was losing slowly!
Now I wear my HRM for any exercise I expect to use in calculating calories.

Six months to lose the first 25 pounds, which put me at my original goal, and another 4 months for another 10.

I've been at this since the end of March, although I didn't join MFP until later. I've lost 60lbs so far and have 20 left to go. I've been struggling very hard the last month to month and a half. I finally had to challenge myself to not step on the scale. Crazy right? But I was getting very discouraged and then I read a post by somebody talking about cheating (those little nibbles you take but don't log) and how she justified it because the scale kept moving down. I got to thinking that if I couldn't see the scale I couldn't justify anything and in my paranoia I might actually make better choices. This is also a test to see how much better I have gotten about my eating habits in general. I'm still logging everyday and that helps keep me on track but I won't know how on track I am until the end of the month.

I used to weigh myself daily so to go from that to not weighing in for almost a month is far from easy. I am honestly considering having my best friend hold onto my scale for me, I'm addicted and I admit this.

My point is that lack of motivation because you aren't seeing the results you want can be worked around. If you know you're a slow loser don't weigh yourself as often, it will make the loss seem more powerful when you do weigh in. Also try taking your measurements, I really wish I had done this. I just started (on Day 7) Jillian Micheals 30 Day Shred. I did take before pictures and measurements so that even if I don't drop a ton of weight I can see results in other places than the scale.