Can't use the "I just had a baby" excuse anymore

Feel free to friend me for some motivation - I am 29 years old, 5'4" and started this whole weightloss thing at 165 lbs. I have a 4 year old and a 19 month old. I've been doing this for 3.5 months and I'm down 25 lbs (just under 140), trying to ultimately get down to 125. You can totally DO this. I was so skeptical at first that I didn't even officially join the site until I'd already lost 10 lbs (that's why you see me saying 3.5 months but I haven't been a member that long - I was so scared I wouldn't be able to do it or that it wouldn't work). This is totally doable if you just keep at it.

WOW!!! That is a great amount for just 3.5 months! How are you doing it? How much do you work out and how many calories do you eat?


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Weight Loss Tools

I have been sticking pretty close to what MFP tells me to do. I have my activity level set to 'sedentary' (b/c for real, some days I am LOL) - when I first started I set my goal to 2 lbs per week which gave me a 1200 calorie daily goal. For the first month or two I just ate between 1200-1400 calories per day, wasn't super-strict with myself, I mean I was eating more like 3000 calories per day before I started so it was a big change. Lots of learning about portion sizes and different choices that I could make so my 1200-1400 calories would stretch farther. Once I got a little weightloss under my belt LOL, I started exercising. Simple stuff - mostly walking on the treadmill (and pretending I could jog - was awful in the beginning and still not great, but it's a process). I bought a heart rate monitor so I could get a really accurate estimate of how many calories I burned when I worked out, and I always log my exercise calories on MFP and try to eat back a good portion of them. (when you log exercise, MFP tells you that you've 'earned' those calories back and ups your goal - so if you spend half an hour on the treadmill and burn 200 calories, if your daily goal is 1200 all of a sudden MFP tells you that you can eat 1400 that day). Sometimes I eat ALL of my extra exercise calories, sometimes I just eat part of them. Honestly half the reason I work out at all is so I can earn some extra snacks! LOL I'm just now getting into some other types of exercise - doing videos at home and using some small weights. It's hard but it makes you feel great to see how much you can do that you weren't able to do before. Just losing some weight gives you so much more energy. I can actually keep up with my crazy kids. LOL

A month or two ago (can't remember) I re-set my goal here on MFP to be 1 lb per week, b/c I'd lost some weight and it generally is better to go a little slower the closer you get to your goal. Re-setting put me at 1210 calories. Not a big difference, but that's b/c I lost weight and don't need as many calories for my body to stay the same anymore. I try to get in enough exercise most days to earn at least 300 extra calories, I like to eat small meals (like 200-300 calories usually) and have several small snacks during the day - mainly b/c it keeps me from getting super-hungry at meal times. Some people prefer big meals and no snacks, it's all personal preference.

Sometimes I actually lose faster than what MFP says even though I try not to skimp on the calories - I think it's b/c I'm trying to be more active with my kids now that I have more energy. But basically sticking with my MFP goals is what does the trick. I'm also still breastfeeding my 19 month old once or twice a day, but it's so little that I don't think I use very many calories doing that anymore, so I usually don't account for it. Sometimes if he nurses a bunch in a day I will eat an extra snack. LOL

Hi!!! I'm new too!!! I am a mother of 2. One is almost 6 months and the other is almost 21 months. I just started today and I'm not that bad off, but I wanna get back to the size I was before baby #1. I gained 10lbs with each baby. (This is obviously after birth weight lol and a while afterwards right after was a lot more) I am 5'7" and around 146. My goal is mid 120's. I started because I was consistently 143 6 weeks after the baby was born, but I've been putting on more weight recently.

hello

im charlotte 21 with 2 kids daughter whos 4 and son whos almost 6 weeks and i need to get myself back on track as i have put on 2 stone in the past nearly 2 years since meeting my partner! so started yesterday on getting my weight down :bigsmile: and my plan is to loose atleast 30lb

i find everyone trys to feed me if i say im trying to eat healthy go round to my mums have dinner which is fine then anything left she puts onto my pate!!!!! :grumble: not even my older brothers plate who could do with some fat on him. my bloody plate! my partner yesterday decided to buy me 2 bags of sweets the tonite says we are going to watch film with loads of snacks :grumble: