[SV/NSV] I'm officially half way to my goal. 40 down, 40 more.

I started my weight loss regimen on January 2nd of this year. Not as a New Year's Resolution, but because of something that my friend said to me the day before.

He's a bit taller than me, about 6' 4", but was about the same weight, 265. We were both away at school and didn't get to see each other much, so to my surprise, he had lost 40lbs since August. He looked great.

I was a pretty good weight in high school due to playing sports but I definitely hit the freshman 15 and it didn't stop there. I had been telling myself that I was going to start losing weight for about a year and a half. I had starting eating better occasionally only fall back into bad eating habits within a couple weeks or even a couple days. I went to the gym pretty consistently but then I wouldn't go for months. My weight stayed the same.

They say the hardest part is starting and that was definitely true. I'm actually surprised that I was able to start after telling myself on Jan 1st, "I'll start tomorrow". Whenever I had told myself that in the past, I never started.

I downloaded MyFitnessPal. I started logging every single calorie to the best of my ability. I started out pretty rough and realized that I was eating well above my maintenance calories for that weight. I changed my eating after just 2 days and haven't gone back. I started out going to the gym but then I had a small back injury(unrelated to lifting), so I haven't been able to go for about a month. But my doctor said I could start going again next week(YAY!)

This all sounds great and all, people reading this who haven't started their weight loss yet might see this me as a person who hasn't run into any main problems. That couldn't be further from the truth. My diet isn't perfect by any means, I've been injured, I have cravings, I have bad days of eating, and I haven't always felt the best. But I haven't failed. I've been keeping myself going by keeping one quote in my head from silent film actress Mary Pickford. "Failing is not falling down, it's staying down."

I have fallen many times in these past 75 days. But I'm not going to let these falls stop me like I had let them previously.

My biggest advice to anyone using MFP, remember that your goal calories are set as weight loss deficit. If you have it set to lose 1 lb per week, that's a 500 calorie deficit per day. If you eat 100 calories over your goal weight for a specific day, YOU ARE STILL LOSING WEIGHT. Instead of losing 1 lb that week, you lose .97 lbs. I'd still call that 1 lb. You didn't fail because you ate more than your goal on one day. One day doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things unless you eat 5000 calories in a single day, which I have done previously before I started.

I've still got a lot of goals that I'm working towards. I'm only halfway to my goal but I've never been more motivated. So here's to another 40 more pounds. My friend that I mentioned earlier, we're currently looking for a sprint triathlon to register for that is nearby. I want to take my shirt off during the summer and not be embarrassed by my body. I haven't seen the physical progress I would want by now, but the numbers on the scale don't lie. My body will catch up eventually.

When I hit my goal weight, I'll be posting before and after pictures.

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What I've learned in the beginning of my weight loss journey. [sw] 240 [cw] 220 [gw] 160

I've been trying to lose weight since the beginning of the year and have already started seeing results. For what seems like the first time in my life my diet is clicking and I'm being consistent about my dietary choices. I actually feel like i can stick with this new lifestyle and persevere until i reach my goal. I'm just hoping I can share my experience and help motivate others to do the same.

1. Weight loss starts in the kitchen, not the gym.

I have done zero exercise and lost weight. Thats right, zero exercise. I hurt my leg and have been on crutches for 6 of the 10 weeks I've been trying to lose weight, so I'm actually more sedentary than before i started my weight loss journey. Weight loss really is as simple as calories in calories out, so don't feel defeated if exercise isn't your thing or you have anxiety about going to the gym.

1. Its what you eat, not how much.

Before i started working on my weight i would eat out 2, sometimes 3, meals a day and snack on junk food constantly. I stopped eating out and started cooking frozen foods at home to start, but i wasn't eating "healthy food by any means". This lifestyle change naturally lead to me eating less calorie dense food which stimulates weight loss and eventually lead to me eating smaller portions as well.

I recently started trying to eat a whole food diet(vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy, and whole grains) and found that healthy food is more filling. You get less calories by volume so your body feels physically fuller which will help you eat less overall.

1. You don't have to know how to cook to eat healthy.

My go to foods are frozen fruits and vegies as they have a long shelf life. Microwaving vegies is quick, easy, cheap, and tasty. Frozen meals and burritos can also be an easy low effort low calorie meal replacement. I barely use an oven, so don't feel like you can't lose weight since you aren't a gourmet chef.

1. The cravings will go away.

After eating mostly veggies and meat for a few weeks i no longer miss processed food or sugary snacks. Ive started to actually enjoy the taste of veggies and appreciate a good salad bar. My relationship with food has already changed in this short period of time. If i need to snack fresh veggies, fruit, or some popcorn usually do the trick. I actually prefer them over a bag of chips or pint of ice cream now.

1. Its not about the battle, its about the war.

You will cheat on your diet, and that's fine. Don't beat yourself up or quit over a bad day. Just make sure you make better choices tomorrow. Weight loss is a lifestyle change, but that doesnt mean you should deny yourself certain foods or avoid going out to eat completely. Weight loss is about habit and if you consistantly make good choices and eatright most of the time you will persevere.

1. Appreciate the little things.

Eventually our pants might start to feel looser or you'll find that you are using a tighter notch on your belt. Your shirts start fitting a little better and maybe you can almost fit into that shirt you used to love. Change is gradual, you won't look like a movie star overnight, but take note of the progress you are making to reinforce the lifestyle changes you are making.

Soon you'll find yourself debating over whether or not you should buy new close now or wait until you've lost more weight since things are going so well.

No matter where you are in your weight loss journey, or how well its going, remember to keep moving forward. You will get there eventually if you stick to your guns and don't let the past control your future!

Good luck and keep on trucking everyone.

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First goal reached!

I finally met my first weight loss goal. Started on 9/11/2018 at 245 pounds. Using a combination of the Lose It app (premium), a (new to me) Fitbit I bought secondhand, plus Ingress to keep me from going fully sedentary (and to keep my knee strength from collapsing and risking being wheelchair bound for the rest of my life), I am now down to 200 pounds as of today.

Next goal, 189 pounds. That puts me smack dab in the middle of "normal BMI" when using the formula that more properly scales for my height (6'4").

Now I just need to get my skinnier backside to farming events more often. I have a metric ton of mods that made sense before the most recent round of updates killed duplication of any Very Rare item... milking the overflow for personal use and support of my team was my modus operandi there.

Damned nerfing of quantums really screwed over my playstyle, but like any Enlightened fellow, I adapt. Slowly, but I am getting there. As with weight loss, so goes the rest of my life. Now with the seasons changing, I can get out there and walk more, and when the pool opens, get some swimming in to start toning the body I have now.

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Unsure if I'll be happy at my goal, are you satisfied?

Apologies if this isn't the right place to post this.

It seems stupid but my main goal with weight loss has never really been health. I just want to be slim again. Whether this is a 'healthy' attitude or not is kind of irrelevant it's just how it is.

I'm currently down to 145 lbs (F, 22, 5'4) from 185 like 6 months ago and I'm really concerned that getting to my GW of 120 lbs will not make me happy with my body. I'm starting to notice loose-ish skin in some places. Sagging at the top of my arms and my stomach looks like a mess. It's like whatever I do it's not good enough.

I can sometimes see how I've changed, but mostly I feel like I look the same (at least as big), just with loose skin now. I also feel like I'm not losing weight fast enough but my body won't let me cut more calories (currently on 1300 a day but idk maybe I could make it lower) and I'm not even sure that losing faster would make me feel better?

Basically, I'm scared that losing weight is going to make me more obsessed with and less happy with my body than ever before as has been the trend on this 'journey' so far. What should I do? What would/do you do to silence the voice of 'not good enough' and persevere to your goals? And if you've reached those goals, are you satisfied with how your body looks now?

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I lost weight faster than anticipated, and now I’m a bit freaked out.

tl/dr. My weight loss has gone much better and faster than I anticipated, and I am near my goal of 45 lbs lost by the end of March instead of May. I’m freaked out because I don’t recognize myself, and more importantly, I’m worried about maintenance.

I’m male, 47, 5’10”. Starting weight: 239.5; Current weight: 201; Goal weight: 195. Note: goal weight may seem a bit high for my height, but I’m a stocky guy with a naturally broad chest, wide shoulders and muscular legs. At 195, I was really happy with how I looked and felt. I once managed as an adult to get to 188, and honestly didn’t like the way I looked.

I has a husky kid, but my real weight issues didn’t start until my late teens/ early 20s, when my binge eating kicked in. Since age 23, I’ve lost and regained the same 50 pounds 3 times (4 including this time.). The first time, I maintained the loss for only a few months. The second time for 2 years, the third time for 4 years. Each time, a stressful life event(s) kicked in and I started stress eating and/or I stopped monitoring my weight. The last regain was in 2006.

Since 2006, my weight has hovered around 225, sometimes spiking to 238, sometimes going as low as 217, but I couldn’t seem to maintain the eating/exercise habits to get it to go lower.

Christmas 2018, after an incident involving a pan of cheese dip, my sister and I agreed that things needed to change. She started using a calorie counting app, joined a beginner running club and later hired a trainer. I did go to the gym more and dabble with a C25k app, but nothing sustained. This Christmas rolled around, and my sister looks and feels great. I had a doctor’s appt right after Christmas and realized I had actually gained 10 lbs since my last visit a few months earlier, putting me at 239.5. I know some was just holiday bloat, but still.

So this January, I got serious. I did Dry January, and didn’t drink a drop of alcohol. I downloaded LoseIt and got serious about logging. I restarted C25k. Based on LoseIt, reasonable weight loss estimates, I expected to hit my goal in May. and I was good with that. I figured that would give me time to adjust, and hopefully make the loss sustainable. I did nothing extreme with diet, except going cold turkey on alcohol in Jan. (I drank a bit in February)

I knew I had lost weight by my clothes, but I didn’t know how much. I have a problematic relationship with the scale, and don’t have one at home. I was curious in Mid February, though, and weighed myself at the gym, and I was 211. I figured it was a fluke, or some mis match between gym scale and doctor’s, but I had to go to my doctor’s later that week, and their scale had same reading. Since then, I’ve lost another 10 pounds.

I’m excited, but I’m freaked out. I’ve become obsessive with weight loss before, though that was 20+ years ago. I’ve also rebounded hard before from rapid weight loss and don’t want to do it this time. I’m worried it hasn’t been long enough to develop the skills needed to avoid my past habit of life stressor = weight gain. Especially since I spent the weekend eating more snacks and junk than I have in months, it felt like being on the knife’s edge between plain overeating and binging.

And I don’t recognize the person in the mirror. I’m pretty happy with who I see but it doesn’t look like me. The last time I weighed this, I was in my early 30s. Now I’m older and grayer. And my body is different. I’m not upset with the changes, but it’s like a new person.

I feel like an asshole for whining about something that should be a positive, but I feel like I’ve been thrown in the deep end of a pool to sink or swim.

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10kgs lighter! But an unflattering photo dropped a 10kg stone on my heart...

I'm a 5'6" (166cm) female that weighs 194lbs (88kg). I started my journey in December and I have been working hard towards my goal of 135lbs.

Today I am 10kgs lighter than I was in December. I'm proud of myself for sticking to my diet and I notice my weight loss in my clothes and face. I've even been more active and changed my eating habits as well as got sober from alcohol (I was a binge drinker). I've been feeling really proud of myself recently. I plan on continuing my journey until I reach my goal of 135lbs.

I felt really good but....today someone took an unflattering picture of me and now I feel crushed. I know I'm nowhere near done and I look better now than I did in December but I put a lot of effort into the last few months and seeing that picture made me feel like I'm not doing enough. It made me wince. I still feel motivated to change, but I'm a little hurt that I don't look as good as I thought I did. Maybe it's that I know how much effort I've put into losing weight but the me in the photo can't tell that story by itself.

Anyone else feel disheartened while looking at "tagged" images of themselves? How do I change my mindset?

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The Difficulties of Not Losing for Yourself

I’m an athlete. Or... well, I’m meant to be an athlete. My point is, I wrestle professionally and, in doing this, there’s often an extreme pressure to look your very best. In saying this, I don’t feel as though any of my recent weight loss attempts have been because I want to be healthier. I’ve always felt they were out of spite, or because I wanted to look better than someone else. This makes any idea of a “treat day” difficult on me. In the past, treat days would often turn into two treat days, which would turn into treat weeks and so on. All of this would lead to a terrible internalized guilt for not doing as well as I should be, and for letting down all of my friends because I’m not doing very good on my weight loss journey. It’s difficult. Are there any ways to change this mentality?

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