I have about 2 hours every weekday that I can go to the gym, but I get there and am unsure what to do, so I usually do 45 minutes of elliptical or bike and a little bit of weight machines.
Does anyone have any specific recs of what you would do at the gym that would really help with weight loss?
There are treadmills, elliptical, bikes, a lot of weight machines and free weights.
I'm a 40s something ♀️.
Thanks!
I (26 f) started a weight loss journey almost 3 years ago and for the first time I was successful. I was 290 at the start of it and the lowest I got was to 204, I’m pretty tall so it was a very noticeable change and I lost all the weight in less than a year. I was very, VERY determined and about 10 months in I was very set in my routine. I started with low carb but after I hit 230 and couldn’t drop any more I started calorie counting and that helped me immensely.
At the start I was working only one part time job (4 days a week, 32 hours) I would make a small breakfast, bring a lunch from home, fruit or veggies for snacks, then go home and later on eat my dinner and be done for the night. The days I worked I would get up early and go to the gym for an hour or so (I only did cardio) and the days I didn’t work I would go the night before just very late. I was very good at eating a wide variety of foods that were good choices, lots of fruits and veggies, not drinking calories, fueling my body instead of feeding cravings. For a very long time I didn’t eat fast foods and I was able to either say no to cravings or wasn’t having any cravings at all.
The problems started about a year into my weight loss. I was very self conscious before, never dated, was still a virgin, very socially anxious and shy. I slowly gained confidence and over time i slowly relaxed with my habits. I would eat good mostly, but treat my selfie occasionally, I stopped going to the gym as much, then soon stopped going at all. My weight went back up to about 210-215 and I would stay consistently in that range for another year and a half, in that time I put my dieting and weight loss on the back burner so to speak, I was focusing a lot on dating and my outer appearance, traveling, having fun for the first time and experiencing life as someone who wasn’t terribly insecure about everything. I live alone and the part time job wasn’t enough to pay the bills so I got another part time job, this past summer my main job offered me full time and I took it but still kept my part time job, both of which I’m still currently doing.
Due to the amount of hours I work I have been eating a lot of fast foods, and I have been overeating a lot as well, for context, I work from 7 am to 9pm Monday- Thursday, 7-3 Friday, and 3 am-3pm on saturdays. It’s easier to grab food 2-3 times a day than to cook it or meal prep 6 days in advance. My weight is now at 230 again which is the highest it’s been in over 2 years, I notice I’m a bored eater/emotional eater sometimes as well which helps nothing. My goal when I started was 180, though I think I’d be fine if I only hit 190 considering my height and body type.
This has turned into a bit of a jumbled rant but I think a bit of backstory and context is important, when I was losing weight the first time I was so dedicated to it that I never even considered eating over my daily calories (I stuck to about 1800 at the time) and I had a lot of control over my eating and cravings and portion control. I’ve sort of spiraled and at the current moment I’ve been struggling hard to get back into that mode of having control and forcing myself to stay consistent. Since it’s thanksgiving this week I have a few days off both jobs and I think I’m going to use this time to jump back in. I haven’t actually gone grocery shopping to make consistent meals in months, but I did today. I find that I have an easier time sticking to eating healthy when I eat the same thing every day for each meal (sometimes I would have 2-3 options I could choose from so I didn’t get disgusted with the foods I would make) I’ve decided I’m going to start tomorrow eating healthy again, but I’m scared that my mindset will be easy to go against and I’ll get fast food or just keep overeating. How do you get back into a good & consistent mindset?
I will try to make this short. I was overweight in high school, lost about 30 pounds of weight to join the military. The military kept me pretty thin over the 9 years I was active duty because I was CONSTANTLY moving. Deployments made all of us shed fat like crazy even when we weren't trying. But the lifestyle change hit me hard. I got out of the military January 2021, but when the pandemic hit I went from about 165-195 fairly quick. Initially when I got out I was still maintaining 195 pounds. Mind you, I am 5'6' so at this point I am feeling pretty heavy for what I am use to.
Earlier this year in 2022, I lost the weight and got down to about 172....well guess who gained it back?! I am at 195 again (or even over). But my heart/mind is so over it. "I keep thinking just BE PATIENT with yourself, you did it many times and you can do it again!". I was so into fitness and being thin in the military, it was truly like my identity. I have lost that. I thought I lost it when I became a mom, but I lost all that pregnancy weight too and got into powerlifting. I ALWAYS picked myself back up.
....except now I feel like the fire has gone out. It has truly gone out. Since I have been out of the military I have felt so isolated. Completely alone. My mental health is absolute shit. I just don't have the fire or drive I use to have for ANYTHING... let alone weight loss. I am so afraid I will just keep losing the weight to gain it again. I keep thinking, what's the point?
People tell you "JUST DONT GIVE UP"...but when you have transformed so many times you get to a point where you feel like you have lost an even greater battle. Someone, anyone...just help me get out of my head. Help me get my life back.
I don't have anyone to share this with, so forgive the life story. I just had to write this out. Maybe someone else will connect with it? Sorry about the length and lack of concrete meaning behind it.
I've been constantly gaining weight my entire life, besides a brief stint in high school with extreme cases of strep (basically couldn't eat for months and lost about 30 pounds). Otherwise it's been constant due to never learning appropriate eating habits until I made it all the way up to 350 pounds. I couldn't want more than a few hundred steps without having to stop and take a breath, I needed seatbelt extenders to fly on a plane, sitting on my desk chair (instead of a well cushioned couch or recliner) for too long would hurt my tailbone, and looking in the mirror disgusted me so much that I stopped doing it except to look at specific features (like making sure hair is not too messy or my tie was straight, things like that), ignoring the bigger picture of how I looked as a whole.
At the beginning of August, I moved to a place very high in elevation so even for those in shape, it's noticeably harder to breath and for someone as out of shape as me, I could barely walk 10 steps without having breathing difficulties. It was what finally provided the impetus to change. When my household goods arrived, 2 days after my 28th birthday, I used the scale and saw I hit 350 pounds. I didn't make any significant changes for a few weeks, but just the increased activity from unpacking and rearranging everything brought me down to 345 at the end of August, where I started my weight loss journey in earnest.
I started tracking the calories I'm consuming (got a kitchen scale and everything, surprisingly nice!), going on walks, and more than anything, developing a healthier relationship with food (not eating because of boredom, eating until I'm satisfied not stuffed, etc.). There's still a lot to go and I know at some point I'm going to have to start working out in earnest and eat even healthier, but you have to start from somewhere.
My goal is to not be overweight by my 30th birthday, 189 pounds. Losing 161 pounds in 2 years, from the initial weigh-in. It's so daunting, but as of this morning, I'm at 299 pounds. Being almost a third of the way there already after just a few months is a pretty great feeling.
Disclaimer: I’m not one of those people that have a non-repairable or toxic relationship with my parents. Just came to vent tbh.
I (F, 25, 5’4”) am started off at 289 lbs. have a goal of losing 115 lbs. i lost 30 lbs, then I got stagnant/became lazy and I gained 25 lbs back…ugh! So now, i’m trying make myself more disciplined and have more control over my schedule. So as of late, I got myself back together and from Nov 1st to now, I lost 7 lbs! I am now 282 lbs. I’ve been keeping my health journey to myself though. I haven’t told anyone, not even my parents.
So, earlier last week my mom confronted me that she’s concerned because I picked up some weight after I was pretty consistent with my weight loss before. She talked about how she is genuinely concerned for my health. We sat down and talked about it. She offered lots of options, such as paying for personal training and other things. I declined because I informed her that I have my own workout regimen and I’ve lost 7 pounds so far, and I don’t need a personal trainer.
Then, a day after I saw my dad on thanksgiving, he called me to ask if I could come over his place so we could have an “important conversation”. He then. I came over, and then we had a long conversation, and he also explained to me about how he’s concerned about my health as well because of my weight gain (don’t worry, he did it with a lot of tact and grace. His approach was really respectful). He also offered to start working out with me and offered me a gym membership as well so we can go to the gym together. Once again, I told him no, because I informed him that I have my own workout regimen and how I’ve lost 7 pounds so far. Also, i explained how I have a treadmill and weights in my house. And my job came with a gym membership so sometimes I already workout after work, if I didn’t already workout in the morning.
I totally understand my parents concern. I mean at the end of the day, if you clearly see that your child is unhealthy, then of course you’re going to be concerned and do everything you can to try to see if you can rectify the situation before it spirals into worse health issues.
But still, it just kind of sucks. Because I am being more healthy and I am losing weight, and I’ve been doing that for about a month now. It’s just that the weight that I have lost isn’t noticeable so far because it’s only 7 pounds. But still, despite all of my hard work and efforts from November 1st up until today, I’m still getting bombarded by my parents about how much weight I’ve gained. Despite the fact that I restarted my health journey on November 1, I’m still getting called out by them for how much weight I’m getting. After I told him that I already started my health journey again, and I lost 7 pounds, they responded with all positive feedback, and we’re saying things like “great! That’s so awesome! I’m so proud of you! Keep it up!”. And that’s all totally great and I’m really happy that they encourage me and support my journey.
But still. It sucks that they think that I’m not being healthy, just because I’m still fat overall, and my weight loss isn’t noticeable yet. Like that really hurt.
Just wanted to vent.
I’m 31F and 5’ 10”.
I started my weight loss journey in 2019. I weighed in at over 320 pounds and was miserable. After being overweight my whole life, I knew I needed to make a change. Through diet and low intensity exercise, I was able to lose about 140 pounds over 2 years. It was mostly CICO and low sodium, low sugar, low dairy, low carb (low fun ha!). I needed to transfer my emotional eating to something else, and some days I still really struggle with that.
I was able to get down to 175 pounds in April of this year through more diet and exercise. My ultimate goal is 173 pounds. My dream is to be a “healthy” BMI even if that’s not necessarily the perfect weight for my body. Still working through that.
After getting to 175, I gained weight due to an unhealthy relationship and went back up to 196. I have been able to use Heather Robertson’s programs along with cutting calories to make it back down to 186-188.
I am SO close to my goal weight, but it’s hard to not get discouraged when the weight doesn’t fall right off like it did when I first started my weight loss journey. What keeps you motivated so close to the finish line? If you are like me and struggle with being hyperfocused on a perhaps unattainable weight (my body loves being at 182 and not going lower) what have you been able to do to break that thought process?
Thanks in advance for your advice!
My weight loss journey has two phases. First off what was phase one? Phase one was great. The beginning of my “serious” weight loss journey. Serious because it’s the time when i was the most motivated and the time when I saw the most results. But also the time when I cried the most and I was constantly hungry.
There are a myriad of ways to lose weight and I choose fasting because it’s the one I hadn’t really tried in my seven years of yo-yo dieting and to my surprise it worked wonders. I started losing weight pretty decently but soon enough I realized something: Extended fasting was making my binging WORSE! “Oh it’s ok I can finish this whole loaf of bread I’ll just do a two day fast”, “God I’m so full! But I have to finish my food because my fast starts tomorrow!”, “oh I can’t buy the small size of this cookie it HAS to be the jumbo size after all I don’t even eat everyday.”
On and on like that and the crazy thing is? it worked! I was literally eating my cake and having it. That was until it didn’t. I had gotten to the point where unless I was only eating three days a week there was no way for me to lose anymore weight. The moment I reached the 180’s from the 240’s I hit the biggest plateau yet. And of corse I just fasted more and binged more and fasted more it was crazy, it was crippling my mental health and of course the scale didn’t budge.
I took a maintenance break and went at it again but same thing so the same results. I was in denial. I refused to admit that my binging was out of control because in my eyes fasting is the GOD of weight loss and anyone on their weight loss journey who is not fasting is simply…wrong. I cried and cried battling with self harm thoughts I almost resigned to the fact that I would never be a healthy weight in this lifetime.
Until I woke up.
It was painful to realize it but I had to. I am a chronic binge eater. And fasting as wonderful as it maybe is simply not for me. I have to learn how to eat in moderation. I can no longer live as I used to. I have to become more active and mindful. I have to track and track. I have to, otherwise I’ll be stuck in this body forever and don’t get me wrong this is a pretty hot body but I certainly think it could be much hotter and of course healthier.
So today phase two begins: if I can do a seven day fast I can track my fucking calories. Period.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
