Share your weight loss success story!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m in the midst of a pretty intense diet-and-exercise plan with the ultimate goal of losing about 50 lbs, and hearing about how it worked for other people is really motivating for me.

So, how did you lose weight? How much did you lose, and what did you do or not do to get the weight off? Even better, how did you keep it off? What did you do after you’d lost all the weight you wanted to?

I’m following the Biggest Loser diet as outlined in one of their cookbooks (which are awesome, by the way), which basically says to take your current weight and multiply by 7 to get your allotted calories for the day, and follow a 4-3-2-1 food pyramid (fruit/veg-- lean protein-- whole wheat product-- “extra”). Also going to the gym every single day and doing 30 minutes cardio (mostly treadmill run/walk) and 30 minutes weight training. I started at 180.8 lbs and after 6 weeks, I’m now about 165. So far so good, but the hardest thing is just staying motivated and not giving in to temptation. Eating well is getting easier, but working out every day is freakin’ hard. It’s also REALLY hard to control my drinking, as I love alcohol and drinking has been the majority of my social life (and weight gain!) for the last 6 years.

So please, motivate me! Share your story! And hopefully, in a few months, I’ll have an equally amazing story to add.

2

I’m in process of losing 30lbs, and am 10 pounds down (looking to reach 170).

I’ve been maintaining some very bad eating habits for a number of years, such as high-calorie late night dinners/snacks (such as, getting home from work at 11 at night or so and then eating a whole pizza for dinner, or a whole box of mac and cheese, after already having a decently portioned meal in the afternoon).

I’m losing slowly, but mainly because I’m looking for long-term lifestyle changes. The things I’ve done so far:

#1: Bought a bathroom scale that seems consistent, and began by weighing myself every day, and writing it down. This was huge. I used to be of the philosophy that, gee, because my weight might fluctuate day to day a few pounds, what’s the use of weighing myself? But, without that metric I’d never really know whether what I was doing was working until too late, and I’d lose motivation.

I actually started weighing myself for about a week before I intentionally made any changes, and just the act of weighing myself made me make some different choices.

#2 Walked more. Originally I was going to go on a more full-scale exercise plan. But, in the interest of not wussing out and giving up, I decided I’d just choose to walk more (I am in a position where I can walk to the grocery store, or downtown, or wherever). It also helped that I’ve begun going to school again, and so I’m walking a bit on campus.

#3 “Binged” less. Not sure if that’s the right term, but I’m a person who tends to self-medicate with food, and alleviate boredom with food. Perhaps the hardest part of this has been to just decide at 10PM that I’m done eating for the day, and I’ll wait until the morning for food again. This doesn’t work all the time, but I’m not looking for a 100% change in my behavior, 'cause I don’t think I could succeed. But, I’ve been making that intentional choice a few times a week more than I normally would, and it’s paid off. And, as time goes on it becomes easier.
I have not changed my diet much. I have been eating breakfast more often (not a lot, maybe an english muffin w/ cream cheese and an apple, or a bowl of cereal), and I’ve stopped and asked myself when I’m about to fix myself some food, “am I really hungry?”

But yeah. 10 pounds down (well, 8-10) since Jan. Not a super-speedy loss, but hey, as long as I maintain the trend I’ll be happy. :slight_smile:
Oh, and I have also cut back a bit on the drinking. I go out with friends a fair amount, and sometimes I’ll chose to not have anything to drink, or limit myself to just one. I think that’s made a bit of difference too.

3

Ohh, great job so far and good luck!

My story, though it isn’t fantastic all the way through, has a happy ending.

In 2001 I weighed about 185. I met my current SO that year and he was an avid cyclist (it was his sole method of transport) and I really, really liked him, so I quit smoking, sold my car and bought a bike. I started riding to and from work that summer. I lost around 15 lbs. but didn’t change my eating habits (though puppy love for me always kills my appetite). I also wasn’t a drinker, so no problem there.

Then, in around late 2002 he went to work in the oilfield. In addition to being depressed about never seeing him, and because I had super low self esteem (fat teenager, you know the story), I decided to really get into the weight loss thing. So, by 2003 I had a full fledged eating disorder. I got down to 123 lbs. by eating very little and exercising away about 1000 calories a day.

Then it became too hard to not eat and I started binging and purging. Gained about 10 lbs. and at that point (2005-ish) I admitted my problem to my SO and he got me into therapy.

So I started to work on getting a handle on the ED. I decided to do proper fitness stuff so I started working on becoming a spinning teacher. During that time, I changed from one issue to another and started drinking heavily. I went up to 171 lbs.

OK, now the good part!

I became sober last April (it’s almost my 1 year, yay!), got my spinning instructor certification, started eating properly (which was easy, because a person with an ED knows everything about food - calories, fat, not to drink my calories, etc.) which meant eating breakfast and focusing on my protein intake, and focused on doing more weights and less useless cardio. I bought a new road bike last spring and rode my bike to and from work almost every day, and rode with the SO on the weekends. I also run and swim twice a week for 45 - 60 minutes and I teach spinning twice a week. I take bootcamp classes for an hour three times a week when there is no snow (new class starts in a couple of weeks, I’m psyched). However, my food intake is monitored VERY closely by my SO and therapist (and myself, though I can’t ever trust myself) and I eat enough for my activity.

I think quitting drinking was the huge kick in the pants to lose weight - I was probably consuming 1000+ calories a day from booze and dropped about 15 lbs. in two or three weeks after I quit.

I eat breakfast every day (a mix of carbs and protein, usually oatmeal and yogurt), I eat five or six small balanced meals, I make my lunch and snacks for work every day so I don’t have to eat out, and I get some sort of exercise daily (some days I just walk the dogs if I’m tired out). I have changed what I consume as snacks and dessert - I LOVE dessert, eat it almost every day, but now I eat a Vitamuffin (100 calories, in the freezer section) warmed up and a half cup of frozen yogurt (about 100 calories).

I weigh about 140 right now and am pretty happy with where I am.

The biggest things to contribute to my healthy weight:

Quit drinking.
Learned about food, portions and what I need to fuel my body.
Stopped drinking pop/juice and dramatically increased my water intake.
Exercise in some way every day, and gradually increase and change your workouts so you are always challenging your body (plus, then you see improvements and it’s awesome).
Kept at the exercise thing until I found stuff to do that I loved, and I kept at something I hated for at least three weeks to see if I could break through the initial suckage (I hated swimming a couple of months ago, but now that I ‘get it’ and can breathe properly, I love it).

Holy, long post! Keep us updated, I love weight loss stories!

4

In July 2004, weighing 200 lbs, age 35 - I changed my life.

After 20 years of dieting, where I went from an “oh so fat” 140 lb high school sophomore to a 200 lb 35 year old woman, I finally figured out why I could lose weight but never keep it off.

I operated under a pretty big fallacy. I thought if I could cut calories and lose SOME weight, I should be able to cut MORE calories and lose MORE weight. All I ever cared about was losing weight, no matter what it took (dexatrim, starving, fat free, etc).

I always thought diets should be short term, restrictive and punitive. I wanted to diet FOR A LITTLE WHILE and then stop and eat normally. It was a real “a ha” moment when I realized it was my normal way of eating that made me heavy.

Whenever I “dieted” two things always happened:

  1. I would diet for a little while, it would be extremely easy at first (lots of euphoria) and then I would binge helplessly, stop dieting, eat normally and re-gain all the weight I lost and more.
  2. I would diet, reach a goal weight, stop dieting, eat normally and re-gain all the weight I lost and more.

So, in July 2004, I was fat, lethargic and depressed. I had to honestly and clearly look at why I couldn’t keep the weight off. I realized that “stop dieting and eat normally” was my biggest problem. Instead of dieting for a little while and then stopping, I needed to figure out how I could change my diet…forever. And never stop.

Instead of punitive, restrictive, created to be short term diets, I decided to go with a whole foods approach. I combined whole foods, calorie counting (including portion control) and volumetrics (lots of high volume, lower calorie foods to stay satisfied). At the same time, I also unknowingly tackled my white carb/sugar issue, I didn’t even know I had. I thought I had a problem with food, turned out I just had a problem with SOME foods. Cutting out sugary soda, fast food, processed baked goods and most fried foods forever made a huge and positive difference in my life. The mindless binging and craving stopped, practically overnight.

Instead of eating foods I hated, I found healthy foods I loved. If you had told me 5 years ago, I would give up scones and venti caramel lattes, I would have thought you were crazy. I still love food and enjoy everything I eat, my choices are just different now.

As of February, I have maintained my 70 lb weight loss for 4 years.

The most important advice I can give you - start thinking right now about how you’re going to maintain your weight loss. Losing weight is a battle - keeping the weight off is a war that lasts the rest of your life.

I maintain my weight loss exactly how I lost weight in the first place. I plan meals, I pack lunches, I food journal, I count calories (although it’s an estimate now), I still measure portions of foods I find difficult to measure with my eyes (nuts, cereal, salad dressing, rice, pasta), I still look up restaurant menus online before I get there. I still try to keep my “trigger” foods out of the house. I do enjoy a weekly nice meal at a restaurant, drink 1-2 glasses of wine per week and have occasional treats (a scoop of ice cream from a parlour is okay, a tub of ice cream at home is NOT).

I would say, my life is about 70% “this is just how I live now” 20% ecstatic about how amazing it is that I lost all that weight - at times, it is still a miracle and 10% “waaa waaa why can’t I eat scones like everybody else!” All the healthy habits I have formed makes it easier, but it is still a challenge. Healthy eating means being different from most people. People comment on my lunches (salad, again?), get their feelings hurt when I turn down birthday cake (not my own birthday cake, I wouldn’t turn that down!) and think I’m weird that I don’t eat fast food (never? You NEVER eat fast food?).

Good luck! If you are interested in more success stories, I would recommend one of my favorite sites (it’s also a great resource for motivation, recipes, etc).

5

At the beginning of 2008, I was ~250lb (113kg). I started hitting the gym regularly, cut out most carbs (potatoes, rice, pasta), added salad, killed the snacks, and dropped 50-60lb (25kg).

I am now running, cycling, swimming, doing classes and weights. I’ve done a couple of 10ks. My weight is static at the moment, but I am getting trim. I just signed up for a sprint triathlon, in a couple of months.

Si

6

I’ve lost 80 pounds in a year.

My goal is to lose 20 more pounds, then I might extend that to another 10 for a total of 110 pounds lost. Last year this time I was 233 pounds. Now I’m 153.

I use Sparkpeople to keeps track of my calories in and out. I started walking for exercise and am up to running 5 miles about 4 times a week. I eat about 1600 calories a day, which I plan to maintain forever. Sometimes I go over, but sometimes I eat less too.

I feel great and very happy. Not everything is perfect but my quality of life has improved dramatically. And it wasn’t difficult, nor do I deprive myself of foods I love. Yeah, no scones everyday Glory says. I have to carefully fit in treats if I want them. But I’m in control of myself and on a very rare occasion (couple times a year) I can overindulge a little. Moderation and some nutrition education has helped me tremendously.

7

I’ve lost about 35 lbs in 15 months. Slow, I know, but sustainable.

I cut portions. (My diet was and is relatively moderate, and I didn’t want to make drastic changes – I like eating too much for that to work for very long)

I exercise more. There’s a little gym at work where I ride an exercise bike for 1/2 hour most days. I started doing a lot of biking last summer and hope to get going again soon. I plan to do a fifty mile (at least) ride on my fiftieth birthday in September.

I take a fiber supplement with every meal (to help with portion control and to, um, keep things moving.

It’s working for me and it’s been pretty easy to do it and keep it up.

8

I’m down 22lbs. From 237 to 215. My goal weight is 200 - which is a healthy weight when you’re 6’5"

I use fitday.com It’s free. You sign up, plug in your current stats and your goal, and it tells you how many calories you need to consume in a day to reach that goal. Every time you eat something, you add it to your log. Fitday has thousands of foods in it’s database, you just pick what you ate and the portion size, and it tallies it up for you.

Once you’ve hit your calories for the day, you just don’t eat anymore. It’s really not tough once you get into it. For me, it was just a bunch of little changes.

First, I started eating breakfast. It’s usually a bagel and juice. Yes, it’s calories, but the important part is that I don’t go into lunch starving anymore. So, now I can pack a smaller lunch. My lunch used to be two sandwhiches and a bag of chips. Now it’s one sandwhich and a bag of carrots with some fat free salad dressing. It’s just as tasty, and alot less calories.

Like you, one of my biggest hurdles was drinking. I like booze. I like to get drunk. But, like everything else, I’ve learned to moderate. One trick is to drink Bacardi and diet Pepsi - it’s about 65 calories per drink where my normal whiskey coke is about 245 calories per drink. And, I just don’t drink as often.

I still excercise, but I’ve learned that a proper diet is much more conducive to losing weight than excercise. It’s much easier to not eat the extra calories than it is to burn them off on a treadmill. That bag of cheetos out of the vending maching will take you a minute or two to eat and 45min to an hour on the treadmill to get rid of.

9

Two months ago my dog was diagnosed as severely hypothyroid. I took him back Saturday after having him on thyroid meds for 8 weeks and he’d lost 17 lbs! 15% of his 118 lb body weight. The only change was the meds. Yay Wolf!

Now if only my thyroid meds would do as much for me!

StG

10

Pretty much where I’m at (-10 pounds and counting from 245). My “normal” weight until c. age 40 was 190-200, but all too often I’d go off on a pint of ice cream or a bag of Fritos (a medium-sized bag is 1600 calories!). Decided last month to just cut all that crap out, and so far it’s worked. I just keep checking the labels and toss back anything too calorific. I can still snack here and there, just can’t go off the deep end like I used to.

11

My diet plan is a very low fat diet,almost always less than 10 grams a day.i dont count anything but fat grams,no calories no carbs.

I walk nearly everyday up to 8 miles but usually 4-5

Drink lotsa water.

Started around the 1st of feb as of today I have lost 20 pounds, leaving me at 217…wanna get down to about 205.

12

I lost 35 pounds almost three years ago, and have kept it off since then.

A huge breakup fueled the initial start of it–doesn’t every girl want to get “revenge thin” after a breakup? (Not to mention that misery usually destroys the appetite, at least for a little while.)

But by far the biggest change for me was not eating after work; I bartend, and had gradually gained the weight over a period of 6 or 7 years by eating huge awful meals after work at four in the morning. Fast food, Denny’s, the all-night Mexican diner down the road…

I stopped that almost completely. I rarely eat now after midnight…and since I go to bed at 5 or 6 in the morning that’s like not eating after 6 p.m. for most people.

My biggest meal is now my first meal of the day. That can be whatever I want, whether it’s Mexican food or fried crap or mac and cheese…whatever it is, I eat it before I go to work. I’ll take something to work to munch on, and that’s it.

When I tell people this they say “That’s…it? That’s all you did?”

But seriously. A big huge meal before bed is a fantastic way to gain weight. I already have a relatively physical job; I’m on my feet and moving around the entire time. I was just sabotaging myself with ridiculous amounts of bad food late at night.

And now when I do “Give in” to the urge to gorge late at night, I generally regret it because it keeps me awake and upsets my stomach. I’m just not used to it anymore. Which is a good thing.

So are my skinny jeans. :stuck_out_tongue:

13

These are awesome stories. And I’m intrigued by how many different ways people have managed to lose weight, but it looks like all of them have involved eating differently and keeping that up.

It’s just crazy to me how many years I went being totally ignorant of what I was putting in my body and how those things affected it. I know that I won’t eat as perfectly as I am right now for the rest of my life (I just love food too much for that), but I don’t think that I could ever go back to being so willfully stupid about eating.

14

As do I! We have an SDMB team over there…plus it’s free!

I lost about 40 pounds with SparkPeople. I always knew that Eat Less + Exercise More = Weight Loss, but I never really had a way to quantify that. Once I started keeping track of my calories the weight just steadily went away. I hit my goal weight on Sept 7, lost another 10-15 pounds because I was afraid to eat more…I was afraid the weight would come back. So, I stopped tracking my food to get away from the numbers. I know what to do now, and should I ever get above my original goal weight again (135) I know where to go and how to handle it.

15

At work, our department used to have a weight loss contest every year after Christmas. Two years ago I participated.

We were pregnant with Jr. Intergalactic Gladiator #2 so I gave up drinking during my wife’s pregnancy and then basically followed the Weight Watchers plan where I assigned point vaules to everything I ate. I went from about 228 to 205.

I wasn’t able to weigh in on the last day, so I weighed in 2 days before. I was at almost 10% weight loss, so that night I ran 2 miles in the rain with my dog and ate only carrots for dinner. Those were the best carrots I ever had.

I ended up with 11% weight loss but there was one other coworker who had 12 or 13 and he won. I came in second and made a few bucks.

16

Since March of 2008, I’ve lost 53 pounds, with another 47 or so to go. I eat 5 meals a day, sometimes 6, with carbs and protein at each meal. This keeps my blood sugar level (I have insulin resistance). My nutritionist wanted me to eat 6 meals everyday, but sometimes I’m not hungry after dinner/before bed. When I am, I have some protein, like lowfat cheese.

I work out every day, from about 45 minutes to an hour–elliptical and exercise DVDs mostly, walking when it’s nice outside. I expect to be doing more walking soon.

I write everything down and track calories. If I have enough calories left for a dessert at the end of the day, I have it. The trick is to keep portion size down. I measure everything still, but I’m getting a feel for what a serving size looks like, so I’m hoping I won’t have to do that for much longer.

I was in a nasty plateau for about a month, but I kept going and the numbers are moving down again now. I’ve lost 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks. I hope to get to my goal by next March at the latest. 100 to 120 pounds in 2 years seems steady and safe. And hopefully it will be easier to keep it off.

17

Glory, your story is really inspirational to me, as cheesy as it sounds. :slight_smile:

I just lost 25 pounds (which is actually a fair bit when you’re 5’1 and fairly small-boned). I have no idea how I’ll do at keeping it off, but so far I’ve been eating much better because I’m encouraged by my success, and feel less need to eat to deal with feelings of failure.

I gained the weight suddenly when I began grad school - I felt sad and stressed all the time so I ate, I had terrible cooking facilities and depended too much on processed foods, and I was on medication that increased my appetite. People insisted that I carried the weight well and that I didn’t need to lose it, but I realized that I no longer enjoyed walking, which had always been one of my great pleasures. It was just too tiring carting all that extra weight around!

I started using SparkPeople.com, and while I never really kept at it for a long time, it taught me a lot. I realized that some “healthy” choices were actually treats (pasta, bagels, cheese) and that I couldn’t eat those whenever I felt like it. Basically, I tried to keep my calorie consumption between 1200-1500 per day (again, I’m a very small woman - that’s not right for most people I imagine) and make healthy choices and eat lots of fruit and vegetables. I could not handle anything that’s more restrictive than that or forced me to spend a lot of time preparing certain foods.

I also try to run about 20-30 minutes five times a week, and walk more instead of taking the bus - the weather’s nice, and it’s fun to feel the difference my weight loss makes and to feel those weird new muscles working!

If I could tell my friends who struggle with weight problems anything, it would be simply that a lot of the “healthy” foods they’re eating and punishing themselves with are just as bad as the original stuff they cut out. A little while ago I went out for coffee with a friend who is trying to lose weight for her wedding, and she got a pepsi and a whole wheat muffin. Of course I said nothing to her, but I’m sure she figured that she wasn’t doing perfectly, but at least her muffin was healthy. Unfortunately, I bet that muffin had just as much fat and calories as a chocolate-covered doughnut, and she probably didn’t even enjoy it that much.

Oh, and I’m also trying to avoid binging by allowing myself a small treat each evening. A cup of tea and a small scone, or two cookies, or a small piece of pie or cake or something.

18

I notice a lot of weight losers and maintainers mention learning proper portion size and what is actually healthy for you or not. I had to learn this as well.

As said before, a whole wheat muffin is NOT healthy, it’s full of calories and fat. Low fat doesn’t always mean healthy either, it can still be high calorie. 100 calorie packs are great, IF you only eat one of them. A half cup of ice cream is a LOT less then your eyes think it is. A serving of meat is very small (a pack of cards). Little things, like cream in your coffee, honey in your tea and the milk in your cereal all add up really fast.

19

This is so important. Portion size as well as things you think are healthy are not always healthy! Just because something is low fat does not mean it’s not brimming with calories, and calories are what one must count. Before I started losing weight I looked at nutrition information except I looked at fat content, not calories. For some reason I thought that fat was what mattered and I was wrong! And I would have probably been happier with a 250 calorie soft serve ice cream rather than a 750 calorie fruit smoothie at an ice cream shop, for instance. But I was so busy looking at fat content, believing I was making a good choice. I mean, fruit is good, right? Not always. Same with a bran muffin like you mention.

But I do eat things I love, within reason. I’m notorious for my love of pizza. I eat pizza once a week, but I make it from scratch, load it with veggies, go very easy on cheese, and eat a light lunch that day. So I get my favorite food in a satisfying amount without hurting my efforts.

20

I was diagnosed with high sugar levels and the doc wanted to consider pills to lower it. I told him no thanks, I will try losing weight . 3 months later when I went back , I was 40 lbs lighter and sugar levels were normal. I added another day of racketball and watched what I ate. I play 4 times a week for a total of approx. 10 hours a week. I always walk my dogs, summer and winter ,for at least 2 miles a day.