Any weight loss stories

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So I am currently working on losing weight and am really struggling. I was wondering if anyone had any weight loss stories that could inspire me?

Last week i lost 6 pounds but this week i put on a pound so i get a bit disheartened

Don't get disheartened! I lost between 65 and 70 pounds since May 2015. I found dietary changes helped the most.









The top two are me at my highest weight (the face one is three years and the body one is two I think) and the bottom two are from this year. The dress pic was about 3 months ago (about 8 pounds ago) and the face one was about a month ago which was like 5 pounds higher than I am now.

Today I'm 152 and I'm 5'9". I was 230 four years ago and 220 last March. I'm hoping to get down to between 140-145.

I hope you don't give up! I know it can be discouraging at times, but it feels so good to see how much weight you've lost.

Do you have a goal? My goal changed several times as I was losing weight. At the beginning I wanted to be at 170, then 150, and now I want to be 140-145.

It's important to remember that your body and the scales lie...

Your weight will fluctuate throughout the day, the weight of your clothing on different days, how much you have used the bathroom, even if it is that time of the month.

I know from experience the scales can say you have lost nothing (or put on), yet your measurements prove otherwise.

Weighing yourself weekly will really only give you an overall "trend" to look at.

The secret to success is not a fad diet, but changing your life style, and if you have a bad day / week, don't worry about it, just keep going. It is not a failure, failure is giving up.

I started putting on the pounds in early puberty. I think the biochemical changes then triggered it. Also, there is a family history of it. I gradually put on more and more weight over many years. I eventually stabilized around 235-245. Weight does tend to fluctuate some. In my mid/late 40s I had a hysterectomy because of cancer, and after that I put on another 60 pounds. I had read up on diets over the years, and they all sounded nuts to me, as most of them would not work, because they deprive the body of too many nutrients, so eventually people on them get overwhelming cravings, and go stuff themselves, and just can't stay on those diets. The few diets that do sound healthy, involve eating too many foods you don't like, and either few or none that you do like, so again, you just can't stay on them.

Some years ago I finally read about something called "diet modification." It's not a diet plan. Rather, you just try to find healthier alternatives for as many of the unhealthy things you eat, as possible. You do this gradually, to get used to eating this way on a regular basis, and you can still eat some of the unhealthy foods you like. Also, you don't count calories. You just modify your personal menu, but at your comfort level. This method made a lot of sense to me, so I gradually started doing it. There was no real weight loss for me for a number of years on this program, but it did help my stomach acid problems when I almost eliminated fried foods from my diet, and substituted baked versions of those foods instead. I was taking a lot of antacid tablets every day, and was finally able to stop regular use of them. I now only use them a few times a year! I still have the same bottle of them that I had when I moved here 13 years ago.

The reason I didn't get a real weight loss from the plan for many years, is because the food change over was rather gradual, and my health declined, so I wasn't moving around much, and thus, I was burning less calories. About a year and a half ago I purchased a pair of heavy duty steel canes, which weigh almost 5 pounds each, because my two bad knees had gotten a lot worse. Thanks to the canes I am able to move around more, and every time I use the canes I am lifting 5 pound weights, so I am burning more calories. This seems to have helped trigger a change in my body chemistry, which I started helping along even more a few months ago, by adding distraction therapy to the mix.

I am the sort of person who always eats a hearty meal, as I can't stand to finish a meal without feeling full. With distraction therapy, I am able to keep myself occupied to the extent of going longer between meals. I still tank up at each meal, but eat few meals, so I consume fewer calories.

The combination of diet modification, mild exercise with the canes, and distraction therapy has caused me to lose almost 60 pounds. Since I plan on continuing with this three pronged program, I will be able to continue losing weight. I have a dream of someday reaching what should be my normal weight, based on height, body type, and activity level. I now believe that I will one day achieve this goal. It will take a long time, but it took me decades to reach a high of 300 pounds. I am now down to almost what I weighed before my cancer surgery, and that in less than a year. I'm not in a rush over this. I've read that people--and animals, who lose weight too fast can have health issues caused by a lack of needed nutrients, so fast weight loss isn't a good idea. Also, if you take your time to lose weight, your body has more time to absorb at least some of the flabby skin left over as you "deflate."

Finding out that I have lost so much weight, and in less than a year, has been a real boost to me. I still have a few old less fat clothes kicking around, that I kept in the forlorn hope that I would someday lose weight, and be able to wear them again. Well, now that "someday" will really come!

I lost approx. 70 pounds over 2 years... It's possible, but it took serious exercise and a radical change of diet...

So here is some advice that works (for me, at least):

- Start counting calories. Weight loss is essentially physics: If you have a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. If you have a calorie surplus, you will gain weight. But if you don't know if you have a deficit or not, then you are completely in the dark. Software like MyFitnessPal will allow you to track both your calorie consumption (what you drink and eat) and your calorie burn (exercise).

- Take a long run view. I seriously doubt that you *actually* lost 6 pounds in a week. That's a deficit of 21,000 kcal, and equivalent to a 210 pound individual running 6 marathons in a single week. It is quite common for people to experience a very large sudden weight loss when they start exercising, only to be frustrated when very little happens subsequently... This is because one loses water when exercising... This is also why you should weigh yourself at the same time of the day for meaningful comparisons. It's not uncommon for my weight to fluctuate by 8 pounds throughout the day when I'm exercising, for instance...

- Avoid fad diets. They do not work, and they can actually be downright unhealthy. What you need to do is to make *permanent* adjustments to your diet which you can stick by in the long run. This is also why starving yourself to weight loss is a no-go... It is unhealthy (you need a minimum amount of calories every day plus a range of nutrients) and you probably can't keep it up. As such, it's better to set a longer time frame for weight loss than to cut back too hard on calories.

- Focus on exercise that (1) has a low risk of injury and (2) that you actually like... otherwise you will have a hard time keeping it up. I'd always recommend bicycling, as it has a very low risk of injury (but wear a helmet!! !) and is very good for gradually improving your aerobic fitness. Swimming burns even more calories, but is more complicated from a logistical perspective. Running burns quite a lot of calories, but the risk of injury is higher (especially if one is very overweight)... Hiking works as well, but requires some hilly terrain if you want to burn a lot of calories.

Any kind of exercise that can make a difference is a real luxury. Starvation is the way to suffer the shame for having gotten obese in the first place.

Things that helped me.

Remembering numbers on a scale are just numbers.

The number 170 today is different than when that same number that was higher.
That is going from 190 to 188 to 187... To 170

From 153 to 158 to 165 to 170.

Another is emotional eating recognition

Also eating to get sleepy

Eating while reading

Over eaters anonymous helped for a while.

Now Celebrate Recovery helps
Some say eat everything with moderation
I still use an O. A. idea of picking a No food
Mine now is cookies. I could eat a packageof Oreos
Today is day 86 without them
90 days ago I had 11 years without them. 2 years ago I was 18 pounds lighter. This thread will help me.
I'm also doing yoga, lap swim and spin class.

I've had success so far with flexible dieting. You track macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fat) and keep them in a certain ratio. My Fitness Pal is a good app for this. Losing over two pounds a week isn't good for you unless you are greatly obese.

During a stressful period in my life I gained 20 kilos, mostly from lazy greasy dinners (oven pizza).

Those 20 kilos weren't there before, so I figured I could do without them.

I've lost about 15 of those kilos in the span of about a year, by paying a bit more attention to what I eat:
- No snacking unless at social events
- A good full meal for dinner. If I miss this, I feel hungry all most all the time the next day.
- All drinks replaced by coffee and tea. No milk, no sugar. No coffee after 18:00, and only herbal teas after 21:00, because both can interfere with sleep. Tea and coffee have practically no calories in them.

There's hardly any exercise involved, and some friends claim that the activities "don't count". Regardless I think they're still infinitely better than sitting still. I either walk around town for an hour or so, or take my bicycle for a ride. Neither is very strenuous.

Derp, almost 5 years ago was 120kgs now around 73. Also building muscle.

I have lost a lot of weight in a short span.