Arielle Gooding
New member
Hi, im new to this website and I'm not even sure where to post this but here it is. I am a girl about 203.4 pounds though a lot of people are extremely surprise when i tell them. They say i don't look it. Anyway I am trying to lose about 50 pounds in 3 or 4 months. Really im just trying to lose weight, preferably in a shorter time frame but i know the weight won't come off in 5 seconds. The weight didn't come on in 5 seconds, i don't except it to come off in 5 seconds. I've been trying since august and nothing. Im depressed and more than a little hopeless. This is my history. This will be a bit long. Sorry.
I started my weight-loss Journey August of 2017. I've wanted to lose weight for years before that but something hit me then to just start it now. So I would workout at home and look at workout videos on YouTube and in about 3 to 4 weeks I lost 10 pounds. In the beginning of my workout Journey I was 212 pounds and then I went all the way to 202 lb. And this was before I was going to the gym. I was extremely proud of myself and so was my family. Near the end of August I asked my mom to get me a gym membership to Planet Fitness and she did. Literally from that point on all the way to the end of November I went to the gym all the time. From about August to mid-november I went every single day. And when I say everyday I mean every day. From Monday all the way to Sunday and again the next week. I was just so enthusiastic and motivated. I eventually cut it down to about 4 to 5 days a week but I was still very motivated. I would weigh myself everyday and I know that's not good but I was just dying to see what the scale would say from my work out the day before. I sweated my ass off. In the beginning I really just did strength training and weight machines. But almost everybody was telling me I should add some cardio so I would do cardio for about 20 minutes at the end usually the treadmill sometimes the bike. I stayed at the gym for at least one hour. Sometimes when I went on the scale it would say I was a pound or two heavier than the day before but it wouldn't bother me cuz I would be like well maybe that's just muscle or well i can just work it off today and tomorrow. That's how motivated and determined I was. I was even calorie counting which was pretty hard but I did what I had to do. I became one of those people that was like "so how many calories do you think this meal is" to try to get an estimate. I tried to eat at least 1500 calories at the most 1800 calories a day. I'm not going to lie I did eat some junk food but I would take it away from my daily calorie count. Let's say I didn't eat anything in the morning which I know it's a problem I'm going to explain that but anyway let's be like I didn't eat anything all morning and I come home from school and I wanted a devil dog,a devil dog is about 150 calories so I would take a hundred fifty calories from 1500 and then I would have the rest of the calories to eat which would usually be dinner. This was especially hard on Fridays because my father would make these big meals and he would have a lot of junk in his house which was hard to stay away from but I did it. Back to the breakfast thing ,I didn't eat in the morning during this time. I never really have to be honest. I haven't eaten in the morning as far back as Elementary School I believe. When my mom would make breakfast I just didn't really have an appetite in the morning. Now I have like eight o'clock classes and I have to walk my dog also so sometimes,most of the time, I just don't have the time to eat. During this time I did realize my thighs were getting a bit more toned and I was getting stronger if I go by how often I had to make the weight heavier on the machines. I was proud of myself in that aspect but my weight loss had been extremely slow. In all of that time from late August to about mid November I had lost probably about 5 lb if that. I was extremely frustrated and disappointed with that aspect. I didn't know what I was doing wrong and it's honestly just depressed me. I mean I knew I was doing something right because when I went to the doctor at about early December my A1C had gone down drastically. For people who don't know, your A1C is like your blood sugar level and if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes. I was pre-diabetic with an A1C of about 6.3 I think and in four months I went down all the way to 5.6. 5.5 is the safe range. The only way to get your A1C down is to cut out sugar and exercise and I was doing both so I was very confused about why the weight wouldn't fall off. Around this time in late November early December I kind of stopped going to the gym as much. I was just depressed and I had kind of given up cuz I felt like I was doing what I'm supposed to do but no weight was being lost. I wanted to lose weight to better my health and to feel better about my body. I also wanted to at least of lost 25 to 30 lb by December cuz I was going on a cruise. You know, I just wanted to look better than I looked before. And at that point I was barely 5 lbs less then when I started my journey 4 months earlier. My whole family saw my frustration and irritability. They kept saying not to give up and it's going to be hard and I knew that it was going to be hard but. I don't know I just wasn't feeling as motivated. When we came back from the cruise I thankfully didn't really gain any weight. I gained maybe a pound or two. I didn't really go to the gym after that cuz I was still feeling very discouraged. I went to the gym for a little while in January but I only did cardio. 30 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes on the treadmill. I literally went from doing all strength training, to doing a bit of strength training and a bit of cardio to only cardio. A complete 360. When school started early February, I stopped going to the gym completely. I went for about two weeks in late February but again I got discouraged. I always think back to how motivated and into going to the gym I was in August all the way to November and how I saw practically no change so why would I see a change now? My average day when I was going to the gym a lot was go to school which started usually at 8 or 9:30 then go to work straight from school and I usually stayed there till about 4 or 5 and then i would go to the gym. Sometimes I didn't have my gym clothes with me so I would have to go home and then go to the gym and by then it was pitch black outside. My mom wasn't too happy about that but she knew how important it was to me.
Anyway i tried the fasting diet I think some people also call it the 8-16 diet . It's where you eat for only 8 hours and you fast for the other 16 and I was super into it but I did it for about a month and no real change. Maybe I should do it longer. I might try it again in the future. I even did the 6-18 diet which is exactly like the one above but you just eat for only 6 hours and you fast for the other 18. I didn't do that one too long cuz by then I already felt like the diet wasn't for me.
As of right now, I'm 203 pounds and I'm just trying to take everyday a step at a time. I'm trying to eat smaller meals more frequently so we'll see how that works. I went to the gym two days ago but didn't stay too long. I just went there to show someone I know the machines that I used. I'm trying to eat breakfast too even if it's like just a banana or two. I try to eat every 4 hours which is hard cuz I'm in school most of that time so I have to bring food with me. I'm so used to eating once or twice a day so I'm still getting used to this. I've been doing this since Monday so I won't see changes yet but you know we'll see how this goes. And when I said I was used to eating once or twice a day I didn't mean I was starving myself. It's just that I wouldn't eat breakfast I would go to school and then after school I would usually get a big meal. Probably a foot long Subway sandwich. I would be full for hours after that. Sometimes I wouldn't even eat dinner.
Back to when I was going to the gym all the time I even convinced my mom and sometimes my dad to go with me. They were happy that I was finally showing more care towards my body and health.
Another thing is that I went to the doctor on Saturday and I told her all of this. I told her I was doing everything I felt like I was supposed to do but no change. She said I may be insulin resistant which would make it really hard for me to lose weight. She said they could always do a test. I'm going to see a doctor to look at my metabolism and then a dietitian. So maybe it's a medical thing I don't know.
So thank you for anyone who took the time to read this. I know it was long sorry! But I did warn you! Anyone have any advice I would love to hear it! Again thank you for reading this and I hope you have a good day!!!! If you are trying to lose weight I hope you have good luck on your Journey too!!
I started my weight-loss Journey August of 2017. I've wanted to lose weight for years before that but something hit me then to just start it now. So I would workout at home and look at workout videos on YouTube and in about 3 to 4 weeks I lost 10 pounds. In the beginning of my workout Journey I was 212 pounds and then I went all the way to 202 lb. And this was before I was going to the gym. I was extremely proud of myself and so was my family. Near the end of August I asked my mom to get me a gym membership to Planet Fitness and she did. Literally from that point on all the way to the end of November I went to the gym all the time. From about August to mid-november I went every single day. And when I say everyday I mean every day. From Monday all the way to Sunday and again the next week. I was just so enthusiastic and motivated. I eventually cut it down to about 4 to 5 days a week but I was still very motivated. I would weigh myself everyday and I know that's not good but I was just dying to see what the scale would say from my work out the day before. I sweated my ass off. In the beginning I really just did strength training and weight machines. But almost everybody was telling me I should add some cardio so I would do cardio for about 20 minutes at the end usually the treadmill sometimes the bike. I stayed at the gym for at least one hour. Sometimes when I went on the scale it would say I was a pound or two heavier than the day before but it wouldn't bother me cuz I would be like well maybe that's just muscle or well i can just work it off today and tomorrow. That's how motivated and determined I was. I was even calorie counting which was pretty hard but I did what I had to do. I became one of those people that was like "so how many calories do you think this meal is" to try to get an estimate. I tried to eat at least 1500 calories at the most 1800 calories a day. I'm not going to lie I did eat some junk food but I would take it away from my daily calorie count. Let's say I didn't eat anything in the morning which I know it's a problem I'm going to explain that but anyway let's be like I didn't eat anything all morning and I come home from school and I wanted a devil dog,a devil dog is about 150 calories so I would take a hundred fifty calories from 1500 and then I would have the rest of the calories to eat which would usually be dinner. This was especially hard on Fridays because my father would make these big meals and he would have a lot of junk in his house which was hard to stay away from but I did it. Back to the breakfast thing ,I didn't eat in the morning during this time. I never really have to be honest. I haven't eaten in the morning as far back as Elementary School I believe. When my mom would make breakfast I just didn't really have an appetite in the morning. Now I have like eight o'clock classes and I have to walk my dog also so sometimes,most of the time, I just don't have the time to eat. During this time I did realize my thighs were getting a bit more toned and I was getting stronger if I go by how often I had to make the weight heavier on the machines. I was proud of myself in that aspect but my weight loss had been extremely slow. In all of that time from late August to about mid November I had lost probably about 5 lb if that. I was extremely frustrated and disappointed with that aspect. I didn't know what I was doing wrong and it's honestly just depressed me. I mean I knew I was doing something right because when I went to the doctor at about early December my A1C had gone down drastically. For people who don't know, your A1C is like your blood sugar level and if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes. I was pre-diabetic with an A1C of about 6.3 I think and in four months I went down all the way to 5.6. 5.5 is the safe range. The only way to get your A1C down is to cut out sugar and exercise and I was doing both so I was very confused about why the weight wouldn't fall off. Around this time in late November early December I kind of stopped going to the gym as much. I was just depressed and I had kind of given up cuz I felt like I was doing what I'm supposed to do but no weight was being lost. I wanted to lose weight to better my health and to feel better about my body. I also wanted to at least of lost 25 to 30 lb by December cuz I was going on a cruise. You know, I just wanted to look better than I looked before. And at that point I was barely 5 lbs less then when I started my journey 4 months earlier. My whole family saw my frustration and irritability. They kept saying not to give up and it's going to be hard and I knew that it was going to be hard but. I don't know I just wasn't feeling as motivated. When we came back from the cruise I thankfully didn't really gain any weight. I gained maybe a pound or two. I didn't really go to the gym after that cuz I was still feeling very discouraged. I went to the gym for a little while in January but I only did cardio. 30 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes on the treadmill. I literally went from doing all strength training, to doing a bit of strength training and a bit of cardio to only cardio. A complete 360. When school started early February, I stopped going to the gym completely. I went for about two weeks in late February but again I got discouraged. I always think back to how motivated and into going to the gym I was in August all the way to November and how I saw practically no change so why would I see a change now? My average day when I was going to the gym a lot was go to school which started usually at 8 or 9:30 then go to work straight from school and I usually stayed there till about 4 or 5 and then i would go to the gym. Sometimes I didn't have my gym clothes with me so I would have to go home and then go to the gym and by then it was pitch black outside. My mom wasn't too happy about that but she knew how important it was to me.
Anyway i tried the fasting diet I think some people also call it the 8-16 diet . It's where you eat for only 8 hours and you fast for the other 16 and I was super into it but I did it for about a month and no real change. Maybe I should do it longer. I might try it again in the future. I even did the 6-18 diet which is exactly like the one above but you just eat for only 6 hours and you fast for the other 18. I didn't do that one too long cuz by then I already felt like the diet wasn't for me.
As of right now, I'm 203 pounds and I'm just trying to take everyday a step at a time. I'm trying to eat smaller meals more frequently so we'll see how that works. I went to the gym two days ago but didn't stay too long. I just went there to show someone I know the machines that I used. I'm trying to eat breakfast too even if it's like just a banana or two. I try to eat every 4 hours which is hard cuz I'm in school most of that time so I have to bring food with me. I'm so used to eating once or twice a day so I'm still getting used to this. I've been doing this since Monday so I won't see changes yet but you know we'll see how this goes. And when I said I was used to eating once or twice a day I didn't mean I was starving myself. It's just that I wouldn't eat breakfast I would go to school and then after school I would usually get a big meal. Probably a foot long Subway sandwich. I would be full for hours after that. Sometimes I wouldn't even eat dinner.
Back to when I was going to the gym all the time I even convinced my mom and sometimes my dad to go with me. They were happy that I was finally showing more care towards my body and health.
Another thing is that I went to the doctor on Saturday and I told her all of this. I told her I was doing everything I felt like I was supposed to do but no change. She said I may be insulin resistant which would make it really hard for me to lose weight. She said they could always do a test. I'm going to see a doctor to look at my metabolism and then a dietitian. So maybe it's a medical thing I don't know.
So thank you for anyone who took the time to read this. I know it was long sorry! But I did warn you! Anyone have any advice I would love to hear it! Again thank you for reading this and I hope you have a good day!!!! If you are trying to lose weight I hope you have good luck on your Journey too!!
