Losing 160 pounds...fact or fiction?

San2

San2

Mod
Hiya all!

I'm new to the forums, but after reading for a while, I already feel right at home. Finally a place with a lot of people who all seem to have a lot in common. Finally a place where I don't hear things like 'Oh you're on a diet...mhh...whatever.'

My weight at the moment is 351.4 lbs. I started at 360. I want to get down to 200. Not sure if I can do it, but I will damn well try. So far I have completely changed my diet, got a tattoo (for the moral support! *lol*), and bought some scales. The scales are okay I guess, but the body fat thingie gives me an error...guess there's too much of it! *lol*

I will start execising this week. 20 - 30 minutes on my exercise bike for starters. I had 0 exercise before, so that should make a tiny bit of difference, shouldn't it?

I also started a diary in the diary section here. Might help to share all the ups and downs with others who know what I'm talking about. And maybe, if I can really lose some weight, it might help others as well to see that no matter HOW overweight you are, you can change it. I mean, I'm not trying to lose 10 pounds to get into a certain dress or something. Basically, I'm trying to save myself from biting the dust before I make it to my 40th birthday. Especially recently, my body's been desperately trying to point out to me that I need to change things. I finally listened. :)

Anyway, I'm glad to have found this forum, and look forward to chat to you all. :)
 
myself and a few others around here have lose over 100, over 150lbs actually... it can be done... it just takes consistent behavior and patience... don't expect whopping losses every week - but 2-3 lbs a week - add up over time..
 
I agree. It is a total fact - if you make it happen. I tried and failed many times though - so I know how impossible it can feel. My wonderful husband is having great difficulty getting anywhere with his project too. His BMI is still well into the 50s.

I am a firm believer in setting lots of little milestones for yourself. Dont look at the big picture of how much in total you want to lose. Think in terms of - it would be great to drop 10 pounds. You can get all sorts of other benefits too - like seeing things like your blood pressure and cholesterol levels change. Not to mention clothes sizes and measurements. Not to mention how you look in photos. It doesnt have to be all about the size you are at the start and the size that you want at the end. There are all sorts of shades of grey where you get benefits along the way.

The exercise that you are doing will not just help a little bit - it will help a lot. I found walking to be of immense benefit. Like you - I had a zero start - truth be told I was hardly leaving the house. I started off going on a slow walk round the block each day - a total of about 0.6 miles. In my experience comments about walking having to be done briskly are mainly for people that are not pretty big - frankly when I started I couldnt do anything briskly. I actually feel I need to make that point because the notion of walking having to be done briskly actually stopped me from walking when I tried to lose weight back in 1996 - I thought "what is the point if it is not going to help me lose weight". I have to say though that I did increase my distance as soon as I could so that as the days and weeks passed I built up to doing quite a few miles each day. I also speeded up. I now have a treadmill and do quite a few miles at 4.4mph each day. I am certainly no expert - I just know what I found I had to do for me to get results. My point is that what is appropriate for a bigger person is no longer appropriate as the project progresses.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your project.
 
Thanks a lot everybody for the answers so far. I'm really glad to have found this place! :)

Omega, that is exactly what I am doing. I set myself little 10 pound milestones, and treat myself when I reach them...not with food, I don't have any cravings at the moment (thank heavens), but with other things. A pair of earrings here, a nice body lotion there...stuff like that.

I am exactly the same way - I hardly leave the house, other than for grocery shopping. I don't know anybody around here other than my husband (who is even bigger than I am, and doesn't seem to have any interest in losing weight). I moved here about 2 years ago, leaving my family and friends behind, so any kind of support is sparse.

And that is exactly what I would like to do...start out slow, and gradually increase what I do exercise wise. I mean, I have just been on the exercise bike for 15 minutes (until it broke :banghead:) and after about 5 I had cramps in my legs, was covered in sweat and needed to catch my breath. ANd I wasn't even going fast for crying out loud!

May I ask how long it has taken you to get your weight down? It looks like you made insane progress....I hope one day my weight ticker looks like yours!! :)
 
I started this project in the last week of February last year. Mind you - I have kind of been treating it as a full time job. As I said - I wasnt leaving the house so my life had kind of gone a bit on hold. I just started going out for a walk - then walking more and more each day. I also started being good with my food. At first - my husband would bring me a biscuit or sweet and I would just leave it to one side. If he asked about it I would say that I would have it later. I then put them into a drawer that he didnt look in often. It got quite full after a few weeks! I started trying to cook healthy food - but not really making a fuss about it - as far as he was concerned it was just that I didnt fancy take-away - and I had made such-and-such for the evening meal that night.

My husband would not have been keen for me to start a diet - as he knew how disappointed I had been when other projects failed and I put on the weight that I had lost. It meant that I had got nicely into the swing of things and started seeing some reductions by the time he realised what I was doing.

Although he denies it - there is also the slight suspicion that one of the reasons he was not keen on me dieting is that it kind of increased the pressure on him to watch his food. We started off at much the same size - so I cannot be accused of "not knowing what it is like" when we talk of the benefits to his health of him losing weight. I do worry about him a lot as he is within a year of the age his father was when he died from a heart attack due to morbid obesity.

I now walk such a lot and have taken up other forms of exercise too. I joke that I have turned into the most unlikely of athletes.

Hope it helps.
Margaret
 
You can do it San...

What a wonderful and self fulfilling journey you could possibly embark on.

I know i have done it and almost finished.

you are going to do amazing. I am here for support if you would like...

Welcome from another newbie.

bianca xxx
 
Welcome, San! This forum is a valuable resource for people working on making a lifestyle change. Better to look at it as a lifestyle change than a diet.

San said:
My weight at the moment is 351.4 lbs. I started at 360. I want to get down to 200. Not sure if I can do it, but I will damn well try. So far I have completely changed my diet, got a tattoo (for the moral support! *lol*), and bought some scales. The scales are okay I guess, but the body fat thingie gives me an error...guess there's too much of it! *lol*
Click to expand...

You can get down to 200. To paraphrase a quote from a very wise Jedi... "there is no try. Do or do not." (Sorry, old Star Wars junkie here... :biggrinjester:). Its going to take a lot of work, but if you want it bad enough, it will give you the determination to do it.

Basically, I'm trying to save myself from biting the dust before I make it to my 40th birthday. Especially recently, my body's been desperately trying to point out to me that I need to change things. I finally listened. :)
Click to expand...

Ah, the old looming big 4-0. Don't I know how that goes? That was one of the big incentives for me to kick it into gear this year and lose weight. I decided I didn't want to bring the excess poundage with me into my 40s when I hit them later this year.

I'll be following your diary. :party:
 
Omega -
I think my husband is exactly the same way. I never went on a diet before since we get married (which is only 2 years), so I guess he's not happy that I want to lose weight now, putting a stop to his 'You have no idea how difficult it is to lose weight' rants. I have said the same thing all my life, but if you really want it, it's not *that* difficult. I mean, I'm not starving myself or anything, just eating differently. If I can do it, so can he, and that's where the problem seems to lie. Oh well...he'll just have to get over it.

Craving, Biancatrish -
Thanks for the welcome and the encouraging words. They mean much more to me than you might realise. :)

Phoenyx -
Well, I'm only 33, so that should give me plenty of time to whip myself into shape for the big 4-0. And nothing wrong with being a Star Wars junkie! *lol*
 
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