How Many Have Lost Fat The "Right Way"?

[MuscleMom23]

Just for my curiousity, and well being, and motivation, how many of you have lost, let's say 50 lbs and up the correct way in accordance with principles on this forum?

I am hard pressed to find many people, yet I know they are out there. When I have asked some people a common answer is, I lost it the wrong way, now I know better.

And did it take you a very long time, let's say a couple of years?

This clean eating, lifting thing seems to take forever . It makes the most sense for getting fit and healthy. I just want to forecast some realistic goals for the next three months.

Thanks

[SpacecityPaula]

MM

I've lost and kept off approximately 50 lbs for the last 2.5 years. It's not easy but I would rather do it slow and steady and win the race then fast and quick and not change the underlying foundation that lead to the problem in the first place.

[MuscleMom23]

Wow Paula, one person? I have searched the internet. You are the one! I agree with the permanent aspect.

Any others out there?

[Lost Dog]

I went from 235 to 220 or so by eating slightly less (500-1000) than maint and exercising (jogging and biking). No weights. Calorieking.com was my tool of choice.

At around 220, I started lifting weights and still jogging. 500-1000 deficit.

At 195, I bought my first book (Testosterone Advantage Plan) and started the more serious/organized/planned out weights and slowing down on the cardio.

I got down to 165 with TAP (above) and Turbulence Training.

Since then, it's been waves of adding muscle and dropping fat back up to 190 and waaay leaner than I was at 165.

5 years now. So I think it's permanent.

BTW, people who don't make it permanent, don't care to do so. Maybe they set the wrong expectations for themselves. Maybe they were sad and thought that being skinny would fix that. When it doesn't, they eat up, because food was what they looked at to make them happy in the first place.

There's nothing magical about slow and steady, except for a couple of things. We can debate how trivial they are, I guess.

1. It teaches you good habits. A dramatically low diet that gets you there overnight teaches you nothing about good eating habits. A slow and steady diet makes you suffer a little less, but for far longer. You get use to it and/or find strategies that help you cope.

2. Because slow and steady sucks so much for so long, only someone who really wants it will do it and stick with it. Since they wanted it that badly, they tend to stick with it afterwards, too.

[MuscleMom23]

Originally Posted by Lost Dog

There's nothing magical about slow and steady, except for a couple of things. We can debate how trivial they are, I guess.

1. It teaches you good habits. A dramatically low diet that gets you there overnight teaches you nothing about good eating habits. A slow and steady diet makes you suffer a little less, but for far longer. You get use to it and/or find strategies that help you cope.

2. Because slow and steady sucks so much for so long, only someone who really wants it will do it and stick with it. Since they wanted it that badly, they tend to stick with it afterwards, too.

So true, so true. I just don't hear very many people talk about it at all. It is so rare. It is definitely unpopular. I am on the 2.5 lbs a month plan LOL! I am thinking, heck, that is TOO slow LOL! I did not start out with a fast loss, I have never been able to do that. I even only lost 7 lbs on South Beach but that took me weeks! And I quit after 6! Everyone else around me dumped the weight.

Who in their right mind goes into something like this, intending to work harder than you ever worked before, and losing less then hundreds of people around you.

I guess the only thing that keeps me coming back are the words, forever, permanent, never again. If I only have to do this once, then never again, how cool is that!

But the motivation thing is tough.

Anyone else?

[DirtyMartini]

I did. I posted my "heaviest" picture in my log, but this is me at 215:


Spring of 2002, I started working out. I got down to 160 after months of cardio & weight lifting (took about 6-8 months, if I remember correctly). Granted, I stuck to the weights machines so I don't think it was "ideal" weightlifting but it worked. I noticed, through the months of exercising, that when I left the weights out, my weight loss slowed. About 2 years after my start, I was down to 150. I've gone between 150 and 165 since then, and am now about 148 and moving downward. I plan to stay under 155 for the rest of my life. Maybe even under 150.

I've kept the weight off for years by eating a lot better than I did (portion control, mostly - no seconds unless it's salad/veggies) and finding ways to stay active. I've also found that, in trying various things like yoga and running, I enjoy weightlifting the most.

[MuscleMom23]

Wow Dirty Martini, that is not too slow. Very nice keeping it off

[featherz]

I lost 45# pretty much the 'right way' and I have kept it off four years. It took me six months. My eating wasn't 100% 'clean' at first, but I stuck to no less than 1500 calories with a cheat day on Saturdays, body for life style. Started doing weights about month #2, same with HIIT-like cardio. I love food too much to starve and I wasn't in a hurry.
I did the crash diet thing when I was a teen (25 years ago) - who didn't? :P

[MuscleMom23]

Bravo Featherz

[DirtyMartini]

It sure feels slow when you're losing the weight the "right way" but once it's gone and it's been years since you were there, you forget how long it took and how hard it was and how discouraged you'd get at times, etc. Hope you're feeling encouraged that others have done it the right way and kept it off, musclemom

[MuscleMom23]

Originally Posted by DirtyMartini

It sure feels slow when you're losing the weight the "right way" but once it's gone and it's been years since you were there, you forget how long it took and how hard it was and how discouraged you'd get at times, etc. Hope you're feeling encouraged that others have done it the right way and kept it off, musclemom

I am still trying to find my "groove".

[stingo]

I've gone from 354 to about 240/mid 230's by lifting 3x a week, and spinning 2x week, starting in May '05. My weight hasn't changed much in about a year, but I'm told that I look thinner/smaller, so I'm hoping I'm losing fat.

[MuscleMom23]

Originally Posted by stingo

I've gone from 354 to about 240/mid 230's by lifting 3x a week, and spinning 2x week, starting in May '05. My weight hasn't changed much in about a year, but I'm told that I look thinner/smaller, so I'm hoping I'm losing fat.

I saw your pics . You are doing great. I didn't know if you started out right from the get go or not.

The thing I notice the most is people starting out with some crazy diet and losing gobs of weight and picking up better habits along the way. So I can never assume they started out doing the correct things. Some people will say I lost 100 lbs in a year. I used to assume that was through exercise and a clean diet. I don't think that is necessarily so anymore.

[stingo]

Originally Posted by MuscleMom23

I saw your pics . You are doing great. I didn't know if you started out right from the get go or not.

The thing I notice the most is people starting out with some crazy diet and losing gobs of weight and picking up better habits along the way. So I can never assume they started out doing the correct things. Some people will say I lost 100 lbs in a year. I used to assume that was through exercise and a clean diet. I don't think that is necessarily so anymore.

Nope, I started out ok from the get go. Started with machines and the elliptical, to free weights and spinning, then to NROL and spinning. and currently with a personal trainer, and spinning.

[MuscleMom23]

Originally Posted by stingo

Nope, I started out ok from the get go. Started with machines and the elliptical, to free weights and spinning, then to NROL and spinning. and currently with a personal trainer, and spinning.

A rare animal you are!

[realcdn]

Well, I started out badly the first time. At 407 I was shocked at the weight (hadn't stepped on a scale that would give me a weight in years). I wasn't quite sure what to do, and decided I just needed to start something. I went low-fat vegetarian as I tried to shake my bad habits out. If I did the drive-thru, it was a veggie burger and a salad, with my own low-fat dressing. I would joke that it was 'no meat, no fat, no sugar', but it wasn't really a great diet. Of course it worked, since even eating tons of veggies, fruit, and soy, I was eating fewer calories. I didn't exercise, although I had a job that allowed me to be active. I spent more time on the production floor, instead of my desk, which was actually good for my job. I think I lost about the first 100 pounds that way. That covers most of 2004. I even went on a cruise at the end of the year (food galore) and came back at the same weight after 3 weeks. Oh, just looked, it was 3 pounds lighter.

The real problem was that I hadn't managed to learn a way of eating I could maintain. I tried South Beach, which was way too much meat for me (after staying away from it for a year). I also started 5-day a week cardio. Over the next 5 months I only lost about 17 pounds, although I did lose inches, and I felt good. Of course, looking back at the food logs I started keeping at that point I was eating badly. I was still just under 300 pounds and eating under 1400 cals on average. Again, looking back it was 800 some days and 2000 others. Eventually I got an infection that I couldn't fight and ended up in the hospital (summer 2005).

The long and the short of it is that by the fall of 2007 I had slipped into better food choices, but just too much of it. December I was back to 358.2 (finally bought a home scale I could get a number on it), and decided I had to find a better way to live. I decided on calorie counting this time, with an emphasis on less junk, more quality foods. And I started with a higher daily intake (about 1800). In January when I went back to using the treadmill I put the calorie count up (about 2000), but found that wasn't quite enough so went to about 2100 in Feb. Now I'm doing 2200 and 2600 on lifting days.

Some weeks I lose weight, some weeks I don't. Once a month I'm usually up a pound or two (the women will know what I mean). I think I've found a way that works for me, but ask me the same question in a couple of years (when I reach my goal) and maybe again in 5 years (to see if I've main