Hello and starting to actually think about my future and losing weight...with no surgery

AMBER --- I just lost 18 pounds by tracking my calories on the free website loseit.com. I set my calorie limit at 1248 calories a day. That way i should lose 1 1/2 pounds per week. That is about half as much as a person with surgery loses per week. I hope to lose 60 pounds in the next 12 months.

I weigh myself every 14 days so I see some loss. I don't weigh every day because I would see ups and downs in the scale and get discouraged.

I take my picture every other month to see the loss too. So If I think I am not making progress ... then the pictures show my progress. So take a photo with every 10 pound loss.

DAISY100 

 CONGRATULATIONS ON DECIDING TO TAKE OFF THE WEIGHT!  YOU'RE AN ANGEL!   

Amber,

Only 3-5% of people who lose weight keep it off. I hope you are one of these lucky few. About 5 years ago I told myself that I have one more diet in me and if that doesn't work. I will look into surgery. I signed up for a program at the best University on the east coast for weight loss, lost 110 pounds in a year and felt like crap when it came back on, pound by $%#* pound. When I had gained almost all back, I saw a man who had told me he had WLS surgery a few years ago and if I wanted to talk to him about it, he would answer any questions I had. Until I saw him, I had forgotten about my decision to look into WLS if the diet didn;t work. He made time for that that afternoon. It look me a few weeks to realize and accept that I was not and would never be one of the lucky few that keep wt off. So, I had a few options. I had RNY surgery 10 months ago and although nothing is perfect, it was the best decision ever. I was ready for it. If you can take and keep it off without surgery and those risks, it is worth the effort. That being said, I wish I had surgery when I had gained 50-60 pounds back, not 90. The surgery would have been easier.

Best of luck on your journey. I am now near my goal weight and transitioning to a maintenance program in a little bit, so I am looking for maintenance tips.

Hi Amber! I'm new here too. I just wanted to share my story - I am losing weight successfully without surgery, after many failed attempts at dieting. No special products or anything, just plain old calorie counting. I have lost 25 kilos in a year (about 50 lbs I think?) so far. That seems slow but it is a healthy safe rate. I started at 145 kg (319 lb) and am now around 120 kg. Here is what I do:

1. Calculate my total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) with a reliable formula. There is a good calculator at a site called "Health-Calc". But you have to be really honest about your activity levels. The number fir your TDEE might seem surprisingly high, especially if like me you have always thought you had a "slow metabolism". I didn't really, I was, like most people, just seriously underestimating how much I was eating. 
2. Eat around 500 calories less than my TDEE. Sometimes it works out a bit less, sometimes more. For me this is 2300 to 3500 calories a day (!!) depending on how active I am. I never ever eat less than my basal metabolic rate (BMR, the smaller number that calculator will give you). My Fitness Pal and a lot of other trackers will give you a calorie level that is far too low to be sustainable. 
3. Count calories honestly. For me to start this meant measuring and weighing as much of my food as I could. I use the Fat Secret app to track. After a while I got pretty good at estimating but I still sometimes weigh/measure to make sure I'm getting it right. 
4. I only weigh myself once every 2-3 weeks. Every day and I get too frustrated I really the fluctuations! Eg water retention, hormones, etc causing non-fat weight gain. 
5. I aim for 100g of protein a day. It really helps with feeling full. So about 30g at each meal and a bit in snacks. I like fruits and vegetables a lot so I try to have at least one meal a day vegetarian and 2 serves at other meals which also helps keep me feeling full. I eat mostly wholegrain carbs but no food is banned. Around 10% of my calories are "discretionary" calories so I have a treat if I want. Yep, I've been losing weight even while eating chocolate, candy and chips - in moderation! 
6. I worked hard on getting out of bingeing habits by "feedbagging". I kept plenty of candy, desserts, energy-dense snacks, etc in my house and allowed myself to eat them whenever I wanted. Really. It's a leap of faith to trust yourself but it really works: they lose their novelty if you stop thinking of them as forbidden, naughty, junk, etc. I gained a little bit of weight at first but it was worth it to get rid of that disordered thinking. 
7. Strength training. Lift weights. Heavy weights. This will help you preserve lean mass and as we all know muscle is denser than fat. This is why taking body measurements is helpful, if the scale isn't going down as much as you hoped but measurements are smaller and clothes fitting better, you are definitely losing fat. (Pro tip: stay away from any personal trainer who tells women to avoid weight training because they'll "get big". What nonsense! Women, especially those of us who start out heavier, get slimmer with weight training. Female body builders have to put in years of deliberate effort and they're not even that big compared to the average buff guy.)
8. Aiming for 10,000 steps of activity a day is the ideal. But you really don't gave to spend hours doing cardio or exercise you hate. Any movement is good, whether it's walking or dancing around the house to your own music, or anything that gets your heart rate up a bit. I get about 7,000 a day plus strength workout every second day. But at the very least a short resistance/weights workout a few times a week will be super helpful. 
9. Nia Shanks has a great beginners and more advanced workout plans for women. Google her! So does Amber Rogers and Sean Flanagan. And the "Eat more to weigh less" site is also good. 
10. Moderation, moderation, moderation. Restrictive diets and punishing workouts are not sustainable. You need something you can go with for the rest of your life. 
11. Wow, this was longer than I thought it would be! 
12. Good luck with everything! :)

Hi Amber,

First of all, I want to congratulate you for doing something about this at age 24. I have been overweight since age 4 and morbidly obese since I was 18, and now at age 37, I really wish I had done something about it a lot sooner, as now my health is really beginning to deteriorate. (Well it was before I started this new journey two weeks ago - Optifast for me, now I am on a better journey) Not that I haven't tried in the past, but most attempts have been half-a$$ed at best. My journey was a lot like yours, I went to Grad School, found it extremely stressful and was also working crazy hours. When you are so highly stressed out like that, it's hard not to use something to comfort yourself. I think that taking a little time out for yourself each night to "pamper" can really help if you can squeeze it in. I used to love going to the gym or swimming in the evening and then sitting in the sauna, or doing a facial or something when I got home to really feel like I was pampering myself.  After going to the gym, and then doing something like that to really take care of myself, it always felt counterproductive to then start stuffing myself (which sometimes I still did, but not as often). Then I would get some work done, whatever needed to be done but looked forward to snuggling in with a good book and a cup of tea, 15 minutes before Bed. Knowing that I had those things to look forward to (instead of food) did help me out a lot in the past.  I have had many other setbacks over the past few years, but remembering to take time for ourselves for something good for us and that makes us feel good about ourselves I think can really help. YOU CAN DO IT!!!! :D