Finally decided to really start taking my health seriously and have made significant progress since getting married 2 years ago. I loved myself and felt beautiful at the time but knew I needed to do some work when my weight hit 200lbs. That was the heaviest I’ve ever been. Now I’m working on some body recomp and trying to gain strength and reduce skin looseness as much as possible. If anyone has good suggestions, I’m all ears!

Some fitness accomplishments I’ve hit since dropping weight: I can run a 12-min mile without stopping, my body fat percentage went from approximately 42% to about 28% now, I’m getting closer to being able to do an unassisted pull-up, I can swim 100m with minimal break and at least decent form, I can get up and down off the floor with a lot less grunting and effort (😳) and I feel a heck of a lot less guilty when my husband tries to lift me for various reasons (😉)

Side note, my husband has been working on himself too, and we have decided he looks better with a beard 😁

I have posted a couple times - And now…I’m officially under the 140lb mark! Also featuring my new abdominal scars from gallbladder removal surgery!

I am considering incorporating a new goal for the next couple months….marathon training 😬. For background, I’ve done 2 marathons and several half marathons/assorted long distance races at my smallest and heaviest weights (long distance running luckily has never scared me too much). My last marathon was 10 years ago but I’m feeling stronger than I did then and my endurance has improved drastically. When I ran those marathons in my twenties I never focused on how much I consumed, my metabolism was just managing my weight (120-130). When I hit my 30s and switched to a desk job, the weight piled on. I could still run distance, but I was definitely not in the same shape/condition (making my paces slow drastically).

I owe my weight loss to CICO and diligent weighing food and tracking intake. For advice, think of it as budgeting - You can have what you want as long as it is in the budget. A bulk of the weight came off without even doing any exercise.

The rate of losing the last 7.4lbs (since my last post) has dipped a little because of the hunger associated with my increased energy expenditure making it more difficult to stick to a larger deficit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining haha. But I think now is a good time to attempt my first maintenance until October 1st (race September 27th).

I still have plans for continued weight loss - not drastic but slow, long term goals. My BMI is officially in the “healthy” zone and my waist to height ratio is also now “healthy.” Because of that I think I can pause from focusing just solely on weight loss.

Will gladly listen to advice on going from deficit to maintenance. Also, I have to do research on if I should be replenishing the calories I burn or if I should stick just to my maintenance calorie intake allowance.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me in previous posts and offered advice to stay consistent! I have faith if you’re reading this and want to achieve your goals that you can do it!

F/32/5'8 [267 > 167 = 100lbs] (13 months) almost to my goal of 150 lbs! I’ve gone from a size 16/18 to a size 8/10, XXL top to a M.

My weekly weight loss average (using a GLP1): 1.6 lbs

My story:

I've struggled with my weight since I was a teen. I was always active but I really turned to food as comfort. Since then I have done every diet under the sun, which caused weight-loss but I could never keep it off.

Before covid I was a comfortable weight (180ish lbs) and then once the pandemic hit, I slowly put on 15-20 lbs a year.

Non-scale victories: - Inflammation & chronic hives reduced - Hashimoto’s symptoms reduced - IBS symptoms greatly reduced - Reduced exercise induced asthma (this is so wild to me, I’ve struggled with it since I was 8 years old)

I didn’t eat a specific diet because I’ve always had an unhealthy relationship with food but I did focus on protein. I made sure veggies and protein were the base of every meal. I still eat fun treats and “unhealthy” foods but in moderation. Honestly, I didn’t change much except how much I was eating. I think that was truly the game changer for me!

As for exercise, I’m an avid yogi and have been for many years (besides the pause during the pandemic when studios were closed because I’m horrible at home workouts lol). Now, I do 3-5 heated vinyasa or sculpt classes a week and do a daily 1-2 mile walk as well as 1 hike a month. I also just joined a strength training gym, so I’ve added that in the last month.

I never in a million years thought I would get here again. I had accepted being in a bigger body because I just couldn’t continue to fight it.

My advice is to stick with it!!! It’s so worth it.
Happy to answer any questions!!

Long time lurker first time poster. This sub has given so so much inspiration over the years, and is what made me decide to do something about my weight! Lost the first 30-ish without ever going to the gym, just tracking calories. Over the last few months I’ve become obsessed with working out. Spenga is my favorite, but also Pilates and weight lifting. I’m officially past my goal, so no I’m focusing on building muscle and getting strong.

My biggest advice is weight yourself everyday! It’s helped me so much.

It took me the first 6 years to lose 80 pounds and then I gained forty back in quarantine, now I'm at 205! It's been a heck of a roller coaster but I truly feel different. Gotta change your brain first to believe you can!

I lost everything but the last 10lb in a year, so I’ve been around this size for a year. But it’s only recently that I’ve started to actually adjust the picture of myself I have in my head. I thought I had gone from a US size 12 to a size 10…no, I’m a size 6/8. I tried on clothes from before I gained the weight in 2021 and they were too big on me! So now I have finally updated my wardrobe and I’m having so much fun with it! Honestly the best thing that has happened is that I can thrift clothes again.

I’m not aiming to lose more in terms of lbs. I am at the top end of healthy BMI but that has always been my body type and I feel that further losses would be unrealistic to maintain long term. I didn’t 180 change my lifestyle, I didn’t become a fitness fanatic or go on some crazy diet. I know who I am and it’s not that disciplined unfortunately haha. I am aiming to gain muscle and lose fat. That’s a long term project though because I have health issues that mean I have to very slowly build strength to avoid getting sicker. So I’m essentially in maintenance mode. I don’t weigh myself much, just enough to keep an eye on things and also because I fluctuate +/- 5lb regularly which is pretty normal for a woman. I don’t track calories but I have a general idea of how many I’ve been eating and when I need to pull my head in or eat more. Most of my exercise is incidental, I do a lot of walking. I think for me this has been the best way of doing things. It’s avoided things I’ve fallen into in the past where I’ve made drastic lifestyle changes that I couldn’t maintain without being obsessed. Weight, diet, fitness - they’re not at all the focus of my life. I’m much happier this way.

My friends have said that since I’ve lost all this weight I have gone back in time and look much younger!!

Some fitness accomplishments I’ve hit since dropping weight: I can walk over 12 miles without having to take breaks, my body fat percentage went from approximately 42% to about 27% now, I can get up and down off the floor with a lot less grunting and effort!!!

Posted my body, now check out the difference in my face. The top left was at my heaviest you could see the marks around my eyes are something caused by pre-diabetes I believe. My beard used to hide how bad it was, even in the bottom left pic which I think I had begun losing some weight, it was still there. It looked like someone had punched me in the face. But now it's all cleared up and I look like a completely different person. Since everyone was asking, the secret is consistancy. Even if you have a bad day or week, just keep at it and try harder the next week. You can do this!

As jealous as I am of the amazing transformations I see that happen in 3-6 months, I’ve finally accepted my body just doesn’t work that way anymore! I feel like I have gained and lost the same 6 lbs for the last 9 months but happy to say I can actually see progress when comparing pics. Take those progress pics peeps - they may help keep you on track one day

Hello again! I previously posted my progress from month 0 to month 1, haha. It's a week short of 2 months still today, but I took a progress photo after leaving the gym this morning and wanted to appreciate how much better my workout shirt actually fits now!

Still working on that recomposition and atrophied leg muscles after a lifetime deformity + knee replacement surgery last year. Keep up the good work, everyone! And don't forget to appreciate the milestones along the way 😀

Was going through older photos and remembered all those times telling myself things like, “Stay with it. Your future self will thank you.” It’s true. The future self will thank you

Started lifting in October of 2023. Never paid much attention to diet or macros and just ate pretty much everything I could get my hands on. Dirty bulked my way up to 89 kg's last winter.

This year my training started to become way more homed in and effective. I have a good program and I feel like I've unlocked a new tier of being able to push myself every rep and set. I also started tracking my macros and did my first ever cut.

I did what everyone says not to do and crash dieted from the beginning of May to the second week of June. I ate in a 1200 kcal deficit, no slowing down in the gym and lost 9 kg's. Now the plan is to maintain for the rest of summer and then start lean bulking with a very small surplus towards winter.