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You are here: Home / Health/Weight Loss / Losing the Weight

Losing the Weight

February 19, 2013 by Amy 13 Comments

One of the most popular questions that I get asked lately is about how I’ve been losing the weight so far.

***I’m absolutely NO expert in weight loss whatsoever, but I figured I’d share with y’all what has been working for me.***

Here’s some before pictures from late 2011. Facebook doesn’t hide the ugly truth. I was quite obese then (still am now, actually), and I tried REALLY hard not to post pictures on Facebook, but these little gems somehow slipped through the cracks.   

Losing the Weight

I cannot do restrictive diets. Diets that tell me exactly what I can and cannot eat just aren’t for me. I will fail at those diets, and I have come to peace with that. I knew the best way to do this would be a gradual way, so I started calorie counting on MyFitnessPal. The great thing about MyFitnessPal is that you can tell it your weekly weight loss goals (0.5 lbs-2 lbs/week), and it will give you your calorie goal based on that. In the beginning, I told it 1 lb/week, which put me at about 1800-1900 calories/day (this sounds high, but I weighed almost 300 lbs. in the beginning). It wasn’t too bad to reach that goal, and somehow (seriously, not sure how this happened) in the first month, I dropped 10 lbs. It was motivating, for sure!

The next month, I decided to drop down to losing 1.5 lbs/week, which made my calorie count around 1700/day. The 100 calorie drop to me just wasn’t a big deal…this seemed very gradual and doable to me. I still have MyFitnessPal set to losing 1.5 lbs/week presently, but now I’m about 1600 calories. The reason for this is every time you drop 10 lbs., MyFitnessPal prompts you to adjust the calories based on your new weight (it calculates this for you, but you have to OK it).

I love calorie counting. It may not work for everyone, but for me, it’s wonderful. I make mostly healthy choices on my own, but I know if I want pizza or chinese take-out for a meal, it’s totally fine. As long as I have the calories for it. I won’t lose control this way, and I don’t feel deprived at all.  Now, sometimes there are meals where I just don’t feel like entering everything. I used to have a splurge meal once/week, but now I’m at about every two weeks. I know some people will diet more strictly than I am, but for me, I’m trying to teach myself how to make this into a lifestyle change. I’m not going to say no to a dinner out with a friend at the tex-mex place with my favorite queso, because I only have 500 calories left for the day. I won’t go on an all-out binge either, but I will eat what I want in smaller portions. Small changes…even if I eat a little over my calories, I’ll accept the small gain and move on.

In the summer of last year, things started to slow down weight loss wise for me, so I decided to start running with the C25K program. I was exercising 3x/week with C25K, and the weight started dropping fairly consistently once I incorporated some form of an exercise program. Then, in January (of this year), my husband and I joined a gym near our house, which has allowed me to add strength training to my exercise program. I try to work out 4-5x/week, where I either do 30 minutes of cardio (usually running) or almost an hour of strength training. I will say that since adding strength training to the routine, my weight is dropping a lot faster than before. I’m seeing 2-3 lb drops/week when I was so used to 1-2 lbs/week.

About 13 months later, I’m feeling like a whole different person. I’m just about halfway done with my weight loss journey, though, so there’s still quite a bit of work ahead for me.

Losing the Weight

I would like to reiterate that I’m no weight loss expert. I just wanted to share with y’all what has been working for me, since quite a few of you are curious. 🙂

Filed Under: Health/Weight Loss

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kate says

    February 19, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    I cannot even say how amazing you look! Truly inspiring work, Amy.

    Reply
  2. Jackie says

    February 19, 2013 at 10:01 pm

    Good for you!

    I’m pretty much like you and have never succeeded on diets that tell me exactly what to eat. I even hated the points system of weight watchers. I am also calorie counting on myfitnesspal and it’s working!

    You do get to a point where myfitnesspal won’t reduce your calories every 10lbs by the way. Based on my height, weight and setting of 2lbs of loss each week myfitnesspal has me at 1200 calories a day which is fine and working for me. I don’t think I could or would want to lessen my calories though! The app has not suggested I do so either.

    Reply
  3. Cynthia says

    February 19, 2013 at 10:10 pm

    What type of strength training are you doing? Free weights or machines?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • admin says

      February 20, 2013 at 10:19 am

      Hi! I’m doing mostly machines for now. Hoping to break into free weights soon though, since my body seems to be used to the machines already. I miss the soreness! 🙂

      Reply
      • Cynthia says

        February 20, 2013 at 1:51 pm

        Thanks for the reply :).

        Reply
  4. Summer says

    February 21, 2013 at 1:55 pm

    I originally found your food blog and then found this one. You are so inspiring! Great job on your weight loss. You must feel so proud of yourself – keep up the hard work!!!

    Reply
    • admin says

      March 3, 2013 at 9:00 pm

      Thanks so much for reading, and thanks for the sweet compliment!

      Reply
  5. beki says

    February 22, 2013 at 7:46 am

    That’s awesome, Amy! It sounds like you’re doing this the SMART way. You should be so proud of yourself 🙂
    I need to get my butt in gear and put some effort in losing this baby weight. Ugh! Pregnancy after 35 has been a whole new experience.

    Reply
    • admin says

      March 3, 2013 at 9:00 pm

      Thanks so much! I’m so much happier now that I can see progress. 🙂

      You can totally do it! Best of luck!! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Diana F. says

    February 25, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    I need to start using my Fitness pal again, I got lazy, but no more! What work outs did you do when you first started?

    Reply
  7. Kelsey says

    February 26, 2013 at 9:23 am

    I feel like I cannot tell you enough how amazing you are. I love hearing you talk about all of your hard work paying off. Keep it up, girl!

    Reply
  8. Bridget says

    March 8, 2013 at 9:47 am

    The thing is, you kind of are the expert on weight loss, even though you say you aren’t – who knows better than someone who has done it? I particularly love that you say that restrictive diets won’t work for you; this is such a pet peeve of mine, because, long-term, they don’t work for anyone! Slow and steady, life-style change…that’s the only method that’s consistently been shown to work! I love that it’s going well for you. You really are inspiring.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Monday Weigh-In: Week 77 says:
    July 1, 2013 at 5:02 am

    […] also back to enjoying my occasional splurge meal, and Saturday’s dinner was just that for me. We went bowling with friends Saturday evening, […]

    Reply

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Thanks so much for reading! I’m Amy, and I live in south Louisiana with my husband and our rescue dog. I enjoy sharing my love for cooking, baking, crafts & more! Follow my daily adventures on social media!

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