[PhatieGurl]

if so could you please tell me how you lost the weight...
how long it took....
and if you have any before and after pictures i would greatly appreciate it.


im only asking cuzz my goal is 40 pounds also...but im havin a bit trouble gettin motivated.



THANK YOU!

[Glory87]

I lost about 70

The first 50 or so took 7 months, the last 15 or so took an additional 9 months!

Story/pictures in my sig.

[caryesings]

I'm at 36 down right now, I'm expecting to reach 40 at end of 5th month. But I started way heavier than you are now.

[Lori259]

I have lost Almost 79 Lbs By counting calories....It's free and easy to do~
There is a calorie counting forum on here If your interested in it.

You can click below to see my before after pics~or just click my profile and you can see.

My first 40 lbs took about 4 & 1/2 to 5 months.

This Is something I read that got me to wanna count calories~I hope it helps...

Principles
"Weight management may be difficult to achieve, but it certainly is not difficult to understand. When you consume food or drink, you consume calories. Your body burns calories to function, burning significantly more calories when you exercise. If you consume more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you consume fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight."

See more here: http://jolomo.net/fitness/principles.html

[juliastl27]

i just lost 40 lbs. took about 6-7 mo.

before



after

[Windchime]

It took me 7 months to lose 40 pounds (I'm not the fastest loser in the bunch, for sure). Here is my post; there are a few pictures if you scroll down a little bit and you can see how my goal jeans went from being pretty bad to looking pretty good!

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/mini...need-belt.html

I'm a calorie counter but I'm not as disciplined as some others so that's why my loss is slower (about 1.3 pounds per week). I'm happy with how things are going and feel like I can stick with this for the long haul, though, so I'm OK with that.

Best of luck to you! And yeah, 7 months sounds like a long time but know what? It is going to zip by either way and when next April rolls around, you'll be really happy that you started today!

[ringmaster]

you are at a pretty healthy weight already- so I say just get to it, the longer you wait the longer it will take.

ETA: your starting weight is most other people's goal weight that responded. when getting to the low weights you have to really watch what you eat, and exercise and weight training is important, because if you change your body composition to more muscle/less fat you might not need to lose so much to look the way you want.

[Samantha100]

I just lost 40 pounds this week and it took me 4 months. My diet process was very strict calorie counting using a digital food scale and tracking everything on FitDay.

[SunnyP]

I have lost 40 pounds since February of this year. I did this by taking a hard look at my relationship with food, and identifying how that needs to change in order to be healthy.

One thing that helped me is getting over my thinking that if I eat a "bad" food, then the whole day is "ruined" so I might as well eat ALL the bad food I want, and "start again" tomorrow. This unhealthy thinking kept me overweight for most of my life, with some months here and there of being at an 'ideal' weight after successfully crash dieting. But the weight always came back on. Always. Because I never stopped to realize that my problem was primarily how I was *thinking*, not necessarily what I was doing, in regard to food. The thinking comes first, and the thinking was not good.

So rather than focusing primarily on what I'm eating, and losing weight, this go-round, which will be the LAST, I have promised myself - I am focusing more about eliminating the bad behaviors that contributed to my problem in the past. I find that "clean eating" definitely builds momentum, and when I've eaten "clean" for a period of time I stop craving unhealthy foods all together, which makes things easier. And if I'm out of my controlled enviroment, for instance if I'm traveling and eating out a lot and eating healthy is not as easy as it is at home, I give myself a break and resist giving into the "this day's ruined, I'm going to eat everything" mentality. For instance this past weekend I was visiting relatives out of state and we went out to dinner. I had some fried calamari as an appetizer. In the past, giving into this temptation would have led me to make bad food decisions throughout the rest of the meal, and the rest of the day. But instead, I factored that choice into my calories for the day, and I had a salad for an entree - I even had a few bites of creme brulee for dessert! But that's the key - I had a few bites, not an entire serving PLUS a few bites from everyone else's dessert which is what I would have done in the past. I am starting to "get" the big picture and the result is a slow but steady weight loss.

I would have to say that getting over the "this day's ruined" thinking has been the most crucial part of my weight loss this year. Also exercising has allowed me to get in touch with my body, and appreciate it, rather than hating it - as a result, I no longer want to abuse it with poor food choices.

Search for the forest and the trees will naturally bloom What is causing you to want to make poor or thoughtless food choices? Why are you neglecting your body's need for healthy food and exercise? Spend some time thinking about this before you go searching for the quick fix - because quick fixes will break very quickly and you'll be right back where you started. Make your goals realistic - 5 pounds at a time, even ONE pound at a time! And you will get where you need to be in due time - and most importantly, stay there for life.

[rachinma]

I expect to hit a 40# weight loss by the end of this year. I hit my all-time (non-pregnant) high of 186# at the end of 2004. I dieted down to about 167 and then gained back up to 178 over the next few years.

This January, I weighed in at 178. I have lost 21 lbs and expect to be at 141-145 by the end of the year.

So, that's 5 years to lose 40lbs, LOL.

[forestroad]

I lost about 40lbs. I just posted a progress collage on my blog; you can check it out there. I'm a little taller than you and my goals were a little higher, but it might give you an idea. The first 10 came off naturally after graduating college in '07; the next 5 took some hard work, then came back on, then were finally lost again along with another 25lbs this march through just now.

[sacha]

I lost almost 40lbs and it took one year. I gained back 10lbs on purpose (I got too thin and lost muscle). I don't have any "before" pictures on the computer, sorry!

I lost it by cutting out alcohol and calorie counting (around 1400-1600 calories), as well as weight training.