Hi everyone. I'm new here and a few of you introduced yourselves in the welcoming thread, but for others my name is Ashley and I'm 19 years old. I'm a sophomore in college and I'm also bipolar. I hate to rant but here goes.

I feel like my whole life I've been pretending to be okay with the fact that I'm extremely obese instead of facing reality. It's just now coming to the point that I can really admit that I need to change and that I need help. It feels as if I can control every other aspect of my life, just not when it comes to my weight. I hate to sound like I have nothing but excuses because I hate excuses, but I really have started exercising for the past almost 2 months with my sister and I see absolutely no results. Now I'm not saying I couldn't try harder, it's just I thought that I would see at least some kind of improvement. If anything it seems like my clothes are fitting tighter and my sister lost nine pounds with no diet changes!

I know this isn't a mental disorder message board I would really just like to have someone to talk to. Maybe someone who I can buddy up with exercise-wise and we can email or something.

I purchased the FitDay downloaded program and I feel like it was such a waste. If anyone else has it or has any tips on how to get full use out of it please let me know. Also, I think I'm going into a depression which I haven't done since I started working out in August and when I do I eat uncontrollably and that's the last thing I need right now.

I'm not crazy.. really I'm not, I just get like this sometimes. Any help or motivation is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

If you'd like an "email buddy" or a penpal of some sorts, I wouldn't mind! I am bi-polar as well and resort to food. But I have been changing my life in so many ways, I've been avoided those terrible binges.

It's always nice to have someone to talk to and release. I know it always helps.

Welcome to 3FC. I know there are lots of women here who can give you support - and kick in the pants when you need it!

I have two thoughts based on what you wrote:

The first is that you CANNOT compare yourself to anyone else. It doesn't matter what progress your friend, your sister, your coach, whoever makes. Each of our bodies handles weight, exercise, and diet differently. The fundamental principles are the same for everyone, but the devil is in the details, as the saying goes. What works for me might not work exactly the same for you or for anyone else. So right now, at the beginning of your weight loss journey, make a promise to yourself that you will NOT compare yourself to others.

Second: you said you've been exercising, but from what I gather you haven't changed your diet. It's hard to say for sure w/out knowing what you're doing and what you're eating, but I suspect you're beginnign to find out what many of us had to learn the hard way: you cannot exercise and eat anything you please and still expect to lose weight. The ONLY thing that will cause you to lose weight is eating fewer calories than you burn.

Most people who are new to it don't realize this, but 30 minutes of moderate exercise only burns a few hundred calories (for example, I did 30 minutes of HARD cardio today and only burned about 350 calories). If you're eating 3500 calories a day (which is easy to do when you're used to it and not eating healthy foods) and only burning an additional 300 to 400 calories a day from exercise, you're not going to lose weight. In fact, you could continue to gain.

In order for you to begin to make progress you're going to have to figure out what you're eating - and think about how to modify what you eat so that you consume fewer calories.

It takes diet and exercise to lose weight.

.

Your working out that a big step to many. Not eveyone starts out full force. With diet changes and fitness. Some (me) have to take a step then another slowly sometimes I've gone back a bit but I will ALWAY continue to push myself forward. Here's one of my many mottos.

I agree with PhotoChick, often times, exercise alone isn't enough to lose weight. I know from experience! I joined my gym back in January and exercised rather regularly (3-4 times a week) but continued to eat horribly. On the upside, I didn't gain any weight, but I wasn't losing any either. I '"pretended" like I couldn't understand it, but in reality, I knew I had to change my diet too. I just wasn't ready yet.

It wasn't until I started WW in July that I finally started seeing the weight come off. And, now, I think it's so much easier to go to the gym in the morning if I know I'm going to see results because of it.