if your to lose 1-2 lbs a week then take 2lbs x 52weeks=104lbs so the 100 lbs in a year is reasonable as long as you can keep it steady. I did not realize there were that many risks to losing weight that fast....I was thinking like 5lbs a week if I could work really hard and eat healthy. So then if I excercise more am i to eat more calories or is it just if I want to?? Cause doesnt it work if I excercise more and eat less calories I lose more weight?? Sorry I am so very new to the calorie thing...??

Technically it would work. But I would be leery of setting such a high standard for yourself because of the dangers of feeling like a failure if you don't pull it off.

Why be in such a hurry? Why not build habits and a lifestyle (an be a great example to your family) that you can life with for the rest of your life? I'm not saying that you can't lose weight fast and keep it off. But I've seen a lot of people go to extreme measures to lose weight fast and then promptly put it back on (plus some, sometimes) once the big push to lose weight is done.

That has probably been my largest and most repeated mistakes in trying to lose weight throughout my life. Trying to get it off fast. Decades of trying to get it off fast, and it came off fast -- at first. Then when weight loss would slow down, I would become discouraged and depressed and start to think it just was too difficult, and I'd never reach my goal, so what did it matter? Each repeated diet (lowering my metabolism, I suspect) the weight wouldn't come off as quickly even as I cut calories more drastically, feeling like even more of a failure.... well, you get the idea.

I've learned a lot of lessons. Some of them physiological. Changing bc and a carb-controlled diet tends to keep my hunger more in check. Some of the lessons, mental - staying comitted by removing the "deadline" goals, working at progress not perfection and considering other measures of success than just weight loss (and there are many).

Whenever I quit in the past, it was out of frustration with failure. "What's the use," only makes sense in all or nothing thinking. If what I've accomplished so far doesn't "count" there is reason to quit, if I think I can't do more, but if what I've done so far is valuable I can't quit because I will lose what I've worked so hard to earn. If I were just to look at the pounds, I would say 1/5 of what I want to lose, Geez that's pitiful. But if I look at the health improvements I've made, there's no way I'm going back to sleep apnea, asthma, having to sit to take a shower....

Sometimes the benefits aren't so clear as to why 10 lbs is a loss worth maintaining when you've got 50 more to go, but the reasons are there. Every lb does count. Every 10 minutes of exercise you accomplish. It all matters, because they're building blocks. Maybe tiny building blocks, but you can build a mountain out of grains of sand.

thanks Kap that makes sense. Someone earlier in the post had said too to just enjoy the journey instead of waiting till I get to the goal to enjoy life. I know that I have to learn that its going to take a while and its not going to be fast but I need to be healthy and that in the long run will make the difference!!

Hey, it's a hard lesson. Everything we've been taught directly and indirectly tells us to do this in extreme ways. The "sensible" books very often don't sell very well. Even the most sensible of popular plans all start with some kind of extreme quick start they might call phase or stage or induction. And while every plan wraps it in some kind of logical wrapper of "detoxing" or "withdrawal" or some such, I believe the REAL reason is that only books that start off with large, fast weight losses become popular.

Extremes sell. "Common sense," is very boring and doesn't sell magazines, books, or television time.

So who is selling common sense. The people who've been through it. This forum and many support groups. I love it here, on a few other sites, and at my local (in person) TOPS group. Talking to people who are doing it successfully, learning with people who are also learning. Support, in every sense of the word. I think that's what keeps me going even when I want to give up already, and say "this is just too darned hard."

Sometimes making progress means doing something really tiny, in order to have something to turn into something big. Today my husband and I went to the Humane Society to fill out volunteer applications. I applied for dog walking. My husband (only two years ago, so much stronger than I) wasn't going to fill out an application, because he walks with a cane and so much pain that he didn't think there was anything he can do, but the staff talked him into applying too, and he's going to brush and play with the kitties.

For most people, neither of these would be much of an exercise activity, but even this is a building block. So often, even able-bodied overweight people (we're not, we're both on disability) fall into depression and isolation, two of the biggest health and fitness enemies (mentally as well as physically).

It is true that it rarely works to put your life on hold in hopes of "one day" getting your ideal life. Making your ideal life one step at a time, tends to work a lot better, even if it is the "boring" way.

I had to learn, this time around, to be patient. I lost weight before, fairly quickly, and grew frustrated and gave up. This time I had to tell myself, I had a lot to lose and it was going to take time.

Every year, and I mentioned this on another topic, I used to make the New Year's resolution to lose weight. I always gave up, and when December 31 rolled around, I used to think, if I'd stuck with it, look how much I'd have gone by now. The year would go by so fast! This past December I didn't have that thought, b/c I'd lost around 90 pounds last year. I had to learn to be patient and remember I would see the results eventually, as long as I didn't give up.

While that is true, you have to keep other factors in mind. For example, you could hit a plateau where you don't lose, or (like in my case) your period could get in the way. I gain (on average) about 4 lbs of water weight every time I hit my period, and the next week, it goes right back down to where I was the week before. Essentially, it's a week that has practically been omitted. Some women continue to lose even while on the period, and some keep the weight. I think part of the reason why I stay even is because that week my workout level goes down (I become fatigued easily when it's that TOM), but that's neither here nor there.

What's important is exactly what you said: keep it steady. There might be a couple of hiccups along the way, but if you keep pushing, you'll get to your goal. Like another poster before me said, why the rush? You know you'll get there eventually and that's what matters most; that you keep pushing toward your goal.

And if you do hit a bump in the road, we're all here on these forums to help and support anyway.

The problem is, unless you're using a chainsaw, you have no direct control over exactly how much weight comes off each week (and I wouldn't recommend the chainsaw, very messy).

I was reading recently (Prevention magazine, I believe, so not a scientific journal, so I can't say whether they're misinterpreting the studies' results) that losing any more than about 1/2 of a pound per week has been shown to significantly lower metabolism. As the article pointed out, that is a rate that few people are satisfied with. The article gave some pointers on keeping metabolism as high as possible (in a nutshell - EXERCISE).

But still, since you can't control metabolism, you can't control how much your body will burn. You can only control what you eat and how you move your body, and let the weight loss take care of itself. The problem with aiming for a cetain amount each week, is that it becomes very tempting to try to try to "catch up" when you fall behind. And in trying to catch up, it can become very tempting to do very crazy and stupid stuff to catch up.

I've seen far too many (and been there myself) who expecting a 2 lb loss, are disappointed instead of thrilled when they lose 1.75 lbs (even if they lost 6 lbs the week before).

I think the secret to success really is learning to avoid the mindgames (though if anyone learns the secret to easily avoiding them all, please let me know).

I think I am almost to the point that I am not really caring about the scale cause i am more concerned with how many calories I am putting in and how much excercise I do because if i am monitoring those to things and doing well in them then I know I will lose the weight and the fact that this has to become a lifestyle of being healthy I am ok with it. With all the replies I have gotten it has constantly reminded me to not concentrate on numbers but on living healthy!! So I will just wait for the clothes to get looser and keep being healthy! thank you...

The biggest lesson learned for me when it comes down to losing weight is to take it one day at a time!!!!!! That statement sounds and seems so easy but its much more than that. You do honestly have to take it one day at a time. Once you do that things fall into place as long as your trying to make life times chages toward a healthier life.

Just keep working at losing weight it will come off in due time! Good Luck!!!!!

Just follow your plan of exercise and cal intake and adjust as needed. If your plan os healthy and balanced it WILL come off. That's what I've been doing and I have lost 4-7 pounds a week for 7 weeks. People hear the # and assume I'm doing something extreme- but I'm not! 30-90 min. of varied exercise and stregnth training along with 1350-1600 of balanced calories. I'm sure it won't continue that way and I expect gains even as my water weight shifts or TOM or whatever? All we can do is all we can do. Just keep going! Every body is different, but what I have learned is we are ALL capable of becoming healthy.