[flirtygirl34]

Hi- I am new here - been trying to lose weight since my daughter was born - she is now 3 (almost 4 in April). So here is my story.

I was always around a size 12-14 in high school - Curvy looking - not chubby at all. By the end of college I gained over a hundred pounds - with out realizing it! I had always been involved in theatre and marching band in HS - my College had neither and all the nights of staying up eating pizza and a whole Ben & Jerry's caught up with me.

Once I realized it and got back into theatre, (in 1998) I started losing and kept off about 100 pounds. So now I was a size 18 and 204 lbs. (never could get it under 200 again). Then one day out of the blue walking down the street, I severly sprained my ankle. The doctor said no running or jumping for 3-6 MONTHS! AHHH - I was crushed- I did Richard simmons Sweatin' to the oldies, and now I couldn't do it at all!!!

Then at the same time I started a serious relationship (with my now husband). Then came the obvious - BIRTH CONTROL PILL - I started gaining at least 5 lbs a month. Then I realized I had gained over 60 lbs back and was going crazy - so I stopped the pill and joined Weight Watchers. I then lost about 25 lbs and was feeling great on my way back to the real me. Then I find out - I am pregnant. Silly me stopped excercising --ooops.

I only gained about 25 back from the baby - until the last 40 days when I had pre-eclampsia and gained a pound a day (mostly water). Had the baby, lost some water (was 326 when I gave birth) YIKES!!!! so now back to about 300 .....

Since then (2003) I have joined 24 hour Fitness, do theatre, try eating right, tried some pills, tried working out 5-6 times a week and the most i lost was 10 pounds... I have yet to make that scale get UNDER 300 -- so now I am looking for some help with it. I am obviously doing something wrong here. Cause right now if I eat right and excercise I can only get a few pounds off, when I do nothing I stay the same weight.

Maybe it is cause I am older now, and I know it is harder than before, but I just need to see it drop below 300 (for now) so I can feel motivated once again.

Thanks for listening.....

[Ashley103]

Hi Flirtygirl,
Welcome to 3FC. You've found the right site for lots of support and tons of information. There are lots of different weight-loss strategies here that you can read through and pick what seems like it would work for you.

I'm a firm believer that diets don't work - only changing my lifestyle works and keep it off. I count calories to keep myself in line. It's really amazing how much I can eat without realizing it if I'm not keeping a food log. A good system for counting calories is fitday.com, but there are other tools out there. Losing weight really is all about the calories that go in via food and back out via exercise. If you're only able to lose 10 pounds, you probably are eating more than you realize. Try writing down every single thing you eat for a week to get an idea of the calorie count. You may need to weigh food or measure it to get a really accurate count. An average serving size is much less than you'd think. Then look to see where you could reduce the calories - dropping 500 calories per day will add up to one pound per week.

I wish you the very best as you start on your weight loss journey with 3FC.

[Heather]

Hi flirtygirl -- WELCOME! This is a great place for support, ideas, and inspiration.

If you haven't found it already, there's a support group here for people who weigh 300 pounds or more -- we understand the unique challenges you face (well, some of them, anyway!!) as we are facing them ourselves. Please feel free to join us here.

There's also the 100 pound club, for people with more than 100 pounds to lose...