Hi everybody!

almost 4 years ago, I spent 9 months losing 45 pounds.
I took my time so that I could form good habits that would stick with me
so that I would keep the weight off.

Well, that worked somewhat well. I did keep the weight off until just over a year ago when I hit several life crises all at once -
1.) Death of a close family member
2.) losing a wonderful job / starting a brand new job
3.) Major Marital Stress
4.) Illness of a loved one

In trying to get through all of that, my good eating habits sort of went out the window, and I've found myself right back at by starting weight, and I'm starting all over again.

But the thing is, I really don't want to take a whole year this time to lose the weight.
I know there is no quick fix / magic solution to get me where I want to be.
But if I were to go about it the way they do on The Biggest Loser - eating smaller portions of a well-balanced diet and at the same time exercising as much as I possibly can so that I can burn off 3 pounds a week, I should be able to reach my goal by May /June instead of say December.

Is this a possible goal?
If I do it this way, will I be able to keep the weight off once I reach goal
by watching what I eat and getting a normal amount of exercise? Or will my body always expect me to exercise as much as I would during my weight loss adventure?


My boss lost 25 pounds in a month by following a diet plan and jogging / biking 10 to 20 miles a day. She put a little of the weight back on during the holidays, but other than that, she appears to be doing well with only half of that amount of daily exercise now. I'm just wondering would there be long-term effects?

Opinions please!

I'm pretty new at losing weight, but losing more than 2 pounds a week can be unhealthy. You should really talk to your doctor first. Based on your current weight and height, they'll tell you how many calories to eat per day, and how much to exercise.

Jogging / biking 10-20 miles a day is extreme. If you're new to exercising you're gonna either hurt yourself or burn yourself out. They don't even run that much in Basic Training in the Army, and then they have doctors on-site. I'm jogging / walking about 3 miles now (just started 3 days ago) and eating healthier and I'm seeing a little bit of a difference.

Start out easy, then work your way up to more every day. Do on and off days, meaning jog one day, and walk the next. Or jog one day, do abs the next.

Everyone's body is different, and everyone's health is different, so you should really talk to your doctor first, say how much weight you want to lose, and then go from there.

Good luck!

Glad you found us!
My experience has been that you can lose 3 lbs. a week in the beginning. The more weight you have to lose, the more of a calorie deficit you can have each week, while still eating heathfully.

I strongly recommend that you don't set weekly loss goals. I have found that the scale doesn't cooperate! Whenever (in the past) I set scale goals and didn't meet them, I felt like a failure - whcih pretty much sabotaged my efforts and ended my weight loss.

This time around, I just set eating and exercise goals. That way, when I ate perfectly on plan (POP) and the scale didn't budge for two solid weeks, I didn't get upset.

You CAN do this - and really - in the scheme of things - will it matter how many weeks it took to lose the weight?