In the past I've always crashed dieted. Lose a lot of weight but then gain most of it back. This time I'm trying to do the slow but steady. I looked up a couple of different weight loss calculators that give me an idea of when I will reach my goal weight with the calorie limit I've set.

Before, I could lose 10-15 pounds a month and this is telling me that it will take till June to lose the 40 pounds that will bring me to my goal. Part of me is horrified that it will take that long but another part of me thinks this may actually be the answer I need. That 6/7 month period will teach me healthy habits that I won't burn out on.

I sat down and charted out my goals. I discovered that I need to lose about 1.32 pounds a week to reach my ultimate goal. So I have a list of my weigh-in days (Sundays) with the weight I want to reach.

I'm trying to also remind myself that June is a good time to have lost the weight by because that's the very beginning of summer. And also reminding myself that these calculators are only taking into consideration calories in and not calories burned so with exercise I may actually reach my goal earlier.

I just need to stay on track. Slow and steady wins the race...right?!

LovelyLeah, I think it's absolutely great that you're going into this journey with something reasonable, as opposed to crash dieting. I really do think that slow and steady wins the race....just remember that this is a race that never ends (which I tell myself every day). I also want to add that people tend to underestimate how many calories they consume (unless they weigh everything) and overestimate how many calories they burn (look up net calories burned, since we still burn calories while at rest).

Don't get discouraged if on certain weeks you don't see losses at all. The 1-2 lbs. a week that people tend to say is a healthy rate of loss is a maximum really. There are some weeks when nothing happens and I think this is where a lot of people just give up. Hang in there and never give up. You will get there and you'll be so happy in June!

I have come to believe that slow and steady is the best way, if not the only way, to effectively lose weight and keep it off.

I understand that you want to lose all 40 pounds by June - but so what if you don't? Even if you've lost only half that by then, you'll look and feel better, and you will be well on your way to developing new habits that will allow you to keep off the weight that you lose. So what if it takes until September instead to lose the whole 40 pounds? The time will pass anyhow, whether you spend it losing weight or not, and a few months is really not that much compared to the rest of your life stretching ahead of you after you have reached your goal weight.

I have been working at my weight-loss process for more than two years already, losing an average of 4-5 pounds a month - sometimes more, sometimes less. It will probably take me another six months - if not longer - to get to where I am done trying to lose, and ready to maintain. But I didn't have to get all the way to goal to start feeling great about the way I looked and felt.

Instead of focusing on how long it was going to take, I just focused on the moment - making the best choice I could make every time I was faced with a choice. In this way I have developed new habits over time - I've made the "lifestyle change" that everyone talks about, without ever setting out to do something quite so daunting and scary-sounding. And I've lost more than 105 pounds - an amount that sounded completely insurmountable to me in the beginning.

So try not to focus on how far you have to go, and think instead about what you can do today that will make you healthier and trimmer in the long run.

Thanks for the reality check and great advice. I really needed it!

I count my calories and am trying to lose 1.5 pounds a week.
I lose 1 pound a week, which is really good. That is 50 pounds a year.


I keep track of my food and exercize on LoseIt.com and enter the challenges here to keep up the dieting.

It seems to be such a very slooow process.
But I have lost weight last year and over 25 pounds this year. So the pounds are coming off.

Just keep to the diet every day. The time will pass anyway, so just hang in there.

By June I should be down at least another 25 pounds. That means a smaller dress size, and I will be looking a lot better wearing a smaller size.

And you will be looking and feeling a lot better by June also!

To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.
~ Cynthia Ozick, O Magazine ~