I want to ultimately lose 175 pounds. I've lost 22 pounds in one month and I know I won't lose 20 pounds every month. It would be lovely to though! It would only take 8 months to be at my goal! I've seen the success of so many beautiful women and I was curious; how long did it take them? How long will it take me?

I'm doing modified weight watchers, will be exercising normally after recovery. Exercise will consist of Biggest Loser Weightloss Yoga, Home workout Pilates, at least a mile everyday.

I'm taking 7 different vitamins and supplements as well.

Acai
Cranberry
Primrose Evening Oil
Fish oil
Biotin
Green tea
Once Daily MultiVitamin

Before surgery I got my mile down to 18 minutes, down from 20 minutes. I start sweating about halfway through and maintain a brisk pace.

I really wish I could tell you. I am on WW too and have been for 2 years. There have been times where I fell off the wagon by not tracking nor keeping up with my activity or life just got in the way. Luckily I was able to maintain mostly until recently with a 10lb re-gain. I'm not exactly the best case so every body varies.

You have done amazing for the first month and you seem active, at least after recovery you will be! I say just focus on your DPA and weeklies along with GHG and your activities, it should be mostly coming off. Just remember, there may be times where you will stall or be up in weight (for me, that is usually TOM, water from alcohol and/or salty food!) Just keep pushing through, don't give up.

You cannot fail if you never give up.

There is just no way of knowing. It took me 17 months to go from 200 to 160, but only 50 days to go from 160 to 140. Life gets in the way sometimes, and you might have to switch to maintainance for a little bit at some point. Your plan of attack sounds solid and well thought out. Just stay focused, and you will get there even if there are bumps along the way.

I think if you divide the number of pounds by 2, that would be a somewhat realistic indicator of when you could reach your goal. You will probably continue to lose more than 2lbs a week for a while, but we (almost) all have stalls, and the closer you get to goal the slower it typically comes off. Going by your current and goal weights, if it were me I would plan to be at goal in 18 months, so in October of 2014. I'm sure it could be much, much sooner, but when I am setting my long term goals I always tack on another month just in case.

Are you setting mini goals, either in your head or with us or another support group? Are you rewarding yourself for reaching mini goals?

I'm not familiar with GHG or TOM? What do those stand for? I'm ready to just go exercise right now because I have energy that's being wasted by sitting all day during recovery :/ I admit I feel amazing that I've lost so much so fast but then I realize that won't be a long term thing and most of the weight I've lost is probably water weight.

I do have mini-goals I have a weight loss jar that I take marbles from my "Need to lose" jar to my "pounds lost" jar. In my need to lose jar I have written myself little notes of encouragement about the day I started and reminding me how far I have come and when I quit smoking . I also have mini-goals written on bright starburst paper for every 25 lost. I am 3 pounds away from new shoes I've written my goals based off of Jillian Michaels "Winning by Losing" and broken them down from Ultimate-Monthly-Weekly-Daily goals with rewards. Besides my mini goals I have mini mini goals inside my pounds to lose jar. When it comes time to pull out a paper some of them have rewards and some of them have challenges. One is "Look in the mirror and say you're beautiful. If you don't feel it put this back and try again later. You ARE beautiful, but you need to feel it too" and another says "Go get hair and nails done today" something spontaneous and encouraging.

I wrote all my goals in my blog. I'd love if you read them and tell me what you think, if I should add or change anything. If it's a realistic approach or a fantasy approach because sometimes I feel like I'm expecting too much out of myself and I see myself becoming discouraged in the near future.

Congratulations on your weight loss so far!

This is a good question and one that I used to ask all the time.
The answer is a tough one because it differs from person to person. I have PCOS (Poly-cystic Ovary Syndrome) so it takes me a little longer. I've heard people say that a healthy loss is 1-2 pounds per week. I lose 2 kg's (4.4 lbs) per month and my weight zig-zags all the way through. When your weight is higher, you will lose weight faster in the beginning, and then it will start to slow down as your body gets used to exercise and healthy food (and there is less weight to use as resistance!).

Your weight isn't going to come off quick all of the way through, as you pointed out, but I think that as long as your weight is coming off then your diet plan is working.

Edit: Now to answer your initial question lol
I would aim for at least 12 months minimum for you to reach your goal. This is mostly for psychological reasons. If you, say, set your goal for 6 months and didn't reach it, you will be more likely to quit. I think that by setting it for 12 months you have more of a chance to look back on your progress and change your long-term goal.

Thanks Rhiko that's a good idea I think I'm going to set it for 18 months which means I must lose 9.7 pounds each month until then so I now have a monthly weight loss goal of at least 10 pounds. Fortunately I work for a school district and we get 3 month summer vacations so I will have 3 months to hit it hard. I get out for summer May 24th! I'm excited to have days where I can dedicate everything to my health and work out. My best friend suggested Bikram Yoga when I get better at yoga to begin with lol. I'm happy I have all around support and people who will work out with me. My 180 pound 6'1" best friend told me that I MOTIVATE HER! Me! I'm 348 pounds wanting to be HER size! She told me she saw how well I'm doing and it encourages her to keep working hard to lose a few more pounds and hold herself accountable. So that made me feel good too

I have a 3FC blog as well as a tumblr

chelle0928.tumblr.com

I post pictures to one and write on the other. If anyone would like to follow me and give some tips/tricks that'd be amazing

Oh sorry, GHG is short for Good Health Guidelines that WW supports, basically helps you to make better choices. I can't always follow it 100% but I aim for it to help me make better choices most of the time.

TOM/TTOM is short for The Time Of Month, your period.

Sorry for all the internet lingo! I understand you feel restless but really, it's better to let yourself rest so you can recover fully rather than setting yourself back even further by starting too soon and injure yourself. I also seriously doubt that most of your 22lbs was water weight. Don't discount your progress, girl!

Love everything about this!!

It seems your blog doesn't exist when I click on the link. :\ I did look at your tumblr page, though- love the title of the book and ice festival pics, lol!

That makes so much sense to me now haha! I should probably look up the GHG since I literally know nothing about it lol. My mom bought the books a long time ago and we never have been weight watchers members we just read what points we needed a day and started to plan meals accordingly haha

I do appreciate your encouraging words. It's just so hard to believe I have lost so much ya know? I sometimes think the scale is broken or off balance because after surgery I swelled up and I was back at 366 then all of a sudden 4 days later I'm at 348. It was kind of unbelievable so I weighed myself at least 7 times that day and continue to weigh myself every other day 2 times a day. Which I know I shouldn't do but it's becoming an addiction.

I had a read through your blog
I've had a similar experience where I met my partner and my weight went off the charts, so to speak, because we were eating McDonald's, KFC, and Burger King 3-4 times a week (What were we thinking!?)

To answer your final question of how much you should expect to lose in 8 months: Again, it's difficult to say. My thoughts would be a loss of around 50 lbs, but it's only a guess going by a 1-2 lbs loss per week. For 9lbs per month that will be 72 lbs in 8 months. As I said, your weight loss may or may not slow down around the 3-4 month mark.

My strongest advice would be not to push yourself too hard so you burn out or cause an injury to yourself (you'll have to sit out for 6 + weeks, depending on the severity, if you injure yourself!). Get a good sports bra to support you too! My pectoral muscles became inflamed and caused me to slow right down until I, now, have a sport bra. I'm a 38E Increase your exercise when your body gets used to what you are doing, but just remember that you have to be able to go to work etc outside of exercise

Good luck on your journey! It sounds like you will do fantastic and keep yourself, and your boyfriend, motivated to see it through!

Haha Ice festival was a fun day! Sadly that's the most recent highest weight body pic haha

http://www.3fatchicks.com/diet-blogs/chelle0928/

Maybe this link will work

The Book is amazing so far! She lost over half of her beginning body weight! Also after having her gallbladder removed!

Oh my Goodness haha it just so happens that Shallow Hal is on right now! I feel like the women Hal's friend talks about are me! Regardless, I love that movie

Thank you for the great advice I'm actually going to get a good sports bra tomorrow! I understand I've gotta be careful, and I will try my hardest to be smart about it. My mindset is "I've gotta do this! Feel the burn! Pain is temporary" lol but I should say "Take it easy pace yourself!"