I'm one of the many people with a bad habit of "deciding" to lose weight... and then pretty much doing nothing to work toward that goal. I'd try counting calories once in a while, but I could never seem to stick to it for more than a few weeks.

So now I'm trying three different things at the same time, which all feel more manageable for me: low-carb diet, intermittent fasting, and (coming soon) ACV. It's been nearly one month for the first two, and I'm starting with the ACV tomorrow!

I'll probably check in every month or so, as I've got a 90-day goal going. I'd like to get from 145.5 lbs to 120 by the end of the year (I'd be thrilled to hit 115, though). Halloween marks my first 30 days of actually trying, so hopefully I've made good progress!

Welcome to 3FatChicks. And good luck to you with your weight loss journey.

Thanks! Feeling optimistic.

Thirty pounds in two months?

Closer to 25 pounds in three months, since I've actually already started. October is the first full month! Last time I weighed myself was about 1.5 weeks ago, and I'd lost 5 at that point, so I think this is reasonable?

Are you short? I am just trying to figure out how this is possible. If you have true weight to lose, like if you are 5'0-5'2" I could see it.

I'm 5'3". I genuinely thought it was a realistic enough goal, 8.5 lbs per month, but maybe not? I don't know enough to be sure, honestly. I could be wrong.

So you should be 115 lbs, which is realistic. I think you are expecting too much out of yourself though. To maintain it, you need to be able to sustain it for the long haul. See what happens. Personally, I have never "been on a diet." I am 5'5" and since age 17, my highest weight has been 130 lbs, it's all permanent lifestyle factors (I am 40 now).

If you can make sustainable changes, this can be permanent.

Thank you for the advice! I'm definitely aiming for sustainability in the end. The intermittent fasting, at least, is really easy and helped me quit my midnight snack habit, so I don't intend to ever quit that. I'm definitely going to need to find a balance with the low-carb diet eventually, but for now, it's teaching me a lot about which foods I actually don't need/want. All of the bad snacks I ate constantly were carb-heavy, and it felt like cutting them out would be a huge sacrifice, but I don't miss most of them. So finding balance will happen with time, I think, and I want most of what I'm doing to become a habit/lifestyle!

What got me under 120 lbs, was keeping net carbs under 100 g, and calories about 1500, gym six days on, hour of cardio. I started heavy lifting again and that can add some weight to you, as a heads up, if you go that route. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips! Exercise definitely needs to be added in soon, and I'll keep in mind the potential weight of muscles if I do anything more than cardio. It would be really nice to get more strength.