I'm done setting time frames of when I want to lose weight. I had a goal of wanting to lose 45 pounds by the end of the year, but that may not be realistic for me as I've decreased my exercise. (Less exercise makes me less hungry, and less likely to binge). I do want to lose a total of 105 pounds eventually, but if it takes 2 or 3 years, I'm fine with that. I'm going to focus more on learning to eat well for a lifetime and figuring out how to lose so I don't gain it all back again and more, than trying to lose fast.

Good for you! What a great attitude. I finally realized after years, literally YEARS, that if I control the things I can control and not worry about the things I can't control, the weight has no choice but to fall off.

You control the behaviors, the foods you eat, the movement, the sleep, but your body will probably not stick to your timeline. The weight will go away in fits and starts, not smoothly and not exactly when you would like it to. But, it will go away.

How true! sometimes the weight comes off when we least expect it to. This knowlegde gets me through the 'How come I didn't lose ___inches and ___kgs in ___ time?' days.

Good attitude! Anyway eating balanced food has to continue for life. So, why not pe patient and loose weight slowly? That attitude lifts huge burden on mind. And when you are at peace with yourself, loosing weight becomes fun game! Enjoy every bit of it, enjoy


great looking body! It is like eating slowly and enjoying every morsel. Weightloss is not a marathon....you stop after a race. But you do not stop after weightloss..... Maintenance also involves efforts.

Awesome! Good for you. That is definitely the right attitude to take. It took me 5 years to lose 110 pounds because I would be really determined, and then take a break, and then get really motivated again, and then take a break. It was the healthiest way for me, though, because I changed how I ate and how often I exercised/moved and didn't give myself a time line.

Good for you!!!

I decided that for myself as well, for being a yo-yo dieter for yearssssss with the "quick weight loss" only to "gain it back plus more" syndrome was just wearing thin on my nerves & my body.

I would LOVE to lose a pound a week, but even that is not happening; still, I'm okay with it - because I really want this to be THE LAST TIME I lose weight and I really want this to be the KEEP IT OFF FOREVER "real deal".

Good for you! And you know what, that attitude WORKS! I've never been a quick loser and my average is about 2lbs/month but I'm still always going in the right direction and once you look at that long term it has made a HUGE difference.

I really do blame the media by how much we are fed about weight loss having to be quick (and that it's normal to lose AT LEAST 2lbs/week ). There was even a study posted here a while back there scientists claimed that quick loser were more likely to maintain their loss. It really bothered me because throw slow weight loss I've really been able to look at my habits over time and have changed drastically from where I was a year ago. I honestly can't say if my habits would be nearly as ingrained if I would've lost the weight quickly.

I keep track of my calories on LoseIt.com. If I don't document everything I eat, I will gain weight.
I set my weight loss there to be 1.5 pounds per week. But I am usually over on my daily calories. So I lose 1 pound every week.

That is what I want to lose.

So far it is working out for me. But it does seem it is sooo very slow.
......

But I am learning how to eat wisely and how many calories are in my food.
So that way it will be easier to maintain my weight.

It is best to try and lose only 20 pounds by the end of this year. That is all I can do on my plan.

I try to be OK with slow weight loss, but I'm not always. I slipped up a lot in July and lost very little weight, and when it came to it, I really wasn't happy about it, and I do feel discouraged. But in the end I think it's the right way to go.

When I started losing weight this time around, I decided that I wasn't going to participate in any challenges or anything else that put pressure on how quickly I lost. I wasn't going to stress if I didn't exercise that much. This time around, I decided that the only thing that mattered was to keep going, keep tracking what I'm eating. I think it's working. I hope it's working. It's hard to look at a month like July where I messed up a lot, and didn't lose much weight and think, "Yeah, I'm doing just fine." But when I look and see that even though I have messed up, more often I haven't, I think I do find that encouraging, and it helps me going forward.

There are so many ways to do things wrong. What you should eat, how much you should eat, you often to exercise, how hard to exercise. You can do them all wrong, (at least by whatever your personal definition of "right" is). Why add a time limit too?

That's great for you! I used to have time-oriented goals, too, but I'd just be upset when I didn't meet them, and want to give up. We have to remember that it's not a race!

Thanks everyone.

I do have a significant amount of weight I'd like to lose... and I sure wouldn't mind if it magically disappeared tomorrow, but we all know that's not going to happen. I have no choice but to be okay with slow weight loss.

I have made my "time" goals purely in the following fashion: "I bet I can say on plan for 99 days." or "I bet I can still be exercising at the end of the year!"

I'm making those types of goals/challenges now, because when I do get down to a healthier weight I'm still going to need to stay on plan. I figure practice makes perfect.

That is a good atitude. I was just looking through my old dieting journals this evening and I noticed that when I lost weight back in 2001, I was losing a little over a pound and a half a week. In 10 months time I had lost 67 pounds.

So insightful....for you...to look inside and to know what you need to do and how important it is that you take it day by day=success!