tonight is one of those nights where im sitting here and something is reminding me about how unhappy i am with my weight and my size. and every now and then i come across this site and i see users posting with little pictures to show how much they have lost and it gives me a little hope and im really good the next day but the motivation is so fleeting. so i thought maybe if i were to join and make some friends and someone to help motivate me, or somewhere i could come when i need the motivation.
i am currently 21 years old, 5'4" and 250.6lbs. i would like to get down to 150 which is such a huge scary and daunting task at hand. i find i can lost around 15 pounds very easily and after that it gets so hard.
anyway, i think im going to start out with my usual diet and exercise routine and try to get rid of 15 first, but if anyone has any suggestions that have worked pretty consistently i would love to hear about it.
anyway, my name is Katie and i hope this time i can do it.

Hi Katie!
What is your usual diet?

And I am new here too but I make a great cheerleader!

well i usually try to eat 4-5 small meals and not go over 1200 calories, its super easy on days that i am busy working or going to school but on my days off it drives me crazy. i usually try and do 20-30 minutes on the elliptical machine or the treadmill 3 times a week as well. oh and lots of diet green tea!
we can be each others cheerleaders! i think my biggest problem is breaking plateaus, i just get fed up with seeing the same number on the scale every day!

Sounds like a good plan to me.
Have you ever heard the saying "Slow and steady wins the race"?
It takes time for us to put it on and it will take time to get it off and stay off.
You can win the weight lose race Katie!

Hey Katie!

Any reason you're starting off at such a low calorie level? It's likely you'd be able to eat more and still lose, which would first, make it easier on the days you're hungry, and second, will give you somewhere to go if you do hit a plateau (if you're eating 1200 now, that's pretty much "rock bottom" in terms of where your calories can be and still get the nutrients you need...if you plateau, there's no healthy way to lower your calories more to bust through).

Just a thought - where did that 1200 number come from?

well, ive seen a lot of doctors and ive been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which makes it much harder to lose weight, and considering the medication for it, in all of its forms leaves me unable to keep down any food at all ive had doctors tell me that it the amount i should be eating, i had one doctor tell me to go down to 800-1000 once.
i dont know i have struggled with my weight since i was around 12 years old, and i have pretty much everything including la weightloss, weight watchers, nutrisystem, south beach diet, i had a nutritionist and a personal trainer and i just have never been able to get it off. i need a good kick in the butt and i think i need some tips from people who have actually lost the weight instead of doctors and trainers who have studied it in school.

I can only speak from my own experience (I also have PCOS, so I am at least a little informed in this area)

With PCOS, it tends to be more about WHAT you eat than HOW MUCH. When I was actively losing, I couldn't lose any weight on 1500 calories if those calories included a lot of refined carbohydrates (which is common in people with PCOS). If I ate only whole grain carbs, plus lots of lean proteins and a ton of veggies, I'd lose on a higher calorie level. Some people with PCOS find that they need to severely cut back on the carbs, even whole grain and fruit carbs, to lose.

Could you maybe give us a sample day's diet?

Also, are you on any treatment for your PCOS now? Some people have found that treating the PCOS (usually with Metformin) helps weight budge more than it did before. Although it sounds like you had really bad side effects...I'm assuming you ramped the dose up slowly and/or tried the extended release? My endo put me on the extended release, and had me go one pill per day until I had no side effects, then two, etc. It helped a lot to increase the dose super slowly.

We have a great PCOS forum here, so definitely check that out.