What is a realistic time frame?
 

To go from 245 to 135 or so? I do not want to set myself for unrealistic goals when it comes to time.

It depends on your body and willingness to commit to a lifestyle change. Most people tend to lose alot at first and then really slow down as they get closer to goal. I would think 6 months to 1 year is possible.

It took me 18 months to lose 100lb and I was quite dedicated. Lost the first 50lb in less than 6 months but took me twice that long to lose the next 50.

Kitty

Hard to say depends on so many things, but I'm still losing 2.3lb most weeks and 1 lb on the others. It does take longer as you get nearer to goal though. I'm losing quite quickly as exercising most days (50 mins as well as walking to school to get children and looking after a toddler) and have cut calories a lot (by about 750, keep thinking I should increase a little but not that hungry so will do that when I stall) and so far (in 12 or 13 weeks when I restarted) haven't stalled and also drinking lots of water. If you're trying to work on how long it will take you I'd assume losing a pound per week except at TOM and weeks when you're on holiday for a realistic idea. So I should be at least another 40ish lb less by this time next year if I stick to plan. I know if I don't give myself a time based goal I won't stick to plan, but if I don't reach goal in time I tend to binge. TA the end of the day it doesn't really matter how long it takes. I've been trying to lose pregnancy weight from my first pregnancy for 10 years now - if I'd done it slowly - even 2 lb a month I could of lost 25lb a year and probably wouldn't of been overweight now so I wouldn't worry too much about time as long as it comes off.

Keep in mind we are all different and are bodies will do different things. I am older and it has taken me 9 months to lose 50 pounds. I am currently losing at a rate of about 3 pounds a month. I'm quite alright with that and am hoping because I am doing it slowly I will be more likely to keep it off for good.

Be careful about setting big goals and then being discouraged or disappointed if you don't make them. It's most important that you get the weight off, not how long it takes.

It's very easy to compare ourselves to others and how well they are doing. There are some here on the boards who have lost terrific amounts of weight in fairly short periods of time. That may or not be you. What you need to do is find a program you can stick with and that works for you. If you lose 2 pounds a week that's great, if it's only 1/2 pound a week that's great too cause it's still losing!

You CAN do this!

It really really does depend. I would think 6 months is NOT realistic, however, given the end number is pretty low, and we are talking 110 pounds.

I was pretty committed and focused and lost my first 100 pounds in a little over a year (55 weeks). Some people have definitely lost faster than me, but for most everyone, the rate of loss does slow as you get smaller.

I tend to hate time-based weight goals. As I got close to the year mark, I wondered if I could lose 100 pounds in a year. I started to feel like a failure for "only" losing 90+ pounds in that time! Can you imagine? I stopped trying to force it, and several weeks later, happily made it too 100 pound lost.

It is really hard to say. Personally, it has taken me 18 months to lose 65 pounds, but then I'm not really "hard core". It you simply calulate based on losing 1% of your body weight per week (a "safe" amount) it would take about 14 months.

I would give yourself a bare minimum of 15 months. But does it really matter how long it's going to take? The most important thing is that you're able to take it off and keep it off. What's two years of your life in the long run?

thinpossible said it very well!

I'm glad I read this post because I needed to hear what Heather had to say. I really want to lose 50 lbs. in a year and I'll probably come up just short of that. Putting time on a goal often leads to failure. In fact, every time I've tried to lose weight before I've had a time goal and I've always failed. The failure came because I gave up when I didn't make my time goals. It's the tourtise and the hare thing.

What is a realistic goal depends on your body but also your personality. I'm an ADD perfectionist. That means I WANT to do things perfectly but that desire is negatively impacted by the impulsiveness that comes with my ADD. THIS time around I've decided that the best way to success is to trust that small changes will add up over time. I've never TRIED to do right by myself for 9 months before. I've never lasted that long. I have to lose slowly because I'm not into niggling detail (like daily calorie counting) so it won't be possible for me to lose fast unless I do that. Maybe you ARE the personality type who loves detail and are a very driven, type A. If so, you can lose it a lot faster than I am but NOT in 6 months. I've never heard of anyone outside of the Biggest Loser dropping 100 lbs. in 6 months.

What's the difference between someone who loses 100 lbs. in 8 months and someone it takes 2 years to lose the weight? Ultimately nothing because 2 years and 2 days later, they'll BOTH still have to work to keep the weight off. Getting the weight off is only half the equation. Keeping it off will require just as much dedication so you may as well start out as you mean to continue because it will never be 'over'.

I personally don't set time goals. Are you trying to lose weight? Or change your lifestyle to support your new weight? If it is the former, you'll make time-based goals and suffer the pressures that accompany that. You know -- the OMG I'm 3 lbs behind my goal! OMG! I can't go on vacation, I have 2 lbs to lose!
If you define success as changing your lifestyle and measure it by being on plan dietarily and exercise-wise, and let your body take care of itself, you'll do just fine.

You need to keep in mind that there are only so many factors that you can control in this process: you can control your diet and your exercise. You can't control your basal metabolic rate (other than through exercise, of course), your age, your gender, and life in general.


Sucky answer, I know, but I learned the hard way!

Kira

This is the answer I give!! :)

It has taken me nearly a year to loose nearly 60 lbs. Hopefully in the next year I will loose close to the same, that puts me at a little over a lb a week. However there are several ladies around here who have lost 100+ in the same year I lost 60. Some days I'm jealous and impatient, but at the end of the day I'm just grateful to be away from where I started.

Yeah what she said!! :yes:

It took me under a year to lose 100 pounds. I'm stuck right now at 165 so there is no telling when I'll make goal...as long as I make it then it's all good! ;)

I wanted to throw out also that smaller goals seem to be very helpful to a lot of people in all sorts of life changes including weight loss. I think it is pretty tough to look 110 lbs in the face and have that be your only goal. I would encourage you to consider any number of shorter term goals and some of different lengths. The combination of meeting those goals will get you to the big overarching goal but you can give yourself permission to sort of 'ignore' the big goal and focus on smaller ones. There are any number of ways to do this and I personally had similar experience w/time restrained weight goals so I would consider avoiding those. It might look something like this:

Daily Goal:
Whatever you are particularly focused on for today. Water, exercise minutes, fruit/veggie servings, calorie count, journaling. Pick one or 2 to focus on today. As you get going, sustaining an established habit might fall in these goals if you are slipping a bit.

Weekly goal:
Probably related to what you are doing on the daily goal but on a bigger scale. Total # of minutes exercising, days on plan, avg calorie consumption. I would consider 2-3 of these at the most.

Monthly goal:
Again, some relation to the weekly goals but may have something that just has to happen a few times that month (do extended exercise like a hike or long bike ride, research a type of new recipe or food, etc) but could also be the accumulation of the weekly goals (total exercise minutes, etc).

Weight goal: You might consider a mini-goal for weight and/or measurements with possibly 10% increments. You get huge health benefits with even a 10% loss so those can be very good things to strive for and are a little more doable. You could possibly set yourself a timeline goal. Maybe consider a range of dates if you really want a deadline.

Hope that helps a bit. Good job on your loss so far!

Peg

It took me 6 months to lose my first 110 pounds. Please take in mind I started at nearly 90 pounds heavier than you are now, AND I NEVER cheated during this time...NOT ONCE. If you take my weight at 245 to my present weight of 161, It has taken 10 months and one week and I still have 25ish to go if I were to get to your goal of 135. It is coming off VERY slowly now, and I'm only losing a few ounces a week despite being on plan pretty seriously...though I do have occasional treats now days, (about once a week, and not at all binge worthy...just a little treat). If I were to estimate how long it would take me to get to 135 at this point, (if I decided to go that low), I would say it would take around 5 more months.

When I started my healthy way of life I didn't set any time lines. My one and only goal was to get heathy. The fact that I was/am highly motivated and firmly committed is what kept the ball rolling, and I knew that I did not want the losing period to drag on forever. I knew I could lose the weight, I've done it before, but I have never even tried at maintaining. I have been very excited to get to the maintenance phase of keeping it off. This is uncharted territory for me and I am looking so forward to working on and perfecting the art of living thin...so exciting! :D

While it took me 53 weeks to lose 85 lbs (and I WAS very committed to my lifestyle change), I am 50+ and have a sedentary job.

That being said, I think that one of the most important reasons that I was successful is that I did NOT put a time limit on it. Every time I have attempted to lose weight with any type of time-bound goal, I have failed. Over, and over again.

So, pick a plan, start your lifestyle change, and let your body come along for the ride :)

I would say a year minimum, and probably a year and a half.

Excellent thread. I am always astonished at the range of responses to questions like these. The stuff "diet" books don't tell you!