I’m 36 years old , 5’9” and weighed 239 lbs a year and a half ago. I currently bounce around from 178-180 and have been there same about for the last 7 months. It took about 9 months to lose 60lbs and I’ve kept it off.
I used MyFitnessPal to track my calories but honestly don’t do that anymore since I basically eat the same things and have a pretty good idea of calorie intake. Now, I eat mostly grilled chicken and baked fish as the main part of most meals but load up on broccoli and cauliflower. I would eat more red meat but it’s just too expensive for me.
I also started running a mile every day without stopping and gradually increased it. I’m up to about 18-25 miles a week now and have run as much as 7 miles but usually it’s around 2.
I’m in the best shape of my life and know this doesn’t work for everyone.
The main things I’ve learned:
Weigh yourself every morning. It’s the best way to monitor what you did the day before and if you’re making progress. I had a couple of “cheat” weekends and the Monday morning weigh-in really got you thinking if it was worth it or not.
Track your calories with the app if EVERYTHING you put into your body. It sounds annoying and it is, but you get out of it what you put in and it’s pretty crazy once you figure you can eat a bag of peanut M&Ms or 2 bags of broccoli or a fat grilled chicken breast with hot sauce and have the same amount of calories; again, makes you think if it was worth it or not.
Work out every day with cardio and track the calories you burn. I treat it just like work as something I had to do every day and even would get up at 4:00 to run 2 miles on the treadmill before getting g to work by 6:00 am. Again, I hate running, and it’s crazy to bust your ass running 2 miles and realize you just burned the same amount of calories that were in those Peanut M&Ms, once again, really makes you think about those choices.
I was 239 and never really considered my diet and now it’s basically 2nd nature. I haven’t had a cookie in over a year but still drink beer, though I have cut back, and will still eat the occasional sweets and such.
Good luck to everybody and if nothing else, it does help out with convincing the old lady for some additional “Adult Time”