ITT we motivate me to become a real life 9 - long term thread/log (tl;dr w/pics!)

[xbeatax]

Guess I should start off with the obligatory, "I've been fat my entire life" line. I'm 21, and a senior in college now. I'm not the fat friend/fat girl at the bar - I don't even go out because I've been a fly on the wall in the past and it obviously sucks.

Freshman year I used to be addicted to working out. I used to put off studying because I would be going to the gym twice a day instead. I could run 55 minutes nonstop at a 6.5mph pace (clearly I was in a different mental state during that time). The hardest part of all of this is that even though I was in great cardiovascular shape, the numbers on the scale weren't changing. Don't give me the muscle spiel either, it just would have been nice to see myself lose 10 or 15 pounds for all of the effort I was putting in. I was very into strength training back then and wanted to get into powerlifting, but was too shy to try it out in fear of bad form.

I stopped working out and progressively starting gaining weight. I didn't eat the worst food, but it certainly wasn't going to help me lose weight. Last summer/winter I was taking a lot of adderall and the pounds were melting off and I got down to about 185. I felt awesome and skinny, but I knew once I stopped the pounds were going to come back on. And they did.

Fast forward to today. I'm basically just a fat slob. I always wanted to think I was really confident, but inside I wasn't. I felt like every girl got more attention than me just because they were skinny and I wasn't. I still feel that way today. My diet is about 40% fat, 25% protein, and 35% carbohydrate.

This semester I took an exercise physiology course and found out more about my body composition in the lab portion of the class.

STATS:
Weight: 214 pounds
Body fat percentage: 41.13%
BMI: 32.5
Lean body mass: 126.26 lbs
Fat mass: 87.74

Body weight goal: 176 pounds with 27% body fat

Before pic:

Spoiler:

threadsaverssssssssss (aka me when i decide to try to look put together)

Spoiler:

Bottom line:

Don't thremp me, don't troll, don't tell me the obvious "eat less" BS. it's a tougher emotional battle for me give me motivation, long term advice that works for you, your girlfriend/mother/sister/aunt/daughter/in law. talk about workout plans, etc. And lastly, i apologize if i sound attention whorey, but hearing feedback is very motivating.

Be nice.

[tmcdmck]

you have lots of potential, read all of the nutritional stuff in the FAQ, use something like www.fitday.com to log what you eat. good luck.

[00t-bone]

Surround yourself with other people that eat healthy and work out. Set goals, not just weightloss goals though. Start a schedule and stick to it. Don't be lazy in the gym, just because you're there doesnt mean you're working hard.

edit- too many people focus on what the scale says. If you're eating healthy and working out hard, dont worry about how many lbs you weigh. How tall are you?

[xbeatax]

5'8

[bobboufl11]

I use this to estimate maintenance. Multiply by 1.2 for sedentary and add in any exercise. I would try a 50% deficit at first. Don't freak out if you have a bad meal or day just try to limit them. Unfortunately this puts you at 1084 calories on the 50% deficit so you'll most likely have to do some cardio to help get there

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

[tmcdmck]

50% deficit seems pretty big to me.

[bobboufl11]

I like setting the bar rly high so I wind up ok if I slip up a little. It's a little different for me at 310 though as 1800 calories isnt so tough

[tmcdmck]

yeah i can see it being a good approach in your spot, but i think for OP she would be better served setting easier goals.

[milesdyson]

you don't look your weight. i agree with tmdcmek, you have great potential.

My diet is about 40% fat, 25% protein, and 35% carbohydrate.

from faq and everyone else:

Diet:
-Set calories
-Set protein
-Carbs and fat make up rest of calories

to maintain 214, using 14cal/lb (which may be slightly high but it's a starting point), you eat about 3000 calories per day. so in step 1, you'd start by setting your calories a bit below 3000, like 2200 (15 twinkies worth). this is step 1 because no matter what you eat, if you eat few enough calories, you will lose weight.

setting protein is important, however, because it helps massively in succeeding at step 1. if you get nearly 1000 calories daily from high protein sources (lean meats mainly), it won't be nearly as difficult to stay around 2200 calories vs. forcing yourself to eat 1000 calories of cheese every day.

eta: don't try to eat 1000 calories a day, lol.

[kidcolin]

give me motivation, long term advice that works for your girlfriend/mother/sister/aunt/daughter/in law

but these are all women. like they'd listen.

but seriously, FAQ is your friend. A food log will be your friend. I prefer livestrong's dailyplate site over fitday, but just use something.

[Malucci]

Yeah, you don't look your weight.

Do some SS.

You're going to look pretty hot with some muscle and less fat.

[xbeatax]

Originally Posted by kidcolin

but these are all women. like they'd listen.

but seriously, FAQ is your friend. A food log will be your friend. I prefer livestrong's dailyplate site over fitday, but just use something.

i used fitday to complete a project that i had for my nutritional aspects and performance class which is why i have a general idea of how much of each macronutrient i consume. i really liked it, but it's very inconvenient and time consuming to look up everything i eat (ldo i eat a lot). but i love all of the graphs that analyze everything - pretty neat to see how everything adds up.

[Malucci]

Also, don't quit. Don't ever ever quit. You're going to have bad days, and bad meals, and there will be days where you feel like you never want to go to the gym again, and never want to eat another salad, boring grilled chicken breast etc. Despite this, don't quit. Bad meals are acceptable here and there, bad days are acceptable here and there, quitting should never be acceptable. Even if you don't immediately see results, even if you don't see results for months, don't quit.

[kidcolin]

the lookup is why i like dailyplate better. has lots of user input stuff in their database and it's just more intuitive.

[KhalynYohrk]

Welcome to H&F, we got your back. I dont know how many times you've tried to drop lbs but I lost 1/10th my bw earlier this year and its tough but it can be really manageable. Protein is your friend, drink lots of low calorie fluids and do some light cardio, walking light running etc to burn a few extra. Keep posting here and like malucci said, just keep at it, eventually you'll hit a stride and the weight will start dropping.