I need to lose 50kg

[laurenmcnaught]

Hope everyone has been going well and enjoyed the public holiday. Silly me planned all these great great ideas like eating healthy and exercising but I just went to visit my sister in melbourne for a couple of weeks and forgot all about my new practices! But i'm back home, have given myself a bit of a kick in the butt and am ready to get going for real.

I think it will be great if we can all keep each other going because its hard having a large amount of weight to loose and its nice having people who understand. Anywho hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and I'm looking forward to seeing how we are all tracking are next week Good Luck!!

[CronicBadger]

Kimbali and thinkingthinner have a good idea re that bad word "diet". To my mind, it implies "going on a diet" which then means it is something that you can just as easily "go off". By making eating healthily a normal habit instead it then becomes something that makes as much sense to "go off" as breathing or sleeping.

I had about 55 to 60 kilos to lose when I started, and at that time it seemed an absolutely unreachable goal. Of course that was silly and shortsighted and I now think was just me trying to sabotage myself. It took a lot of small sub-goals and small losses each week over time (from the end of 2009 to now) to lose 45 kilos and now that final "unreachable" goal is in sight!

Whether it's 40, 50 or even 70 or more kilos that has to be lost, it WILL be lost once good habits have been learnt and maintained. Another thing to remember is that you can't outrun a bad diet, ie no amount of exercise can compensate for bad food choices. Also, don't worry too much about the figure on the scales - it may be better initially to simply concentrate on feeling better, both physically and emotionally, by attaining small goals such as no junk food for a week, or exercising 3 times a week for a month, and then building up from there.

[heffy]

i think i have about 60kg to lose, i just dont know how to do it. i hear so much conflicting information that i just dont know where to start.

[CronicBadger]

Hi Heffy

I know where you're coming from. 18 months ago I weighed the same as you, and up until then was consistently unsuccessful in losing weight and hit rock-bottom emotionally and physically before I somehow summoned the strength to change.

To answer your question (and a few unspoken ones! )

"Where do I start?":
Start at your mouth.
* Eat plain healthy foods that don't have added fat, sugar or salt (that's pretty much anything that looks like it came off a tree or grew out of the ground or off a fish or skinny cow).
* Eat less than you need to eat to maintain your weight.
* Do some exercise. Anything, like walking around the block or climbing up and down stairs.

"When do I start?":
NOW!
* Don't start "Tomorrow". Tomorrow never comes.
* Don't wait until you feel "inspired" or "confident" or when the planets align and it "feels right".
* Just start right now and don't stop.

"Who is going to help me?"
YOU!
No one can can lose weight for you. You're responsible for the decisions you take on what you eat and when and how you exercise. Any advice, empathy and encouragement you get from here and other sources around you are only effective if you are making positive decisions at the same time.

"Where can I find out what the best way to lose weight is?"
Many years worth of medical studies and experiments have produced a clear set of guidelines:
* A person has to eat less food energy than he or she needs to maintain a stable weight. That's the only way to reliably and consistently "burn fat".
* Exercise - it assists weight-loss by maintaining muscle tone and bulk - weight-loss uses muscle tissue, exercise rebuilds muscle tissue, muscle usage expends energy and promotes weight-loss.
* Maintain nutritional levels when eating less food - by eating food with a higher nutritional value than before.
* It appears that the aim of many of the PCOS-related weight-loss strategies is to address the insulin resistance issue - a low-GI diet plus regular exercise seems to be the generally accepted method. I'm sure you doctor would have provided you with the info on this.

All the hundreds of fancy diets and techniques and systems are based around those points above. They are varied to suite the different motivational, nutritional and lifestyle needs of people. Some will have slightly different results, but in the long run the results are the same - a healthy, happy person.

"Where do I find more information?"
Here in the Weightloss web site:
http://www.weightloss.com.au/diy-weight ... ogram.html
The very first sentence on that page reads,
"Most of us want to lose weight but many of us don't know where to start."
It has a simple plan that can be tailored to your own needs. Having a goal-oriented plan is important - without one all you'll do is flounder around getting nowhere.

There are plenty of useful articles here as well. For example, one on "eating behaviour":
http://www.weightloss.com.au/articles/w ... viour.html

That's about all I can think of for the moment. Hopefully it's given you something to go on.

[heffy]

wow sounds so simple when you put it like that!!!

[journeyto80]

:) I have 70 to lose to get to 70 which is a size 12 for me. And that is the first time I have told anyone. I have had injury from a previous MVA giving me alot of grief when it comes to excercise. The repeated injuries along with the 4-6wks off excercise got too much and I completely gave up. I will support you if you support me!! Thats how it goes isnt it?

It is indeed. I think support is the biggest thing to help you stay motivated. You have a long journey. The more support the better. Its near impossible to do it on your own. So get a group (the right group - you probably dont even know them yet) and they will support you. Joing weight watchers, get a personal trainer, join group fitness. Develop a schedule and have fun doing it