Back and trying to find motivation
 

Hello everyone! I was on here a few months ago and lost 15 lbs. Since then I seem to have totally lost my motivation and I have no idea where it went. I think one of the hard parts for me was I never really knew how many calories I need to eat in order to lose weight but not be starving. Every time I look it up, I find contridictory information.

My husband and I are going on vacation with some friends in February and I'd really love to look and feel fantastic for it. Can someone help me find my motivation and get me on the right path again? How many calories should I be eating in order to lose weight (with about 1 hour of exercise per day).

5'9"
208.5 lbs

Would like to get down to 175 lbs if possible.

Thank you all!

You've tried to find the right number of calories for a daily limit but you find contradictory information. OK. Just pick one. Of a range, find the one that is closest to the middle and use that number. Just use it. Why not? Use it for a week or two and find out if it in fact is the limit that allows you to lose weight (forget the exercise - unless you are devoted to exercise and will exercise religiously!). Exercise is good for your health, your muscles, and for losing weight but diet is most of the effort. It takes a whole lot of exercise to undo a diet mistake.

I agree with Kathy. It take a whole lot of exercise to undo the diet mistake.
Just pick a number and try it out. You will figure out soon, Best of luck.
Mai

This is great advice! There really are no hard and fast rules that applies to everyone. You've been around for a while and read the forums before (BTW welcome back, I remember you from the spring).

Another tactic would be to look at your current eating habits and pick 1 thing to change at a time. Too much soda? Drop the soda. Then in a week or 2 pick another. Is portion size a problem? (this tends to be my downfall), then decide on cutting back. Too may carbs in the pie chart? Decide to cut back on the bread and potatoes. That way you are tackling your eating patterns rather than obsessing about calories.

Hello! Thank you for the replies. I think my main problem is I like to eat. REALLY like to eat. I like all the good stuff (Fruits and veggies) AND bad stuff (pop tarts!:rolleyes:). So it's tough for me to cut back on that. I don't mind exercising...actually really like it, once I get myself going. I'm trying to cut out some of the bad stuff and focus more on the good stuff and really be religious with the exercising.

Thanks for all the great advice! I'll definately take it to heart!

You will lose the weight. The fact that you returned to this website is proof enough. Now go and enjoy Cancun.

What's your plan for when you come back from Cancun? As much as I believe in short term goals, they are really important, I think too many people want to lose weight for a wedding, reunion, vacation, etc but don't look beyond that. That's fine. I wanted to lose weight before I went to Florida a couple years back. I was wondering if you hit your goal, do you plan to continue after returning? Far too many people don't and they get stuck on the roller coaster ride.