Years ago – at least 6 – I signed up with Fitday, an online weight loss tracking site. Since then, I’ve used the site, intermittently, to track my various attempts at losing weight. Back on September 29, I once again created a weight loss goal, and I was impressed to see that Fitday has updated many of its features – all of which are free!
I’m 5 feet 8 inches tall. According to many sites, my ideal weight is between 130 and 164 pounds. Right now, I weigh 242.2 pounds, down 10 from my September 29 weight of 252.2 pounds. In high school, I weighed between 145 and 155, but that was 15 years ago! I simply cannot imagine weighing 164, much less 130! Seriously, I haven’t been 130 pounds since 8th grade.
With all these numbers to deal with, there’s no sense in selling myself short. So, I’ve created a very aggressive goal weight, of 162.2 pounds. Honestly, I’ll be ecstatic once I reach 199, and 162.2 seems like a fantasy, but, go big or go home, right?
Anyway, here’s my current chart, starting from September 29, 2008 and tracking my progress until my goal date, September 29, 2009.
The straight line represents the amount of weight I’ll need to lose to reach my goal by September 29, 2009. The jagged line indicates my actual weight. As you can see, I’m ahead of schedule – but we all know that it’s easier to lose weight in the first month.
Click here to see the full size chart –
It feels good to be making progress, especially when I feel like I’m doing everything “the right way”.
You started Fitday about the same time I did, about6 years ago. I used it every day for 1.5 years. I started with a goal of losing 40 lbs and it took that 1.5 years to lose it. Today, 6 years later I am at 196 lbs, still an even 40 lbs down from the 236 I started with. I check in once in a while to make sure start any bad habits again. Keep at it and you can make your goal, It’s not easy, and you will hit plateaus that last weeks or months where you don’t lose. But Fitday will hold you accountable.
Studies have shown that setting seemingly unrealistic weight goals can actually help you lose the weight. I found that weird – it doesn’t really help me when I make a huge list of crap I need to do to catch up in class – but it turns out, it does work! I’m working towards dropping 20 lbs (ideally) down to 123, but I’ll be happy if I make it down to 132, which is the weight I started college at. I’m currently 16 lbs short of the first goal, but only 7 lbs short of the second! That I find to be motivating. Once I make it to 132, I’ll decide whether or not I should aim for the lower weight.