To those who have lost 75+ pounds....
 

Please share how you went about it. I know we can't discuss diet specifics here, but please include if you followed a set plan or not, etc.

I lost 83 and did it with WW and various fusion workouts. I never did - or do - high intensity or impact because I have two bad knees. I also never did dedicated cardio during the actual weight loss portion of my journey; only after.

I didn't follow any rotation simply because I'm just not good at that, although I did complete one full six week rotation of Slim Series as recommended. Got very few results from it though.

At the time I used tons of barre - Pure Barre mostly - and did lots of Pilates (Trudy Stiler's stuff mainly), ballet dvds such as Ballet Bootcamp, some Dove, V-Core, Grace Lazenby's iTrains, and then various other onesie dvds.

However, I took the very, very long route to losing; it took me a good three years or more to lose it, and sometimes I only lost one pound a month! I was menopausal then and am nearly post-meno now, so that could be why. I also threw away all three of my scales and only weighed at the doctor's each year for, I think, the first two years.

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I did it so long ago that it seems like it was someone else. Frankly, I don't know how many pounds, exactly, I lost, because I haven't set foot on scales in over 25 years (yes, even at the doctor's office).

I went from a 2X/22 to a size 8 the year I was 49. Right now I'm a little fluffy and my 8s are a tad too tight, so I need to pay more attention to what I eat (I no longer have the chance to say: Oh, we don't have this treat back home, I'll just have it since I don't know when I'll be here again--I was traveling all summer and just got home on Saturday).

Size 8 is good for me because I'm 5'8", although I suspect that if I worked on building some muscle, I could still look healthy at size 6. Any smaller than that, and I would look anorectic.

Unlike others who can tell you that they did WW or they went vegetarian, if I say what I did, I will get the thread shut down (this is based on past experience. If I had the time or the inclination, I could pull of the threads where people went on and on about WW or vegetarianism, but the minute I posted the food choices that create and support health for me, the thread got shut down).

I had just discovered barre that year, so I was doing barre (heavy on the Callanetics and the Fluidity) and t-tapp, and I was doing Kundalini Yoga once or twice a week, too. I had to stop the KY because it--as all yoga does--twinged my knees and kinked my back. I switched out KY for Leslie. This was also the year I discovered Classical Stretch.

Barre, T-tapp, Leslie, and CS are my mainstays. A couple of times a month, I'll do a weighted workout like BBL Sculpt or one of the older Firms. Now that I'm home, I have no temptation to eat foods that screw up my insulin/leptin/ghrelin balance, and I suspect my 8s will fit properly by the end of September, but I am NOT going on a diet, I am simply resuming the eating choices that help me maintain my health.

Hopefully I can chime in here I lost 70lb using WW and cardio. After I lost the weight I added Ballet Body which I still do today. Good luck!

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I was very lucky--I didn't really have many skin issues. I have been doing skin brushing for over 15 years. I'm struggling now with aging skin, but it's not that excess skin that happens with extreme weight loss; it's the crepe-y skin that happens after menopause.

Good luck on you health and fitness goals. I pray you find what works best for you.

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Penny, I am 49, and I lost all my weight after 45. My skin never did catch up! I know how to disguise it, though, with clothing. My legs actually have the worst loose skin because that's where I carried the most weight.

I've lost significant amounts of weight three times as an adult (I just turned 40), and each time it was because I started to seriously, seriously take control of my eating. No diet specifics (I have IBS, and twice my weight loss was prompted by needing to eat for that condition). The last time I was sick was in 2007, when I lost more than 50 lbs in about 6 months... and then *kept* it off for another 4-5 years, using the same techniques to keep my eating under control.

In the last few years, that control started to slip, and I put on almost 20 lbs. I felt defeated and confused--why couldn't I just eat like I ate when I was sick? Why was it so EASY for me to pass up chocolate then, but so hard NOW? :confused:
...And then, late this spring, thanks to VFers, I discovered a really smart, sensible book by psychiatrist Dr. Judith Beck, The Beck Diet Solution. It's not a diet--she never tells you what to eat or not to eat--it's a handbook for HOW to diet successfully--how to recapture that control; how to stay motivated in the face of challenges like stress, holidays, eating with friends, etc; how to make your health a priority; and how to consistently make good choices for yourself around food and exercise. In short, it was my old rulebook! I have since re-learned all my old skills, the ones that kept me healthy when I was sick, and at a good weight once I got healthy. (And I dropped those ~20 lbs, so I'm back at my healthy weight!) She's a therapist, and takes a tough-love therapeutic approach: Six weeks of daily worksheets and journal exercises, and you MUST commit to things like exercise, planning ALL your food in advance, and keeping disciplined records--but I found it surprisingly effortless for me. I'd never managed to keep a food diary (even when I was sick); now I've done it every single day (except one) for FOURTEEN WEEKS. She also teaches you how to take credit for every GOOD decision you make, so you never feel overwhelmed by missteps, and tempted to throw in the towel.

As you can tell, I'm a huge fan. :love: What's so great about it is, you can think of it as an ADJUNCT to *whatever* healthy lifestyle you adopt for yourself--any food plan, any exercise program--it will just help you STICK TO IT. I know that I'll have days I struggle (like yesterday--what was UP with all the unplanned snacking?!)... but it's great knowing that the skills are all still there; I just have to keep taking refreshers!

ETA: Since you asked whether we followed a set plan... Dr. Beck has you choose two healthy eating plans (a main one and a fallback, in case the first one doesn't work out for you for some reason). For me, I chose counting calories as my main method, with WW as a backup. I was able to defer joining WW, although it was great to know it was there if I needed it. I think that's one of the things I found so useful with the plan--I felt like I'd be able to tweak my nutrition as I went along, if I discovered something was or wasn't working for me. (A couple of years ago, I managed to lose a little weight with clean eating (no processed foods), but it was SO MUCH WORK, and as soon as life got crazy, all those habits just gradually eroded.)

Exercise-wise, I really like rotations (ie, "I'm doing X workouts for X weeks..."), so for the first 8 weeks or so, I was training for a 5k--running for cardio, and doing a "favorite instructor rotation," running through my collection of circuit DVDs by Amy Dixon. Now my rotation is running and alignment/flexibility/core (yoga, Classical Stretch). But I really want to do a heavy lifting rotation sometime (and I know I'll need to tweak my eating plan when I do), so that might be next!

Good luck! A lot of us have been there (are there, will be there again), and VF is a great place to get support as you go along. Everyone here is so focused on the positive aspects of a fit and active lifestyle, it's almost impossible NOT to be motivated by them!! :sun: