its going to take a long time to take it off."

i hear this quote all the time and i was just wondering if it was true for anyone??? for me, i was always heavy. my old weight was about 210 but at 5'9 i still wore a size 12 and all was good. WELL, then i met my husband and graduated college and started working....excercise time went on the back burner and i gained about 100 pounds in 1 YEAR!!! can you imagine? i felt like CRAP.

well, i was just wondering if anyone else was in that position too? did anyone put it on really quickly and if so, has it been harder/easier for you to get it off????

I can only speak for myself but I held pretty good at 180 for years and years. Then I started going over seas for the US Dept of State and my weight started to go up. Must have been all the good food we were having at Embassy Functions.

So for about another 5 or 8 years I was stable around 220 and knew I was a bit on the beefy side, but I chalked it up to getting older, exercising less and stuffing my piehole with lots of good bread.

Just over the last 2 years have I really started to pack it on. Probably 35 pounds over the last 18 months or so. I am certainly glad to be on the Atkins plan to get more control over things.

So far I am down 12 pounds, which to me is nothing to write home about, but it is a good start. When I hit that 200 pound mark, I will write home.

I figure it took 18 months to pack on 35 pounds, on top of the 35 I already had so if I can hit that 200 mark before August of 2004, I'll be happy. I might actually be trying to lose too much too soon, but since I only have a goal of getting healthier and slimmer over time, there is no set "Make or Break" day.....

This is about changing my life, more than just my waist size.

max

I gained 100 lbs in about 18 months from June 2002 - October 2003 with the bulk of it being put on from April 2003 - October 2003.

Anyway, I haven't really put a time limit on how long it should take for me to get into shape and reach final goal. I would like to do it in roughly 2 years time for my wedding, which is not implausible.

As far as whether or not it will take a long time - well, I'm banking on it. While I would absolutely adore losing this weight by Monday, I know it won't teach me a thing. At the moment, I'm learning about how my body works and with how heavy I've gotten, this absolutely must be a learning experience or I'll be back real, real soon.

I lost the extra weight after all 3 of my children were born. But after I had my 4th child at age 28 I never lost it and actually gained more to boot..Guess you could saythat I finally had to work at it. Man have I learned alot about how poor my eating habbits were, uhg.

I gained it quickly... quit doing some harmful stuff.. and it thru my metabolism out of whack... gained 50lbs in under a year... stayed at that weight for about a year...

I am loosing alot more inches than weight.. but it is very steady... i think i will be at goal in no time....

I think it depends on your body... and how long you kept the weight on... IMHO

thanks for your replies. i really dont have a "deadline" and i actually dont even have a goal weight either. i just want to be much healthier. my husband and i are starting to think about kids and i cant imagine having a healthy pregnancy at my weight let alone running around with a kid. that would be the only real reason that i dont want it to take forever.

i was just curious about the speed of weight loss for those of us who gained it quickly bc i know that a lot of people say they stall at a weight they were at for a while. i figure i wasnt at any weight about 220 for all that long bc i was constantly gaining non stop, week to week. i guess we will see how it goes.

I started really packing it on about 5 years ago when I pitched my SO out. Then packed on the rest of it two years ago when I quit smoking. So now I'm taking it off. If it comes off slowly that's OK with me as long as it comes off!

shortstuff

Four years ago I gained 25 lbs. in 6 months on Depo Provera. Unfortunately, it all went on my belly. That was on top of the 30 lbs. I steadily gained over about six years.

Now I have lost 22 lbs. in 4 months on Atkins. It's never going to go back the other way ... This feels so much better than anything tastes ...

When I stopped a big exercise schedule it came back pretty quickly over the course of one winter, but I'd stayed at a steady weight for years before that, I think it helped. The exercise sure didn't hurt!
Funny thing...I'm at the same weight now that I was then, but one size smaller! That's why goal weights can be very tricky as you approach. We are denser, we are older, and we don't know exactly where we will wind up.
So taking it long term is definitely the way to go.

I have never had a hard time putting the weight on, and it never seems to take a long time to me. I can't figure why people keep saying that it "takes a long time to put it on". Now if only I could take it off as fast and easily as I put it on. LOL

I totally agree, I can put it on overnight it seems, but it sure don't come off overnight.