[Chui]

I posted a while back that I had started a diet. I weighed 389 lbs in January, and eventually got down to 330 before I got lazy and got back up to 339. I decided about a week ago to back to dieting. My goal is to get under 300 lbs by my birthday at the end of August.

The first two days I lost 8 lbs. I'm doing anything extreme, just eating more carefully and trying to be more active, walking a lot. I like that weight is dropping off fast, but I've always read that losing weight too fast can be harmful and makes it easy to regain the weight.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can lose weight steadily and safely?

[Guest]

Sounds to me what you are doing is perfectly fine. You are little on the heavier side (just like me) to begin with, so you are naturally going to lose weight faster at this stage. Just make sure that you ARE eating (healthy) and drinking lots of water. Just staying away from fried foods and that extra piece of bread with dinner will make a huge difference right now. You will eventually plateau and will HAVE to change what you are doing but why not just keep doing what you are doing. This will help to build your confidence and make if easier for you to adjust when you do have to start working harder to make the weight loss happen. Everyone has to start somewhere and seeing that scale move just gives you that BOOST that we need. Just because you are losing it fast does not mean you will gain it back. As long as you are learning a different LIFESTYLE than what you did before you should be able to keep it off. Remember that saying, the last 10 pounds is the hardest to loose? That is because the body has already built up a tolerance to what you are doing to loose weight. A couple of years ago, I lost 40 pounds in 3 months and keep it off for 5 years. I then had a baby and gained a lot of it back. I am now working to get it back off. Just keep exercising daily. It will become a habit. In the beginning, you need to exercise daily (atleast walking) 30 minutes so that its does become a habit and you will begin to feel bad if you DON'T do it. Watching what you are eating and exercising even alittle bit to begin with is a great way to start. It also keeps you from feeling OVERWHELMED and wanting to stop before you have even lost anything. Hope this helps you. Just keep up with what you are doing and don't let anyone say anything to stop you.