I was 293 pounds as of last November, 199.6 as of last night(although that was after a run and before dinner so I'd actually place my weight at ~203 right now)

I was 293 pounds as of last November, 199.6 as of last night(although that was after a run and before dinner so I'd actually place my weight at ~203 right now). I'm 6'3". What follows is anecdotal opinion based upon my own inherently flawed perception and interpretation of said weight loss. Even if my experiences/difficulties are representative of societies as a whole, the nature of self-analysis over a long period of time is such that any conclusions I draw here should be taken with some degree of skepticism. The three most difficult aspects of weight loss for me were: a.) Accepting that there wasn't a quick fix. b.) Accepting that I'm not rational. c.) Accepting that it was my own actions that got me to this point. (and, to some degree, forgiving myself) I ate ~600 calories a day from November 2013 - June 2014. From June 2014 - Now I've been eating ~1600 calories a day. Before that I had attempted(among a myriad of other things) eating nothing(hhehehe) with the full intention of starving myself until I had reached a healthy weight range. In retrospect, it seems entirely illogical, so many of my decisions in that time period did. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to accept that the starvation-relapse cycle was likely doing more harm than good. Similarly, the acceptance that one day of too-intense exercise wasn't worth the following 3-day recovery/justification period of inactivity. It's better to intake a sustainable amount of calories and to partake in a sustainable amount of exercise. With this realized(and a plan-of-action of some sort in place), the largest difficulty for me was irrationality. I found fighting it with logic, reasoning, and fact was the solution. Weighing myself regularly was hugely important. It was interesting to see how transient my interpretation of my own self-image was; having a record of my actual weight made it much easier to overcome any unjustified self-loathing. I had bad days, relapses, especially towards the beginning. I _strongly_ believe that weight gain, much like depression, is a vicious self-feeding cycle. Weight-loss/fitness is a self-feeding cycle as well, the difference being that eating _will_ provide you immediate satisfaction, whereas the benefits reaped from exercise/diet need to be manufactured in your own head. With regards to exercise, I started with running one mile a day, eventually two/three(and so on), I would take several day breaks in between at the beginning; as of now, the last time I ran less than six miles was over a week ago. I also started lifting back in June when I increased my caloric intake. I'm definitely interested to see how I handle maintaining my weight once I reach my target of ~185. The differences in energy/mood/confidence are amazing, highly recommended my fellow humans :)