CICO and r/loseit changed my life! What I learned losing 103 pounds over 2.25 years [NSFW]

Well Reddit, after over two years and 805 days of logging food daily, it is time to share with you my progress using CICO.

First of all the photos.

Second, the data. Weight loss is not linear.

And finally the write-up:

1. CICO works. Plain and simple, if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. I have been obese since middle school and one of my biggest barriers to thinking I could lose weight was that I am a picky eater. How can I lose weight if I won't eat chicken breasts every day? With CICO, I have been able to lose weight, but still eat pizza, pasta, and chocolate on a regular basis. I ate 1670 calories a day the first year and 1570 calories a day the second year.

2. Awareness of what you eat helps you lose weight. Tracking calories allowed me to see what foods that I was eating on a regular basis were high, medium, and low in calories. I took out the high calories except for rare occasions, and kept the medium and low calories. For example, a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese at 1160 calories is out, but I can still eat a Knorr Cheesy Cheddar pasta at 620 calories.

3. Use the tools available to you. For me that has been My Fitness Pal (the free version), for logging every day, a food scale, r/loseit, and losertown.org

4. It gets easier to log the more you do it. At first, every food I had to search for and find an entry and every day I had to figure out my calorie budget. I now have a mental rolodex of the calories of most of my meals and snacks and if I have 700 calories left I can add up for my calorie budget the different combinations of foods. I also have added in meals I commonly eat, recipes I commonly use, etc. into MFP so I have minimal searching to add foods.

5. Break it down into small steps/goals. I did not set out to lose 100 pounds when I started, I honestly was thinking about losing 20-30 pounds. I initially put in 200 as a goal weight because it was a nice round number. I hit 200 and kept going! If I had told myself two years ago that I would lose 100 pounds, I would have thought that was impossible, but 20 pounds, sure I can do that.

6. Keep your motivation in the forefront of your mind. For me the tipping point to losing weight was a couple of things. I could feel myself getting bigger, my lower stomach was touching my thighs in a way it never had before when I was sitting. I had not weighed myself in over a year, but I figured it was a sign that I had gained weight. I also knew that I wanted to try and get pregnant in about a year. While I had no health complications from obesity, I knew that being at a lower weight would be better for me and a baby if I were pregnant.

7. Constantly remind yourself of what you have accomplished so far. Pick up that five pound bag of potatoes at the grocery store or that 25 pound box of kitty litter and carry it around for a little. Five pounds is a substantial amount of weight. I sometimes fell into a rut of being focused on how far I had to go, rather than how far I had come. I have a lot of passwords at work that I need to change every so often, so I started adding the number of my weight loss to the end of my password. This made it a daily reminder of what I had accomplished and every few months I set a new password and see an improvement.

8. Track your progress in multiple ways, not just on the scale. Track the number of days you logged, the number of times you exercised, the numbers of miles you walked, the inches you lost from your waist, the number of times you turned down free food at the office, track your BMI (I have a color coded chart for this), take progress photos, (oh please take progress photos so we can all look at them!). Weight loss is a slow process and sometimes the scale goes up during the journey. We need to track other benchmarks beyond the pounds because the scale is not the only thing that matters.

9. Discovering new body parts is fascinating. I learned that I have "dimples of venus" and that armpits can actually be a "pit", not just a small curve in, which makes shaving my armpits a completely different experience. I am a bit obsessed with my collar bones now, I find them incredibly sexy and always check them out in the mirror. I am still adjusting to seeing myself in the mirror and noticing my weight loss, but I know those collarbones are new so I like to look for them.

10. Loose skin is worth it for better health. I have some loose skin on my stomach and thighs. It is not too obvious when I am standing up (especially if I am clothed), I would describe it more like "crepe paper" skin with the texture. If I do a plank though, it is most definitely obvious, gravity is not the friend of loose skin.

11. Don't expect perfection; allow room for mistakes. I am pretty rigid in my daily regular life about sticking to my calorie budget, however, several times a year I have a vacation or a family visit and then I take a break from my calorie budget. I still log everything, but I indulge a lot more than usual. I gain a few pounds and then vacation ends and I return to my regular budget.

12. Change one thing at a time. I started with logging food in MFP. I did not worry about macros. I did not worry about exercise. I just logged food in MFP and stuck to my calorie budget. After about 10 months, I started focusing on my protein macros and making sure I hit that goal. I exercised casually for the first two and a half years, walking a few times a week or swimming in the summer. In November 2019, I joined a gym and started strength training. I now exercise seven days a week with a combination of walking and strength training.

13. Choose an exercise that you enjoy and do it regularly. For me, I love to walk outside while playing Pokemon Go (I am almost to level 40!), and listening to a podcast (some of my favorites being This American Life, Terrible, Thanks for Asking, Stuff You Missed in History Class, and Heavyweight). I actually did C25K before I started this weight loss journey, but honestly now when I run, I would just rather be walking. I think when I did C25K, I rewarded myself with food for completing the workout and so with walking, I do not feel the same need to have a food reward.

14. Don't rush it. Slow and steady wins the race. Make it a lifestyle change, not a "diet." There is no "quick fix" to weight loss, despite what so many weight loss products try to sell us. I am a big proponent of making a smaller reduction to calories that is sustainable, rather than a larger reduction to calories and giving up because you are hungry.

15. Reach out to others for support. I am so grateful to r/loseit, honestly the quick start guide changed my life. I randomly decided to google how to lose weight, I came to the quick start guide, followed the instructions, and here I am! I have gotten so much knowledge and inspiration from reading the posts from all of you here. My other big supports have been my spouse (who offers regular praise and even will cook the occasional meal for me weighing out all the ingredients!) and my co-workers (many do not know me well, but see me in a hallway and give a shoutout for the progress I have made). I still remember when my first co-worker noticed I had lost weight, I had lost 18 pounds at the time. It was so rewarding to know my hard work was visible.

What's next for me:

1. Continue to be a part of r/loseit and try to learn as much from other people in maintenance!

2. Gradually increase my calorie amount. I plan to add in 100 calories a day for four weeks and then reassess. I also recall seeing something about a spreadsheet to help with this.

3. Focus on my fitness goals. I want to be able to do at least one push-up and at least one sit-up. I have progressed to being able to do a push-up from my knees and being able to do a sit-up, but it is a struggle. I want to keep strength training to build muscle. I will no longer have the mental joy of losing weight each week (I don't think maintaining will bring the same excitement), but I think that if I see improvement with my strength training, that will keep me motivated to stay focused on my health.

4. Keep logging everything, every day. I am not sure how long I will continue this for, but for now it is working and takes minimal effort. Plus, I am never far from my phone anyways!

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