Welcome to 2019! Resources for our Day One Members, Plus Bonus Interviews!

Welcome to 2019 r/loseit!!

Today is the first of the year which means it is also the day everyone’s New Year's resolutions kick in! In 2018 ,r/loseit grew to 1.3 MILLION subscribers with the existing community losing a collective 1,669,143 lbs! If you are new to loseit for 2019 we are here to welcome you and are glad you have joined us! We have tons of resources and one of the best online supportive communities you can find anywhere.

We have a many resources that can help reach your goals for 2019 ranging from an FAQ to different ways to keep you engaged and accountable throughout your journey. The full array of these are available in the sidebar and in the Daily Quests thread, but we've highlighted a few here that will probably be the most helpful to our newcomers:

• POSTING GUIDELINES Read these before posting
• QUICK START GUIDE Want to start losing weight? Here is the quick start guide.
• THE COMPENDIUM The loseit Wiki
• F.A.Q. Got a question about weight loss? Check the FAQ, you might find what you are looking for
• Daily Q&A You've got more questions? We've got more answers!
• Day 1 Starting your journey today? This is the place to go!
• SV/NSV For when you have an accomplishment to share
• 24hr Pledge Tell us your plan for the day

We also have challenges that we run throughout the year. The next one starts this Thursday on January 4th and features a Pokemon theme! Sign up, get assigned a team and work together to complete inter-team exercise challenges and lose weight together!! It is sure to be fun and motivational, so please sign up! More information can be found here.

To ring in the new year we are bringing you a bit of bonus motivation. A brief interview with a few of our long time members!
Here are our four interviewees and their progress pictures so far:

• u/fluffstermcmuffin - https://imgur.com/a/x4XBwBJ
• u/ThatCanadianGuy88 - https://i.imgur.com/jH8DljF.png
• u/funchords - https://imgur.com/a/cPA6J
• u/walkSMASHwalk - https://i.imgur.com/b2Twxmz.jpg Full body (underwear): https://i.imgur.com/W7tFcRb.jpg

Question: How long were you overweight or obese?

• Fluffstermcmuffin- I had a brief stint around high school where I was a normal weight due to an illness. Otherwise I’ve always been overweight. I can remember my mother talking to my doctor about me needing to lose weight as a kid.
• CanadianGuy88- Basically my entire life. At 14 I was already at or near 300 pounds. I'm not entirely sure when I crossed 400 but if I had to guess it would be around 24.
• Funchords- Since the mid 1970s -- or about age 12 or 13. When I hit puberty, the weight piled on.
• WalkSMASHwalk- I've yo-yo'd between 140 and 180 lbs several times in my life. I'm 32 and 5'8", for reference (although I thought I was 5'7" until this year!).

Question: What are some of your motivations to lose weight?

• Fluffstermcmuffin- While at the time I couldn’t recognize it, hindsight has made me understand that at the start of this I was in a pretty serious depression. I was both apathetic and completely pissed off about everything. The world felt out of control and I thought if I can just control one thing, maybe that would help. Perhaps even more importantly, I wanted to prove to myself and everyone else that I could be more than what I was. It felt like I had lost my identity, or maybe never had one in the first place, so this was my attempt to find out who I was and what I could do.
• CanadianGuy88- When I started I just wanted to be able to move more without panting for breath. I also wanted to not use a belt extension any airplanes anymore.
• Funchords- My diabetes was no longer being managed just by the pills and the shots, and it was getting tougher and tougher to manage it plus travel.
• WalkSMASHwalk- I always hated feeling very self-conscious and discomfited in my own body. Feeling comfortable in your own skin is indescribable.

Question: How many times did you attempt to lose weight previously?

• Fluffstermcmuffin- I hadn’t. I had thought about it, even said that I would, but I never once actually tried.
• CanadianGuy88- Way to many to count accurately but if I had to put a number on it at least a dozen times. Most likely more.
• Funchords- Several major efforts, some resulted in 60-70 pound losses, but I always gained it back immediately.
• WalkSMASHwalk- I've lost the same 40 lbs at least three or four times, if not more!

Question: What was different this time around that allowed you to achieve success?

• Fluffstermcmuffin- In the simplest terms, my desire to lose weight was stronger than anything that could have possibly stopped me.
• CanadianGuy88- I had a fellow close friend drop nearly 100 pounds and I thought if he could do it so could I. I also got linked up with a lifelong friend who owns a personal training gym who got me connected with a personal trainer and a nutritionist.
• Funchords- This time I made a 52 week commitment to tracking my food. Both the time commitment and the food tracking helped me push through plateaus, low moods, difficult weeks, sometimes rebellious behavior and proved that I could do this.
• WalkSMASHwalk- I'd lost most of the weight before and even maintained for a while. But I never got all the way to my goal weight until this time. One big difference was using MyFitnessPal and a food scale for the first time, really tracking calories religiously (I'd done a food diary before but it was pretty fast and loose). The other huge difference is continuing to track and/or eat very mindfully even nearly a year into maintenance. I either track in MFP, weigh daily or, better yet, both! That way, I always stay on track and course-correct if necessary, before a few lbs becomes 40 lbs all over again.

Question: What are your personal weight loss tactics? (calorie counting, IF, etc. with a brief explanation of what a day of losing weight might look like for you)

• Fluffstermcmuffin- I have always done calorie counting. On a normal day I eat pretty much everything after I get home from work. Some people call that OMAD, but for me it is more like 4 hours of snacking and then getting ready for bed. :)
• CanadianGuy88- At first I counted nothing but eventually I got into counting my calories and using a tracking app. My day is pretty simple food wise. Breakfast is either a smoothie (with coconut milk, avocado, protein powder and fruit) or an egg scrambler of some sort. Lunch/Dinner is always a mix of either salad or cooked veggies with some sort of protein and a bit of cheese. Simple yet effective.
• Funchords- Calorie counting and doing some fitness that I enjoy. Making and keeping habits, and tolerating failure without self-damning regret, has been the key to making this manageable.
• WalkSMASHwalk- I used MFP and ate 1200-1400 a day for 6 months (my TDEE is 1700-1800). I love walking and biking and do some sort of fat burning activity for an hour or more most days. I still do these things in maintenance (although I've been trying to eat intuitively since the beginning of December!).

Question: What are your plans when you reach your goal/if you have reached your goal - how do you intend to keep the weight off? (Brief explanation of your strategy)

• Fluffstermcmuffin- For the most part I have lost the weight, and I’ve maintained my current weight for about a year. However, with the holidays and all I need to cut back again and lose a few pounds. Once I do it is all about strength. My New Year's resolution is to do a be able to do a pull up
• CanadianGuy88- I am not entirely sure what my plans are when I finish. I’m coming off a year of mostly maintaining my weight. Though I already have lifelong sustainable changes in place food wise too keep me going forever. I won’t use a tracking app forever but it will be a vital tool to help get me to the finish line I desire. I just have to not fall back into old bad habits. Plain and simple. But easier said than done sometimes.
• Funchords- I'm continuing to log food, continuing to track weight, and continue to be active in my health. It's a habit like brushing my teeth now. It's not a lot of work when it's so automatic.
• WalkSMASHwalk- I'm just as disciplined and diligent as I was while losing. I developed much better dietary habits and make eating mindfully an everyday practice. As mentioned above, I either track in MFP, weigh daily or both -- NO exceptions!

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So, What's your plan for the new year? Do you have any questions we can help with? 2019 can be the year to accomplish those weight loss goals, so let's work together and make it happen!

Here is to a safe, happy and healthy 2019!

submitted by /u/fluffstermcmuffin
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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2EW5Z5b