Down 30 lbs and going - first time in my life that weight loss seems to be working - lessons learned

I have had troubles controlling my weight all my life, reaching at some point the top weight of 275lbs. (Male, 5'11", 36 years old at the time of max weight.)

I had gastric surgery in 2015 and lost around 50 lbs, then the bad habits crept in again and I started gaining again.

I decided to go talk to the behavioral psychologist who performed my pre-op evaluation who, at the time, warned me that the surgery was not enough to fix things. We started a plan together.

This is the first weight control attempt in my life that really seemed to work on a long term basis. Here are the results:

https://imgur.com/a/Y1e4o2L

​

I literally tried everything else before, and nothing stuck.

Here is what we do:

• We see each other roughly once a month, and on that occasion he weighs me.
• I log everything I eat on an app, and he gets a daily summary of everything I ate.
• *every* day he emails me with comments on my eating the previous day
• in addition to that, i used stickk.com to commit money to an anti-charity;
  I lose that money if I fail reaching the target goal by the deadline; I use him as a referee.

I commit typically non-trivial amounts of money, like $2,000, so that when the deadline gets close, I'm not tempted to just "pay the penalty and eat freely" on the last days of each stint.

Our target is 2 lbs a month.

It's hard. On the last few days of each stint, natural weight fluctuations are the same magnitude as the planned loss, so you are always at risk of wiping out the gain with a little extra water retention or bowel congestion. The last few days, you basically need to virtually starve yourself and avoid any salty food.

But there's something to be learned there too: if you want to stop eating, you can. And it's not going to be hell. Hunger is not going to torture you. You can easily fast for a couple of days.

Eating out with friends: I just find it impossible control portions. So, when I'm outside eating with friends, if I'm close to my deadline, I just eat nothing. They are understanding. They know I have $2,000 on the line. They don't try to sabotage me.

This is how a recurring commitment for me looks like: logging every day; weight <x> lbs at home, unclothed; no refined carbs at breakfast; dessert only Tue/Thu only after lunch; no food after dinner except 1 glass milk; 2 x 40-min workouts / week, health permitting; afternoon snacks below 250 kcal.

It took a while to converge on it.

Summary: inescapable accountability seems to be critical factor that fixed my behavior.

I hope it can help others.

submitted by /u/cazzipropri
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2KxFAiy