First, some progress pictures from M16 5'10 206lbs to M18 5'11 136lbs
Face gains: https://i.imgur.com/0DIOp6C.jpg
Body transformation (NSFW for being semi-shirtless?), wearing the same pants in both pics: https://i.imgur.com/4j4iQjv.jpg
Today is a special day for me for two reasons: it's my second Reddit cake day and the second anniversary of first starting my weight loss journey! Having also maintained my weight loss for over a year now officially qualifies me as a "weight maintainer" who could be part of a study about the effects of sustained weight loss.
My weight loss journey was very cookie-cutter and basic. I tracked my calories to hit 1500 a day, made smarter choices in my diet and walked instead of taking the bus if the weather was nice. My decision to lose weight wasn't triggered by some monumental life event or health scare, I was simply tired of not liking my body and figured I could do something productive over the summer break instead of just laying around watching YouTube. Back then I had no idea that it was even possible to lose weight without exercising for hours every day, so learning about calories and the importance of diet was something completely new and exciting. Realizing that I could actually make a change without putting in superhuman effort, I started researching and making changes to my lifestyle.
Instead of reciting my basic and pretty boring story in over-dramatic detail, here are 10 things I wish I knew when I first started losing weight two years ago:
- Find what works for you! Weight loss is never a one-size-fits-all, different things work for different people depending on their habits and preferences. I tried keto for a month in the beginning stages of my weight loss, but to me the increased satiety wasn't worth the effort avoiding carbs took. This obviously doesn't mean that some people haven't lost over 200 pounds on keto. Those who have found success on it clearly enjoy it more than plain calorie counting. Don't let anyone tell you the weight loss method you find easiest is wrong as long as it's healthy and sustainable, the people trying to convince you out of it don't live in the same environment with the same personal preferences as you.
- Time will pass anyway. You aren't saving any time by procrastinating, tomorrow and next week will come at the same pace whether you're actively making a change in your life right now or not. So why not use this time to make changes that will benefit you for the rest of your life?
- The process of losing weight will get much easier and fade into the background once you get into a routine. In my experience the first 10 pounds were the hardest to lose, because they required me to learn new things and change how I do things on a daily basis. Once I got over the initial hurdle and settled into the habit of keeping track of how much I ate, I simply kept doing what I had done the day before and the pounds slowly melted off over the coming months.
- Motivation is very short-lived and won't get you to your goal. There are many things we do all the time without being motivated, nobody wakes up being ecstatic about getting to brush their teeth or drive to work for example. We still do these things every day, not for instant gratification from how good the toothbrush feels, but to not get cavities in the coming years. Consistently logging your food is the same thing. It's great to have motivation in the beginning to get the ball rolling, but keeping the weight loss going depends on consistency and discipline rather than being motivated 24/7.
- Slow and steady wins the race in weight loss. Often we want to lose the weight quickly to get the rewards of a smaller body as quickly as possible. The problem with this comes when it's time to maintain: if you never addressed the constant need for short-term gratification, how are you going to avoid going back to the short-term gratification lifestyle that made you gain the weight in the first place? Slow weight loss is much more sustainable than crash dieting because it promotes a shift in what you value and how you perceive rewards. Your body is also going to want you to gain the weight back by making you crave high-calorie food if it's lost extremely rapidly. You'll get less hunger and cravings when maintaining if the weight loss wasn't too rapid.
- Trust the process and don't panic over scale fluctuations. Weight loss is never linear, it's a rollercoaster with a slight downwards trend over weeks and months. Our bodies are incredibly complex machines that are made up of so much more than just muscle and fat, most of our mass is actually water which means even slight changes in fluid balance can have huge impacts on what the scale says. Just a few of the things that can cause your weight to plateau/rise despite a caloric deficit are increased exercise, increased food volume from lower caloric density, stress, temporary water retention following dehydration, hormonal changes, having a cold/fever, constipation, excess sodium, lack of potassium, increased glycogen stores from eating more carbs than normally and inconsistent timing of weigh-ins. If you find scale fluctuations especially stressing or annoying, you can download an app like Happy Scale (iOS) or Libra (Android) to get a smoothed out graph showing your weight gradually decreasing over time.
- Take progress pictures/videos to document the process. I made the mistake of only taking one single before-picture, and because of that I can never be sure how much change has actually happened in areas the picture doesn't show. If you don't feel comfortable taking pictures/videos in the beginning like me, you can save them to a hidden folder in your phone where they will stay out of your mind waiting for a time when they'll be super helpful to measure your progress.
- Weight loss is all about how much you eat, exercise isn't a must. Realizing this was a huge relief for me when I first started, because my mom going for daily runs every time she lost weight made me think you had to constantly work out to drop the pounds. Obviously this isn't to discredit exercise and all its health benefits, it's a great way to eat more and I know I feel better if haven't just sat indoors all day. But if you feel like not wanting to work out is holding you back from losing the weight, nothing but a caloric deficit from dietary choices is actually needed.
- Be realistic with your expectations about losing weight and hitting goal weights. The world isn't going to suddenly be all sunshine and rainbows when the scale shows the number you want it to. Sure, you'll feel happy for a little while for reaching a goal you've worked hard on, but things will be more or less the exact same as they've been for a while. Weight loss can fix many health problems and shrink your waist, but no matter how much weight you lose, inside you're still going to be the same person you were at your highest weight. Problems with self-esteem and body image are often rooted so deep that a person suffering from them could look like the epitome of physical perfection but still hate their body. It's important to recognize when the need to change your body comes from a wrong place and get help before things get any worse. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with losing weight purely to look better, it just doesn't help if the person expects it to solve all their problems.
- Every single person who's ever lost weight in the history of weight loss has messed up multiple times, don't beat yourself up over it. If losing 0.4 pounds is insignificant, you can't be mad at yourself for gaining 0.4 pounds either. If you're mad at yourself for overeating, you can't also be willing to starve yourself as punishment because that's just as bad for you. Weight loss doesn't ask for perfection, all that's required is doing slightly more things to promote weight loss than weight gain. Sometimes it might feel like being "on the wagon" for less than 90% of the time is a catastrophe and a valid reason to just give up, when in reality you could be off the wagon gaining weight for 45% of the time and still make progress over time. You're doing way better than your brain sometimes convinces you.
Repairing your relationship with food, improving the overall quality of your diet and tracking how much you eat are the ultimate cornerstones of lasting weight loss. You will very likely achieve permanent weight loss by mastering all three. Lasting success may also come with only two of them, but if you miss out on either healing your relationship with food, lowering the caloric density of your diet or keeping track of what you eat, maintaining the weight loss will be more difficult. Doing only one (f.e continuing to emotionally eat with a diet of mostly junk food, but counting calories) is a start, but it will be unnecessarily hard and the progress you make won't last for very long. Temporary solutions bring temporary results.
I still keep track of my intake by estimating calories of meals to the nearest 100 and mentally "logging" how many I have left for the day after each thing I eat. Even though I'm terrible at remembering people's names, for some reason I have a really good memory for numbers like prices or calories. I can basically look at any food and come up with how many calories it has on the spot. I guess it's an intuition like guessing someone's weight. Eyeballing portions and not keeping a physical food log is notoriously difficult and often the reason people don't lose weight though, so beware if you want to try something similar instead of using an app for logging your calories!
I've always liked eating big meals instead of grazing throughout the day, so I still kind of do intermittent fasting by saving all my calories for meals and not eating anything after dinner. I eat 2000 calories a day with a breakfast of around 300-400 calories, lunch of 600-800 calories and dinner of 800-1000 calories. In the very beginning of maintenance I had more hunger and cravings than normally, but now after a year my body has fully gotten used to being this weight and I almost never get any hunger or cravings when it isn't time to eat.
I hope this post was inspirational or helpful to at least some of you guys! Drop a comment below if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. Remember that you've got this and the only one who can make a change is you. :)
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