Hello r/losit!
Long time stalker, first-time poster.
I hope to achieve a couple of things with this "brain dump": provide yet another inspiration post for people on their journey, for people who are starting in the same place as me that they are not alone and to hopefully try to break through a couple of thought points that I have discovered through my weight loss. Also, I never say no to another accountability source.
Since Jan 2020 I have lost a total of 20kg (94.2kg to 72.5kg) and my end goal is to lose another 22-23 kg. I am 162 cm tall.
I have a lot of thoughts and experiences that I would like to share, as I believe being stuck in your own mind and your own "echo chamber" is not good for anyone. :) But before that, the actual diet...
The "fattening": A slow and steady gain over the course of 4-5 years of not taking care of myself, nothing much here really - I had no good excuse for it, but it happened. It took so long for me to act because of my blessing/curse that I fit clothes generally really well - so unless I wander about in my undies, even at my heaviest I was a comfortable size 10-12 UK. Still was physically active throughout it all.
The diet and workout: I dieted aggressively with the help of a coach to guide me and lost most of that weight in 5 months (Jan-May), and I have maintained ever since. And that maintenance was mostly to deal with a known problem of mine which is emotional and comfort binge-eating (more on that later).
At 92.4 : Jan2020 (Size 10-12 UK)
At 72.5: Dec2020 (Size 6-8 UK)
I kept a clear-cut CICO at around a constant 500-600 kcal daily deficit without any "cheating".I have always been active, even at my heaviest - I was doing sports and lifting weights. The only change during the diet was that I started walking/running more - adding about 30-45 varied cardio per day. I lifted weights 3-4 days a week and did sport the rest. Would slip in a rest day when I felt like I needed it. And that was that.High water intake has been a new addition to my life: aiming towards 2.1-2.2 litres per day of water, not counting teas/0 kcal fizzy drinks/etc.If anyone needs inspiration or meal ideas, I do not mind adding a couple of examples of what I was doing - warning: I am a boring person so there has been a lot of repetition of meals (if it works, why break it?).
The maintenance and how to fix a binging problem: I knew I had to learn to eat normally, without having a steel-set diet to follow, so that is what I have spent the last 5-6 months doing. And boy, it has been so difficult! I am not naturally a foodie, so I had to really work for it to figure out what I like to eat that still won't blow out my calories for the day and week. Then why did I just keep my diet? I truly believe it is important to "become" a healthy person, not just pretend with rules and set diets. My weakness is in general bread - be it in pizza-form, or pasta-form or just bread-form - to which I would overeat on until I was ill to seak comfort. My way so far has been to add a piece of "comfort food" in my day-to-day - I have sandwich thins toasted in one of my meals, a serving of noodles occasionally, etc - as long as I can fit them in my daily. Recently I had pizza, and managed to spread out the pieces for a total of 3 days to keep my kcal intake! Also as a note, I have been working out a lot less due to gym closures/finding it difficult to get back to a routine - but I have kept the cardio (yay, JustDance and walking!) and the sports.
Intermittent Fasting and how do I use it? : I am no doctor nor scientist and there are many arguments for and against it. I am using an 18-hour fasting window mostly to have a timer to deter me from unnecessary snacking out of boredom. This is the newest addition to my system so I am yet unsure if it is effective or not. Will edit if I discover something revolutionary.
And as I mentioned in the start, and the reasons I have been quite timid to post anything here, I wanted to put out there a couple of points of annoyance? thoughts? winges? somethings:
- Everyone but my partner has responded in the exact same way when I mention my end goal and that I want to lose more: "Oh, but you look so great already! You have done so much, you don't need to lose anymore!" I appreciate the positivity and the compliments, and I never said I think I do not look good now, but it is just not my goal. And why is that so difficult for people to accept? Your body image goals and taste are not the same as mine - we are different, it's ok.
- And in the same breath - no, I do not want to be "Instagram babe fit". This is the current body fad. Everyone (and I am grossly generalizing here) wants to be lean, big muscle butt, six-pack, etc. And that is great! I can drool for hours on social media over fantastic looking, dedicated ladies that work so hard to achieve that figure and are happy with it. They look fantastic! I, on the other hand, do not want to look like that. And that is especially difficult to get across when I have been told I am naturally muscular and I have noticed myself that I build both strength and muscle relatively easy (in comparison for example, than my mum who is naturally thinner). I adore and look up to the slimmer, more delicate looking ladies - prominent it seems more in Asian cultures.
- And from the other two points you might have gathered, yes, I am losing weight only for aesthetic reasons at this point - and I do believe that is a "wrong" reason to want to lose weight. I am quite lucky and privileged (especially in this day and age) to be a healthy person - I am quite athletic and can get back to it with relative ease, which was tested with the multiple gym closures. I have a lot of "athletic goals" that I am working on regardless of weight - but the dieting and all - that is purely and un-adulterated for looks.
- Venting a frustration that is related to the first point here and just being thankful for my partner: to all my friends and family that mean well - No. I am not "skinny" or "almost underweight". You are delusional or just straight out lying to me. I do not appreciate it; to my partner - thank you for keeping me honest whilst still making me feel loved, sexy and being my cheerleader to achieving a difficult goal. Wanting a slimmer, fitter looking lady also does not make you a bad person everybody. :)
My biggest win so far has been the fact that I inspired my mother to lose weight as well, as she has been in a dangerous weight for a very long time now and she too has lost about 10 kg at this point already!
How am I planning to lose the other 22 kg? : Same same, but different! The difference is that I am not setting non-flexible diet day-to-day, but I am tracking food in Calories Counter. My calorie goal for the day is 1200 kcals, with a focus on covering 30g of fibre and proteins to keep me full and satiated. I will be re-evaluating this once a week during my weekly weigh-in and will keep on checking my BMR to see when I need to lower the calories to keep the weight loss rate. I am struggling at the moment to keep a good workout routine, so that is the next step to get back in track as I want my athleticism to be as important as the weight-loss goal.
Apps used:
CICO tracking: MyFitnessPal -> Moved to Calories Counter (iOS)Fasting: Zero (iOS)Notion: Keep notes of feelings/thoughts/reflections.
tl;dr : Lost 20 kg by CICO - regular cardio (30-45 min), weight lifting and sports; Maintaining for 5-6 months and dealing with binge-eating by adding the "trigger food" regularly in my diet; Started another round to go down to 50-49 kg by using a more flexible CICO;
Mandatory apologies for any bad English, not a native speaker.
Also a disclaimer, I am not saying this is a "good" or a "bad" way to do weight loss, just throwing myself and my thought process out there.
This is one big ol' brain dump that I hope will get some conversations happening and I really hope I get to help someone along the way!!!
Edit 1: In response to u/raspberry_rain, here is a day example of what I had when I was with my PT at the start (please keep in mind that this was tailored to my taste and needs - that is what you get when you pay for a PT):
Breakfast: 150g of low fat yogurt + 1 small banana
Lunch: 85g chicken breast + 25g red bell pepper + 2-3 cherry tomatoes + 1 cup of green leaf salad + 1 cup of spinach + 15 g low fat mayo + 30g feta cheese (Note: I would cook the chicken breasts in bulk, put the spinach in hot water and mix it with the cheese; I ate the rest raw as I prefer crunchy veggies)
Snack: 10 almonds + 1 cup of raspberries
Dinner: 115g of salmon or chicken + 150g steamed broccoli + 1 small potato + hot sauce
Desert: 10kcal Jelly + 2 pieces of chocolate
There were a number of changes over time, as we needed to change the kcal, proteins, carbs depending on how I was feeling. I guess from here comes another point - a good PT is worth the money!!! If you are in the UK, I can refer you to mine - she is absolutely fantastic!
For comparison, today I have had the following:
Breakfast: 2x boiled eggs (egg whites only) +50g fat free cottage cheese + hot sauce + 1 toasted thins + 1 pear + 100g of fat free yogurt + 30g dried prunes (Note: Removed the yolks and added the cottage cheese mixed with the hot sauce, thank me later!)
Lunch: 260g chicken soup + 100g of leaf greens + 1 thins + 15g light mayo for the salad
Dinner: 145g egg noodles + 160g frozen veggies mix + 100 leag greens
Snacks: 2x clementines + 10g of roasted pecans + 1 Lindt Chocolate piece
Pretty carb-heavy day in comparison to the norm, but I am on my period, and I tend to want more carby foods (also chocolate). I am also not moving too much today (not walking weather and cramps are deterring me from any exercise).
Again, this is what works for me - I do not starve myself nor will I stuff myself to fit a kcal "minimum".
Hope it helps!!!!
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