Here is a timeline of how my body has changed.
How I did it: I eat 1500 cals per day during a 6-hour window. It’s basically my own combination of IF and CICO, since I didn’t have a “specific” diet (no “vegan” or “keto” or whatever - I just counted the hell out of my calories). I did this literally every single day. 6x a week I eat a salad with grilled chicken breast. On it’s own, it seems super simple, but when you add a bunch of days together, the results are pretty astounding.
My main meal of the day is a massive 700-calorie chicken breast salad around 7-8pm. I skip breakfast and snack on fruits or veggies around 2pm. If I’m hungry outside of my 5-hour window, I just drink cold water. After the first month or so, my body got used to that schedule and I don’t really feel hungry anymore, regardless of the time. I think it got used to my limiting the total calories in per day to 1500. I’m going to bump that number to 1920-2200 a day (depending on if I work out that day) now that I’ve hit 165 to see if that, combined with exercise, gives me enough energy to lift weights while maintaining a weight of between 170-180. I wanted to get to 165 so I could adjust my eating habits and find what number works for me, which I assume will result in a little weight gain while I get used to it (that’s where the 165 to 170 comes into play). One thing I want to note is that I hit several plateaus where the scale didn’t move for several weeks at a time. The first time this happened, I was discouraged as hell and nearly gave up. Instead, I decided to keep doing the same thing and wait it out. And it worked. Eventually. The rest of the plateaus weren’t nearly as difficult because I knew what to expect. My main takeaway from this is “don’t quit because it’s taking longer than expected. Trust the process”.
I went from a size 42 waist to a 32. I’ve had to buy new clothes, new belts, and yes, new boxer briefs (despite wearing the same ones for all 3 photos - now, if I take a step wearing them, they fall down... I went from an XL to M). That being said, it’s a very good problem to have. As I mentioned above, now that I’ve hit my target weight, I’m going to start exercising more and eating more food. I did end up with a minimal amount of loose skin, but it’s not really noticeable from behind if I stand up straight or from the side. Now that I’ve accomplished my goal, I’m having a little difficulty making myself eat around 2000 a day, and even more difficulty eating food throughout the course of the day rather than just within my weight loss 6-hour window (I keep reading it’s important to space protein consumption out across the day - protein in the early morning, protein after a mid-morning workout, casein protein before going to sleep, etc). I know it’s crazy, but a little voice in my head is saying “if you eat at all hours of the day, and so much, you’re going to get fat again!”... thankfully there’s a different voice saying “that happened before only because you didn’t have a plan, and this time is different”. It’s a weird problem to have, and like I said earlier, probably a good one, but at the same time it’s something that I’m having a little difficulty adjusting to.
So, let’s talk salad. Salads are a little boring, and if I weren’t single, I don’t know that I could have subjected my imaginary family to eating the same thing each day with me. Plus, eating the same thing each day can get monotonous and make you feel burned out. To that extent, I’ve found myself using a lot of add-in’s. Walmart makes a “great value” brand topper called “maple glazed pecan pieces with dried dates and apples” ($1.89/4oz bag). Salad Pizzaz makes a number of great ones, like “raspberry cranberry pecan walnut frisco” (2.89/4oz bag). Nature’s Garden makes “savory salad topper with almonds, walnuts, pepitas, sunflower seeds, and chia cheese sticks”. I also recommend craisens… If you’re feeling adventurous, you can look for orange or strawberry flavored Craisins at Trader Joe’s. Other add-ins are Napa cabbage (I usually add 1/3 of a large head to each salad since it’s so low-cal and low-cost, yet fills the salad out immensely), artichoke hearts, apples, berries, etc.
The grocery store near me has chicken breast on sale once every month or two for $0.99/lb. I usually buy 30 lbs at once, grill it, chop it, and vacuum seal it into 18oz bags. I put 6oz on each salad, and each bag lasts 3 days (2 bags a week). On Sunday I go to my parent’s house for a family dinner and eat whatever mom is cooking.
Here are some photos of my salads.
I used to try a lot of different dressings, but I’ve pretty much exclusively limited myself to Newman’s Own lately. Their Ginger Sesame dressing ($2.89) tastes great, and is only 35 cals per 2 tablespoons. Their light balsamic is only 45c/2T. Also, I like “Bitten” brand’s creamy lime avocado dressing (45c/2T). The only word of advice I can give is to be very cautious when using dressings, because it’s easy to use regular regular dressing and completely defeat the purpose of eating a salad in the first place, since most normal dressings have around 150 cals per 2 tablespoons.
To be totally honest, I wasn’t really being active at all when I was losing weight. It’s only now that I reached my target weight that I’m going to start using the home gym that I pieced together over the last 8 months. I plan on taking my own measurements once a week or every other week using this device so I can see changes over time. I also ordered a used one of these scales to chart my body composition changes over time. I snagged one on eBay for $30, and bought it because it’s identical to the one that they use at my local YMCA.
Anyway, if anybody has any questions, just let me know. I’m more than happy to answer anything you want to ask, and I’ll read each comment. I hope this has been of some help to someone. Anyone. I wish I had found something like this when I was starting out, and that’s why I decided to spend the time writing it. I genuinely never imagined I could actually drop this much weight - but I did. This is going to sound corny and cliché, but “take it one day at a time”.
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