I did not write these in order, just as they came to me. I was going to wait until I hit my goal weight, but I've spent a couple of hours on this today and figured why not. I'm 24F and 123lbs right now for reference. Some are more common knowledge; others are tips and tricks I've collected over the years. X-posting in r/keto as that's my way of eating.
-Observe, record, learn about your body.
-Take measurements alongside your scale weight. Sometimes, measurements change while the scale stays the same, and sometimes, the scale changes while measurements stay the same. Keeping track of both can be a good indicator of progress if your first choice isn’t moving.
-Take progress pictures. Take them in good lighting, maybe a tight fitting outfit that will be useful for comparisons. Odds are, your clothes are not going to fit the same when you’re done (duh). Tight clothes help so that you can wear identical items without losing the comparison. Repeat the same pose. Do not do poses that you think make your stomach look smaller, or any aspect of ‘trying to look skinnier’. A real comparison is the best comparison.
-Patience. Patience is what will get you through. If you know you are doing everything in your power correctly, and the scale still isn’t moving, patience.
-If the scale isn’t moving because you’re lying to yourself about what you’re consuming, you’re only hurting yourself.
-Calories matter. Whatever app you find that works for you, utilize it. Make love to it, tell it how much you love it, and take care of it. Jk. I used myfitnesspal for a long time, and then tried the loseit app free version. I really prefer loseit because you can see your deficit over the course of the week, and I think that is incredibly helpful. Have one bad day of a few hundred extra calories? Look at your overall week, and see how you can adjust to accommodate the excess.
-Habits do not change overnight, you are human. I’ve been working on losing weight over two years now, and I am still learning different factors that affect my body. I have significantly narrowed down potential issues and am able to take care of myself better than before, because I took the time to learn about my own body. What works for me may or may not work for you.
-I found weight loss to be 95% food changes, 5% exercise (if that, I don’t like exercise).
-Recalculate macros every 5-10lbs. Your calorie needs lower as you lose weight, which will create a smaller deficit.
-The weight will stay off if you continue to put in the work at maintenance as you have done for losing the weight in the first place. You can not go back to your previous diet. You know this. You took all this time, spent money on different food, struggled with hunger, and you are going to forget all of that effort and gain it back because “it’s a lot of work”? It is a lot of work and mentally distressing to regain AND relose the weight, AGAIN. I personally still track my calories every single day. Sometimes, it is directly after a meal and sometimes, it’s at the end of the day. It takes me maybe 30 seconds to do because it is such an ingrained habit at this point. And you know what? I’m at my goal weight and have maintained my weight loss for over a year and a half baby! It takes work, and it is worth it. 30 seconds a day to maintain all of the hard work is nothing.
-Maybe write a letter or note to yourself about why you’re starting, and reread it when you’re talking yourself off the ship. I didn’t do this, but I can think of quite a few examples I hated from being morbidly obese. My car’s seat was starting to be uncomfortable because my booty was wider than the seat was meant for. I got incredibly out of breath after walking 3 minutes up the flat, straight road while talking on the phone with a friend. Clothes shopping was a no-go.
-If you find yourself off the wagon, assess what got you to that point. Was it a binge? Social event? Processing emotions? Find your trigger, and recognize it the next time it happens. It will happen again, both the trigger and resulting falling off the wagon. What is important is recognizing the process, getting back on the wagon, and making progress the next time it happens. It will begin to happen less, and eventually, you may recognize the trigger and be able to stop yourself in your tracks and choose a new path. This is growth, and it takes time. You can do it.
-At the beginning of the pandemic, I recognized that the absolutely most self destructive and harmful thing I can do for myself is regain weight. No matter the rest of my mental health, physical health, or world surroundings, the only thing I can guarantee that would make all of it worse would be regaining weight. I put in the effort to ensure that does not happen.
-If you struggle with overeating, or continuing to eat when you’re kinda full but not sure and want to finish a meal, put your plate down for 15 minutes. In that time, your stomach has some time to digest. If you find you’re still hungry after those 15 minutes, finish your food. You are hungry. If you are no longer hungry, put the food away. You can come back to it later if you need to. I have found this is helpful in situations where I feel guilty finishing the food, but I am also not quite satisfied yet. It is also important to not make yourself feel guilty if you do end up finishing the food. It is not going anywhere, just wait 15 minutes and it is yours if you’re still hungry.
-Over time, you may find your taste buds have changed. This is normal, and good if you’re coming off a super sugary diet. When you discover this, retry some foods you haven’t eaten in a while. Or, new ones! I never liked vegetables, but I now find some to be rather tasty and crave them (I literally never thought I’d say that, trust me I’m as shocked as you are). The memories of sugary foods I had are significantly better than the realistic taste of them now. Keep them as memories. I tried a real cookie a couple Christmas’s ago, ate maybe a quarter of it before getting a headache, deciding it was WAY too sugary, and ended up going to the bathroom to scrub my teeth with my toothbrush because holy moly that stuff is like glue on your teeth.
-Crabs in a bucket mentality is real.
-Some habits you may pick up while losing weight are unhealthy, and it is important to recognize that. It is also important to recognize that they are not permanent. As a short woman, I sometimes cut my daily intake much lower than is recommended. Is this healthy? Of course not. Do I plan to continue doing this long term? No. But, I do it because sometimes only being able to have a 100 calorie deficit is painfully slow. My TDEE is now about 1400 calories per day, bite me for going lower to lose anything.
-Where you are right now is not where you will always be. The situation you are in is not permanent. You can change your physical health; you can change your mental health.
-Learn about the concept of non-zero days. I apply this to everything in my life now. Set a small goal today, and complete that. For example, your goal is to add your breakfast calories to your tracker. This is the only goal you want to do today, and once you do it, you know you did something to advance toward your goal. Congratulations, you’ve had a non-zero day! Take baby steps like this every single day, and they will add up faster than you’ll recognize.
-The paper towel effect is interesting to learn about. If you open a brand new roll of paper towels and rip off the first one, you’re not gonna notice a change in size immediately. When you’re nearing the end of the roll, every sheet you tear off makes the roll noticeably smaller. This is your body losing weight. When you’re morbidly obese, it is going to take time to see changes in yourself. Changes are happening, don’t discredit that, but they are harder to notice. If you lose five pounds at 130lbs, those are going to be significantly more noticeable because there’s less on the roll. Losing five pounds at 230lbs and at 130lbs are significantly different.
-Recalculating macros and evaluating your needs with that are important regardless of where you start. Though, also recognize the speed of your weight loss does depend on where you begin. The 230lb person probably has a larger amount of water weight they’re holding onto, and they can have a much larger deficit to begin with and not have issues. The 130lb person may only have a little bit of water weight, and they will naturally have a much smaller deficit to begin with, so scale changes will take more time.
-Sorry, the 10lbs you dropped your first week are water weight. Unless you ate a severe deficit and exercised like a maniac, it is not fat. You may have lost some fat, but not 10lbs worth. This drop is an excellent motivator nonetheless, keep up the momentum and expect the loss to slow down. Having this knowledge and being prepared is a fantastic way to be successful in the long run.
-I don’t have any experience specifically related to intense exercise calorie days, but note that those intakes will be different if you have a specific exercise plan.
-If you are a uterus owning human, your cycle affects your weight. If you don’t already track your cycle, I highly recommend it. Not only will this help with weight loss, but you may notice habits related to anxiety/depression, eating, etc. Some hold onto water weight around ovulation or during PMS or throughout a period or all of the above. This is invaluable information to know about yourself, and to keep yourself sane if the scale refuses to move for two weeks out of the month like me.
-Compliment and/or celebrate yourself every once in a while. It can’t hurt. Walked two minutes longer than yesterday? Hell yeah! Stopped eating when you felt full? Aw hell yeah! Noticed a difference when you put on an old shirt? You got it, a nice hell yeah!!
-Your mental health issues are not going to disappear when the weight does. You may experience new insecurities, or continue your current mental patterns. Addressing these separately will lead to a much happier you, while you’re losing weight and once you arrive at maintenance. Therapy is a wonderful resource. It definitely has its barriers, i.e. cost, finding the right therapist, etc, but if you have the opportunity, it is worth trying.
-If you have a good chunk of weight to lose, loose skin is a possibility. It is a fear I had in the beginning as well, and sometimes it still gets to me. A decade of overweight-morbid obesity (for me) is hard on the body, and skin takes a long while to recuperate. If you are already obese, you cannot go back in time and change that. If you’re going to have loose skin, you’re going to have it at this point. You’re the youngest you’re ever going to be again at this moment, so why not start and give your young body’s self a good chance at healing now? I have faded stretch marks, areas where it sags a bit, causes irritation, or hangs off of me, and every piece of loose skin is significantly better than being morbidly obese. There are days I wish I didn’t have it, days I’m confident regardless, and everything in between. I met my partner after my main weight loss. My partner doesn’t judge me for it and loves that bit of me just as much as the rest of me. If a potential partner judges you for it, they are someone you probably don’t want around.
-Odds are, you could be like me who habitually only gains or loses weight, maintenance hasn’t existed before. It is a practice that you can instill at any point on your course of weight loss. Most of the pandemic, I stayed within 5 pounds up or down from 133lbs and recently restarted active efforts into weight loss. These can be really healthy and nice breaks to have.
-Moisturize your skin, it can be surprising how dry it is, and I’ve found even my loose areas look nicer.
I'll probably think of more at some point. Cheers and best of luck!
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