I've been losing weight for two years and almost two months now. It's my first (and hopefully only) try. Using the resources from the sidebar, and a Youtube channel (Jordan Syatt) I created a system for myself where it was easier to succeed at weight loss than to fail. I haven't really changed what I eat since it was mostly healthy to begin with, just adjusted my portion sizes and macros a bit.
The summary, if anyone wants to know, is that I set my deficit to aim for an average of 1% of weight loss/week. I flex my calories to where I eat 100-200 less than my deficit for six days of the week, and on the seventh I enjoy a social meal with friends or family where I eat normally (i.e. I don't gorge, but it's a regular restaurant portion of whatever I fancy, sometimes with dessert and/or a couple of beers) and don't worry worry about the calories because they're accounted for. I eat higher protein than before for satiety (particularly the combination of high protein + high fat + fibre when I'm very hungry) but I don't exclude any food group, and have new recipes to what I cook through deliberate exploration rather than cutting things out. I have also taken regular two week breaks to eat at maintenance, roughly timed to occur once every quarter year and coincide with major holidays and family events so I could partake without worrying about my deficit. These have been very helpful and restorative -- I regain a bit on the scale, but go back to my regular routine without any regrets or hesitation after, and carry on carrying on. Not that the process has been completely free of issues -- I stall a lot (on a regular pattern -- I tend to regain a bit of weight whenever I hit a new low and oscillate around that for a while before dropping again), and I've had my share of frustration, upset, and miserable, burning, hormonal hunger from having lost lean mass as well as fat (which I combatted by using casein protein powder for a while -- the hunger does go away). Overall, though, it has been vastly easier and more pleasant than I ever anticipated before I started. Honestly, had you asked me even three years ago if I could lose weight I would have said no. I couldn't conceive that I would be able to lose successfully, and to persevere long enough to lose any appreciable amount.
And yet here I am. I have lost 52.8kg and I am officially at a normal weight (24.9 BMI) for the first time in my entire adult life. Ironically this is where I am having difficulty, and where my question lies. I gained weight very slowly, and was "merely" overweight rather than obese for the majority of my life. While I didn't like being overweight I accepted it as part of myself, an inescapable (or so I thought) reality, and it wasn't accompanied by any sort of self-hatred or loathing, it was just how things were. I was fat. Now I am not fat.
I do not know how to be Not-Fat. It's surreal, and disorienting. I plan to deal with it by not dwelling on it, and carrying on with my weight loss (because I want to get a buffer for regain before I attempt recomposition) and striving for my fitness goals, and focusing on a variety of other things, but there is still that underlying dissociation from the change. How have those of you who have made this change (whether it was a big loss or a small one) adjusted your self image? Was there anything you did to help the process apart from giving yourself time?
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3FF0yoc
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