3.5 Month Journey - 28 lbs lost, down to 8% bodyfat and managed to gain 2 pounds of muscle according to Dexa scan. Here are some things I learned.

Then (August 18th vs now (Dec. 5) NSFW 27m 5'4 168 lbs to 141 lbs

I had a breakup in August, and that reignited my passion for fitness and the desire to get back in shape. I started out pretty intensely, with a 2,000 to 3,000 daily deficit. I reached this deficit by walking 10 miles a day and eating under 1400 calories. This only lasted a few weeks and I increased my intake from there.

I don't know if any of the below will be helpful for you, and some are common knowledge, but they are things that I think helped me achieved this in a fairly short amount of time.

• Round everything up a tad. Nutritional guidelines allow manufacturers to round down the calories on food labels. These can add up over time and amount to hundreds of excess calories as the weeks progress. I recommend counting the macros on the back of the label (9 kcal for fat, 4kcal for carbs and protein). This may seem neurotic, but if you have the time and interest in increasing the accuracy of your counts, it's worth it. Remember that insoluble fiber is not absorbed at all, so you can subtract those completely from the carb count.

• Take advantage of the thermic and satiating effects of protein. The body wastes about 20-30% of the calories contained in protein on digestion source. This seems insignificant but if you do the math, it can add up to hundreds, potentially thousands of extra burned calories in the long run. For example, let's say you eat 100g of protein a day for 400 calories. Taking the mid approximation of the thermic affect of food, you will burn about 100 calories of this just digesting it. If you consistently met this protein goal for 35-45 days, you will have burned an additional pound of fat just by eating protein in place of something like fats with only a 3% thermic affect. Protein also has a higher satiating effect than carbs and fats source. This helped me stay full.

• Lift often and heavy (if you can) I know that not everyone likes lifting weights, or are able to lift heavy weights because of medical issues, but the effects are incredible. It helps retain muscle mass during a caloric deficit, which will give you a higher metabolic rate once you reach your weight goals. It also boosts your resting metabolism for hours after your workout. source

• Treat weight loss as a math problem. This is more of a possible strategy than an actual tip, I suppose. But it helped me ignore all the other ins and outs and focus on the numbers. If none of the above tips appeal to you, remember that you WILL lose weight if you expend more than you eat. This is something that everyone here knows, and I am aware it is not new information. But it helped me through the plateaus and constant concerns about water weight. Knowing that every 3500 calorie deficit I achieve will result in another pound off eased a lot of my frustrations. I think this in conjunction with the above is what pushed me through.

Thank you for reading!

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