6" 29m(assigned at birth, I'm working it out) currently around 97.5kg (lowest 96.7kg) Posting to share my journey so far, in hopes it helps someone the same way this sub has helped me!
Due to a lot of stress since the pandemic, moving cities and getting a new job I let myself climb to a new high of 110kg, I've struggled with weight my whole life and didn't have the knowledge to parse the difference between genuine nutritional advice and fitness fads, nor did I understand working out and macro-nutrients. When I weighed myself these past Christmas holidays and realised that I hit 110kg I mentally dug my heels in and told myself "this stops here" I want to acknowledge that I've only been able to do this now that I'm 29 for a few reasons - support from my partner where I didn't have any before, a comfortable wage that allows me to buy more than the cheapest foods and afford a gym subscription+PT and gym clothes, and the proliferation of free good advice that drowns out the fitness fad industry.
I started by making changes to my lifestyle bit by bit, trying to be conscious of not overloading myself, and instead of seeking quick wins, setting myself up for a more sustainable and resilient lifestyle. My partner and I started off by committing to finishing couch to 5k, we'd tried in the past and gotten really far but always fell off for one reason or another. I also started trying to walk around 10,000 steps a day Two weeks after, we cut out all refined sugar for the month of January (in retrospect we didn't need to do this but it was good to break some bad habits) Soon after a local gym had a Saturday morning "community class" my partner and some local friends went to, this was a great introduction to the gym and became a really good habit that we've kept up each Saturday The same gym then started a "6-week challenge" program that I signed up for the week after The program got me in the habit of going to the gym, but most importantly got me calorie counting! Dialling in on what a deficit looks like for me and how to hit my protein intake goals with that has been an adjustment, but once I worked it out it made eating in a deficit much easier. I now have a PT and am (trying) to train calisthenics while maintaining my calorie deficit!
I've been in a calorie deficit for about 15 weeks now and recently hit 97.5kg, I suspect it just gets harder from here and I'm ready for it to slow down (I got sick this week and am eating at maintenance while I shake off this fever)
Writing all of this down makes me realise how drastic a change this has all been, going from mindlessly eating and drinking to deal with stress while remaining mostly sedentary, to now maintaining a 500 calorie deficit a day with 1.2g/kg protein, running 3 days a week and gym 3 days a week... But it doesn't feel like it, I guess since I introduced all of the rituals slowly
To wrap it up, I'll share some challenges and what has helped me the most
Challenges: - Energy levels while eating in a deficit. Nearly half of my days I need a nap at about 3:30pm, I just run out of energy... I might be able to solve this with better sleep hygiene, allowing myself to sleep longer... But I'm a night owl so that's tough - Eating out. This is a blessing and a curse, it's so hard to calorie count when eating out, so I do it a lot less (good) but when I do eat out, it feels impossible to know if I ended up in deficit or surplus, mostly you just can't know how much oil or butter a restaurant uses even if you guesstimate everything else. I probably shouldn't stress too much about this - Rate of weight loss. I've been targeting 1kg/week and have been generally hitting that, but rarely at a consistent rate. The first 6 kg came off REALLY fast, once I cut out alcohol, eating out all the time, refined sugar and started running. When I lose weight now, it's usually nothing for 2-3 weeks, then I drop 1-3kg in the span of a week, which is demoralising toward the end of those dry spells
What's helped? - This sub, it at least makes me feel like I'm not alone and that it takes consistency and patience - Resources like the "Stronger by Science" podcast, evidence based resources that AREN'T just trying to sell me something. It's not always the answers that I want to hear, but that I do need to hear - Healthy alternatives to things I already love. Quest peanut butter cups, sugar-free yoghurt, protein custard, halo-top and korean bbq (minus korean fried chicken & kimchi pancake 🥲)
Hope any of this helps, and I'll be back to report in at some point in the future, wherever it takes me!
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/5ckHdwV
No comments:
Post a Comment