Hello! Been on this subreddit from time to time, but I figured it would be good to document my progress so far. For context, I started my weight loss journey roughly last month in May at a starting weight of 208 lbs. I am 27 years old, male, and 5'6". Been chunky pretty much my whole life and I want to change that.
Currently I am at about 190 lbs.
Here are some things I learned so far for anyone interested:
1 - It is all about lifestyle. I found that things I do daily, like eating, walking, sleeping, etc. are what ultimately contributes to weight loss. Better decisions accumulate over time.
2 - Calories in, calories out is key. It turns out that despite eating mostly whole foods and drinking only water, I was still eating too much overall. Tracking calories for me helped me get a better understanding of how much I was actually eating and helping me understand that I was in fact eating way too many calories.
3 - Volume eating is a game changer. I think this is the most important thing I learned. I will admit I love eating lots of food. Related with point 2, I discovered volume eating and realized I can still enjoy a large quantity of food without accumulating huge amounts of calories. Just the other day, for example, I learned that using cauliflower as a substitute for rice only has about 1/5 the calories of rice, meaning I can eat way more cauliflower and not gain as many calories. The cool thing is, a lot of low calorie recipes can actually taste identically or better than high calorie recipes. My favorite so far is my low calorie chicken curry recipe, which uses silken tofu instead of coconut milk, no butter, and no oil and tastes practically identical to the version of the recipe that uses the aforementioned ingredients. It's mind boggling.
4 - Make eating intuitive. I personally hate the concept of meticulously weighing food or counting calories super precisely. It just doesn't work for me. Instead, I just try to make everything more intuitive. For example, rather weighing an apple and trying to figure out the calories, I just guesstimate based on what Google says and be like "yeah, this is about 100 calories". It's kind of like how if someone asked you how long a foot is, you generally have a rough idea in your head how long a foot is, even if it is not super precise. This helps me have an idea of what I can eat, how much I can eat, as well as what to avoid. This approach has made my weight loss journey feel less of a struggle overall.
Finally, here are some things I am still trying to figure out and overcome:
1 - Grieving over the fact I missed out on a lot of things in my life because of my weight. I will be in my 30s in a few years and have basically not been able to do things like dating, meeting new people, traveling, etc. simply because of my appearance. I worry by the time I get fit, I will not be able to do a lot of things people do in their 20s.
2 - Those damn weight plateaus. I am currently on a weight plateau. I only eat like 1000 calories a day, walk 10k steps a day, and drink only water. Yet, for the past two weeks now, I been hovering between 190 - 192 lbs. I am not sure how to get over this, or if it just something I have to wait through.
Anywho, thanks for reading!
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