I wanted to make this post only partially to commemorate myself and primarily to offer insight to others about how straightforward the process was for me.
In university I was fit - eating whatever I wanted and going to the gym daily - but a bout of depression in my early 20s saw me start putting on weight and never bothering to shed it again...until now I suppose.
My initial goal back in July was to have a normal BMI (not that I put much stock in it) by the time I turned 30 in December. I'm a 6ft1 somewhat slighter framed male so basal metabolic rate and genes were definitely on my side from the start.
I thought about losing weight and decided the hardest thing for me was overeating whenever I had anything. To combat this I looked into appetite control and found the ketogenic diet. My initial plan was to have many small low carb high (satiating :/ ) fat meals throughout the day, but that idea didn't work at all as I'd often chomp through everything first chance I got and there was no way I was going to fall asleep hungry. The lack of sugar also caused some irritability and headaches which made things even worse whenever I had the time to notice it (like lying in bed trying to fall asleep).
Fortunately after a week of sticking to macro nutrient ratios (if not volume) my appetite dried up completely. It was pretty sudden and completely amazing. I literally don't think I've felt hunger (at least as I once knew it) since then. The second week I still had a bit of a problem where while eating it was tough to control portions, but I worked out a system (that I later found out is a known dieting method) of fasting all day and having a big (what amounts to pretty much as much as I could want) dinner as my food for the day. What worked best for me was a lot of cream in my coffee in the morning as well to carry me through the day.
I try to go to the gym for an hour about two or three times a week as well (just enough to not be completely sedentary), but I'm sure it has almost nothing to do with actual weight loss when considering the calorie deficit I'm running.
After a month or so the habit of one extremely low carb meal a day was well ingrained and I basically forgot that I was even controlling my food intake. Sure on occasion there were opportunities to snack or even requirements to (like work lunches) but again the lack of hunger meant it was trivial to stay on course plus shrinking the size of the evening meal completely solves the "problem" of having to have a lunch as well.
People say that the hardest thing about keto is food selection, but if all you're doing is making one meal a day (to be fair I do live alone in an apartment) it really isn't a struggle at all. The only thing I had to watch out for was when out with friends. Avoiding things like pizza, fries, pasta, chips, beer and sugary snacks wasn't completely trivial, but creamy salads, nuts, and gin and tonics seemed to do the trick just fine. I wasn't too worried about having a few too many veggies here and there but I definitely missed out on gorging on berries over the summer :(
Anywhoo as I said the routine kicked in hard, the pounds starting falling away, and since maybe the end of summer I've just grown used to being a lot less heavy and completely lost the "I'm dieting" mindset. When I find pants that don't fit I get a bit confused about when I bought them. Next weekend I have a wedding to go to and I pulled out my suit from 7 years ago to find that it needs taking in so I figured I should go weigh myself. The scale at the gym said 179 but I felt a bit dehydrated and 180lbs is still definitely enough to make my jaw drop.
I don't want to discourage or demean people who have found dedicated weight loss efforts difficult and frustrating, but my experience is mostly awe at how little effort it took once I got a week or two in. I don't really have a plan on what to do next other than getting solidly into the 170s and then building up a bit of strength and endurance.
Also I wanted to mention that losing ~1/3lb per day is over twice the usually mentioned/recommended pound a week. It might make more sense to look at it as a percentage of mass instead and I was careful to get a wide variety of micronutrients each day.
If anyone has any questions about what I did or is looking for advice or clarification feel free to ask.
Thanks for reading!
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