Thinking of Food as Fuel Only

TL;DR: Ideas to stop eating for pleasure and solely for fuel.

Hey everyone! As I can guess, probably most of you have have had a binge eating problem. I've went into detail in a previous post how I was very successful with weight loss losing close to 60lbs last year, going from 245 to 183. However, jobs and location have changed and so did my eating and work out patterns.

I used to rarely eat unless I was hungry. I ate the bare minimum and had to force myself to eat sometimes. I think a big part of this came about because I shared a grocery bill with my grandfather. I forced myself to "save him some" and I also never liked sharing my food, so I rarely bought treats for myself, because I didn't want to share. (Bad I know, but it worked.)

I moved out and now have a separate grocery bill from my roommate, so I started buying a ton of food and eating. Went from 183 to 196 since March.

I'm turning around before its too late and trying to get back down to 183 and eventually tune myself to around 10-12% body fat or lower ideally.

I feel I'll be able to do this by picking up my old routine (currently typing this in between sets at the gym right now). And also by developing a mindset that food is only fuel and not for pleasure. I cannot eat in moderation. I grew up going without and hard wired to never waste food. I can't buy snacks as I'll eat them all in one sitting. Healthier options just don't satisfy me but I can eat most fruit and veggies in moderation simply because I don't enjoy them. They satisfy hunger and that's it.

Everyone has recipes they swear by to make something like celery, cauliflower, or carrots taste great. (Highly dislike these veggies in particular). None of them work. It's just fuel to me. I just chomp it down without throwing it up. I can't seem to find more than 3-5 each in fruits and veggies that I like and feel I'm missing out.

Water doesn't satiate hunger pangs either. It actually makes me so angry when people say to "drink water, it'll go away. " It doesn't. "You're still hungry." But I just ate a 500-600 calorie meal.

Am I the only person who struggles/struggled with this? What suggestions do you have? How did you overcome this? Any input from you guys would be wonderful.

Thanks!

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Bought my first fancy water bottle after losing a few pounds

My first non food weight loss reward! It's one of those metal ones with the handle to carry it everywhere. It was pricey but I was happy to buy it because I know I'm ready to make actual long term changes in my diet now. It's been so hard for me to move in the right direction with my weight. I don't have the best support at home. I hit my highest weight a few months ago. I ran to reddit seeking comfort and advice. I licked my wounds for a few more weeks, still sad and upset but not really doing anything. Eventually I got past my pity party.. to be honest I didnt make any major changes other than eat out less and try to eat a little better.. (I used to eat large mcdonalds meals+20 piece nuggets+dessert in one sitting). I got a a puppy too and he's been my little walking buddy since. I'm now down 10lbs from my heaviest. It's not impressive since it took me almost 3 months to do but I want to keep this trend going and take serious steps to turn my life around. Next is soda and some more serious walking. Sorry for the long story, I'm 100+lbs overweight and I'm just really excited to have some real motivation to restart this weight loss journey again after feeling so down this past year!

Tldr: I was in a bad place a few months ago with my weight and mental state, lost 10 lbs, bought myself a nice water bottle!

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Scared of the 160s and self-sabotage

Background: From the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 I lost 35-40 lbs and seemed to settle in around 170-175. (I'm 37F 5' 7") I maintained it for about a year, and then this year have gained/lost the same 7-8 lbs. Up to 180, back to 175. Up to 181, back to 174. These were usually what I would now consider more "crash diets".

Back in October I got up to 185 and realized I was in a slippery position. Luckily, I refused to let myself slide further. I found this subreddit and it has been life-changing (I mean that seriously). I started with IF (my set goal is 18 hours, but I'll eat when I'm truly hungry - so sometimes that's at 14 hours, sometimes not til 20 or more). Then I added in CICO. The IF has been awesome at teaching me what hunger is. Plus, it helps me stay within my calorie budget to eat in a narrower window.

Since October I've lost 13.4 lbs and am now at 171.6. Living this way has felt pretty easy, and I've been amazed at how there has NOT been a huge mental struggle/desperation in my weight loss efforts this time.

BUT. I'm at my "comfort weight" - where I legitimately thought my body seemed to naturally want to stop, where I felt happy for most of the last two years, where a size 12 was totally good enough.

And I realized today that I'm SCARED. I'm scared to leave the 170s. I'm scared that this isn't real somehow, that anything 169 and below is just a strange dream that isn't really achievable, and I'll only put the weight back on as soon as I get there. Is that weird? Has anyone else experienced a fear of moving past a certain point? The last few days I've been struggling more with keeping up my fasting and staying within my calories (nothing crazy, just shorter fasts, smaller calorie deficits) and I'm afraid I'm sabotaging myself somehow because of that fear. Does that even make sense?

I'd love any tips or advice from those who have felt this way on how to overcome it. I'm excited to keep going, as I really think I can eat this way forever if I don't let my mental fears and previous beliefs about my body and weight get in the way.

TL;DR: After a 10 lb weight gain and now loss, I'm scared of going below my previous maintenance weight and want advice on how to overcome my fears.

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Weight loss decision saved my life at day 1

Hello fellow friends, I just read this topic and decided to share my story which is related to it in a strange way.

As some of you, I was big all my life. And until this year it wasn't really bothering me. I turned 33 in February and at the same time hit 300 pound mark on a scale. Suddenly, my back started to ache(hey disk problems), same problems caused pain in my right thigh, my knees started to crack as I was 88, not 33, and all the other weight-related stuff also happened(fatty liver, shortness of breath etc). Finally I decided to do something. As a smart guy I decided to go and get a consultation about diet and exercises from my doctor cause why not?

Long story short, he suggested ultrasound of my guts, I agreed, and it turned out I have something on my right kidney. One MRI later it was confirmed that something is a kidney cancer. And the thing about kidney cancer is that a) it usually hits old people(45+) and b) it grows unnoticed until stage 4, which is usually just two more years of life after detection. So I got some bad news, but it was good at the same time. I have a appointment with my urologist on Monday but it looks like they will need to remove my kidney. Or if I'll get lucky just part of it. Anyways, what I want to say is:

• Please, don't be angry at folks talking to you about cancer. There is a small chance that they are toxic persons, but usually they lost someone or saw someone and genuinely care ore worried about you.
• Please, even if you're not ready to start on your weightless journey, or you're in the process, or you're done with it and just maintaining - do regular health checkups. Some blood tests and ultrasound once a year won't really ruin your budget but might save your life

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Measuring weight loss by explosions!

So must of us know that a calorie is a measurement of the amount of energy in a given amount of food (we actually use kilocalories and just call them calories). However, it just crossed my mind recently that the yield of an explosion, measured in tons of TNT, is also just a measurement of energy, and because of this, we can convert to and from them!

For example, I'm about 40lbs down. Doing the math:

40lbs fat = 3500 kcal/lb x 40 = 140,000 kcal = 0.14t TNT = 140kg TNT 

From Wikipedia, ≈1kg TNT can destroy a car. Thus,

140kg TNT ≈ 140 cars destroyed 

My weight loss is equivalent to the amount of energy it takes to destroy 140 cars!

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I always doubted that I could be one of the super inspiring people who lost a lot of weight

And I guess I’m still not. I’ve lost 40 pounds and it feels really great to know that it’s actually happening, for the first time in my life I’m actually sticking to something and losing weight. But i feel like a cheater, I’m not inspiring. I have been so depressed and stressed and a lot of my weight loss has come from essentially starving myself. It makes me feel really stupid that I can’t do this the healthy way. Truth be told, a lot of it has just been about control, a game to see how long I can go without eating. But it’s also making me lose weight which is a plus. I know its Bad Weight Loss. I know all that. But I just can’t seem to stop. I have 100 pounds to go towards my goal but I’m about a third of the way there and it feels so good. I wish it didn’t but it does. I feel disgusting anytime I eat anything. Sorry about this, i just someone to hear me. I know people here only really talk about the progress on their healthy weight loss, it almost feels like I shouldn’t even post this here.

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For Women w/Emotional Eating and Confidence Issues During Weight Loss

Long post, so: tl;dr: I'm sharing one of my favorite weight loss podcasts that helped me through one of my darkest times on my weight loss journey. This podcast helped me begin to work through so many confidence issues and finally chip away at the reasons why I often indulged in binge eating and emotional eating. I can definitely say that this podcast is the single most helpful tool I've ever used for losing weight, and just getting my shit together in general.

Brief summary of my weight loss journey: I've been trying to lose the same 20-30 lbs for about 3 years now; I gained this weight through lots of binge eating and emotional eating. I've done almost every popular dieting method, even fads (juicing, keto, HCLF, CICO, IF, OMAD), and have finally found a method of eating that I love. About 4 months ago, I started a journey of serious introspection as I started yet another weight loss attempt; that's when I found this podcast.

The Podcast: It's called "The Last 10 Pounds" hosted by Brenda Lomeli. It can be found on iTunes for free. Don't be fooled by the title: yes, it's called "the last 10," but is soooo much deeper than losing just 10 pounds. It addresses a lot of the issues many of us women face and "thought exercises" to help us face these issues without turning to food as a buffer. Confidence is a key issue that this podcast addresses and why it is absolutely necessary for your weight loss journey; one of the best quotes I encountered while listening to this podcast is: "Would you rather be skinny and miserable, or happy at any weight?" God damn, I was shook when I heard this!

The Host: Brenda Lomeli is the host of this podcast and studied/worked as an occupational therapist for years, and is now a weight loss coach after having dealt with a rollercoaster of a weight loss journey for close to 20 years. Yes, I know, "weight loss coach" is the most cringe-worthy phrase in the weight loss community right now; but I love her because she never tries to push her service on the podcast listeners and provides a lot of the tools that she shares with paid clients for free on the podcast. She also gets very personal: she's shared how she dealt with a very recent miscarriage without using food to self-medicate, how she's been the "chubby one" in her family since she was a very young child, and how she developed some seriously disordered eating throughout her life.

What I Love About This Podcast: The host always stresses: you don't need to lose weight if you are happy and confident with where you're at; your weight is nobody else's business. But if you are unhappy/lack confidence in your body, Brenda will help you so much with the mental aspect of losing weight, specifically confidence and how you perceive yourself.

Favorite Episodes:

- Episode 86: all about confidence and its necessity in weight loss

- Episode 78: be willing to be different to achieve your goals

- Episode 71: possibility (this one is my favorite out of all of them)

- Episode 62: Emotional Courage and IQ (this episode is where Brenda talks about her miscarriage and how she dealt with it)

Caveats/Things to Note:

- Brenda prescribes what is basically a low-carb eating approach, but she always stresses that you should do what you like and gets you results. Personally, I eat all the carbs I want and still lose weight. Remember that this podcast isn't about telling you what diet to follow or what exercise to do, it's about how to get yourself to actually follow the plan you've set out for yourself.

- She has "success-story" episodes where she'll have her clients share stories. Most of these women are already in the "healthy" range for their BMI but but just want a little more. You might be tempted to say: this podcast doesn't apply to me/these success stories don't apply to me because these women already have it figured out. No, they don't have it figured out. If you listen to these episodes, you'll actually find these "thin" women pretty relatable in terms of the issues they struggle with when it comes to food.

- Brenda does "life-updates" for the first 5-10 minutes of each podcast; some of you might hate this kind of stuff, but I've become a pretty big fan and love hearing it now.

Aaaaand that's all folks!! Hope some of you give this a try and see if it could possibly help you. No, I have zero association with this podcast, other than as a listener, and am purely doing it to share with you how I've overcome the biggest hurdle in weight loss: myself.

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