What old ah-ha moments/old habits/beliefs/behaviours/taught information that was contributing to weight gain have you overcome and how did you realise?

I figure that with new year they’ll be a lot of people looking to change things up in the next few weeks. There’s a lot of us here who have had all kinds of experiences with weight loss and mountain of knowledge and tips exist between us all. I thought it might be helpful to start a thread where we can put those things we now know to be wrong or need to be moderated better in one place, because odds are somebody else is buying into those same things right now and might find it useful to see where others made changes.

For me, once I began calorie counting I also begun to have revelations about the things I’d always believed to be quick and healthy snacks. For instance, I’ve always had issues with chocolate and I do need to be an adult and deal with that, but whenever as a child or teenager I would complain about being hungry but mostly meaning ‘I need chocolate’ I would be told to have some toast or crumpets instead. As a snack. I now am gobsmacked that two pieces of bread, butter and a spread, or crumpets and butter and cheese are about as calorie dense as some of my meals, and the chocolate bar definitely would’ve been the better option of the two. I would then go on to get my chocolate bar anyway, because I’d eaten the instructed snack (that I didn’t really like) and was not satisfied, and would also go on to have my dinner and maybe biscuits/cookies or whatever other easy to access junk was around.

Crying in the changing room wondering how I’d put on so much weight I genuinely couldn’t understand or see any pattern in my eating that could equate to it, I was considering believing (as the relatives around me were insisting) that nothing could be done and I’m just from a family of big-boned people, despite all those years I was at a healthier weight. But now I’ve come most of the way on this journey and looking back I can see where I screwed up so clearly. Also, I’ve never even liked bread, and the amount of bread I used to get made to eat (because it was ‘healthy’) makes me angry, now my calories go on things I do like and it’s not bread.

What are things that contributed to your situation and how did you realise or overcome them?

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2CGyKky

Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Monday, 31 December 2018? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!
• Loseit Compendium - Frame it out!
• FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2RnUDxr

Hey guys. Starting my journey today. Would enjoy support.

When I was a kid I (male, currently 5'4", 280lbs yeah I know I'm short) was put on an ADHD medication that caused me to gain over 150lbs in just a few months, and that has completely ruined my life. I'm depressed, anxious, all the good stuff.

A few days ago I was put on antidepressants and they should help me lose some weight as well as deal with some of my mental issues.

I'm here with hopes of support and some helpful tips and ideas on how to lose weight. Currently my goal is 250.

After new years I'm going to start eating healthier and try to do some physical activity at home. (Gym isn't an option.) What would be the best and somewhat easiest ways to implement weight loss into my life?

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2rZLo8f

My Day 1 accountability post. Early 2018 was the worst time of my life. Here’s to starting 2019 with one foot in front of the other. Here’s to Vance.

I had worked in an office for over ten years maxing out my weight at 225kg. 2018 - (queue country music) - I lost my dog, my job, then another job, and another, then I lost my home. I was then blessed to get approved for a government training program and was retrained in a new field Truck driving. I could barely walk from my car to the training lot without losing my breath. It was the middle of the summer and I had to stand out in the heat for 4-8hrs a day for 9 weeks. I thought I was gonna die but I wasn’t going to fail. Before I even realized the days became easier and I started building endurance walking longer and longer distances. This Christmas I went with my family to a Santa parade and we stood out there for nearly 2 hours. That was the longest I’ve stood without rest in probably 5 years. It was then I realized I had already started the hardest part of my new life without realizing it.

Dusted off my scale and weighed myself today and I’m 200.6kg! The lowest I have been in half a decade. I wanted to make this post as an accountability. I watched a video of this guy Vance incredible 365 day journey. If anyone can link his profile I’d like to thank him. He’s motivated me to start the new chapter in my life too.

tl:dr watched a weight loss video - motivated me to make a change after hitting rock bottom.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2ApgF9o

Frustrated and tired of being over weight. Finally gonna commit.

Hi. I wanted to share this with you since I’m not telling anyone in my inner circle.

I’ve made the decision to truly commit to my weight loss journey. I’m 5 ft 1. And 170 lbs.

For years I’ve struggled with my self image and never liked my body, and I’ve finally made up my mind to actually do something about it. I’ve been working out but I don’t see results since my diet wasn’t as strict as I’d liked.

But I will follow a very strict regime and I hope to get results between January and July.

Wish me luck and resilience, since I know this will be a difficult journey for me.

Here’s to a new year of opportunities!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2EX1TcS

Weight loss dashboard project

I spent 60 days weighting myself and counting calories every day so I could develop an easy Weight loss dashboard using Microsoft Excel. The experiment started on October 20th, weighting 77,4kg and finished it on December 18th, with 77,1kg. Every meal was registered using MyFitnessPal. Here's the results (so far in a single page).

​

Some of the spreadsheet functionalities:

Calories goal for every day of the week: As you can see, I’m used to binge during the weekends, so it is possible to add a different goal based on your routine;

• Week follow up: By looking up a date, you can easily see your week weight fluctuation (red being weight gain, green a weight loss);
• Weight goal follow up: Using a speedometer (red until 50%, orange between 50 and 70%, green from 70% and beyond
• Weight and calories follow up: Every day logged is a dot on the graph. It is easy to look into patterns and weight trends

​

Future perspectives:

• Adding a Scatter graph on another tab, with the possibility to look into the Weight x Calories relation, as well as Weight and the 3 different Macros
• Adding a Macro goal, maybe based on weekdays

​

I’m thinking on translating it fully to English and launching it online, so anyone who’s interested will be able to use. Of course I’d take the time to write a manual on how to fill it. Just wanted to know if you guys interested and ask for tips on possible websites.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2An3aad

frustrated with the ups and downs of weight loss and just want to vent :(

I am 21f and 5’1, 130 lbs. That is on the edge of healthy weight but pushing overweight. I know I could be a lot worse off. I just have the hardest time getting motivated and staying on track.

I started this past January at 130 and was determined to get down to 115. I started tracking my calories & drinking water only. I live in the south and drink a lot, a LOT, of sweet tea and soda. With no exercise and just better eating habits I got down to 117 by the end of April. I had started feeling comfortable in my skin again at 120. But then in May, my grandpa got really sick. He and my dog (first dog I ever had, he was 12 years old) died 2 days apart. I stopped tracking my calories and started drinking soda/tea again, got up to 125ish. Got a new job because I had to quit my old one to take time off to grieve - I’m a waitress, we get a ton of free food, and the food is insanely good. Unlimited access to soda and tea. Here I am again, at 130.

I realllllyyyy want to start try and lose weight and keep it off again. I just have zero willpower. It is impossible for me to turn down the constant gourmet food at my job or not pour myself a soda. I have no energy to exercise. I just eat and feel really bad about myself, and get mad because I don’t know why I can’t just NOT do those things. Like why I can’t just drink water. Or why I can’t just drink the food. But then in the moment I have zero will power and I do it. I know a lot of people gain weight at my age because of alcohol, but I rarely drink. It’s seriously just drinks and desserts - literally just sugar - that’s gotten me here. I am 100% addicted to sugar and it’s affecting me in every way, from my teeth to my weight to my energy. I feel like my diet is almost all sugar and if I cut it out cold turkey I could lose 10 lbs in two weeks or less.

It is especially upsetting because I was never over 105lbs in high school, and even then I had a poor self image and always thought I looked chubby. I was between 108-115 my first couple of years of college. And then when I started dating my now boyfriend is when I got up to 130. We both have a bad soda drinking habit and neither of us can commit. And we both like to eat good food. He has gained weight since we started dating too, from 160 to 178, but he is 6’0 so it doesn’t really show.

Anyways. I had just come across some late high school/early college pictures and I looked so skinny. And it wasn’t even that long ago and I look so different, even in my face and arms, not just my stomach. My grandma on my dad’s side was bulimic and underweight, and my grandma on my mom’s side was clinically obese, so I have some pretty conflicting genes here. I have just never had healthy eating habits and have never exercised aside from walking around at my job all day. All I want is to develop some good habits and stick to them. I would love to be at 115 by the summer.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2GXvW6K