Once you find what works, stick with it. (The grass isn't greener, etc.)

Case in point:

We know that consistency is key to real and lasting weight loss. I've found my weight loss and general fitness slow down when I make changes that I think will help me, but end up as barriers to achieving my goals.

There are numerous examples, but I wanted to give one...

I work for a college, and part of my benefits package is a free membership to the campus rec center. It's just downstairs from my office and I'm normally the only one there in the morning - or there are a few nice older folks that mind their own business. Love getting to work at 6am to do my routine, shower and change.

I decided to use some extra funds to get a membership at this fancy gym right near my house. I got a some cheap deal so it's coming out to $20/month - really cheap compared to the normal rate, about twice that. This gym has it all - courts for various things, saunas, pool, weights, etc.

I went to said fancy gym for the first time, when they opened at 5am this morning. It was a disappointing experience. I was able to find the machines to do about half of my exercises. Learning where things are and how this equipment works takes time, I know. But then, I noticed people lining up along the wall. Every once in a while, someone would come up to me and ask how many more sets I had. If I was taking a break between sets or drinking some water, they'd ask me if I was almost done - not in a rude way, but still. I felt totally rushed, and I really thought I'd have the place more or less to myself at 5am (even though this is a more popular gym on my side of town.

So, off I go to work, to finish my workout in what is probably a nearly empty gym. It's familiar, and it has what I need. That's worth so much more than saunas and a fancy giftshop. Turns out all you need to lift weights are the right machines.

On the plus side I really kicked ass at meal prepping this week. I think I'm going to keep the membership since it's so cheap, because once I'm at a place where I can have my shirt off it'll be nice to go swimming in the morning (though Lord knows the pool is probably just as crowded as the weight room!

Moral: if it works, keep doing it.

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

I'm a month into my weight loss journey. Can I safely lose without CICO?

I'm a month in and now about 10lbs down from what I started at, and I'm pretty proud of it. There's plenty more to go before I hit my goal, but I was wondering if it's safe to stop counting my calories and still lose weight?

I struggle to count my calories quite often and in fact I can find it quite stressful when there's things I'm uncertain about. Can I keep losing weight if I don't micro-manage my calories?

I would like to keep tabs on the calories I'm eating, to make sure that I'm not having anything too calorie heavy, but I've got into a good habit over the last month of eating smaller portions, getting some good exercise in and choosing healthier options. I've cut soda out of my life and am drinking plenty of water.

My plan is to keep getting on the scales and see which way I go. If I keep going down, great. If I maintain or go up too much, I know I need to be more strict.

Maybe this is all a sign of me beginning to lose motivation? I really want to lose this weight, but I get so frustrated at myself if I don't count one meal, and don't end up counting for the day because I feel like it's pointless.

Sorry for the rambling, any advice is welcome. Thanks. <3

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2sC4mlF

Maintenance Monday: How to let go of the deficit

For today, let's get back to basics. Maintenance Phase One: letting go of the deficit and getting used to not seeing the numbers on the scale go down. I'm maintaining pretty damn steady these days, and still every morning there's a tang of disappointment when the number on the scale hasn't gone down. It doesn't control me, and it's just a fleeting thought, but it's a fleeting thought every morning. So I'm thinking I'm going to weigh twice a week for a while. See if that helps.

When you're just getting started on maintenance, losing that deficit is even harder. This is especially true for those of us who come from a high BMI. We're scared to go back there, scared to put all that weight back on. And so we're scared of that one extra Mars bar, that one extra ice cream cone we now have room for in our budget. Wasn't it those Mars bars and ice cream cones that got us to our highest weight in the first place?

No, it wasn't. I didn't get to a BMI of 38 by eating pizza for lunch that one time. I got there by eating danishes (yes, plural) for breakfast, pizza for lunch, club sandwich for dinner and potato chips as a late night snack. It's the accumulation that matters, not the single event. Consistency is what matters. So if your base diet is on point, then you can just keep the habits you've built during the weight loss phase.

If you build sustainable habits during weight loss, the change you need to make to eat at maintenance is smaller. Keep the healthy base diet, and just add an extra Mars bar. If the switch from your deficit to your maintenance level is several hundred calories, just take it one step at a time. Add 100 calories, eat like that for a week. Then add 100 more and keep at it for the week. Lather, rinse, repeat til you're at maintenance.-

TL;DR

Change is hard, but if you're (almost) readying yourself for maintenance, you already did the hardest part. You changed for the better, now you just have to keep it going. You can do this.

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Anything else on your mind pertaining maintenance? Is your diet going effortlessly, or have the last few weeks been more of a struggle? All questions, remarks and worries are welcome topics of conversation!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2R5kwOa

Closely estimate your calorie deficite

I'm still learning. I re-calculated my tdee and deficites. I was burning up to 5-600 calories a day in the gym and eating around 1500 calories. My tdee then was around 3.5k. So my metabolism slowed down or wasn't burning fat, my weight loss stopped.

I lowered my work outs to a mere 2-300 calories, very light exercise, and noticed immediate results while increading my diet to around 2000 calories.

I do not eat much these days, I took up fasting. Liquid nutrients is essential to trying to eat 3k calories. X_x

Try and get the math down as accurately ad pissible for optimal results. 2-300 calories is 20-30 minutes of light work. I was in there burning up to 1k. You have to compensate with nutrition or you just crash. So imagine chasing a Gazelle, you got to eat that Gazelle after the hunt.

I wanted to expirement too, push my limits. I crashed hard after a few weeks of under eating amd burning excessive calories.

Cheers

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2R4as8j

Tired of being "the fat doc"

Hi all,

I've lurked here for a long time, taking bits of advice and admiring the hard work lots of you have done to make your lives better. Mostly, I've been super jealous of how great so many of you are at using willpower to make better choices. My entire life, I've been varying degrees of fat. In high school, I could still get a few dates here and there with cute girls in my class, but once I got to college, it's like all hell broke loose. Left to my own devices, foodwise, I started steadily gaining weight. Med school was even worse (hurray stress eating!). One of the most embarassing moments of my medical career had nothing to do with a flub in patient care or missed diagnosis, but rather when a dear friend and colleague of mine called me over to "talk for a second" in a corner of one of the patient wards, then poked my stomach and just said, "come on man, you need to get it together".

For years, I convinced myself that tomorrow/next week/after the holidays, I'm going to "get it together" and beat this thing...but I always find an excuse. I hate how my weight limits me. I work overseas part of the year in east Africa, and between not having the stamina to explore some of the natural beauty there and being stared and laughed at by locals every. single. day, it's incredibly demoralizing. Not being able to just get out and socialize (particularly with women) due to my own self image and self doubt issues is crippling. Being so paranoid on the tons of long flights I take every year, worried for the entire trip that the person sitting next to me is silently resenting me for being stuck next to them makes what should be a great experience (because I love flying) into a nightmare every time.

After the holidays this year, I weighed myself for the first time in probably a year...375lbs. THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE POUNDS. How did I let this happen to myself? It's disgusting, embarassing, harmful...there's just no adequate way to describe how much I hate it.

Two weeks ago, I started using LoseIt (after having it on my phone for months and not actually using it, because that's helpful, right?). The first week, I used what it estimated as my caloric goal for 2 lbs of weight loss per week. After one week, I didn't see the needle budge. So, I dropped my goal down to 1800 calories. This week, I've dropped 5 lbs. My plan is to keep sticking to that goal, slowly start working regular treadmill time in (because it is WAY to cold outside to go walking out there, plus I don't want people looking at this awful mess of a blob walking down the sidewalk), and see where this takes me.

In the meantime, I'm going to keep reading all the awesome stories and advice you guys post. You are seriously all rock stars, and hopefully having this account and staying involved here will keep me honest and on track so I can "get it together".

Starting pic - Doolin, Ireland, May 2018, ~375lbs

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2W92RZD

Lost 74lbs and often ill

Hi fellow losers, I need your mighty wisdom. I've lost 74lbs since last July with CICO and by eating low carb. Actually I have never been as healthy, at least regarding my blood pressure and blood values. But I somehow am ill all the time. Since Christmas I struggle with my voice, last week I had a sore throat, since the weekend I had sudden stomach pains which seem to be a light gastritis and today I woke up with a pinched nerv. WTF? Shouldn't I be dancing during the day seven days a week? I eat healthy, I exercise, I drink enough, I sleep... well... probably I could use 1 hour more per night but that hasn't changed in the last years and it's still at least 6 hours. How come that I'm suddenly ill so often? Is that a thing in connection with weight loss? Any advice?

EDIT: English is hard.

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

Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Monday, 21 January 2019? 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/2W3KKEJ