Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Saturday, 02 February 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/2G6ss0L

Under 300lbs for the first time in 10 years!

Obligatory on mobile so sorry for formatting.

The title says it all really. I lost 7lbs last week which was a big shocker moment as I’m currently in my 3rd month of weight loss. I’ve been doing SlimmingWorld as I feel that works for me. It has been coming off slower than usual from when I’ve tried to diet before but I’m putting that down to me being ill at the moment.

The heaviest I’ve been is about 24st. On this new journey I started at 22st 10lb and I’ve lost in total 1st 5.5lbs. The other night I just thought I’d look at how many pounds I am and it said 298!! I still have a long way to go but just seeing that I was no longer in the 300s made me ugly cry!

I still can’t believe it now!!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2Rz0RX9

My journey to better health, a better life, and a better version of myself!

So this did not start as a new years resolution.... been there, tried that. I've "yo-yo" dieted quite a few times in my life but none were ever successful for any long period of time. At best, around 10 years ago I managed to lose about 50-60 pounds and kept it off for about a year. But I did get some value out of those attempts, little jewels here and there... so they weren't as bad as most people think when they hear "yo-yo" diet.

Anyway... no, this was no new years resolution. This was a bout of diverticulitis to start off this past new years eve. So when going to the doctor and the hospital for my $3000 scan, I weighed in at 333 pounds. The highest my 5'8 32 year old male frame has ever been by about 13 pounds.

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The TL;DR is I decided enough was enough and since Jan 1st I've been doing Intermittent Fasting (fasting up to 20+ hours each day) and tracking my food intake meticulously with a food scale, measuring cups / spoons and the loseit app on my android phone. I've done zero exercise, and I'm sedentary to the T in terms of activity. So far I'm down to 304 pounds from 333. Not too shabby for one month, a 29 pound loss. I'm staying "around" 1800 calories a day... I've found it very hard to eat more than that basically only eating one meal a day plus a snack soon after (or before).

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The long version.... my health was getting poor. Blood pressure borderline high, resting heart rate above 80... would get fatigued SO quickly. Even just 10 min of physical labor would usually require me to stop. My body would hurt, my arms, my legs and my back. I ate 4-5 times a day and was always hungry about 2 hours after eating no matter what the size or composition of the meal was (usually pretty shit though). Being someone who does "office work", I had become aware I was heading for 400 pounds before long if I kept it up even before I decided to make this change. Barely fitting on air plane seats, not being able to go to walmart and find pants to fit me... splitting my one pair of pants from the seam of the crotch half way down the leg while at work trying to get down on one knee to do something. It's sad, embarrassing, and defeating.

I've always been "bigger". In grade school I was half a foot taller and usually a good 60 pounds heavier than anyone else. This lasted clear up until 9th or 10th grade. I got passed up by about 1/3 of the class height wise and quickly became one of the heaviest in the entire school. I played football, I did track, I powerlifted... I went hunting with my family... even at 300 pounds I could still do nearly 30 pushups. I was strong, I was active, I was in "decent" shape for a guy my size. And I left that continue to justify being over 300 pounds for over 15 years past highschool. What a load of crap. So what... your a very strong, moderately active obese man. Your health doesn't care. Obese is obese. THATs when the lightbulb went off. I uttered these very words to myself at the hospital this past new years before getting my very expensive CT scan done. I saw that 333 pounds and thought.... "I'm going to kill a fat man, and it's going to be me!".

So that is exactly what I've set out to do. I'm going to kill the fat, obese, lethargic, always hungry, always tired version of my self forever. So far all I have been doing is adapting IF, which I took too almost instantly thanks to my clear liquids diet and have very minorly began to clean up my diet. I try not to drink any calories, if I do have any drinks beside water I try to limit to 4 oz or so at a time. I have basically adopted one meal a day, usually eaten between 6 PM and 8 PM. It's HARD to over eat in that short of a time, but I use a food scale, measuring utensils, a tracking app, and honesty to make sure I don't. It's hard to over eat in that short window.... but not impossible. Most days I'm right on the cusp of a moderate caloric deficit. Somewhere between 600 and 800 calorie deficit a day, and usually that means I've eaten right around 1800 calories. Some days I really have to force myself. Other days I find myself needing to be careful not to go over 1800. A day here or there I let myself go to 2000, I found myself very full those days. I feel if I actually ate the 2400-2500 in the two hour window that I'd be pretty sick and way over full.

So far I am down 29 pounds. I started at 333 pounds, again being a 5'8 32YO male. I'm now at 304 as of yesterday and this morning. My size 48 jeans are now way too loose. Even using a belt and wearing them up above my belly button I find them literally falling off of me. I don't want to buy new jeans yet, but I will most certainly have to buy a pair or two in the next few weeks. I fully expect weight loss to slow a bit, I don't expect or intend to continue losing 30 pounds a month. I would however like to maintain at a minimum 10 pounds per month and would feel pretty good at 15 pounds lost per month in these next few months then later this year have it slow down to 10 pounds a month. Either way, I don't care if it slowed to 5 pounds a month right away. That's still 5 more pounds each and every month. It wouldn't be long before I was in much better health, much better shape and was looking a heck of a lot better.

As time goes on I do intend to clean up my diet more. I plan to move to more of a keto diet. A lot of people really benefit when combing IF and Keto. I think keeping carbs low and avoiding the refined, fibreless carbs will really help me in terms of keeping my insulin levels low. A cleaner diet couldn't hurt. I don't eat "bad" right now and am eating less overall than before, but it still isn't "clean" either.

After I get the diet cleaned up, I plan to start doing moderate amounts of strength training and cardio. I have a bowflex in my basement and I will use that plus doing cardio outside as soon as the basement becomes warm enough to do that in and the weather outside improves. That gives me at least another 2 but more like 3 months to work on just shedding whatever weight I can. Seeing as how I'm already down 30 (and yes I realize some of that is water) I see no reason why that 30 can't be 60 or more by the time march rolls around.

All in all I'm pretty jazzed. Things have finally clicked for me. I realized this needs to be sustainable in the long term (which I did already know). The thing that has been the difference maker this time is the IF. It's the absolute truth that it becomes easier to manage hunger, and you are less hungry when you eat less often. That was probably what has made things the hardest on me before. I was just SUPER hungry ALL the time. It was like every other thought going through my brain. It was torture. Now, I eat when I decide. Not when my body has me screaming for mercy. I also find that I am way less tired overall now that I'm on IF. I used to be tired and hungry all the time, like make me a sandwich and tuck me in 24/7. That has gotten so much better. I'm rarely tired outside of bed time, and I'm rarely hungry outside of my 2 hour meal window.

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My ultimate goals are to get my body weight under 200 pounds (aiming for 180) and to get my resting heart rate and blood pressure down. Resting heart rate I'd like to be under 60 BPM (would love down into low 50's or high 40's). No specific number goal on blood pressure, it just needs to come down. I'd love to be back into an XL (or even L) shirt again and be in size 36 or 38 jeans. I'd love to run three 7 minute miles as my uncle was in the marines and told me they had to be able to run three miles in 21 min with full gear. I'm willing to make the exception on the gear part and just try to work to that. But I don't plan to start running until I'm much much closer to my goal weight. I already have a spine issue where mine isn't curved as much as normal and a disk starting to degenerate. I don't need to push my luck by trying to run miles at 300 pounds.

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Ramble aside, heres to the new me! To the rest of you reading, you can do it! Find something that works for you. That's the best plan, the one you can stick with. Even if you only lose 5 pounds a month, in a year or two you'll have made GREAT progress. Find other people who want to achieve the same thing you do. Work with each other, help each other be accountable. No better time to start than right now. I spent 17 years of my life being very overweight / obese. I WILL spend the rest of it in better shape than probably 80% of the people in the US. 30-40 years of being in very good health can surely make up for some of the 17 I've spent being very unhealthy. Good luck!

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

The Key to Weight Loss Is Diet Quality, Not Quantity, a New Study Finds

Anyone who has ever been on a diet knows that the standard prescription for weight loss is to reduce the amount of calories you consume.

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But a new study, published Tuesday in JAMA, may turn that advice on its head. It found that people who cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods while concentrating on eating plenty of vegetables and whole foods — without worrying about counting calories or limiting portion sizes — lost significant amounts of weight over the course of a year.

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The strategy worked for people whether they followed diets that were mostly low in fat or mostly low in carbohydrates. And their success did not appear to be influenced by their genetics or their insulin-response to carbohydrates, a finding that casts doubt on the increasingly popular idea that different diets should be recommended to people based on their DNA makeup or on their tolerance for carbs or fat.

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The research lends strong support to the notion that diet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most easily in the long run. It also suggests that health authorities should shift away from telling the public to obsess over calories and instead encourage Americans to avoid processed foods that are made with refined starches and added sugar, like bagels, white bread, refined flour and sugary snacks and beverages, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

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“This is the road map to reducing the obesity epidemic in the United States,” said Dr. Mozaffarian, who was not involved in the new study. “It’s time for U.S. and other national policies to stop focusing on calories and calorie counting.”

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The new research was published in JAMA and led by Christopher D. Gardner, the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. It was a large and expensive trial, carried out on more than 600 people with $8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Nutrition Science Initiative and other groups.

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Dr. Gardner and his colleagues designed the study to compare how overweight and obese people would fare on low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets. But they also wanted to test the hypothesis — suggested by previous studies — that some people are predisposed to do better on one diet over the other depending on their genetics and their ability to metabolize carbs and fat. A growing number of services have capitalized on this idea by offering people personalized nutrition advice tailored to their genotypes.

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The researchers recruited adults from the Bay Area and split them into two diet groups, which were called “healthy” low carb and “healthy” low fat. Members of both groups attended classes with dietitians where they were trained to eat nutrient-dense, minimally processed whole foods, cooked at home whenever possible.

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Soft drinks, fruit juice, muffins, white rice and white bread are technically low in fat, for example, but the low-fat group was told to avoid those things and eat foods like brown rice, barley, steel-cut oats, lentils, lean meats, low-fat dairy products, quinoa, fresh fruit and legumes. The low-carb group was trained to choose nutritious foods like olive oil, salmon, avocados, hard cheeses, vegetables, nut butters, nuts and seeds, and grass-fed and pasture-raised animal foods.

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The participants were encouraged to meet the federal guidelines for physical activity but did not generally increase their exercise levels, Dr. Gardner said. In classes with the dietitians, most of the time was spent discussing food and behavioral strategies to support their dietary changes.

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The new study stands apart from many previous weight-loss trials because it did not set extremely restrictive carbohydrate, fat or caloric limits on people and emphasized that they focus on eating whole or “real” foods — as much as they needed to avoid feeling hungry.

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“The unique thing is that we didn’t ever set a number for them to follow,” Dr. Gardner said.

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Of course, many dieters regain what they lose, and this study cannot establish whether participants will be able to sustain their new habits. While people on average lost a significant amount of weight in the study, there was also wide variability in both groups. Some people gained weight, and some lost as much as 50 to 60 pounds. Dr. Gardner said that the people who lost the most weight reported that the study had “changed their relationship with food.” They no longer ate in their cars or in front of their television screens, and they were cooking more at home and sitting down to eat dinner with their families, for example.

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“We really stressed to both groups again and again that we wanted them to eat high-quality foods,” Dr. Gardner said. “We told them all that we wanted them to minimize added sugar and refined grains and eat more vegetables and whole foods. We said, ‘Don’t go out and buy a low-fat brownie just because it says low fat. And those low-carb chips — don’t buy them, because they’re still chips and that’s gaming the system.’”

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Dr. Gardner said many of the people in the study were surprised — and relieved — that they did not have to restrict or even think about calories.

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“A couple weeks into the study people were asking when we were going to tell them how many calories to cut back on,” he said. “And months into the study they said, ‘Thank you! We’ve had to do that so many times in the past.’”

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Calorie counting has long been ingrained in the prevailing nutrition and weight loss advice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, tells people who are trying to lose weight to “write down the foods you eat and the beverages you drink, plus the calories they have, each day,” while making an effort to restrict the amount of calories they eat and increasing the amount of calories they burn through physical activity.

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“Weight management is all about balancing the number of calories you take in with the number your body uses or burns off,” the agency says.

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Yet the new study found that after one year of focusing on food quality, not calories, the two groups lost substantial amounts of weight. On average, the members of the low-carb group lost just over 13 pounds, while those in the low-fat group lost about 11.7 pounds. Both groups also saw improvements in other health markers, like reductions in their waist sizes, body fat, and blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

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The researchers took DNA samples from each subject and analyzed a group of genetic variants that influence fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Ultimately the subjects’ genotypes did not appear to influence their responses to the diets.

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The researchers also looked at whether people who secreted higher levels of insulin in response to carbohydrate intake — a barometer of insulin resistance — did better on the low-carb diet. Surprisingly, they did not, Dr. Gardner said, which was somewhat disappointing.

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“It would have been sweet to say we have a simple clinical test that will point out whether you’re insulin resistant or not and whether you should eat more or less carbs,” he added.

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Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, said the study did not support a “precision medicine” approach to nutrition, but that future studies would be likely to look at many other genetic factors that could be significant. He said the most important message of the study was that a “high quality diet” produced substantial weight loss and that the percentage of calories from fat or carbs did not matter, which is consistent with other studies, including many that show that eating healthy fats and carbs can help prevent heart disease, diabetes and other diseases.

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“The bottom line: Diet quality is important for both weight control and long-term well-being,” he said.

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Dr. Gardner said it is not that calories don’t matter. After all, both groups ultimately ended up consuming fewer calories on average by the end of the study, even though they were not conscious of it. The point is that they did this by focusing on nutritious whole foods that satisfied their hunger.

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“I think one place we go wrong is telling people to figure out how many calories they eat and then telling them to cut back on 500 calories, which makes them miserable,” he said. “We really need to focus on that foundational diet, which is more vegetables, more whole foods, less added sugar and less refined grains.”

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For more info visit my website: http://www.veganfoodbuzz.us

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

Did/does anyone else experience anxiety over approaching a healthy weight? How do you cope with it?

I only need to lose 7.3 more pounds until I’m at a healthy BMI, and that’s... terrifying?? I’m 18, 5’8, and my highest weight is 233 pounds. Now I’m 171.7, and once that scale of mine reads 164.4 or below, my weight will be healthy. (I know BMI isn’t necessarily a good indicator of health and whatever, but now that I’m not overeating frequently, my diet is relatively healthy, and my multi and omega 3 supplements fill in the gaps, so really the only thing putting me at risk for health problems is the few extra pounds I’m carrying, so y’know, BMI is fairly reliable for me)

My mom swears I didn’t start putting on more weight until age 9, but I can remember being fatter than everyone else as young as kindergarten. Being fat has been my identity for as long as I can remember.

But in only a few weeks/months, that’ll no longer be the case. Obviously being at a BMI <25 wont magically make me skinny and I’m not necessarily fat until I get <25 but like, it’s significant to be below that, y’know, and my body will look more normal and healthy. I won’t really be able to cling onto the safety of familiarity that being fat gives me.

I don’t know who I am if I’m not fat. Everything I’ve learned to do in social situations stems from being fat. Constantly talking negatively about myself because I’m petrified someone might think for even a second that me, the fat girl, would have the audacity to love herself. Always trying to be funny because hey, I may not have a good body, but I’m still good to keep around for the laughs. Never dressing how I truly want because most trendy clothes aren’t flattering. Even things like avoiding going outside because anything above 72 made me overheat like crazy (this winter is the first winter I’ve ever regularly felt cold in lower temps)

I’m quickly losing the ability to hide the real me behind fat, and it’s just so scary. I don’t know, maybe my age is playing into this a ton too, since I’m starting to lead an adult life, having a job, a car, and starting to look for my own place. Maybe the weight loss is just dog piling onto an ever growing identity crisis all teens reaching adulthood go through.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2G66fzF

[Daily Directory] Find your quests for the day here! - Saturday, 02 February 2019

Welcome adventurer! Whether you're new on this quest or are towards the end of your journey there should be something below for you.

Daily journal.

• [Q&A] "I have a question."
• [Day 1] "I am starting my weight loss journey."
• [SV/NSV] "I have an accomplishment to share."
• [24hr Pledge] "Today I am going to..."

Interested in some side quests?

• [Motivation Monday] Share some motivation, get some motivation.
• [Tantrum Tuesday] Need to vent? People getting on your nerves?
• [Weigh-In Wednesday]
• [Track with Me Thursday] Did we just become best friends?!
• [Free Talk Friday] What's on your mind?

Community bulletin board!

• [Running with Loseit] Run with losers. Avoid arrows.
• [Maintenance Monday] Lost it? Work on keeping it.
• [Wecipe Wednesday] Swap and discuss recipies!

If you are new to the sub, click here for our posting guidelines

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

Having a very hard time committing to weight loss.

Hi, guys,

I've been meaning to make a post here for a long, long time. I've been trying to lose weight for quite a while. I've been on a certain medication that was making me gain a TON of weight, because it would make me hungry all day. Recently, I have been slowly waning off the medication and reducing my dosage. I have noticed that since I began reducing my medication, my hunger seems to have been substantially lowered. Since lowering my dosage I have lost around 8 pounds in a span of 2 months. That might not seem like much, but it really made my day when I scaled myself.

So now it brings me to my main point: how do you guys commit? Any advice on how I can maintain a STRICT diet? I find that I have a hard time logging my calories because I barely cook. And when I try to eat good, "healthy" food, the items don't appear in my calorie tracking app.

I would love to read on what you guys do to commit, what you eat when you can't cook (be it "fast" food, or any other restaurants that cater to weight loss), and just advice on weight loss in general. Thank you.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2G5qUnA