Sobriety for weight loss, but seeing social effects too

Hi all!! New to the sub and loving it. This week I decided I’m going to do one month sober to see how I feel (I’m predicting I’ll feel great, health-wise) and if it helps end my weight loss plateau.

I’ve wondered in the past if my alcohol consumption has been problematic but in the sense of “huh, that wasn’t a great choice I made while drinking and should probably evaluate this.” So I think it’s a good idea to give my liver a break, enjoy sober fun, and hopefully lose a few pounds this month.

I’m now noticing how incredibly uncomfortable this is to explain to people. I’m 24 and friends with a lot of young people who center social activities around happy hours, birthdays at bars, pregames, tailgates.... etc. So as I’m making plans for the weekend, I’m creating contingency plans for explaining (or almost lying ???) to people why I’m not drinking. My close friends support me unconditionally in my weight loss and sobriety, but acquaintances get uncomfortable and think that I’m judging their drinking (I’m not - live ur life).

Any other people having difficulty with this? Tips for ways to defer awkwardness? I’m planning on taking a pack of seltzer (la croix obv) and drinking that so I have something in my hand and hope that works?!

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BMI debunked?

Hi all, so I've approached weight loss in part by monitoring my BMI. Recently however, a friend of mine told me that it has been "debunked." When searching about that on Google I found this link from NPR: Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus. In particular, one thing it said that piqued my interest was this:

There is no physiological reason to square a person's height (Quetelet had to square the height to get a formula that matched the overall data. If you can't fix the data, rig the formula!). Moreover, it ignores waist size, which is a clear indicator of obesity level.

Now, I'd hope that most, if not all, of us are aware that the BMI is not the end-all authority on fitness or overall body health (points the article makes as well). But about a year ago I was at a healthy BMI. Since then I gained 30 pounds and have lost 10 of that on my journey back.

My waist size at a healthy BMI was obviously much smaller than my current weight at 20 pounds heavier. I can't fit into the clothes I wore a year ago in a comfortable manner. I've personally found the BMI to be a pretty good guideline to what is a healthy weight at a certain height.

And on that note... height clearly has an impact on what your healthy BMI is likely to be. I know that at my current weight that someone much taller than me is likely not as fat and closer to a healthy weight. How does that not make sense? Unless I'm misunderstanding something.

I don't know, maybe I'm biased, but I've never felt like the BMI was ridiculous and always approached it with the mindset that it was a simple guideline and not an authority on overall health.

What do you guys think? Has it been debunked?

Edit: While I appreciate the instant downvote, that doesn't really tell me anything...

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I want you to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Now that we’re in February a lot of people that had New Years resolutions are quitting and I’m going to try and give a little push here to stop and make you question if that food is worth it.

I am 20 years old, I’m 5’4” and at my highest weight I was 188 pounds. Today I stepped on the scale and weighed 164 lbs. I’ve lost 24 pounds since June and while that weight loss was and is slow because I fell off the wagon many, many times I’m still proud of it and I am trying so much harder than I ever have. I don’t see much of a difference but I feel it and it feels great.

The point of this post is to motivate me and you to keep pushing forward so that we can both live the life we deserve.

Saying no to food is hard.

Exercising is hard.

Counting calories is hard.

Saying no to temptations is hard.

Changing your life is hard.

All these things and many more that come with dieting and saying no and eating healthy are hard, very hard.

But you know what’s harder? Dreading and avoiding going to the beach in the summer with my friends because of my body is harder.

Walking to class painfully aware of how each fat roll is rubbing and sweating and feeling gross from a ten minute walk is harder.

Squeezing into my medium sized shirts that fit all throughout high school and realizing these shirts are getting tight and no matter how hard I suck in my stomach still sticks out is harder.

Not being able to wear cute summer shorts because my thighs rub together so much that my skin blisters and burns is harder.

Avoiding intimacy with my boyfriend who has loved me unconditionally for over 2 years because I hate my body is harder.

Watching the seams on the inside of my cute new leggings break and tear after a couple months of wearing them is harder. I know that some women and men just have bigger thighs and this happens at any weight, but for me it is preventable.

Not having a nice pair of jeans because they all look spray painted on and give me a giant muffin top is harder.

Crying in the fitting room because everything I try on looks awful is harder.

Next time you feel like giving up I want you to think about how hard dieting is but how much harder it is to hate your body and dread things because of your weight. Is that food really worth so much self hate and sadness? I’m finally starting to realize that it’s not.

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I let life knock me down but i'm ready to stand back up.

On March 2017 I began my weight loss journey, the following 2 years I ended up losing 150 pounds (I Started at 350 and got down to 186) I made many posts on r/loseit asking for advice and even posting about my victories and how close I was to my goal weight. Then in August 2018 my now ex husband came out as gay...my emotions ran wild I became depressed and suicidal and even attempted to take my own life. I got help and am controlling my depression even though I am not 100 percent I feel alot better. Unfortunately for the past 6 months I have binged almost every day eating above 6k calories and I have gained 80 pounds back. I felt terrible about myself and I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. I have noticed my breathing is more labored I can't walk without getting winded and everyday normal things are harder to do again, I currently dont fit in any of my clothes and had to buy some bigger clothing items. Im happy to say that Monday I started back again, albeit I am struggling but I haven't messed up yet and im proud of that. I have tried to "start again" for the past few months and always failed but this time I won't fail. I want to be 150 pounds and feel good about myself again. I am eating 1200 calories and following CICO and sticking to healthier options with lots of protein to stop my hunger from getting out of control. Thank you R/loseit for always being a wonderful place of encouragement :)

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Just about 10 lbs down(CICO) since the New Year, but I have some questions.

I’m 26F, 5’3” currently 143 lbs

I’ve done CICO in the past, to lose weight when I wasn’t working out consistently and did great at 1200 calories a day. I got down to my goal weight of 120 lbs.

Then I had some medical issues that lead to steroids and weight gain pushing me back up to 150-160 lbs. I’m healthy again and motivated to lose the weight.

Now I’m doing CICO again but I also exercise regularly(1 hr-1.5 hrs, half of which is strength training the other half is variable between total body, cardio and Pilates).

Also being a full time student, I’m slightly more sedentary, at my computer than I was when I wasn’t exercising and doing CICO before. I’m basing this on my average step counts collected by Fitbit, last time around they were 8k average now it’s about 6k.

When I entered in my stats I got a budget of 1237 for my goals and I’m feeling great but with my daily net calories being below 1000 on a regular basis I’m wondering if this is actually an okay long term method.

I’m losing between a pound and a pound and a half per week. Which seems to be in the “safe” weight loss zone so I’m not sure if I should be eating more or not.

Thoughts?

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IS it true you lose weight quicker at the beginning?

I'm about to start my proper weight loss attempt, to trim down from 202lb to about 175 as a first goal. I know when my mother did this, she initially was losing about 5-6lb a week, not by doing anything drastic, but continuing on a normal calorie deficit. Just want to be sure so I can be more prepared whenever of If I ever see quick drops that then slow down, so I don't panic! I'm currently eating less than 1,300 calories and doing regular exercise, that includes 10,000 steps a day and a weight training routine. I'm ideally looking to lose about 2-3lb per week. I just want to know what toe expect at the beginning of this journey, how to keep patience, motivation etc. and just how quickly/slowly I am going to see begin to fall off of me.

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What was your first step/attainable goal?

Preface: I really love that I’ve found this community. I tend to talk about my weight loss and continued journey on Instagram, and I’m sure it gets annoying for my followers. So, I’m happy to have found this sub where I feel I can freely talk about this and people engage or encourage. I talk about it a lot because it honestly is a huge part of my identity now and I know people here can relate to that.

But anyway, my very first goal I achieved when I first set out to lose weight in 2016 was to go three days without any junk food. Just three days without cookies or chips or soda. When I successfully made it past those three days, I knew I could actually follow through (like many of us, I’d tried countless times over the years to lose weight before one finally stuck.)

This would also be one of my go-to tips to anyone starting their journey; to set just one, small, attainable goal.

Another small goal I had set for myself was anytime I felt like eating out of boredom, I’d dedicate that time to my dogs instead. So, instead of going to the fridge when I was bored, I’d go to the backyard and throw the ball for my dogs.

What small first steps did you all take?

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