I have been following this community for a few weeks now and felt like sharing my story to someone who might understand or think that it is interesting, because it really takes up a lot of my focus these days and I don't really have anyone else to talk about this stuff with.
This last christmas I weighed myself for the first time in probably a year. The scale showed 90kg (198lbs). I could no longer deny that I was gaining weight after beeing stable for a while. I used to be stable on 70kg.. then 75.. then 80.. then 85... Always increasing slowly and adjusting myself to new sizes... But seeng that 9 on my scale did something to me. I have always been overweight, but now I was going in to the range of obesity. I was also stretching out my clothes and going up yet another size. This was not sustainable any longer...
I decided to make a change, and during christmas I was more active and I did not over endulge in the christmas foods. But as new years were approaching, I knew I needed to do something more drastic. A friend of mine had already been losing a lot of weight and she had joined a training program at the local gym, that included food and diet advice from a PT, and she told me they were starting a new group in january. I kind of hate to work out.. but I decided I HAD to give it a go. If not now, when?
January 14th I started my journey. I weighed in at 89 kg (196 lbs) (I count this as my starting weight).
This day I started to register my food in MyFitnessPal and restricting to 1200 kcal a day (+/- 50kcal), with the possibility of one cheat day a week (up to 1500kcal). and to work out two times a week.
The gym had a special scale that showed that my metabolism was around 1500kcal a day (How much kcal I would burn just laying down all day no activity). Including activity I probably burn around 2000-2500kcal per day.
The theory from the PT at the gym is that 1 kg of fat = 7000 kcal, so if you eat 1000kcal less than you burn every day you will lose around 1kg of fat a week. Not 100% accurate of course but it is close enough! I have been tracking my activity with a fitness watch and the theoretical weight really does stay close to my real weight using this calculation. (let me know if you want to see the graphs). I am the type of person that likes numbers and statistics, so I try to track my food as closely as possible, and it actually helps me to keep on track, to see that it is just maths.
Simple math... calories in, calories out. It might be obvious for some people :) but for me it took a long time to actually commit and decide, now is the time. And I am seeing the results, so it must be working somehow?
My current weight is now 84 kg (185 lbs) :) so 5 kg lost since I started the diet 6 weeks ago. I feel my clothes are much more comfortable now, not as stretched out/tight. I feel better and can see a little change in the mirror aswell, so I feel great. But I can't be too happy, I need to keep going! This is when it gets tough. I have already noticed this last weekend that I was struggeling not to reward myself for the job I had done so far.... (whats a little bit extra gonna do ..?). It definetly helps to read on this sub to get motivation! So I am doing that :)
Here is a bit more details of how I do it:
I don't adjust my kcal goal if I work out. But I make sure I eat a fuller meal 1-2 hours before the work out to have enough energy for that. I think 99% of my weight loss is due to the diet. The work out are more because I also want to have a body I can be more active with. This past week we had no work outs and I still lost weight, so you definetly don't need to work out to lose weight.
I don't restrict WHAT I eat, I eat whatever I want, so i don't really look at the macros but I do try to eat at least 20% protein. I try to weigh my food and put it in MFP before I eat it - then I might take something off the plate. My eyes are usually hungrier than my stomach. But to know that the portion I am eating is enough for my body, really helps me not to take more. I have learnt that I can feel satiated with smaller portions, and have found food options that keep me satiated longer with less kcal, just by testing different things and seeing what works through MFP. For me, smaller meals but eating a bit more often is key. Because with the small meals I get hungy after some hours but I just need to keep the hunger at bay with more smaller meals. For me I do feel hunger before I eat a new meal, and I kind of think that is healthy. Before I would eat just because it was time to eat, and then eat until I was really full. I was not really listening to my body. Now I eat to not feel hungry, to feel satiated, but not really full.
I eat up to 5 meals a day; breakfast, lunch, small in-between-meal, dinner, dessert. I am usually not so hungry in the morning, so I eat a small breakfast (100-150kcal), then lunch usually 150-300kcal. I get really hungry around 14-15 so I need something at this time to keep me going until Dinner. (100-200kcal). Dinners are usually larger, maybe 4-600kcal). I have a huge sweet tooth, especially in the evening, so something that has kept me motivated is that I try to "save" 100-150kcals left after dinner, so that I can reward myself with some dessert. I have found some lower kcal options that keeps my sweet tooth satisfied :) But this meal plan is not 100% strict. Some days I don't eat breakfast, eat a big lunch (500kcal) and then I don't eat untill dinner again. The only absolute restriction is the kcal, and even here I try to keep it betweek 1150-1250, but sometimes closer to 1300 and it is okay too, as long as it is not every day.
I also don't eat after 9 in the evening, and drinks lots and lots of water.
I try to enjoy life and to eat something that does not feel like I am on a diet. I also realise I need to just keep going even when I fail. I am going to fail several times. My weight has not gone straight down. It goes in ups and downs. One week I was at a conference and indulged myself for 4 days straight with foods, dessertes and alcohol.. I gained after that! But on monday I was back at it and kept going. And the weight disappeared fast (maybe I gained mostly water weight?). It's okay to fail. Expect to fail. that mindset helps me.
My goal is to reach a healthy BMI of 25, wich for me is 69kg (152 lbs). I am trying not to rush it, it will happen when it happens. I don't expect to keep up this rate all the way. I will try to be more active in this sub and stay accountable. I feel like I have figured out something that works for me and can be sustained over a longer period of time. And I really wanted to share it in case someone else might benefit from it.
If you read all this, thank you :) Sorry that it got so lengthy...
Not sure how to finish this so yeah, that was it.
(P.S: English is not my first language so sorry in advance about the errors)
