Unexpected Weight Loss Issues

So I’ve lost just about 45lbs since last year and I’m down from 209lbs to almost 164lbs at 5ft3in, 35 y.o female. My weight loss journey has been incredible and I can’t believe I actually made it this far, but I’d like to talk about the unexpected draw backs of losing weight that I never really anticipated or thought about.

1. My anxiety increased: I see and feel people both male and female treat me differently. I used to be comfortable in my invisibility, but now I see first hand how people treat me better, flirt with me, and treat me with more respect. Most of the time it feels disingenuous and I feel anxious because people who would have never given me the time of day before are now taking to me and being nice to me.

At the same time I can feel the shift in how some of my female friends and colleagues treat me. It’s almost like an imperceptible shift and I notice that a few of my female friends don’t want to hang out anymore. It’s like an invisible competition that I’ve been entered into that I don’t want to participate in, but I have to because everyone around me is making me do it. In a few cases some of my girlfriends’ spouses and boyfriends have made comments on how much weight I’ve lost and I’ve caught side eye from some of my friends when they say this, it makes me very uncomfortable because I don’t want attention from their guys - even harmless attention. I don’t want attention, I just want to be invisible like I was before.

1. The expense: I’ve spent a fortune on clothes, bras, etc.

2. Happiness: I thought losing weight would make me happy and to a certain extent it does, but I’ve still got the same demons and the same issues. I’m coming to the realization that I’m still depressed and I still need to take my meds and that no amount of exercise or losing weight will change that. If anything, I feel more depressed now than I was before because now I don’t have my weight to hide behind and blame for my depression.

3. Cold: I’m cold all the freaking time.

4. Aches and pains: It’s hard for me to sleep now, I wake up with back aches and my exercise regimen makes my knees hurt all the time.

5. My breasts: I went from a 38D to a 34B. My breasts sag from all the weight lost and I don’t like how they look anymore.

These are just a few things that I’ve been thinking about recently that I feel a lot of people don’t realize fully when losing weight. I knew that a few of these things would happen, but some of it really surprised me and threw me for a loop and some of it I didn’t expect at all.

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Switching from Weight Watchers

So I have been on weight watchers for 2 months. It's working but my weight loss is slow, I've lost just over 11 lbs.

Yesterday I ate zero point foods for the entire day I plan to do it for 3 days I'm not sure that's going to continue LOL. I tracked my eating in MyFitnessPal and I ate 1038 calories, which is great. My with WW.. if I stuck with zero point foods for a couple meals and had a lot of points left..I would indulge with them on wine or snack foods. After seeing that the zero point foods add up to over a thousand calories it made me wonder what my actual caloric intake has been. I think seeing that daily is going to work a lot better for me. Now I am just evaluating LoseIt and MyFitnessPal. I will miss how easy the points system is but the mystery of it all is puzzling.

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Greetings all! My recent financial situation is killing my weight loss, I need grocery shopping help!

I have been working on my weight loss for about a year now, I dropped 55 lbs before a plateau, then another 35, needless to say I am very proud of myself and I don’t want anything to come between me and my hard work. I have recently fallen on very hard times and my shopping budget is VERY small. On average, I will have between $30 and $50 to spend on groceries for 2 weeks. I have resorted to processed foods because they are so cheap (a box of $.50 macaroni can make 3 meals!), but I have also gained 13 lbs back. I live in Phoenix Arizona where things are quite pricy, I know my financial situation is temporary, I just have to stay afloat for a few months! I don’t want gaining all of my weight back to be something that adds to my stress. I don’t go to a gym anymore, I have some workout videos a friend of mine gave me, so I’m ok there, it’s just my diet. If any of you have experienced this how did you shop? Where did you shop? What did you buy? Help!!

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Lost 75 pounds in 6 months in 2017 with low carb. Now it's over a year later. Update (with photos)

Time for an update since it's been 14 months since I got back to my ideal high school weight after decades of obesity. Before I reveal if I kept it off, check out my progress photos: https://imgur.com/a/UVKVB.

The last photo shows me at 175 in Dec '17. I started 2018 eating at maintenance but my body apparently felt my 'correct' weight should be 170 because that's where it went in Jan '17 and has mostly stayed within a few pounds of 170 since. I've been as low as 164 and as high 175 but mostly between 168 and 172. This morning I'm at 169.

So has maintenance been hard? Not really. During the 6 months of weight loss low carb seems to have reset my metabolism. I also lost my life long craving for sugar and sweets. When I started low carb I'd planned to go back to eating what I then considered to be a more 'normal' diet but by the time I got to my dream goal, I'd changed my mind. The low carb had me feeling more energetic, emotionally stable and mentally sharper. I've occasionally tried having a few of my most favorite treats from the dark past and found they no longer tasted like manna from heaven. Some tasted "just okay" and some actually tasted pretty bad. The sugar rush that inevitably followed also gave me headaches and left me feeling sluggish and depressed for days after. Then I remembered that's kinda how carbs used to make me feel all the time and decided it just wasn't worth it.

I wouldn't say I'm as 'strict' anymore but it's felt right to stay pretty consistently low carb and it's easier because I really enjoy what I eat every day. I've never had any willpower to speak of and still don't think I have much but it doesn't take much willpower when things don't tempt me like they used to anymore. The other day my mom tried really hard to push her legendary homemade snickerdoodles on me (my favorite since childhood) and I just smilingly scolded her, "Mom, you know that's not food to me anymore" and handed them to my daughter and wife to enjoy. That's something I never thought I'd be able to do. I guess it's just a testament that with effort and knowledge we humans CAN change ourselves - not only our bodies but our minds, metabolisms, preferences and palettes.

So, what has changed since my loss? I mean besides my health, clothing choices, ability to sleep, breath better and not have to take statins, high blood pressure depression and IBS meds every day? Well, in maintenance, I don't measure, weigh and log like I used to. It's not that I don't keep track at all but it's more subconsciously automatic. Turns out that by doing it religiously for six months (every damn molecule that went in my mouth) I was training a valuable skill. Now I can just eyeball a plate and know quite accurately the calorie and carb count. One of the best things I gained (besides the health, appearance and clothes), is a new relationship with my body where I feel much more 'tuned in'. This makes staying in sync with it feel natural. If I get a few too many carbs or calories, my body lets me know. I start to feel run down and a few hours later get hungry, hangry and cranky, which I notice immediately because it's now so rare. I'll also start to have stomach and bathroom issues. Back in the bad old days, I had IBS and chronic heartburn and used to need daily meds for them. Unpleasant bathroom experiences were pretty common. I think now maybe my gut biome has changed, perhaps because I'm feeding it so much better. The foods I love now (meats, eggs, cheeses, veggies, etc) tend to be fresh and unprocessed. The other day I overheard my daughter telling one of her friends, "Dad pretty much doesn't eat things that come in boxes."

If you have any questions just let me know. Also, here's my original post from Dec '17 which has lots of info on what motivated me to start and kept me going. https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/7ov47z/lost_70_lbs_and_reached_my_goal_beforeafter/

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NSV: Why I think this is going to be the last time

So this is my third or fourth weight loss attempt, hard to keep track. I've gained and lost the same 40 lbs many times. I've been doing CICO since I was 17. I'm now 28.

At the start of this year I made myself a little 4X10 grid, with each square representing a pound. I've had it on my desk since then. I only check off a pound once I'm well past it. Right now I have 13 lbs checked off and I'm 17 lbs down.

This time, same as all the other times, I've had periods where I gain weight apparently for no reason. Over the course of a couple days I gain 1.5-2 pounds. When this happens I assume I'm doing something wrong with my calorie intake even though I'm very careful. In the past, I would be pretty discouraged by it, and would end up overeating. It would send me into a tailspin where I gained 3-5 lbs before getting back on track.

It happened again about a week ago; I was gaining for no reason even though I'd been eating well. This time I remembered all the posts I've read on here explaining these unexplained gains, and the reassurance that the overall trend of weight when you stick to your calorie budget is linear and downwards. So I stayed the course, and sure enough it started to plateau and maybe go down a few fractions of a pound.

The past two days have been difficult due to environmental factors. I wasn't able to get exact calorie counts due to restaurants but I overate slightly on both days. Yesterday morning I had lost 0.2 lbs. This morning I had lost a full 2 lbs, dropping to a new low. Even though I ate out yesterday at a buffet!!

I've gained weight "for no reason" before but I've never lost weight for no reason! It's silly but ever since I was a teenager first starting to watch my weight I always figured that your weight reflected how you'd done the previous day. Now I'm realizing that it's your cumulative efforts from the days and weeks before that impact that weight. And I've always gotten frustrated and messed up at plateaus before so I've never had an unexpected drop like this.

Another probably even more significant reason why I'd never had a loss after a day of overeating before - previously if I overate I would binge. There was no going slightly over. This has been a constant through all my diet attempts. In the past if I felt like a day was ruined I would go ahead and really ruin it.

I had the temptation to binge yesterday. I was feeling bummed about two bad days in a row. I have this bag of chocolate chips I've been snacking on (16 chips for 70 calories!) and I got home from the buffet and I thought about eating the whole bag or maybe even just one serving (that would probably have become the whole bag).

But I stopped myself because I don't allow binge days anymore, because I've gotten myself to understand that overeating does exactly as much damage as it does. Calories are calories whether I eat them as part of a 6000 calorie binge or as a dessert after dinner the next day. There's nothing magical about a binge.

So now, after two days of overeating, I'm down 2 lbs. I'm sure it's gonna jump around a little bit but it'll keep on going downwards.

TL;DR After 11 years of practicing CICO I finally understand it.

​

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Ladies over 50 who managed to lose a substantial amount of weight, please share your first hand experience!

My mom is skeptical that it's possible for her to shed the pounds. I got her to let go of most of the weight loss misconceptions (such as "you have to cut out [insert food group]", "you can't lose weight without working out all the time", "my genetics won't let me lose weight" and all that jazz) by successfully following CICO for years, but the one thing she's still holding on to is the idea that it's only possible for me because I'm 25, and somehow completely different for her at 58.

I'm sure there are women of her age group on here, and I'm sure you have success stories! Direct evidence works really well with my mom, so I told her about LoseIt and will relay to her your experience if you care to share it. Thanks in advancer :)

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Sunday, 03 March 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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