My 60 pound weight loss story. Tips and Advice. A true story

Ok so here’s the deal, I am just a regular guy (moderately athletic) that was always pretty thin or average weight and and never had to worry too much about it. Fast forward to my late 20’s and for multiple reasons I am 240 pounds. The why I will touch on a little later. I don’t really post to reddit but having lost 60 pounds to yo-young back up after a sports injury to then successfully losing it again and keeping it off, I have learned a great deal about fitness and health. I even went down a personal training path but never officially got the certification because my professional life took a different direction. I hope that maybe by posting this I can help even just one person along their journey. See I never knew that much about the fitness/health/diet industry and got into a bad enough place where I had to figure it all out. There’s a quote “Some people badly need to be ill for their own sake,” well I certainly did. Now I have a wealth of knowledge that I can draw on for the rest of my life through hard work and simply learning as I went. Let me say I do not work for any company and am not some health certified expert or fitness guru, I am just a regular guy that had to figure it out the hard way.

Ok so, WHAT I HAVE LEARNED.

I am going to break this up into multiple sections

Mind,Diet,Exercise

THE MIND

It goes like this in my opinion Mind>Diet>Exercise

You first have to be hungry enough to start and then practice discipline to stay on track but it’s not all mental willpower because that would be exhausting long term. It’s turning “I shouldn’t” into “I don’t” etc.

Practice mindfulness. Learn it, live it, love it. I went from not controlling how much I ate to eating a bowl of (insert healthy meal) and actually thinking eh you know what I’m actually full and content. Ice cream sounds good but it will be there tomorrow. Understanding when you are actually full and not needing anymore comes with mindfulness

Learn how to meditate and do it regularly.

Learn breathing techniques.

If you have sleeping problems you may be able to fall asleep without sleep aids and such by just deep breathing before you lay in bed every night.

Get good sleep. It’s just as good as good sex.

De-stress your life by removing poisonous things or people.

When you have a clear healthy mind you can do anything.

You can follow any weight loss program/ diet/ or exercise regime to get quick results but ultimately fail and yo-yo if you don’t learn to control the mind and de-toxify your life.

Next, DIET (I most likely will get some negative comments or people that may disagree with my statements but I am just sharing what has worked successfully for me)

Let me start by saying no matter what, abstinence of alcohol will give you tremendous results when trying to lose weight. (If you must, avoid beer and stick to liquor neat or very dry wine, but If having an issue with abuse, completely avoid)

I absolutely love Intermittent fasting. The one thing that remained constant as I got results no matter what I ate, was IF. Whether I was in ketosis or eating pints of ice cream or eating within the restraints of travel, I was was using IF with a very short feed window. However, I understand that this may be difficult for some. For instance my dad would have an extremely difficult time, as he feels he needs to eat the second he wakes up. I have always wanted to wait before eating and am more of an afternoon eater anyways. So with that being said some people are more drawn to it then others I think but no matter what I did, that was always a constant and I had fantastic results with it. My personal con with IF which is really the only one I can think of, was abusing caffeine. That’s definitely something to watch out for.

Now, KETO. Both times, I started my “diet” by doing keto and both times I did not finish in ketosis. Once getting to maintenance mode, I was certainly not doing ketosis. Keto was fantastic for me to START, because it got me off of sugar dependence and alcohol and left me feeling satiated, however it was not sustainable for me at all long term. I found it very difficult to eat with friends or family and was very expensive. It was a very isolating diet for me but absolutely gives results. This is because whether you like it or not our society does not function that way.

What my plate looked like.

Heaping pile of Brussels sprouts oven baked with coconut oil, a big fat piece of wild caught salmon baked in more fat of your choice, some sea salt, maybe some lemon on top (so you don’t get scurvy :) with a sweet potato on the side. Throw in a bunch more greens just because. How about Spinach, broccoli, cauliflower mix! (Your plate mostly has greens on it) Then some goji berries and more water for dessert.

Felt like a warrior but after 6 months or so got expensive and hard to maintain while living amongst society.

After KETO, I started transitioning back into a carb based diet still with the inclusion of healthy fats and oils but changing the ratio. This allowed me to not be so Isolated, eat with others, while traveling etc. Still got results but I was always using IF. This is where I ate more “normally” and had my ice cream sometimes but followed more of a “calories in/calories out” mentality and still opted for healthy options most of the time. This allowed more room and flexibility and was ultimately much more sustainable.

What my plate/day looked like.

More sweet potato/rice. Big fat pice of salmon/steak/chicken whatever cooked in healthy oil of your choice but less. A whole bunch of vegetables. (Your plate mostly has a bunch of greens on it.)

See I pretty much adopted the principle of always filling my plate with a tremendous amount of vegetables, but out of keto I was slightly less restrictive and even though I did that most of the time I could bend it a little bit more.

Don’t get in the habit of counting calories, it will drive you nuts. However, buy a scale to understand what certain amount of calories actually look like, so you can learn to accurately eye ball. I was blown away by how many calories I was actually consuming.

No matter what you do, you should just learn to like vegetables. Try different cooking methods or whatever you need to start liking them.

I never really snacked except occasionally and what I would do is buy a bunch of pumpkin seeds/goji berries and 90% or so dark chocolate and make little snack bags with a serving of the mix.

I was also always hydrated.

My take away. Avoid sugar as often as possible. Avoid alcohol as often as possible. If you want to play with your macros then fine but keto or not, fill up on vegetables and hydrate. It really couldn’t be simpler.

EXERCISE (feel like I’m going to get chewed alive by weight lifters but this is my opinion)

Let me start by saying after interval training/weight training/and biking excessively and uncontrollably I felt amazing until I got injured. Overuse injury, chronic knee pain. It sucked. As I healed got super into PT techniques and such and started delving into form and proper techniques and such. My take away? I wanted to be fit but live a pain free life and just have good functional strength.

My recommendations

Walk a whole bunch. Don’t sit a lot. You should do yoga to stretch and open up your body. You should also just stretch in general. Foam rolling is a must and you should be doing that often. Swimming is fantastic. Strength has its benefits but I am a fan of functional strength. Sometimes do some deadlifts, bench press etc. Biking is ok but make sure your bike is fitted for your body. Don’t follow hype or trends

Foam rolling, myofascial release, properly stretching. And deep tissue sports massages changed my life. In fact I would learn as much about this is possible. And make sure it is absolutely a part of your life.

Just adopt an active lifestyle Know when your body needs to rest. It is so easy to over exercise when in a weight loss journey because mentally you are ready to do anything it takes to get the weight off. This is a problem because you can injure yourself by overtraining. Find that boundary between pushing to your limit and when to back off and let your muscles recover.

If a personal trainer or dietician wants to break these claims down further then by all means go ahead. I am just sharing what I have done and learned to get results.

Lastly, I will say that I do not mean to preach or claim or to be any type of guru or expert, all I know is I have gone through rock bottoms to losing half of my body twice and finally getting to a place of being fit healthy and happy and I wanted to share what I have done to get there. At the very least this can open up other conversations and such.

Also KNOW some of the conspiracy theories behind food such as “natural flavoring,” “sugar conspiracies” etc. while some of this is unfounded, there are certainly very highly suspicious things that go on within the food industry in order to make a bunch of money. Be careful of organic labeling. (I eat as organic as possible) While it may be extremely beneficial for meat and certain items, it may not make your bag of chips any healthier and they are using the word organic to sell you something you don’t actually need to eat. I also question “meals” and meal times like “breakfast, lunch and dinner” I feel in a way companies push these popular meal times to promote certain foods which you may not even need to necessarily eat in order to be healthy. Like cereal for example. I would encourage to forget about when you are supposed to be eating and focus more on when your body actually needs sustenance and no, it’s probably not as immediate as you think that it is.

I wish you all the best in your journey and if you have any further questions please message me!

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5 Week Update - Linear Weight Loss? Nice meme.

Hello everyone,

I decided that I would start to update myself and reflect on my progress every week or two, and thought that people here may find it useful for the future because I plan to keep updating until I reach my goal.

For context, I eat at about a 500 calorie deficit (so 1500 for me since i'm sedentary) of (generally) healthy-ish foods from all food groups. I'm not afraid to have takeout once a week as long as I keep around my calorie goal, and incorporate at least 18 hours of fasting each day and throw in OMAD once or twice a week.

Information about me: Male Age: 20 Height: 6'0" Starting weight: 175 Current Weight: 168.2 Goal Weight: ~145 

Here's a link to last week's post (https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/azu5se/4_week_update_will_i_ever_know/)

In contrast to last week, this has been a very interesting week, mostly in regards to the graph of my weight changing so much. Here's a picture of the graph from the last 3-ish weeks. There was a big dip where my weight went to 165.7 lbs on the 14th, then fast forward to now the 18th I weighed in at just under 170, at 169.8. And since that day my weight kept going up, so yeah weight loss definitely is not linear at all. I am sort of learning to not let it get to my head because 165.7 is the lowest I've seen the scale in quite a while, and that is the lowest that my weight has been since I started this (by over a pound), so something must be working clearly.

I find it so weird when people show graphs and its literally just a straight line down, very neat and proper. I don't eat the exact same stuff every day, sometimes I eat 2000 calories, sometimes I eat nothing, so my graph is never gonna be straight lol. But I think I'm okay with that, and following the trend that my graph has been making, my weight will soon plummet back down in maybe a week or so.

Yesterday was St. Patrick's day, meaning of course I had to celebrate a little. My family cooked up some corned beef in the slow cooker and I waited until 6 o clock so I could have a nice Reuben sandwich with coleslaw and thousand island on rye. It was really good and that was nice to have. Then after that I had some cookies so yeah, but I didn't really bother to count calories because I didn't want to weight out a sandwich that's just against my policy. The sandwich was pretty big, and had lots of stuff in it and I had half of another one so I assume it was around 1000 calories to be safe, and then I had a protein shake as well so eventually everything probably came out just a little over my limit, which is fine by me. I'm just gonna move on and tomorrow go back to what I usually do.

I'm also really working on allowing myself to get used to the feeling of an empty stomach; I've been able to deal with it thus far, but I really want to focus on being able to actually deal with it without thinking about food when I'm not busy. Yeah if I wanted to just ignore it by being busy I could, but sometimes I have downtime where i'm not and I want to enjoy those times and not be pained by thoughts of food because my stomach is empty, even though I know that's fine and that I don't need any food. Perhaps some meditation or something may help with that, I'm going to research some more on it so if anyone has any suggestions that would be great. Preferably don't tell me to just eat more until i'm satisfied because hah guess what I'm never satisfied and my stomach is endless. I eat lots of fats and proteins and still I can always go back for seconds and thirds and fourths of everything, but it's fine I'm learning to deal with it. For example that meal I gave that I ate on St. Patrick's day with the big sandwich and all that, nah I still could have eaten like 2 more sandwiches and a ton of other things too but that easily could have been like 3000-4000 calories so I stopped lol.

That's about it for this week, thanks for the read and hopefully some more progress will be made for next week :)

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[F, 5'7", 260lbs to 160lbs, one year] I'm done losing weight; here's some stuff I learned

Hey all, I've been maintaining at 160 for about 6 months while I gear up for a mental and physical transition to strength-focused activities as opposed to weight-loss, and I wanted to share some of what I learned during the sheer weight-loss portion of my journey.

As you may have noticed, I initially focused only on weight loss, so I mainly did cardio as exercise and various food related restrictions. Looking back I maybe should have been doing strength exercises right alongside, but the idea was overwhelming to me so I didn't let it bother me.

Here's some stuff I did, in no particular order, that really helped me lose the weight in a way that was enjoyable and empowering.

I treated my relationships with food an exercises and my body as more of a mental health issue than a physical issue, and worked hard on self-love, self-care, and self-reflection. "You cant hate yourself into a body you love". That's easier to say then do, obviously, so here's some specifics:

• Negative Self-Talk: I have an issue with negative self-talking to the point where it's really self-abuse. To combat this I forced myself to verbalize (mentally or vocally) the specific negative words, and imagine if I heard a friend talking about themselves like that, and how I would feel hearing someone else talk like that. Additionally, I changed the frame of my response from "is this true" to "is this helpful to me?" So if I noticed myself calling myself a fat lazy piece of shit cause I was skipping the gym, rather than determining whether or not skipping the gym in fact made me a fat lazy piece of shit, I asked myself if that kind of talking was helpful for getting me to go to the gym later or right then. Obviously it wasn't helpful at all and framing it that way allowed/helped me to discard it.

• Actual laziness/preparing for being demotivated: On many of my previous attempts to lose weight I had found myself getting demotivated, or failing for a day or a week and falling into a spiral of self-loathing and eating my feelings and all sorts of crappy practices that would ultimately result in never losing weight. So to combat this, I set myself 3-tiered goals for each area I wanted to improve. The bottom tier had to be something I already did regularly or almost-regularly, it had to be a really low bar that I could easily reach even on crappy days. The top tier had to be within reach, but more difficult. As I consistently hit the middle or top tiers of whatever area or goals, and once I felt confident that the middle-tier had--through practice--become my bottom-tier, I moved my goal posts and set a new top-tiered goal and aimed at the middle again. My areas for improvement were exercise, calories-per-day, and healthy/nutritious food. My bottom-tier goal for each day was to reach my goals in one of those areas (exercising, eating within my self-set calorie limit, or eating healthy food). So I could both exceed my calorie limit and not exercise and still call it a win if the food I ate was healthy. I could eat unhealthy food and not exercise if i stayed within my calorie limits, and I could exceed my calorie limits and eat unhealthy food if I also exercised. That sort of latitude really worked for me-- but there were still days when I didn't reach any of those goals, and for those days I referred myself to step one; self care; combating negative self-talk, because one day out of five ain't no thang, nor is three weeks out of 30 weeks a thang. I also had a similar 3 tiered goal for each area I wanted to improve, a high-middle-low goal for exercise (how many times per week), calories (what not to exceed or eat below) and health (how much eating out vs cooking at home per week), but it's the same general principle across the board: low bars are easy to cross and create baby-step progress that really adds up!

• Primary Reasons and Goals: this one is the hardest. We get so much info from media and the people around us about our bodies, and I think being larger sort of amplifies that. I didn't want "looking good" to be my primary goal or motivation, because if it was I'd be demotivated any time I felt bad about how I looked (which was already my every-day), and also looking good was never a good enough reason for me, because it wasn't for me--it was for others. I'm obviously pleased with my appearance now more than I was then, but I've tried to never let that be my primary focus, and more of a side-bennie. Instead, my goal was health but also just how it feels to be in motion. Initially when I began exercising all I could focus on was how I must look--the fat, red faced and excessively sweaty and smelly woman on the elliptical--ugh! But I went to the gym late at night with few people there and good music blaring, and I eventually could stop that mantra of panic and anxiety and focus more on how it felt to move and damn that was a good feeling. I forced myself to find ways to enjoy exercise, challenged myself to explore it with curiosity and interest rather than hate and reluctance. I was never going to exercise if I hated it. I remembered enjoying motion as a child; running and climbing trees and swimming, so how might i enjoy it again, now? For me, learning/remembering to love motion and how exercise and activity made me feel became my primary motivation. Being active, strong, a biker, a hiker, a climber or yoga-master, all of that became my goal over my appearance, it became the reason and motivation. Whenever I found myself slipping into shitty negative self-talk, it was always connected to how much I was admiring my looks and my weight loss; when I forgot that I wasn't doing it for how I looked (cuz I was looking good!) I started to hate myself again for no reason (cuz I wasn't looking good enough. I never fucking will if I compare myself to social beauty standards).

• Trick and Treat yourself: I came up with tricks and treats for myself. I didn't dismiss my negative voice as entirely without merit, sometimes I really just didn't want to go to the gym. So, I had plans in place for those kinds of days. My treat was partially just knowing how good I'd feel after I'd go, so I'd always remind myself of that when feeling reluctant. Additionally, I had a playlist full of awesome music that I didn't let myself listen to outside of the gym, so listening to some pumped up beats while running was even more appealing cause that music stayed fresh for longer! I'd often cajole myself into exercise by reminding myself I could listen to that playlist; I'd get dressed in my gym clothes and sit there cultivating a motherfucking queue for the whole time, and as it got longer so too did my time at the gym. I'd trick myself too, by promising myself I only had to go for 10 minutes, or 20. Sometimes I got so used to doing 60minutes at the gym that I began to expect it from myself, and that expectation felt heavy, like too much sometimes! So I'd have to back-step and say, only 20minutes and then we can go home if we want to. And I meant that promise; 20minutes in and I'd ask myself if I felt like leaving. Usually I didn't, but when I did I kept my promises. It was a trick, but a loving one! There's plenty of ways to do it and I did a lot of self reflection to partner with myself and determine what would work, but it's really helpful!

Okay I think that's a long enough post...feel free to ask questions or clarify or PM me if you like!

Tl;dr: the journey was more mental-health oriented than I ever expected, and self-love and self-care was 100% necessary the entire way.

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Running with LoseIt - 3/18/2019 - The Running Habit

This is a weekly post for runners of LoseIt. You can be someone who is considering taking up running, or someone who is running sub-20 minute 5Ks. All are welcome!

This post is for all your running related NSVs, training reports, weekly mileage, race reports, complaints, and for seeking answers or advice. Mostly folks come here to report how their recent running/week went.

In addition to a weekly check-in I ramble on about some running topic to stir up convo (and get past the automod).

Last week I was down with the flu. I posted a message but it wasn't long enough to get on LoseIt. I was out cold the minute I posted it. I'm back, though.

This week's topic, how to make running a habit...

The Running Habit

Most runners have a serious running habit. How do they do it? What does a running habit look like?

I've developed a 3-4 run a week habit myself. At one point I was a 5-6 day a week runner but my work schedule blows right now.

I developed this while in my high-motivation period starting running. It's built over my exercise habit. That I built during a high motivation period of my weight loss.

Using Periods of High-motivation

Motivation ebbs and flows. When it runs high, you can do anything... and you often want to do it All. Right. Now.

Running isn't an All. Right. Now. sorta pursuit though. It's an ease into it thing. It's about embracing small changes. From week to week the beginning runner needs to be motivated not by big strides, but by tiny changes in how bad, horrible, theworst! running feels. The tiny changes takes runs from theworst! to horrible, then horrible to bad, finally bad to... "Today's run didn't feel bad."

You have to use you high motivation with some discipline here. Luckily, weight loss is similiar. It is a very slow reward. Losers know patience and discipline. You know how to turn motivation into habits that take you through slow and steady progress.

Get a Plan

Use a training plan early on. Losing weight shows how planning can help keep you on track. Training plans are the same for running.

Start running with C25K - /r/c25K. Anyone who sprinted each minute of running in W1D1 will tell you how challenging that can be. It can whip your butt. Embrace it!

Once you finish that, go to Bridge to 10k. Google B210K or just look up 10K novice training plans!

What does a plan look like?

A running or training plan will have runs scheduled over 6, 8, 12, 18 weeks. They will have described runs for specific weekdays, like --

Mon - 3 miles easy. Tues - Rest. Wed - 40 minute intervals, warmup/cool down 5 minutes. Work: 5 times x 4 minutes hard, 2 minutes recovery/jog. Thurs - 20 minutes easy.
Fri - rest.
Sat - 5 miles, fast finish last 1.5 miles 20-30 secs faster per mile than average pace.
Sun - rest.

That's what a week of a 10K or half marathon training plan might look like.

Sticking to It - Pick a Race

That's all well and good. Anyone can lay down a schedule of training over months and then do nothing. Right? Not you. Time to put a little fire under your butt. (I know, it got a whopping in C25K.)

Pick a race for the end of your plan, and buy your entry now. Then get out there and train for it. A 5K is good motivation for anyone. And going from couch to running one can be done in 8 weeks. Go, go, go, go!

How do you find a race? In the USA -- take a look at local events at runningintheUSA.com.

Running is Just What You Do

One of the biggest things I do to keep at something is remove choice from my options. I get up and go running in the morning. I don't think of it as something I want to do. I don't want to brush my teeth. I don't want to take a shower. I just do them. I leave time for them and do it and then get on with my day.

Don't make it a choice. Your day begins when you are done. Your night starts when you are done. Your lunch is a run. It is your normal thing you do.

The Easy, Run-What-You-Can Bridge

Sometimes you don't have time for your planned run. Or you don't feel good. Or the weather sucks. Or it's a Monday.

Just do a short little run. Do an easy run. Something is always better than slash and burn. Losing weight really teaches this. There's always something between all or nothing.

Most people can't run 10 minutes straight let alone 20. If you are short on time, not feeling good, or it's Monday -- just go do 10-20 minutes real easy. You doing C25K? Do half the planned workout. (I do a mile as my 'I've done something') You've run. You are keeping the habit. Next time, next week, you'll be back at it.

What are your habit building tricks?

Share any running habit building tricks you have. How did you make running stick?

Weekly Check in

How did your week go? Complete your first run? Finish a week of C25K? Training for a race coming up? Got a question or complaints? Let us know!

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I reached my goal weight! Here's my story and some things I learned

Hi all! I know I haven't lost as much as a lot of people around here, and we get a lot of these, but I hope you like my story (sorry it's so long!).

In the early winter of 2017 I was headed down a dangerous path. I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, was about 30 lbs overweight, paid little attention to my diet, drank a lot of alcohol, my weight was higher than I'd ever seen it, rarely exercised, and generally felt awful all the time. I was always so tired, things like cutting my grass would wipe me out, just walking up one flight of stairs would make my heart nearly beat out of my chest, I was always bloated, had little interest in anything, but most of all I felt like I had no control over what I was doing or where my life was going. I originally said on my 40th birthday I would make some serious changes, but my mom died a couple months before and it hit me pretty hard, so I delayed until my 41st birthday.

I had an epiphany...

I am lazy, and I realized it actually took a lot more effort to keep living the way I was living because everything was so difficult than to live a healthier life. Did I want to be tired and miserable constantly or eat a little better and exercise a few times a week? I didn't want my wife to end up a widow like my mom, and my kids to end up orphans like me (my father passed when I was 17 because he was an overweight smoker and never exercised). I made some serious changes that seemed difficult at the time, but looking back I don't miss any of them at all.

Step 1

The very first thing I did was talk to my doctor, he gave me some good advice and put me on an antidepressant. That helped me immensely mentally, in dealing with the loss of my mother and cigarette cravings. On my 41st birthday I smoked my last cigarette.

Step 2

Next was my diet. I looked at what I was eating during the day and it consisted of chips and mostly junk food, pop, other sugary drinks like Gatorade, a Red Bull in the morning, nothing really very healthy. In the evenings I'd have whatever my wife cooked or the most unhealthy thing on the menu if we went out. That was accompanied by a couple beers and a few more on the weekends.

The first thing I gave up was almost all beverages except for water and a cup of coffee in the morning. I still have maybe one or two beers a week, and the occasional diet pop, but mostly just water. After a couple days of that I didn't find it difficult at all. Next was lunch, I traded the junk food with empty carbs for more healthy things like yogurt, fruit, peanuts, protein bars, etc.

Step 3

Then came exercise. This was actually easy because I had been wasting money on a good health club every month, I just had to actually start going. I started running, lifting weights, taking yoga classes, and playing tennis. After a couple weeks I began to enjoy it.

Results

I reached my goal of losing 20 lbs for a family vacation. The first 10 lbs fell off, the other 10 took a little while longer. After that I maintained most of my healthy habits but the weight crept back up and gained about 10 back in 8 months.

Phase 2

Another vacation planned and another 20 lbs I wanted to lose, luckily my starting weight was lower this time. But I wanted to take it more seriously.

I kept hearing about keto so I decided to give it a try and failed miserably. After 2 weeks I had only lost 1 lb and I just hated it. I got the keto flu, bad breath, insomnia, and pretty much every other side effect except for the weight loss, and I didn't enjoy most of my food.

So I moved on to CICO and was surprised at how easy it was. I ate good, healthy food and did it in a controlled manner. This was a huge eye opener for me, it taught me how to make better choices, understand portions, and most of all it gave me some direction so I wouldn't just mindlessly eat like a horse all day. I reached my goal weight even quicker this time and I can finally say I'm within a healthy BMI again.

Things I've learned along the way

Don't overdo it. Other times when I tried to lose weight I would hours at the gym, reduced my calories way too far and only ate junk. I lost weigh too quickly, kept getting sick, got injuries like shin splints, eventually got burned out, and I was still pretty "skinny fat" and didn't like how I looked. Since I've started my most recent lifestyle change I haven't been sick once, have been mostly injury free, I'm liking my physique better, and I'm still going strong.

Don't forget that your main goal should be to improve your health, and that's not always the same as weight loss. Like I mentioned above, don't overdo it or do other things that will end up doing more harm than good. Don't forget to keep the big picture in mind.

Tracking what I ate was so important. It gave me control to not lose too quickly or too slowly. It helped track my nutrients and macros. Most importantly it gave me direction so I knew about how much I should be eating and not just eat mindlessly every time I got bored or hungry.

Remember it's not a diet, it's a change of diet, or a change of lifestyle. Focus on some things you can change for good and will help keep the weight off long term.

Joining a nice gym was a game changer for me. With smaller gyms I get bored so quickly. With a nicer, bigger gym I've found I have a lot more stuff I can do and I never get bored. It gives me something to do during these long midwest winters. I'ts definitely more expensive but worth every penny since I've started to prioritize my health. In the end, whatever you can stick with for the longest will be your best choice, and that was what I needed.

It's not a cure all. I don't have women throwing themselves at me, I still have some health problems and am dealing with some wicked sciatic pain. I definitely think I look better but far from being hot (hence no pics). I still feel out of shape no matter how much I exercise. I will probably never be satisfied but I will try to enjoy the small victories.

I'm not done yet

This was just one of my goals and they are constantly changing, and I still plan to keep my health going in a positive direction, so I'll never really be done. But this whole process has given me the confidence that I can actually control what I eat and have the power to make positive changes to myself.

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Looking for advice: coworker keeps shaming me for not finishing my plate

Hi everyone,

I started my weight loss journey in November last year and have lost almost 10kg (~20 lbs), thanks to this sub and /r/progresspics that I check every morning to keep me motivated and CICO.

(rant incoming, tldr below)

I work as an consultant and have to travel to my customers a lot (once or twice a month), which of course makes calorie counting really hard. We also usually go out to fatty food places (burgers, pizza etc) and for cocktails after, so to be on the safe side I try to stop myself as soon as I feel not hungry anymore, which usually leaves about half to one third uneaten.

Last week I was in Munich, where I'm extra careful because it's basically all pork and wheat there. I was there for 4 days and one of the project managers on the customer side started leaning in on me on day 2. "Hey fit-fat-Tony, I realized you don't finish your plate" I didn't really answer, just shrugged it off. But she kept doing it every meal we had together and on day 4 during dinner, when she made a remark about it again, I asked her to stop shaming me for my food choices and she immediately became defensive.

I first try to explain to her that I have a very complicated and unhealthy relationship with food, that I am just learning to pick proper portion sizes in the canteen, and in restaurants you just get big portions. She told me I should order half meals then.

By now I'm really annoyed and tell her it's none of her business to which she replies I should be able to take it as I'm usually so direct as well. Yeah sure about work stuff, stuff that is my literal business. I don't go around shaming people for what they do or don't put in their bodies. I shrug and say, if she really needs to, she should talk to someone else about it, because I won't be listening anymore.

So she proceeds talking to the person next to her about me while I am sitting opposite to her and can hear every word.

I went outside to catch some air and was preparing to leave, but another coworker talked me down and gave me a big ol hug.

She also constantly talks about how she wants to lose weight, I tell her I've lost 10kgs by counting calories, she says she already eats as little meat and fat as possible. I tell her maybe she doesn't burn enough, she says she walks her dogs every day. Clearly she is projecting her insecurities on me, but knowing that still doesn't help.

Now I'm at the customer again, dreading lunch at the canteen because I'm not sure I won't explode when she goes off on me again. I am just so triggered by someone shaming me into eating, which is what my mom used to do constantly.

So does anyone have any tips how to deal with this situation in the moment?

Tldr coworker shames me for not finishing my plate, tells me she won't stop and I have to take it.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Monday, 18 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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