Slowly transitioning to maintenance and changing my mentality (Questions and progress pics)

So, I've done really well and lost a lot of weight (yay!). Last summer I was ~280 pounds, and I started with a vegetarian diet and calorie counting but didn't go about it in a very good way. I would eat under budget some days, but then eat up the deficit on the weekends, and was over-estimating my exercise calories so progress was slow. I'm not sure how much I lost over this period because to be honest, I didn't want to weigh myself. I made some progress, but It wasn't until the beginning of this year that I started taking things seriously - I've gone from having an obese BMI to a healthy one in the last few months.

I appreciate this may seem like I've done things drastically, and in some ways I have. But I've been balancing my macronutrients, getting plenty of protein, and eating a healthy but nutritious diet (lots of eggs, chicken, peanut butter, veggies, had carbs but not too many, tried to keep the fats 'good ones', salads and general healthier choices and alternatives). And I have had my treats. Plenty of pub trips, some McDonald's, pizzas, TGI Fridays, Nandos, even a Chinese all you can eat (although when I was there I ate mainly vegetables because not being able to properly log what I was eating made me nervous!). But when I have, I've planned for them accordingly and had a 3-4000 weekly deficit on top of LoseIt's two-pound-a-week numbers the weeks where these have happened. On average, I'd say I've been having 1200-1500 calories a day, with one 2000 calorie day a week and the occasional indulgence day. Swimming four times a week, and walking at least 7,500 steps a day.

As of yesterday, I weighed 193 pounds and I'm 6 foot 3. I'm SO, SO, proud of what I've done. And I can't really believe that I am less than a stone from my personal goal weight. I want to start to transition to muscle building, but am also comfortable with slowing down my progress for these final pounds as I start to transition to maintenance calories.

I've had a big, tough week this week (it's positive, I've essentially had two job interviews and been offered both of them, so have a difficult decision coming up!) and I decided that I'm going to try and eat at maintenance this weekend, with some treats. I've got myself some pringles (rice infusions, so less than 500 calories for the tube still), a tub of Breyers ice cream, and am totally intending to have a nice big McDonald's this evening. Tomorrow, I'll go swimming but eat back some of those calories and shoot close to maintenance, but try to do it with 'healthy' food.

I'm doing this because I recognise I need to change my attitude towards how much I'm eating, because I think I could be in danger of developing an eating disorder. Seeing the weight fly off so quickly (and relatively simply, to be honest) has kept me super motivated to keep going. I still have some unwanted flab and fat around my belly and my hips that I want to get rid of, but I'm happy with my body and I want to try and change my approach to losing this last bit.

Does anyone have any advice for going forward? Right now the prospect of eating at maintenance scares me, because there's a thought at the back of my head that I'm going to put all the weight back on - even though I know and have seen how the maths of CICO works! I've lost weight before, but never this much, and I've always piled it back on pretty quickly but this time has to be different so I want to approach it properly. For those of you who had similar experiences, how did you start to slow your weight loss and change your mentality? Did you just slowly up your intake, or did you wait until you hit your goal and enjoyed the glorious extra 1000ish calories in one hit? Do you allow yourself more treats (as long as they fit into your daily intake)? Do you stick to the exact same things you have been eating, just more of them? Any general advice or experiences/anecdotes would be much appreciated!

Progress (photo on the left was taken July 2018, photo on the right mid-March 2019, about 6 or 7 pounds ago): https://i.imgur.com/42OVYTQ.png

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[Daily Directory] Find your quests for the day here! - Saturday, 06 April 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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Vacations and Weight Loss

Hey y’all, so I’ve been exercising daily and being very mindful of what I eat since the new year. I’ve dropped 30 lbs with about 20 more to go. So far I’ve been successful because my environment is high regulated and I’m on a strict schedule.

Next week, however, bf and I are going to the beach for spring break. It’s only 4 days, and I’m super conflicted about what to do. Should I eat and drink with abandon? Should I stick to the diet? Should I plan for one or two cheat meals? It’s giving me a lot of anxiety. I want to enjoy myself, but I don’t want to reverse this hard work.

What are your experiences with dieting while on vacation? Any tips or regrets? Thank you!

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Made it to One Year!

April 3rd marked one year since I took my very first (pre) Progress Picture. It's the only really concrete date for me really starting down this road, so I'm calling it my 1 year. One Year

I started at 230+lbs (104 kg?), standing 5'8" on a good day, with terrible posture, a growing hunch, an ever persistent depression and a crawling anxiety that never used to exist. I had a number of false starts along the way, but none of them really had a directed purpose. Just eat and/or do things "better" or "healthier" was some of the worse advice I had ever received.

I started working out (running little circuits with dumbbells I had), bombarded myself with fitness videos, which very quickly turned into learning about TDEE, Macros, and Calories, and within like a week, I was tracking calories.

I lost my first 30 lbs (13.5 kg) relatively quickly (4-5 months), and maintained at 200 when I started taking strength training more seriously. I found the exercise sucker punched my depression, and really helped flush away a lot of the anxiety. I had a few big things happen this past year that if they had happened a year before would have crippled me mentally and emotionally, and I was actually able to handle in a healthy way.

I just started the process again a couple weeks ago, and am down around 5 lbs (2.25 kg). Between that and my gf starting to count right after I shared what a year looked like for me, I've been taking stock at all of the things that made it work the first time. I thought maybe someone else might be able to gleam something as well. (I get wordy so uhh... sorry)

Here's what I learned/what works for me:

Do it for yourself - There are so many amazing things that happen along the path, (easier to tie your shoes. your center of balance changes, heat tolerance totally changes, etc.) and you are going to be the one that notices 95% of them. Don't give someone else the power to derail you by not living up to an expectation they did not know you had.

Learn & Engage your brain - I knew calories were a how much energy was in food, or something like that, but didn't really understand any of it. It wasn't until I found myself down a rabbit hole on youtube, learning about TDEE, and Marcos, and all of that, that it really came together for me. Like I felt like I had discovered the secret to everything wasn't 42, and here is the real tangible equation. I know the way my brain works, if I surround myself with something, I can get excited about it. Youtube gave me that. Old Obese to Beast videos had a ton of information, and fitness channels like Jujimufu got me excited to workout. Game your brain. Find a way to get it on board.

Weigh Yourself Regularly: Personally, I like weigh myself every day. I can see why it is not for everyone, but I found it really enlightening. Heavy on sodium one day, weight would be a little up the next day. Got a good workout and feeling stiff and sore, probably see another 2lbs on the scale. Little dehydrated? Going to be a little lighter. If found it helps me get a bead on where my baseline is, and understand how my body responds to things.

Track Calories- Even if you don't do it forever, really understanding your eating habits and the calories in things are so important. I discovered I was probably flirting with a binge eating disorder after a year of eating "better" by skipping seconds, and eating lighter during the day. A large iced cap is like eating a simple sandwich calorie wise, but that sandwich will have some staying power.

You can make anything work: You can fit almost anything into your diet, especially if you're just looking for weight loss.Don't over do it, and find a portion you can fit into your calories for the day. Over time, I think its pretty natural to get away from certain foods that make it difficult to balance it, but if you want beer for breakfast, and tatertots for supper you can make it work. You're gonna be hungry, and probably miserable, but the option's there.

Find a system that works for you: I find I want to eat more food at night, so I structure my days (breakfast/lunch) to be around half my calories during the day, and the rest around supper. It also gives me more wiggle room if something comes up, a last minute dinner, etc. My gf is the complete opposite, and loves that big breakfast.

Bad Days: There will be some. But it actually takes a lot to undo the work you have done. Like you'd have to go over your target calories something like 4000 calories in a day to put on a pound. Have the bad day, dust yourself off, get back to it the next. Realistically you probably only just ate over maintenance.

Plateaus: are you body catching up. You asked a lot of it, it'll be ready to go again soon.

Exercise: It was probably one of the biggest things for me. It knocked down a ton of bloating, the act itself makes me feel good, and as an added bonus it allows me to eat more food. Biggest of all was the mental health benefit that came from it. Like when our dog is acting a little crazy our first reaction is to go take them out to burn some energy, but if I'm feeling a little crazy I'd go about as far in the other direction as possible. Burning energy in a positive way is important.

Rest: Your body needs to rest after exercise. Especially in the beginning. It's sooo easy to feel like committing to it means you have to do it every day, but you need time in between for your body to build up. Especially if you're reawakening long forgotten muscles. I tried jogging every day, I tried walking every day, and my body just fell apart. Very nearly repeated it again when I started at the beginning of the year. Give yourself a day between.

​

My biggest take away from the year:

Doing things that make my body feel better has a massive positive affect on my mental health. Trying to get to bed on time so I get a solid 8 hours, drinking 3+ liters of water a day, strengthening my body, burning energy, drinking less alcohol (who would have thought, drinking a depressant less might make you feel better lol). Weight loss removing the little annoying things like chaffing for little to no reason, or belly weight making it uncomfortable to sleep on one side. They don't always take bad days away, but man do they not crash ashore as hard when your foundation doesn't feel cracked.

Edit: Oh! And progress pictures.

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How I visualize my weight loss.

"I lost a kilo." "I lost 50 pounds." "I lost 3 stone on Mercury." Those are all great, but I need something more concrete and visual, so I came up with this.

Every Wednesday, I weigh in. I don't weigh in any other time during the week. I log my weight on the LoseIt app and on Reddit (and in any challenges that I'm doing).

On Friday, I go grocery shopping. When I get to the dairy section, I stop. I pull 1 box of butter for every pound that I've lost since the beginning of the year. At first, I just stacked them, now I grab a box to pile them in. Then I pick it up and carry it to the end of the aisle and back. Then I take a picture of the pile/box before carefully putting them away.

An American box of butter (4 sticks) is 1 pound of basically (only?) fat. I know that my weight loss can't possibly be 100% fat, but it's a great feeling to heft that box of butter from one end to the other.

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Old friend of mine commented on my weight loss.

For starters, I was not terribly heavy before I started trying to lose weight. But when I put on weight it goes almost entirely to my face and belly, so after holidays I was looking pretty bloated. Yesterday I finished a tutoring session in my University's library and as I walked out to head home, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a couple months. We hugged and talked for a bit and eventually she said "you've gotten really thin, are you feeling okay?" I told her I'd been trying to lose weight and that I was glad it was objectively noticeable. I'm about a month into losing wieght and lately I've been swamped with cravings for carbs and sugar, almost giving in on several occasions. Hearing her point out my weight loss really brightened my outlook on what I'm trying to achieve. I think the cravings are mostly a mental thing at this point in the process, because hearing that surprisingly helped curb them. Just felt like sharing (probably bragging to be honest :/) because it really made me feel good.

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The weight is coming off now that my mind has changed?

..using a throwaway I save for really personal stuff...

​

For me, the breaking point was my family beach vacation in 2017. I hated how I looked and felt. I was panicking as I realized I needed to by larger shorts and t-shirts. I was in my early 40s, male, 5'10" and about 217 lbs. According to BMI, just this side of obese, for the first time in my life.

I felt embarrassed, worthless, and hopeless. but I am a doer, and an experimenter. I didn't think about it this way at the time, but I began experimenting on my own body and mind.

When I got back home, I immediately threw myself into weight loss. I made some mistakes. I started by ordering a meal replacement shake online that is still heavily advertised. I dropped a few pounds right away, but I suspect this concoction gave me a case of gout.

I tried intermittent fasting. Again, three or four pounds here and there, but here is what kept happening: I would "successfully" fast until 10 or 11 a.m., and at 4:30 I would devour everything in my pantry, and then feel like hell for the rest of the night.

I tried just cardio, just weights, cardio and weights. Can't stick to an exercise plan for more than a month. Still can't.

Recently my wife has had a kind of awakening. She has changed how she thinks about food, especially meat, and has begun flirting with plant based diets. I also have had some long, hard thinks about meat and my relationship to it, and I told her I would join her. So, we've been slowly cutting down (not eliminating) meat from our diets. The meat we do eat is grass-fed, pasture-raised, etc. etc.

I've had terrible acid reflux , on and off, for many years, even before I became obese. It's gotten worse despite meds, despite sleeping on an inclined pillow, despite being somewhat fanatical about not eating past 6:30 p.m. I have been seeing a chiropractor about back pain. He wants to talk to me about my diet, but I don't want to discuss it with him. I just want him to make my back make terrible noises and then I feel slightly better for a few more days.

But, he suggested eliminating dairy. While I was already cutting way down on meat, I thought, sure, why not. So I cut way down (did not eliminate) dairy.

​

Meanwhile, and here's a curveball: For about two months, I experimented with microdosing LSD. It's interesting! But it was unsustainable for me, so I stopped. When I did, something happened. I have nearly quit drinking without realizing it, and without consciously meaning to.

I love drinking. But I find weeks zing by without it crossing my mind. I'll have a drink or two to be social, but I'm not reaching for it after I've had a long day, for example.

​

The pounds started dropping.

This morning, I weighed in at 195. No longer obese. My face is noticeably less round. I have a smaller neck. There are some, um, personal attributes that just look better. My reflux is receding (but not gone).

It feels easier to get up and go for a two mile walk.

I'm not craving the things I've been cutting out.

​

I don't know what happened or how this all fits together, but, at least today, I can't imagine going back.

Be well everyone

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