Stick with it! Last night I binged...and today I don’t want to kill myself.

My mindset is changing due to counting calories and I feel compelled to share my story in the hopes that my experience will help someone else.

I started calorie counting on March 1 of this year. I’ve counted calories before, but always in combination with some other “rules”.

I’ve done Low-Carb, Extended Water Fasting, Juice Fasting (was hospitalized for this one due passing out at work) Intermittent Fasting (without calorie counting), Sub-500 Calorie Diet, Low-Fat, No Added Sugar, No Sugar At All (including fruit), Whole 30, The Master Cleanse (probably tried this 20+ times over the years), The Lean Cuisine Diet, The Flat Belly Diet, The Raw Food Diet, The Cabbage Soup Diet, The Blood Type Diet, The Survivor Diet, The Mediterranean Diet and many others over the past 13-ish years.

I’ve had short term success with most of these diets, but none of them have worked long term. I would always eventually give in to a craving and eat all the foods I was restricting. Once I inevitably fell off the wagon, I considered myself a failure and stopped trying. I’ve been cycling between periods of extreme restriction and extreme binging for all of my adult life and most of my teens. I do not know how to eat in moderation naturally.

I read a comment once that said “don’t do anything to lose the weight that you wouldn’t be willing to do for the rest of your life” and I found it incredibly insightful.

I don’t want to be the mom at the birthday party 10 years down the line that can’t have a slice of cake. I don’t want to say no to the stuffed mushrooms or sangria when I visit my parents. I don’t want to travel to France and not be able to eat a pain au chocolat. BUT I also want to be strong and fit and healthy. I want to feel comfortable in my skin. I want to love my body and treat it with respect. This is exactly what I have been learning to do since March 1.

I’m still eating potatoes, butter, movie theatre popcorn, chips, candy and baked goods because I enjoy all of those things. I incorporate these foods into my diet by eating them in moderation. They are not the bulk of what I am eating anymore, but I can still eat them. This is very important to me mentally because I don’t feel overly deprived. For the first time I feel like I can actually stick to this long term.

No longer do I feel like a failure for eating the “wrong foods”. I just log everything I eat and move on. Calorie counting feels sustainable. It feels like something I want to do forever. I can see myself in 5, 10, 20, and even 50 years doing this because it feels so good. I feel good when I eat a barbecued chicken breast with zucchini and mushrooms, but I also feel good when I eat chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.

I feel so much better physically since March 1. I have lost almost 20 pounds and I feel better in my clothes. I have so much more energy to be active and as a result I am sleeping so much better. More importantly, I feel so much better mentally! 2 months ago I wanted to kill myself. Earlier today I was reading my post history to see where I was at and it’s so far from where I am today. Am I suddenly 100% better? No. I still have rough days, but I do feel a significant improvement.

This brings me to last night. Before I went to bed I binged. I still haven’t identified why I did or what triggered me to do so, but I did. I went to the store and purchased and then ate a whole can of Jalapeño Pringles, a small bag of Smartfood Popcorn and some Swedish Berries bringing me to over double my daily calorie goal.

Before I fell asleep I was thinking that it was all over. I was a huge failure and I would have to starve myself for 2 days to make up for this binge. I also considered just continuing the binge and accepting that I would be fat forever. I was pre-planning if I should go to Taco Time first or Montana’s. This wasn’t new to me at all as the same thing has happened so many times before, but I went to bed absolutely defeated.

As a surprise to me, when I woke up this morning I didn’t feel defeated. I wanted to keep going! I’ve had 1 bad day out of 39 and so what? That doesn’t erase the 38 good days. That’s a measly 3% of the time that I’ve screwed up versus the 97% of the time that I’ve stuck to my goal. I could only wish to be so dedicated in every other area of my life!

I have never thought this way in regards to weight loss before. It was always all or nothing, but life isn’t all or nothing and I’m making baby steps. Not once today did I think that suicide was the solution to my failure last night. I don’t want to eat something greasy or heavy. I don’t want to lay in bed all day. In fact, when I’m done writing this post I’m going to go on a hike and I’m excited to go do so.

Calorie counting really works! I didn’t believe in myself, but the habits that I’ve made over the past 39 days have backed me up even when I screwed up. I never believed this could happen and I am so surprised by how I feel today.

Thank you for reading and best of luck to everyone on their weight loss!

submitted by /u/facingmyselfie
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2WXuTHg

I got so much respect for people with huge weight losses

The other day I read an article on how our body is designed to efficiently store weight for times of starvation, which never come nowadays (luckily) and this is why so many people are obese nowadays.

But the problem go way beyond the storage. The fat cells don't die off straight away and keep sending hunger hormones to the brain, which makes it harder to maintain weight loss. The entire metabolism is out of whack when losing weight. The bigger the weight loss, the worse it is.

I lost 20 lbs two years ago and every day I have to be careful to track calories, or I will put it back on. I have a hard time feeling full on my maintenance calories. The hunger pangs are the thing that at the moment keep me the most from losing another 20 lbs and reaching my goal weight. And my body is still a little out of shape due to the previous weight gain, although I am getting there with regular workouts. I feel like before I can even lose more, first my body has to adapt the slimmer me and this takes a lot of dedication.

Anyway, I feel my weight loss journey has been very hard so far... And now I imagine I had to lose 50 lbs. Or 80. Or 130. Or even more!

I can't imagine how much willpower that must take to even lose all that. And then work out to fight saggy skin. And those hunger hormones in left over fat cells that tell the body to eat more, again, constantly. It must be so incredibly hard to lose a huge amount of weight and maintain the weight loss as well.

How do people do it? I am in awe. I got so much respect for people with these big weight losses, just wanted to let you know! Keep going!!

submitted by /u/lisalovesmango
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2D34yA0

How do you avoid becoming consumed by diet/weight loss/food?

I am having a really difficult time right now, and struggling with how to manage it. I will try to keep this super brief:

I am about 100 lbs overweight, have been for 15-ish years. I CAN lose weight pretty easily, but I also get obsessed FAST. Where it is literally all I can think about and it's like there is no room left in my thoughts or my life to think about anything else.

In December, I finally stuck to CICO for more than a few days, where I tracked on MFP daily and lost about 30 lbs in 3 1/2 months. The weight loss was pretty consistent, with the typical stalls around shark week and random hormonal fluctuations. I didn't feel deprived because I allowed myself to eat what I wanted, just in controlled portions, as you do with CICO.

The problem is that during that time, I lost interest in everything else in my life. All my thoughts, goals, and plans were about losing the weight. I started adding more exercise, and kept lowering my calories to create larger deficits. I started at higher calories so I wouldn't be starving, setting my goal to losing 1lb a week first, then 1.5 lbs a week, then 2 lbs a week. I no longer cared about ANYTHING but what I ate or didn't eat, my workouts, and my body.

By the end of February, I was eating 1,000-1,200 calories a day "because it was so easy". Which isn't true, I just got addicted to the weight coming off and I wanted to do it faster.

So, then in March, I had my expected binge phase, which happens if you restrict too much.

It's weird because it's like I KNOW I need to eat more, I KNOW what the binge/restrict cycle is like, and I STILL do it. Every. Single. Time.

In the middle of March, I decided I didn't want to be consumed by dieting forever, so I tried intuitive eating, but that was a disaster. I'm just not ok enough with my body right now to risk maintaining or gaining weight, if you want the truth. It was mental torture, even if I enjoyed eating and not tracking.

LUCKILY (no idea how), I only gained 2 lbs in 4 weeks of not tracking and eating like I used to. So, I can get right back on track without feeling like I messed up all the progress i made, but I'm having a hard time doing it because it's giving me serious anxiety knowing how easily it became a horrible obsession before.

​

The main question is: How do you avoid being obsessed and consumed by your diet? Does it get better over time? Or is this just my life now if I want to lose weight?

submitted by /u/jenninrecovery
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2UJ2s29

“You are so lucky to lose weight so fast”

Yeah, last week I was hit with that.

I am a 34 years old male, I exercise a lot, but the last couple of years I have had some injuries that made me gain a lot of weight. I got serious regarding my weight loss path in February 2nd, and since then I have lost more than 8 kg (18 lb). I went to a doctor, got some nice diet and started light exercising again. I was not that much overweight (now I am at 79 kg/174 lb), so the loss is still really obvious.

But then, while having dinner with my GF’s family last week (most of them are overweight, except for my GF and her brother) noticed my change, and my GF’s sister and mother started telling me “wow, you look really slim, you are SO lucky that you can lose weight SO easily”/“I wish I could lose weight that fast”/“When I try, it never works, I guess that is easier for men”/“yes, it is because of the hormones, it is easier for you”.

Honestly, I had never heard something like that, most people just congratulate me or tell me I look good, but I didn’t expect that reasoning. Of course, I undertood that it was their way to feel better with themselves because they can’t stick with a good diet (they were telling that while eating sandwiches and cakes), so I didn’t bother to reply. I didn’t want to sound arrogant, but it still hurt a little bit that they would not appreciate the effort and say it was just because I’m a man/hormones/etc. But I feel so good that it really doesn’t matter now, I’m just sad for them because I finally understood why they can’t lose weight, and I realize that they need an enormous change in their ideas to get to a healthy weight. I’ll try to help them anyways.

Has something like that ever happened to any of you?

As a bonus: when I went to the doctor, I got an exam called “calorimetría indirecta” (indirect calorimetry? I am not sure how to translate it, I’m sorry). It roughly estimates the calories you burn while resting, it’s a first approach to tell how many calories should you daily eat. The doctor explained that A LOT of people tell him that they can’t lose weight easily even if they don’t eat much, that their bodies are just like that. So he started doing that exam to everybody, to show them how much they really burn, and compare them to the average human. He told me that like 99% of people is within the normal range (as I am), so the exam is a good way to destroy the initial excuse for these kind of people.

submitted by /u/el_robito
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2I6WzpJ

My weight loss transformation story (if i can do it, you can too)

Please note: this is the very first post/time coming out with my story. I've not really been the social media person.

When I was younger (about 14) I was teased and bullied about my weight- it really made me feel low and depressed.. i was also dealing with my parents divorce so it wasn't a good time in my life.

I remember I came home crying to my mum one day and I said I don't care what it takes, I'm going to lose the weight. So I started my weight loss journey. I got into a little sport (rugby) and that got me out of the house-I was losing some but not a lot. Also my confidence was crippled by everything what was going on around me.

Eventually I got a girlfriend around 16, (I was still chubby), but we broke up and again I had to pick myself up. By this time I was drinking on the weekend, still trying to escape reality. I felt really lonely but I realised the only one who can change me is me. I got into acting which helped rebuild my confidence. I ended up isolating myself and decided to really lose the weight and I had to change my ways.

I was doing home workouts and was eating well. That's when things started to change. I was working out 5-4x per week, Resistance training mixed with cardio and eating on a calorie controlled diet. Probs around 2000 kcals. Sometimes I mixed it up, by doing running, HIIT training (things that require very little equipment). I also loved the social aspect of a gym.

I got to the body I wanted and my confidence was really showing. I would talk to people and actually make eye-contact. I began to really respect myself. Got into meditation and yoga. It was then I realised that this is what I want to teach when I am older. So I came out of drama school, worked in the lowest degrading jobs (pot washer and cleaner), saved up my money and paid to become a qualified personal trainer. Btw I have a degree 2:1 in acting but it's got me nowhere. So if you're thinking about a degree-think smartly about your ROI. Think is there a need for this skill in the marketplace.

During my time at my gym I was working on different programs and exercises which had more of a creative twist to them. I created 3 programs and 2 classes from scratch - it was unheard of at my gym. I also realised the people in the gym just wanted to lose weight and didn't know how to. I always said it's 80% nutrition and you can get to your goal by doing workouts with minimal equipment. And as advice I've always suggested low GI foods (low sugar). Just look up low gi foods on google. But don't get it twisted, I still love pizza.. I say low gi because it worked wonders for me.

Fun fact: most major gym chains in England do not pay the instructors or personal trainers. Everyone trainer is on 100% commission and they don't actually work for that gym. Trainers get to use the facilities if they agree to work certain hours. For example: trainers work 12-15 hours taking classes, cleaning equipment, showing people around etc.. that's why it's so easy for these chains to get rid/replace trainers. To recap trainers are not paid per hour or per class. They don't get a penny. That's how they've expanded so rapidly.

I met a girl at the gym and we fell for each other. However, after the year mark she decided to leave me out of the blue and started making up excuses. I don't want to go into it but I know for a fact it's about money and she thought I'd be a lot further on by now. She also got a new promotion and it's coincidental how she started to fall out of love with me as soon as she got handed a well paying job on a plate. It's kinda hard and lonely being self employed but it is what it is. I cried a lot but now it's just pure f@!k it mentality.

I’m 26 now. Exercise has truly helped me through all of this and is a natural anti-depressant. I can talk from experience that exercise has been my best coping mechanism by far. Something to get the heart pumping and to actually sweat..

The first stage is to share my story. I don't know where this post is going to take me but if you've made it to the end I want to thank you for taking the time to read my story. Feel free to ask me anything.

https://imgur.com/J4IEvWV link to results

submitted by /u/the_one_92
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2G4ZNqb

I lost it yesterday with my friend and became that horrible skinny friend. 👎🏻

Hi there

So I have a friend, who I’ve been really good friends with for around 4 years. He’s very overweight (400lbs). I’ve lost around 90lbs altogether. Taking me to around 140lbs. I am in a healthy weight range.

He is always digging me out in social situations and I feel always trying to show me up about my weight loss. He will make comments about my appearance and about my eating. Which is fine for the most part. It doesn’t normally bother me hugely as I can see where it comes from & normally feel if it makes him feel better about himself telling me I’m too skinny then who cares.

Yesterday I was having a particularly bad day. I had to go to a friends birthday dinner, didn’t feel like going but I went. When I got there, I felt like he really laid into me. He kept commenting on my legs saying how they look like chicken legs and telling me how I shouldn’t lose anymore weight, telling me he thinks I have an eating disorder (not in a concerned way) and going on and on about other things to do with my weight. This is in front of other people, in a public space and I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

I didn’t shout at him but I told him to shut his fat face and that he’s boring me & why does he need to try & show me up all the time? You don’t see me telling you how fat you are at dinner or ever. So just shut up you fat tw**.

He left earlier than planned & then sent me a lengthy text about how he doesn’t think we should be friends anymore because of how I treated him and how he has self esteem issues and how I’m basically the bad person, not him.

I shouldn’t have sworn at him or called him fat. I’m not particularly proud of that but it’s unbelievable how someone can treat you that way and as soon as you give them a taste of their own medicine you’re the bad person 🤷🏻‍♂️. I don’t have the greatest self esteem as it is. His comments rub off on me. Just because I’m slim now it doesn’t mean I don’t look in the mirror and think I look like shit.

We used to be such good friends and hang out all the time. He’s one of the funniest people I have ever met. He was there for me when I came out and supported me hugely and it makes me sad I have lost a friend due to trying to better myself 👎🏻.

submitted by /u/wgs12
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2OYNvnu

Family messes with my weight loss

So to start things off, I have been overweight my entire life. I(24F) am 5’3, and at the moment am sitting at 265lbs.

At one point I was so on my diet and workouts, and dropped down to 240, which was the best I’ve felt in a long time.

But time and time again my family, who I live with, messes with my weight loss. No one else in my family is overweight, so when they crave pizza or anything fast food, they just go out and get and can’t see how this food just triggers my bingeing. Believe me, I go out and personally shop for myself and get healthy food but sometimes it’s so hard for me to say no, or they make me feel bad for saying no.

I just don’t know how to approach this topic with them, without them completely shrugging me off.

submitted by /u/jade326
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2P6SPFD