YOU BETTER STEP ON THAT SCALE I'M WARNING YOU

I've been on this particular weight loss journey since the beginning of the year. I've been going to the gym regularly (2 days on, then 1 day off), and officially started CICO 71 days ago, using myfitnesspal.

Like many of us, this is not my first run at trying to get to a healthy weight. At my maximum I weighed 330, maybe more. I never stepped on the scale again until I knew I weighed less. Last year I worked at a fast food place and hustled my way down to 275 I felt better than I ever had before.

Eventually though, things went down hill around July of 2018 when I started a new job. I had two weeks of mandatory training about an hour and a half away from where I lived before I could start working closer to home. I trained in a mall and the food court ended up being the easiest option for my lunches as the company paid for my meals. I got into the habit of eating chick-fil-a, pizza or Chinese every day. I was so tired from driving 3 hours a day and got terrible stress headaches from training. I ended up just forgoing the gym because I simply didn't have the time or energy.

Unfortunately I carried over these bad habits to the home location I work at now and continued eating fast food (twice a day now) and didn't go back to the gym or exercise at all until December. I got into a rut. I knew what I was doing but it was like my brain turned off everything I was so passionate about before.

I gained a lot of weight in the next 4 or 5 months. I was disgusted, defeated and ultimately upset with myself. I wasted all that time and effort all because of a stupid life change I didn't want to adapt to. I was sick of looking at myself. My belly poked out under my work shirts because I ordered sizes I could fit when I started the new job. I decided it was time to try again.

January of this year rolled around and I was in the full swing of everyday exercise again. That's the easy part. I love exercise because it makes sense. You do it and immediately feel better afterwards. Food is the tricky part. There's no immediate benefit of it. You have to wait to feel that and there's no direct relation so I always felt like it would never work. Even back when I got down to 275, I ate like shit. I just exercised to compensate.

This time I made changes though. I realized food was the thing that would solve the puzzle. I've been logging calories religiously. No cheating, no excuses and full accountability. Most days are below my calorie threshold for my specific weight loss goals. Some days I go over but I've never gone over the calories needed to maintain my weight. Wholesome foods. Protein heavy too. I've completely cut out fast food and have stopped going out to eat (besides very special occasions). I feel better than I did last year. I've been doing a strict exercise schedule of cardio and strength training. I'm in better overall physical shape. Exercise is easier than it's ever been in my life.

Unfortunately I made a big mistake and didn't step on the scale to record my starting weight. I thought i knew how big I was. I thought I had a general idea of how much I weighed and just told myself I'd weigh myself when it was really noticeable. I thought that day came this morning and decided to step on the scale. Lo and behold that scale read 299. I had been hustling harder and doing the right things for the last few months which means I must have weighed so much more than I thought I did when I started.

All the disappointment and disgust I felt at the end of last year came rushing back. Now my goal seems so much further away than I thought it was. I wish I would have just stepped on that scale to begin with but I didn't want to feel accountable. I didn't want to feel more shame. I didn't want to cement that number and make my situation a reality. Now I'm paying the consequences of it.

Do yourself a favor if you're about to start your own journey: weigh yourself. If you've already started and made the same mistake I did: weigh yourself. It will hurt more later than it does today. I promise that.

Here's to the long road ahead. I feel better now than I did this morning because I realize that this journey of getting healthy is going to pale in comparison to the journey of staying healthy. I realize that if you are smart, you stay on that journey forever.

Stay healthy. Thanks for reading.

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Calorie Counting Weirdness

I’m following CICO and, despite going to a festival last weekend and getting massively intoxicated, have managed pretty well so far in my weight loss journey. I gained 1lb back because of the partying which has been a learning curve in itself and now know I need consistency.

My question is, though, do any of you CICO-ers sometimes feel like you’re eating too much?! Or that the kitchen scales are somehow wrong?Like, I weigh all my food and I’ll eat it and feel stuffed and be like - but how is all THAT only 400 calories?! Or I’ll measure out some mozzarella and feel like I’ve stuffed my face with it but it’ll just be 100 calories or something?? I think my understanding food before was so minimal that I had 0 clue what was good to eat and what was not...

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Started Weight Loss Journey While SO Was Out Of Country; Returns Tomorrow

Hi all,

​

I'm new to r/loseit (and reddit in general, actually), but I'm thrilled to find a community where I could share my weight loss journey -- victories and struggles.

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I've been seeing the most amazing man for the last nine months; he tells me I'm the most gorgeous woman he's ever met, but during our relationship, I've maintained my highest weight -- 192-ish pounds. I'm 5'6".

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I used to be a competitive figure skater and distance runner, both sports that had a big emphasis on keeping a low body weight, and eventually that emotional stress caught up with me and I struggled with disordered eating for years. I sought treatment, and healed, but my weight also crept up in the meantime.

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About a month ago, my boyfriend left the country for a work trip. I started Weight Watchers the day he left, and through tracking points, lifting weights and making sure I get in my water, I'm now down to 179 pounds. He returns tomorrow.

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I know it's not a huge loss (my initial goal weight is around 155), but I'm pleased with the new habits I've developed and a small part of me hopes he notices, too ;)

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Glad to be part of your community!

​

--BatCat

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90 lbs down, never going back!

Stats: 5’7 SW: 241 CW: 151 GW: Muscles

Obligatory Before/After: https://www.imgur.com/a/2D7WWnc

I started weight loss on August 2018 at my SW, and can now say that I am finally done with it — 90 lbs down (with CICO)! I really wanted to cut down further to 141 and lower, but decided that a bulk (small surplus) for muscle would make more sense in terms of getting rid of skinny fat, so on we go!

Tips and things I’ve learned throughout the weight loss:

• The hardest part of doing anything is just starting. If you want to go to the gym, just go. Once you get there, you’ll have a hard time convincing yourself to go back home while you’re there, and chances are you’ll actually do something.

• There will be tough days. Some days you’ll be hungry and it’ll suck. Life is hard, but we still live it and do hard things to get what we want.

• Discipline is your sword and shield. Use it! Build good habits now and in the future you’ll find yourself following them even if you don’t want to. Weight loss is so much easier when you have built good habits!

• Our brains stink at noticing change, don’t let it discourage you. I still see the same 241 lbs guy in the mirror, but it’s clear that’s not what is there! Focus on making tomorrow better.

r/loseit was a great place for accountability and I’ve enjoyed posting on here and MFP throughout the process! :) Hope this post may inspire you guys like you have with me! The Pokemon Challenge earlier this year was fun and I am looking forward to the Wizardry one #TeamTransfiguration. If you haven’t joined yet you should, it’s a great way to meet new people and find good accountability!

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When it comes to weight loss, one size does not fit all

Hi all, I'm mostly a lurker here, but will often turn to this community for information, advice, inspiration, and commiseration. My own process, with its ups and downs, has provided interesting opportunities for some introspection and exploration of what it takes for me, and others, to lose fat.

​

One thing I've been reflecting on, and thought might be helpful to share with others working on weight loss, is that, while losing weight IS simple - i.e. it appears that, barring medical anomalies, simply using more calories than one is taking in (CICO) is the "secret" to weight loss -- finding the right path towards losing weight can be quite challenging on an individual level due to our own somewhat unique and often complicated relationships with food, exercise, and our bodies. It seems to me that weight loss is as much a psychological process as it is a biological one. That's why, although the principals behind weight loss are quite straightforward and can easily make sense on a rational level, finding what works for any one person can be very hard due to our own personal needs and unconscious processes behind satiation.

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(This is where I share that my background is in mental health, not trained specifically in eating disorders or here to give any sort of medical or psychiatric advice, but offering some thoughts rooted in my training. Again, just thoughts, so take from it what you will!)

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Much like other aspects of our lives, our current relationship with food is often rooted in our societal, cultural, and familial upbringing and relationships. Our access to food, types of food we grew up eating, observations of our caregivers/family members' interactions with food and their bodies, messages we receive about "good vs bad" food and bodies - all of this informs how we relate to food. And, as we age, we take in all of these different observations and combine them with personal experiences to create our own food philosophy that we may not even be aware of. How much we eat, the types of food we eat, when we eat, how we feel about the foods we're eating (or not eating), our sense of satiation when eating, what we do when we're not eating - all of these are going to be individually based and often rooted in early life experiences. That's why weight loss really isn't a "one size fits all" process - because we all have different life experiences and internalized philosophies, and what works for one person may not work for another, even though it's all CICO at the heart of it.

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I think that's why it can be difficult and somewhat demoralizing when you may be struggling with weight loss and hear people's success stories with tips that often seem irrelevant (like cutting out soda if you were never a soda drinker to begin with) or not personally sustainable (such as OMAD, IF, veganism, keto, counting calories, etc) - it can start to feel like weight loss is for *other people* and maybe you're just destined to be the size you're at. Having witnessed so many different paths to success in this forum, and figuring out my own, I definitely don't believe that's true, however, I do think it takes some strong inner work. While many of us can consciously understand that if we eat less than we burn we will lose weight, that concept can be very challenging in action if we don't understand, and actually change, the mechanisms driving our current, ingrained issues with successful CICO. Truly knowing ourselves is one of the greatest things we can do for ourselves in all aspects of life, and this can be applied to figuring out what works for personal weight loss, as well.

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With this in mind, I'd like to encourage anyone who might be struggling with their weight loss and/or body image to spend some time reflecting on how your early life experiences and unconscious processes around food and exercise might be impacting your choices and contributing to your struggles. Coming to better understand this aspect of yourself may help you find the approach that works best for you, particularly because this forum really is brimming with helpful tips and methods to effective, sustainable weight loss - the "trick" is finding what will work for YOU based on your personal relationship with food and your body. I know for me, it has been very illuminating to explore my own personal issues with food (namely, scarcity complex, using food as a source of comfort, and family myths around certain foods) and use this information to make informed choices for myself around the foods I eat, portions I serve myself, and activity levels. Perhaps for you, there might be certain stressors that trigger binges or withholding, or certain foods that elicit memories (conscious or unconscious!) that make portion control challenging, or diet schedules that activate anxieties around deprivation - the psyche is a powerful force! There are a myriad of internal factors at play that, once brought to light, can be challenged and reconciled (or at least mitigated). Finding what works, while not necessarily easy all the time, will probably be far less painful than trying (and failing) over and over again.

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I know this isn't revolutionary, but I share it in hopes that it may help someone in their own process. May everyone find what works and may we all live happy, healthy lives to the best of our abilities :)

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

Weightloss prediction tool

It can be hard to tell the potential affects of choices we make in our weight loss journeys. There are a lot of tracking tools and a fair number of predictive tools that let you figure out what happens if you maintain the same calories and activity levels week after week. I was looking for a tool to see how my weight loss might progress if I changed my calorie intake as I lost weight. I also wanted to account for how my activity levels change between cold and warm weather. I couldn't find one, so I threw one together in Google Sheets.

Spreadsheet Here

It's pretty straight forward to use. Please forgive the mix of metric and imperial. You will need to use the "Share and Export" option to get an option to make a copy that you can edit.

It uses the Mifflin equation for BMR, feel free to change that up.

For myself, I've been playing around with adding in some columns to compare actual results to predicted. I'm still not 100% on what I want to see from that and how to format it, so it's not included in this basic spreadsheet.

One thing this has helped me with, every time I see someone post about how they eat 1200 calories a day, I think about whether I would lose faster if I did that. I updated all the average daily calories to 1200. And it would save me about 3 months towards my goal. But reaching my goal would still take over a year and I wouldn't be able to sustain 1200 calories, so I can go back to being happy for the people who found that works for them.

Another thing is that I get hella hungry as part of PMS and then after that week the cravings go away and it's easier to eat super healthy. With this tracker, I was able to put in having 200 extra calories a day each week I'm PMSing, and 100 calories under goal the following week. So, for example, if 2000 is baseline (hah! I wish), then during PMS I'd theoretically do 2200 calories and the next week, 1900. And that barely moved the predicted date for reaching my goal.

Anyway, hope you all find this helpful too!

(Note: repost because the automod bot got tetchy about the previous post being too short.)

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Her MLM is "better" than my CICO

A coworker and I started getting serious about our weight loss January 1st. Using CICO, I'm down 28.5lbs. I just started 16:8 IF this week too so I'm interested to see if it will help/hinder.

My coworker opted for an MLM (Keto Coffee) and is down 5lbs in the same timeframe. I've tried talking to her about switching to my approach (and also getting out of the pyramid) and she SCOFFED.

She said my scale must be wrong because it doesn't look like I've lost almost 30lbs and her method gives results.

I know she's being an idiot cause obviously the numbers prove otherwise but I'm just so darned flabbergasted.

Is it wrong that I can't wait to see what happens in 4 more months when I'm closer to goal (fingers crossed AT goal) and she's still the same weight or more? Does that make me a bad person?!

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