Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Faster weight loss with pcos; a desperate plea

Hi everyone,

I’m in my early 30’s, 5’4, about 180 lbs. I’ve been as heavy as 216, and since reaching adulthood, as light as 140. I’m getting married in August. I just want to lose 20 lbs before then. I’ve been using Noom and my fitness pal, I’ve been eating low carb and low sugar, I’ve been eating about a thousand calories a day—weekdays are a protein shake for breakfast and lunch, two handfuls of nuts and two green apples as snacks, chicken breast with feta cheese and cucumber and tomatoes for dinner or ground chicken breast with curry powder, siracha, and tablespoon of pb2 served over spinach, a little sugar free dark chocolate for dessert and a glass or red wine if I have the calorie budget. I do about 20 minutes of weights and 35 minutes of elliptical on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, the same with an hour of elliptical on Friday and Saturday. On weekends I let myself eat about 1500 calories, which is usually a huge bowl of oatmeal, a big salad, some cheese and cold cuts, and a small portion of a full-fat dessert.

My weight loss is just... so slow. I’ve only lost about twelve lbs in four months. I just went on vacation and let myself drink too much alcohol and eat and despite walking 8-12 miles daily, I can tell I’ve gained weight and I spent my morning crying because I feel like I look like a disgusting ogre in every photo I’m in. I want to make it clear that I see other fat women who look gorgeous and sexy. I dress well and flamboyantly but I am not a very attractive woman and being fat accentuates that. I know beauty isn’t everything, but I have liked the way I’ve looked before. I am terrified of my wedding photos being hideous and I’m just under three months away.

I have PCOS and take 100 mg of metformin a day. I generally have low blood pressure and am not at risk for diabetes so doctors won’t let me take more. I have a history of disordered eating and spent my teen years eating mostly heads of iceberg lettuce and black coffee.

I need help. Nothing seems to work now. I live in a Baltic country as a teacher (I’m American) and doctors say I just need to eat less and exercise more and there aren’t really nutritionists I can consult. I don’t know how else I can cut corners— I teach and my job is demanding and exhausting and I literally collapse into bed every night after forcing myself to work out.

Can anyone with PCOS help me set up with a plan that worked for them? I just feel so hopeless and sad right now. My only hope wedding-wise is that my best friend is making my dress and it’s a simple enough design that she can do it in a matter of days so I can cover my arms if needed, but I just hate seeing myself right now. Please help.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Wednesday, 01 May 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.

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Weight loss - Food craving help!

Current situation: 26F - 76kg - 1.7m - trying to loose body fat and build lean muscle. Currently lost 5.4kg in 10 weeks. I'm working out every other day - for 10 weeks now. First 30 mins of the workout is cardio on the Cross Trainer, followed by 45-60 mins of weights. This is a mixture of body weight, resistance band and free weight exercises with cast iron dumbbells and barbells. This is our home gym set up, we have a good selection of weights and I am really enjoying my workouts, I have enough variety at the moment to keep it fun and interesting and I've already increased my lift weight within this first 10 weeks. We (me and my partner) also fit in some boxing pad work with each other on a weekend for an extra 30mins cardio.

This is going to be our new lifestyle, I plan on keeping this up, working out every other day, with a healthy amount of cardio and weights. We plan to eat well and still allow ourselves treats in moderation, this is not a diet or temporary plan and we still want to enjoy our treat foods. I feel that once i am happy with my body, I can find a good balance of workouts and food so I can enjoy myself and maintain my body shape. It will be a good balance to allow me to enjoy my fitness as well as my other hobbies and interests.

However, food... food is my weakness! I'm happy with my breakfast, I'm not a big eater in the morning but I make sure i have something high in protein to start the day off, even if its just a protein shake. I'm happy with my Dinner (Lunch), i take this to work and stick to it well, perhaps on the weekends we have something a little different or the odd treat, but we still manage to keep it nutritious and within reason. Tea (Evening meal) however, is a nightmare. We meal plan our evening meal each week, making a list, buying the ingredients or meals and assign them to a day... but i'm terrible for ignoring that and just eating something bad!

It's such a weakness that i come home from work after a good day of eating, and order a pizza or pick up something bad from the supermarket. I instantly feel the regret, especially as i can see my progress slowly starting to show, and then I've just set myself back with one stupid meal. And the cost, I instantly think that the £20 i just spent on junk food could have been saved or go towards new workout gear i need, such as weight gloves and resistance bands. I know it's wrong and I feel it instantly, but I can't seem to get a grip and curb these cravings.

I manage to curb some, some days i want to just skip a workout, turn the Xbox on and order takeout, but i manage to get a grip, take our pre-workout, and smash a great training session. After I feel great and know I made the right choice, but other days I just can't get to grips with it. Fitness folk of Reddit, please help! Any suggestions or ideas on how to fight these cravings permanently is much appreciated! Thank you

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2GLs2L8
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Quick-fire Quiz?

Happy Wednesday supportive munchkins! I really enjoy when someone posts a question about people’s weight loss experience, and reading all the funny replies. So drum roll please:

  1. What’s been your most surprising NSV?
  2. What’s been your happiest NSV?
  3. What food is your ‘most dangerous food’?
  4. What food are you loving because it’s low-cal and tasty?
  5. What keeps you going when times get rough? (A mantra, an outlook, because you don’t want to go back to not being able to run for the bus)
  6. What are you looking forward to?

For me: 1. Finding bones (don’t make your own jokes!). My wrists and collarbone are back! 2. Happiest NSV is a change of outlook to being like WHEN can I get this weight loss done, not CAN I. 💪 3. Popcorn. It’s a low cal and fab snack but I eat a whole bag of it and my days suddenly wrecked.
4. Sweetcorn which I never had before! Okay I’m putting enough salt on for an insta-heart arrack but baby steps. 5. So when I have a bad day and indulge it’s ‘it’s a marathon, not a race’ and ‘you’re undoing a lifetime of bad habits you are going to slip up/it will take time.’ When I have a really bad day and want to quit I remember being worried about fitting in airplane seats. I also think ‘if I quit, what’s the alternative?’ I go back to my old eating habits and gain ten stone? Nah 6. I’m looking forward to losing 50lbs and being halfway to my goal AND to being able to go and have that warm feeling of smaller clothes!

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Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Couldn't tell I lost 10lbs while maintaining. What I found out about stubborn fat and the importance of nutrition while building muscle.

Hopefully my story will be helpful to people trying to get rid of those stubborn areas of fat and look great for the summer.

30 year old 6'1" male here. Started losing weight July 2018 by eliminating sugar and starch from my diet and only eating in the evening. Went from ~230lbs to 190s by December, when I added in a bit of gentle strength training at the gym (gentle due to bad back from sport back in the day). By February I was easily around my goal weight in the high 170s and stopped being quite so careful with what I ate nor bothering to get on the scale. Sugar and starch make me feel gross now so I figured maintaining would be pretty easy, and I had no problems continuing with the same foodtypes as before.

Just by what I saw in the mirror and the fit of my clothes I assumed I was maintaining over the next month or two. So I was shocked when I hopped on the scale again and saw the counterweights reading dead on 167lbs. [For reference BMI for me gives 140-189 as the healthy range]. Apparently I had gone down another 5-10lbs without realizing!

I'm not one to put much stock into what the scale reads. I had lost weight to get back my energy, be able to move around easier, and of course look good. I'd definitely been reaping the benefits of the first two, and I couldn't really complain about the latter either (at least when wearing clothes). In the mirror shirtless though I still had a jiggly belly and flabby chest. It seemed like no more than a couple pounds worth of fat and I had thought it was fine to carry it and it would slowly firm up as I toned up underneath. Yet this hadn't happened. Not only had I been going to the gym for months now, but I had lost 10lbs while at a healthy weight without noticing any reduction in the pudgy areas of my body.

So here I am thinking about ways forward in the beginning of April. I had clearly still been eating at a deficit while trying to maintain as evidenced by the continued weight loss. My strength and endurance had continually improved so I must have built some muscle, but it hadn't been enough mass to offset loses. I figured I could keep losing and see if those bits of fat eventually melted off, or take the fitness focused approach and bulk (eat above maintenance to help build muscle) before cutting (eating at a deficit) back down. I went with the eat more method and upped my nutrition game.

I haven't noticed much improvement with respect to gains in the gym nor recovery (though maybe I'm just not lifting heavy enough for back fears to realize them), but over the last 3 weeks I've gained three pounds and already my chest and belly are much firmer and look so much better! I know the squishy bits are probably still hiding spread out over the top, but the muscle underneath gives it a way better look and muscle definition is not a priority of mine.

I guess the moral of the story is you might want to address stubborn flabby bits by building muscle instead of losing fat, indeed it might be the only solution. And when you are trying to build muscle don't ignore complete nutrition. Apparently muscle can get stronger without getting larger, but it is larger muscles that helps smooth and tone the look of the body.

Kick ass on your own journeys and here's to feeling good and looking good!

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In the past 4 months I’ve adopted a plant based diet, started Orangetheory and Corepower yoga and got a personal trainer and also a nutritionist and a therapist. I’m also back hiking ~7 miles a couple times a week. Feeling better.

I’m 28 yrs 5’8”f and started maybe around 205-210 lbs. I didn’t realize my weight had gotten that high! I had been through a terrible break up, med school and intense internship. I finally got a real job and I have decided to invest in health, fitness and weight loss. I am feeling so much better, happier and light. My weight is down to 182 lbs this morning. I’m feeling more confident and much better. I do feel that my weight loss is slow, I’m not counting calories but I’ve instilled mindful sustainable eating practices per my nutritionist/wellness coach. This is the time for me to get myself into a good place. My body has changed and I’ve toned up and lightened up. I recently finally felt in a good place to give my goal weight to my nutritionist. It’s 145-150 lbs. I just hope I can get there. Anyone like me out there???

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[Daily Directory] Find your quests for the day here! - Wednesday, 01 May 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.

Interested in some side quests?

Community bulletin board!

If you are new to the sub, click here for our posting guidelines

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