Starting....Again.....Hope to take advantage of the support from a like minded community

I've been lurking on Reddit for a while and finally decided to make an account a little while ago after finding this sub. Now I have finally mustered up the courage to make a post about my journey.

(Warning: humblebrag ahead)

I have always struggled with weight since a little kid. This caused issues between my father and I throughout my entire childhood/adolescence; he was always an athlete and cool kid in his youth and didn't know how to handle a son who was the exact opposite. In High School I was chubby but still fairly active riding my bike, playing basketball, and lifting weights. I started getting into powerlifting by my Sr. year in HS and got fairly strong, but not thin (look up powerlifters and you'll see what I'm talking about). Had just broken the 300lb barrier on bench and then had a bad ATV wreck that injured my left shoulder, which put a big damper on the benching. Afterwards I still tried keeping up with the lifting but that waned and completely stopped as I graduated HS and started college. Life got a little harder and busier, my eating habits have never been great and the newfound financial freedom of having my own job and money only exacerbated that fact. In HS I had stayed at about 230lbs at my heaviest and by the end of my first year in college I had broken 280lbs. I had gotten to the point where I had trouble walking up stairs and everything I did made my breathing heavy. Over that summer I decided that enough was enough.

I started trying to run and at first couldn't even get to the end of the block without giving up; I kept at it and to make my long story short, I lost 100lbs in a little less than a year. I went from 280lbs to 180lbs and from barely able to jog to the end of my block to running a full marathon. From there I kept the weight off and continued running and becoming ever more active. I started running faster, mountain biking, joined a crossfit gym for a bit and just overall became a pretty intense weekend warrior type. I was lighter and more fit than I had ever been in my life. Well....life happened and I lost my grandmother (the only grandparent that I had ever been close to) which started a whole slew of mental issues with myself. This all led to me getting lazy and making excuses so I started neglecting my physical activities and routines and kept telling myself that it was all due to increasing school workload and job responsibilities which caused me to slowly regress to my bad eating habits and sedentary lifestyle and then some.

About a decade after I started my weight loss journey I found myself tipping the scales at about 250lbs and climbing. By that point in my life I had graduated college, gotten married, had a kid and was working a full time job (I was busy). Then to top it off I had been laid off and struggled getting back on my feet, I was unemployed for over 1.5 years which only made me turn to food more. I gained another 30lbs and have been there for the past several years. My life is finally starting to come together to where I feel mentally able to handle the mental stress that changing one's lifestyle brings with it.

So, a couple of weeks ago I finally decided that I was going to try a little harder. I have started counting my calories, keeping myself under 2000 calories/day, and am down to just under 260lbs now. I hope to be able to share my experience and get motivated by reading about all your journeys and accomplishments.

TL;DR: Have always been fat, got fatter in college, got skinny and fit, life happened and got fat again, now trying to not be fat anymore....again.

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

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

Unsure of where to start when I need to lose 150-ish pounds.

I’m 5’10”, 300lbs, and 23F. I’ve always been overweight and have a very unhealthy relationship with food. I’m looking to fix that and lose weight to be healthy.

I know about MyFitnessPal and I’ve tried to use it, but I always run into trouble. There’s always so many options for the same foods with different calories and I’m very bad at measuring and guesstimating. I also have no clue what type of eating habits I should have. Keto, fasting, restricting calories, etc. I don’t know where to begin or what to try. I feel very overwhelmed by it.

As far as working out (though I do know most weight loss happens in the kitchen, I do have some fitness goals). My fitness goals are pretty basic to start, such as being able to walk longer/easier. I have a Fitbit to track steps. I want to do daily walks. I’m joining a gym next week, but I’m unsure of what exercises would be good for a beginner. I’m also going to have limited time in the gym for now (think 30-45 minutes daily).

Sorry for the wall of text, or formatting issues, I’m on mobile. But I really appreciate advice on fitness or eating!

submitted by /u/fitnesswannabe23
[link] [comments]

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

Coming out of lurking - vegan/IBS?

Stats: 27F, 5'1", at my highest I was 139lbs. I'm 126 ish now, was closer to 115-120 in college.

​

I've lurked here on and off over the past few years, especially a few years ago when I was creeping up towards 140 and caught the weight gain before it became a really serious issue. I was anxious and unhappy at my job then, and was eating WAY too much for how little I exercised. I had always been called "skinny" by my friends and felt good about my body...until a no-longer-a-friend told me I wasn't really hot anymore, at least compared to other women. Putting aside the BS of super athletic & super skinny = only way to be"hot", I realized there were a lot of things I wasn't happy about in my life, including how I felt in my body. I bought a Fitbit and a scale, tracked all my food, and started running and doing Fitstar workouts. I lost about 20 lbs within a few months and then kinda got off the wagon, so I'm back up at 126 and trying to just feel more healthy.

​

I know my weight loss isn't as much as maybe some other people on this thread, but some of what is said here feels very relevant. I have a hard time not eating too much, which between that and anxiety, causes some painful episodes of IBS. I am also trying to go mostly vegan so while I think CICO is the best way to lose weight (worked great for me before!), I'm trying to learn more about being vegan but also eating easily-digestible foods (again, the IBS thing, which also causes bloating and therefore makes me look bigger than I am on the scale) and getting enough protein. I really look forward to continuing to run and push myself cardio-wise, as I want to treat my heart better.

​

Thanks everyone for letting me lurk! If you have any suggestions for vegan/non-inflammatory things that are fun to cook (I'm a great cook-- makes it easy to overeat!), apps or workout schedules, etc. let me know!

submitted by /u/ketchuptime22
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2ZWaJj1

Well on my way, here's some things I've learned

M30 6’0” SW: 323 CW: 276 GW: 190 Week: 15 I think I’ve found a contribution for this sub that’s been so helpful. I’ve kept a journal for years and I want to share some interesting comparisons between my initial assumptions about the weight loss process, versus the lived reality. It might prove useful to others with similar preconceptions.

1. Loose Skin: This was a real boogieman for me. Also a blame shifted way to cop out. When I was considering weight loss a few years ago and started hearing about it I thought: “Well crap, plenty of people told me I’d be healthier if I stopped gaining weight but no one mentioned that the cosmetic damage would become irreversible except through prohibitively horrifying surgery! There’s not much point to losing weight if I can’t reap the social benefits of looking healthy.” Turns out loose skin is not a given. Granted I’m not yet to the point where I can confirm that unequivocally, because I’m only 1/3 of the way there and the square/cube law may yet rear it’s head, but as of now I’ve had excellent face, neck, upper arm and thigh losses as well as visible progress in the torso. There is nowhere on my body where I can pinch and pull away a flap like loose skin sufferers describe. Everything that is exposed while wearing a tank top is nearly as fat free as it’s going to get and looks good. I’ll be surprised if I don’t eventually have at least some looseness around the torso but it’s already clear that it’ll be nothing like as bad as I feared.

2. Time Cost: I assumed that between exercise, meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleanup I was going to lose all of my free time. And for the first week or two, when everything required a lot of consideration and trial and error, and I didn’t have the right tools, that was basically true. But once I’d established my staple meals, programmed them into my calorie counter, streamlined my kitchen, and created a fixed shopping list, the time cost of eating correctly dropped from several hours per day to about 40-50 minutes per day all inclusive. That’s still a big chunk out of a busy day, so I wasn’t entirely wrong to worry about it. I was right to clear my after work schedule for the first week, in order to pay the upfront learning curve costs. And I have had to simply cut back on my precious screen time (note the new Reddit account) to find the time to do so. But I haven’t had to restructure my whole life around this project, the way I thought I would. Partially that’s because the method I’m using treats exercise as a bonus, not a necessity, and partially because I’m not getting inventive with the cooking. I might do a write up on that as well if asked.

3. It can’t feel good: “Calorie excess feels good, calorie deficit must feel bad” Before I began, I understood that whatever methods one might use to loose weight they all ultimately amount to CICO. I’d never run a sustained calorie deficit in my life and I assumed, since the process of losing weight is caused by the same circumstances as starvation, that the former must feel like the latter. Less painful perhaps, but surely not painless, and no less constant. My notes at the time paraphrased: “I don’t think I could deal with being hungry all the time” But it turns out that hunger is the sensation of an empty stomach and it’s only as related to calorie intake as you let it be. When planning my staple meals (with the help of this forum) I considered fiber, calorie density, and bio-availability of those calories. not just Calorie In Calorie Out. CICO, while crucial, can be a trap if approached naively. It would let me eat whatever I wanted up to my daily limit, but might allow me to pack my budget into some super dense stuff that leaves the digestive system painfully empty.

4. Planning a diet around these additional considerations sounds complicated: That’s because it is. But that’s what established diets you can find on this forum are for, ultimately they are the relatively streamlined systems covering up raw CICO to help you avoid it’s pitfalls and analysis paralysis. I use a homebrew system but its results are very similar to some established low-meat diets you can find here. Ultimately whatever framework you use you just have to create a few meals with it, make sure they’re repeatable and voluminous enough to keep you filled, and then you can stop thinking about it.

5. Running a deficit must impact cognition: As far as cognition goes I haven’t noticed a difference, not the improvement described by some testimonials and not the fuzzy sluggishness described by others. I suspect that the energy supply to the brain is not throttled significantly or at all prior to the unleashing of fat reserves and that the impairment experienced by some dieters has more to do with other factors like deficiencies in specific micro nutrients, falling short of the minimum safe daily intake, or the distracting sensation of hunger brought on by compensating for an overly calorie dense food selection.

6. Food waste is a problem when cooking for yourself: I thought I was speaking from experience with this one since I’d made attempts to cook in years past and wasted all kinds of food. But once I had a limited set of staples that I became practiced at making, and that I cooked at scheduled times my food waste quickly dropped to zero. The trick is routine.

Hopefully some of you find a few of these useful. Good luck in your own efforts.

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

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2DLeSx2

The books that helped your weight loss journey

I want to hear about the books that supported your journey! I have three that made a real difference ...

• The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler (2009) is the book that ripped the blinders off my eyes about restaurants and the food industry. I had a vague idea that restaurants used lots of butter and salt to make things tasty, but I didn't realize the extent. When 'an industry source' explained to him that the foods are processed to 'minimize chewing ... so customers don't have to work so hard ... it's like adult baby food", a switch was thrown in my brain. I mostly eat at home now. :)
• The Secret Life of Fat by Sylvia Tara (2016) is the story of a PhD biochemist who decides to tackle her own fat. Intespersed with personal stories, this book explored all aspects of fat, including the rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from storing fat: "her blood had the consistency of cream" is the phrase that stuck with me, and after reading this book I felt a real shift in my attitude towards my body & fat, I totally stopped using words like 'fight' and 'battle', even internally. I appreciated that I COULD store fat, having contemplated the alternative. My body was acting exactly how it was supposed to, based on the inputs I was giving it, and if I wanted it to respond differently, I needed to change the input.
• Books by Joel Fuhrman. Even though I do not attempt to follow his diet 100% (I eat more animal protein than he recommends, mostly because I have a long list of food sensitivities that mean I can't eat some of his most recommended foods), his books reset my barometer for what a 'healthy' food was. At the time I'd been spending way too much time & money following fancy new health foods (maca powder! goji berries! pomegranate juice!). They are healthy (ish) ... but so is cabbage. And carrots. And all the other delicious foods that were right under my nose and readily available at my supermarket. He busted some of my concerns about modern fruits & veg not being grown in nutritious soils and that you're still better off buying the vegetable even if it's not organic ... some issues that watching too many documentaries about food had me spinning in circles.

submitted by /u/nsa_7878
[link] [comments]

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

Strategies for better sleep

Among all the responsibilities we have in a given day, sleep tends to be the first thing we put on the chopping block. The ironic part is that while it’s the first thing we opt to give up, it’s one of the most nourishing things we can do for our bodies. Getting enough quality sleep may not be possible every single night, but if gone unchecked for too long, inadequate sleep can compound into a variety of immediate and long-term health problems. 

from Life Time Weight Loss Blog http://bit.ly/2PH5AGW

I (30F) am overweight (192lbs, 5’1”). This is the heaviest I’ve ever been. Recently went through a breakup and am struggling with eating / exercising / overall wounded ego and self esteem

I realize there so much going on here besides being overweight— but one of the things I want to work on is to be healthy. I know my current weight isn’t healthy because my body feels this. I love myself and know that I won’t allow myself to continue gaining weight due to a lack of self care.

When I was with my ex we’d order fast food a lot because he doesn’t know how to cook, didn’t express interest in cooking despite my many offers to help him learn. I love to cook, but I went down a depressive spiral because of work and strained relationship

Recent breakup left me feeling undesirable. No sex since December, before that it was scarce. No matter the times I asked if it was bc of my weight, his answer was always no...that it was his lack of confidence and self esteem.

I went to the doc this week and she is encouraging me get back on my feet and exercise bc 1) it helps reduce pain (I have fibromyalgia), 2) endorphins, workouts can help me feel better, 3) healthy for weight loss

I feel so lost. I know what I have to do but it feels insurmountable. Knowing what to do is one thing. How to do it is the challenge.

Nutrition: I waver between going vegan, gluten free, or just eat anything but follow CICO

Workout: any little activity tires me! My body isn’t as strong and resilient as it was 3 yrs ago [i used to run half marathon! Dance 5-6 days a week. Yoga everyday]. I struggle so much to just get myself OUTSIDE. :(

If you’ve been in a similar circumstance (breakup, depression, overweight), what helped you get into the habit of working out and making healthy food choices?

Thanks for the read. 🙏🏽

submitted by /u/L48-87N
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2ZUa9T1