I keep fantasizing about starting my health journey but continue to make excuses. Anyone else struggling?

I am 5’4” and probably 240-250lbs. I honestly haven’t been on a scale in quite awhile. I’ve tried every diet under the sun. No carb, weight watchers, keto, cleanses, pills, you name it I’ve tried it! I always manage to take off roughly 10lbs and then gain the same 10lbs (and probably more) back when I’ve given up. In college I lost maybe 50lbs but ended up hospitalized due to ephedrine use. Good times. I’ve been large my entire life, even as a youth. Food has always been a struggle and was a love language for my family. Unraveling these habits is hard.

Summer is coming, I work a FT job and sing PT at a church and have two little children (4,7) so life is hectic and I find it taxing to figure a fitness routine which fits my schedule. However, with church singing season coming to a close, I think I am getting ready to finally take a leap and focus on my health. Notice I say health and not weight. I am trying to decouple these two things.

The psychology of obesity is unbelievable and I don’t think ever truly discussed. It’s torturous to be obsessive. It really sometimes feels like OCD. Maybe more like what any addict does but it’s socialized and literally available everywhere and something we observe relentlessly with others. Tired of the “always start on a Monday” mentality. Perfection or fuck it let’s binge eat. Holding myself to relentless standards which are impossible to meet. I want to work more on the positive, accepting, prideful side of things instead of all the bad feelings.

I just want this obsession to stop, you know? The obsession of letting my weight or the worry of my weight impacting my daily life. I worry about becoming obsessed with the minutia of weight loss efforts. I don’t want it to consume my daily life. So I just never start?

I am a confident and beautiful woman. I don’t hate myself for my size. I’m just tired of the constant thoughts of bettering myself and being disappointed in my own refusal to invest in myself.

I am excited and cautiously optimistic that maybe this venting post will help me stop making every excuse in the world for why it’s not time to begin.

Thanks for letting me vent.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2QDfs5i

Someone please help me understand what's going on.

I'll try to make this short. I'm M/5'10"/228/44 years old. Basically started my weight loss journey 3 months ago. I eat around 1,500 kcal a day, I don't drink during the week, and I do an hour of CrossFit 4 days a week. It took a while to start losing weight and I know that was due to the muscle I was putting on, but I'm finally starting to see quite a bit of loss; 10lbs in the last two weeks.

Here is what I don't understand:

When I exercise and eat right, I see slow weight loss, sometimes I even gain a pound from day to day. Last night (and this is just one example because I've done this before) I skipped my workout and went to an outdoor concert. I didn't really eat garbage, just two chicken salad sandwiches, grapes, a pear, and about 200 cal of funyuns. I also drank 6 or 7 beers. I woke up this morning pretty sure that I had gained due to no exercise and beer, but instead, I lost 2lbs.

Why? This has happened before as well. What's happening when I take a day off from working out and don't eat right during the week?

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/30WYMKB

6 Things to Do on Friday for a Weekend of Weight Loss

It’s Friday! Congratulations. On this day of celebration, the last thing you probably want to think about is talking about weight loss—you’ve worked all week and want to cut loose! While you should relax, know that the weekends can be a results-crusher after a week of great weight loss work: Studies have shown that dieters eat more extra calories on Saturdays than any other day and why, according to a study, people usually weigh in heaviest on Monday mornings—they’ve just finished a two-day binge. The solution? A weekend weight loss plan!

It doesn’t have to be all plates of carrots and drudgery, though.

A Weight Loss Tip for Every Day of the Week

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Follow these six tips on Friday to set yourself up for weekend weight loss:

1. Start the day with a protein-rich breakfast.

Fridays can be full of temptations: Coworkers bring in baked treats, a cool manager might order pizza for the office or people might invite you to an extended lunch. You’ve only got so much willpower: Eating protein in the a.m. can make it go farther: Protein takes longer for your body to digest, so it stays in your system, making you feel fuller, longer, than a fast-acting carb breakfast. That’s probably why, in a 2013 study, overweight people who ate breakfast with 35 grams of protein ate fewer high-fat, high-sugar snacks in the evening compared with those who ate cereal or no breakfast at all. If you’re on the Nutrisystem program, you’re in luck: All of our meals and snacks are prepared with the best balance of protein, carbs and fats. So dive right in to one of our morning meals (and feel free to add one of your PowerFuel allotments with the meal for an added protein boost if you’d like!).

Click here to find weight loss-friendly, high-protein breakfasts to start your day right >

2. Hold off until Happy Hour.

Once you’ve got a good plan, the key to weekend weight loss success is compliance. But nobody’s perfect: That’s why many coaches and diets aim for an 85 to 90 percent compliance rate for success. So if you’re on-plan that percentage of the time, you increase your chances of seeing results. If you’ve got 21 meals per week, an 85-percent success rate is about 18 on-plan meals each week. So don’t use up all your splurges on Friday with a big, lavish lunch and trips to the vending machine, or else you won’t have any wiggle room for the weekend. Besides, Saturday is best for splurges: Studies have shown that’s the day dieters consume the most extra calories.

How to Have a Healthier Happy Hour

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So on Friday, hold off until Happy Hour. Eat your normal meals on your plan, eating healthy snacks that you’ve planned for and enjoy a celebratory treat that evening as you remember the week’s success.

3. Gameplan: Look at Saturday’s menu now.

If you’re headed out to dinner Saturday, look at the menu for the restaurant online on Friday. If your Saturday meal isn’t planned as a cheat, look for options that will fit in with your weight loss goals, with lean protein, lots of veggies and in reasonable portions. If the restaurant’s a chain, you can probably even find calorie counts listed online for more precision in your decision.

If Saturday’s meal is a cheat, look at reviews: If you’re going to have your splurge, make sure what you’re ordering is going to be good. And once you’re there, even if it is your splurge, stick to a reasonable portion: Consult this Eating Out Guide to make sure you are sticking to your weekend weight loss plan no matter where you go out to eat.

Click on the link below to see the full Eating Out Guide with tips on how to eat at every type of restaurant you might go to this weekend!

The Nutrisystem Dining Out Guide

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4. Chop it up.

If you’re going to be spending some weekend time at home curled up watching movies or yelling at a football game with friends, be prepared: Spend a few minutes this morning cutting up vegetables and fruits into bite-size pieces in snack-sized containers to stock the fridge. Then, when it’s TV time—or just when you get snackish—there will be healthy options that are as easy to grab as any bag of junk. And the act of cutting them could be helpful overall: In a study from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, more time spent on food prep was associated with healthier eating habits—like eating more fruits and veggies—and with saving money on food. How’s that for some weekend weight loss?

If fruits and vegetables just won’t do, try one of these 20 delicious, weight loss-friendly snack options >

5. Plan a longer workout for the weekend.

Come on, you’ve got the time and it doesn’t have to be a slog. Become a tourist in your own hometown: Look on sites like TripAdvisor for high-rated hikes, walks and parks you haven’t visited before and grab a friend or reconnect with your spouse over a longer walk than you’d normally do during the week. The walk will also help you create and retain new memories—literally: In a nine-year study, those who walked six to nine miles per week lowered their risk of developing memory loss by half compared to those who walked less. The study, published in a 2010 issue of the journal Neurology, found that the walkers had more gray matter in their brains.

10 Reasons to Go For a Walk Today

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6. Set your Saturday alarm for the normal time.

You may be tempted to sleep in, but shifting your wake-up time significantly can shift your sleep cycle—leading to worse sleep all week. A study of 2,700 high school students found that weekend sleep shifts left them “jet lagged” when they got to school on Monday, affecting their performance and weekly sleep schedule. Also, losing sleep can cause weight gain: Losing as little as 30 minutes of sleep every weekday can result in weight gain and have significant effects on insulin resistance, increasing your risk for Type 2 diabetes.

So set your Saturday alarm for the normal time: You might need an extra cup of coffee, but you’ll sleep better when the weekdays roll back around—and be better rested to stay on the weight loss path.

Sleep Better Tonight to Lose Weight Tomorrow

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The post 6 Things to Do on Friday for a Weekend of Weight Loss appeared first on The Leaf.

from The Leaf http://bit.ly/2HMLI35

Plateauing already!?

30F, SW -270, CW-256, GW-150

I’m frustrated again today because I’ve been plateauing for the last month. I started my weight loss in March, and for March and April, it was coming off pretty quickly! I was pretty consistently losing 1.5-2lbs per week! Then came May.

For the last month, I have been losing and regaining the same 2lbs every week. To say I am frustrated is putting it mildly. It feels so early to be plateauing and really makes me feel like I just can’t do this.

I’m fairly strict about sticking to my calorie budget (1400 a day), and within the last 2 weeks I’ve added going to the gym 3 times a week where I do 30 minutes of light cardio to warm up, and 30 minutes on weight machines.

Any advice on what I can do to kickstart out of this plateau?? I feel like I’m doing everything by the book but my body has just given up.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2wsYn4B

Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Friday, 31 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.

• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!
• Loseit Compendium - Frame it out!
• FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2wvP1oC

Re-starting in a whole new direction

So after dabbling in protein shakes, IF, IE and a few other diets in between for a really long time (~12 years) it has finally and clearly dawned on me that my enemies all along have been:

1. Lack of knowledge of portions and caloric content of meals
2. Lack of nutritious diet (There were days when cheese popcorn was dinner)
3. Overdoing on restriction.

I started a couple of weeks ago, and decided to opt only for smaller portions (eg. regular cup of latte instead of the large), always eat on time, always eat three meals, and to not eat at a fast food outlet. The first few days I saw no improvement, but 2 weeks later I am down 2kgs, thank God!

I started at 91.7kg (202lbs) and I know from past experience that I can go down to 87kg (191 lbs) easily, but I struggled to go below that because I always plateau at that weight. I had put off re-starting weight loss because I wasn't sure what to do after I hit that plateau. Now I have just told myself that I will worry about it when I get there, but I have some doubts - - what if I am never able to go below that plateau?

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2VZ4kkd

16 (male) who's looking for a change jn his life

Hey r/loseit I'm a 16 year old male who after careful consideration, years of absue both done by myself and others and new found motivation and determination want to begin my weight loss journey. I currently weigh in at an embarrassing 190 pounds (I know that isn't as large as others on this subreddit but I still want to change) and I am 5 foot 10 tall. Talking about my weight has always been embarrassing but with recent events I'm determined to chmage. I've lost 6 pounds in the past 2 weeks due to a 20:4 fast and trying to consume 1500 calories but I don't think this is all healthy for me. Any advice is appreciated in my journey and I'd love to keep you all updated . Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoy your day!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2HLWkz5