Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Saturday, 03 August 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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Be kind to yourself while dieting.

Hating myself began long before I began trying to diet. In middle school, I was acutely aware of not only the fact I was overweight, but additionally every other perceived flaw both my body and personality held. I used food as a coping mechanism to manage untreated depression, which caused further frustration in my inability to lose weight – one failing on the long laundry list I held against myself.

It was only when I entered high school was I able to understand the connection between caloric intake and my weight, which only added another layer to my self-loathing. There were now concrete numbers to document my failings on the daily, which led to cyclical self-harming behavior (binge eating -> attempting to ‘fast’ to compensate for my mistake -> binging again). There was no sense of sustainability with my actions, there was only the present failures and immediate attempts to ‘fix’ those mistakes.

After struggling with depression for nearly a decade, I finally received help in the form of a 40mg dose of Prozac this past April. It, quite honestly, was like a switch flipped in my brain. Suddenly, dieting and counting calories held the same tedium as brushing my teeth every day. The binging stopped, and more importantly, I had the capacity to plan out what I was going to eat every day in order to stay satiated throughout the day.

(Note: When I say planning, I mean in the most basic capacity. I open MFP for less than 5 minutes, enter in what sounds good [carb-heavy breakfast like oatmeal / smoothie generally, protein heavier lunch and dinner] out of the food in my house, and just follow that throughout the day. The only exception is when I don’t feel like going to the effort of making certain foods [like I ended up eating microwaved dumplings instead of a smoothie last night, because I didn’t feel like dealing with a blender lmao], then I swap foods out within my caloric range. I tend to eat my meals within 300-500 calories, and kind of think of it like food tetris, fitting in what I want.)

The point of sharing this, I think, is because I spent a very long time aware that I had a problem far larger than simply over-indulging. My highest weight was 285lbs at 5’5. I still have a long way to go, but I weigh 244lbs today. My obesity was severe enough that I needed an entire lifestyle change in order to begin losing weight successfully.

However, that lifestyle change manifested in the form of getting help for a problem that was the root of my binge eating behaviors and weight gain. If I hadn’t received that help, then I would continue fighting an uphill battle against myself with no success.

I think, getting help for my mental illness was far more difficult than counting calories is. The short of it is, if you know you have a problem, stop letting that problem beat you up via your attempt to lose weight. This process of weight loss should not be agonizing, or an exercise in daily emotional self-harm.

Just like you teach yourself healthy habits through the daily practice of changing your eating habits, you ought to examine if you’re been overly unkind or self-critical to yourself so you can practice healthy mental health habits.

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The best worst day ever

Hey everyone i’ve never actually posted on this subreddit and i’m on mobile so i’ll try to make this short and sweet.

The purpose of this post is not to tell my story but to try and highlight this specific day

First a small background, I am a 25 year old male who is on an ongoing weight loss journey. All of high-school I was on the wrestling team and in the off season I would join any other sport I could get into, weighing in at about 180 pounds. Fast forward 7 years, a restaurant job, and a toxic relationship and I find myself at 272 pounds.

After dieting for two months with very few cheat meals, a good amount of exercise, and personal struggles with binge eating I find myself weighing in at 245 pounds.

The reason I titled this post “the best worst day ever” is because today was my sisters gender reveal. On top of finding out that I’m going to have a nephew, my sisters boyfriend also decided to propose. Now mixed in with all the good news and the excitement was a lot of food, and I think you know where this is going. Its like the excitement made me completely forget about my “new lifestyle” and I took full advantage of it. I ate pretty much everything I could get my hands on. Meatballs, cake pops, and everything in between, including alcohol.

I just want to say to everyone struggling with binge eating, including myself, that it isn’t the end of the world. This is just part of the journey, a small bump down the road that needs to be overcome. I plan on waking up tomorrow and continuing my “new lifestyle”. this is part of the learning process and I shouldn’t let the best day of my life so far be ruined by my old demons.

Good night and sorry for the long rant.

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My brain has not caught up with my weight loss and how my body looks now

I ordered this tee online yesterday and got size S. I was confused between an S or an M as the size differs from brand to brand for me, but I got an S, hoping to fit into it. I received the tee today and when I opened the package, I thought "Holy shit, this is way too small and I don't think I'm going to fit into this at all." However, I tried it on and it actually fit extremely well! I sent my mom a picture and she appreciated how it looked as well. Just a small victory, but made me feel so good. Whenever I shop, I tend to think that one particular size will be too small for me, but usually have to go back and get the smaller size after the bigger one does not fit well. This has happened so many times. I don't know when my brain will connect to the fact that my body has become much smaller now. 🙈

I've been eating healthy and working out regularly (cardio+strength training). I'm 7 kgs away from my goal weight and hope to reach there soon!

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233.3

This is my very first post on reddit. This group is full of such inspiration I figured I'd share my story in hopes of maybe inspiring just one other person to start down their road to a healthier version of themself.

I still remember the day. I was working in a retail store. I was somewhere between 19 and 20 years old. It was one of those stores that kinda carried everything (think bed bath and beyond...but it wasn't bed bath and beyond). Anyway, we just got a shipment in. Lots of new little things that no one needs but everything was pretty cheap so I always took a look through new inventory. A fancy looking glass scale caught my eye. I bought it, and unpacked it as soon as I got home. I fired it up and stepped on. After a few seconds, there it was. 233.3lbs. I was in shock. I stood silent, not even breathing, for what felt like an eternity. It would be years before I ever dared step on a scale again.

Don't get me wrong, I've always been big as far back as I can remember. But I somehow went from being a cute 5 year old with "baby fat" and chubby cheeks to a man, well into the obese range of BMI. I don't think I ever used that scale again. I shoved it under the bed and never looked back. I spent the next decade (I can't believe it's been so long) trying (and failing) to lose weight. I'd not care for 6 months to a year and say "fuck it! My entire family is fat, what's one more??" then I'd go to being concerned about every ache and pain I'd feel in my body. Heavy breathing, random headaches, etc. And physically, my fat loved to hang around my mid section and my chest. Nothing kills your confidence at this age quite like a pot belly and man boobs. I remember all the years I spent walking around in super baggy shirts and hunched over because I was so sure it would make my boobs less noticeable. Looking back on photos...it didn't.

Fast forward to roughly 5 years ago, I ended up getting a job at a local gym. I wasn't doing anything physical for my job but I did get a free gym membership there (I like free!). One day when I was leaving the gym, I was walking by the cardio area (I had been there for months at that point and hadn't done a single bit of exercise at all) and I thought to myself "hell, I'm here several days a week...why not just hop on an elliptical one day and see what happens.

That following week on my day off, I decided to go try an elliptical. Y'all, I was TERRIFIED. Looking back, I'm surprised I even went through with it. There I was in my too big shorts and my too big shirt trying to figure out how an elliptical works while hoping no one was looking at me while also trying not to sweat so that my shirt wouldn't start sticking to my body because HELLO, MAN BOOBS!

​

That day changed my life.

​

For the next several months, all I did was 15-20 minutes on an elliptical 3-4 times a week. And back then, that was me pushing myself to the freaking limit! I remember the first day I was able to stay on the elliptical for 30 minutes, I was so excited I went home and had an entire box of pop-tarts (I never said my story was a perfect one ^_^). It was probably close to a year before I dared to go to the weight room (in my head I referred to this area as the "bro section").

As I sit here typing this, I'm roughly around 145lbs and training for a marathon. The other day in the gym, a guy stopped me that I don't ever recall seeing before. He said "I've seen you doing so much work here over the last few years and your progress is amazing. I just wanted to let you know, you're looking awesome." I've been complimented on my weight loss before, but this little exchange had me on cloud 9. If this guy noticed me (someone who seemed to be much fitter than I am now, btw) I'm hoping that maybe one other person there noticed me and used me as their motivation to stay on the elliptical for just one more minute or do just one more squat.

​

TL;DR: 233.3lbs -> 145lbs natural weight loss over ~ 4-5 years.

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6.7kgs down in a month, I feel like I’m finally on track.

I’ve posted about my journey here before, I lost 20kgs at one point in time and was proud of what I had achieved. I then met my girlfriend and we have been together for over two years. In this space of time, I let myself get comfortable and ended up putting this weight all back on and more. I felt like an embarrassment.

Throughout our relationship, I attempted to lose this weight multiple times but would ultimately fail after a couple of weeks. It wasn’t until one night my girlfriend told me she had become less attracted to me that I needed to change (I also posted about this before if you want to look back at my previous posts).

On the 8th July, I began my journey to once and for all lose this weight which has had a huge impact on my life. There was no room for failure this time. I started off at 138.1kg (I am 187cm tall, 21 years old). It’s now been just under a month since I began, and I am pleased to say I have dropped to 131.4kg. A drop of 6.7kgs. I finally feel like I’m in routine. I had my first cheat meal last week and it felt fantastic. I think I might treat myself to one every week or two and see how that goes.

As for what I do, it’s quite simple. I go to the gym 4 times a week, do 30 mins of cardio, 30 mins of strengthening exercises. I also play indoor sports twice a week at a moderate-high intensity. My diet consists mainly of a weight loss shake twice a day, and for lunch and dinner usually some sort of fish or meat with vegetables or salad. My partner and I like to keep it simple and so far it has worked a treat. I only drink water and milk. For snacks I like to munch on unsalted cashews or some fruit.

This is just something I wanted to get off my chest. I am super proud of myself but I know I have a long way to go. My end goal is to get back to where I was which was under 100kg, and I know once I reach this stage, I will need to make sure I maintain that weight and be very careful to not put it back on. Feel free to ask any questions, I’m happy to answer 🙂

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Probably the dumbest rant you'll read all day

I know this is really stupid but I've been busting my ass for several weeks now counting calories, and I'm currently down about 19 lbs. A few days ago (maybe 4-5) I was having a hard time and rather than just give up completely and stop counting calories like I was really tempted to do, I ate at maintenance for two days. My view was that I'd been doing really well for weeks and weeks and I was feeling really deprived and I was worried I would just give up and quit like so many times before.

So anyway ever since then my weight has been up 3 lbs or so and I know it's really stupid, dumber than crying over spilt milk, but it's just super freaking frustrating that I can count calories and do everything right to aggressively lose weight, and then when I do something that is supposed to keep me static and not change my weight at all I gain weight that is staying stubborn.

I thought it was just water weight (I mean I did eat more food than usual) but it's been nearly a week now and I've seen little change. It seems like it's going to take me a week and a half or two weeks to "lose" weight that mathematically/calorically I shouldn't have gained at all.

I'm super frustrated and weight loss is freaking hard. If it wasn't so hard a lot more people would do it, I'm convinced.

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