Got my first "are you losing weight?" at work today!

I started in April 2019 at 370lbs. I'm a 28F, 5'10" and I carry it pretty well. I'm not sure most people would know I was over 300 pounds, hopefully I'm not just being delusional.

I've been doing CICO and just trying to hit my step goal everyday. No extra exercise, no workout routines, just CICO mainly. My current calorie goal is 1790 and that changes as the weight comes off. I've been overweight my entire life, but I also played three sports every year throughout school. I have a soft goal set of getting down to 160-170 by my 30th birthday, which is March 2021.

Today a friend came to visit me at work. We work in the same building, just in different departments. I haven't had a single comment on my weight loss, and have been mildly frustrated because I feel like I don't look THAT much different. I am down 62.7 pounds as of this morning and the only people who have commented on my weight loss are my mom, and a couple close friends who are going through it with me.

But today I finally got that first comment. Are you losing weight? It felt incredible. I told her that I had been doing CICO since April and was down 62 pounds. I said, I'm sure it's hard for anyone to notice when I pretty much wear the same thing every day, jeans and a black jacket. She said, well your jacket is getting huge on you and I can see your weight loss everywhere. I was so happy, and so proud. Someone finally noticed!

For now, it's back to the grind. I still have a long way to go. But I just wanted to take that moment as a small win, hopefully the first of many more positive comments. :]

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alcohol & losing weight in college (19F)

(5'7, sw 185 cw 173 gw 145-150)

I'm in college right now & my weight loss is so slow! i lost most of the weight this summer after I stopped eating in the dining commons and partying, combined with working a retail job at a big store, and I thought it'd continue because i'm cooking for myself now and i've been maintaining since the start of the year. i'm able to lose weight over the course of the week (usually 173 by friday) (i eat really healthy, i have no sweets in the house, and i walk ~ an hour a day) but by sunday morning i'm back up to my starting weight from the beginning of the week (usually 175). the only real difference is i drink on friday or saturday nights.

is alcohol just super calorie dense (i usually have cheap vodka, not beer or anything) or does it actually affect metabolism or water weight? and if it's water weight, am i just maintaining but i lose the water weight throughout the week?

do i really have to give up this part of my life to lose weight? or is that probably not the cause

and i'd love to hear any success stories from other college students & any tips! anything is appreciated:)

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I'm looking pretty darn close to what I expected to look like at GW, and I still have 17lb to go! [Progress Pics]

I realized today that I wore the same outfit to the gym as one I had taken pictures in on August 28th. I know the weight I've lost, of course, and I've had a fairly good idea of my face gains; but I usually don't take full body pictures, so I didn't really have a clear picture of changes to my body as a whole. I had already dropped around 10lb when I took the first set of pictures in August, but now I'm down 23lb... the difference from August to now is so incredible! This is pretty close to what I thought I might look like when I got close to my goal weight!

 

29 F | 5'9" | SW 185 | CW 162 | GW 145

Current activities: CICO (~1550 on workout days, ~1450 on weekends). 5x per week strength training/weight lifting, 1 hour per day (including ~6 minutes of abs regardless of other muscle group). 3x per week cardio, 30 minutes per day.

 

I actually started my weight loss all the way back in May. I was feeling tired all of the time, I had zero energy, and things that used to be fairly easy to do were starting to get harder and harder. My family has a history of weight issues and weight-related diseases, and I didn't want to live that way. My scale topped off at 185lb, the heaviest I'd ever been, and I finally decided to do something about it. So I signed up for personal training sessions at the gym right next door to my office, with someone I knew from high school (also the owner). I figured knowing him, and knowing that he knew exactly where I worked and how to find me if I skipped our lunch sessions, would keep me honest.

And it did! I started going to the gym 3x per week over lunch, then increased to 4x per week. I started with goals that were related to strength and endurance. I had previously dieted and exercised with just the goal of weight loss, and I knew that never worked for me in the past. I inevitably became obsessed with whatever the scale said, in a totally unhealthy way. I also would yo-yo back and forth because I would diet in an unsustainable way, and drop the diet when the weight was down. So instead, I focused on getting stronger to do the things that I liked to do without issue again - like kayaking! Pretty soon, I was loving the gym. I didn't have to force myself to go; it was my stress relief and my safe space, where I had friends. And I felt better, not just physically but mentally. But although I was stronger; I knew more about my body, weightlifting, and fitness; and my body shape was changing a bit, I had really only lost about 5lb by the beginning of August.

At the beginning of August, I decided to start actually watching what I eat by counting calories. I used a TDEE calculator to figure out what I was burning on an average day, and cut down by about 600 (a bit more on gym days, as you saw above). I set a general goal of what I wanted for my macros (35% carbs, 35% fat, 30% protein), but I focused more on trying to eat fresher foods and staying within that calorie goal each day. I don't necessarily restrict the type of foods that I eat - I had sushi yesterday, for example, and Indian food the day prior - but I try to make better choices when picking between foods, and I track the calories/nutrients religiously. I did make a conscious effort to start cooking more, and that dove-tailed with another goal I set for myself, to start buying more food locally during our farmer's market season. So naturally, I was eating more fresh produce than before!

That, of course, is when the weight really started coming off. The saying "Weight loss starts in the kitchen" truly is no lie. I lost 10lb very rapidly during August and early September, then another 5lb by mid-October. I had a bit of a plateau at the beginning of this month, where it seemed like things were really starting to stall. But then my bf decided to join the gym as well, and I decided to bump up the limited cardio I was doing, and that got me moving again. Now, I'm down 23lb!

 

What worked for me:

• Adjusting my focus from weight loss to physical health. Even though I am now calorie counting, and I'm obviously tracking my weight loss, my primary goals are still strength and endurance. I want to be able to do more, and to do those things more easily. That means strengthening my body and feeding it properly.

• Similar to the above, starting with strength as the first goal. I know people have differing opinions on whether you should try to gain muscle/strength before reaching your weight loss goals. However, for me, choosing strength first helped me keep a healthy perspective about weight loss. That kept me from doing things like sabotaging myself if I missed a calorie goal, rewarding myself with food if I reached a weight loss goal, or just falling off the wagon altogether. Even when the scale hasn't been moving, I've noticed my progress inside the gym itself.

• Focus on proper portions and overall CICO, rather than just cutting things out entirely. And cook more! If I had to cut out Reese's pumpkins during the Halloween season, certain types of take-out, pizza with my friends, etc... I never would have stuck to this diet for more than a month and I'd be right back at my original weight. However, I have adjusted the way I eat those things. I don't get take-out every day; I don't have chips every night; I don't have dessert with every meal; I cook more frequently. And when I do go out to eat - which I still do - I focus on eating an appropriate portion size, tracking my calories honestly, and eating within my calorie goals. If I have a craving that can't be satiated with something healthier, and I can fit the thing I want into my calorie goals, I have the thing I want.

• Don't punish yourself for small failures, and don't use small failures as an excuse for continued failure. If I go out with family or friends for dinner and go a little over my calorie goals, I don't beat myself up about it. I also don't use that as an excuse to keep eating poorly for the rest of the week, because that sets a pattern and a precedence. Although I obviously track my calories each day, I treat each day as its own day. I also try to review my success with calorie counting through a weekly focus - how close was I, on average, to where I should have been that week? Because I try to be as honest and consistent as possible from day to day, although one day may be a bit over, the weekly average is virtually always just where it should be.

• Focus on the way getting healthier makes you feel. When I first started out, I put myself in a position where I knew I'd feel forced to be accountable because of my friendship with the trainer and the proximity of the gym I chose. I didn't need those excuses for long, though, because I quickly started noticing how much better getting healthier made me feel. Yeah, the first week or so sucked. But after the first week or two, I felt more energized and less stressed after being at the gym. I started to recognize that if I did choose to skip a day, that had a mental and physical backlash - and I didn't like the way that backlash made me feel. I started missing the gym on the weekends, and finding other ways to be active on those weekend days so that I didn't feel so tired. Basically, I leaned hard into the energy that the gym provided.

 

Anyway, none of these things are probably really rocket science to anyone else; but when I dieted or exercised in the past, I didn't think about these things in these ways. It's really about a lifestyle change; so much of the process of getting physically healthier is a mental process. Changing my perspective has been truly key for me.

 

Anyway, on to the pictures! Album.

Images on the left are all from August 28th of this year. Images on the right are today.

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Very confused

I know Im probably going to get allll kinds of 'youre doing it wrong' type of responses for this, because cico and thermodynamics and everything. But I am super confused, my doctor is super confused, and we cant seem to figure out what the problem is. I currently weigh 305 lbs.

I have been struggling to lose weight as long as I can remember, but the biggest issue so far happened recently:

Over the summer I signed up for a cardio kickboxing class/training program. 6 weeks, 3 classes a week, and a fairly restrictive diet. I was logging Everything. I was weighing Everything. I was drinking water until i felt sick. I was eating 1450 calories a day when I forced myself to eat my prescribed evening snack - because all that water made me feel nauseated at the thought of food. 45% protein, 30% fat, 25% carbs on my macros. Lots of vegetables, lean meats, the occasional fruit, avocado. very clean eating. my nutritional data came from the USDA database and i measured in grams for better accuracy.

3x a week, an hour of cardio kickboxing, where I was sweating buckets in the first 10 minutes and kept.pushing.through. On the days I wasnt doing the kickboxing class, I would do about a mile walk in the evenings.

The first week I lost 10 lbs! AMAZING! probably mostly water weight but there's got to be some real progress too right?

Second week I lost 1 lb.

Third week I gained 5. I dropped to 1350 calories. 4th week I gained 5. I dropped to 1200. 5th week I gained 3. So after 5 weeks I had GAINED 2 lbs, felt like shit, was hangry - but nauseated from so much water, and tired all the time, and just wanted to cry. My clothes fit the same and my waist/hip measurements were identical to the start of the program.

The last week I fasted for 3 days while still doing the kickboxing, dropped 10 lbs, blood pressure tanked (47/105) and i thought i was literally going to die. those 10 lbs came back as soon as i started eating again.

After the 6 weeks program, i was no longer doing the cardio kickboxing, but was still walking in the evenings. I also started eating more (around 1800) bc i couldnt stay super restrictive without seeing any kind of results. I lost 8 lbs -eating more, and moving less- but then plateaued. Doctor put me on a weight loss aid to try and give me a bump, which got me down another 3 lbs, and here I am. 305. My doctor has tested me for every kind of anything she can think of. I went completely gluten, dairy, &soy free after week 3 to see if it was an inflammation thing (it wasnt). So far we can't find any explanation.

And before i get the slew of 'not weighing things properly' or 'not logging everything', I tried my damnedest. If I had a banana, i weighed it whole, and then weighed the peel when i was done, to log exactly how many grams of banana i actually ate. I weighed my veggies raw before cooking, so that there would be no confusion on water differences or cooked weight or any of that. If i added any oil or butter to the pan, it got weighed first. The one treat I allowed myself was creamer in my coffee, which I ALSO weighed. And I logged everything religiously.

Ive been on and off this sub for years, along with a few others, for motivation and to help remind myself when I'm falling into FatLogic. Watching everyone elses successes was the push that got me into that class, and being so anal about logging, because it HAS to work. But ... ???

I havent given up completely, I'm still eating clean and logging everything, but I really need some sort of insight as to wtf is wrong with me. I know that someone of my weight eating 1200 calories a day is supposed to lose weight not gain it. Even at 1800 I should be losing, even if its slowly. I am so lost and confused and really just want some sort of answer, and for something to work.

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Dropping a lot of weight for a sport?

It's sort of an obscure sport, but I did rowing/crew) for about a decade. It is an INTENSE sport that involves waking up at the asscrack of dawn to practice and requires tons of dedication and commitment. I rowed as a lightweight woman in high school, which has a weight cap of 130 lbs/59kg. I am 5'8 and that was attainable for me, but tough. I never felt weak or anything, but I definitely had to restrict what I ate and hit the gym hard. I could compete at open weight, but I was very very good as a lightweight.

I stopped rowing intensely about seven years ago, and gained about 70 pound for a top weight of 198lbs. That was...too much. I've lost about 40 pounds over three years and now im right around 155. I look good, I feel good. But I'd like to compete again as a lightweight rower, and I'm nervous about losing the weight. 130 is pretty small for someone of my size, especially if you're working out hard. I'm nervous that I'll take it too hard and develop some disordered eating behavior. I've taken my weight loss very slow and easy, and I worry about needing to cut in time for a regatta.

People who have been in similar situations, how did you decide if it was worth it or not?

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Prebiotic fiber: 9 lbs in 60 days, no effort given

I really have something that you should be excited about. I was just weighed and lost nine pounds in sixty days. That's a pound a week, a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day. It was 20/20/20 inulin, psyllium husk, and plain green banana flour in a smoothie. I am not trying or even playing into the effect at all. 500 calories a day is the traditional dietetic DEFINITION of healthy weight loss.

Ultra High Resistant Starch green banana flour spikes butyrate, increasing insulin sensitivity. It also feeds specific strains of bacteria associated with weight management.

You might now want to read /r/probiotics and /r/prebiotics for the latest research on the human microbiome, because flora in your gut help maintain healthy weight. Not only that, all the fiber in the smoothie fills me up so much that I couldn't eat another bite if I even wanted to.

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NSV

I have been feeling so much more comfortable in my body and my weight loss lately. The scale was stuck at 170 for a few months and for the last month has been stuck at 165. While that is frustrating, it made me focus on the other ways that my health and general mindset has been changing.

A week ago I had the opportunity to buy chips, which I did. However, I went for the snack size bag and I didn't finish it. When i have the opportunity to get junk food, sometimes I give in, but it is always in moderation.

Last night, I went to the grocery store to get some things and I passed the ice cream aisle. I walked down it and sat there and looked at which flavor I was going to get, knowing I would probably eat the whole pint.

I was imagining how each of the flavors would taste. Then all of a sudden I stopped. I thought about how the flavor of it really wasn't worth it tonight. Granted, I'm sure there will be other nights where it seems worth it, but today it didn't. Instead I got a chocolate bar, which still was like 400 calories, but that is so much better than the 1000 calories I would have eaten with the pint of ice cream.

I know to others this might not seem like much, but to me it means the world. It means that I am learning how to do eat in moderation and make healthy choices without constantly tracking. The habits that I have been trying to create are really actually starting to stick.

I still have a long way to go, but it makes this lifelong journey seem all that much more sustainable.

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