5 years, 80 pounds lost. some insights that i've gained.

male. 37. 5' 11''. SW: 221. CW: 141. GW: it's all about waist-to-hip ratio.

this is an update to a post i made 3 months ago titled 'the lazy man's weight loss plan'. to sum that post up, i let myself get fat over a long period of time, so i decided to get thin over a long period of time. since that post, i've managed to lose an additional 13 lbs by only changing my physical activity level. i now run about 6 miles a week, at around a 9 minute per mile rate.

the 3 biggest things that have gotten me to where i'm current at are: don't drink calories, eat mostly unprocessed food, and practice intermittent fasting. exercising is a distant number 4.

DON'T DRINK CALORIES: all i drink is water and unsweetened coffee & tea. i don't use any artificial sweeteners. i stopped drinking alcohol almost 9 months ago. that wasn't easy, but well worth it. i've lost 32 lbs since i got sober.

EAT MOSTLY UNPROCESSED FOOD: at my heaviest, almost everything i ate came in a box, can, or was pizza. now i eat many things that have no nutrition labels, because, well, an orange is an orange. the processed food i do eat, like peanut butter, is lightly processed. just peanuts and salt, no added sugar or fats.

PRACTICE INTERMITTENT FASTING: there are many different ways to do this, but for me, what works best is not to eat for at least 12 hours in a row. that's a minimum, i usually fast for 16 hours a day, but it varies. some days i go 22 hours. it all depends on how hungry i am. what fasting really does is retrains your body to know what hunger is. i used to wake up each morning hungry. at least, i thought i was hungry. turns out, i was thirsty. i now wake up and drink a glass of water, then i get out of bed and make a cup of coffee. if, after i'm finished drinking the coffee, i'm hungry, i eat something. that pretty much never happens, because i was never hungry in the first place.

EXERCISING: weight loss can be done without sweating. but exercising does speed up the process. the cliches are true, you can't outrun you fork.

being aware of calories matters, but i'm not anal about it. i don't weigh anything i eat. for example, i know a medium banana has around 100 calories, but i'm not gonna take the time to figure out if the banana i'm about to eat has 90 calories or 115. i measured out a serving size of peanut butter one time to get an idea of what 2 tablespoons look like.

so.....yeah. that's my story weight loss story. it didn't happen overnight, but then, i didn't get fat overnight.

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What I learned from fasting for 6 months

Hi there,

I started my weight loss journey about 6 months ago and as I see a lot of starting posts here I wanted to share some of my learnings I had so far (I’m 5’8, SW250 CW189):

• CICO is the most important thing. However you do it (IF, OMAD, keto etc). All of these are right if at the end of your day you took control over your daily total calories. Find what works best for your lifestyle and what least enables your binge eating (some might feel good with OMAD bc they don’t have to make decisions during work and some might get so hungry they eat way too much at once)

• to succeed in CICO it is important that you track ALL food. I used the NOOM app but many use loseit on here. I also bought a scale that links to my phone and weight myself every morning and bought a food scale. Even if you binge one day and your ashamed, track everything!

• while restricting your calories (I aimed for 1,200 first three months and then 1,500 when I added more exercise) try to balance your meals. Especially on 1,200 it takes planning to get enough protein, vitamins, fibre and healthy fats.

• prepare yourself for success: bring healthy snacks into the office if you like snacking, only have healthy food at home, cook in small portion sizes etc. If a salad is more expensive than a pizza if you eat out with friends don’t let it bother you.

• even if you have a bad day (I promise you it will happen, it’s normal): forgive yourself and GET BACK ON. I fucked up basically every week in summer bc I was going out that much but at least I had 5/6 good days that overall made me still lose. Don’t forget that you still deserve to live a happy life, it doesn’t depend on how many calories you ate today.

• try to stay away from processed food even if it’s low calories as much as you can. No chewing gum or soda.

• you might think about food all the time now but that too will change with time and once it does it will feel great

• allow yourself to spend more money on healthy options. Appreciate not everyone can do this but as a treat I allowed myself to spend whatever on healthy options. Overall I still saved tons of money bc 1. I eat way less than before 2. I hardly ever order food home anymore and only eat salads at work for lunch

• alcohol has so much bad calories, ideally don’t drink. Personally I still drink a lot but changed beer to vodka, lime & soda and the occasional glass of red wine

• once you feel comfortable eating on a calorie deficit (for me it took 2 months) add exercise. Try not to make it a reason to suddenly eat much more but don’t let yourself starve. I added yoga and body pump work out classes. Try to make it not only cardio but also weight lifting, trust me on that!!

• one big problem for me was that most my socialising equaled loads of food (I basically only met my friends for drinks & dinner or massive brunches). Try to meet friends through non food related meetings too (I got a few friends to go to yoga with me or instead of dinner after work met for coffee before work or doing long walks together).

• take pic of you at the start, it will feel great to compare them a few months later and you will see the change even if you don’t see it day by day

Good luck to everyone & feel free to add more tips for me as well xx

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9 days out from gastric sleeve surgery...

I'm 38, have had 2 children in the last 4 years, have PCOS, am 5'7" HW 262, CW 250, GW 160-180.

I'm one week in on my pre op weight loss/liver shrinking diet. I'm having a surprisingly easy time with it but I'm not sure if that's because I know I have to do it or what. I'm down 12lbs already and I'm finding myself having second thoughts. Should I really do something as drastic as having this surgery when this is going well?

My thoughts are drifting towards the idea that with this, I can still occasionally enjoy off diet things (and I mean special occasions) whereas with the surgery that's off the table indefinitely. I'm a good home cook and am definitely a foody so I can make most anything and make it well. Including low fat, low carb foods.

But what if I fail? I don't have a fail safe. What if this just stops like it has on every other diet because of age or PCOS or having the metabolism of a tree sloth? Will I be able to enjoy the science and and flavor of foods again someday? Even if it's just a bite or two? Am I just going to discover a new creativity with food (I already made my fairlife vanilla protein drink taste like eggnog so maybe).

IDK. I'm rambling. Did anyone else go through this? Did anyone back out and regret it or was it a good decision?

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Improving body awareness during or after weight loss

Ever since I can remember I've been chunky. But also short (153 cm) so I always ended up looking like a thick tree stump, and I felt uncomfortable in my own body all my life. I lost almost 20kg and am only 4kg away from my goal weight, but honestly, I still feel like the short, awkward, clumsy, stumpy ugly girl with zero self-confidence. I always felt like my body is working against me. Moving does not come naturally to me, I could never dance if I tried (and I have tried, my mom is a dancer), I'm extremely inflexible (can't even touch my knees), I just hate any kind of exercise, and my movements, including gestures and facial expressions, are ungraceful and uncoordinated/clumsy. This also reflects my lack of self-control (which I lack in other departments of my life too), and I still feel like an awkward kid at 26.

It's frustrating because I see all these grown-ass women AND teenagers who move with more awareness of their body. All I'm aware of is my feeling of discomfort. I can't even pose for pictures in an "interesting" way because I feel so awkward being photographed, which is why I barely have any pictures of me of the last 10 years or so, because I hate seeing myself.

Please help! One of my New Year's resolutions was to feel comfortable in my own body because I want to take dance lessons next year and not make a fool of myself lol.

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Why Do I Feel More Insecure?

I started at 300 lbs. I'm now at 256 lbs. My body's changed a lot after losing 44 lbs, but not necessarily in a "bad" way. I lost three inches off my waist, my thighs are slimmer, and my belly's a little less full. Everyone compliments me on my weight loss and it's nice to see the numbers keep getting lower, but I am so cripplingly insecure now. I have no idea why.

I've been battling obesity since I was very young. It's always been a point of insecurity for me, and I've never had high self esteem. However, I was my most confident at 300 lbs. I was my happiest then, too. Right now I won't wear certain clothes, have sex, or even go out with friends because I'm so anxious about my appearance and hw others will view/treat me. I don't get it.

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Can anyone relate?

I am in a weird point in my weight loss journey. 27F I have gone from 225-148 in a years time (highest weight around 250) I am so much more comfortable in my own skin but my ultimate goal weight is 125. I really want to get to my GW but I feel like I am okay with losing it very slow at this point. I just bought my first house and I know this month will be crazy with the move, I am going to try and not be too hard on myself if I can’t weight or log all my food until we’re settled. Still , it’s hard to not feel guilty when I go off track even though I know myself and I know I will pick right back up on it. I am just ranting at this point lol is anyone at a point in their journey like I am?

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Does anyone else get long headaches from restricting calories/food?

If I move my head a certain way or too fast, it hurts. I’ve tried drinking water, but it doesn’t work. Even on days where I drank less water, it didn’t hurt like this. I can’t even walk too fast or else the pain increases. My eyes feel a bit heavy. Is this normal for weight loss? I’m not feeling too good. I tried waiting for cold symptoms to appear but nothing came. It’s not only one place in my head either, but multiple location aches, I believe. I restricted down to 1200 calories- sometimes less some days so that I could make up for when I ate over the deficit- but I’m getting cranial aches and pain, and the occasional shiver. What’s causing this?

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