Hi! For some background first, I'm 20 and a uni student, and have been slightly on the wrong side of average for some 10 years now. As a kid I was a competitive swimmer, but gave up on it at that age, and thanks to my mum's unhealthy attitutes towards food and me gained some weight. I have been doing other sports since ( aikido in middle and rowing in high school), and some light exercising at home, but not as serious. My weight had mostly remained constant- except for a period at ~16 when I was going through a very bad period of depression and gained enough that my BMI moved to overweight, after which I had a ~3 months moderate light diet and some permanent eating choice changes, I got back to a healthy weight again.
Last year I moved to a different country for uni, and from my mum's cooking to a more or less standard student cuisine- my own horrible attempts at cooking, lots of unhealthy food and snacks, and some decent enought Mensa foods. Contrary to expected, I actually lost weight due to a lower ammount of food and going to the gym a bit ( happened again in the next semester). The problem was that every time I went back to my homecountry, my parents would pressure me into eating a lot more ("because I got so thin"), and I would go out and eat out/drink a lot to catch up with all my old friends etc., and I would regain it all and then some, especially during the longer summer break.
So when I got back, I even planned a minor diet- no calorie counting, just some minor reductions of how much I ate in addition to exercise- and it worked decently enough for ~2 months, I visually lost weight according to people etc. To help me along with that, I finally bought a scale
Worst ( or best?) decision of the year.
I had 77.4 kilos ( around 170 pounds), and I was horrified ( I'm 178cm/ ~5'10'' tall). That meant I had over 80kg before I came back to uni, and I didn't have that much since I was 16 and overweight ( the logical things, like me growing 2 inches, having more muscle mass and heavier bones then then didn't come to my mind yet). I decided then that I must once and for all end the possibility of becoming overweight by becoming thin instead- namely by dropping first to 70 kg/155 pounds, and then to 65kg /143 lbs ( which is an average 20 BMI for me), ( and perhaps eventually to 60kg/132 pounds which is the lowest healthy BMI for my height, but that is less important, and mostly there to serve as buffer foe when I regain some) with hopefully the first part being completed by New Year ( as unrealistic as it might be). That was a bit over 2 weeks ago.
Since then, I have been on a very low calorie diet- around 500-800 kcal a day, and sometimes less. With help from my mum ( who is a doctor and I guilted her into helping me), we made a general plan, with my normal day consisting of an egg, a cup of Greek Yoghurt, a fruit of choice, little bit of nuts, and some vegetables- though she hoped that will only last a week or two, and when I said I planned on doing this for months we adjusted and added some additional things to be eated occasionally. Also, I can't be too picky as a student and I work at organising uni events so I often get free food there, so for 2 days I ate small ammounts of sweets, but made up for it by eating nothing else the whole day and very little/nothing the next one ( and I had a few full fasting days in general). I also increased the intensity of my gym training.
It has worked well so far, I'm already down to around ~74kg/163lbs ( and yes, I am aware much of the early weight loss isn't fat but water and glycogene).
So my questions:
- How sustainable do you think the diet is for longer periods of time, from say 1-2months, to about 6 months? I have had problems with headaches and it has made my insomnia significantly worse ( I am strictly not eating anything at night so that isn't as bad), but it isn't affecting me too badly physically so far, besides standard tiredness
- My biggest one- how to help reduce the ammount of regained weight once I move back towards the more normal diet? Current plan is just to slowly increase the number of calories once done back to a bit below my previous usual level
- What is the best way to preserve muscle mass during this diet?
- Would any food supplements/weight loss products help, even if in a small ammount? I am already drinking Apple vinegar every morning
- How to deal with friends and SO being very unhelpful? I have told my close friends about my diet, but they have done nothing but try to convince and beg me to stop since then, worrying it might affect my health and how I don't need it yadda yadda. I feel most of them aren't even aware of how fat I actually am, due to having well fitting nice clothes and some muscles covering it up.
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