Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Wednesday, 25 December 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 https://ift.tt/397Hr5H

Feeling alone and helpless in losing weight. I can do exercise easily, but dieting is almost impossible for me.

Currently:

25M 6'2" 205 lbs Daily weightlifting, 3x cardio per week. Absolute shit diet with no structure

Weight Loss Journey:

https://imgur.com/a/tAXie2M Progress Pic album that hopefully works and highlights body changes.

21 years old (2015) ---> 255 lbs (highest weight)

24 years old (2016-2018) ---> 185 lbs (lowest weight)

25 years old (2018-2019) ---> 205 lbs (current weight)

The majority of the 70 lbs lost in the year of 2016-17 were almost entirely due to intermittent fasting. IF helped get the amount I was eating under control, and slowly began to lose weight without even realizing it. Still in school during this time, still depressed. Doing almost no weight training at this point, as I was too self conscious to go to the gym at school. By about fall of 2017 I was down to hovering around 185, but I still hated the way I looked due to lack of muscle tone.

As I lost more weight, I started getting more comfortable with myself and began going out more. Then around January of 2018 I tore my meniscus and lost most of the cartilage in my knee. I was fed up and realized that had I been lifting weights and increasing flexibility, it never would have happened. So I started going to the gym. I was weak and felt like an idiot loading up a bar with 25 lb plates for benching, but I kept to it as much as possible, but never made constant progress due to set backs every couple of weeks. Starting out, I straight up could not squat. My long legs and short torso made the conventional wisdom for squatting almost impossible. Coupled with terrible ankle dorsiflexion, and I would tip over constantly. But slowly but surely I started advancing again.

Then depression hit around fall of 2018 and I lost a lot of progress, stopped working out, stopped eating healthy, and put on about 20 lbs over winter. I was making steps towards liking the way I looked, but this set me way back.

Now we come to the past 3 months of 2019. I dropped out of engineering school to pursue other interests, and made the decision that I want to look better. This past year I've started performing in musicals, and it has driven me to want to be better in every way, and now I want to work out to enhance the presence that I have onstage.

These pictures show me currently, from back in September, until a couple of days ago. I already have seen major growth in my arms, chest, and legs. I just want to start really losing the body fat, so I can wear properly fitting clothes that actually accentuate my butt. Also I need to grow my butt. It's the downside of having long skinny legs. I've also increased my flexibility and have recently set tons of PRs with weights I'd only fantasized about lifting and it feels really good. My current weightlifting goals mainly are focused around being able to lift and move other people.

​

Thoughts on my Journey

It's been about a 5 year process of me losing weight and getting slightly closer to a place I want to be, but I feel I've hit a wall for the past few months and I feel unable to make the full athletic transition I'd like. And part of that, I feel, is that I've been almost completely alone in doing it. The initial weight loss was inspired by a break up and realizing how horrible I'd gotten, but hardest of all, was I didn't have anyone I could talk to about it or work out with, or talk about recipes with, and I've made progress and fallen back multiple times due to any lack of accountability or community.

And now I'm at a point in life where I'm trying to be a performer, and I want to not only look my best, but have the stamina and ability to dance and sing. So I finally decided I wanted to go all in with fitness about a month and a half ago, and have been to the gym 6 days a week, and haven't missed a day since. I'm trying to do a body recomposition phase and emerge with muscle and lose the last bits of fat, but I lack so much ability to plan out a meal plan and keep myself doing it. I struggle a lot with OCD and ADHD and completely shut myself down when it comes to macros, meal planning, nutrient timing, etc, and having to clean dishes and reorganize everything and trying to find a system that works fills me with panic and dread, and even just thinking about it now makes my heart rate spike. I tend to have an obsessive fixation with permutations and all the different ways I could arrange a set of things, so coming up with a grocery list can take me days just thinking of every thing I could buy to make a recipe, and I end up accomplishing nothing and just stopping at a gas station time and time again.

Basically, this is just a cry for help after feeling alone and isolated for years, and I desperately want to be better. I look at myself and don't like what I see only because I know I could be better. I'm genetically lucky to have a body frame that would look amazing if I could just get my eating under control. But all I want is to just feel confident and comfortable to start dressing how I want, and dancing how I want, and performing how I want, but I, myself, am the biggest obstacle.

Is there anyone who has any simple plans to start slowly incorporating healthy meals and snacks into the day? How the everloving FUCK am I supposed to get 200 grams of protein a day if I don't want to be constantly cooking and eating chicken? Are there any communities to help with this? How do I eat more vegetables, especially in breakfast meals or when I can't cook them? How do you store foods? What can and can't be stored in efficient ways? It's all these questions I've been to afraid to ask and that completely derail me from making progress. I'm just not good enough to answer these on my own through reading materials, without being able to just talk with people about it. I know so much of the theory of what to eat, and fully understand what I should be doing differently, but I just don't know the logistics of how to get it done. It's simple to say eat in a deficit, eat more protein, eat fruits and vegetables, but actually doing it is the hurdle I keep stumbling into.

Long story short, I watched the Witcher this week, and seeing Henry Cavill be absolutely fucking yoked awoke something in me to finally make this post and start a serious body transformation. Cause seriously. The dude looks like someone put a head on top of a door. Each of his thighs look like 2 kids in a trench coat trying to sneak into a movie. He's just absolute mass.

I really typed a lot of this in different pieces in random order, so hopefully it reads as coherent. Just gonna post now and hope for the best.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/371J2YW

Starting my weight loss journey (rant)

I'm starting my journey to lose 20 lbs. I had to buy new jeans today because my old ones are too tight. I honestly would be fine with even just losing 15 lbs just so I can fit into those jeans again. And I want to gain back the strength and flexibility I used to have.

I started out very athletic and pretty thin... Ten years ago I was 100 lbs (4'11 height) but have consistently gained weight every year and if I don't stop that now, it'll continue to get worse. I'm 130 lbs and so I'm not saying I'm huge, but I've also had to deal with a mother obsessed with diets. There's literally not one day she has ever gone without talking about weight, diet, etc. And I've never been that way, but as I've hit 130 lbs, I find that I don't like my body anymore, I can't do all the regular things as easily anymore (climbing stairs), and because I'm getting older also, just generally more insecure of my body. I'm also very obsessive with certain things and I can totally see myself gaining a disorder from counting calories. But I know the best way to lose is to do that.

I started working out today with my boyfriend. He's very encouraging but also has a sweet tooth and I do, too. He's really skinny so he'll eat whatever. It's hard for me to be healthy when he's eating something delicious right in front of me.

Anyway that's my rant.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/34Tjmwm

Halfway there on Christmas!

34F and 5'3", SW: 180 lbs., CW: 149.7 lbs, GW: 120 lbs.

I'm so happy that I made it to the halfway point of my weight loss goals! I was also participating in the 100 day challenge here (with my goal being 150 lbs. by Christmas), which I just managed to hit, haha.

Losing weight has made a big impact in my daily life, from my energy, activity levels, mood, and yes, my self-image and looks. My next goal (after hitting ~150 lbs. on Christmas) is 130 lbs. by May 22, 2020 (which is the last day of our informal biggest loser challenge in the office, haha).

Happy holidays everyone and see you next year!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2Skwjwx

Finally stopped wanting to eat all the time!

I'm on quite a large deficit (vlcd) and it was draining all my energy and happiness and I constantly had this aching hunger, and my stomach was always rumbling which could be embarrassing.

After over a month of being on this diet I have finally stopped wanting to eat all the time and it feels good. I feel very empty and clear headed, it's a weird but good feeling.

I no longer look forward to eating like I did before and I just think of it as fuel and don't taste it too much. I now find it easy to refuse when I am offered food.

Here is what helped me:

-Green tea twice a day -Drinking 2 or 3 cups of water before eating. Just drinking a lot of water helps massively. -glucomannan tablet (type of dietary fibre supplement) taken before eating. I always take this if I have to eat something that isn't part of my diet. It makes you feel fuller and you will eat less. -Mindful eating. Concentrate on each bite of food and eat slowly. I like to chew slowly as well. -eating lots of low calorie food. I like vegetables, I will eat just a bowl of boiled vegetables as one of my meals. They are bulky and stop me feeling full.

Hope this helps someone. I found the hunger the biggest barrier to my weight loss and I wasn't able to stick to my diet until I learned to control it.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/399bvhp

NSV/Milestone - I paced my fastest mile ever since starting my weight loss journey!

Hi! I’m not new to the community, I’ve been an avid reader, but never posted my own story! However, I needed somewhere to share, because I truly was beyond excited! For reference, I’m 26, 318 pounds & currently -60 lbs since Nov ‘17.

This year, I challenged myself to find something to keep myself active while still enjoying myself. I’ve been guilty of not staying fully committed in my fitness journey, but through numerous health issues, I’ve learned that I need to take care of myself while I’m still going.

I decided to try my hand at 5K runs. In the past I’d done 3 or 4 over a 4 year span. This year, I challenged myself to do 5. It was a small goal that I’d set to push my limits. And here I am, less than a year later, and I’m obsessed!

Running has been a saving grace for my mental & physical health. I usually pace between a 19-21 minute mile, which, by comparison, isn’t great, but for someone who’s 300+ pounds, I’d like to think it’s better than nothing.

A couple weeks ago, I completed my last 5K for the year, my SEVENTEENTH this year. Turns out, I love to jog/walk/run. And my very last mile of the year, was 17’57”. It was an exhilarating feeling! My fastest mile, probably ever! I wasn’t necessarily aiming for a PR, but I was so thrilled to hit one!

Running has actually been a great way for me to stay in shape & has been absolutely essential in my fitness journey this year! Thought I’d share with my fellow Losers!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2ZlzSnu

F35/5'2"/198lbs. 7lbs lost last year. New year, new chances?

Last year I started my weight loss, I lost a whopping 7.28lbs. Yes, you read that right, 7. In total, in a year. It's ridiculous. I'm going to try harder this year, no excuses. I am now 198lbs and want to be around 135lbs. I'm an emo eater, I eat when I'm stressed or sad or happy. I want to be able to control myself.

Last year I tried intermittent fasting with CICO but I got very disheartened. I was fed up weighing all my foods and putting it in the app. And I stopped doing that after a while. Surely I could do it on my own? But that wasn't the case. I'm also very fed up with being the fat mom. So there's that.

So I will try again. I'm back at it. Weighing my foods with my foodscale, eating only between 10am-18pm. Going to the gym twice a week.

I start first day after Christmas.

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