Last Year I Did What I Said Was Impossible

Hello all! I’m generally more of a commenter than a poster, but I guess I’m in that old New Years reflective state that gets us. Anyways, I’m f/37/5’6”/SW355/CW265ish. Always been bigger, yo-yoer, you know the story. Started seriously this time around about thanksgiving 2018. I had lost 100 pounds by this past Halloween, but then between hitting that milestone and some health issues, I’ve backslid a bit (it’s ok. I’ve learned some lessons from it).

On this day last year, I was PMing with a lady from a resolution thread, who had said she’d gone from a size 26 to a 20 in 2018. Sitting in a size 28, I told her that getting to a size 20 in a year was smaller than I’d been in decades, and that it was beyond the kind of progress I could possibly imagine.

Well, kids, today I sit here in a size 20 pants and an XL shirt. If I could go back in time and tell 2018 me about it, I still don’t think I’d believe it. I didn’t set out with the goal to do this. My resolution last year was ONLY to end the year weighing less than I started. I was focusing mostly on the mental work, and stopping binge eating.

This time of year is great because motivation comes naturally, both if you’re new, and for those who’ve been at it a while. Just remember that motivation will leave. It simply can’t last. Focus this period of motivation on building habits, so you can then rely on determination to keep you going. I look at my path to being healthier as just part of the responsibility to take care of myself. I’m not motivated to go to work every day. I’m certainly not motivated to do the dishes. I do them because they’re what I need to do to take care of myself.

This year my resolutions are simple. Again, to end the year weighing less than I started, and to accept that my weight loss will probably slow down now. I don’t know what that next “impossible” thing is for me, but I can’t wait to discover it.

If you’re new, especially if you have a long way to go like me, just take things one day at a time, focus on your successes, and refuse to give up. Who know, maybe that thing you’re thinking is impossible will turn out to be totally achievable.

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M/39/6’3”/295 and I need to be held accountable!

Ok so like many people I am starting my weight loss journey today.

I’ve always been “the big guy” as I have a broad frame which helps hide how overweight I am, but now I am at my heaviest ever and my goal is to lose 50 pounds by my 40th birthday in July,

A year ago I was around 260 but when a back injury at work gave me 2 slipped discs I left my manual labor job and ever since then I have not exercised on a regular basis. Couple that with some emotional eating and in the last year I’ve gained 35 pounds.

I want to be fitter and healthier for myself but also for my wife and 3 year old daughter, however until now I have lacked the motivation to get started with exercise and healthier eating. I eat too much chocolate and fast food, so need to cut them down a lot.

So as well as asking you all to help hold me accountable, I am taking pictures and documenting my weight loss. I plan to lift dumbbells at home, walk my dog and ride my mountain bike every day. I am also making healthier eating choices, including intermittent fasting (only eating between midday and 8pm every day), more fruit and vegetables, less fat and sugar, smaller meals and more meals instead of snacking. In theory it seems like a decent plan, so I start now and let’s see how much I can lose in January!

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Humble weight loss story

I'll preface this account by stating that I'm not claiming my weight loss is phenomenal or even special in any way. I've read posts of people turning their lives around by making tough decisions and sticking to them. I'm actually writing this post as a possible starting point for people who are trying to lose weight but don't know where to start.

I've never been overweight to the point where you can actually see the weight on me, but for years I have felt over weight. Clothes have been getting tighter, and sizes of new clothes have inched bigger and bigger over the past decade (I'm in my 40's now).

A few months ago, I put on a pair of trousers and really struggled to close the button. I'm not sure why that was the trigger for me, but I became intent on getting into shape. I think over the past year I've realised I've woken up feeling less energetic, and stairs and walks have become things I have started to avoid.

I asked my wife to buy some bathroom scales, and I stepped on them to see 86kg (190lbs). This put me into the overweight category. Having experienced 2 close family deaths in the past year, I started to think about health in terms of years left on this planet rather than a item on a Wishlist for New Years. I downloaded an app on my phone (Yazio), and began to monitor every single thing I ate and drank on a day. It is a calorie counting app, but I didn't pay any notice to the calories at first. But there were recommendations as to what my intake should be per meal. I put in a target of 75kg (165lbs). That's the weight I used to be when I was younger, and more active.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I'm currently at 172lbs. I put on almost no weight over the holidays, despite my family and my in laws literally frying everything in every meal over a 1 week period.

So what is different now, over the dozens of times I've tried to lose weight in the past 10 years? Honestly, it was the app. Every slice of toast, every soft drink, every snack, every bowl of pasta just stared me back in place. But the difference this time around was I didn't have guilt about what I was eating. Two slices of toast became 1, salad instead of pasta, half a bowl instead of a full. Snacks are now apples and bananas rather than chips and dips. A huge shift for me is knowing what meal I will be having and not over doing it before hand. So a weekend pizza means I have much less for breakfast and lunch.

I start running tomorrow, again after a long break. I'm opting for walking and public transport rather than my car. I'm starting the year not making a resolution to lose weight, but knowing that a habit I started a few months ago has now become normal for me.

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F(33) 362lbs 5'6" Need suggestions on how to set attainable goals to stay motivated for a long with loss journey.

I f(33) ended up at the hospital recently for an unrelated issue but saw that I had gained back all the weight I lost from last year and added another 30. I'm at 363lbs and 5'6" - the largest I've every been. I've dieted before with CICO, but my problem is that I look at all the with I have to lose and know it's going to be a very very very long journey. I set my LoseIt app to a goal of aggressive weight loss and 30lbs but even that is projecting a 6 month success timeline. What goals does everyone set to keep motivated so they don't lose steam or become defeated while on a long weight loss journey?

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I followed through with my 2019 New Years Resolution!

My New Years resolutions have always involved weight loss. I am happy to say that I lost 70 lbs last year (after having a baby), and have been successfully maintaining my weight for the past almost 6 months! This sub has been so helpful for me. 2020 new years resolutions include maintaining my weight, but also several other fitness/climbing related goals.

If you are starting your weight loss journey today, you can do this! Find a plan that works for you, work hard, stay consistent, and give yourself grace. You got this!

My 2019 weight loss/climbing in pictures: http://imgur.com/gallery/S9PlAGw

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Day 180 of tracking with the LoseIt! app - down 10 pounds!

So after struggling with a chronic illness and letting myself go the last few years, I finally decided to take weight loss seriously this July. I'm F/24/5'0" and my average weight was in the high 127s/low 128s. I'm now weighing in the high 117s/low 118s on average (weighed in at 117.8 today), and I'm in the normal BMI range for my height (was in the lower overweight category before). I look better in clothes. It's a cliche, but my old jeans fit again. Still looking to lose another 2-3 pounds, but I am very happy with my journey and progress so far!

I want to share how I achieved these results with you guys. First, let me just preface this by saying the following is my perspective and opinion and the things that worked for me. Different things work for different people and I want to share what helped me in the hopes that other people similar in mindset, body type, and goals might benefit from them also. If I can help motivate even one person, especially going into this new year/decade, I'll be happy. It is possible. You can do it. So without further ado, here are my top 8 tips:

1. Educate yourself. Discover how fitness works. Real fitness. Not Instagram fitness. Not crash diets. Not magic supplements. Not the promise of losing 10 pounds in 2 days. Learn about BMR. TDEE. Body weight vs. body fat percentage. Nutrition. Calories. Safe and sustainable exercise. Diets vs. a lifestyle change and a way of eating. I learned about all of this and more before even entertaining the idea of a fat loss plan.

2. Set reasonable goals. Figure out a desirable end goal for yourself and then break it down into steps. Adjust as needed. Don't spend too much time on planning though--that will distract you from actually doing the work. I see too many people that feel like once they've figured out a plan, their work is done. It's not. Once a plan is in place, it's only just the beginning.

3. Develop your own sustainable diet/lifestyle. Another thing I see is people trying to follow others' diet plans and most of the time, it doesn't work out. We all live and eat differently, and you are not the same as anyone else. You will have to figure out what works for your lifestyle, your tastes, your budget, etc. Because in the end, the thing that will most likely end up working for you is the thing you can stick with. Make tweaks to things you already do and eat. Which brings me to my next point.

4. Portion control. Three foods were basically my extra calorie intake every day: Milk, Cheez-Its, and peanut butter. I knew peanut butter was nutritious, but I didn’t realize just how high in calories it was. Same with milk (changed when I started educating myself about exactly what I was putting in my mouth every day). In the past, I would also often overeat because I would wait until I was super hungry and then put too much on my plate, eat really fast, and keep eating until I felt overfull instead of at the first sign of feeling full. I never logged what I was eating normally before I started cutting calories, but I estimate it would probably be around 1700-1900 daily. I'm sedentary. I don't need to consume that much energy. By slightly lowering the quantity of each food I regularly eat, I was easily able to cut 300-500 calories daily.

5. Hold yourself accountable. It’s great to have support, but ultimately, YOU are the one making the change and you need to hold yourself accountable. Actually count calories. No BS. Unless behaviors like tracking are unhealthy for you, get yourself an app like LoseIt! or MyFitnessPal and track honestly. Log everything and I mean everything that goes into your stomach. Don't cheat. This is also an easy way to educate yourself what foods have what calories, what sodium, what protein, etc. Above all, stick to your goals.

6. Weigh yourself and your food. Get a normal scale as well as a food scale. I found it useful to weigh myself every day. Not for fluctuations of fat, because body fat does not fluctuate that fast, but to see how my total weight fluctuates naturally and track the patterns to have a full graph day to day for my LoseIt! app. For me, I've found that the data helps me to NOT obsess over the daily numbers and realize that weight and body fat are two very different things. Water, digestive waste, cycle fluctuations if you have female reproductive organs, etc. all play a part in daily fluctuations, and by learning what the number on the scale actually meant, I found that it did wonders for my mental perspectives on my weight and fitness.

7. Figure out how much food you actually NEED. Okay, I feel like this one is a bit tricky to articulate correctly. I’m not saying don’t eat or intentionally starve yourself. But I was reading something the other day and someone said it’s like we’re afraid to be hungry nowadays. That as soon as we feel the slightest bit hungry, our reaction is like, “OMG, I need to eat right now!” I agree. Unless you have a disorder or severe hypoglycemia, most of us can wait a little bit to eat. Even if it's just an hour. We don't NEED to eat right away. We don't NEED a bunch of extra food to survive. When I'm having a craving for food, I walk away and promise myself I'll wait 1 hour before having it. 9.9 times out of 10, I'll get busy doing something else and the craving passes easily where I don't think about it again. But if I'm really still hungry, I have the option to go back and eat more after just 1 hour. It's a way of delaying gratification as well as listening to my body.

8. Look at the big picture. This is perhaps the most important thing that has helped my mental perspective. The big picture is more important than the day-to-day. Keeping this in mind helps me not get caught up in whether I’m having a “bad” day or a good one for that matter. I add up my calories monthly and I check it every week. Some days I eat 1500. Some days I only need 800 or even less. On occasion, I eat 2,000+. As long as I am treating myself and my body well overall, that is what will (and has) given me my results.

Anyway, those are the things that helped me. You might notice that exercise wasn't mentioned anywhere in my tips. That is one place I'm still falling short on. I live an extremely sedentary lifestyle and while I do exercise occasionally, I know it's not nearly enough to be healthy. I was still able to lose 10 pounds just by adjusting my caloric intake though, and I also know I can't radically change every aspect of my lifestyle in one go. For me to succeed, I have to make gradual changes. I chose to do food first, and I've already seen amazing results. 2020 is the year when I will make a dedicated effort to improve my physical fitness now.

Good luck to all of you out there reading this! Let's make 2020 an amazing year and work hard. Like one of my favorite Youtubers Charlie Gold always says: "Be better today than you were yesterday, and greater tomorrow than you will be today."

Peace and be safe everyone. ♥

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Wednesday, 01 January 2020? 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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