Help with exercise motivation

Hello friends,

I am early days (about six weeks or so) into my weight loss journey and am looking for some advice. I've found calorie counting pretty easy to intergrate into my life. I don't eat breakfast, have switched diet coke for water unless I want a treat after a hard day at work, and have essentially completely stopped snacking on anything other than fruit or veg (apples and carrot sticks are the go to). I'm averaging around 1200-1700 depending on the day.

I started out at 231lbs on November 18 of 2019 and as of the last weigh in a couple of days ago, I am at 221lbs. My initial aim is to hit 14st and come in on my BMI under overweight for the first time probably since I was 15 (I'm 25m).

However, I know that losing weight through CICO and CICO alone is not sustainable if I want to hit my ultimate goal of 11st (about 150lbs), and exercise will need to be a part of what I do going forward. However, I really struggle with motivating myself to go to the gym and work, and don't have the money to invest in anything like a bike etc. I have a very sedentary and stressful job, but walk around 2.5 miles a day to and from work. Often I just want to go home at the end of the day, I never could workout during a break (I don't have one really) and I'm naturally a late riser so would find early morning workouts an absolute killer.

For those who maybe were in a similar situation, what did you use as motivation to start going to the gym? Were their things you set as rewards if you did or was it something else? I'm also worried I'll overeat if I start exercising, even though I track everything religiously atm. Any help appreciated!

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Crowded gyms are not an excuse to belittle newcomers :/

Yes, new years just past. Yes, people have made their weight loss related resolutions. Yes, it may mean the gym that you frequent becomes a bit crowded. Yes, you MIGHT have to wait a couple minutes to hop on a machine that's usually vacant. But none of these things are a reason to shame or belittle the people who are starting their journeys and have decided that going to the gym would be a part of that.

I've been frequenting my gym ever since I started on my weight loss journey so I've become a regular which means I can typically spot another regular. A couple days ago, January 2nd, I go to my gym during their peak hours. Right away I notice that there are more people there than usual even for peak hours, something that I expected being the 2nd day of the year.

As someone who has gone from obese to normal weight this last year, when I saw this I couldn't help but be excited for all these beautiful people starting a journey which I knew would change their lives for the better (as it did mine)! So when I walk through the door ready to check in with the front desk clerk, I see that his attention is on some ornery lifter that I recognize to be a regular ( I always recognize him in particular cos he's that guy who constantly and purposefully allows his weights to loudly crash onto the floor while he's lifting and then lets out some kind of guttural demon mating call sound after) who is ranting on and on about how crowded and how full of people who have "no hope" the place is. He audibly goes on to say that new years weight loss resolutions are "pointless for fat people" and that they should all just clear out now since they'll "probably give up in a few days anyway". Apparently the guy had to wait to use a machine which I guess is something he never had to do before? Meanwhile I'm over here waiting for this dummy to finish talking shit and just smile at the clerk who glances at me apologetically. But OOF did this whole thing leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Let's not forget that just getting through that door can be an anxiety ridden NIGHTMARE for some of us. God forbid you try and use a machine you're unfamiliar with and hope to GOD that you're using it correctly OR maybe you're doing a bit of calisthenics and are trying your hardest to keep your posture in check without looking like a flailing tube man. So yes, for some of us, it takes a lot of guts! So the last thing we need to hear is that we're unwanted at your gym. Because trust me, we're already pretty good at the whole self-deprecating thing and don't need some dummy to make us feel any worse or scare us off.

I know this man's views does not make up the majority of gym regulars and despite overhearing what I heard, my excitement for all the newcomers is still there and growing! And remember, going to the gym is not always a requirement to meet your goals! There are plenty of alternatives to the gym if adding exercise is part of your resolution as well as the option to solely focus on diet and nutrition.

Stay strong this year friends! Never let anyone put you down for wanting to better yourself.

:)

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Can I actually get to my GW? (Female: 5' 3" CW: 176 GW: 130. Moderately active, mostly confused) Looking for advice/other thoughts.

I've been told to lose weight by my doctor. In the last year or so I've probably put on 15lbs and started having some awkward health issues, although I'm not convinced they are completely related- they might just be amplified.

For context I work on my feet and while I'm not the MOST active person, I'm by no means about to be broken by a solid hike. Even when I was younger and played sports, I was always on the heavier side of the numbers for my age/stature. According to the BMI I should be 130lbs but I haven't been that weight since I was pubescent- it just doesn't feel like a physical possibility for me, with also being healthy.

Now my question is, is it actually possible for me to get to my goal weight, or am I going to always be a little heavier numbers wise because muscles, stature/ how my body is? Or is that just me being afraid of the numbers? I've been hesitant to give myself a number goal, because I'm aware that it can be a dangerous game. Especially considering this weight loss isn't the most drastic and it feels like a getting fit goal rather than a losing weight goal. Does that make sense? I know this isn't something that I'm going to figure out over night but I'm trying to create solid and attainable goals. I want to make sure my goal is realistic. I'm also talking to a wellness coach later this month but I'd like some diverse opinions.

Thank you for reading!

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Please help... I don't know how it got this bad, or what to do about it

Please excuse the word vomit below. I'm just feeling very desperate and don't know where else to go.

I just caught a reflection in the mirror of my side profile. What I saw was such a shock that I don't know how I have let myself go this much. I look like a total stranger, like the kind of fat person that kids point and laugh at.

I think I have been deluding myself for a long time. I only ever look at my face in the mirror, and as I'm lucky that I don't carry much weight around my face it never looks that bad. When I look down at my own body it also doesn't look terrible. I see some bangin' cleavage and some slim ankles (the cleavage covers everything in between...)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not so deluded that I didn't know I was obese. I just thought it didn't look THAT bad. But I have finally hung a large mirror in my house, and like an almighty slap in the face, I saw the truth of it.

I know this needs to change. My body prevents me from enjoying life. I can only walk around for a couple of hours before I'm so tired I can't go on. I can't enjoy gigs because my feet hurt so much from standing that long.

I'm pear shaped, so most of my weight is around my bum and hips. This means I'm so restricted simply by bloody chairs. Planes, trains, cinemas, theatres, restaurants, bars... I can't go to or get on any of them without researching chair width first. I look up info on airlines before I book flights. I look at the galleries on restaurant websites to see what type of chairs they have.

My biggest dream is to return to a small European country that I visited years ago and fell in love with. But only one budget airline flies to it from my nearest city, and that airline's seats are way too narrow for me... so I can never go back.

I am turning 30 this year. When I think of how I wasted my twenties being too fat to experience it to the full, it breaks my heart. I don't want to live with this regret, but I don't know how to change it.

I have been trying to lose weight since I was 12 and a totally normal BMI. I had a tiny bit of puppy fat, but I was terrified of turning into my mum.

My mum has been morbidly obese her whole adult life. She basically has no thyroid and despite barely eating anything, her weight has just always crept up.

She started pointing out my weight and cellulite at a young age, also fearing that I would end up like her.

I started emotionally eating and bingeing in my teens, and hiding food in my bedroom. When I moved out and did my own grocery shopping, my bingeing went nuts.

I managed to break the habit of bingeing years ago, but I still emotionally eat, and my weight never stopped increasing.

There have been so many diet and exercise regimes. So much mediation, calorie counting, hypnotherapy, intuitive eating, liquid diets, self help books etc.

The most success I had was before my wedding. I spent 10 months on a strict diet, going to the gym 3-4 times a week. By the time my wedding came around I was a shell of a person. Every waking moment and every ounce of energy had been poured into weight loss and thinking about weight loss and talking about weight loss. I couldn't have done it for one more day.

All of that work brought my weight down from 220 to 205.

By the time I got back from my two week honeymoon, the scales read 224.

I'm not exaggerating that after that weigh in I howled and wept on the floor. I had half killed myself for literally nothing, and there was nothing left in me to pick myself up again.

I have tried all sorts since then. I cut out sugar for two months and gained a pound. I ate 1500 calories a day for a year and gained two pounds. I exercised every day for six months and nothing shifted. I could list it all but it would take hours.

Between these efforts I completely give up. I eat whatever I want and do no exercise, because I'm so drained that I just can't bring myself to think about the elephant in the room (ha).

It's been a while since I weighed myself, but the last time I did it said 275.

I don't know how to do this. I don't think I can. The evidence of the past shows that it is impossible. Every time I gave up I gained more weight than I lost, and I'm so afraid of having a little success and then ending up worse off than before.

What do I do? I'm completely spiralling and totally overwhelmed.

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My story how i lost 35kg and started doing professional modeling in my 30s.. never is too late to change

Hi all, I just came to share with you my story about getting fit. English is not my first language so apologies in advance

All my life I was fat kid, I had overprotective parents and I was spoiled kid, did now wanted to eat bunch of foods, I was soo picky and my mom scared probably of me not eating, did not wanted to starve me when I did not want to eat vegetables or meat two foods I hated most, so she made stuff I like pies, pasta, sandwiches, pancakes, french fries and food like that, I remember that time I was eating french fries 4.5 times a week. My unhealthy diet led me to be overweight, luckily I was an active and tall kid so I never was unhealthy overweight but I had 20 kg over normal weight always. Kids in school bullied me calling me names like Pig, Hog and similar. Luckily because of my high and bulk, I was just bullied psychological, not physical.

Because of that I always had super low self-esteem, never had a real girlfriend till my 20 s when I grow taller even more so I looked less fat even when I still had 20 kg more. I never admitted this to anyone but I lost my virginity at my 24 years old. Strangely to some super hot girl who saw in me what I didn't have seen. After that, I was still overweight, had few more girlfriends that did not last. One time I was going to foam party whit girl I had a crush on, I meet her in the gym and she was super fit and really beautiful, ofc I was put in the friend zone, that was normal for low self-confidence me but I was hoping for more. I introduced her whit some of my friends I was playing basketball whit and we went to a party. Ofc you can assume how the night was gone, The girl hooks up whit one of my handsome friends I was left wet and miserable. A few days after the party I saw some of the pictures of the party on the party Facebook page and saw me. Tall, bold shaven, whit super red cheeks because of no condition in a wet t-shirt that was stuck on my fat body, I looked like an obese miss wet t-shirt. I did not blame that girl for hooking up whit my tall fit good looking friend, who would want to be whit that person from pictures. I was in disgust with me.

The next day I started my first ever diet, I was active, playing basketball going gym even before but that is meaningless if you eat shit food, I cut almost all unhealthy carbs and sweets and started eating chicken meat, eggs, vegetables, and oatmeals. It was extremely hard the first month even when I eat good portions I felt extremely hungry but it was paying off I lost in the first month 7 kg from my starting weight of 115 kg. I still remember my first cheat meal after the first month. To me, a taste of that, don’t know how correctly translate a name of traditional food from my home town but i will try, Pita bread filled whit mix of homemade sour cream, eggs, and gravy that is made from pig fat, just goggle( Komplet lepinja) and you will see pictures online. That first taste after a one-month serious diet had been better than sex.

I did not give up on my healthy eating habits I lost in the next few months 7 kg more and let my hair and beard to grow. Now I had around 100 kg but because I was tall had nice hairstyle and beard girls started looking at me differently. I had a lot more confidence to start getting tattoos I always wanted but don’t have the courage to get them before. After that social life become better, I was looking decent so I lost my motivation to lose more weight. Probably I hit my plateau. At that time I was working security for banks and shoops, just made Instagram account and had pictures of me looking good. I was still overweight but my hight hide that. One girl, I meet try Instagram was working as a model for some good modeling agency from my country. She was trying to convince me that I am good looking enough to work as a male model, and if I lose more weight my face would be more cut and i would have model features. I decided to listen to her and I send Dm to that agency asking about can I work as a male model if I get fit. Imagine my surprise when I got answered, Judging of my Instagram pictures owner of that agency did not believe when I told him I still had 20 kg over requered weight for a male model but he promises me if I cut my weight to fit measurements required for the male models he will give me a chance.

That gave me new motivation to try again and my second weight loss journey. This time I know better what I need to do, ofc I made mistakes in my hurry to cut weight, I run too often because at that time I was thinking that cardio helps lose weight faster than the gym. It was a mistake, I just lost muscles also not just fat. In a period of 6 months, I lost 20 kg from my original weight of 100 kg. I was hoping to lost weight faster but I did not have an idea of how hard is to lose weight when you are already skinny. If I remember correctly in the first 2 months I lost 10 kg and for the last 10 kg I needed double of that time, the last few kgs were hardest for me. Diet was hardest to control because I had to be in a caloric deficit all the time while eating healthy foods. But after 6 months I made it and had the first professional modeling shoot. Pictures came out better then i was hoped I could not believe that that handsome mf from pictures was me,

That was 3 years ago, now I have 33 years still doing modeling, I am not successful as i hoped to be, in this line of work competition is so big. It had ups and downs, also i had relapses when I gain 10 kg of my weight back. When I hurt my back in the gym or was on holiday and eat too much of ice cream haha. Now I am again on a good track of getting an even better body, the goal is older I am to look better. Soon going to China first time in some good agency where i have a chance to make good enough money to continue to live from modeling so wish me luck. Sorry about long af text but when I started to write i could not stop.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Saturday, 04 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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Lost 112kg in 14 months. Pics inside.

Hey all and happy new year. Cheers to a new year and hopefully a new you. A few of my friends told me that some of you would be interested in my weight loss journey. So here I am, hopefully what I share will help some of you on your journey to accomplishing your weight loss goals.

I started off my journey weighing in at an astounding 187 kilograms (412 Pounds) and ended it at 75 kilograms (165 Pounds). This journey took me 14 months to accomplish (May 2018 to July 2019). My current weight as of 03 01 2020 is 72.2 kilograms (159 Pounds).

I wish I could tell you that all I had to do was take some magic pill or do some short exercise for a few minutes a day in order to achieve my goals. All it took was coming up with a proper diet and exercise regimen by myself that I could live with for the duration of the weight loss journey.

I wanted to lose weight as fast as possible, so I cut myself down to only 500kcal a day in food whilst doing 2 hours of cardio exercise a day. I calculated that I would lose around 8 to 9 kilograms a month for 14 months and that would put me at 75kg which is my ideal weight. Where I am neither too chubby nor too skinny.

With my regiment and diet in place I set off. In the beginning it was especially difficult, I was not able to cycle for 2 hours straight. I began with trying to cycle for 45 minutes and week by week I added 5 to 10 minutes per session till I hit my goal of 2 hours. Upon reaching 2 hours of steady cycling I periodically increased the tempo of the exercise by peddling faster or increasing the brake tension setting.

The diet portion came surprisingly easy for me despite the drastic changes made. I basically filled up 500kcal of food with items that were high in volume but low in calories. Lots of vegetables essentially

I kept up this diet and exercise regimen for 14 months straight and as you can see by the before and after picture, I accomplished my goal 😊

I didn’t see July as the end of my journey but the beginning of a new one. With such a drastic cut to my daily intake, I had to reverse diet myself up to 2000kcal daily by slowly adding 150kcal a day per week.

Once I hit 2000kcal per day, I decided that I was too skinny and changed up my exercise regimen from cardio to resistance training (weights). I now do about 1 hour 30 mins of weights 6 times a week and 2 hours of cardio on the 7th day as I want to maintain my level of cardiovascular fitness for my new goal for 2020 which is to climb Mount Rinjani and Mount Kinabalu.

How did I get started? I looked in the mirror and thought to myself, is this who I really want to be for the rest of my life? In 8 months will I look back on this day and regret not starting here and now? I was sick and tired of hating how I looked and who I was, therefore then and there I decided to make the change. I decided to give myself that chance to be who I envisioned myself to be. I decided to love myself enough to try for a healthier future for myself.

Well, that’s about it. I’ll be glad to answer as many questions as possible in the comments section. I hope that my story helps some of you in starting and completing your personal journey. As cliché as it sounds, it’s not a sprint it’s a marathon and the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Most importantly, along your journey there will be voices whispering terrible lies encouraging you to cheat on your diet or to take an extra day of rest from your exercise regiment, maybe even that you aren’t good enough and will never accomplish your goal. Ignore the lies, fight the lies, kill the liar. Take charge of your life. Seize control, fight the battle against yourself, emerge victorious and embrace the new you that you’ve worked hard to create.

Have a great new year! You've got this!

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