My husband gave me a bathroom scale for my birthday...

TLDR: it started and ended with the scale at the doctor’s office ... but now I can see my toes. —-

Go ahead, soak in the schadenfreude of imagining the scene where I collapse into a plump pile of tears and then promptly postmates a bucket of fried chicken to console myself.

To his credit, he did wrap it nicely and put a bow on it. The look on his face as I opened it was like the poor soul in a movie who has to defuse a bomb by guessing if they should clip the red or blue wire with a few seconds until it explodes, killing the entire Disney universe. He may have taken a deep breath and closed his eyes as he handed it over. Yelling ensued.

But... it wasn’t directed at him. It was me yelling at the damn inadequate instructions to connect the “smart scale” to the wifi. This involved me first trying to remember the wifi password. Passwords are the worst. Turns out, it was Bluetooth, but calling their help line is a story for another day.

Spouse breathed sigh of relief that I had been serious when I asked for a fancy new scale for my birthday and it wasn’t some trap like, “Is Gisele Bundchen prettier than me?” (he says no, liar) or “Is my lasagne better than your mother’s?” (point of fact: it is.) Sorry, folks, this ain’t a sob story — you can put away the popcorn.

I stepped on that new fancy scale: 179 lbs. 66 pounds lost with 6 more to go. At 5’11”, that’s a 25 BMI. 10 months of sane, slow weight loss with CICO. I’m built like a Valkyrie, so the top-end of the BMI scale works for me... and I can actually say: I’m not fat, I’m just big boned!

What has changed with the weight loss:

I can see my toes! ALL. OF. THEM. My feet are still ugly AF, but a 1/2 size smaller. Fun fact: feet also lose weight. These troll honkers still require I shop in the jumbo ladies foot section, but whatever. I can see them because my stomach is no longer my most “prominent” feature.

I get cold easier. The seal blubber I had before really did keep away the chill. But, damnit, I look cute in my sleek little jackets and slim-fit henleys. Actually looking forward to summer weather that doesn’t involve me trying to convince myself that a muumuu really flatters my back fat rolls.

No more hiding at the back of group photos... or begging people not to put them on Facebook. About a week ago somebody posted a series of candid photos that caught me from every angle. My biggest gripe was the the tag on my shirt was sticking out... but nobody could see it said size M. Oh, the vanity.

Less makeup and a fierce shorter haircut: I was fooling myself that somehow my longer hair “balanced out” my rotund stomach. Turns out that -5” of hair looks great with -10” off my waist. I’ve got cheekbones Kim Kardashian would envy, no contouring required. These sharp puppies get unexpected amounts of compliments. Plus, I have rediscovered my collarbone and shoulder-blades. Many years ago, I read a Jennifer Weiner book where the character loses a bunch of weight and wakes up one morning to find a hard lump on her hip. She thinks it’s cancer until she realizes that the hard lump is the same on both sides... they were hipbones. It was like that.

My intimate life. I’ll just say this: bumpin’ uglies with a bunch of extra weight was an exercise in getting winded with the lights off. My husband followed suit with his own weight loss — between the two of us, we’ve lost 110 pounds — and we enjoy our own bodies and each other’s much, much more.

What hasn’t changed:

I still look like a soup chicken in skinny jeans. Maybe more like one suited for coq au vin rather than plump centerpiece roast. Wide hips with slim legs will do that to a girl. Alas, losing weight doesn’t fix everything. But I’ve got that hot lower back muscle ridge thing going for me, so it’s a fair trade.

Everything hurts. But that’s a function of landing a glorious and hard-earned spot on nationally competitive rowing crew “Team Badass”. 5-6 days a week I spend 90 min testing the theory that the human body can simultaneously endure a hardcore cardio AND resistance training workout requiring a laser focused mind. Never felt more like a badass in my life. A year ago, I felt like a badass while wolfing down massive 1,000+ calorie burritos after a lighter workout because, you know, I “needed” the fuel. Packed on about 10 lbs of “muscle” from that logic. The aphorism that you win the weight battle in the kitchen and not the gym: truth. What doesn’t hurt anymore is my knees whenever I needed to haul my ass off the couch, or my ring finger after trying to lube up and jam my wedding band on only to watch it turn fifty shades of reduced blood flow.

I still argue with the Nurse Pratchett at the doctor’s office about my weight. A few days ago at my checkup, their scale showed 183, and I wanted credit for that 4 pounds! No dice. But it was late afternoon... I just drank a bunch of water so I could pee in a cup, was wearing jeans, a winter coat, and boots. Fine, I’ll show her at the next appointment. Last year’s checkup? I tried taking my sandals off thinking I’d magically drop 40 pound on the spot. Upside of my checkup: no more blood-pressure medication needed.

I have nothing to wear. she whines This time it’s because EVERYTHING in my closet is too big. Even my previously smallest jeans — the aspirational ones you keep with the glimmer of hope you’ll ever be able to pull up over your knees again — are baggy. And those fuckers were expensive. Kinda mad about that. Also... I’m a size 8-10, medium — and I’ve discovered finding shit that fits properly off the rack is still impossible. At least now I can say it’s an inventory problem without the little voice in the back of my head speaking the hard truth of, Sorry, Toots, it’s actually because you’re eggplant-shaped. And not the svelte Japanese variety.

I eat whatever I want, as much as I want ...HOWEVER, I’m under no illusions about the consequences of calories (~1700/day to lose, maintenance is next). I still have “hungry” days — especially when I’m PMSing. If I want a giant steak and mashed potatoes... I go for it. Rather than popping a couple alka seltzer’s afterwards and grabbing my sweatpants, I stay in my jeans and go easy on the calories for the next few days. Like a rational person. Like my life-long slender friends do.

So, if you’re still with me... a huge thanks for the support of this group. Gave me the info about CICO, MFP, and an outlet to do something i had never done before: use a sense of humor to tackle the emotional side of weight loss. I’d be lost (and still fat) without you.

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Seeking Advice - Plateaued for a while now

SW: 185lb CW: 168.8lb First GW: 150lb 5ft 2in, 25yr old female with 25% body fat

I think I am confused about how much I should be eating calorie and macro wise. I lost 16.5lb in about half a year and for the past 8(ish) months I’ve been bouncing between the same 2-5lb. I was eating 1300-1400 and I then raised it to 1600 this past January because I started reading you shouldn’t eat below your BMR, which I did for most of my weight loss journey so far. The same day I raised my calories to 1600 is the same day I came down with a terrible cold that kept me out of the gym for a week. I of course lost weight while I was sick and gained back 2lb once I was better. My RENPHO scale says my BMR is 1610 and the TDEE calculator says my sedentary calorie amount is 1925.

Here is my weight graph and current photos: https://imgur.com/a/4ctk8Wp

I am an active person. I walk to and from school which is 2 miles round trip, sometimes I have to walk to town and that’s another 2 miles round trip. So some days I’m walking four miles. I do powerlifting for an hour four times a week with 15-20 minute hard cardio at the end, then once a week for an hour I do boxing, yoga, and Krav Maga. The powerlifting is usually in the mornings fasted and then in the afternoon I’ll do boxing or Krav Maga. When I take my Apple Watch off at night it says I usually burn between 900-1600 active calories.

All my food is weighed out in grams on my food scale and logged into MyFitnessPal. I check to make sure the packaging and MFP say the same things. Recently my macros haven’t been great. It’s been either more carbs for the day or protein and carbs are matched. I am not exactly sure how much of each I should be eating. I also do intermittent fasting 16:8. I have one cheat day a week that is not counted for, literally everything else is counted for.

So I guess I’ll just wondering how many calories do you think I should be eating to maybe drop some more weight. Even if it’s 1lb a week. I don’t feel comfortable dropping below 1600 calories again because I do feel exhausted the day after I burned 1000 - 1600 calories.

TLDR: How many calories and macros should I be eating to lose weight?

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My low tech weight loss journey ten years ago

Hi all. I lost a significant amount of weight between 2010-2011 and recently found a cache of data that I thought I had lost that was even more complete than I remembered. I found it really interesting because these days it's almost a foregone conclusion that you use an app like My Fitness Pal to keep track of diet, people will tell you that you must use a food scale, you can find endless strategies on reddit, etc - but I thought it would interesting to show how I accomplished this in era before smartphones, with little to no advice, just because I got tired of being fat and decided to start counting calories and see what happened.

I was 20 years old, 5'5" F, and was used to averaging around 165 pounds in high school but had suffered the freshman 20 and was now sitting around 180, just barely cracking obese. I weighed in at, I think, 181 when I decided I was over it, but later I got a digital scale and back-corrected my analog measurements by the percentage difference between the scales and found my starting weight, had it been measured on the new scale, would have been 184. So I count 184 as my starting weight

I actually wasn't confident at all that I could lose weight, I thought I had a slow metabolism yadda yadda, but at least I wanted to prove it. So I opened up a Google Doc and simply started writing down what I ate, looking up the calories, and adding it up. I also created a Google Sheet and put in my weight every day. It just so happened that the school year had just ended and I moved out of the dorm and into my own place, so I wasn't walking past a dessert bar every day or any of the other nonsense. My first several days looked incredibly reasonable, less than 2000 calories, which I took as evidence that I would never be thin... but then my weight started to go down. I vaguely had the idea that 135 would be a good weight for me, 15 pounds below what I had ever seen on the scale, and that also happened to be where I would land if I lost 10% three times. So I set stepwise 10% goals of 166, 149, and 135 and took off.

One of the things I want to say is that, at first I was really just estimating. Eyeballing. I eventually graduated to measuring cups, but I never had a food scale. I totally dig that the food scale makes things more accurate, and I have one now, but it's possible to lose weight without the most precise equipment if you are reasonable and honest with yourself. I also should say I did not have a driver license let alone a car at this time, so my transportation activity definitely helped with reaching my goals. Many years later, after I got licensed, I began struggling with my weight a bit again and the precision of the food scale is very helpful now that I have less leeway because I have to freaking drive most of the places I go.

I would also say that being on this weight loss journey likely influenced my adult eating habits. Obviously, in high school I did not eat to be a healthy weight, and when I started tracking it became clear that only a few things were problems: basically, seconds at dinner and the slightly too frequent "I feel like a chocolate bar" or "I feel like some ice cream." On days I didn't do those things, my calorie count was perfectly reasonable and at a level that continued making me lose weight. So I was on the one hand relieved that I really didn't have to do anything crazy, and on the other hand kept stock of how often I could squeeze in those higher calorie treats and keep losing, because presumably that was a level of indulgence I could maintain forever. With regard to the seconds at dinner, dropping my vegetarian upbringing and eating more concentrated protein was a game changer - it was something I was already starting to do, but I really hadn't realized until I tracked that a large amount of carbs packaged with my protein was part of what made me eat too much at dinner to achieve satiety.

The Imgur link shows the THREE YEARS of weight data I collected. I hit my initial goal within 9 months, and continued to shave off a bit out to around one year. I largely maintained between 125-135 after that. I also took some screencaps of my food diary Google Doc, which I kept up for not as long, showing how I approached the tracking at different points. Up until I actually met my weight goal, I manually added up calories. After I met my weight goal, I experimented with different, less quantitative methods of assessing what I was eating until I finally dropped the food diary altogether after about 9 months post-goal. My weigh-ins also became more spotty as time went on, but I apparently continued putting in numbers at least sometimes until mid 2013 - and I can tell you it wasn't until about 2 years after the weight graph ends that I started having issues again due to lifestyle changes affecting my activity. By that time, I had a smartphone and found MFP and took up my weight management in a more modern way.

Enjoy, and I hope it provides some insights for those of you starting out or wondering how things are going to look once you get to maintenance.

https://imgur.com/a/0XmKzp4

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I really need to lose weight - Suggestions

Hello everyone!

I work 10 hours a day as a software developer... and we don't have breaks except 30 mins as our lunch break.. now I believe many of you may be in the same position, I have been eating alot of junk in the past 3 years and no moving.. I've gained about 44 lbs since then I'm currently 195 lbs which is obese.. and I'm getting married hopefully by the end of this year.. however I want to be back at least to 150 lbs, now I have started 6 days ago the detoxing / cleansing diet but im not happy with it, I starve alot at work its a little easier now after the 4th day but still starving whenever I see someone eating or see some advertisement, im doing the following drinking about x3 600 ml of green detox or similar drinks, eating one salad dish and 2 hard boiled eggs per day, I just started going to the gym today was my 2nd day, mainly doing cardio and abit of weight lifting I can see that in these 6 days I've lost about 3-4 lbs but its been stuck for the past 2 days at the same weight almost, I need something to get me going, knowing it will work for sure if I followed it, I've read in one of the posts about logging your calories in / out but I honestly don't know how to do that exactly how to begin, like okay I read hard boiled eggs are 155 calories per 100 grams but I can't tell how many calories in everything I eat, since I don't cook at home, maybe I need to which also leads me to the need of a plan where to find something trust worthy, also I cannot tell how many calories I've burnt when I'm doing my exercises im not following a specific plan, for example I was only able to do about 15 pushups, walked/ran for 20 minutes, did 3 sets of weight lifting I'm basing them on how much is my limit and I try to add a little bit more each time, and so on, maybe it is wrong to do this but yeah this is why im here I need tips for weight loss, exercising, food.

I seriously need to lose this weight, to me money is no issue if it comes to my health but I prefer if it was in the least amount possible.

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Fat Chance by Nick Spalding ( Humorous fictional book about dieting and weight loss)

This book is available for free on Kindle Unlimited, you can read or listen for free (via Kindle Unlimited). I got it on Audible for a credit because I loved his book "Dumped Actually".

Anyway, this book is about an overweight married couple who are talked into joining a competition called "Fat Chance" in which at the end of the competition the winning couple wins money.

Although fictional, the stories are very relate-able to anyone who's ever tried to squeeze themselves in or out of those cheap plastic patio chairs, or a woman who's managed to squeeze yourself into that cute dress only to discover you can't zip it up.

Anyway, I am finding this book enjoyable and although fictional, it is putting into words some of the embarrassing things that so many of us go through and just want to forget about rather than talk about.

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Why aren't I losing weight (7 weeks with nutritionist)?

I am 33, 5'6 and 183 pounds. I have a nutritionist and a personal trainer. Been working with the nutritionist for 7 weeks, trainer for 1. My nutritionist has as a basic goal for me to eat more protein than carbs (ratio). She wants me to eat 1600 calories a day, but I just eat until I'm full and hover around 1300. My BMR is 1552. She says if I eat under that my body will shut down my metabolism to conserve energy, but I'm frustrated I have been doing what this woman told me for 7 weeks with no weight loss. Attached are averages for each week, cals, protein, carbs, ratio, weight etc...

stats

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My weight loss plan (not for everyone)

I’m not telling anyone else how to do their diet, as we each have different level of cravings, ability to stick with a plan and not fall of the wagon, etc. This is just what is working for me. Hopefully, some of this can help others.

I began thinking I would lose 50 (needed 40 to get to normal BMI) pounds in 5 months. I was able to drop calories and was losing about 2 lbs per week with CICO and some exercise. I started missing out (in my mind) when going to nice restaurants, family functions, etc., telling myself it would be worth it in the end. But then I thought, why can’t I have both? I developed a plan to stretch out the weight loss to 11 months and added in EXTRAs days. I hate to call them cheat days as I plan for them and I’m not cheating my plan. We each have different goals for amount of weight to lose and timeframe over which to do it, so I understand this may not work for everyone. In my mind, I was doing this for the rest of my life so who cares if I take 5 months or 11 months to get to a healthy weight. I understand stretching out to 5 years would be a different story, so this may not work if you need to lose significant weight.

I project out my weight (by day) months in advance adding in various Extras days. My basic plan is to lose 0.25 lb on a normal diet day. Once a week, I have a 0.00 loss day, usually Saturday, where I eat at maintenance. I then add in anything from my calendar where I will eat at an excess and guesstimate weight gains, which are between .25-1.0 lb. When I eat out, I add in extra pounds for a few days for “extra” weight (water retention from sodium and extra waste) so I have my daily weight to compare. Daily weigh-ins keep me focused, plus, I have never had a weight gain from the day before that I couldn’t explain based on my activity or consumption from the day before. It is usually related to amount of sodium, volume of food, level of hydration, etc. Tracking everything I eat on Cronomoter has also been very helpful.

As long as I’m under my projected weight, I’m on plan and am happy. Some weeks I have several Extras days and actually gain weight, but I’ve already planned for that and don’t beat myself up. I LOVE eating so enjoying these opportunities while staying moderately healthy is one of the main reasons for me to lose weight.

As example, assume the following week with a birthday dinner where my projected Monday weigh-in is 190:

Mon – 190 – 0.25 = 189.75 (Proj for Tue morning weigh-in)

Tue – 189.75 – 0.25 = 189.50

Wed 189.5 + 0.50 (Birthday dinner) + 4.0 “extra” weight = 190.00 + 4.00 = 194.00

Th 190.00 – 0.25 + 2.0 “extra” = 189.75 + 2.00 = 191.75

Fri 189.75 – 0.25 + 1.0 “extra” = 189.5 + 1.00 = 190.5

Sat 189.5 – 0.00 = 189.50

Sun 189.50 – 0.25 = 189.25 (proj for mon morning weigh-in)

In this example I was able to follow my plan, enjoy myself, not feel terrible that the scale went up a few days, and lost net weight for the week, as I stayed on plan. I also net gain weight some weeks but have it built in. As example, I went on vacation a week around new year’s eve, drank and ate pretty much whatever I wanted, gained weight that week, but didn’t freak out because it was in the plan BEFORE I indulged.

I can follow a plan once I have decided it is important and always assumed maintaining weight would be much more difficult once I reached my goal. I don’t know how well I could enjoy a special night out worrying about the slippery slop of starting to gain back the weight I lost. I plan to keep this weight budget going forward, knowing a few pounds here and there won’t matter as long as it is in a plan. I tend to have more Extras days in Fall (related mostly to football, family events, and holidays), so my plan going forward will include slightly higher weight at year’s end and slightly lower weight in the summer.

Good luck to everyone with their weight loss goals! Reading others’ posts have really helped me!

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