My VLCD journey

Hi!

I don't know if this fits perfectly here, but here we go anyways~

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I'm 23 year old woman, 291 lb 5′ 7. It's my highest weight so far. I've had weight problems my whole life. I was a chubby kid. For some reason I have always eaten everything I can get my hands on + eaten as fast as I could. I come from a long line of extremely fat women. For some reason, I'm really lucky since despite the excess weight no one in my family has high bp, cholesterol, blood sugar etc so my parents have never been worried of my excess weight.

When I was 12, the first adult (a school nurse) in my life told me that I was fat and needed to loose weight. I was a very sensitive kid, and basically completely lost it. I developed an eating disorder fast, I also lost the excess weight fast. In total I lost about 40lb in a year, so I became underweight. I suffered ED all the way trough my youth up until about 19 when I moved out to study in an university in another city. It really helped me to get better from the ED. I slowly put on the weight again, and it never stopped. Eventually I graduated from uni, weighing about 220 lb. I got a desk job and kept gaining the weight.

Last year I was diagnosed ankylosing spondylitis and fibromyalgia. The main problem is my back, but my knees, ankles etc are affected also. I have no doubts my excess weight is making the problems worse, so I finally tried to seek help.

Since getting better from ED I have tried dieting "the healthy way" several times. Sometimes on my own, sometimes trough an online training, sometimes with a personal trainer. It has never worked out in a long term. I loose like 20 lb, quit and gain it all back with interest.

I met with a couple different nutritionist. The first one didn't seem to understand what type of help I was looking for, so it didn't work out. But this last one really clicked. I was able to talk to her about the possibility of a weight loss surgery. At this point I'm not 100% sure I want to go trough with it, the team of doctors and the nutritionist also agree that I should try other things first, and think the surgery as the last possible step. The nutritionist suggested an 8 week long VLCD, which I thought would be a great thing to try. We agreed that my goal is to loose 20 lb and obtain the 5 meals a day rhythm.

I'm starting the diet a week from now, so 7.3.2020. I need to get the correct rhythm to my meals sorted in the coming week, so the transition won't be so hard. I've already ordered the drinks and meals for 2 first weeks. I'm terrified and excited at the same time. My biggest fear is that I will give up. So that is why I'm writing all of this out here, so I can have a clear plan. I'm hoping to write an update after 2 weeks, maybe if I can get to that point the rest 6 weeks don't seem so impossible. Wish me luck! :)

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

Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Friday, 28 February 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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SV: 1/4 of the way to my weight loss goal!

25 F 5’8” SW: 263 CW: 236 GW: 163

I was just feeling pretty down because I’ve hit a plateau and haven’t lost any weight in a few weeks, but then I realized I’ve passed the 25 pound mark!That’s a quarter of the way to my goal of losing 100 pounds. I’m still upset that I ever let things get this far, but I’m feeling happy that I’m finally on the right track.

For me this means eating favorite not-so-healthy foods in moderation (and not shaming myself for enjoying them) and eating lots of lean protein and vegetables the rest of the time. It means I now eat a protein-packed breakfast (like 2 scrambled eggs or steel cut oats with peanut butter) and feel more energized in the morning than I’ve ever been. It means I snack on things like a hard-boiled egg, cottage cheese with pepper, hummus with some pretzel chips, or a mandarin. It means I generally balance my plate with protein/complex carbs/vegetables or at least try to balance my day that way. It means I don’t restrict myself from eating foods high in fat like butter, salmon, or avocado, I just eat them in moderation. I don’t know why it took me so long to really get that through my head, but I have finally had some success (while not being miserable) by balancing my meals/days. What I mean by that is that if I ate a lunch high in fat, I try to eat a dinner lower in fat that day. Or if I spent a whole day eating foods high in carbs, I’ll spend the next day limiting my carbs a little more. It’s a give and take that I keep track of in my head. I have a long way to go, but I feel like I finally understand what works for my body.

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M14, 5'7, sw:210, cw:165, gw:145 going through some serious issues, help would be appreciated.

It's late and Im going to keep it short and simple. Im m14, used to be 210 lbs (around 90 kg) around mid november of last year. Im a very straightforward dude, I used to be a hardcore fortnite gamer and from one day to the other it got quite boring so I stopped. I decided to go to my old elementary school to play basketball everyday and met some people there that had the same mentality as me. So far ive lost 46 lbs and since im hitting the gym, weight loss has slowed down a bit but the strength never disappoints. Im 5'7 and 165 currently.

Now here is where shit really gets annoying: I used to wake up, eat a healthy breakfast (eggs, spinach, chicken breast, fruits) and go to school, come back home and play basketball until it got dark and would usually reach from 8k - 12k steps per day. Im hispanic and my mom has been trying to learn english for the past 8 years we've been here. Anyways she finally decided to take it seriously and entered a low cost community college and goes to school during the week and sometimes during the weekends. She, as a result, has gotten very stressed with having to deal with taking me and my brother to school,her going to school, and dealing with my dad after he comes back from work and having to clean and do laundry. She has developed a lump under her breast and with a little money we scraped, she got tested and we don't know if it's benign or not.

Here is where it starts to go downhill: Im still loosing weight here and there, but I also have therapy for my back. When I said I used to game, I meant it. It was a rigorous 8 hours everyday and as a result my posture was bad and then thats when all of my back started to get tense. Now, my mom goes to school from 9 AM to 4:30 PM and me and my 5 year old brother go to school from 8 AM to 3 PM, and we both go to different schools where he has bus transportation and I don't. I used to get picked up by mom, come back home and play basketball, Now it's just get out of school, carpool with my friend and his mom to their house until 4:30 or 5 PM and then go straight away to therapy after my mom picks me up, and we have this very nice cuban lady who takes care of my brother. So here is a little summary: Lost alot of weight, very motivated, quit gaming, father has always been quite physically,verbally abusive, but oh well thats life, and mother might have cancer, and im starting to regain old habits.

If you can give me some advice that would be really appreciated and also feel free to correct my grammar as im also trying to improve on that.

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new nurse, embarrassed, & lost

hello all! i‘ve been arguing with myself over the past week about starting my weight loss journey and i’m ready to commit, but i’m honestly so scared. i’m a 21 year old female in the south, soon to graduate, marry, and start working as a nurse all in the next 2-3 months.

here’s the main thing. i’ve never exercised. i grew up thinking i was fat and was very self conscious. i skipped PE as much as i could. so what seems to be “normal” to my peers is terrifying to me. i want to start exercising along with my dieting but i just don’t know where to start. i started college around 135 lbs and am now at 170 and i just FEEL fat and i know i have to get rid of this weight now while i’m still young.

the diverse reddit population has helped me on so many other things, i know there’s somebody out there who was/is in my current situation and i just want to figure out how to get this going and stay motivated. since i’m so stressed with nursing school and work right now, half the time i will make an effort at weight loss, then blow it because i tell myself i deserve to enjoy my food or take a nap all day (i have hypothyroidism). please give me any advice you may have/words of encouragement/etc because i just feel lost right now as i try to prepare for this journey that i need to stick with.

any and all comments are truly appreciated 🤍

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35lbs lost since Oct 2019 - Weight-loss Journey

28yo Female 5’3” SW: 255 CW: 219 GW: 140

This starts a couple of years ago but bare with me.

In 2017 both my husband and I started going to the gym and exercising regularly before we got married to try and lose weight before the big day. TBH I was hoping for 20lbs even though I was at 260 at the time. I met a super awesome personal trainer and she inspired me to do weight training. I hated cardio (still do) and was extremely intimidated by the thought of going to a gym in the first place. After months of training going from kettle bells and machines to free weights and deadlifts I slowly gained confidence and got down to about 225. At that point I started to psych myself out, constantly getting on the scale and not seeing the number change at all even though I was working my butt off. I became obsessed weighing myself everyday or even multiple times a day. Eventually I got so frustrated and so discouraged that I completely stopped after we got married. I gained almost all the weight back very quickly.

Last April, I was admitted into the hospital because I had a large pulmonary embolism caused by birth control pills and of course my weight. The doctor (very professionally) told me that I could not go on certain medicines to help alleviate the blood clot and that required less maintenance because I was over a BMI of 40. At that point, I was at my all time low. He also told me to lose weight and quickly. When I was released from the hospital I was completely terrified to do anything that involved me being physically active or really much of anything besides what I had to do.

After 6 months of being poked by needles every week, looking like I was beaten because of the bruising, and just all around feeling very fragile. I was giving the good news that the embolism was now in the residual phase and taken off of the blood thinners. At the same time my husband and I started seeing a weight loss doctor. Now I know....I had the same thoughts of “if this person prescribes me a bunch of herbs and other nonsense without doing any scientific measurements like taking blood I’m totally outta here.” , but it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I was prescribed Ozempic to take once a week and found out that I was becoming insulin resistant and have PCOS. Since being on the Ozempic I have felt like I can actually lose weight and keep it off. No more of this yo yo dieting nightmare that I was used to. We have changed our diet and started controlling our portion sizes. I feel so much better than I have ever felt in years.

Now after losing 35lbs just on diet alone and adding a little bit more walking than I normally do, I think I need to incorporate exercise. I am not a huge fan of cardio but if it involves something stimulating I can tolerate it. I love weight training but I don’t want to fall into that negative death spiral again. Any thoughts on where to start?

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Finally taking the steps!

I created an account just so I can have somewhere that I feel like I'm held accountable. I gained a lot of weight when I started college and I never quite lost it all. I have depression and pretty bad body image issues but I finally feel like taking care of my body and being healthy in my weight loss techniques! It's a small victory because I finally love myself enough to realize that I am effectively bullying myself.

So far I've lost 15 pounds from my starting weight of 170lb. I want to get within the healthy range for my height (5'4). I plan to join the gym soon so I can really focus during my workouts.

Here's to an exciting new journey!

And if anyone reads this, I hope you reach your goals and that you're happy- you deserve it.

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