Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Thursday, 30 April 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!

submitted by /u/AutoModerator
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2yb8EGY

Feeling great on my 2nd try after I binge ate my success away

25F 5’3” SW: 130lb GW:115lb

I started counting calories January 2019 and actually reached got to 110-115lb by May. But unfortunately, probably due to my obsessive calorie tracking and restricting myself to not eat the food that I want to eat, I developed a binge eating disorder in August when I started stuffing myself with cakes and breads until I was painfully full. I’m talking about half a cake + a whole loaf of challah at all once and many similar instances. I would drive around to visit multiple stores then proceed to eat everything in my car in the parking lot. Just very sad, frustrating, and embarrassing looking back at it.

It took me a while, but I was able to slowly steer myself the right way and stopped the binging eventually. It was probably helpful that I took two vacations between then and the start of 2020 where I was unable to track calories since I ate out all the time. I learned to just enjoy the food I was eating without worrying how many calories they would be.

From the binging episodes and the vacations where I ate without considering calories, I ended up gaining all of the weight I lost back, so by January 2020 I was back at 134lbs. But I felt confident that I have fixed my binge eating and decided to tackle calorie counting to lose weight again.

The first time around when I reached my goal weight, I was devastated by the fact that after all my hard work by eating super healthy and working out all the time to lose all that weight, to maintain my goal weight, “I can still only eat around 1400 cal for the rest of my life!?” This time, I feel much more mentally prepared. Here’s my current approach that I think has been working very well for me and hopefully would help some of you:

-I decided to eat at the maintenance calorie of my goal weight from the start this time, and KNOWING that that’s how much a person who is 115lb can eat to maintain weight really has been keeping my mentality much more healthy than last time around.

-I also have taken on the mindset of “On days and meals when I have full control of how much I eat, I will eat around 1300-1400 calories every day for the rest of my life if I have the power to do so.” And that I feel like will offset any days that I eat out or eat an extra slice of cake (or two haha)

-I’ve came to terms with that while there are days that I go over my calorie limit, there are so many more days where I stay within my calorie goal. Like really really try to come to terms with this. I do not actively try to eat below my calorie range the next day after going over the day before. Every day is a fresh start.

-I have been eating things I WANT to eat, just smaller portions, to keep the calories down and not just eating super healthy food that I don’t care for. I do try to eat nutritious food, but when I want a slice of cake, I will eat a small slice of cake instead of a salad or chug water. Because, at the end of the day, a salad is NOT cake lol

I’ve lost almost 10 lbs since January 2020 so far. It’s slightly slower than my weight loss rate last year, but im completely okay with it. I feel good about my progress and feel confident that I can maintain my goal weight happily once I get there this time

tl;dr Binge-ate my success away, but feeling great on my second attempt

submitted by /u/ApronPears
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3bT5DtM

Weight loss plateau

So I started my weight loss journey back in January. I'm a 5'5 39 year old female. SW 203 CW 171 GW 150. I was strict CICO. No excercise bc I have a heart condition. I had a heart ablation done on March 17th which my cardiologist said was successful and I should not be bothered with my condition again. I recently had my 1 month check up and he said it was ok for me to start exercising. So I've been walking 1 hour a day on my days off ( I work 3 12 hour shifts a week) My weight has not budged at all. I thought with the increased activity the weight would fly off. I haven't changed my diet (I have one cheat meal on Saturday). I guess I'm just feeling discouraged and at a loss on what I could be doing better. Any ideas would be most welcome.

submitted by /u/bethykins81
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3d0cly0

Has anyone else lost a significant amount of weight, but feels like you don't look super different?

I'm a 5'4 girl, 18 years old, and I weigh 118 lbs. Around this time last year I weighed around 135 lbs so I'm 17 lbs down, dropped down from a size 6-8 to size 4/small.

I decided to look at some old pictures of myself to feel proud of my weight loss but, while it's clear that I look much better now than I did a year ago, I'm pretty sure a lot of it has to do with aesthetic changes I made--wearing more flattering clothes, figuring out how to do my hair, taking care of my skin, etc. But I still very much FEEL large/larger than I want to be, and my new goal is to lose ~8 lbs to 110, even though a year ago I could barely imagine being 120. A year ago I thought dropping 10 lbs, I would look like a dream and at 15 lbs down I'd have definitely achieved my body goals. Now that I've passed that point I realistically do not look how I want to.

Anyone else feel the same way? How much do you have to lose before weight loss becomes really apparent? Now I'm guessing it's around the order of 50 lbs, especially if you're skinnyfat like me lol.

submitted by /u/100percenthomo
[link] [comments]

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

The battle over breakfast

I grew up hearing phrases like , “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, “clear your plate because there are starving kids in Africa” or “make sure you eat everything so you can be healthy and strong.”

Then “diet culture” told me things like, “if you skip meals it will kill your metabolism”, or “breakfast jump starts your weight loss” , “when you eat breakfast your body knows when to start burning calories”.

For close to 30 years now Ive been a big believer in breakfast. l wake up and about 15min later I was eating 2 eggs on a slice of sourdough.

Quarantine has changed life up significantly. The first being my wake up routine. A couple weeks ago, I woke up and had a quick bit of work to do on my computer. So I sent out the emails and finished up what needed to be done. Then I got out of bed, did some cleaning, then did some yoga. Before I knew it it was noon and I was shocked to discover I wasn’t STARVING.

This was so new to me. It challenged one of my perceptions of food habits. I alway eat breakfast. Only “people with eating disorders skipped meals”. Yet, I skipped a meal, felt fine, and didn’t implode. And bonus , I now had more calories for a bigger lunch or dinner.

Ive skipped breakfast now almost every day this month. Im doing fine, and Im not starving. I think Im gunna break up with breakfast.

Have you guys confronted any other sayings myths or misconceptions ? What was your experience?

submitted by /u/Harveyquinn6
[link] [comments]

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

Thoughts on getting stuck?

Hi! I'm new to this thread and would love to get some insight on my situation. I am a 20 y/o, 5'3 female. I've changed my eating/lifestyle habits in the past and have achieved weight loss, but always seem to bounce back (meaning I didn't really internalize these changes, or they simply weren't for me).

In the summer of 2018, I lost around ~20 lbs (went from ~150 lbs to 129 lbs) in around 2 months. I was eating around ~1100 cal a day and going HIIT workouts (think Orange Theory) 6 days of the week. I was having 1 cheat meal a week (usually 3 slices of pizza) and the rest of my food was homecooked and pretty healthy.

I started college that fall and gained around 10 lbs in my fall semester. I stopped working out as much and although I kept on eating healthy, I think the dining hall food just wasn't the same for my body. I also started stress eating (late-night snacks during exams) and I started drinking more on the weekends. By the end of my freshmen year, I was back to my original weight.

I've stayed at 150 lbs for almost a year. I consider myself a healthy eater (very rarely eat fast food/sodas/candy), I love veggies, I try to use healthy alternatives as often as I can (stevia instead of white sugar, low-fat cottage cheese instead of regular, Ezekiel bread instead of white bread, almond milk instead of cow milk), and I'm always conscious of my portions.

I've been tracking my calories sporadically for the last month and without any restrictions, I usually eat around ~1450 calories a day. It's important to say I don't exercise, basically at all, anymore. I try to go for walks and do light yoga (think 2, 3 times a week) but haven't done HIIT in a long time.

I'm just wondering: what do you think I could be doing wrong and the reason why I've remained at this weight (which is high for my height)? Is 1450 calories too much for me? Is it the exercise that's lacking?

Would love to get your thoughts!

submitted by /u/ismssuk
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2KHotb1

My Biggest Struggle with Food: FOMO and Panic

Hey everyone, I have been doing a lot of thinking about why I struggle with maintaining weight after weight loss - this is a long post but I wanted to get it off my chest.

In 2018, I went from 171 to 135 from June-October. I felt so proud of myself. Weight loss was easy because success was "addicting." I maintained for about a year because I had never lost weight like that before. I loved how I looked.

Fast forward to August 2019 - my senior year. I gained 20 pounds in less than a semester. Why? Because I turned 21 and had a whole new world of possibilities for happy hour apps and sugary drinks. Friends were over all the time and we'd make junk food. I would go out of my dang way to eat the Taco Tuesday special when I had food at home. I felt so out of control. I tracked calories during the day but completely ignored everything at night.

Come 2020, I set a NY resolution to lose 15 lbs between January and May graduation. Easy, right? I lost literally no weight. I would track my calories for a few days and then decide that the two appetizers, beer flight, "Monday night special," or entire pizza was way more worth getting back to a happier weight. I told myself; "I still work out, at least I have muscle."

March rolls around, and coronavirus happens. I move out of my college apartment and am temporarily at my parents house. I have lost 8 lbs already. I feel so in control. There are no temptations. There is no plate of cookies at work. There are no friends asking if I want to go bar hopping. Bars aren’t even open. I am not near my boyfriend who I would convince to take me out to eat. I am not going long periods without eating due to classes/work and feeling like I "deserve" a 900 calorie lunch. A "crazy big" meal is eating half a portion of take-out food twice a week.

But I am afraid of what happens when I move back for grad school.

I don't know how to tell myself that, "Yes, I can go out with friends and eat a few fries, but I cannot order a whole loaded fries myself." I don't know how to tell myself, "No, you can't get up and eat a second meal because there's a special." I don't know how to tell myself, "Yes, you can stay in even if your friends are going out drinking." I used to tell myself these things and then would ignore them. I don't know how to tell myself these things because I would say them every day and not listen to myself. It got to a point where I would dissociate from my appearance and barely look at myself before going out just to let myself "enjoy" all the junk food I craved.

I know that CICO lets you eat whatever you want as long as you can fit it in your calories. Yes, I can fit junk food into maintenance. But one bite or plate is never enough. Instead of ordering a cheeseburger, I order a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake. Why? Because one cheeseburger doesn’t feel “worth the calories.” I convince myself that, “If I don’t binge, I will never be able to enjoy these CICO bomb meals.”

Summary: Losing and maintaining weight at school feels like I’m trapped in a hamster wheel of temptations. I do pretty well on my own, as evident in past weight loss, but don’t want to resort to isolating myself from friends/fun places to stay away from temptations. I want to enjoy junk food/drinks every so often like a normal person, but I struggle saying “no” to pizza, apps, jumbo margs, cupcakes at work, and everything else. Maintenance is the biggest challenge. Losing weight is addictive but maintenance feels like an eternity of struggle. I don't want to feel "doomed to have no fun" once I lose the weight again and it's time to maintain. I know that food does NOT equal fun or friendship, but my mind uses friends and fun as an excuse to eat the junk. I think that my struggle stems from false panic about scarcity.

I wanted to share this to connect with other people who have the same CICO struggle. I want to do better for myself. I want to not fluctuate back and forth clothing sizes every six months. I want to have healthy habits - physically and mentally.

submitted by /u/GlitteryDusk
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/35nhUnO