Sometime back in 2014, I (F/29/5") reached my highest every weight of 87.8 kgs (193.5 lbs). At that time, I was fuelled by a lot of anger towards my weight and life, and I lost about 24 odd kgs to reach 64 kgs. But that weight loss was highly unsustainable and I fell back into my old habits within the year. The weight started to climb up gradually, not enough to notice on a day to day basis, but I had put on 20 kgs in the next three years. In August of 2018, I realized that I'd let go of myself again and this time I had to lose it for good.
Since then, I've lost 17.5 kgs and come down to 66 kgs. In these two years, I've learnt some important lessons about my body and mind, and I can finally pinpoint the exact pattern during every phase of my weight loss.
The Plateau
My weight loss goes great for about 3-4 kgs and then I start to plateau. It usually happens because one cheat day turns into a cheat week after almost a month and a half of eating and exercising properly. That's when I put on 1-1.5 kgs again and it's a game of two steps forward, one step backward. This is the most frustrating part of the whole weight loss because I know I can do better, and I just.. don't?
The Cheat Day
The first couple of cheat days will be perfect. I'll eat within my given calories, and I'll exercise a little extra during the weekend to make up for it. And then comes that one cheat day where all hell breaks loose and I let go of myself. It's the day when every meal turns into a spectacular cheat meal and I don't exercise for a week afterwards. The guilt of it all begins to stew inside and before I know it, I've binged and had an entire cheat week.
Exercise
I've had a gym membership for two years. I go for a long walk in the mornings. I do my best to take the stairs when I can. I'm great with exercise for weeks at a go, and then suddenly, it just all shuts down. Sometimes, it's just a depression nap that goes on too long and I no longer care about exercising. Sometimes, work gets out of hand and I just want to curl up on the couch instead of sweating in the gym. The worst of them all, over-exercising to make up for my cheat week and injuring a muscle or joint that forces me to take two weeks to recover and those two weeks turn into two months. When I'm in the swing of it, I will exercise three hours a day, and when I'm not, I won't get up off the bed.
When the quarantine started, I swore to myself to not let these patterns get in my way. Like I've done every single time. And for the first time, I actually succeeded! I've hit a plateau, but I know it's normal and the weight will start dropping in a week or so. I had three cheat days in one week, but I didn't let them get out of hand even once. I did end up overexerting myself during exercise, but instead of just giving everything up, I'm doing stretches, yoga and upper body exercises to keep myself in check.
This sub has been my rock through the past six weeks, and reading your stories gives me confidence to beat every single one of these patterns forever and make my weight loss sustainable for the rest of my life!
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